“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:

2. Royal Navy : 25% higher naval force limit, and +10% more combat power for big ships.
3. Eltham Ordinance : +15% higher tax.
4. Secretaries of State : +1 diplomat
5. Navigation Acts : +10% trade income, and +10% more combat power for light ships.
6. Bill of Rights : -1 revolt risk.
7. Reform of Commission Buying : +10% discipline
8. 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..



Welcome back next week, where we'll talk in detail about the enhancements we've done to the religious aspect of the game!

 

[Chamboozer]

Again, it's not necessarily that an AI England will be impossible to beat, but that a human England in a MP game will not be possible to beat.

 

[Jia Xu]

People are really overreacting to these bonuses. If they had given England a 50% bonus to discipline, force limits, tax, and combat power in EU3, England would still be crushed by a competent human player. These bonuses are completely non-threatening to anyone who knows what they're doing. We're talking about EU4, the sequel to the game where you could conquer the world as Ryukyu. All these bonuses will do is require you to do a little more planning when fighting England, and that's it. Use your heads, everyone.

 

[Jia Xu]

Again, it's not necessarily that an AI England will be impossible to beat, but that a human England in a MP game will not be possible to beat.

Says who? There are naval powers other than England. Why assume that Portugal and Castille/Spain are going to be completely impotent on water? If your navy isn't up to par, then ally with someone who does have a superior navy and join your ships with theirs. You guys seem to be complaining that beating England now requires strategies more complicated than "have more ships and have more soldiers."

 

[Chamboozer]

No, on the contrary that's exactly what it turned into. If England takes a naval idea group, then that's all you can do - take the same thing for yourself and just try to build enough ships to overcome their bonus. As far as we know there is no other way to make your navy better. Does trading help? Does having lots of naval supplies help? Is there anything we can do at all to improve our navy? So far, aside from getting naval tradition and technology, the answer appears to be 'no'. And that's a problem - if the navy was flexible and could be improved through other means, then it wouldn't be a problem that certain countries get a bonus because we would be able to counteract it. Right now it seems like the only way to couteract it is by just building more ships.

 

[StephenT]

Let's see:

25% higher naval force limit +10% more combat power. So they can build more and stronger ship for less penalty.
...If they can afford them. A country with more financial NIs will be able to afford a larger fleet than England can.

+15% higher tax. If you ever played with a country which has constant taxation problems, you know exactly how decisive this is.
Answer: not very. Taxation usually makes up a smaller proportion of income than production or trade.

+10% trade income, and +10% more combat power for light ships. Same issue as with the two above.
Trade is a better bonus, but in EU3 it restricts how much warmongering you can do. We'll have to see what happens in EU4 with no more infamy: will being a warmonger still affect your merchants' chances? Assuming it does, though, a naval/trade England won't be able to do much conquering, which is a weakness.

+10% discipline. As this factor multiplies its effect based on several other factors, the differences will be huge in land combat.
But it's one land idea gained very late in the game. How will it compare to the ideas other, more land-based countries will get?

-50% Naval Attrition. Again, an NI which will make it impossible to race with England in either numbers or quality in naval forces.
Indeed, I can see how the ability of English ships to stay at sea for nine months instead of six months will make them an unbeatable juggernaut.

Only these NIs mean that if you're not playing England, or other lucky nations who will get their own naval NI, means that you won't be able to colonize anything.
Why not? Assuming Spain and Portugal get ideas giving them a boost to numbers of colonists, colony growth, colony cost, etc they'll still be able to easily outperform England in the colonisation race.

Even if you succeed, England declares war on you, takes your colonies and you can do nothing to prevent it

• Except that you can use your national ideas giving higher land force limits and lower maintenance costs - to pre-position armies in the colonies before the war even starts.
• Or use your national ideas giving better fortifications - to make your colonies impregnable.
• Or use your national ideas increasing your diplomatic ability - to construct an overwhelming coalition against England, and crush them with superior numbers.
• Or use your national ideas giving much higher income - to build a bigger fleet than England can afford.
• Or use your national ideas boosting your chance to provoke rebellions - to cause England to collapse in civil war.

 

[Jia Xu]

No, on the contrary that's exactly what it turned into. If England takes a naval idea group, then that's all you can do - take the same thing for yourself and just try to build enough ships to overcome their bonus. As far as we know there is no other way to make your navy better. Does trading help? Does having lots of naval supplies help? Is there anything we can do at all to improve our navy? So far, aside from getting naval tradition and technology, the answer appears to be 'no'. And that's a problem - if the navy was flexible and could be improved through other means, then it wouldn't be a problem that certain countries get a bonus because we would be able to counteract it. Right now it seems like the only way to couteract it is by just building more ships.

Did you play EU3? Guess what, England/Britain was coded to take all of the useful naval ideas and that made them always beat anyone who didn't have a vastly superior navy. You make it sound like this concept of naval ideas is new. Yes, if you take naval ideas, you have a naval advantage over everyone who doesn't. Yes, if you take land ideas, you have a land advantage over everyone who doesn't. That's how ideas work. They give you advantages that other countries don't have unless they take those ideas too.

EU4 gives some countries slight, extra advantages for taking all of the ideas in a certain set. Yeah, well, filling out an entire line of ideas takes HUNDREDS OF YEARS. Come on now. Are you afraid of the scary English naval bonuses? Then deal with them before they unlock all of those ideas. You've got a couple of centuries to do that. Take your time.

 

[Chamboozer]

Their very first unique NI unlocks sometime before ~1526, probably in the 15th Century. If they choose the naval idea group as their first choice, you've got no way to keep up with them. In EUIII if they took a naval idea, you could take the same idea to at least try to match them. If they ever took any idea other than a naval one, you could surpass them by making a naval choice. But this system for EUIV ensures that they'll always be one step ahead of you. England already starts with the highest amount of naval forcelimits (I'd be shocked if this changed in EUIV), they don't need to have stronger ships as well.

Here's the thing: If you had small forcelimits in EUIII and wanted to improve them, you could take the naval forcelimits NI. If you wanted your ships to be better, you could take a naval morale NI. If you wanted better admirals, a naval tradition NI. But in EUIV your naval NIs will all be linear. Every advantage you get, England will get too. You can't maximize the aspect of your navy you want to maximize, and England will always have what you have plus 10% combat power and probably larger forcelimits. A skilled England player could use that to always remain unbeatable at sea, no matter how much the French player may wish to challenge them.

What is so bad about making naval strength dependant on something other than a permanent bonus given to only certain nations & a linear idea path? Why not give the player more ways to improve the quality of his navy?

 

[MilosM]

Did you play EU3? Guess what, England/Britain was coded to take all of the useful naval ideas and that made them always beat anyone who didn't have a vastly superior navy. You make it sound like this concept of naval ideas is new.

Yes, AI was scripted, but player was free to do whatever he wants.Now player is scripted too.

 

[Baikal]

Their very first unique NI unlocks sometime before ~1526, probably in the 15th Century. If they choose the naval idea group as their first choice, you've got no way to keep up with them. In EUIII if they took a naval idea, you could take the same idea to at least try to match them. If they ever took any idea other than a naval one, you could surpass them by making a naval choice. But this system for EUIV ensures that they'll always be one step ahead of you. England already starts with the highest amount of naval forcelimits (I'd be shocked if this changed in EUIV), they don't need to have stronger ships as well.

Here's the thing: If you had small forcelimits in EUIII and wanted to improve them, you could take the naval forcelimits NI. If you wanted your ships to be better, you could take a naval morale NI. If you wanted better admirals, a naval tradition NI. But in EUIV your naval NIs will all be linear. Every advantage you get, England will get too. You can't maximize the aspect of your navy you want to maximize, and England will always have what you have plus 10% combat power and probably larger forcelimits. A skilled England player could use that to always remain unbeatable at sea, no matter how much the French player may wish to challenge them.

That is when there are no other allies in the game as well and both have the same naval technology and number of ships. There are also advisors and admirals that have to be taken into account. Also the naval idea group consists of 7 ideas. If you focus on this idea group while England also focuses on others you can also get an edge and should England focus solely on filling up this idea group, then they will be lacking in other areas where you can harm them, like deriving trade from them, causing rebellions with espionage, or building up strong alliances. I wouldn't see this so grim. It just demands some more thinking.

 

[DreadLindwyrm]

Indeed. Unfortunately, "War of the Lillies" or "War of the Lions" didn't happen, and primary feature of EU4 are dynamic historical events. We would have to wait for 'elaborate generic events mod' I'm afraid.

So what you are saying is no other great civil wars between competing branches of the same royal family happened, splitting the country into factions at open civil war? Just because they didn't get a poetic name thanks to a remarkably persistent playwright...

In a hereditary monarchy, it's remarkably difficult to not have an heir. Even if it's the previous monarch's fifth cousin nine times removed on his mother's side, there'll be somebody with a trace of royal blood. The real issue is legitimacy: do the nobility and church accept the putative heir as the rightful next king?

Shall we instead say then that Henry VI had a legitimate son? The no heir part of the trigger is massively wrong.

The easiest change, from Paradox's point of view, is just rewrite the "No heir" text to say, "No recognised heir". One extra word solves all the historical griping.

In the case of the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York's main aim was to be recognised as Henry VI's heir, and he was already gathering an army in 1451 before Prince Edward was born. After he was, York tried to spread rumours that he wasn't the king's actual son, but that Queen Isabella had been having an affair with the Duke of Somerset - given Henry VI's insanity, the claim didn't seem all that incredible. So yes "no generally recognised heir" does seem to be a good statement of the situation.

Well, this wouldn't be "no recognised heir" so much as "low legitimacy heir" - this would be a massive improvement, even if it doesn't ring entirely true.

*cough* The ducal house of Burgundy at the start of the EU time frame was a cadet line of Valois, not merely of Capet.

I take your point, however my point still stands. The Burgundy Valois having a war with the French Valois.

 

[Grubnessul]

Yes, AI was scripted, but player was free to do whatever he wants.Now player is scripted too.

The player is not at all scripted. He's just nudged in a certain direction, you're still free to do whatever you desire.

 

[MilosM]

The player is not at all scripted. He's just nudged in a certain direction, you're still free to do whatever you desire.

I was just refering to those unique NI's, if you simply cannot avoid some of them, then it's similar to scripting in EU3.Don't get me wrong, I like a bit more uniqueness(altough option to remove them would be nice) and I know that most of the things are still under player control.

 

[Svip]

The player is not at all scripted. He's just nudged in a certain direction, you're still free to do whatever you desire.

Not really, but that's kind the thing I support. It seems ridiculous for the player to take a country in a completely different direction than the one it is headed towards.

Sure, you can argue that if you did that, your country would collapse. But rather than such a complex feature, they went with a more simplistic way; you can't really steer your country in an unnatural direction, idea-wise. I am certainly you can still make bad decisions.

 

[Soulstrider]

I was just refering to those unique NI's, if you simply cannot avoid some of them, then it's similar to scripting in EU3.Don't get me wrong, I like a bit more uniqueness(altough option to remove them would be nice) and I know that most of the things are still under player control.

Of course you can avoid it them, I really don't see what all the drama is about. I mean it's just a game where certain factions with an extra "tech tree" besides the generic ones, none is forcing to take it and it's not limiting you in any way since you can choose as your own the other ones like in EU3,so I really can't see why people are complaining, it's like complaining about country specific decisions in EU3.

Seriously I think the national ideas is one of the best Paradox decisions regarding this game, the other one being the trade routes. I hated in EU3 that in the end every country was the same besides the color, location and the tech system, so I am all for giving unique flavour to some nations.

 

[EktorGomes]

Why not? What impedes you from changing history? I thought that was the whole appeal of EU. I don't like these preset idea groups for nations.

 

[Norpheus]

So why would my English empire have all those naval bonuses when Infact this england won the 100 years war and england is now a land-based continental superpower?

 

[Chamboozer]

Of course you can avoid it them, I really don't see what all the drama is about. I mean it's just a game where certain factions with an extra "tech tree" besides the generic ones, none is forcing to take it and it's not limiting you in any way since you can choose as your own the other ones like in EU3,so I really can't see why people are complaining, it's like complaining about country specific decisions in EU3.

Seriously I think the national ideas is one of the best Paradox decisions regarding this game, the other one being the trade routes. I hated in EU3 that in the end every country was the same besides the color, location and the tech system, so I am all for giving unique flavour to some nations.

You misunderstand the system. No matter what you do you are forced to take the unique National Ideas.

 

[Soulstrider]

So why would my English empire have all those naval bonuses when Infact this england won the 100 years war and england is now a land-based continental superpower?

Then you follow land army ideas instead of England'sunique tree and there is no problem at all, just like in EU3.

You misunderstand the system. No matter what you do you are forced to take the unique National Ideas.

I am pretty sure you are misunderstanding the system, from the DD the only thing I saw was an extra ideas field which you may or may not decide to follow.

 

[Chamboozer]

National ideas
Every country also has something we call National Ideas, with the most important countries having a set of unique national ideas. Major countries including the Mamelukes and England have seven unique ideas granting them specific abilities. These ideas are not something you spend power on to buy, but, instead, you gain one of these ideas for free for every third idea you buy normally from an idea group.

You're given them whenever you unlock a set number of ideas from the idea groups. There's no element of choice in the matter.

 

[Soulstrider]

You're given them whenever you unlock a set number of ideas from the idea groups. There's no element of choice in the matter.

Johan explicitly said in the last DD thread that you have to take them, I'll go and get the quote.

Ok I stand corrected, indeed it's a weird design decision, it would make more sense in my opinion if the national ideas were an idea group themselves like Plutocracy or Diplomacy.