Europa Universalis 4 Thread 2: Comet Sighted!

[Leecros]

But then we won't experience the joy of massive Steam sales.

That is a fair point to bring up, When games go on sale on Steam. Especially paradox games which tend to go on sale regularly and often. A game that costs 20 dollars may cost 10 dollars 3 months from now and 5 dollars 6 months from now depending on the sales.

It's not exactly ideal, but if one showed a bit of restraint and patience, then they can technically choose their price(to an extent). It lets them decide if they want to pay 20 dollars, 10, or 5, or whatever when an expansion goes on sale.


Of course i'm also highly against subscription-based games in any way, shape, or form and find them hardly worth the money you put into them, but that's not really an argument for here...

[Frog Dragon]

How do I tactics in this game? I've read that there are ways to use the terrain system and combat width and such thingamabob's to your advantage, but I haven't really grokked it. So far, my tactics and strategy have amounted to

1. Have more troops.
2. Have better Military Tech.
3. Have better generals.
4. Bring forth the hate train.

But apparently there are ways other than battering your opponent with superior firepower. How does this work?

[Eldan]

That's generally it, but terrain does feature into it. Terrain is a modifier of -1 to -3 for the attacking forces, so try to attack your enemies in open terrain and not across a river.

[OrcusMcP]

There's 3 main tactical tricks:
-Try to fight on the defensive whenever you can(let other armies cross the rivers, breach the mountains, establish the beachheads, etc). You can only really go on the offensive if you have massive advantages in either tech, numbers or generals. Preferably more.
-Scorch the earth. Especially when fighting big scary countries like France, Ottomans, HRE or Russia, scorching the earth in your border provinces can help attrit their doomstacks to more manageable armies, which you then fight on the defensive as per above.
-Army composition. Be mindful of the cavalry ratio your tech group uses and always set up your armies to be a bit under the threshold so you don't go over it due to casualties. Example: the Western tech ratio is 50%, so if you have 10 infantry in an army, you should avoid going over 5 cavalry in the same army. This can work to your advantage when playing Muslims or Hordes, as they have much more generous cavalry thresholds and cavalry can be very powerful in the early game. Once artillery starts getting good, though, artillery dominates.

[IthilanorStPete]

One additional note about fighting on the defensive: you can generally bait the AI with a small army going ahead, keeping your main force a province behind and pouncing once they engage. Having Offensive for forced march helps execute this well.
Also, it's generally a good idea to pursue a routing army if you can; wiping them out completely makes it a lot harder for them to reassemble an army.

[Flickerdart]

-Scorch the earth. Especially when fighting big scary countries like France, Ottomans, HRE or Russia, scorching the earth in your border provinces can help attrit their doomstacks to more manageable armies, which you then fight on the defensive as per above.

Is this new? Where do you do it?

[IthilanorStPete]

Is this new? Where do you do it?

It's not new. When you've got an army sitting in a province you own and control, there should be an icon that looks like a torch next to wheat; use that to scorch the province.

[OrcusMcP]

It's not new. When you've got an army sitting in a province you own and control, there should be an icon that looks like a torch next to wheat; use that to scorch the province.

Also to note, it costs a small amount of MIL per province.

[Frog Dragon]

One additional note about fighting on the defensive: you can generally bait the AI with a small army going ahead, keeping your main force a province behind and pouncing once they engage. Having Offensive for forced march helps execute this well.
Also, it's generally a good idea to pursue a routing army if you can; wiping them out completely makes it a lot harder for them to reassemble an army.

I do chase armies most of the time. The situations when I don't tend to be when I'm fighting superior forces and want my forces as close together as possible to be able to muster numerical superiority in battles.

Most of the time I'm the one attacking though, because I try not to pick fights I can't win. Generally, the opponent won't attack into my stacks, so I chase them down instead with my own.

My army compositions tend to be something like 20% cav 80% inf early game, with increasing amounts of artillery until it looks more like 45% inf, 45% art, 10% cav.

[Flickerdart]

It's not new. When you've got an army sitting in a province you own and control, there should be an icon that looks like a torch next to wheat; use that to scorch the province.

Where would this icon be located? Paradox's user interface design leaves a lot to be desired...

[Narkis]

Here you go:



One more thing that I didn't see mentioned about armies: Morale is doubly important, because unlike most other stats the same number affects both attack and defense. If you have more than your opponent, yours will be depleted more slowly, while his will be depleted faster, allowing you to rout armies in quick succession.

And I don't think cavalry is all that great in the game. My non-horde armies never have more than 4 in them. Unless I'm outnumbered, any cavalry unit beyond the fourth will just sit uselessly behind those fighting, and when I'm outnumbered I'd like to have more infantry instead. My late game combat armies usually contain 4 cavalry, cannons equal to my maximum combat width and as much infantry as I can spare, though always more than cannons. I usually keep them split in 2-4 stacks depending on province supply, and combine them only to fight decisive battles.

[IthilanorStPete]

Where would this icon be located? Paradox's user interface design leaves a lot to be desired...

In the lower right of the army window in this image: (near where the options for autonomous rebel suppression, attacking natives, forced march, etc. are)

Spoiler: Large image

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[Frog Dragon]

I happen to have an image (for troubleshooting purposes, having problems with CtDs) that shows it.

Spoiler

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See the army tab? See the six buttons on the bottom right of the army tab? It's the currently greyed out one (because that army is not in friendly territory) that looks like a torch and some grain.

Edit: Welp, double-swordsage'd.

Also, something I saw in my Mewar --> Hindustan game.

Spoiler: Hehe. Hehehehe

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[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

So decided to give umodded EU4 a try even though I haven't the last two expansions.
It's a lot more fun even with the patched features! Lots of little strategic decisions to make that add up.

[OrcusMcP]

So decided to give umodded EU4 a try even though I haven't the last two expansions.
It's a lot more fun even with the patched features! Lots of little strategic decisions to make that add up.

Yeah, the game has come a LONG way since it released last year. The new map/provinces alone makes the game so much better. I think the fact that they got Wiz on staff has gone a long way to make both EU4 and CK2 much more dynamic and deep.

[IthilanorStPete]

How long does it take for map information to filter through to different tech groups? It's 1530 in my Ottomans game and I still can't see Muscovy*, it's getting annoying.

* Still hasn't formed Russia and probably won't for a while. The Golden Horde's been unusually powerful, although I just took a swathe of provinces from them on my way to Siberia.

[Leecros]

How long does it take for map information to filter through to different tech groups? It's 1530 in my Ottomans game and I still can't see Muscovy*, it's getting annoying.

EU3 had a 50 year map spread for land provinces and a 25 year map spread for sea provinces(default) based on tech. So if Portugal discovered Sea Province X, the rest of the western tech would learn of it 25 years later(or 50 for a land province) and then eastern tech would learn of it 25 years after that, then muslim, then indian, then chinese, etc...etc...etc...


I don't think that system carried over to EU4, EU4 bases it on culture i believe.i'm not entirely familiar with the mechanic, but It might still work in a similar way and be culture-based instead of tech based.

[Narkis]

It's definitely been changed, but I don't know how it works now. If you want to force the issue you could start conquering your way north, provinces adjacent to your territories are automatically explored.

[IthilanorStPete]

Ended up discovering Muscovy via northward expansion. Check this mess out:

Spoiler: Warning: border gore (also, large image)

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[Narkis]

Nice. You realise of course you now have to spend the rest of your game prettying up these borders.

And I can see why Muscovy is not Russia. They need to annex Ryazan. (Or Smolensk but there's no way they can handle Lithuania.)

[IthilanorStPete]

Nice. You realise of course you now have to spend the rest of your game prettying up these borders.

That's the plan...in a little while. Once I cut Muscovy off from Siberia, then I'll mop up the hordes as operations in Arabia, the Caucasus, and Egypt wind down. The other major fronts are pushing further into Eastern Europe (though Hungary has an annoying alliance with France), going down the Red Sea against Ethiopia, and moving along Persia's southern coast to India.

And I can see why Muscovy is not Russia. They need to annex Ryazan. (Or Smolensk but there's no way they can handle Lithuania.)

Yep; Ryazan was conquered by the Golden Horde early on, just split off again from rebels while I was fighting the Horde.

EDIT: A bunch of discoveries came through in 1544 - looks like 100 years after the start date is a major landmark.

[Leecros]

Phew, I just orchestrated a huge invasion of Spain from North Africa with only Tunis and Azov(My client Kingdom) assisting in the invasion while the warleader, England spent the time getting kicked around by Portugal. I just establish a foothold in Granada and have not one, but three battles against Spanish and Portuguese troops where i was outnumbered by a large margin. When in their infinite wisdom, England decided that it was time to concede defeat and give the Spanish what they wanted..



I think it's time i did a similar invasion in England and establish a client kingdom there.

I shall call it: Better England.

[Grif]

Ended up discovering Muscovy via northward expansion. Check this mess out:

Spoiler: Warning: border gore (also, large image)

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Augh. Those border gore. D:

Quick, conquer some more heathens to smoothen them out!

[Eldan]

That's not a proper mess yet, you should see my greater Persian area. I'm playing as the Commonwealth and I have conquered my way down to the Gulf of Persia. But there's now small splinter states everywhere, until I've annexed them all.

[IthilanorStPete]

Augh. Those border gore. D:

Quick, conquer some more heathens to smoothen them out!

Hey, they're not heathens, they're fellow Sunnis! (Which is actually important for keeping my Piety low)

[Terraoblivion]

Yeah, playing as Humanist Ottomans trying to restore as much of the Roman Empire, with some extra bits when I've got truces with Europeans I'm likely to attack, as possible, I've just kinda accepted that I'll sit on max piety forever due to mostly attacking Catholics. Which is a shame, I'm humanist Ottomans, I never need to convert anybody.

[IthilanorStPete]

Well, I've officially cut Moscow off.

Spoiler: Large image

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[Leecros]

You're gonna clean those borders up, right?



...right?

[IthilanorStPete]

You're gonna clean those borders up, right?



...right?

Eventually...just give me 20, 30, maybe 40 years...

[mythmonster2]

Frankly, I'm not sure what cleaning those up would even entail. All I could think of is conquering the Timurids and all the nomads in the way.