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Europa Universalis II

Posted: 2003-04-11 05:46pm
by StarshipTitanic
I won't bother asking the obvious question and I'll jump into my current game:

I'm the Chinese, 1419 start (It's sometime in the 1430s now), and I've beaten the Manchu and Dai Vet in two petty wars now. Right now I'm planning on vassalizing the Changai Khanate, hopefully while they're not allied. Nothing much happening in my corner of the world except me buttering up island nations to exchange maps ASAP for some colonizing.

Posted: 2003-04-11 07:23pm
by Raptor 597
Ah, I'm buying that game, but I do have HOI. So, I must ask if you do?

Posted: 2003-04-11 10:49pm
by PrinceofLowLight
Try as I might, I almost never get past the 1470's or so in my England game. It's just too much fun to keep conquering France. Though changing state religion to Protestant and then watching all the revolts spring up in all-Catholic France is kind of like a sort of sequel.

A think I love about EU2 is realistic troops. Rebels during the War of The Roses were routinely a much bigger threat to my troops than French regulars. :lol:

Posted: 2003-04-11 11:09pm
by StarshipTitanic
Captain Lennox wrote:Ah, I'm buying that game, but I do have HOI. So, I must ask if you do?
Nope, but I heard it's generally not as good except for the research system. It's harder for minor powers to achieve anything due to it being limited to WW2.

Posted: 2003-04-11 11:10pm
by StarshipTitanic
PrinceofLowLight wrote:Try as I might, I almost never get past the 1470's or so in my England game. It's just too much fun to keep conquering France. Though changing state religion to Protestant and then watching all the revolts spring up in all-Catholic France is kind of like a sort of sequel.

A think I love about EU2 is realistic troops. Rebels during the War of The Roses were routinely a much bigger threat to my troops than French regulars. :lol:
Try a minor or someone else, then. ;) I hear the French can be fun due to the conquering they have to do. Or make a pangaelic nation with Scotland :D.

Re: Europa Universalis II

Posted: 2003-04-11 11:17pm
by Pablo Sanchez
StarshipTitanic wrote:I won't bother asking the obvious question and I'll jump into my current game:

I'm the Chinese, 1419 start (It's sometime in the 1430s now), and I've beaten the Manchu and Dai Vet in two petty wars now. Right now I'm planning on vassalizing the Changai Khanate, hopefully while they're not allied. Nothing much happening in my corner of the world except me buttering up island nations to exchange maps ASAP for some colonizing.
How far did you get with Zheng He? I never got much farther than the Indian subcontinent, because he kept dying of attrition when petty Hindu principalities refused military access. But I got them back, I did... between me and my Mughal allies, I sliced up everything between Persia California.

Then the pricks turned against me and I had to devote the vastness of China to their dissolution.

Posted: 2003-04-11 11:37pm
by StarshipTitanic
I spent more time exploring Oceania but he ended up getting so far away he had a few years of attrition by the time I remembered to order him back to Hainan and he died on the way back. I did get as far as Ganges in exploration, though. I heard about those freaky revolts, though...scary. I hear it's best to keep the Manchu alive as a one provence vassal so they don't get a few uber-bonuses that they would if you conquer them. I probably should have spent more time on the Pacific and attempt to reach America, though, oh well.

I'm sure the Indochinese nations will be GLAD to share their maps with me after some...nudging... :twisted:

I'm hoping for vassalships for all of them, including Malacca and their precious COT.

Posted: 2003-04-11 11:42pm
by Pablo Sanchez
StarshipTitanic wrote:I heard about those freaky revolts, though...scary.
The only thing that I think really compares to what occurs in China when you make un-Confucian decision would be the Dutch revolt events. My government came within a hair's-breadth of falling after I decided to continue the explorations :evil:

If you can just keep your kingdom in one piece, you're tough to stop, though.

Posted: 2003-04-11 11:45pm
by StarshipTitanic
Eek, I was hoping you were talking about the 1600 revolts with the White Lotus people...oh boy, I can't wait for this one too. When does it occur?

Posted: 2003-04-11 11:59pm
by Pablo Sanchez
StarshipTitanic wrote:Eek, I was hoping you were talking about the 1600 revolts with the White Lotus people...oh boy, I can't wait for this one too. When does it occur?
DON'T remind me of the fucking White Lotus Revolt event. Those are, as far as I know, the worst revolt events in the game. Skin of my teeth, man. Anyway...

You probably should have had the Aftermath of Zheng He event already. It has a start date in 1435 and a death date in 1455. Basically, it offers you three choices: Inward Perfection (basically makes your rule less efficient and slower advancing but your kingdom more stable and resilient), Balanced position (as it sounds), or Outward Expansion (gives China a good long-term position with DP sliders and a change to the Muslim tech group, but it right then drops your stab to -3 and adds +8 revolt risk--the best choice, but only if you can hack it).

Since I had been aggressively expanding at that stage, with the dragon's claws dominating Manchu, Korea, and much of Indochina, my interior was mostly without walls. BIG mistake. The sudden revolts were like a tidal wave that just kept stacking up on itself (neighboring a province held by revolters has a natural bonus to revolt risk, so it was self-sustaining). I actually lost control of Korea and Dai Vet as they declared independence, and the rebels took a LOOOONG time to stamp out. Damn scholar-gentry.

Posted: 2003-04-12 12:39am
by StarshipTitanic
Aw yuck! It sounds like you're desperately holding on to the Ming dynasty, though. I thought you could switch to Manchu and make it go away? Or does that mean you're technically annexed by Manchu and it's game over?

I killed of Hu pretty early, it's only 1432 or something around that.

Posted: 2003-04-12 12:47am
by Pablo Sanchez
StarshipTitanic wrote:Aw yuck! It sounds like you're desperately holding on to the Ming dynasty, though. I thought you could switch to Manchu and make it go away? Or does that mean you're technically annexed by Manchu and it's game over?
I don't know, and I don't intend to find out :)
I killed of Hu pretty early, it's only 1432 or something around that.
Then you'll hit it in three years. Before you pick a choice, you have to ask how prepared you are for mass revolts in every province of your empire.

Posted: 2003-04-12 12:53am
by StarshipTitanic
I don't know, and I don't intend to find out.
Ming to the core! :D
Then you'll hit it in three years. Before you pick a choice, you have to ask how prepared you are for mass revolts in every province of your empire.
Yes, three year warning! I guess going bankrupt is a small price to pay for Muslim techgroup. I love 72,000 manpower...

Posted: 2003-04-12 05:19pm
by StarshipTitanic
Wooo hoo, outward expansion! Slider at full navy blows as a land power, but I stockpiled an enormous (around 100k) army before I had to choose and my neighbors can't really put up effective resistance. Rebels are dying by the thousands to my supurb army and the fact they tend to pop up in plains provences (trampled to death, bahahaha!). I had to ally with the Manchu and Japanese due to them forming an alliance and the Manchu having a rather bad attitude towards me at the start. Luckily, the only guy they declare war on is pathetic Korea. Much of the Chagatai Khanate remains at None fortress level and should be a walkover even if their Timurid pals join in. After the +8 revolt wears off, I can devote research to infastructure and then land tech and perhaps start annexing territory. It's 1438.

Posted: 2003-04-12 05:53pm
by Pablo Sanchez
StarshipTitanic wrote:Wooo hoo, outward expansion! Slider at full navy blows as a land power,
That also pissed me off at first, but you should remember that you don't really have very far to go on land. Once you take all of current China and change (Indochina, Korea, and Japan), you can either tromp your way across the tractless central asian wastes or struggle your way through India (remember that the Mughals are some nasty guys).
Much of the Chagatai Khanate remains at None fortress level and should be a walkover even if their Timurid pals join in.
:P Computer controlled Timurids can be considered a non-issue until they turn into the Mughals. They're basically dealing with the effects of almost universal hatred of them, awful stability, and low-income provinces.
After the +8 revolt wears off, I can devote research to infastructure and then land tech and perhaps start annexing territory. It's 1438.
Congratulations :) Now, where would you be if it had taken you by surprise? Heh...

Posted: 2003-04-12 06:30pm
by StarshipTitanic
That also pissed me off at first, but you should remember that you don't really have very far to go on land. Once you take all of current China and change (Indochina, Korea, and Japan), you can either tromp your way across the tractless central asian wastes or struggle your way through India (remember that the Mughals are some nasty guys).
True. I only intend to go as far as Ganges for the CoT and heavily fortify that.
Computer controlled Timurids can be considered a non-issue until they turn into the Mughals. They're basically dealing with the effects of almost universal hatred of them, awful stability, and low-income provinces.
Hehe, yeah, in one of my hands off games (Dakota's great for that) it was what I watched the most. I think they were dismembered so much that when they became the Mughals they had one strip of territory from the permanant Terra Incognita to the Indian Ocean plus Samarkand. And yet they STILL kicked Delhi's butt. Funny how their most loyal ally is the Caliphate.
Congratulations icon_smile.gif Now, where would you be if it had taken you by surprise? Heh...
Restarting :D. Thanks for the tip! :)

Posted: 2003-04-12 06:43pm
by Pablo Sanchez
StarshipTitanic wrote:Hehe, yeah, in one of my hands off games (Dakota's great for that) it was what I watched the most. I think they were dismembered so much that when they became the Mughals they had one strip of territory from the permanant Terra Incognita to the Indian Ocean plus Samarkand. And yet they STILL kicked Delhi's butt. Funny how their most loyal ally is the Caliphate.
The best thing to do with the Mughals and India is to keep your relations high, maintain an alliance with them, and wait until you have an advantage before you try anything.
Restarting :D. Thanks for the tip! :)
No problem. I'm always glad to see a Paradox game unfold ahistorically.

Posted: 2003-04-13 04:04pm
by StarshipTitanic
Ok, I'll try that. Right now I'm just attempting to get a hold of Oceania maps from the stupid little island nations. With unnecessary force. Tee hee. The navy slider sure comes in handy now...

Posted: 2003-04-13 05:14pm
by PrinceofLowLight
Pablo Sanchez wrote:Since I had been aggressively expanding at that stage, with the dragon's claws dominating Manchu, Korea, and much of Indochina, my interior was mostly without walls. BIG mistake.
Actually, provinces with huge fortress are much worse for rebels. They'll often take a province without a siege, while you'll have to sit through beating down your own walls to get the province back.

Posted: 2003-04-13 05:30pm
by StarshipTitanic
Eh? The rebs always had to seige in my games, never heard of that.

Posted: 2003-04-13 06:03pm
by Pablo Sanchez
StarshipTitanic wrote:Eh? The rebs always had to seige in my games, never heard of that.
I think there's a small chance that Rebels will automatically take a province without siege. It's very annoying when it happens in a heavily-fortified province.

Posted: 2003-04-13 07:10pm
by StarshipTitanic
Oh ok, that's weird. It's not likely I'll be upgrading past 1 anyway as my central territorys are neigh unreachable by the competition.

Posted: 2003-04-13 07:15pm
by HemlockGrey
This sounds like a cool game. System reqs?

Posted: 2003-04-13 07:19pm
by StarshipTitanic
I only have the CD, but there's no 3D in it so it should work on your system if it's not TOO ancient.

Posted: 2003-04-14 02:39pm
by Ted
I'm getting it as soon as I get the $40 needed to buy it...