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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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I never found the conquer Scotland mission that much of a problem. It can't fire until at least 1603...
Eh, wot?

Oh, I see. They changed it in Divine Wind. In In Nomine and in Heir to the Throne the mission could happen at any date. They added the year constraint in Divine Wind - good change. Well, it's certainly not so bad if it can't happen until 1603, but a PU mission would make more sense, and could happen earlier.
 
Sorry if it's already been asked, but do all nations have their own pre-determined Ideas? Also, can I still release/play nations that aren't at game start? For example release Finland as Sweden and then play them? How will this if possible deal with national ideas?
 
Eh, wot?

Oh, I see. They changed it in Divine Wind. In In Nomine and in Heir to the Throne the mission could happen at any date. They added the year constraint in Divine Wind - good change. Well, it's certainly not so bad if it can't happen until 1603, but a PU mission would make more sense, and could happen earlier.

I couldn't remember if it fired earlier before Divine Wind, I always conquered Scotland straight away no matter what mission I was given. Unfortunately Divine Wind also screwed Scotland as they were small enough to be annexed immediately. A PU mission would be nice but it won't solve Scotland and England getting into wars and Scotland getting conquered.
 
The terrain map is too dark. England looks like a swamp. I can hardly read the province names.

It may (and hopefully does) have to do with the season, being a bit darker in the Autumn. After all: in November England often is a swamp ;).
 
It may (and hopefully does) have to do with the season, being a bit darker in the Autumn. After all: in November England often is a swamp ;).
LOL So true

Liking nearly everything so far but there is one thing that bothers me and its the ports I really dont like the way they look on the map and I hope that you will change them like you have changed the cities (they look great btw). I know that this is nowhere near the final look and that it is only a very small thing on the map but I thought that I would mention it as it bothers and I hope that you will change it. :)
 
Terrain textures may be too dark, but I like worn out, less saturated look. CK2 looks a little bit too much like a fantasy candy-land - especially in political map mode. ;)
 
well I was expecting something more... general but this is also kinda interesting.

and another note on the "England transporting ridiculous armies to various points on the map": the main cause behind it wasn't the richness of England but the lack of naval attrition for the AI - I really hope the new(?) AI could be trusted with handling such a thing, so I don't expect that being such a big issue anymore. also the naval supply range should be nerfed a bit compared to EU3 - and then (combined with the maintenance cost for military access) it will resolve much of the previous problems.
 
Royal Navy : 25% higher naval force limit, and +10% more combat power for big ships.
Navigation Acts : +10% trade income, and +10% more combat power for light ships.

So they have better ships just because they're English. I hope that other nations would be able to get some buffs like those English even if they were not naval powers historically.
 
So they have better ships just because they're English. I hope that other nations would be able to get some buffs like those English even if they were not naval powers historically.

While I'm all for other powers getting naval buffs, I don't think it's too unfair to give the English a bonus to their ships considering they are, geographically, a nation completely dependent on Navy. I can't imagine say, Mecklenburg having as much of a focus on ships as England, even if they wanted to.
 
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.

Yeah, I hated the way the EU3 misson pushed England into annexing random chunks of Scotland. Ugly on the map and makes no sense historically.

It made me realise there was a wider problem of smaller nations losing territory in very implausible ways (e.g. Spain taking the odd Portuguese province). Hopefully there will be deeper non-military ways of expanding your influence in EU4 - maybe similar to the Victoria 2 spheres model? Scotland was clearly in England's sphere of influence for most of the game - this actually helped it keep the integrity of its borders (keeping it subordinate but protected, rather than losing scattered counties to foreign occupiers).
 
Edit: At least if the mission stays in it shouldn't grant any free Cores, no mission should.

I am fervently hoping that since claims and cores are different things now, that this is going to be the case. Missions giving cores just made no sense from a realism standpoint and were potentially disruptive to gameplay as well.

Since I will likely never play as England even once, I just hope they will be a strong and prosperous trading and colonising nation under the AI in many games and fill their historical niche if things don't go too far 'off track' (which really is what I'm hoping for most of the IRL major powers)
 
Terrain textures may be too dark, but I like worn out, less saturated look. CK2 looks a little bit too much like a fantasy candy-land - especially in political map mode. ;)

I agree about CKII's textures
 
While I'm all for other powers getting naval buffs, I don't think it's too unfair to give the English a bonus to their ships considering they are, geographically, a nation completely dependent on Navy. I can't imagine say, Mecklenburg having as much of a focus on ships as England, even if they wanted to.

IMHO the same should apply for a historic start with the Dutch Republic (Republic of the 7 United Netherlands).
 
I loved EU2 as well as EU3 and this more and more seems like the perfect mix between those. I think you're taking the exact right direction with adding more immersion, flavour, and things that make nations feel different while still not railroading them. Can't wait for this to come out!
 
1.I think that war of roses should start when there is no heir or with weak legitimacy and low stability.

2.Is American Revolutionary War another DHE?

3.How will look forming Great Britain?