Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dutchling]

I'm wondering what is weirder in my current game, a Sunni Teutonic order in Siberia, or Jurchen (Manchu) colonising all the way to Sweden.

[Lumbajak]

So England was the first country I ever tried playing when I got the game, and I figured I'd go back to them after actually knowing anything at all about the game.

Started with Conquer Ireland mission, so ended up owning them with cores by 1401.

Annexed Scotland by 1415.

Year is currently 1433, and I own the northern coast of France.


Elsewhere in the world, Castille owns a good chunk of Africa and the Middle East already, Golden Horde made it all the way to Italy (And is currently being reconquered by Austria), Lithuania exploded 5 year sinto the game and the Ukraine is somehow still there, And Muscowy is completely gone already, with Tver and Novgorod taking all the land.

Castille is also in the midst of taking all of the Ottomans, so I can tell they're going to be a challenge. Hopefully owning France as well as the british isles will make them a non-issue though, especially once I begin colonizing America.


On a related note, I have to wonder where everyone keeps their tech sliders throughout the game?
I usually try to keep them even, although I put Naval all the way down if I'm a landlocked nation. I also generally put everything into stability when I'm not at max because I hate stability drops.

[Rex_Nex]

Early game, max government for quick first idea.

Rest of the game, max land. Split government and land 50/50 when near another idea.

Land is just way too important to not be ahead of. Everything else will catch up quick enough from neighbor bonuses.

Sometimes I get cranky and dont want to be red/orange on the techmap, so I put everything even so I turn green sooner.

[sneakey pete]

You're probably better off to keep all of your slider on a single tech at once. that way you get the benefits of at least something soonest, instead of 4 benefits 4 times as far away.

[Azthor]

Since I never settle for remaining a minor through the game, I usually neglect Trade and invest on Production and Land technology; the several pre-built universities across Europe usually take care of Government. Naval technology isn't half as important as Land, specially so since AI navies are suicidal lemmings who will engage you individually and/or in small stacks. Unlike land battles, naval ones have more permanent effects; once you win a naval battle against a nation's main stack they are usually done for, unable to ever compete with you again for maritime supremacy.

As for the sliders, I always go for Centralization/Free Subjects/Offensive, whereas the rest depends on the overall scenario. I usually start biased Narrowminded and Aristocracy, at least when playing as an european nation, since controlled cardinals and cavalry play a heavy part early on, then switch ti Innovative/Plutocracy as the game moves on. If playing a non-western country, Innoovative gains an whole other degree of importancy, as per Westernization's requirments and the already lowered technological levels. The choice between Mercantilism and Free Trade depends on the nation, really, but I always end up opting for Mercantilism later on as I start annexing foreign CoTs. Between Land and Naval, I usually opt for some degree of balance, at least until there is no navy even remotely capable of opposing mine; then I go full Land.

Level 5 or 6 Diplomats and Masters of Mint are a must; the 3rd one is usually a High Judge or an Ambassador. The first helps with nationalists, the seconds hurries up diploannexation of the germanic and italian minors.

Edit: Quality over Quantity.

[Rex_Nex]

I usually go Defensive, since the benefit of having that much defense stacked onto your forts is nothing to scoff at. In fact, I'd never go Offensive if it weren't for that "Generals are bothered by our unmanly tactics!" event... I hate that event.

My adviser load out is about the same. Level 4/5/6 Master of Mint, Diplomat, and Artist (Since you need an artist to create paintings in D&T). Swap out the Diplomat with the -revolt risk or +land tech advisers if I'm not gathering much infamy.

[sneakey pete]

The bonus's for offensive (+1 shock skill for leaders and some other stuff) seems pretty handy. Extra fort defense is nice enough but if you have great leaders they become kinda unnessecary.

[Rex_Nex]

The thing is, warring nations always have great leaders, and every nation except OPMs need fort defense... forcing your enemy to siege for years has some serious advantages. I'd rather have that then the shock and the other little stuff (not sure the vanilla bonuses now, since I use D&T.). With the new beta patch you should probably be using more artillery also, and cheaper artillery is always good.

I'd have to say that usually Offensive is best around the early game, but as arty and higher fort levels come into play it starts to get outclassed by Defensive, particularly because being defensive doesn't really interrupt your ability to plow over anyone you want.

[dogstile]

I've started a game as Denmark. Sweden kept trying to insult spam out of the PU so i've managed to just go to war with various places for like, the past forty years.  They don't spam the insults when you're at war.

[Criptfeind]

My sliders:
Centralization
Plutocracy (but I don't care a huge amount, but it tends to slowly drift that way)
Free Subjects (Very important for tech because of the next one)
Innovative/Narrowminded (I tend to keep this middling with a bit more narrowminded for the Missionaries. Although once the reforms and colonization happen it tends to get a lot more narrowminded.)
Mercantilism (I can't keep up in trading centers I don't own anyway. And I normally end up owning quite a few.)
Offensive/Defensive ( Once again, middlingish. I tend towards Defensive though since siege is more important then shock and such a small amount of moral does not matter. Also at one point you would get free upgrades to your forts if you were defensive. Which saved a lot of money and time. But I dunno if it still does that.)
Land/Naval (start out land. Once colonization happens Naval is the way to go. It is just better then land.)
Quality

[Heron TSG]

Centralization all the way.
Aristocracy at first, for the cavalry, but it slowly drifts towards plutocracy later.
Free subjects for the bonuses.
Innovative because of the tech advantage and that the Pope usually hates me by the end anyway.
Mercantilism because rapid expansion leads to infamy, which means little foreign trade.
Offensive, because I use overwhelming numbers in wars and make sure I'm always the aggressor, always on the initiative. (Which is why my Burgundy starts are usually good; they start with max Offense and high quality.)
Land if it's a landlocked country, and more naval depending on the coast line. If it's a mainly island nation, naval all the way.
Quality, because large armies mean nothing if they can't beat armies half their size. (Again, with Burgundy, having twice the troops of any other country means you don't need more troops. Just lose less.)

[Zrk2]

Centralization
All the way to one or the other depending on the nation
Full free subjects
I'm leaning towards free trade, especially if I'm a small nation
Usually full innovative, sometimes narrowminded if I feel like it
Either or depending on the game, usually the last slider I meddle with
Full quality

[Digital Hellhound]

My latest long game was;

Centralization
Plutocracy (Started as Novgorod, a merchant republic, so)
Full Free Subjects
Full Innovative
Uhh... the one for foreign trade?
I think I was slightly on Offensive
Land (coupled with as little naval tech research as I could get away with - incidentally, this led to a defeat at the hands of million-times beneath me in tech navy of China for me >_>)
Quality, but not by much

If you're wondering how I converted provinces etc. with full Innovative and such - pfft, fuck that shit. I'm an empire of love and happiness that doesn't have negative religious tolerance for anyone. Also, Russia. This might not make an easy early/mid-game but ehh, I look much cooler if I convert to Vicky.

[Lumbajak]

Well, I tried dumping all my research into Land, and I quite like the results.

Having guns decades before everyone else and beating the everloving crap out of the HRE is nothing to scoff at. It meant slower colonization, but I'm apparently still the first one to the Americas (Portugal and Castille keep sailing around there, but I'm allied with both of them)

Spoiler: The current world by 1515 (click to show/hide)

I've been progressing a little slowly compared to my immediate formation of Great Britain, but I'm still the undefeatable champion of the world at current.

[Rez]

For european colonial nations, I do:

DECENTRALIZATION (jk, why would any of us take decent unless we were trying to rp a non-expansionist, non-evil government)
Usually tended toward plutocracy
free subjects, tech is super duper important
mercantilism
Middle-ground
Naval
Quality, you don't want to have to ship death stacks by cogs to stamp out largish rebellions

for tech, I'll primary government for NI's and production/naval for the trade buildings, but if you're building a large colonial empire without inflation, you'll rapidly have absurd amounts of money to throw into research.