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[Toxicshadow]

I just got EU3, and I have no idea how to play. I like the idea of spending hours strategizing, but the game lacks a TUTORIAL! I read a few tips, like don't mint coins(I don't even know how to anyways), but I haven't really used the tips because I feel like Im missing so much out of the game. How do you gain tech levels? How do you research more units(In one of the screens it shows the cannon and just says we haven't discovered how to build it)? Why can't I launch a second assault on a country? I started playing as Castille, went into war with Granada, took their capitol(I think, in the political mapmode it shows them in stripes of my color and their color. This was achieved when I moved an army into their province and clicked the assault button.) But after that Portugal(Who I allied with for the time because I don't want to deal with both them and the people I want to conquer in the start) decided to move their armies into the other 2 provinces of Granada, and I moved my army into 1, and the 'Assault' button is grayed out.

Tl;dr: I started a game and didn't know what the hell I was doing. Where's a guide or tutorial I can actually learn to play because the tutorial is broken in game. And what are some good beginner tips?

[Rex_Nex]

To mint coins, you go into the Economy screen (looks like a pile of coins) and drag up the Treasury slider. This will increase your inflation, which is bad if it gets very high. It raises slowly though, so its ok to mint once in a while.

You gain tech automatically from all the money your treasury doesn't consume. Your nation makes quite a bit more money then you can actually spend, but this money goes towards tech development. Minting takes money away from tech development and into your hands to spend on different things. So full minting -> no non-treasury ducats -> no tech investments, if that makes sense. However, you can direct what money goes where in the economy menu by moving around the sliders!

Units come from land tech. You'll get a notice when more units are available.

You couldn't assault because Portugal were the first ones there. The first nation in a province gets to decide whether or not they will assault. In this case, Portugal decided not to assault the fort.

If I were you, I'd play Portugal and then ally with Castille. Its an easy game, just keep Castille happy and you can do whatever you want!

[Toxicshadow]

To mint coins, you go into the Economy screen (looks like a pile of coins) and drag up the Treasury slider. This will increase your inflation, which is bad if it gets very high. It raises slowly though, so its ok to mint once in a while.

You gain tech automatically from all the money your treasury doesn't consume. Your nation makes quite a bit more money then you can actually spend, but this money goes towards tech development. Minting takes money away from tech development and into your hands to spend on different things. So full minting -> no non-treasury ducats -> no tech investments, if that makes sense. However, you can direct what money goes where in the economy menu by moving around the sliders!

Units come from land tech. You'll get a notice when more units are available.

You couldn't assault because Portugal were the first ones there. The first nation in a province gets to decide whether or not they will assault. In this case, Portugal decided not to assault the fort.

Alright thanks
Can you explain the sliders and their benefits/consequences to me please?

And, those bastards! I wanted to just get rid of Granada right then and there. Which leads me to ask, what about claiming provinces? How does that work?
Oh and about the playing as Portugal, I like the idea of playing as them but in order for me to do anything outside of Portugal I'd have to ally Castille, and then move times would be so long I'd declare war on someone and by the time I'd get there Castille would have already occupied them.

[fenrif]

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91930.2340

First search result for "EU3."

[Rex_Nex]

To mint coins, you go into the Economy screen (looks like a pile of coins) and drag up the Treasury slider. This will increase your inflation, which is bad if it gets very high. It raises slowly though, so its ok to mint once in a while.

You gain tech automatically from all the money your treasury doesn't consume. Your nation makes quite a bit more money then you can actually spend, but this money goes towards tech development. Minting takes money away from tech development and into your hands to spend on different things. So full minting -> no non-treasury ducats -> no tech investments, if that makes sense. However, you can direct what money goes where in the economy menu by moving around the sliders!

Units come from land tech. You'll get a notice when more units are available.

You couldn't assault because Portugal were the first ones there. The first nation in a province gets to decide whether or not they will assault. In this case, Portugal decided not to assault the fort.

Alright thanks
Can you explain the sliders and their benefits/consequences to me please?

And, those bastards! I wanted to just get rid of Granada right then and there. Which leads me to ask, what about claiming provinces? How does that work?

Do you mean the Tech sliders, or do you mean the Government sliders (the ones in the page with the book and gavel.)?

If you meant tech:

Government isn't too important if you're playing a European nation. You should have a fairly decent government type to start off with. However, at key levels you gain National Ideas. I think the first is level 6, and the next is level 12. National Ideas are little bonuses you can pick for your nation when they become available that will give you certain things. For example, if you pick the Military Drill national idea, your armies will have +1.00 Morale!

Production and Trade mostly open up buildings as you go through them while giving you tiny bonuses along the way. You don't have to pay too much attention to these sliders.

Naval and Land open up units for the navy and army. Land is usually the most important. It also gives you tiny bonuses along the way.

Stability is very important. It ranges between -3 and +3. Having +3 stability should be your #1 priority. The amount of time it takes to get more stable depends on your size; for example, a tiny 1-province nation will go up a stability point every month! Low stability = more revolts, less tax money, and overall badness.

About claiming provinces, that depends. For example, in your war with Granada, because Portugal got there first, they would occupy that province. Once you occupy a province, your war score (Higher war score = better peace deals. Goes up to 100%) goes up and they no longer can control that province until you sign for peace or they take it back. Once you have enough war score, you can go into the Sue for Peace screen and select which provinces to take; if you selected the provinces that Portugal occupied, they would take those provinces for themselves. You would take the provinces you occupied!

Oh, and you can't take the capital without annexing the country. Annexing is when you and only you occupy 100% of their territory. Annexing will erase them from the map and give you all of their land. This can range from a very good choice to a very bad one. Your infamy will skyrocket, making everyone hate you, unless you declared war with a casus belli (cause of war) that let you annex for less infamy, revolts will take place, etc... but all that land is yours, now!

[Toxicshadow]

To mint coins, you go into the Economy screen (looks like a pile of coins) and drag up the Treasury slider. This will increase your inflation, which is bad if it gets very high. It raises slowly though, so its ok to mint once in a while.

You gain tech automatically from all the money your treasury doesn't consume. Your nation makes quite a bit more money then you can actually spend, but this money goes towards tech development. Minting takes money away from tech development and into your hands to spend on different things. So full minting -> no non-treasury ducats -> no tech investments, if that makes sense. However, you can direct what money goes where in the economy menu by moving around the sliders!

Units come from land tech. You'll get a notice when more units are available.

You couldn't assault because Portugal were the first ones there. The first nation in a province gets to decide whether or not they will assault. In this case, Portugal decided not to assault the fort.

Alright thanks
Can you explain the sliders and their benefits/consequences to me please?

And, those bastards! I wanted to just get rid of Granada right then and there. Which leads me to ask, what about claiming provinces? How does that work?

Do you mean the Tech sliders, or do you mean the Government sliders (the ones in the page with the book and gavel.)?

If you meant tech:

Government isn't too important if you're playing a European nation. You should have a fairly decent government type to start off with. However, at key levels you gain National Ideas. I think the first is level 6, and the next is level 12. National Ideas are little bonuses you can pick for your nation when they become available that will give you certain things. For example, if you pick the Military Drill national idea, your armies will have +1.00 Morale!

Production and Trade mostly open up buildings as you go through them while giving you tiny bonuses along the way. You don't have to pay too much attention to these sliders.

Naval and Land open up units for the navy and army. Land is usually the most important. It also gives you tiny bonuses along the way.

Stability is very important. It ranges between -3 and +3. Having +3 stability should be your #1 priority. The amount of time it takes to get more stable depends on your size; for example, a tiny 1-province nation will go up a stability point every month! Low stability = more revolts, less tax money, and overall badness.

About claiming provinces, that depends. For example, in your war with Granada, because Portugal got there first, they would occupy that province. Once you occupy a province, your war score (Higher war score = better peace deals. Goes up to 100%) goes up and they no longer can control that province until you sign for peace or they take it back. Once you have enough war score, you can go into the Sue for Peace screen and select which provinces to take; if you selected the provinces that Portugal occupied, they would take those provinces for themselves. You would take the provinces you occupied!

Oh, and you can't take the capital without annexing the country. Annexing is when you and only you occupy 100% of their territory. Annexing will erase them from the map and give you all of their land. This can range from a very good choice to a very bad one. Your infamy will skyrocket, making everyone hate you, unless you declared war with a casus belli (cause of war) that let you annex for less infamy, revolts will take place, etc... but all that land is yours, now!

Alright so without a casus belli, annexing is a horrible idea unless I have good allies? Will infamy make them hate me or eventually make them fear me?

[Rex_Nex]

Well, infamy makes all diplomatic options harder. Having too much infamy will pretty much ruin your country (too much is going over the limit, which you should see on the top of your screen.) It also increases the chance someone will declare war. If you are tough enough, you will be able to deal with people declaring war on you, so its not a big deal.

They won't ever fear you, unfortunately. At least, not in a good way that you can take advantage of.

[Criptfeind]

Hate. Once you go above the infamy limit everyone in the world gets a excuse to declare war on you and take your stuff for cheap. You also get a ton of bad events. You can even get some bad events just from having a high infamy even if you don't go over. Not to mention that some of the high infamy events give you more infamy.

[Toxicshadow]

Well, infamy makes all diplomatic options harder. Having too much infamy will pretty much ruin your country (too much is going over the limit, which you should see on the top of your screen.) It also increases the chance someone will declare war. If you are tough enough, you will be able to deal with people declaring war on you, so its not a big deal.

They won't ever fear you, unfortunately. At least, not in a good way that you can take advantage of.

So did my dream of conquering all of the known world just go out the window?

[Tarran]

So did my dream of conquering all of the known world just go out the window?

Not really.

[majikero]

You can conquer the whole world. Most world conquest result in high infamy. Its more difficult to conquer the world within the infamy limit.

[Ivefan]

I tend to not play very warlike, but as far as i recall the only consequence to the high infamy is getting attacked all the time and with that comes war exhaustion etc.
But as soon as you're capable of steamrolling countries and dont fear others declaring war, then you can start conquering the world

[Toxicshadow]

Alright, my next question, what about all of these 'decisions?' I get provincial decisions, religious decisions, governmental decisions, etc. What do I do with them? Do I go through and accept/decline them at once or do I save them for when I could use them or what?

And also, when is endgame? How does it happen?

I tend to not play very warlike, but as far as i recall the only consequence to the high infamy is getting attacked all the time and with that comes war exhaustion etc.
But as soon as you're capable of steamrolling countries and dont fear others declaring war, then you can start conquering the world

May I ask what your playstyle is then? Like what you aim to achieve?

[Criptfeind]

There is no 'goal' in the game. Sometimes I play to take over as much land as I can. Sometimes To create certain things. But most of the time I, and I believe many others, play just to play. To just ride the waves of history.

There is no such thing as endgame. The game ends at 1821. Do whatever you want until then. As for decisions you will find that most of them you can not do until you meet the prerequisite. All decisions have upsides and downsides and what you pick depends on what you want to do. This hold especially true for the religious decisions.

[Ivefan]

May I ask what your playstyle is then? Like what you aim to achieve?

Depends. Once i started as a one province german state and diplo annexed most of current time germany and a bit of austria, got declared war on and took a chunk of france.
Other times i might go the colonization route.
Only time that i went all warlike was to establish control over all of china as ming, established dominance in my region so that i could send troops with boats and take worthwhile provinces along the coast towards Africa with the intention on getting a province next to a latin country so that i could get a better tech group