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[Loud Whispers]

Starting games with The Knights is probably going to be a fair bit harder next patch, so enjoy it while you can! Back in 2015 Paradox introduced a bug that completely stopped the AI from declaring war over a sea zone, so nations like The Knights/Cyprus/Maldives or even a united GB/Japan/Madagascar have complete diplomatic immunity currently. Having the Ottomans and Mamluks breathing down your neck could make things a fair bit more hairy, especially now that sailors stop you from spamming unholy amounts of galleys.

Still doesn't stop you from DOW with no CB into Africa, taking the requisite cores to get you within range of Arguin, then doing a Knights Exodus to become PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. And then you take over the new world to begin your reconquest of Jerusalem. That said, One Province Islands will probably still be invincible in the early game when in the player's hands.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After 4 years of constant attacks on Rhodes, with full naval superiority, the Ottomans failed to even land. Without a strait crossing or direct land bridge, assuming the OPI doesn't have naval superiority, the Ottomans don't stand a chance unless they've got a mil tech advantage, which of course the player wouldn't let happen.

Is sailor an issue for anyone? It always seems to me that naval forcelimit is much more significant.

I've only ever had it happen in my Genoa or Knights games where your forcelimit far exceeds the sailors you can provide from your little and few provinces :[
Otherwise yeah any mainland power shouldn't have an issue

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I've never really had a problem with sailors. Especially now that I can raid about 2/3rds of the Med.

[Loud Whispers]

Raiders aside

[Rex_Nex]

Is sailor an issue for anyone? It always seems to me that naval forcelimit is much more significant.

Naval forcelimit matters if you're using trade ships; they increase in maintenance much faster than the other boat types when you go over your limit. If you're just using a hoard of cogs and galleys, you can go several times over your forcelimit before things get unsustainable. Sailors are pretty irrelevant unless you're tiny, I think the Knights has to raid to build more than a couple ships!

With that said I totally forgot the Knights have raiding as an option, you can probably do the whole spam-galleys-from-day-one strategy like you would in the past.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

galley spam was my strategy, but I get 1000+ gold from raiding every season. So that combined with taking about 20 combined heavy and light ships in war has led to a fairly balanced force composition.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

If anyone wants to go back to the old way of things, I figured out how to stop vassals taking up a diplomatic relations slot.

[Loud Whispers]

If anyone wants to go back to the old way of things, I figured out how to stop vassals taking up a diplomatic relations slot.

Is there an init file setting?

[Urist McScoopbeard]

If anyone wants to go back to the old way of things, I figured out how to stop vassals taking up a diplomatic relations slot.

Is there an init file setting?

Don't think so, its 'hidden' in the 00_subject_types text file. The default class has a bunch of modifiers, one being "takes_diplo_slot", just set it to "no"and you're good. Presumably, you could make it only certain types of subjects too.

[Loud Whispers]

If anyone wants to go back to the old way of things, I figured out how to stop vassals taking up a diplomatic relations slot.

Is there an init file setting?

Don't think so, its 'hidden' in the 00_subject_types text file. The default class has a bunch of modifiers, one being "takes_diplo_slot", just set it to "no"and you're good. Presumably, you could make it only certain types of subjects too.

1. Make colonial subjects take diplo slot
2. Spain enters the new age with rowboats
3. Profit

[Loud Whispers]

"The White Man is coming ashore!" "Shit! What do we do?" "Hope there's a slight current."

>Spanish armada defeated by a mild breeze

[Mookzen]

So, Steam discounts being what they are, once again I'm tempted to get into EUIV. However, the amount of DLC is a bit daunting. Any general guidelines on how to approach this? I'm probably going to get the whole thing more or less, without ebooks etc. What I'm really looking for is stuff to avoid, like Sunset invasion for CK2 - is not my sort of thing at all (way too anachronistic and gamey) and would have been good to know, would have preferred a cup of good coffee instead tbh.

I remember a very similar situation with CK2, and now I essentially own all DLC and it's like among the best things ever. I also know that EUIV has an equally enthusiastic and borderline rabid fandom, this coupled with the fact that many actually seem to prefer it makes me very interested indeed. Have been playing HoI4 recently, and while it's ok, I consider it a bit too 'binary', it's actually getting stale way faster than expected for me - nowhere near the perpetual awesomeness that CK2 continues to be to this day. Stellaris is already good, but perhaps could be truly great with AI improvements, Diplomacy etc.

[Radsoc]

Not happy with the discounts, however, there are some bundle ones that go higher than 50%. I would aim for those if I plan to play soon (and I do, just waiting for the Cradle DLC 16 nov). However, I'm betting on that Mandate of Heaven reduces to 50% by then, or at least by the next Steam sale which should be soon. (Black Friday, then Winter).

Unfortunately it looks like getting back into the game requires one full price purchase, in order to play with the maximum amount of features. That's very clever of them. However, got a lot of play time in their games, and cost/year would be similar to most other games.

Also skipped the Aztec DLC, but would get it at 75% just for the option to get some variation. Stellaris is pretty decent by now, but still buggy and requires additional music (repetitive).

[CABL]

something, something, DLC recommendations...

The vital ones are in the order of importance: Art of War (significantly improves alliances and the other warfare stuff), Common Sense (province developing, required to play if you're outside of Yurop), and Rights of Man (A lot of good stuff, like disinherit your heir, traits for your generals and admirals, new mechanics for Ottomans and Prussia, new mechanics for Coptic religion, Great power mechanics, etc).

Avoid the next DLC: Mare Nostrum (Outside of one mechanic, the package is pretty shit) and Conquest of Paradise (Mechanics for what are considered the most boring nations in EU4: The American Natives).

Every other DLC is YMMV. Read about them and make a choice to buy it or not. But, IMHO, Mandate of Heaven and Third Rome are not worth it due to "let's introduce lotsa OP mechanics and flavor for some countries nobody plays as anyway" mentality.

[hector13]

Okay so... EUIV is on sale, but I’m it sure if I want to get it.

How does it compares to EUIII: In Domine, since that’s the only one I’ve really played. Biggest concern being the units you can recruit after Westernising (if that’s still a thing, and specifically how those units compare to the best tech group’s units) and things to do mid- to late-game, since I found myself having not much to do during that period.

Does army composition affect things? EUIII seemed to be “have massive stacks of cavalry for auto win” for a pretty big chunk of the game.

Also what DLC should I get, if any.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Monarch Points are the biggest change between EUIII and EUIV in my humble opinion. You get a certain number of them based on your monarch's abilities and your advisors to spend on tech advancements, national ideas, development and little things here and there. Needless to say you never have enough of them, which makes some options (like developing your provinces) very questionable in the grand scheme of things.

Westernization is no longer a thing per-say. Primitive religions need to be adjacent to a more advanced civilization to reform but generally they removed westernization in favour of institutions which you can embrace for a minor bonus and removal of a growing tech penalty. Institutions have to spread to your nation before you can embrace them though, and unsurprisingly the majority of them start in Europe. So non-Western tech groups no longer have an inherent and often crippling tech penalty but suffer from a lack of access to early institutions. Theoretically you can develop a province enough times to get an institution to spawn there regardless of where you are, but that costs a ton of monarch points and so can be a questionable investment. A side effect is that you can no longer change your tech group and thus what kinds of units you get. Unsurprisingly Western units are the best in the late-game by two pips while Easter/Anatolian units are better in the early game. Everyone else is pretty much neck and neck, though I'm sure that some comparisons are more favourable than others.

Army composition is still a thing. All-cavalry armies are out because of a cavalry-infantry ratio you can't exceed without massive penalties. So unless you have very good cavalry, infantry (with 4 cavalry units for flanking) is king in the early game. In the late game you want your armies to be half infantry and half artillery, with 4 cavalry units for flanking, because of how artillery works.

No idea about things to do in mid-to-late-game, mostly because my games crash and burn before I get there. My impression is that you still have a fair amount to do but don't quote me on that. If you aren't playing as a Western nation then fending off their seemingly unstoppable doom stacks will likely keep you occupied right up until the end of the game. _{I'm still salty about an Incan run I did that failed horribly, yes.}

As for DLC, see CrocAndBearLover's post. The one right above yours. That's pretty much the major consensus on what DLC to get. You definitely don't want to play EUIV without any DLC, since you'll be locked out of many needed/useful features.