EU3

[stokeriño]

Yeah, to force-annex a country you'll need to keep waging wars and taking provinces until they only have one left.

The alternative is to diplo-annex them. Beat them so badly in the war that they'll accept becoming vassals as part of the peace treaty, then butter them up with cash gifts over the next 10 years. Once they've been vassals for 10 years and you have a relationship of 190+ with them it becomes possible to demand annexation (Doesn't always work though. Wouldn't try it unless the probability was at least "Maybe" if not preferably "Likely". Trying and failing gives a -50 relationship hit, so you'd have to spend more cash getting them to like you again).

Boats get built 50% quicker if you had a Shipyard in the province (which you won't be able to build for aaaages, so nevermind really), and I think one of the National Ideas also helps? Can't remember.

But on the England front, I'd probably annex a few more provinces (for the extra tax they'll get you, and also to connect Scotland with your Midlands/Welsh territories) and THEN force-vassalize them in the next war. Trying to take all the provinces by successive wars might be difficult if you lack a Casus Belli and have to take the stability hits each time. Plus knowing England, they've probably got some American/West African colony-turned-city that you'd need to annex but don't know about, the gits. ¬_¬

Edited March 22, 2007 by stokeriño

[lanky316]

Hell I would have spotted the futility of such an endeavour just from what happened in real life, appendix or not. >_>

[stokeriño]

In a game as them I'd just be spending my time nervously waiting to see which European power came across me first.

"Who shall be conquering me today...oh, it's Mecklenburg. Well, it was Venice last time, so it makes a change."

[apsham]

I have massive armies right now.. but at the level I have my navy at, the ships that I want to build will take like... two years. How do I speed up the building of... buildings, for when I do get to the shipyard because.. well.. quite frankly it's going to be rough going.... trying to get my army across the channels. >.< Also, all England wants to offer me is Kent... KENT.

Edited March 22, 2007 by Apshammunism

[stokeriño]

Don't listen to them! Tell the bastards what you want~! >_> And just because they reject one of your peace offers once, it in no way means that they won't accept exactly the same offer the next month. Keep trying, really.

And you can't speed up the building of buildings. Ever.

Edited March 22, 2007 by stokeriño

[LL!]

So, you guys convinced me to go and get this game which is what I shall do after work. Congratulations.

[stokeriño]

So, we have converted the heathen LL in the province of Florida.

...Or something.

[Gongsun Zan]

Bwahaha, in my current game, France just wiped out Sweden and Norway all by itself. I was wondering why all their troops were trekking across the entire Holy Roman Empire, until I realized that it was the wrong color of blue up North.

Meanwhile, I've only managed to increase my Brandenburg by three provinces. I think Poland needs an invasion soon.

[LL!]

So, as I told ApSham I don't do tutorials. I just decided to dive in on my own.

Started as Scotland in 1453. We got a nice chunk of land. A few provinces.

Now in 1455 we only have the Western Isles. Why? Because I decided that it may have been a good idea to help our buddy France in its war against England by declaring war on England. Norway then entered in the war because they had casus belli with us. I figure we would be fine because France would swoop in and rescue us when in need. Fuck if they did. Frenchies never change.

For now I think I've ruined this game, but I'll see if I can salvage us. We have a pretty good navy that has beat the Brits a few times so maybe we can march on and see what the fuck is up in France. (I just entered 2 armies into France, doubt that will accomplish anything)

I love this game even if I am having some rough luck.

[Gongsun Zan]

My color scheme > Yours.

Anyway, I've been trying out the Magna Mundi mod. It's pretty good if you're not a fan of giant Austrian blobs forming within the first 50 years or so. Instead, they've implemented a system that makes the HRE much more trickier to play in, since you now have to manage between expansion and maintaining good relations. For example, I've seen Saxony conquer 6 or so provinces, only to piss everyone off when they refused to give them back. In the end, everyone decided to gang rape Saxony, reducing it to a single province.

It also adds a ton of espionage events, and tweaks colonization to be more realistic (like adding Columbus into the game via a series of events). I'm not too keen on their National Ideas & Advisors though, but thankfully I can just use my own file for that.

Here's the link, if anyone wants it:

Magna Mundi

[stokeriño]

...Hungary's shade of pink is now positively camp. >_>

[Gongsun Zan]

I blame Medieval Total War for that >_>

[stokeriño]

I can sort of sympathise with LL's pain because I know full well from my Leinster game just what bastards the English are. Of course, due to being in Ireland rather than the British mainland, I was not so vulnerable as Scotland (who got raped repeatedly by England in my game).

But really, your fatal mistake was that you trusted France. Never trust France. Ever. Even Castille are more honourable than France, and they'll backstab you in a second should they feel even slightly bored.

[Gongsun Zan]

I can sort of sympathise with LL's pain because I know full well from my Leinster game just what bastards the English are. Of course, due to being in Ireland rather than the British mainland, I was not so vulnerable as Scotland (who got raped repeatedly by England in my game).

But really, your fatal mistake was that you trusted France. Never trust France. Ever. Even Castille are more honourable than France, and they'll backstab you in a second should they feel even slightly bored.

[stokeriño]

Essentially my immediate priority was vassalising the other Irish nations. I managed to get Munster and Connaught but the English annexed Tyrone before I could get to them. I also allied with Scotland so that I could get into wars with England without having to concern myself with casus belli/stability hits (since England were declaring war on them every other year).

The English navy was shit for some reason (I think some other country like France or Spain must have twatted it), so I was able to take potshots in the direction of Wales or Cornwall once I'd finished beseiging their provinces in Meath and Ulster. Of course the English army was massive, and my strategy for invading the British mainland essentially consisted of throwing 10,000 men into one province and hoping they lasted long enough to take the fort. That way I could get the extra victory % to make them give me Meath in the peace treaty.

I went for ages with 4/5 of Ireland and the English still controlling Ulster (familiar, no?). Since I had little prospect for making progress on that front, I went and did other things. I colonised parts of North America, and also allied with Aragon. They dragged me back into wars against Portugal (who already owned Valencia at that point, so I managed to capture that). Then in the next war v. Portugal I got military access through Castille and essentially waltzed over from Valencia to twat the comparatively-weak Portugese homeland (ended up with Porto out of that!). Oh, and in a war against Mecklenburg (which I started because they had some bits of America I could easily nab), I also ended up with a couple of provinces in the Hamburg region.

The breakthrough in terms of England came when I was dragged into YET ANOTHER war with them by Scotland (who had been so screwed over by this point it wasn't even funny). After taking the fort in Ulster, the British mainland was too daunting a prospect with several 15,000 armies swanning about, so I invaded Cuba instead, where England now had some cities. The extra victory % from them gave me enough to claim Ulster, huzzah! A number of years later I got the 'Irish Nation' event and got my name changed from Leinster to Ireland.

Other things...I annexed Aragon in the end, though by that point they only had two provinces left because Castille just kept eating away at them. Unfortunately Castille then turned their attention to me, and my four Iberian provinces (the three on the east coast inc. Valencia, and also Porto) were lost in short order.

I think that's about as far as I got with that game. I might post a screenshot of it later tonight.

[LL!]

Okay, so that game got all fucked up, but I know how to do more things now, so I decided to try again. Only this time, I decided to try from 1456 where in the previous game King James II, which I had made a general, passed away and Arthur I took over.

This new game still had (and has) James II as King in 1456. I immediately started by building my army and once ready targeted Munster, a small nation in the southern tip of the island that is now Ireland. They don't have any strong character, so, they try to marry into as many countries as possible right at the start so that they can get some allegiances.

When I had targeted them they had nothing, so, I declared war. However, by the time I declared war they had a very strong ally in... oh wait... that ally wasn't strong at all, it was Leinster, their neighbor to the east. I had alliances with France and Norway, so France came in and I took out the navy while they helped take out the land and even though we claimed there first France took the land. Mother fuckers... Meanwhile, Leinster fought England only to have it be conquered. Leinster then moved to the west over to Connaught... which so happened to be my second target now that I was in Munster.

Took a bit to finally vanquish both Connact and Leinster forces, but we did it and ended up making them our Vassal because having a country as your bitch is always fun.

Then we trekked over to Ulster. This infuriated Brittany which we had just married into, and this time it was Norway that came to the rescue, against Brittany that is.

While we were taking Ulster, Norway was making its mark on Brittany taking various provinces. We, eventually, annexed Ulster (tarnishing our reputation) and moved on to help Norway over in Brittany. They had taken all the provinces around Armor. So, we just helped them seiger Armor until I got Brittany to declare peace with us by giving us the province right next to Armor.

Meanwhile, over in Russia our buddy Norway was also claiming land that was just appearing over there. I was too late to notice and take a move and now have no place to dock my boat so I can send a conquerer. If anybody knows how I can get in there please let me know.

And that's how it all ended last night. Scotland is still ready to expand so we recently sent a spy to one of the Sunni countries in the Middle East. I forget which it was right now, but he infiltrated, hired a pirate, and didn't get caught. We'll see how that goes.

For now, peace time as we try to build on the lands we conquered, and try and colonize new lands.

[stokeriño]

You sent a Scottish spy to insitgate piracy in the Middle East? How random is that?

[LL!]

Random enough to warrant a James Bond flick.

[stokeriño]

Touché.

[stokeriño]

Okay, screenies:

The year be 1600, and thar be Ireland. You'll notice that when they changed my name from Leinster, they also changed my colour into some sort of paler, more sickly-looking green. AND they changed my flag so that the harp's on a blue background! The only reason I chose Leinster over the other Irish nations was because of the nice green flag! Bastards!

You'll also notice Oldenburg belonging to me on the centre right. That bit in the bottom right isn't me though, that's the similarly-coloured Wurtemburg.

TOOOO MUCH GREEEEN. :pinch: Uh, okay, starting from the bottom left: That's the Cherokee in the corner (who seem to have done surprisingly well for themselves). The next big blob is all Portugese, then Irish stuff in the north east (with little bits of Mecklenburg and Venice interspersed). I also have Bermuda, in the bottom right, for some reason.

Notice the distinct lack of...uh, non-Castillian things on this peninsula? That's the last of Portugal's homeland on the left, while I've managed to hold on to Roussillon in the top right. It's technically French, so hopefully those Castille bastards won't be coming after me for it.

I have kind of a sick desire to play as France now. This is partially because, unlike the last two EU games, for some reason France NEVER, EVER seems to bother annexing all its various vassals (Provence and the like), so it continues to look all broken up and crappy. I MUST RECTIFY THIS.

Edited March 23, 2007 by stokeriño