Europa Universalis IV

PhantomRage

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(I apologize if there is already a thread on EU IV, if there was, my search parameters were not netting anything. :p)

For grand-scale RPGers and tacticians alike, Europa Universalis IV is sure to suit your needs. Want to dominate world trade, or at least, make your living off it? Why not try Portugal, the nation located next to the Spaniard's predecessor, Castile! Portugal is the nation for simplicity's sake: fight wars against the African nations of Morocco and Algiers to claim easy territory. Try to stay good with Castile, and eventually Spain, and you will avoid all of Europe's messy politics! Heck, maybe you might become strong enough with a network of alliances and a strong economic backbone to declare war on Castile or Spain themselves!

However, what if you are blood-thirsty? Want to obliterate all your neighbors with your marvelous army which was the ideal model for the historical world? Try France, as you easily obliterate your neighbors with your highly motivated troops and relive the historical rivalry between you and England. You can even try to poke into the Holy Roman Empire itself, which in and of itself which, combined, is a force to be truly reckoned with! Or, you could just play peaceful and colonize the Canadian region. Your very rich base provinces and your able vassals, as well as naturally well-skilled generals will help march your spanning armies to victory!

Want to visit the other side of the river? Try England, who is currently embroiled in the Hundred Year's War against France for the enforcement of a union between the French and English thrones. Shoot crumpets and barrels of tea safely from your powerful and nearly unrivaled navy which dominates all European seas, and subjugate Scotland and form Great Britain. One thing leads to another, and you may find yourself in a revolutionary war against the Thirteen Colonies with France, Spain, and the potentially-formed Netherlands on your heels.

(not an official prologue; I tried making this myself with some help from the official wiki)

I suppose it could not hurt to check out these links for the game, right? :p

https://www.paradoxplaza.com/europa-universalis-4
http://www.eu4wiki.com/
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...ersalis-IV&s=16926ba84f024d60616ffaf8622ff835

I myself personally bought the game from Steam. I wouldn't think there would be a difference with the gameplay.

I guess I'll start this thread off; an image of the British Empire in the year of 1577! For a bit of history, I surrendered and handed over all of my European possessions to France in the Hundred Year's War. However, before that, I did manage to evacuate the 6,000 troops stationed in the Normandie coast for the eventual forced annexation of Scotland and some Irish minors. I decided to be the 'good guy' to Connaught, an Irish one-province country, and later vassalized and diplomatically annexed them.

My long-standing ally of Austria, who has managed to keep the Holy Roman Empire throne for now, has called me in to at least two wars against France. The first one took France by surprise, I assume, as combined Austrian and some allied HRE members, as well as some of my British troops I had decided to send over overwhelmed a French 60,000 troop stack. However, I guess France pulled it together, as their troops routed the primary Austrian army of 60,000 men with superior army quality and generals. Nevertheless, I retreated my rear end back to London with my glorious navy. France eventually won, forcing concessions from Austria, who was blobbing to a formidable size. I decided to make a separate peace in the war with only conceding defeat.

The second war was not so pretty. Likewise with France, I was unprepared for the war, as I was feeding my colonial nation of the United States of America with provinces forged with blood and treaties from annexed Native American (yes, I am a cruel person... :() nations. I forgot that I had set my naval maintenance to 10% of the "required" value, and that Spain, who was allied to France, had a comparable navy. Thus, one thing led to another, and my grand fleet was obliterated to smithereens by an inferior Spanish navy. Austria was defeated once again, with France forcing even more concessions from Austria. I fought until the end; in both wars, I continuously blockaded French-owned Dutch areas to try to harm their skyrocketing tax income-based economy.

IcyPPab.png


In case you did not read the previous, admittedly long, paragraphs, I am Great Britain who militarily annexed all of the British Isles except Connaught. The United States of America is growing into a formidable power, and has already helped me embargo various colonial possessions which are owned by my arch-rivals France and Spain, as well as taking care of rebels. Let us hope they don't dump the tea into the harbor this time around! I did notice, however, that America was having a religion problem. Some Catholic provinces here, Protestant there, Reformed there, and Animists everywhere else!

In the European front, you can see that France is relatively quick in trying to expand into its historical borders, but the Holy Roman Empire is delaying their acquisition of the small area on France's Mediterranean sea coastline. Spain has taken some of Portugal's provinces and absorbed Aragon, and they have acquired many of the same dynasties in many countries, thus making them not the ideal ally. The Kalmar Union has failed. In the beginning, Denmark was a staunch ally of mine, but after refusing a call to war against a HRE member and thus Austria, they eventually grew hostile and chose to 'Rival' me. Ironically, I managed to get a Royal Marriage before the hostility grew, and they shared the same Dynasty (Lancaster) with me for a while. They eventually incorporated all of Scandinavia, and was a force to be reckoned with for a couple of decades.

Eventually, presumably due to internal pressures, the Kalmar Union collapsed, presumably to exhausted Danish troops and manpower from many wars, and Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as Denmark emerged. I was quick to ally and royally marry Norway and Sweden, hopefully to later incorporate them into the glorious British Empire and gain a foothold in Scandinavia. I was not as sure about Finland, who bordered the strong and powerful Russia. As you can see, Russia has already obliterated many of Finland's historical holdings and is conquering them rapidly. Denmark lost many wars against The Hansa which led to territorial cessations from generally accepted 'main' Denmark. Their only foothold in northern Scandinavia is one poor coastline province adjacent to Norway, Finland, and Russia. They still hate me. xD

Anyways, moving on from the Scandinavian region, the Holy Roman Empire is still a mess of politics, country borders, armies, and alliances, with Austria claiming the title of 'Holy Roman Emperor'. So far, three reforms have been passed. The final reform unifies the entire mess of HRE countries into the true Holy Roman Empire, which will eventually become a force to be reckoned with! Oddly enough, Poland never maintained a steady Royal Marriage or Personal Union with Lithuania, and thus Lithuania is getting obliterated by Russia currently. Poland has made some territorial expansions, but is getting pummeled by internal problems from rebels, as well as being beaten up semi-frequently by Pomerania. Serbia has grown to be a relatively decent middle power in the region, but is unfortunately located between the potentially four power blocs of the Ottomans, HRE, Eastern Europe, and Russia. Only alliances can keep them alive at this point.

Moving from the HRE/Eastern Europe, the Middle East is dominated by Qara Quoynolu (or however you spell it), the Ottomans, and the Mamluks. I would have anticipated for the Ottomans to begin the obliteration of the Mamluks by now, but surprisingly they are trying a diplomatic game. They already are the supreme ruler of a Personal Union between Oman and them, who knows what is to come next! The Timurids were a relatively strong power, but somewhere down the chain they decided to anger the Ottomans, and they are currently being disemboweled from the inside, and being forced to release constituent nations such as Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Persia, and possibly more.

The Asian theater does not seem *too* differentiated, as Ming still maintains a sizable presence in mainland/Eastern China, with Manchu having a foothold in northern China/far eastern Russia. The Japanese archipelago has been unified under the nation of 'Japan', and India, surprisingly, is not dominated by Vijaynagar. Instead, Orissa reigns dominant in the Bengal region of India, while Vijaunagar is content with the southern peninsula.

The colonial game is still running quite quickly - Portugal is, historically, colonizing Brazil. Brazil's tariffs are the only thing that are keeping Portugal alive and keeping some sort of maintenance to their army and navy. The French and the Spaniards have acquired a firm foothold in the Caribbean region, as I was too busy on safeguarding the North American region. As you can see, Norway controls Iceland and half of Nova Scotia (I believe that is the Canadian province, am I at least somewhat educated for an American? :p) and France controls a tiny island set next to Maine. If only I had known about the 'Seize Colony' option during the Second French-Austrian War. Thanks to my rapid colonization (at one point I did not know about colonial limits... drained 8 ducats per month) and annexation of natives, the USA has grown to be a formidable size, giving me over 6 ducats a month in tariffs. Their liberty desire is currently at 21%, and they have just started their first imperialistic war that I did not initiate.

I am so proud! :) He seems he will grow up just like his parents! I will try to form British Canada as well, but the French and Norwegians are proving a threat to continential North America, so I am mainly moving to secure coastal provinces. Thankfully, America somewhere along the line picked up 'Expansion' ideas, so they have colonized some of eastern North America on their own. Additionally, (probably idiotically), I sold some Canadian-region provinces to America as I was, at the time, unaware that those provinces belonged to Colonial Canada, and not Colonial Eastern-America. Oh well!

My next ambitions are to expand to India and establish the British Raj militarily, as I am the shining banner of imperialism who shall convulse the world in the industriousness of the British tea industry! Less humorously, I plan to annex some important centers of trade (+10 local trade power) in some Indian regions, as well as grabbing some Gold provinces. I planned on conquering some gold provinces from the Aztecs with the free causus belli from the filled Exploration Ideas, but then I realized that I could apparently not demand provinces from them; I needed to win at least 80% of the wars. I am still deciding whether I should just take a white peace and leave; I do love the music though!

Share your empires and/or their stories below? Please let me be not the only one! :p

tl;dr France and Spain combined are a force to be reckoned with. Game is not much out of the ordinary. Lots of ranting by someone running on coffee. Imperialism practiced potentially too much here.
 
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DanteGalileo

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I was an avid EU2 and EU3 player but I haven't bought 4 yet. Been too busy to devote much time to it.

Probably late summer.