Grand Strategy/Paradox

[Jubin]

Europe Universalis 3 is a grand strategy game, where you can choose basically any country in the world and play as it's ruler.

Trailer

Europa Universalis III Trailer

The game spans from 1399 up to 1820. So I figured I would share my gameplay a little bit with you.

I chose The Teutonic Order, who are basically the Germans who conquered the eastern shore of the Baltic sea during the Northern Crusades in between 12th and 13th century.

In 1399 the Political map of Europe

First things first, neighbors. Teutonic order is far from being the greatest power in the area. Eastwards there is a great empire of Novgorod that beats Teutonic Order both in land and army size.
South of Teutonic Order there is both Poland and Lithuania moreover to make matters worse, Poland and Lithuania are in a personal union, which means if you attack one, you automatically have to deal with the other.
To the North and west there is Swedish territories, which also beats Teutonic Order in size and army, however both Sweden and Norway are ruled over by Danish king at this point.

When this game ends I would like to have the Baltic Sea as my empires inner sea. That is the goal I have set for myself and that pretty much leaves me the only option to deal with all those big countries in some point in the game as well as I have to deal with other German nations, which is a bit difficult, as they look after each other as they are part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Europe in 1419

Twenty years have passed and there are some minor changes. Teutonic order fought a war against Pskov. At that time Pskov was allied with Ryazan and Tver. Three of them had combined army that was about three times bigger than mine, but there was also one problem for them. Between Teutonic Order and Tver there was Novgorod and between Teutonic Order and Ryazan there was Lithuania, so there was no way for them to reach me by land, so that leaved me to deal only with Pskov and that was a good situation for me. What made the situation even better was that after couple of months in war, Riga decided to enter the war on the side of Pskov, Ryazar and Tver, which was a bad decision by their side. After a year or so both Pskov and Riga were annexed so that leaved only Tver and Ryazar.

To deal with them I asked my ally Muscowy to help me, and he did that quite gladly, beside that Novgorod agreed to give me military access and together with Muscowy we were able to defeat Tver and Ryazan. In conclusion the war was successful as Teutonic order gained two lands (Pskov and Riga) and Tver became vassal of Teutonic order as well I made them change their cultural religion from Orthodox to Catholic.

other than that not much have changed. Although I am concerned of both Lithuania and Poland getting bigger. Also seems that Hungary annexed Transilvania, but that is somewhat good, as Hungary is other big ally to me next to Muscowy.
England seems to be in trouble, as it has lost its territories on mainland Europe and even Cornwall has stated it's independence over England.

Post Merge: June 09, 2011, 05:11:49 pmAnother 20 years have passed. This period can be concluded as unsuccessful war campaigns.

Year 1420 started out as really promising for this two decades, as a war started out between my neighbour Novgorod and my ally Muscowy after some thinking I was surely not gonna betray my ally and joined the war.

It was looking as if I could get some land from Novgorod to join my vassal Tver with my own lands. But it was not to be...

Three months after I had joined the war a spy from Novgorod was successful in starting a revolt on my territory - Gotland islands. As if that wasn't enough Denmark saw that as a great opportunity to invade Teutonic Order, but as I said Denmark also ruled over Sweden and Norway. Moreover now Novgorod asked his friend Poland to help him and with Poland of course there came Lithuania. After acquiring one state from Novgorod  I offered him a white peace that he accepted, that left me only to deal with Denmark, Norway and Sweden. After the Poles and Lithuanians left, Holland who was allied to Denmark also landed on Teutonic territory and soon enough I was outnumbered by army sizes around 5 to 1 so I had no choice then to give up. This is the peace proposal:

The second war that is somewhat worth mentioning is:

This war in general was going great as both Moscovites and Teutons both had great battles that they won over the oppositions, I was already once again dreaming of getting some land from Novgorod as I was already occupying a quite big area but once again not to be...
This time I got screwed over by my own allies, who made a peace with Novgorod in a way, that they got some land out of it, but I didn't get anything out of this war just now a bit bigger and stronger  ally.

Europe in 1439

Let's see what else has been going on in Europe. I am still concerned about the ever growing Poland and Lithuania. Also even though Novgorod still seems really big on the map it is now clear that together with Moscovites they are quite easily beatable beside that, they are already paying tribute to Golden Horde and Kazakhs. Muscowy has now annexed Yaroslavl and also basically Ryazan moreover they have taken some territories from Golden Horde, that is taking hits with each year it seems.
Soon after the Danish had their war with me their power over Sweden decreased so much that now Sweden and Norway both are independent nations which is a good news for me.
Hungary, one of my allies lost a lot of its territories to Poland and also Wallachia emerged from Hungary. England seems to finally started conquering Ireland and France seems to become more integrated than ever.

[Wolfe]

The game is great, I just don't like the combat in it, kinda complicated and stuff, But I guess I need to run the tutorials for abit more understanding on how I can get my units to work properly ;P

[Jubin]

The game is great, I just don't like the combat in it, kinda complicated and stuff, But I guess I need to run the tutorials for abit more understanding on how I can get my units to work properly ;P

Yes, the game is complicated that is one of the aspects I like about it, as it is not simple "build a mass of guys and run everybody over" kind of game.
What do you mean, work properly? Units ability to fight is mostly determined by it's morale and morale is determined by the amount of money you invest in the units. Also there is chance involved and how good your general is.
Post Merge: June 10, 2011, 02:04:47 pmThe twenty years have once again passed. These decades can be summarized as fear and conquest:

The first war that is worth mentioned started in 1442. Although by the numbers it seemed as this was the war we were surely gonna lose, we had an upper-hand on one particular aspect of war and that was the mobility of our land units. The biggest army without doubt was the one that Castile had, but his units had to be transported over sea.  So, while Castile was bringing troops, both Teutonic Order and Hungary were able to crush the second enemy power - Bohemia.

Also, as I gained Bohemias territories then at one point I had a border with one province country of Pomerania, which was only allied with Bohemia itself and other minor German provinces so I saw a great opportunity there to gain even more land! After few months I  annexed Pomerania and other small German states had nothing else to do than to accept that.

Soon after conquering Pomerania I conceded defeat to Castile, not because I was losing, but because the people didn't want the war to continue and the revolt risk started to get high, so I had to lay low for awhile and in the end it was a successful war as I did gain new province.

Another war that I participated started in 1450

I don't actually even know why did they ask me to help them, but it was nice to be asked I guess. Mostly the tasks I was doing is having wars with little German nations to get them out of the war for Poland and Austria while one was dealing with rebels and other one dealt with Milan and Aquileia.

The third and the most important war I was in:

Prequel to this war: Around 1452 Bohemia was once again fighting a war, but this time it was fighting against France, Austria and Hungary with France leading the warfare. This was too much for Bohemia to handle. France demanded from Bohemia to release a nation of Pomerania.(Yes the same one I occupied in 1440s, but Pomerania I have 3 national provinces and I owned only one).

Then in 1457 Pomerania with some other small German nations was once again in war with Bohemia, but Bohemia was too powerful for them and France couldn't help them so fast as they would have wanted. So Bohemia conquered all of the Pomerania land and made a peace with it with a condition that Pomerania will annul all the deals it had with all the countries. That treaty was signed in 1458.

I of course saw a really good opportunity in that, as the only Pomeranias protector was Bohemia and I had two big allies just ready and waiting for an opportunity. I declared war on Pommerania in 1458 as I thought Bohemia will join the war, but so did Austria and Hungary on my side. The war was quick and ended with Pommerania becoming my vassal and Austria getting some land from Bohemia.

Europe in 1459

Polish guy became the king of Lithuania so now they are joined as one Kingdom of Poland. Scandinavia is in constant war with each other. England I think will be wiped off as a nation and Scotland will soon rule over the British isles.
Overall it seems that big nations are getting bigger and smaller nations are getting smaller.

[Eminem.]

Very nice game, I will try it out soon 

[Jubin]

This two decades can be concluded as peace in Teutonic State, action in Europe.

Two wars I was in, weren't really about me nor I gained anything from them.
First war:

when this war started I was called to the war from both sides because it was the war between my two allies. The decision however wasn't hard, because Poland was siding with Austria, so there was no way Hungary was going to win this one. Only action I saw in this war was around 3000 Dutch soldiers who arrived on my shores, where my 15000 men were already waiting for them. After a year or so Hungary offered me a white peace and I was content with it.

Second war I was dragged in, was actually a bit of a continuation war by Austrians against Hungary again who this time was allied with Brandenburg, with whom I do have a border with. I was ready to ask from Hungary one of Brandenburgs territories in order to get out of the war with some benefits, but Brandenburg was faster to peace out to Austria, who was leading this war on my side.

Europe in 1480

Only change in my countries border is the fact that in 1478 I corporated my vassal into my country. On other news, the wish of getting my country to be around the Baltic Sea seems to going further and further away from me. The last war that Danes and Norwegians fought against Swedes was devastating for Swedes, and they had to lose a lot of their land and even release Finland. Furthermore to make my situation even worse a danish Prince become Norwegian king so Norway is now part of Denmark.

As I predicted on my previous post that England will be wiped off as a nation, it seems this is happening as for right now they control only one province. Poland is greater than ever after they have annexed Wallachia, but now I troubled, because they have nowhere to expand anymore, because Muscowy has conquered the old Golden Horde territories and now blocks Polands way of expanding to the East.

Croatia got its independence and is now a somewhat regional power next to Hungary.

I predict that next two decades are really quiet for me when it comes to war, as Denmark has already warned me, and I am surrounded only by far greater powers than I am.
Post Merge: June 11, 2011, 10:01:06 pmThis twenty years passed without any action for me, so without further blabbing

Europe in 1500

England is now gone. Soon Sweden will be too.

[Eminem.]

Which one is the one you're playing? I've seen numerous expansions regarding the game 

[Jubin]

These past twenty years have been quite good for the Teutonic order. First thing of course, when Protestantism kicked in all over Europe and the Popes influence decreased it was right time for a change of name, so from hence forward the Teutonic order is known as

Prussia

.

During those twenty years, I was part of one war and that was against Poland and Novgorod, which I won and I gained two pieces of land from Poland thanks to that. (Forgot to take a picture of it, sorry).

Now on to the fact, why I was even able to take both Novgorod and Poland on all by myself.

Europe in 1520

It is hard to look pass the obvious change in the Eastern Europe. The change was made mostly thanks to Martin Luther and his reformation of the faith in Europe and the coming of Protestant faith. Once the protestant faith started to spread all over the Europe it started a lot of revolts, and Poland was no different. Actually Poland was different in the sense that when Reformation started, Polands stability inside of it was very low so the revolt risk was already high. Then came the protestants who didn't help and if that weren't enough... Countries such as Austria, Hungary and Croatia declared war upon Poland and that was too much for this big country and it dissolved into a lot of smaller countries.
Although it seems that Poland can still rebound as at least half of it's territory is still owned by it and now it's under control. I like this new situation a lot more though, mostly because right now there is a situation where Lithuanias only ally is Moscowy and even though Moscovites are damn huge, they have no access to me nor Lithuania and they are already in war with Ming Dynasty!.

Also you can see on the map that my other big rival, Denmark has also troubles keeping its kingdom intact. I now notice, that also Ottomans have more control over the what is todays Turkey. That might mean that they could come and invade Europe soon, now it is also a lot easier, as Poland isn't on the way scaring those hethans away. Although now from the looks of it, seems like Hungary is now Austrias vassal.

Which one is the one you're playing? I've seen numerous expansions regarding the game 

I am playing Europa Universalis 3: Divine Wind.

[Jubin]

I know i haven't done any update for a long time, so here comes over a century in one post.

Europe 1542

Europe 1560

Europe 1580

Europe 1632

The 16th century was really revolutionary. As we left 1520 the Europe had just started reformation, but it was soon clear that this won't stop soon. So it was, that the whole century was about religious wars, and those who were successful in keeping their nations more stable and calm, were also the ones who were able to profit the most out of the century.
Poland disintegrated as the century went on and in the end Poland became part of the Prussian Empire. The other countries that came out of Polish rules were later joined under one ruling of Ukraine, who also made several attempts to get into Prussian territories.
Denmark lost it's grip over Scandinavia and that started the way to downfall spiral for them, as Scotland saw an opportunity in it to get it's part of Scandinavian pie.
Austria is getting bigger and bigger and is mostly expanding it's territories around the Mediterranean Sea. It has currently the largest army in the world, which is good, as I am allied with it.
Finland has gained some territories from Novgorod, which really surprised me, but that gives me an opportunity, to maybe now get them for myself. All I have to worry about is actually Scottish Navy, but that problem can be solved just by creating a bigger fleet than they have.

[Squeak]

This game looks siiiiiiick. You can tell I really like it because I used more than one 'i'.

[Jubin]

Europe 1660

This decades have passed and during that time, I have expanded quite a lot. First I forced Mecklenburg to become a part of my nation, and when getting into a war against Muscowy and Finland I was able to force the later to become my vassal. Beside Mecklenburg I also added the states of Brandenburg into my territories as well as one province of Heissen deflected into my country.
On the Eastern Front I continued my wars against the Ukraine. Counting from the 1520 when Ukraine was founded to 1660 I have had total of 15 wars against Ukraine.

Around other places in Europe - Austria is continuing on its path of being the worlds greatest power and is not showing any signs of stopping at this moment. Denmark is back! Sweden has incorporated Norway under its ruling. France is losing its grip and is slowly decading.

Ukraine, who, at one point had even bigger army than I had, is now divided into Poland, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Wallachia and Golden Horde. Who are all basically my bad girles, but at least now when they combine their forces, they can stand against Ukraine on their own.

Ottoman Empire is going under Austria soon enough. One of the greatest news although is the fact that Muscowy has disintegrated into smaller countries again and doesn't seem like a big threat any more.
Post Merge: July 06, 2011, 02:34:14 pmAnother 80 years have passed

Europe 1680

Within this two decades I finalized the deal with Finland incorporating it into Prussia as well I fought Scotland and got western Finland as well and Poland became part of my Empire as well. The later although wasn't intentional at all, just that Polish king died and the next successor in line was Prussian, so I got it.
Europe itself was kind of boring at that time, only Denmark got some of its land back from Scotland ending the Scottish reign in Scandinavia for all, only one province remains under Scotland rule in northern Scandinavia.

Europe 1700

The end of the 17th century I hope marked the end of an era. During that time Prussia fought it's last war against Ukraine, who this time had an ally in the form of Muscovite, but who were no match for Prussian forces, mostly because Muscovwy had a lot of revolts in its territories. Keeping that in mind Prussian forces pushed into deep of Muscovite territories almost reaching Moscow itself. Thanks to the successful warfare Muscowy had to release Smolensk. Also Prussia won a war against Holstein, who at that time still got to hold on to it's very valuable city of Luebeck.
In other parts of Europe, England came back from death and Granada declared its independence from Castille.

Europe 1720

Europe 1740

[Jubin]

End Game

Europe 1763

Europe 1781

Europe 1802

Europe 1820

Gonna add final thoughts later.

[MrTony]

This game looks really good.I am intrigued by games of this genre.Have you played the Total War Games?They are different of course but I would stack them in the same category.Could you do a comparison between them please?I would love to listen to your opinion.

P.S. I played with the Teutonic Order like one month ago in Medieval 2.Too bad I didn't see it evolve into Prussia tho.

[Jubin]

Have you played the Total War Games?They are different of course but I would stack them in the same category.Could you do a comparison between them please?I would love to listen to your opinion.

The closest genre you can put EU 3 and total war games is strategy.  EU 3 is real-time while total war is turn based (not counting battles). Also when it comes to group both games are directed to, then Total war is directed mostly to teenagers while EU 3 is for more mature players. Mostly because young players are so obsessed with graphics and special effects, what EU 3 does not have. Also EU 3 takes a lot more dedication and time to learn than total war series game. For example, total time it took me to understand Rome:Total War, was the total time of Tutorial so maybe an hour or so while total time studying the mechanics of EU 3 was around 2 weeks and I am quite sure when put to hours it was 20+, with some aspects still not totally clear for me. That allows EU 3 to be a lot more historical than total war games, with a lot of country specifics events.
In conclusion total war games have better graphics and is more user friendly, beside total war have opportunity to lead your battles. While EU 3 is a lot more dedication and brain work needing game.

[MrTony]

The closest genre you can put EU 3 and total war games is strategy.  EU 3 is real-time while total war is turn based (not counting battles). Also when it comes to group both games are directed to, then Total war is directed mostly to teenagers while EU 3 is for more mature players. Mostly because young players are so obsessed with graphics and special effects, what EU 3 does not have. Also EU 3 takes a lot more dedication and time to learn than total war series game. For example, total time it took me to understand Rome:Total War, was the total time of Tutorial so maybe an hour or so while total time studying the mechanics of EU 3 was around 2 weeks and I am quite sure when put to hours it was 20+, with some aspects still not totally clear for me. That allows EU 3 to be a lot more historical than total war games, with a lot of country specifics events.
In conclusion total war games have better graphics and is more user friendly, beside total war have opportunity to lead your battles. While EU 3 is a lot more dedication and brain work needing game.

Thanks,a wise opinion indeed.Can't wait to see the continuation of your campaign btw.

[Squeak]

Thanks,a wise opinion indeed.Can't wait to see the continuation of your campaign btw.

The campaign ended already.