New to EU3...help?

[VOP2288]

So I just got EU3, I finally decided to give it a run cuz I've heard so many good things about it plus I occasionally played HOI...

I just have one question...can anybody help me better understand and get a better feel for the game...I went through the tutorial and I still have trouble totally understanding what exactly I'm doing and what I should be doing...

Does anyone have any good links to FAQs, forums, or sites that provide tips and such?

I want to play as England...anyone got any strategy ideas or tips on what I should be doing with them?

Thanks

[Celsius]

EUIII is very complex, yet simple.

With England you should Take Ireland.


More Info will come later.

[Aonghus G. Friedhold]

Yes, I just got EUIII and I'm very confused. It seems like there's so much to keep track of.

[hellheaven1987]

EUIII is very complex, yet simple.

With England you should Take Ireland.

Lol.

If you survive backstab of Scotland and constant war with France.

The best advice I can give you is trying to pick an easy nation first time; I highly suggest to play Castile as first run of game.

[Nutsack]

Before you start the game I strongly recommend going to "options" and disabling inflation, and while you're at it also make traders, preachers and spies free to use. This gives you quite a lot less to think about, so the game won't totally overwhelm you first time.

[Whatacad]

Well, I guess the main forum you should be at is here.

Beyond that, how about the EU3 Wiki, which may provide more of what you're looking for:

http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Main_Page

It's got a nice little 'Basic Strategy' section, which includes topics such as "Things I wished I knew when I started playing."

Keep in mind that this is a sandbox game. You set your own goals and go for it. Some may just try to keep their country intact for hundreds of years... others are bent on becoming trade giants, while others are bent on world domination, which is not impossible in the vanilla version of the game. Expect to by stymied along the way (learning the basics is your first and biggest stymie).

I'd say start with a big nation (like England or France), and take it slow. Or fast. Either way, you'll learn a lot.

If you end up enjoying the complexity of the game and depth that it offers, you may eventually want to check out some of the mods. One of the most famous is Magna Mundi, which adds more 'plausibility' and complexity, and much more historical depth to the great platform that vanilla is. Don't know if you got expansions Napolean's Ambition and In Nomine, but they really do make the game much better.

[Aonghus G. Friedhold]

Okay, I've figured out most of it, except for naval invasions. I'm Japan, it's currently something like October 1609, and I want to invade Korea. I have a navy that can hold 20 regiments, and I have an army 20 regiments strong (20,000 men). I have them both in the same region but I can't figure it out.

[Jimexander the Mighty]

First make sure the navy is not docked and is afloat in the sea region adjacent to your army. Then, select your army and right click on the sea region where the navy is. Your army will then move onto the navy

[Aonghus G. Friedhold]

Ooh! I assumed it had to be docked. +rep for you, good sir.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Tip: It's much faster to unload troops from ships by simply having the ships go to the ports. It changes movement time from 14-30 days to 1-2 days. Mind you, you have to have control (read: not necessarily own) the province. This works well when rebels or enemies are attacking you, or maybe you just want to load up other troops quickly.

[VOP2288]

Question, which ships can transport troops?

Also, how can I select non-European nations to play as? When it goes to the menu to pick one it's just Europe...am I missing something?

[Jimexander the Mighty]

VOP, use the arrow keys to move the map around at the menu. (Or it could be move the mouse to the sides of the screen, one of the two )

Tip: It's much faster to unload troops from ships by simply having the ships go to the ports. It changes movement time from 14-30 days to 1-2 days. Mind you, you have to have control (read: not necessarily own) the province. This works well when rebels or enemies are attacking you, or maybe you just want to load up other troops quickly.

Nice tip, thanks

[tco]

Question, which ships can transport troops?

Also, how can I select non-European nations to play as? When it goes to the menu to pick one it's just Europe...am I missing something?

1. Cogs and their respective upgrades,

2. Scroll around the map with your arrows/mouse.

[Aonghus G. Friedhold]

Question, which ships can transport troops?

Also, how can I select non-European nations to play as? When it goes to the menu to pick one it's just Europe...am I missing something?

I had the same issues. Cogs can transport, to start, and just move your mouse to the very edge of the screen.

edit: Damn you tco! I leave to get a drink and you beat me to the post.

[Kennylz]

The hardest thing for me is balancing inflation with my ambitions. I tend to try and have the lowest inflation rate of any nation in my region of the world, so it keeps me from having much money on hand without going to war and raising war taxes or demanding gold from my new puppet states I just conquered. Some people manage to keep the gold slider to 0 to remove all inflation from increasing, but I have to have it set to at least 1 in the early game, and then around 3 or 4 about 80 years in...

My experience with EU3 would probably benefit with a guide to inflation, and a guide to handling the unreasonably large beast that is Ming China, because I enjoy playing with Japan.

Tricks to being adopted into the European tech group would help too. You know, how if you are outside the western tech group, but if you have a western neighbor with great relations they can begin selling technology to you. Sometimes I just sit around, hoping some Euro nation would hurry up and find Asia, or specifically, Bali, where my conquests are.

[hellheaven1987]

I don't see why China would have inflation anyway...:hmmm:

[Lawrence of Arabia]

You must be confused. He wants to know how to defeat/deal with the Ming as he likes playing as Japan.

Personally, I got an alliance with the Ming ASAP. Your chances should be "Likely" at the beginning of 1399.

[Aonghus G. Friedhold]

Here's a question... Why can't I annex Korea? I hold all of their provinces, yet when I go to sue for peace, annex isn't even an option? Is this because the Ming guarantee their independence?

[Jimexander the Mighty]

The reason is spl00ge is that in EU3 you are unable to annex a nation until they are down to one province. You need to settle for a peace gaining as many provinces as possible until they are down to one, and then declare war after the peace treaty is over so then you can annex.

Basically its rinse and repeat until they are done

[Kennylz]

I avoided an alliance with Ming, even though they were unusually friendly with me, because I didn't want to be in war with whatever inland, eurasian backwater they are destroying at any given time. They always turn into massive Soviet Union esque blobs in my games. Sucks, because me as Japan can never hold a candle to them, even in my last game when I had an unusually lucky run of things and got a lot of territory. I need Westernization, and fast. I think I'll just take a break as Japan and just try someone else out who doesn't have to deal with Ming.

I've played EU3 back in the day, but I only just recently started playing again with the two added expansions, so I'm practically green again. All I can say is I don't remember rebels being such a pain in the ass, but ping-pong battles are still in for the most part. I miss HoI2 encirclements.