Thats what i said with 3. Theyll make fun of you the same way but remain firm for you are in the right.

When 4 came out, it was clearly superior to 3
After like 3-4 years of bloat, I’d decided that 4 was done and I hopped off the DLC treadmill
5 remains to be seen, I’m interested in it but giving it some more time in the oven before I dig in

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Kinda concluded my Netherlands run. There isnt much to do when u have a million ducats so I decided to conquer all Germanic and Francien provinces + some great projects.

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>>2348145
Also wish there was more to do than beat up AI and deal with overextension rebels in late game.

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my sweden game, I'm scared of giga england

>>2348331
play with the xorme mod the ai builds like players in MP do

>>2348505
Can I add it to existing savefile?

>>2348500
Kill their navy and theyre easy to deal with.
I must admit I Iove decimating AI navies though.

>>2348071
You are playing a glorified spreadsheet with modifiers and bonuses. That's the gameplay. Just gather bonuses and make blob bigger. Like hoi4, I don't understand the popularity.

I'LL MURDER ALL SHITALIANS FROM THE PO TO THE TOE

>>2348682
They’re both only fun if you roleplay, imo. I can’t imagine the senseless ahistorical blobbing just because it’s there.

>>2348786
After 1650 or so you can dev up your own province +1 for 100 mana or conquer and state a 30+ dev province for 100 mana which is just silly.

>>2348938
Dev ruined EU4. Such a stupid and arbitrary, gamey mechanic. It was only good for its first couple years and then got ruined with DLC bloat. Same with HOI4.

Whats a good country for a combination of:
Innovative, humanist, economic, aristocratic, mercenary, naval, influence ideas. Cause I never use those.

>>2348946
They just never figured out how to make 'playing tall' and role playing viable. You can make shittons of money and never be able to use it for anything useful. Developing your own provinces gets too expensive too quickly. In the end all thats left is coonqing the world and even that is stopped by government capacity. Also AI WILL try to blob.

>>2348953
I remember how not so long ago there wasn't such a thing as governing capacity and every country had a state limit instead. Then if you had more territories than your states, you'd get "territorial corruption" malus. I liked how that incentivized taking full states and deving what you already had rather than blobbing and going for optimal but ugly borders. But that system was pretty broken because trade companies didn't count towards the territory limit. Mercs also worked different so my colonial Netherlands runs were absolutely crazy back then. I had no use for manpower because my entire army was mercs and I could instantly spam more of them anywhere I wanted if a war wasn't going well enough.

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Resuming my A(inu)AR after a break. I Showed Strength against Khodynt again.

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Time to mop up central America.

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Meanwhile, Japan want to war with Oirat over my rightful clay.

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Purapecha was the first to go.

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And then the Aztecs.

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Gotta culture-convert this to Ainu immediately. You'll see why soon.

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I'll also take out this OPM while we're at it.

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I've struck gold while Ming is imploding.

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I need those provinces with Colonialism.

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I got cucked :(

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Here we go. This is what I've been waiting for.

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We've seen the light of Quetzalcoatl and we get no doom + every religious reform for free because our tech group isn't American.

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I'll repay Mesoamericans for showing me the true way by expelling the Spanish.

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I'll probably spend a few years chilling out because:
1. My manpower is low.
2. My governing capacity is 199/200 even with only about half of Mexico stated (Siberian Native Council can't upgrade their government rank from a Duchy btw),
3. I lack paper mana and only about 7 provinces in Mexico are full cores.
Another Show Strength war is still a good idea, though.

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Ming falling apart as always.

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This sucks because I'll need a lot of bird mana soon. That cuck event lied to me about the stats of the new consort, btw.

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Big fat Shun.

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The best China.

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Time to start executing the first steps of my master plan. I'll start by discarding Exploration Ideas. I can already reach anywhere I want and I'll still have some leftover explorers and conquistadors for now. The colonist is actually the main reason why I converted to Nahuatl, although other bonuses are nice. I need to be able to colonize, even if slowly.

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Exploration will be replaced with Diplomatic, which I need to fill out as fast as possible.
Dubs can choose my next idea group, it must be military.

>>2349694
Offensive, for offending others.

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>>2348953
Playing tall is viable it's just not very fun
>>2348086
Yeah it needs more time to cook and I'm hoping PDX optimizes it better (lmao) or some autists makes a mod to get it to run better on toasters
>>2349694
Naval

>>2348953
>play as any italian tag
>take a few states
>you have so much mana you have to dev because you're already 10 years ahead on tech and your ideas are capped out
>constantly going over gov cap because italian provinces are super easy to develop and everyone has the too much mana problem.
Playing tall is a problem that goes both ways because I've formed sardinia piedmont and have been the #1 great power with just north italy. Yet I have to wait for gov cap techs to take the rest of italy while I desperately search for non development mana sinks so I don't go even more over cap.

>>2349741
>>2349936
Neither of you got dubs so I'll just roll using this post.
1 or 2 Aristocratic
3 or 4 Offensive
5 or 6 Defensive
7 or 8 Quality
9 or 0 Quantity
Even dubs Naval
Odd dubs Mercenary

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>>2349741
Well, you got what you wanted.

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>>2350157
Hooray!
Be sure to use Send an Insult a lot for maximum offense.

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I peaced out Kamchadals.

>>2350485
Not much reason to do that right now because I get a lot of PP from Showing Strength against other Siberian tribes and taking provinces from my rivals. I'll probably do it more once I graduate from this shitty government form.

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I decided to launch an expedition into the Andes because Portugal had already started to expand there and I had to act fast if I didn't want South Americans to be gobbled up into Portuguese Peru.

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I took out a few loans to embrace colonialism.

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Which made me a great power.

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I full-annexed Ichma.

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And then Quito.

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I released Quito as a vassal because I was over gov cap. I kept Lima for myself for naval range.

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Cuzco was likewise fully annexed.

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My gov cap situation had not gotten any better in the meantime so I released them and also fed them some provinces from OPMs I conquered.

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Another Show Strength war against Khodynt. This one turned out to be the last one because those bastards changed their government form to monarchy.

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Serves you right, lol.

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I filled out Diplomatic Ideas and attempted to do the Siberian Native Council exploit strategy for infinite mana: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wV29HDpyuk

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The only viable Siberian minor left was Kamchadals. Others switched their government forms in the meantime, but Kamchadals decided to stay a Siberian Native Council. It was unfortunate because the travel distance cost between those two Kamchatkan provinces is pretty steep. I conquered Chavchuveny to make it easier for myself.

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I did it a few times, but things were not going as well as they could. There are a few weak points in this exploit strategy that I was unaware of. Travel distance is one of them. Eventually I brought more troops and some ships over there to make it easier and was able to get decent efficiency that way, but I fumbled a lot at the beginning. Second was the Internal Conflicts disaster. This disaster will start ticking up no matter what if stability is less than 0 and unrest is more than 0, so it's guaranteed to tick up in my case. War exhaustion is guaranteed to reach 20 and it raises unrest. Stability can only be kept at -2 at most to farm paper mana efficiently. Worse still, I had below 100% religious unity, which added an additional +1 monthly tick. My efficiency sucked at the beginning. It became very obvious very soon that I wouldn't be able to get as much from it as I had hoped.

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Eventually I had to stop because the Internal Conflicts disaster almost started and it would have been a catastrophe if it did. I also noticed that Japan would join the coalition if I trucebroke again, which I really didn't want. Looking back at it, I should have started improving relations with them much earlier. That was another mistake. The good thing was that I could instantly stop the disaster by stabbing up 3 times and using diplo to reduce war exhaustion until my unrest was above 0 again. I only did 10 trucebreak Show Strength wars against Kamchadals. My stab cost was 21 and barrage + storm cost was 54 so I should have gotten 79 x 10 = 790 admin, 100 x 10 = 1000 diplo and 46 x 10 = 460 military points. However, I had to spend some of the diplo to reduce war exhaustion at the end. I also had to hire mercenaries and go into debt a lot in order to stop rebellions cropping up all over my country. Not a very good result overall, I'm not sure if it was worth it. I'll prepare better and try again later.

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My economy didn't really recover, but I decided to attack New Spain again anyway.

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I released Zapotec and made them transfer trade because gov cap is hard to come by these days. Aztec and Chichimeca left the coalition, so naturally I declared war on them. While I was fighting them, France declared on me.

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I knew that I had to peace out as soon as saw those doomstacks making their way across the Andes. I could have tried to fight them, but I believe that I would have been worse off economically even if I succeeded (especially since they didn't ask for a lot of money).

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They made me give up Zapotec as a vassal and release Tonala, but whatever. I'll conquer them later on anyway. I think (or at least I hope) that they still count as primitives so I won't have to pay the diplo cost for provinces. They're also Nahuatl, so no one else will care.

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At least I finally finished the Aztecs off.

Did France attack new world without any colonies? Also spain never enforced pt while you're fighting new spain ?

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I've not looked at China for a while and it's a mess. Wu is the new Emperor and they don't have any of the three great cities.

>>2351056
>Did France attack new world without any colonies?
No, they had a colony in Columbia. They colonized some provinces and conquered most of Muisca. Idk if they had the colonial range to take Mexico from me, probably not lmao. I think they would have asked for it if they had. AI LOVES to fabricate a claim and declare wars on whoever holds Mexico regardless if they can actually take it or not.
>Also spain never enforced pt while you're fighting new spain ?
The AI doesn't do that. They could, they just never do. I imagine Paradox hardcoded the AI to never do that because there would have been no end to complaints from people doing American native runs otherwise.

Does AI ever get to be hegemon?

is there a mod that gets rid of estates, and reworks technology and development to not require mana? those are the most annoying things about the game

>>2351054
>>2351051
>>2351053
Why not let them wander around uncolonised provinces wasting manpower to attrition and when length of war modifier ticks down to peace out a favorable/less costly deal, I think you should colonise panama asap as a choke point fort if navy is too expensive to ward off European invasions from sea

>>2348953
>>2348786
>I can’t imagine the senseless ahistorical blobbing just because it’s there.
lmao
literally what else is there to even do in this game? sit there and watch the money go up and AI blob out at x5 speed?

>>2351936
I decided to play beyond 1821 in my Netherlands game and now theres a giant Mughals, Ottomans, Adal, Bengals and Commonwealth with a big Swedish PU.
Basically the game can only end in a clash of blobs and the rest gets gobbled up over time.

>>2351961
the AI can do whatever it wants.
the point is that if you're not blobbing then you may as well not even be playing the game.

>>2351251
I've seen late game France/ Spain get military a few times

What are some fun mods?

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Cont.

I finally finished my colony in Kenai when I got this event. It's gonna be important later on.

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Time to try this exploit one more time. This time I've prepared much better.

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My stab cost is really low, my religious unity is above 100%, relations with Japan have been maxed out to prevent them from joining the coalition and I realized that I don't even need a fleet in the area to get optimal efficiency. The trick is to rotate two armies. Once the fort has been successfully stormed, I tell the other spare army to go to the Kamchadal province and then sign peace immediately. The army that just stormed the fort will become exiled BUT the other spare army will continue walking into Kamchadal territory. If I'm at peace with Kamchadals on the day when the army is supposed to arrive, they will just stop. BUT if I'm at war with them again, they will arrive normally and I can use them to storm the fort again. Ironically, this works because the travel distance cost between those two provinces is so high. The other exiled army should arrive in my territory by the time the fort falls again and I can send them there before signing peace again. A single war takes 2 months at the minimum because of diplomat cooldown to declare war and sign peace, so storming speed is actually not that important.

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I decided to enter Golden Era to spend the points from Showing Strength more efficiently.

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I've never had this event before, pretty neat.

>>2348071
Are EU4 updates and patches completely done? Does that make it easier for mods to settle after all these years?

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Battles of the Isonzo River have nothing on this. Unfortunately, this had to be the last one because Japan had so much AE that they would have entered the coalition despite maxed out relations. This attempt was much better overall. I'm behind by just one tech in administrative and diplomatic right now and up to date with military, I've completed all three idea groups and I developed some of my gold mines.

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FFS. I scutage them to prevent the French armies from walking in there again and it doesn't even matter. They called in Spain, too.

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You know what? I'll let you have all of this.

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You thought I was actually gonna honor the truce when stab is so cheap?

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I'm gonna trucebreak you too, because why not?

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Much better.

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I'm gonna declare on the French colony, too. I don't have a truce with France anymore but they're busy with the league war and they're not gonna attach me.

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I'm only going to take the Colombian part and not Guiana because there aren't any native cores in Guiana and I wouldn't be able to create a vassal there.

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By constrast, New Spain is going to be left as an OPM.

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Now it's time to release vassals.

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And now I'm gonna go bankrupt again. Now is the single best time to do this because I still have truces with Spain and Portugal until 1579 even though I've just utterly raped their colonies and France is still busy with the league war so they will not bother me.

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Time to become Alaska. This is what I've wanted to do this whole time. It's why I colonized those provinces and also why I left my capital in the Cascadia colonial region. Alaskan ideas are really good and include -20% CCR.

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The new color also looks really nice, doesn't it? Forming Alaska also let me recover a bit of prestige to placate some of my vassals. Unfortunately, something else changed later and Quito stayed disloyal at about 51%. I don't think that's a huge problem, though.

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Okay. Now it's time to chill out for a few years (maybe even decades). I'm still a Siberian Native Council so my country rank is still locked to Duchy. I have to reduce inflation and then start making states and full cores and reducing autonomy to get more government progress faster. Some buildings would also come in handy. I'll start blobbing again once I finally leave this shitty government form. That exploit doesn't make it overpowered at all. In fact, I'd argue that it's necessary to use it to even keep up with other government forms. If I started as a monarchy or a republic, I'd be better off right now because I would be an Empire and have a lot of more gov cap and states and money.

Also, I HATE the Dharma government reform system. Together with governing capacity, it actively punishes the player for playing the game and doing interesting things instead of letting the game run at speed 5 while doing nothing. Oh, you wanna conquer some land? Better leave it as territory because you don't have enough gov cap to make it a state. Oh, your average autonomy sucks? No reform progress for you :^) Oh, one of your missions is locked behind reforms? Too bad, lol. I've hated it in every playthrough now that I think of it, but it's been the WORST during this one because Siberian Native Council is locked to Duchy rank.

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In other news: Bohemia is the Emperor of the HRE and is about to lose the League War to Saxony.

Should i play EUIV? I have both EUIV and EUV and i'm having a better time with EUV desu, but i have like 150 hours on EUIV and want to see what it is like.

I got all the DLCs from the 3 month subscription. I will barely leave my house :)

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>>2352744
Thanks for funding paracucks kind stranger

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what could have been...

>>2352688
You missed the boat. The golden age of
EU4 was 10 years ago, and it’s been a bloated corpse for years. Remains to be seen if EU5 will top it.

>>2352688
Play anbennar

>>2353498
anbennar sucks don't listen to this retard

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Always fun to look East and see whats going on

>get back into the game
>playing as France
>Castile don't hate me, strong ally
>finally getting down the England strategy, have a bunch of cores on their mainland
>heir dies in hunting accident
>my king dies less than 5 years afterwards, end up in PU under Castille
>huge succession war fires
I feel like I'm cursed

>>2353550
Unironically kino

What's currently the best map graphics mod for EU4?

Are Stellaris or Imperator like EU4?

>>2354785
No, EU4 is risk + mana.

Timurids never stop being fun