@jak7139, do you ever have Vanna spin the random nation wheel and let fate determine your fortune? (I always use random realm in CK and EU and it takes me on interesting voyages. Some are much better than others.)
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Yes. Having too many cannons early is a trap. I don't get more than 10 (if my economy can afford it) to get a full siege bonus on a level 2 fort.
Stacking more of that as Sweden is always a good idea.
If you're doing more expansion, Diplomatic might be good. It has -15% advisor cost as a policy with Innovative, plus the improve relations, warscore cost, extra diplomats. But if you feel like you need Offensive to win wars, then it won't hurt to take it. Personally, I don't think you need another military group after Quality, but that's your choice. Administrative would also be good if you need more governing capacity or are coring a lot of provinces. You would just need to slow down expansion or vassalize countries while you're using your admin points for the idea group.
Anything that increases your Diplomatic Reputation, number of diplomats, or max number of relations you can have. So, Diplomatic, Influence, Court, or Espionage (in order from highest to lowest priority).
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I've thought about doing a campaign like that, but never done one. Though I've seen others do it, and it does look very fun.
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I am not an EU4 player but this guide may encourage me to go that way in the future. Reading and learning. No opinion yet on who you should play as I don't know the game.
The comments on Sweden are interesting from @CrappyJoke . Although it is not a guide, perhaps New Era, Old Gods- an EU4 Norse Sweden AAR by @Bergil would be of interest?
The comments on Sweden are interesting from @CrappyJoke . Although it is not a guide, perhaps New Era, Old Gods- an EU4 Norse Sweden AAR by @Bergil would be of interest?
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Hopefully, you enjoy this and learn some things about the game. Glad to have your readership regardless!
Any EU4-related comments, questions, or stories from peoples' own experiences are welcome in this AAR. So I'm happy to help or to share advice. That's the reason for its existence.
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Coalitions are not problems, yes, but the meme was about the play-style, such that playing hesse-tag or any hre-tag except die Niederlande tags and planning to go colonial; apologies for repeating to clarify:
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No problem! Game discussion is what this AAR is for. I like seeing other people's thoughts.
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So, seeing as we're two days away from April 1st and this AAR kicking off, I had a few questions.
I know some of you reading have done many gameplay/tutorial-style AAR's before. What's your advice for me as a newbie? Thank you for any help!
How long do you generally play each play session?
What's your strategy for taking and organizing screenshots?
What kinds of game events do you omit or ignore?
Any other tips/things I should know?
I know some of you reading have done many gameplay/tutorial-style AAR's before. What's your advice for me as a newbie? Thank you for any help!
How long do you generally play each play session?
What's your strategy for taking and organizing screenshots?
What kinds of game events do you omit or ignore?
Any other tips/things I should know?
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I try to play to a natural point that makes sense (end of a reign, war, project, objective, key event etc) but it doesn’t always work out. Sometimes it might be enough for one chapter, usually try to make it no more than three max, so as not to get too far ahead of the play, write up and reader feedback cycle. But that’s just one approach, it’s all what suits personal preference (and purpose of the AAR) best. Plus how long you intend your chapters to be.
I work out what the standard key elements of my images will be for a given AAR at the time (it may evolve over time) and then take as many shots as necessary for the event to be able to edit the raw shots into a single image, which is usually composite.
Sometimes the final image is just from one shot, usually 2-4, while in a big summary image I might use up to a dozen to cut and paste what I need. On occasion I’ll go back to save files to grab things I missed at the time, so do a few saves along the way at key points. Though usually that’s from the final session save if summarising the current position.
I then assemble the images as I go, numbering them by game date so they can be sorted/organised chronologically. I’ll often then sub divide them by theme or sub-chapter heading.
I don’t take notes as I go, but save some images unedited as visual notes, to be discarded as used when writing it up (say as a bmp) with edited images for publishing as jpgs. I then use them for storyboards once writing up.
The final images might get saved back into a single folder, with a part number before the date if the parts aren’t strictly chronological (ie by theme, for example). That’s so they appear in order as you load them onto an image server.
I include more at first if they are novel to me or to explain a point, depending on the game format and narrative interest or illustrative point. Big battles, dow and peace shots, flavour events, key decisions etc. Repetive, minor or irrelevant stuff gets sifted out: anything that tends to blow out the chapter without adding much value.
Will add as it goes and they come to mind, but a big one is don’t be afraid to change your style, parameters, format, chapter length etc as you go. Try to provide people with things to comment about, advise on etc if you seek engagement. Hence not playing too far ahead if possible, to keep it ‘live’. Perhaps a different approach to a narrative or history book approach where the whole game might be played ahead.
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I'm doing church security for Easter / Resurrection Day so I'm going to pop in ideas as I can at different points.
My first thing in gameplay AARs is readability. I want to get the information across in one sitting for an average reader and it should be a self contained and coherent package.
How that's represented differs from update to update. In EUIV it might be half or one third of a war. Or it might be 10 years or even 20 or 30 years of peace. Whatever fits that makes sense.
If too much goes on during a period of piece I'll break it up so it's not too long.
I will often find a cliffhanger to curry interest, but not always.
The details I include, like @Bullfilter said, are more at the beginning and less as time goes on to avoid being repetitive. We've all seen many of these events and know the drill.
More later...
Rensslaer
My first thing in gameplay AARs is readability. I want to get the information across in one sitting for an average reader and it should be a self contained and coherent package.
How that's represented differs from update to update. In EUIV it might be half or one third of a war. Or it might be 10 years or even 20 or 30 years of peace. Whatever fits that makes sense.
If too much goes on during a period of piece I'll break it up so it's not too long.
I will often find a cliffhanger to curry interest, but not always.
The details I include, like @Bullfilter said, are more at the beginning and less as time goes on to avoid being repetitive. We've all seen many of these events and know the drill.
More later...
Rensslaer
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I usually play (in EU IV) 5 to 10 years ahead of the AAR updates. At times I get further ahead. I'm still learning this game, even though I have strategy stuff to share, so I like to be able to incorporate advice from others before I get too far in. Also helps to remember what I was thinking and how things went.
As for screenshots, I'm crazy. I realized I was taking 1000 shots for each update in one of my AARs. That's so I can recreate in my own mind everything that happened, why it happened, and what I was thinking. I get action shots with casualty numbers from battles or result images from sieges (disease outbreak or whatever).
I'll generally boil those hundreds of images down to 10 or 12 for the update itself. I don't think I ever use more than 15 screenshots per update because that gets too long and ceases to be readable. I average 10 or 12.
And I do combine information from 3 or 4 screenshots into a single screenshot to be used in the AAR. Sometimes I'll put a border around the added images to show it's a mishmash, and will add the dates within the window.
Even I realize this is extreme and I encourage you to develop a style that works for you and is manageable.
Rensslaer
As for screenshots, I'm crazy. I realized I was taking 1000 shots for each update in one of my AARs. That's so I can recreate in my own mind everything that happened, why it happened, and what I was thinking. I get action shots with casualty numbers from battles or result images from sieges (disease outbreak or whatever).
I'll generally boil those hundreds of images down to 10 or 12 for the update itself. I don't think I ever use more than 15 screenshots per update because that gets too long and ceases to be readable. I average 10 or 12.
And I do combine information from 3 or 4 screenshots into a single screenshot to be used in the AAR. Sometimes I'll put a border around the added images to show it's a mishmash, and will add the dates within the window.
Even I realize this is extreme and I encourage you to develop a style that works for you and is manageable.
Rensslaer
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I'll also say I haven't always done them the same. For Sforza!!! (started 4 days after EU III was released) I stopped playing, took a screenshot, and partially wrote the AAR as things were happening.
I don't think I'd have the patience to do that today. Though I do have the patience to go through 1000 screenshots. Lol Just different disciplines.
Rensslaer
I don't think I'd have the patience to do that today. Though I do have the patience to go through 1000 screenshots. Lol Just different disciplines.
Rensslaer
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I tell people whose long AARs I'm catching up on that I'll start at the beginning and then switch to the end and go back and forth until I finish.
I sometimes have to do the same with my own updates as I go through screenshots. I'll identify a good stopping place and a good beginning. Then I'll fill in the middle. I'll often find a splitting place to break up into more than one update.
Sometimes once those notes are done I'll print it on paper to go through and mark up and identify themes.
Most of my updates are chronological but sometimes things get to a point where it's easiest to do them by theme and/or by theatre (like this is what happened in Europe and this is what happened in Asia over the same time).
Rensslaer
I sometimes have to do the same with my own updates as I go through screenshots. I'll identify a good stopping place and a good beginning. Then I'll fill in the middle. I'll often find a splitting place to break up into more than one update.
Sometimes once those notes are done I'll print it on paper to go through and mark up and identify themes.
Most of my updates are chronological but sometimes things get to a point where it's easiest to do them by theme and/or by theatre (like this is what happened in Europe and this is what happened in Asia over the same time).
Rensslaer
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Can you take the beginning set-up real slow? Started a game Saturday, rolled Coweta (OPM from SE US) and gave up before unpausing. I know that American tribes with federation mechanics are very strange. I need a refresher on the general start-up.
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Voting Result: Brittany
Well, here we are. Thank you very much @Bullfilter and @Rensslaer for your advice! I'll try to keep it in mind. I hope everyone was able to enjoy Easter if that's something you celebrate. I certainly did!
I will hopefully try to take the setup slow @Midnite Duke. It will be its own update (coming soon after this post).
Now who are we playing? After looking over everyone's suggestions and loading up the game, I've decided on...
Brittany!
.png "Screenshot (7361).png")
They're a nice small nation with the potential for colonies. And we have to manage our nation carefully since we're surrounded by many larger powers.
An update covering Brittany's setup will come shortly. Stay tuned!
I will hopefully try to take the setup slow @Midnite Duke. It will be its own update (coming soon after this post).
Now who are we playing? After looking over everyone's suggestions and loading up the game, I've decided on...
Brittany!
They're a nice small nation with the potential for colonies. And we have to manage our nation carefully since we're surrounded by many larger powers.
An update covering Brittany's setup will come shortly. Stay tuned!
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An excellent and interesting choice!
I wouldn't have credited Brittany with having alot of potential, considering it's hemmed in by France and England both. But my recent experience watching AI Brittany in Rex Germania has opened my mind.
Looking forward to seeing how this goes!
Rensslaer
I wouldn't have credited Brittany with having alot of potential, considering it's hemmed in by France and England both. But my recent experience watching AI Brittany in Rex Germania has opened my mind.
Looking forward to seeing how this goes!
Rensslaer
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CHAPTER ONE: Setup
CHAPTER ONE: Setup
A/N: For some reason, some of these screenshots are slightly blurry, while others are fine. I'm not sure what's going on there. Hopefully, you all can still get the gist. Anybody know what's going on there?
So here we are in the land of Brittany! As soon as we load in, the game gives some historical background about our position. The long and short of it is: We’re a small fish surrounded by many bigger fish. Hopefully, we can succeed where the historical Bretons failed.
Our lands contain 5 provinces at game-start (modern city names in parentheses):
- Bro Naoned (Nantes), our capital - produces salt, 4/4/4 development
- Bro Roazhon (Rennes) - produces cloth, 4/4/4 development
- Arvor (Saint-Brieuc) - produces cloth, 4/4/4 development
- Bro Wened (Vannes) - produces fish, 3/3/3 development
- Penn-ar-Bed (Brest) - produces naval supplies, 3/3/4 development
- Cementing our control over this node requires us to attack and destroy France. We don’t have the strength to do this right now, so we’ll have to look elsewhere for expansion and trading opportunities.
- The primary way of controlling trade, by directing the flow of money via our merchants, isn’t available to us. Since we can’t see the Americas right now, we cannot control how our trade flow is set up.
- In tandem with this, we can’t create any “chains” of merchants all directing trade to Bordeaux. We would need to basically control all of North America and its nodes to do this. A huge undertaking for us at the moment. While this isn’t impossible later and is something we are going to want to do, we simply aren’t strong enough yet.
- An example merchant “chain”: if we had taken @Rensslaer 's suggestion and played in Northern Italy, we could feasibly have our merchants direct trade from Sevilla, to Valencia, to our home node in Genoa. And more links could be added earlier in the chain as well if we took land in the Ivory Coast or Caribbean.
.png "Screenshot (7371).png")
Moving on from trade, we take a look at the other screens. Our ruler is the 30-year-old Duke Francois. His stats are not very good, but it’s better than nothing. Same for his heir Pierre, but he’s at least slightly better.
Both of them do at least have a good trait. Francois’ charismatic nature will help us in securing some allies. While Pierre’s caution will help us in our conquests if he ever takes over.
We also have the Duchess, Isabel. Interestingly, and something I only noticed later, is that she is of the same House of Stuart that rules over Scotland. This doesn’t do anything in practical terms, but it’s a nice bit of historical info.
I skip over the Diplomacy screen for the moment and instead take a look at our economy. Our output is small, but right now we are making a tiny profit, something that will soon change (4.50 gross income, 0.26 net).
Next up we have our nation’s ideas. These are…okay. They’re not amazing, but definitely not terrible. Most of these are focused on the navy, trade, and being a good Catholic. I would’ve liked some economic or army bonuses in there but…oh well.
To save space, I’m not going to go over every bonus here. But if you want an explanation on what each bonus does, ask away and I’ll explain it more in-depth in the comments. I’ll still bring these up later on when we start receiving their effects, so not to worry (each number matches its tooltip)!
Then, we have our Estates. These will be extremely useful throughout the campaign, especially now when we are at our weakest. The bonuses from some of these privileges can really help us punch above our weight.
We seize land, summon the diet, and sell titles all on the same day (to keep their timers synced up) and pick the mission from the nobility to develop Bro Wened. We don’t complete it right away, but as long as we finish the mission before its time-limit expires we’ll be fine.
- Religious Diplomats: gives us another diplo rep and a small opinion boost with every other Catholic nation.
- Clerical Education: some reform progress growth that will help us grow by getting various bonuses from our government.
- Religious State: an extra admin point per month (for tech, ideas, stability, etc.)
- Oversight by the Clergy: no inherent bonuses. But it does increase their loyalty.
- Primacy of the Nobility: an extra mil point per month (for generals, tech, ideas, etc.)
- Nobility Officer Rights: gives us a decision with a cooldown to get a free general at the cost of some loyalty. We don’t take the decision quite yet.
- Right of Counsel: The same idea as the one we took from the Clergy. Gotta increase that loyalty!
- Patronage of the Arts: some yearly prestige and loyalty at the cost of some tax. As well as a hit of prestige right now.
- Free Enterprise: The same loyalty thing we took from the Nobility and Clergy.
- One, we didn’t take the privilege for an extra diplo point from the Bourgeoisie because we didn’t have enough Crownland.
- Two, we didn’t take a privilege from each of the Estates for cheaper advisors. I meant to take it later, but completely forgot until a while had passed. We could’ve been saving money on our advisors all that time. Oops!
- Three, we didn’t take any loans from the Bourgeoisie. These loans are special. Unlike a regular loan which has a 5% interest rate, this Estate’s loans only have 1%. However, you do take 5 of them.
If I have to take a loan, I always try to take the 1% loans first. This gives me a nice sum of cash for cheap, which can then help in any wars (usually when you take a loan) or can be injected in the economy (through buildings).
Debt, like many things in this game, is just a number. Strategically taking loans to grow your economy (or your nation through war) is a viable strategy. As long as you can control your debt, it can’t control you. You just have to grow at pace and avoid bankruptcy (though planned bankruptcy is also a strategy that goes into this and that some players do. I personally dislike doing that. But it is very effective).
Debt, like many things in this game, is just a number. Strategically taking loans to grow your economy (or your nation through war) is a viable strategy. As long as you can control your debt, it can’t control you. You just have to grow at pace and avoid bankruptcy (though planned bankruptcy is also a strategy that goes into this and that some players do. I personally dislike doing that. But it is very effective).
After managing our Estates, I check our income again. It has dropped from 4.50 gross to 4.27 gross. Probably due to the loss of tax income and increase in autonomy from our low Crownland and some of the privileges. But don’t worry, we needed those extra monarch points. And our Crownland can always be regained later.
.png "Screenshot (7396).png")
Now we move back to trade for a moment. We start the game with 1 of our 2 merchants collecting in our home node of Bordeaux. Good. However, the other one isn’t doing anything. We decide to put him to work.
Usually with merchant placement, I like to sort the Trade Screen by “Our Current Trade Power” and find the highest node on the list that flows into our main one. Trade Power, by the way, being the amount of control we have in a node. However, that wouldn’t work in this case because we can’t see the 2 nodes that flow into Bordeaux and so can’t use our free merchant to transfer trade from there.
Instead, I sort by "Value", and send our merchant to Genoa to collect from there. He won’t make us a lot of money, but nowhere really will. As long as we can’t see across the Atlantic, our trade in Bordeaux will always be in a rough spot. We do get a minor penalty to our trade efficiency for collecting in somewhere other than our main node, but trade makes up such a small portion of our income, that the malus basically does nothing.
Finally, we go into the Diplomacy screen. We see that Provence and Portugal have both rivaled us (the AI always reevaluates its rivals when the savegame is loaded. This is why some strats on the wiki or elsewhere have you restart the game to get better rival placement by the AI).
We also see we have a starting truce with Burgundy, presumably for historical reasons. Though, as we’ll see, this soon isn’t relevant.
We can rival Portugal and Provence back, however we don’t. Rivalling the AI can be disastrous when in a tough position such as Brittany. The AI will see that the player has rivalled it and will immediately find more allies to defend itself. Since we are planning to attack Provence soon, I hold off for now on declaring them a rival.
We look at Provence’s situation. They have rivaled us, Switzerland, and the Pope. They rule over Lorraine in a Personal Union and are allied to France.
Portugal, meanwhile, is allied to England and is rivaled to Granada and Tunis besides us.
I take a look at the Macrobuilder to help us find some allies. Many countries, including France, would be willing to aid Poor Brittany. But who to choose?
As I’m thinking on that, I decide to send our 8 Light Ships to protect trade in Bordeaux. Our 6 Transports will stay in Penn-ar-Bed for now. I also lower army maintenance and mothball our fort to save money. We’ll need every cent. And war will come soon enough.
I was initially going to hold off on employing any advisors, but I change my mind. A level 1 for each category is hired, a Stateswoman (+1 diplo rep), Commandant (+5% discipline), and an Artist (-10% stab cost).
With that, our economy is now in the red (-1.24 net). But we do need the extra monarch points. Money is cheap by comparison.
Our first diplomat is sent out. We decide to marry Burgundy since they don’t want to ally us immediately and I want to take up one of their diplo slots before they’re all used on someone else.
I’ll briefly mention Brittany’s missions. We don’t have a full tree like some other nations, but we do have a few unique ones. They focus around colonization and the navy. The game seems to be pushing us very heavily in this direction, what with our trade setup, ideas, and now our mission tree.
One of the missions on the top row wants us to get 30 prestige and an alliance with either England or Burgundy. If we do that, we get a permanent claim on the Loire Valley area. Nice! After that, it’s all about going against France itself. Something we’re not ready for yet. All in good time.
And now, finally, after all that, I unpause.
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Thank you. Stab., do you try to stay at +1? Early admin pts. are so, so valuable and +2 and +3 are so expensive (unless you get free stab. event then buy +2 to get +3 for free). Is first idea group going to be dip with eye to early exploration/colonization? What is first target? Do we rival/embargo P&P? (enemy/rival flag need to be in same order) Have you ever watched a dev clash? Plenty of trash talk.
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I only boost early on if I get a free +1 from an event, so then I can be at +2.
+3 is a luxury unless I hit the points cap, though usually I'll take admin tech instead.
Yes. We're going to need somewhere to expand. Colonies will help.
I finished playing through a session. Provence will be an early target and I did eventually rival them (as you will see in a future update). I didn't do so immediately because then Provence would've gotten more allies for defense. I didn't rival Portugal because they are friends with Castille and England, which could make either of them hate us.
I used to. But I don't think Paradox does them anymore. They were fun to watch!
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Hmm. Yes some of your images aren't readable. Like the province details.
The game gives us BMP of course. My process is to copy those into Paint, which is old school but it works. I save those images as JPG and it loses some detail but it shouldn't make them blurry.
A second modification could do that.
I find that the screenshots in EU IV often have to be zoomed in on to get readable detail. So I'll zoom in on detail that needs to be read and paste it into the final JPG. I also very rarely put a whole screenshot into the AAR - it's just too big and when it's on a mobile screen especially it's unreadable without zooming in close.
That's not your problem (that's not why your images are blurry). But it's important to know. My widest finals are usually 2/3 of the regular original.
Rensslaer
The game gives us BMP of course. My process is to copy those into Paint, which is old school but it works. I save those images as JPG and it loses some detail but it shouldn't make them blurry.
A second modification could do that.
I find that the screenshots in EU IV often have to be zoomed in on to get readable detail. So I'll zoom in on detail that needs to be read and paste it into the final JPG. I also very rarely put a whole screenshot into the AAR - it's just too big and when it's on a mobile screen especially it's unreadable without zooming in close.
That's not your problem (that's not why your images are blurry). But it's important to know. My widest finals are usually 2/3 of the regular original.
Rensslaer
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