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“This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror”


Welcome to the 7th development diary for Europa Universalis IV,
where we talk about the dominant power by the end of the Europa Universalis time frame, the country formerly known as England.
England can be considered both as one of the easier nations to play, but also one of the more challenging nations. That´s a paradox, you say?
Well, it all depends on what you wish to accomplish and what kind of empire you want to create ;)

The unique possibilities of England
What truly makes England unique to play is that the country has natural borders protecting it and that you can strengthen those borders dramatically with rather cheap investments. You can decide to let England get involved in the continent, from a safe position, or choose to isolate England and go overseas. The country also sits on a bloody nice position to control the trade from the Baltic and from North America. So the options are huge for you to take England in plenty of directions when creating your empire.

England’s Dynamic Historical Events
England is has one of the richest and best known histories. That may sound lovely for you guys, but it also means that we have had to work hard when it comes to decisions about historical events to include in Europa Universalis IV. The important countries in EU4 have a lot of events going on, so some of those major historical events have been turned into the starting points of large event chains that we call Dynamic Historical Events.

War of the Roses is an excellent example of Dynamic Historical Events. If England in the 15th century has a ruler without an heir, that means that there is a likelihood of a large event chain beginning. The player has to select who to back for the throne, York or Lancaster. This decision will throw the country into turmoil with various parts declaring for either the red or white rose, and you have to make sure to eliminate the very strong, rather resilient pretenders. What makes this interesting is that this event chain is not an event series that is guaranteed to come every time you play as England. It only occurs if all the necessary underlying factors are fulfilled. When it happens, you won't have planned for it to arrive on schedule, like many people did when they played Europa Universalis II, the last game in the series with a serious focus on historical events. We hope that this variation will gives you rather unique experiences when you play major powers.

The English Civil War will be another major event series that might encounter when you play as England, but we will not spoil it for you here yet. ;)
England also has many smaller DHE, like The War of Captain Jenkin's Ear: if they are rivals with Spain, after 1700, then you can get a casus belli on Spain. Or an event like The Muscovy Trade Company, where if you discover the sea route to Archangelsk, and its owned by the Muscovites, then there is a likelihood of this historical event happening.

England’s Missions & Decisions
We have kept the historical missions that existed in Europa Universalis III and we are expanding them for Europa Universalis IV, so you'll still see missions to conquer Scotland and colonize North America. When it comes to decisions, England still manually have to rely on the Wooden Wall, and make Calais into a Staple Port.

England’s National Ideas
The traditions that England starts with is a small boost in naval morale and a 5% boost to their trading efficiency.
The trading efficiency boost is due to the fact that the economy of England to fund their participation in the Hundred Years War was their taxation of the very profitable wool trade.

The 7 National Ideas for England are:
  1. Royal Navy : 25% higher naval force limit, and +10% more combat power for big ships.
  2. Eltham Ordinance : +15% higher tax.
  3. Secretaries of State : +1 diplomat
  4. Navigation Acts : +10% trade income, and +10% more combat power for light ships.
  5. Bill of Rights : -1 revolt risk.
  6. Reform of Commission Buying : +10% discipline
  7. Sick and Hurt Board : -50% Naval Attrition.



Reward: English Ambition
When England has gotten all seven of their National Ideas, they get the bonus of 'English Ambitions' which gives them a +100% on their embargo efficiency.

Here's a screenshot where I've cheated to show a little bit of the idea progress..

7.png

Welcome back next week, where we'll talk in detail about the enhancements we've done to the religious aspect of the game!
 
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...this makes no sense. Trolling is staging a false discussion for the sake of seeing the whole thing burn. A troll might not even agree with what he says in order to spread disorder and flames. Accusing someone of trolling means that he purposedly destroyed something for the sheer sensation of seeing it collapse. It is EXTREMELY offensive to say "you're trolling" when a discussion (yes, it went overboard, but it was a SERIOUS discussion) isn't going or didn't go the way you like. You use the word without even knowing what it means exactly, and by doing this you offend people that didn't have the smallest gripe with you (or Paradox, for all it cares - I already have decided that I will buy EU4, even if it means epurating DHEs and National Ideas after a few test games). So stop.
Hey hey, it was YOU who used the word troll first. Not me.
You can call it what you want. We agree that filling DD6 with too many posts was wrong. Which is my point. So you stop the trolling discussion that you started.
 
Interesting that England gets Royal Navy very early, when the actual fact of the Anglo-Dutch war seems to be that whoever kept his navy paid and equipped the longest won... which implies both were hitting the naval forcelimit, in a sense.

But okay, it may be necessary to allow England basic immunity from French invasion, which it seems to have been whenever the French did not focus hard on being able to.
 
To be clear, I say "bless you Johan" because I was vocally opposed to the shift to sandbox during EU III's development and am happy to see a shift (reasonably) back the other way, not because I think debating or questioning is trolling.
 
Johan, very interesting DD, thanks very much. Question: besides the justly famous War of the Roses, will other countries -- or perhaps all of them -- be vulnerable to succession wars under certain circumstances? And would there be the possibility of outside intervention in the name of power balancing (or attempts to unbalance) as with the Spanish succession war in the early 1700s?

BTW I really got a kick out of Johan's "both wrong" answer. I think he's having fun toying with us. :)
 
To be clear, I say "bless you Johan" because I was vocally opposed to the shift to sandbox during EU III's development and am happy to see a shift (reasonably) back the other way, not because I think debating or questioning is trolling.
Right, and I think we have buried the trolling theme.

On a semi-serious note. Whatever way PDS is going with EU4, we're probably all going to buy it no matter what.
After that the mod community will take over and we can have the game as we want.
So let's just let the devs do their thing cause we dont have the power to change the path they are taking anyway.
 
Question regarding AI and DHEs (hopefully legitimate one):

What rationale would there be behind AI choices in DHEs? Historical option, totally random, pre-written chances like in EU2, or would AI calculate best option based on circumstances? Would this be customisable in menu?

Pre-scripted chance with some occasional modifiers to avoid things like taking a +1 stab when at +3, or challenge a revolt when already deep in trouble etc.
 
Pre-scripted chance with some occasional modifiers to avoid things like taking a +1 stab when at +3, or challenge a revolt when already deep in trouble etc.

I see - good to hear that there's some flexibility behind AI decision making. Thanks.
 
England’s Missions & Decisions
We have kept the historical missions that existed in Europa Universalis III and we are expanding them for Europa Universalis IV, so you'll still see missions to conquer Scotland and colonize North America. When it comes to decisions, England still manually have to rely on the Wooden Wall, and make Calais into a Staple Port.
England really should NOT get a mission to conquer Scotland (and that they did caused needless problems in EU3). England historically tried quite hard to conquer Scotland in the CK period, under Edward I and III, and they got kicked out by rebels both times. After that, they felt that conquering Scotland just wasn't worth it. So they shouldn't get a mission to do so... if the player wants to ahistorically attempt to conquer Scotland, or the AI does so, fine, but they shouldn't be pushed that way by a mission.

Also, Wales should be part of the English culture group, since it was integrated pretty thoroughly with England by the beginning of this game and didn't rebel during the EU time period, and Scotland should not be, since it had a history of successfully rebelling. Maybe if the right situations occur (a United Kingdom DHE?) Scotland, particularly the Lowlands, might be switched to a culture in the English culture group, but at the start of the game the Scots should be really resistant to being ruled from London, which is what "different culture group" models in game. (Yes, I know the language arguments - but language should only be one guide to culture group, not the whole story.)
 
BritNavFan,

Perhaps a PU mission?

Or perhaps leave PU (which are too easy in EU III, but I hope they remain in EU IV) up to the player to arrange.

While an English conquest of Scotland never took place after the Wars of Independence, the two did share monarchs and civil wars with some regularity...
 
England really should NOT get a mission to conquer Scotland (and that they did caused needless problems in EU3). England historically tried quite hard to conquer Scotland in the CK period, under Edward I and III, and they got kicked out by rebels both times. After that, they felt that conquering Scotland just wasn't worth it. So they shouldn't get a mission to do so... if the player wants to ahistorically attempt to conquer Scotland, or the AI does so, fine, but they shouldn't be pushed that way by a mission.

Also, Wales should be part of the English culture group, since it was integrated pretty thoroughly with England by the beginning of this game and didn't rebel during the EU time period, and Scotland should not be, since it had a history of successfully rebelling. Maybe if the right situations occur (a United Kingdom DHE?) Scotland, particularly the Lowlands, might be switched to a culture in the English culture group, but at the start of the game the Scots should be really resistant to being ruled from London, which is what "different culture group" models in game. (Yes, I know the language arguments - but language should only be one guide to culture group, not the whole story.)

you have some points
 
Sounds good, expecialy the missions and descisions staying in. I hope there are more missions this time around? Last night I spent my time playing around with the new Legacy of Rome DLC for CK2, and i have to say that was the most enjoyable addition to any Paradox game I have seen. So much exquisite purple Byzantine flavor! If that dlc is any indication of the new types of things they are going to do to their games, I will be very impressed.
 
Interesting that England gets Royal Navy very early, when the actual fact of the Anglo-Dutch war seems to be that whoever kept his navy paid and equipped the longest won... which implies both were hitting the naval forcelimit, in a sense.

But okay, it may be necessary to allow England basic immunity from French invasion, which it seems to have been whenever the French did not focus hard on being able to.

If one starts as the Dutch Republic after it was formed historically, then IMHO should have some naval ideas of there own.

For Burgundy (with the Burgundian Netherlands containing Flanders, Holland, Brabant, Zeeland and towns like Gent, Brugge, Antwerpen, Amsterdam etc.) one of the options should be an increased interest in naval ideas, but less exclusive than the Dutch Republic.

@ Niptium: that's because Zeeland should be islands.
 
Interesting.

It does make me wonder about how forcelimits will work, especially naval. Those in EUIII were faulty; if you doubt me, load in the 17th C, any of the Dutch Wars. Quite simply, total tax base, and/or ports, simply won't do. The correct base should probably involve trade more than anything else, but it's complex, and I don't really have a good clear notion of how it should work. But I do know that the whole range of naval FL's should be flatter.
 
England really should NOT get a mission to conquer Scotland (and that they did caused needless problems in EU3).

I never found the conquer Scotland mission that much of a problem. It can't fire until at least 1603 and by that point Scotland has generally already been crushed by England. It's not the mission that causes problems in the early game for Scotland it's constantly getting involved in wars between [Choose a Mainland European Country] and England and generally losing. It is perfectly plausible that at some point in the game's time period England might of conquered Scotland, even if they didn't actually do it.

Edit: At least if the mission stays in it shouldn't grant any free Cores, no mission should.