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[Ampersand]

The mistake was declaring war on the the most powerful country in the region while you are the weakest country in the region.

Your first moves as a Greek minor should never be to attack the Ottomans. It's absurd to even try. Your first moves ought to be to grab territory from other minor states around you, such as Achea, Morea, the Byzantine Empire, Naxos, Albania, and Epirus. You need the income and manpower, even just some of it, if you want to stand a chance. You cannot beat the Turks in a stand up fight. You need to be mobile, avoid direct confrontation with their armies, and hit them only when you know you can win without a doubt. You need to fight in your own territory, eat away their armies with attrition, and pounce. Do not begin taking any of their territory until all of their armies are completely destroyed. Then, siege every province you can, use mercenaries that you will disband at the end of the war as needed.

Try to get allies if possible, Poland and Hungary will often support war against the Turks. Having high relations with wealthy countries in the west may also net you a good deal of war-subsidies as everyone wants to see the Turks suffer.

Also note, transit times between provinces are effected by a variety of factors, not merely how close they seem to be. Rivers, mountains, swampland, and other things can all make travel times unintuitive unless you pay attention to these things. Also, what you may have witnessed in the army suddenly changing directions to arrive at your capital could be two armies in the same province, one heading your way, one heading the other. Outwardly, only one of these would be visible while sharing the same spot.

[Digital Hellhound]

What's the year? In the first hundred years or so the Ottomans will be way ahead of you in military techs. Even if they aren't, attacking the Ottoman Empire as a greek minor is pretty much suicide. You might want to check out some strategy guides and such.

I once lost with a 30k+ army, at nearly full morale, with a 5-shock, 3-fire leader against a Timmie 20k. I was land tech 9, they were land tech 4. There were the usual terrain penalties from forest, but I don't think they contributed that much.

[Johnfalcon99977]

Still, the Ottomans were fighting a big war in the east. Any person with a good tactical sense would think that the Ottomans armies would be busy occupied with the Mamlukes, Persia, and other nations. But they somehow find the balls to take all their armies and direct them at me. The tiny minor nation. I would of also only taken one province. I was hoping it would end pretty soon. I also had a mission to get the province I wanted, which gave it a core.
All of these points, which I had already expressed in a previous post, made a small, quick war with the Ottomans seem like a profitable idea.

As for the travel time, I saw no factors making them get to my Capital any sooner then it took for me to get to their provinces. And as I have said before, I saw and confirmed the sight of an Ottoman army stop moving towards my armies and switch to my capital.

[PenguinOverlord]

Click to Embiggen.

My Delhi Sultanate in the MEIOU mod. If things look very different to you, that's because they are very different in this mod. Many, many, many new provinces, events, and other things to contend with, not to mention a somewhat broken nomadic system, that is set to be fixed in the next release of the mod (no country that borders the nomads can get any colonists right now). Additionally, the mod combines the Dei Gratia mod that enables various new religions and provincial minority religions, and SRI AI that makes countries behave in a somewhat more sensible way.

The year is 1563 or something, the Sultanate controls most of the subcontinent, save for one bit on the northern end of Sri Lanka. I've started going on expeditions of conquest to take over Indo-china, slowly but steadily, but Ayutthaya is surprisingly more powerful than it looks, due to sheer province density and the wealth of it's trade goods, and a high population density. My large multiethnic empire is prone to revolt in the assorted provinces, and thus I cant bring my full forces to bare against them, and the war which won me a great deal of the territory between the Ganges and the current border with Ayutthaya came at great cost of manpower and time. Worryingly, once I had taken that region over, they swiftly began consolidating their control over the region, annexing a few small neighbors and reaching down into Malacca.

Since the border is fairly narrow, it shouldn't be too hard to hold. I could probably ruin the country for a long period of time if I could dedicate all of my armies to the job. However, even if rebellion wasn't a problem, the other, more pressing one is my neighbor to the North. Insane, unstoppable, uncountable, unyielding nomads united under the great Kazakh Khanate. I can hold them back, as they have a real hard time invading through the Hindu Kush mountain ranges, and the Himalayas provide another insurmountable obstacle in the form of wasteland provinces, but I can't really push through and start really hurting them. They've just plain got too many men. And I've got a standing army of 130,000. But I know their secret. Soon, Kazakhs, Soon, I WILL have ALL your potassium.

MEIOU's also so pretty, man.

[Ampersand]

So my game as Delhi has finally come to a head where bugs have caused a consistent crash on the same date. For now at least, this game is over around 1739. Using the MEIOU mod



The game, due to some errors in the code that are being sorted out for the next version of the mod, has turned out quite absurd. Spain and Portugal have completely failed to take the new world. Other than the natives, the only countries with any real presence in the new world are Venice, Lubeck, Navarra, and Iceland. Europe as a whole has been completely exploded. Too much feudal infighting has allowed other regions of the world to surpass it. Namely, me. Despite having 75 percent research rate, I lead the world in technology, and control the highest percentage of the world's wealth over any other country, I monopolize the production of simple grains, and command the world's most advanced, and largest army.

The Empire is close to being united under the Sikh religion, as from the beginning, the administration has worked to support Sikh Gurus at every opportunity, seeing the spread of the new faith as a way to unite a deeply divided country. The conversion unfortunately alienated the other branch of the royal dynasty that rules over Persia, which remains Sunni Muslim.

As for the goings on in the East; the only serious Rival we've had was the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya, which for a good period of time, was unchallenged in it's cultural region. It was the only country that could seriously resist my attempts to expand into Burma, due to it's density of provinces, manpower, and wealth. It, on multiple occasions, they managed to infiltrate and seize control of the center of trade in Kolkata, leading to a series of wars to retake the province, and a long period of spy wars.

The competition between us lead to a race for colonies, both between us and Yemen. I siezed Zanzibar, several islands in the Indian Ocean, and the western half of Australia. The Eastern half is control by the Chinese Shu Han dynasty, and one province by Korea. Several Micronesian islands are controled by a variety of countries, Ayutthaya principle among them. I took Wake island as a base to move to the New World. My colonies in California and Oregon are the most profitable I have, two of them holding goldmines.

Ayutthaya began moving on Siberia, soon after I forced them to release Khmer in Cambodia, and their state began collapsing at the fringes soon after.

The Sibir Khanate has effectively replaced the threat of the Kazakh Khanate.

[Zrk2]

Cool, I'm still imploding the second I try to wage a war across any body of water, even the Strait of Gibraltar... Fucking Morocco.

[x2yzh9]

Would anyone be interested in joining my glacies-like play by committee space empires 4 game? It's in my sig. I hate to advertise but I don't know what else to do.

[mainiac]

I just found out that I can rack up +30 relations with someone by freeing their provinces from rebel control.  Fighting rebel armies on their territory also seems to give a +10 boost.

[Zrk2]

Does it get you prestige too?

EDIT: My Great Britain in ~1520

Spoiler: Spark Notes Version (click to show/hide)

By zrk2 at 2011-05-23

Spoiler: The Unadulterated Map (click to show/hide)

By zrk2 at 2011-05-23

So I started as England and had the 'Conquer Ireland' quest, meaning I annexed three of them before they could make any alliances. The last two formed alliances so I entered Royal Marriages with them and claimed their thrones, fighting to wars over the thrones. After 50 years they still didn't want to join and somehow my legitimacy tanked.

I had gone to war with Castille over a trade dispute (only so they would call Scotland into the war, I love how this game makes me think) and I had ROFLSTOMPED the entirety of Scotland, annexing them. The high revolt risk from all that nationalism and whiskey is what I think killed my legitimacy. This lead to both of those nations I had personal unions with trying to claim my throne, starting a war in which I annexed them. Austria also claimed my throne but they couldn't get to me so they took peace after a while.

Now I was dragged into a war with the Teutonic Order and Pommerania, resulting in my two territories around Danzig.

By this point Portugal had been hammered by Castille and forced to break their alliance with me. Instead they alligned with Muscowy and Novgorod, and I with Lithuania and Sweden. Sweden routinely starts wars with Norway without a causus belli and that draws Muscowy and Novgorod into the battle, bringing Portugal in, and I would dump troops on their shores. In the last war I occupied all of Iberian Portugal and was fighting in Morocco. So I was able to force them to cede one of their Iberian territories and give me 100 ducats.

I'm not sure exactly how Bohemia ended up with all those territories, but they seem to be overextended since I was able to occupy a lot of their original territories in one of the Wars of Swedish Agression (according to the history there have been at least five) and got one of them, which I then sold back to them for around 160 ducats.

As to colonizations, I colonized the Azores and they recently cored, so now I can set up a whole hell of a lot more colonies. According to the map where you choose your nation Castille is the only other nation with any other colonies, and they have about the same number as me, only in South America.

[Ampersand]

La France in my new, post Delhi game.



This is the story of stupidly good luck. I started out as England in the midst of the Hundred Years War, and was able to, by the skin of my teeth, find victory and force personal Union with France. Now, England in MEIOU starts off as Anglois, not English, cultured, which is within the southern French culture group which makes England winning the Hundred Years War a bit more manageable, since France won't constantly have an elevated revolt risk. It also means that after gaining cores on most of France, I can form the French Nation all over again and get all the cores I didn't have before, and in addition gain French national decisions with the English traits that promote colony growth.

Within a few years of forcing the Union with France, I randomly gained a union with Portugal, and subsequently with Castile. No cheatsies, no forcing it with fabricated claims. The rulers just died and I randomly got personal unions with both of them. I inherited France in 1510, and inherited Castile around 1556. Portugal is still awaiting inheritance. I'm Papal controller and that isn't due to change any time soon due to sheer number of catholic provinces, I've started colonizing the New World, and am the only country able to do so. My absurdly high income from combined England and France keeping me way ahead in the Tech race, gaining cores on Castile and Portugal will only drive that higher. I've designs on conquering Aragon, and have a mission to invade Milan. All in all, set to rebuild the Western Roman Empire. Too bad there's no decision for that.

Also, for some reason, being Papal controller and therefore allied to the Pope made the Pope wayyy more confident than he has any right to be, and he started going completely bonkers conquering and annexing north Italian states and even Provence. I had to lay down the law pretty hard to make it stop.

Also, that grey province in France, in the north east besides Burgundy, that would be the Antipope. I'm not too sure how to deal with that yet.

[Digital Hellhound]

Behold, the glorious Tsardom Merchant Republic of All Russias!

Spoiler: Just Russia+Vassals (click to show/hide)

I admit it, it's not that impressive yet, but I do have the highest income in the world, and the third-biggest army. I'm planning on taking the Middle East + India next, instead of going the 'historical' route, through Asia to the Far East. It's just dirt-poor provinces and then Ming, not worth the effort. Started as Novgorod in 1399, conquered Russia pretty fast. I would've formed Russia ages ago but I misunderstood the requirements and had to wait another 50 years. >_>

Colonization of the New World has been pretty slow so far, but I'm sure it'll pick up soon. France, as is said on the map, is pretty chaotic. There's pretty much every single french minor on the map right now, and France itself is a three-province minor. Burgundy started off good but hasn't done anything in the last few decades. India was first conquered almost fully by Vijaynagar, then a muslim country and now Orissa's growing pretty fast. Lan Xang is highlighted just because I haven't seen a powerful country form in that area many times.

[Ampersand]

I know I said I inherited Castile in 1556, but that was a lie. I had accidentally adjusted all the dates in my previous post ahead by fifty years. I inherited Castile in 1505, and France around 1455. The MEIOU start date for the Grand Campaign is 1349, rather than 1399, just to make it clear that I had plenty of time.

No one has really messed with me much. When the Protestant Reformation started up, I had a lot of rebellion problems but, as Papal Controller, I was able to reform the Catholic Church enough to the point that moderate protestants have started to reintegrate into the Catholic Church. Now it is around 1557, and I've inherited Portugal. They had begun colonizing Africa, but I've assimilated those colonies to my culture. Two Sicilies have started halting attempts to colonize south America, but I've been using spies to keep them out at all costs, and started throwing colonists around to provinces I didn't even intend to colonize immediately just to keep ahead of the race. This will mean I can't focus on just a few to keep up with, but permitting foreign presence in the New World is unacceptable to me for now. I won't be satisfied until the whole of the new world is Blue.

I'm not suffering too much from Rebellion anymore thankfully. The Jesuits have been assisting me in driving out the last bits of Protestantism out of the provinces, and once that is done, I shouldn't have much to worry about.

Also, the Pope won't stop declaring war on things and rely on me to pick up the slack for him. In the previous picture, that tiny purple slice in Egypt was a Catholic Egyptian state that was a left over of the Pope declaring war on things.


Also a note on the labeling. I call the union of England and France the Angvin Empire, as that is what Historians have called the Plantagenet kingdom that ruled England and most of Western France historically, until the Hundred Years War period kicked them off the continent.

[Zrk2]

I'ma go hide my head in shame now... Time to go play as Bohemia, I think... Mwuhaha!

[Ampersand]

I wouldn't feel too much shame. Like I tried to explain, most of what happened there is actually an accident. Now, England inheriting France and subsequently becoming France wasn't an accident, but part of the starting scenario if you manage to win the War, but Portugal and Spain WERE definitely not intentional annexations. I had no intention of doing anything with them at all.

In fact, when I first saw the Personal Union fire for Portugal, I was like 'Oh, god damn it, if I inherit them there's no way I'll be able to manage the unrest and the rebels and all that without a lot of micromanagement.' But then, when the Personal union for Castile fired, I literally, out loud, said, "You've got to be shitting me.", not just because it effectively eliminated all of my military and colonial rivals, but, also just made managing the whole problem with unrest a hell of a lot easier, since I can just set a few armies to hunt rebels and they'll march from Paris to Lisbon if they have to without me having to lift a finger, and gave me so many catholic provinces I effectively had permanent control of the Pope.

This empire I built has a hell of a lot more to do with Luck than skill, save for the first defeat of France in he Hundred Years War. That took legitimate effort.

[RF]

I'm currently playing EU3 Complete MMP so I can convert my save to Vicky Revolutions. Should be fun. :p

I'm playing as Ashikaga. It's barely been 30 years and I've managed to unite a good deal of Japan. I'm hoping to unite the rest soon, but the other clans are causing me trouble. It's mainly the stability hits and bad boy issues that're annoying me.