Yeah. I don't think they thought the tributary system through.

Post-1600 you can't really raise autonomy though, as it brings your absolutism down every time you do.

Harsh treatment I guess. Usually by 1600s I am just finishing up ideas and wrapping up whatever I set out to RP.

They should implement natural disasters. Earthquakes especially

I ****ed up a Dai Viet game...

I took CHinese mandate like an idiot, mistake 1.

Then I took provinces from Nepal like a giant idiot and got a land border with a giant Vijay that wouldn't become my tributary.

.... -2.58 mandate per month no **** and like +7 unrest everywhere. I immediately declared war but I just got melted by rebels before I could get enough warscore to take Koch/Bengal provinces to release them as a buffer.

Almost 50 hours down the drain. I am an idiot. Oh, well, I probably just zoned out after I got the Dai Viet achievement. Still, I wanted to convert all of India to Buddhism.

I kept thinking about this and I just realized what I should have done was break truce and attack Nepal again to annex it so I could just release and restore the buffer zone.

Now I feel extra stupid.

Just release a vassal and give him the bordering province.

Heh, I understand that uprisings make the game more realistic as well as more historically accurate, but my god are they a pita. This Portugal run (my third overall) is the first time I didn't take Humanism, and it really feels like I've spent 1/4 of the game chasing down and stamping out rebels.

For example, I conquered Holland last night. They were pushed out of continental Europe ~100 years ago while I was busy in Africa and Spice Islands, so by that point Holland consisted of Bahamas and a couple other Caribbean islands, plus a few spice islands and several more in the South Pacific. It obv took a while since I had to land troops on all those different islands (other than Caribbean where Portuguese Cuba did all the work) and a few short years later I've got rebels on every single one of those islands. I spent the next hour (at least) island hopping to put down rebellions. That was not fun, at all, though I guess it was "realistic," but given the choice I'd have preferred to be doing other things by that point.

So I guess I'm torn, I can see an argument for strong Humanist/Religious ideas to help avoid the tedium I outlined above...but I can also see an equally good argument for having even more of that, because even though I hate it I can't argue that it isn't a more immersive experience.

In any event, I will not even attempt a non-tall campaign again without picking Humanism as my first or second idea, because I find it tedious having to take the same land 2x.

Yeah, I just panicked.

I'm just going to avoid getting the mandate of heaven. It's just more trouble than it's worth.

After many restarts and like 6 hours (not including past attempts), I finally got a good start with Theodoro. Year is 1512.

I actually allied Byzantium and beat down Ottomans (mostly by attaching to Skandensberg or whatever that insane Albanian general is). I only took money after giving Byzantium back its cores. Then Byzantium just went nuts, first with Mamluks as allies then it just kept going. I've been trying to weaken Byzantium by basically calling it into every war but it's just wrecking. At one point it allied Serbia and let Serbia take most of eastern Italy before rebels turned that area into Florence somehow.

I just want the Gothic invasion achievement so I think at this point the most important thing for me to do is to just expand west rapidly. It's a little gamey but at this point I am just going to make sure to keep Byzantium in my wars and giving it one province at a time.

If I am really luck, I might even inherit the throne.

And... I just realized something crucial. It's not in ironman.

I need a drink. I'm being stupid today.

I saw something about that achievement on Reddit just yesterday, the suggestion was to no CB East Frisia straight away then vassalize them. I'll see if I can find it.

Here it is (year-old article so not sure if it's still a viable strat)

https://www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comment...thic_invasion/

Irish minor is much better than East Frisia as you can actually expand there and eat all of Ireland in 10 years or so. After taking couple of provinces in Ireland you can probably no cb East Frisia too as it is now withing coring range, letting you to join HRE.

I am not a fan of that strategy because it's a bit lacking... it seems neither Gothic nor invasive.

I'm starting a no dlc internet game if anyone wants to join. 'nodiscord nodlc allwelcome allfun' no password.

I'll give this a shot, have not tried one of these before so don't be offended if it doesn't work out on my end.

(edit: can't seem to find it.)

(re-edit: never mind I'm an idiot. Trying to join now)

Not sure why'd want to play without DLCs (I understand if you don't own them, but the people who do own them won't be having fun.)

meh, I had fun wrecking face as the Ottomans for a while

I may be back on later if it's still going; if not, they're a pretty nasty boss monster for someone

Another game up.

Nice! Remember you joining and glad you had a good time. Didn't realize til now that you are a 2p2er. I'm running nodlc because it is easier to play this way than try to reconcile 12 different dlc packs and bundles that have been released. I have 2-3 expansions but I'd rather just play no dlc cause its simpler. I looked in steam, and to be exact I have Res Publica, Conquest, Wealth, 'digital extreme edition upgrade', star and crescent, and women in history.

AAR from yesterday is that Ottomans chilled in the corner and wrecked people quietly and slowly. France allied with me (Aragon) and we kicked england/portugal/castile into the stone ages. I made the mistake of starting Aragonese Ireland during one of the wars against England. I never got enough admin to get coring discount until it was too late and overexpansion caused a bunch of rebel problems. I also made the poor choice of taking Rome during one of the wars where the Papal state kept annoyingly joining against us. Then about 40 nations joined a military coalition against me and I gave up. At the end I controlled 85% of 'Spain' and 1/3rd of Portugal, while France had ~40% of Portugal.

Probably start in like 15 minutes, but hotjoin available if anyone wants to join later.

Decided to try another Austria game, started very well. Secured the PU on Bohemia early and actually got the event to take Hungary without a fight. Later claimed throne on Aragon (sadly, not including Naples; the wedding had fired but then Castille got rekt by France and either had to release or had rebel problems) and a fairly beefy Mecklenburg.

I'm bad at figuring out how to stop the reformation. Just lost the emperorship in 1586 (reason: had no heir, got talented and ambitious daughter event for a 4/6/4 and decided the hell with it), inherited Bohemia and Aragon when she ascended to the throne, so that was cool. I can hopefully get it back. In the meanwhile, Ottomans are dead, so that's cool.

same game name for the multiplayer?

This is amazing to me. How do Ottos failboat like that??

Me (ft. Bohemia) + Hungary + Mamluks = bad time for them, and then once you beat them once they’re gonna have a bad time.