[EU3] a noob and his eu3

**Yojimbo** · August 23, 2009, 05:26 PM

Hey I just started playing eu3...

Removed annoyed rant.

**Sevasti** · August 23, 2009, 07:59 PM

If it's your first go with the game I'd suggest that you play without inflation. It's a bit cheating but you get some more elbow space to work out how the game plays. I'm a newcomer myself and EU3 made me mad as hell to begin with, but the more I learn, the harder it gets to not be charmed by it.

**Battletoads** · August 23, 2009, 08:25 PM

Bohemia is probably the leader of the holy roman empire thats why they get that huge army. With the allies thing, yours only join when there is something init for them. Early game is all about making money through trading (and even late game for small countries) so maybe you should focus on that.

You should try an easier country so you get the basics of the game. Portugal is a good choice.

**Maximus_96** · August 23, 2009, 10:18 PM

Castille is also a good choice. a thing about the merchants, around 1420, all of my merchants in COTs stop making any money. it goes from 5 merchants in venice making 30-50 ducats to 1.7 for no reason. can anybody explain this to me?

**Yojimbo** · August 23, 2009, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by Battletoads

Bohemia is probably the leader of the holy roman empire thats why they get that huge army. With the allies thing, yours only join when there is something init for them. Early game is all about making money through trading (and even late game for small countries) so maybe you should focus on that.

You should try an easier country so you get the basics of the game. Portugal is a good choice.

Yes they are actually. And wow at the allies that makes them completey useless. "Oh yeah we will ally with you until you need help them **** YOU!" even with 200 relations. Horrible. At least it gives you a CB so you can crush them afterwards.

Originally Posted by Maximus_96

Castille is also a good choice. a thing about the merchants, around 1420, all of my merchants in COTs stop making any money. it goes from 5 merchants in venice making 30-50 ducats to 1.7 for no reason. can anybody explain this to me?

Spain tends to be a good idea in most games since they are on the Iberian peninsular and only have to worry about the east

But what about the constant rebellions? Its hard to expand because every single step of the way paradox thought it would be LOADS OF FUN to have to fight rebel armies over and over and over since your nation gets so pissed when you declare war on a tiny island that you can crush in a month.

**gobbothegreen** · August 23, 2009, 11:52 PM

Well if you keep a positive stability and a low war exhuastion you will only have the ocasional rebellion from conquered provinces and from events.

**Yojimbo** · August 23, 2009, 11:59 PM

Originally Posted by gobbothegreen

Well if you keep a positive stability and a low war exhuastion you will only have the ocasional rebellion from conquered provinces and from events.

I get them continuously. I played as I think Savoy before and four minutes into the game when I had 2k troops and attacked Sadina I had 14k rebellion and quit the campaign. I spend more time fighting rebels in every single campaign I play than I do the enemies I want to fight.

As Poland I had three rebellions in one year for a total of 14k troops from the same province. it happens whenever I war or not and not matter what I do.

Also stability takes freaking forever to come back I dunno how people can get huge empires when you can conquer one tiny island or something every three years. The amount of rebellions ruins the game for me it makes it completely unfun.

Conquests are rather pointless as they constantly rebel and are an annoying and pointless money sink as you keep having to defeat the rebels year after year so the province doesn't make any profits since its all being spent on putting down the rebels as they come again and again.
I'm not trying to just bash the game here but this happens to me .

**Lurker** · August 24, 2009, 12:25 AM

Maybe you shouldn't only concentrate on taking over territories, and expand your wealth and stability before you try and conquer territories.

**Yojimbo** · August 24, 2009, 12:46 AM

Anyway off to try Portugal now but with random skilless battles and long periods of nothing happening i dunno how fun it will be.

EDIT: Removed frustrated rant.

**Lith** · August 24, 2009, 06:12 AM

Originally Posted by ForlornHope.

In total war when i want a war I just declare it and attack therm and my nation doesn't care. why is eu3 designed expressly to piss you off distract you from actually having the freedom to do what you want and engineered to ensure your defeat or frustration, unless you sit there doing absolutely nothing waiting for research to happen, which is apprantly very strategic. I should be able to slaughter the population for rebellion and they should SHUT UP and stop not ignore the 14k they lost last time they rebelled and rebel again like lemmings.

Battles seem ridiculous too as it boils down to who has the most cavalry a general and who gets a lucky DICE ROLL, with absolutely no tactics or thinking. People, say eu3 needs more skill than total, war? lol no: you make cavalry and if you have more you win! If you have less you lose. Unless you at random win or lose. WOW how strategic.

Anyway off to try Portugal now but with random skilless battles and long periods of nothing happening i dunno how fun it will be.

This isnt total war, so don't treat it like it is. Your getting rebels because your declaring war on nations without a cassus belli which is lowering your stability. These features aren't designed to frustrate you, they're designed to make the game more realistic so you can't just go and wage war on the world like in the total war games.

Yes, the game can start slowly alot of the time, and you may not be used to the approach where you actually have to plan your wars rather than just fight whoever you want. But Portugal or Castille probably won't be a good choice for you as by the sounds of it you won't like the colonisation aspect of the game.

In the end, Eu3 might not be the game for you, with the way you seem to want to just be fighting all the time that seems to be the case.

**Sher Khan** · August 24, 2009, 06:18 AM

Originally Posted by ForlornHope.

So i should sit there and twiddle my thumbs for 50 years in game till i can GASP make buildings? And stability ha! It goes to zero when you dow anyway. which is FREAKING AWESOME after three years of trying to get it high and stop rebels and I cant really make more money if I don't expand my territory can I?

Your low stability is the exact reason you have so many rebellions, and you shouldn't start wars that give you -3 hits to stability in the first place. That's just terrible.

Your DoW action, translated into game and realistic terms?

"Sire, your people are happily making their living under the good peace that prevails and our coffers fill with the money we're not wasting on armies we don't need for wars we have no reason to fight!"

"But you know what'd be fun? Let's declare war on our neighbor, even though I have no legitimate claim or reason to do so. I'm sure the citizens of the nation would have nothing to say about uprooting themselves to join my armies, pay high taxes for a war they didn't even expect and continue supporting me in my mad arbitrary war!"

Originally Posted by Forlorn Hope

In total war when i want a war I just declare it and attack therm and my nation doesn't care. why is eu3 designed expressly to piss you off distract you from actually having the freedom to do what you want and engineered to ensure your defeat or frustration, unless you sit there doing absolutely nothing waiting for research to happen, which is apprantly very strategic. I should be able to slaughter the population for rebellion and they should SHUT UP and stop not ignore the 14k they lost last time they rebelled and rebel again like lemmings.

No offense, but I can see why your nation keeps rebelling against you.

Battles seem ridiculous too as it boils down to who has the most cavalry a general and who gets a lucky DICE ROLL, with absolutely no tactics or thinking. People, say eu3 needs more skill than total, war? lol no: you make cavalry and if you have more you win! If you have less you lose. Unless you at random win or lose. WOW how strategic.

Anyway off to try Portugal now but with random skilless battles and long periods of nothing happening i dunno how fun it will be.

Well, not like Total War actually required skill in the first place.

But no, battles in EU3 are more complex than simply having the larger cavalry force. This strategy works only against the AI, and even then fails at times unless you cheaply exploit its habits.

If you want action and excitement in your campaign but having a powerful safety-net for whenever you make a mistake, try France. But even then, try and refrain from declaring wars that you have no cassus belli for.

And if you do, remember to shift your sliders and put stability as your most important focus until you're back to +3.

**Yojimbo** · August 24, 2009, 06:47 AM

Originally Posted by Sher Khan

"Sire, your people are happily making their living under the good peace that prevails and our coffers fill with the money we're not wasting on armies we don't need for wars we have no reason to fight!"

"But you know what'd be fun? Let's declare war on our neighbor, even though I have no legitimate claim or reason to do so. I'm sure the citizens of the nation would have nothing to say about uprooting themselves to join my armies, pay high taxes for a war they didn't even expect and continue supporting me in my mad arbitrary war!"

lol that's funny

I guess it is like that

Playing as castlie and its fun I allied with Portugal and argon invaded Granada forced them to vassal attacked Morocco with my allies got a few provinces then started a war with Algiers after the truce ran out crushing them eve tho Portugal refuse to help (allied with them again right after tho) when I also attacked Tunisia who was very weak since they had been fighting Algiers. I'm about to force annex Algiers and then probably Tunisia. I know what badboys are tho so maybe ill just vassal Tunisia.

I also annexed a small nation near argon because they refused to join my war giving me a cb so I invaded and force annexed them

Being closer to Muslims sure makes it easy to expand. and it seems the best way to get cbs and prevent stability drops is to ally with minors then attack a big enemy they they wont fight then attack them using the dishonoured alliance as a excuse to destroy them. its evil and its fun haha!

I'm doing the same with the Knights of Saint John soon, tho I will have to at some point unvassal Granada so I can finish the Reconquista since I cannot annex them.

This is sure a different approach to war but it feels sneaky to just use any old excuse to beat up my neighbours

I'm very rich too and I am using almost all cavalry armies and destroying the Muslims.

**John I Tzimisces** · August 24, 2009, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by ForlornHope.

lol that's funny

I guess it is like that

Playing as castlie and its fun I allied with Portugal and argon invaded Granada forced them to vassal attacked Morocco with my allies got a few provinces then started a war with Algiers after the truce ran out crushing them eve tho Portugal refuse to help (allied with them again right after tho) when I also attacked Tunisia who was very weak since they had been fighting Algiers. I'm about to force annex Algiers and then probably Tunisia. I know what badboys are tho so maybe ill just vassal Tunisia.

I also annexed a small nation near argon because they refused to join my war giving me a cb so I invaded and force annexed them

Being closer to Muslims sure makes it easy to expand. and it seems the best way to get cbs and prevent stability drops is to ally with minors then attack a big enemy they they wont fight then attack them using the dishonoured alliance as a excuse to destroy them. its evil and its fun haha!

I'm doing the same with the Knights of Saint John soon, tho I will have to at some point unvassal Granada so I can finish the Reconquista since I cannot annex them.

This is sure a different approach to war but it feels sneaky to just use any old excuse to beat up my neighbours

I'm very rich too and I am using almost all cavalry armies and destroying the Muslims.

Later on you're going to be able to pretty much collect national ideas. I would take church attendance duty, based on some of your frustrations. Reduces the amount of time it takes to restore stability by a third.

Another good one is "national bank". It lets you mint a certain amount of money without your inflation going through the roof.

Inflation, if you weren't aware, is what you get when you mint money. If you move your treasury slider all the way to the right, you'll gain one percent inflation a year. What does that mean? After a year of minting, basically *everything* will cost one percent more. That means units, buildings, and research (I don't think stability is in there but I could be wrong.).
What does this mean? Don't spend a crapload of money! You need to learn how to budget to play successfully. At the end of the year you gain census tax. Provided your army and navy isn't at full maintenance or above or near the force limit, your total yearly income ought to be positive (especially if you're playing spain of all nations).

When you reach a certain level of production tech you can build workshops. Build them in your richest (tax wise) provinces. Very important. They raise the amount of yearly tax you get.

Oh yeah, and like others have said: Stay the

away from france. They will

you up, and your little doggie too.

**Tariq** · August 24, 2009, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by ForlornHope.

So i should sit there and twiddle my thumbs for 50 years in game till i can GASP make buildings? And stability ha! It goes to zero when you dow anyway. which is FREAKING AWESOME after three years of trying to get it high and stop rebels and I cant really make more money if I don't expand my territory can I?

In total war when i want a war I just declare it and attack therm and my nation doesn't care. why is eu3 designed expressly to piss you off distract you from actually having the freedom to do what you want and engineered to ensure your defeat or frustration, unless you sit there doing absolutely nothing waiting for research to happen, which is apprantly very strategic. I should be able to slaughter the population for rebellion and they should SHUT UP and stop not ignore the 14k they lost last time they rebelled and rebel again like lemmings.

Battles seem ridiculous too as it boils down to who has the most cavalry a general and who gets a lucky DICE ROLL, with absolutely no tactics or thinking. People, say eu3 needs more skill than total, war? lol no: you make cavalry and if you have more you win! If you have less you lose. Unless you at random win or lose. WOW how strategic.

Anyway off to try Portugal now but with random skilless battles and long periods of nothing happening i dunno how fun it will be.

For every war that you declare without Casus Belli , you get negative stability and "bad boy" reputation. Your ally will not follow you if you don't have any valid reason for attacking someone, specially if they have some sort of diplomatic agreement with other side , or even just good standing with them and nothing else.Once when you accumulate to much of badboy status , you are likely to be attacked by everyone , because they simply had enough of your theatrics( i don't mean personally ).

Diplomacy is something that needs to come first to make and create cause for you for war. After all "War is just continuation of diplomacy". Get your relations with country that you want to attack to low levels, try to get CB on them some way(by making Guaranty on someone that they are likely to attack, for example), don't get inflation since it will make your population unhappy, get royal marriages and/or trade agreements with countries that are likely to help them.Or try to annexed them peaceful way, thru alliance , Royal Marriage, vasalship...

I almost never take stability hit when i declare war.And in PI games , it's not point of game to rule whole map, but to dominate it and control it. Vasalships/protectorates go long way in this game, and they don't backstab you unless you neglect them completely for very long time.

**Ishoss** · August 24, 2009, 01:44 AM

Quit playing, then. I think you started the game and thought this was a TW-sort of game, where mister-one province can take the world in 100 years. Well, EUIII is the complete opposite. I see you ridiculed the possibility of taking one small island every three years further up, well, lemme tell you, even that is silly due to the stability hits.

**Yoda Twin** · August 24, 2009, 01:46 AM

hey EU3 is about waiting for 50 years to do something and declaring war is costly, you just have to take things slowly, you have nearly 400 years to play

**Savage_Swede** · August 24, 2009, 04:06 AM

Maybe you should go back to playing ETW then, it seems like you have given up on this game before you even got around to understanding it. I don't really see how you can keep bashing the game before you have given it an honest chance. You have to take things slow and accept that it'll take some time before you can learn this game.

**ivan_the_terrible** · August 24, 2009, 04:16 AM

Rebels shouldn't be a problem as long as you watch your stability and war exhaustion.

**Dewy** · August 24, 2009, 04:29 AM

Yes EU3 needs more skill then TW as it is realistic, you didn't see a country back then take over the world in 100 years. You make money by COT, to me it clearly shows you have no idea how to play the game. End of each year you get a massive money in take.