Is EU3 fun yet?

[Tamas]

The Papacy currently owns Iceland in my game, though they also control Rome and have never lost it (though Milan won a few wars against them, but never deigned to annex for some reason).

Does anyone have any idea why that would seem to be a common trend?

Wild guess: does Iceland start as a colony? Maybe it gets destroyed, with Iceland becoming colonizable and, this being the only colonizable area Papacy knows, they send their colonists there (which they have for being narrowminded)?

Or the revolters-defect routine going nuts

[Viking]

The Papacy currently owns Iceland in my game, though they also control Rome and have never lost it (though Milan won a few wars against them, but never deigned to annex for some reason).

Does anyone have any idea why that would seem to be a common trend?

Wild guess: does Iceland start as a colony? Maybe it gets destroyed, with Iceland becoming colonizable and, this being the only colonizable area Papacy knows, they send their colonists there (which they have for being narrowminded)?

given that Reykjavik isn't founded until 1786 it should start as a colony.... (yes I know there were other small settlements...) How Iceland manages to be worth two provinces baffles me.. the population never exceeded 50 thousand until the 20th century. A volcano in the wrong place could kill half of them.. and one did...

[Admiral Yi]

Interesting to me that most of you guys seem to be playing as Euro conquerors; I see little exploration/colonization going on.  More fun?

I might pick up this game.

[Viking]

Interesting to me that most of you guys seem to be playing as Euro conquerors; I see little exploration/colonization going on.  More fun?

I might pick up this game.

I'm playing a Timurid->Mughal game. I'm in the 1470s and stretch from Burma to Egypt.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm playing a Timurid->Mughal game. I'm in the 1470s and stretch from Burma to Egypt.

Is it because colonization doesn't kick in until the 1500s?  Is it just more fun to kick ass?

[DGuller]

Interesting to me that most of you guys seem to be playing as Euro conquerors; I see little exploration/colonization going on.  More fun?

I might pick up this game.

Colonization is definitely dreadfully boring.  It's also going to retard your tech advance if go too far too early. 

[DGuller]

Yeah, the zero-morale army-surrender thing can be pretty rough, especially since assaults/retreats never stop/occur unless the armies fighting are at zero morale.  There should be a threshold to retreat that's a miniscule amount to prevent such stupidity.

Agreed, I've had that happen, and it's ridiculous.  Right now I have to babysit my battles to make sure that my armies retreat before getting their morale blown too much.  However, when it's a close one, I just have to take the risk.

[Viking]

I'm playing a Timurid->Mughal game. I'm in the 1470s and stretch from Burma to Egypt.

Is it because colonization doesn't kick in until the 1500s?  Is it just more fun to kick ass?

I just wanted to test out some Ideas.. then the game got interesting.

[Habbaku]

I'm playing a Timurid->Mughal game. I'm in the 1470s and stretch from Burma to Egypt.

Is it because colonization doesn't kick in until the 1500s?  Is it just more fun to kick ass?

Colonization usually starts up in the 1450s-'60s for me.  Making a beeline for QFTNW is relatively easy to do and there are some prime jump-off points to grab for the colonial race later on.

[Tamas]

Yeah when you arrive late to colonization, you do arrive pretty damn late, due to others grabbing the jump-off points

[Habbaku]

Yeah when you arrive late to colonization, you do arrive pretty damn late, due to others grabbing the jump-off points

Number one reason I usually annex Portugal, or at least emasculate them.

In my current game, I've reduced them to 2-3 home provinces and they ended up moving their capital to their North American empire...

Meanwhile, the entirety of the Caribbean and Central/South America is mine, with nary a Portagee to be found.

[Habbaku]

As an addendum, arriving "late" to the colonial grab isn't necessarily the end of the world.  As Spain, for example, I made a conscious decision to expand as rapidly as possible in the colonial sphere, without regard for anything else.

That quickly netted me ~15 points of inflation, which is only just now starting to come down, nearly 100 years later.  Probably not the best way to go about things...

[sbr]

Has anyone had any luck doing anything with France in the new expansion?

I am subbing for France (that got their ass handed to them the first session) in an MP game tomorrow so I have been playing around with them and getting my arse whipped constantly.  Just like happened in the Languish game France gets gang-banged by every two bit piss-ant country in W Europe every time they even look at someone sideways.  Even her vassals jump in on the fun almost immediately.  I guess it is good that you have to be careful and considerate in gong to war but from what I have seen this is just silly.

[Habbaku]

I haven't had that much trouble myself, honestly.  England usually can't project much power on the continent and you can beat the Burgundians even if they're allied with the English.  I think the important thing to do is make sure that you maintain high relations and an alliance with each of your starting vassals until you've successfully pummeled your immediate opposition (Burgundy) and steadily diplo-annex the minors.

If you can accomplish getting even 2/3 of modern France, there usually isn't anyone that can stop you from smashing them in land warfare.

[Tamas]

What Habs said, but also it helps a LOT if Burgundy is not the Emperor. Then when in war with them, it is very important to do what you should be doing in any war: combine your forces into a megastack and force decisive battles until the Burgundian armies are gone, dropping off siege forces along the way.