Europa Universalis IV announced

[Josephus]

I just started a new game, and decided to play Castille for the first time in eons. Holy shit. There's this new event (not sure what DLC introduced this) called Infantes of Aragon that shoots up right away that really cripples you if you're not prepared. You get a -1 stab hit, and have to get it back to zero for the event to end; but the majority of choices you get almost monthly are a -1 stab hit or an admin points deduction. So you get caught in this loop. I had to restart a few times before I was able to get my stab up to +1 before the event hit.
It explains why in some previous games, I noticed AI Castille not doing so well.

CC: How is Ottomans doing in your game? I hear new DLC cripples it somewhat

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, it's not as strong now that the other regional nations have been buffed

[Tamas]

I remember reading the Ottoman DLC made them seriously OP and you can see in the last patch notes they tried to nerf them.

[crazy canuck]

I remember reading the Ottoman DLC made them seriously OP and you can see in the last patch notes they tried to nerf them.

Think that's accurate. And there may have been an over correction. The nations around them got stronger and they got weaker.

[Josephus]

I remember reading the Ottoman DLC made them seriously OP and you can see in the last patch notes they tried to nerf them.

Think that's accurate. And there may have been an over correction. The nations around them got stronger and they got weaker.

Yeah, I mean that's my fear. Ottos are supposed to pose a threat in the 15th-16th centuries.

[Solmyr]

Tbh previously AI Ottomans were always the endgame boss, unless you crippled them immediately.

[Zanza]

Playing my second game with King of Kings now as Qara Qounylu. Good content with missions, estates, events etc.

Early on the Ottomans, the Timurids and the Mamluks are really threatening. I have more or less destroyed the Mamluks now, reigned in the Timurids, but the Ottomans remain a threat.

After close to a century of incessant warfare, I have conquered most of the Levante, Caucasus, some of Persia, the area along the Gulf and taken Cairo.

I guess I will just defend in the West and continue to expand south and east. I have to conquer more of Persia and eventually reform from a tribe to a monarchy to be able to form Persia and get to see that content.

[Zanza]

Next EU4 patch will have new content for Aztecs, Incas, Mayans, Netherlands, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Venice, Mughals and Timurids. Sounds a bit like the final patch as together with last three DLCs, they have covered virtually the entire world with reworked content then.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/europa-universalis-iv-development-diary-27th-of-february-roadmap-to-1-37.1625239/

[Josephus]

Yeah and this one seems a hodgepodge of place's geographically.

As well as their admitting they're working on something new.

[clandestino]

Not sure if anyone still plays this over here, but here it goes.

I bought a bundle a few years ago that included all the major DLCs up to Rights of Man.

That pack stayed unplayed for a number of years while my interests went elsewhere.

Recently I've been playing it quite a bit (reaching the 200h mark in Steam) and I was debating which DLC to acquire in a possible sale around the release of Winds of Change (it seems that's the tradition anyway).

Unfortunately it won't be possible to acquire everything at the moment, so I wonder which would you recommend. As a reference I tend to play tallish, kind of following historical lines, rather than world conquering or more esoteric objectives, usually around the Mediterranean through India, alongside a few Major nations playthroughs.

Anyway here is my current reasoning around the possibilities, but would love any feedback you could offer.

Underlined are the ones I'm mostly considering to buy
These as well, but only if the budget allows (2nd tier)

Expansions:
Mandate of Heaven: Ages + Golden Era seem fun, along with Prosperity, Diplo Macros and State Edicts. Not a huge interest in China/Japan.
Cradle of Civilization: Some interesting game concepts (merchant missions, Islamic schools, professionalism, promote advisors) but nothing essential it seems. Focus on the Middle East, but seems that King of Kings is better in building flavor in the region?
Dharma: Apart from India, it seems the mechanics aren't that interesting (upgrade trade centers, scornful insults)
Emperor: HRE, Papal mechanics reworked
Leviathan: Monuments seem fun if playing tall, right?
Domination: Seems essential if playing the usual suspects

Immersion Packs:
Third Rome: Not that interested in playing in Russia/Orthodox nations
Rule Brittania: Although not into playing in the British Isles that much, the Naval aspects alongside the Innovativeness and Knowledge Share seem interesting to a Med/playing tall player.
Golden Century: Seems essential to play in Iberia, Maghreb, which are the areas I play the most. Naval barrages and Flagships also helpful with other naval flavored nations: Britain, Denmark, Netherlands...
Origins: Africa/Judaism not that important at the moment, can postpone it
Lions of the North: Seems fun, but don't usually play in the Baltic that much
King of Kings: Between this and Cradle of Civilization which is more impactful in the area?


TL;DR: I'm thinking of buying Mandate of Heaven, Domination and Golden Century, and maybe Leviathan, Rule Britannia and King of Kings if budget allows. How dumb are my choices?

[Zanza]

Dharma apparently introduced government reforms, but that's by now probably a free feature. Else it would be better than the mechanics in most other DLCs.

Mandate of Heaven has some good mechanics.

The Leviathan and Cradle of Civilization mechanics are ok. I would miss some of  them now, but I guess the game is fine without them.

Emperor is meh, but it significantly adds to the Catholic faith mechanics, which might be interesting for playing in Iberia.



Domination has no new mechanics, so count it with the other immersion packs. Pretty power creepy though. Same with King of Kings. Had fun games with Yemen and with Ak Quonlyu.

Rule Britannia has a ok content with Anglicanism and Naval Doctrines, but Innovativeness seems fairly inconsequential. Never got to the Industrial age so I have no idea what it adds.

Golden Century adds the orders for Iberians, flagships and barrages are also helpful, especially to exploit certain Portuguese strengths.

Origins, Third Rome, Lion of the North don't add anything you need if you don't play in those regions.

PS: For Portugal there is great mod called "Beyond the Cape".

[Syt]

I've finally hit the 100 hours mark.

NOTE: Not looking for gameplay pointers. I probably play completely ineffectual, but at the moment I'm enjoying myself and don't want my fun optimized out of it yet.

Started as England. Accidentally kicked of War of the Roses. Wanted to get an heir for my shitty king, which lowered legitimacy, and before I knew how to fix things, I had the war pop off. Which was anti-climactic, because by then I had enough troops to crush all pretenders.

Went on to conquer Ireland. First vassalized two minors, before realizing that conquering was easier. Also, used one oft he wars to get Scotland un-allied with France. Ceded Maine to France (want to go for trade/colonial game), but then inherited Burgundy.

I thought I could take France later, to connect some of my French holdings, but though me and my allies (Austria/Aragon ... the latter is a republic now ) had same tech and more troops, and the French main ally of Venice was bent over the barrel by Ottomans and Hungary, French troops kicked my butt all over the place - I had overlooked that they had about 33% more morale than my troops. Oops. Anyways, I used the opportunity to cut my losses and divest myself from the continent except for Calais.

Instead, I slowly make my way down the mission tree and started colonizing in Canada. It's 1520 now. I've turned Reformed, got my 2nd colonist and 4th merchant while starting my 2nd attempt at circumnavigating the globe. I'm allied to Scotland, but can't vassalize them (they have >100 development), so I'm kinda trying to get the timing right to put an heir from my dynasty on their throne. I could go to war with them, but I'm worried who they might ally with in the meantime. I was struggling to get out of Religious Chaos after Reformation because I had recently conquered/converted Crete, and I didn't want to wait 20+ years for their zealotry to die down before converting them to Reformed, so I just set them loose and will return later.

Overall quite enjoying myself. I probably spend too much time dealing with the estates, but I also kinda like messing with their privileges as suits my game situation (and making sure I retain crown lands and revoke privileges as needed) and the parliamentary debates. I was at first struggling to keep up in tech/ideas, but doing fine now.

However, I do find myself swimming in money as England thanks to dominating trade in North Sea, Channel, and a few other places. I'm using the money to add buildings where it makes sense, and to up my force limits with naval/army buildings.

As said, probably playing way suboptimal, but also feeling like England is quite forgiving/easy so far, including handling crises/disasters.

[Zanza]

Sounds like a fun game. England is indeed fairly forgiving as your homeland is typically save behind the wooden wall of your navy.

[Syt]

I'm in 1725 with my England run, and the game is getting tedious. I'm mostly building up my provinces/units while trying to get into a good starting position for attacking India which is a two-state alliance of Deccan and Delhi.

I notice that all countries (with very few exceptions) are at tech level 23/24 at this point and stack modifiers a lot (checking reddit this seems to happen all the time as institutions propagate too easily at the moment meaning the research penalty rarely applies), so getting into a position for invading India while also having numerical and morale advantage has been tricky (and for a few decades in the 1600s I didn't expand my manpower/fore limits enough).

That said, with every slightly bigger country having the same tech level now it feels a bit meh and flavorless and tedious to carry on. It was fun to learn the basic mechanics, but if every game ends up with this homogenized world then I can't say I'm super interested in going back (or dabbling with mods, really).

Shame, really.

Screenshots from 20 years ago:

[crazy canuck]

Who colonized the Caribbean?