u/Ok-Farmer-7361

I just noticed the border between Wappus and Makandwewin is the usual straight line, but the border between Gojijiwininiwag and Makoua is a line with triangles all along. Does it have any special meaning? I looked around and couldn't find any indications that it due to a river. Google also wasn't any help.

I hadn't seen a Russia God Tier here before so posting

First start with Muscovy I decided to ally Biz and Trebizond to help avoid the Otto death. Bad mistake, Ottos still attacked.

Second start with Muscovy, decided to just do a simple Muscovy run, get strong. Once the Ottos have eaten the usual Orthodox minors in the Balkans and Anatolia, I became the DoF.

I allied Austria and Hungary, royal marry them and start pounding on Poland and Lithuania with Austria/Hungary. Once I got strong enough and the Ottos were busy with another war, I pounced on them and sieged as much as the Balkans as I could. In the peace deal only one goal, take Constantinople to weaken them.

The next few Otto wars I proceeded to systematically take as much as the Balkans as I could while at the same time releasing Biz, Bulgaria and other Orthodox minors making sure they were only being released in one province (while I took the rest) and also making sure they were completely blocked off (so there weren't any wars between them). The point here is to have 50 orthodox countries for the achievement.

I made sure the protestant side won the league war, as fighting both catholic minor nations and protestant minor nations separately sped up the process of converting them to Orthodox. At the end, protestants won the war initially, but Orthodox spread out through the HRE due to it.

At the end, there were 62 orthodox countries all in all.

You have an orthodox Austria, Netherlands, Scotland, Denmark, Iceland.

Biz was revived (just before 1496 when their cores would've expired for good). Other Balkan orthodox countries would've never lose their cores so there was a bit more time to slowly eat the Ottos in this region.

I released Achaea as a OPM, and they took advantage of the situation with the Ottos and conquered some Egypt.

Poland and Lithuania were reduced to a single province and of course converted thru war to Orthodox.

It was fun trying to keep Orthodox countries alive. The best method was encircling them.

Pick two:

#1 A Chicago sunroof is legal there

#2 Bugs Bunny should've taken a left turn there

#3 Gambling is legal there

#4 He will never be able to spell it

What is the real life logic behind a nation being happy with you when you ask (cough cough mandate) they transfer THEIR trade to you?

Shouldn't it be a malus for doing so? They are LOSING money. What's in it for them?

And if they feel threatened, then the relationship improvement is even greater? what?

source: https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Diplomacy#Transfer_trade_power

"It is only 10:30pm, I have 30 more minutes before it is 11pm... and just theeen it is when I will have less than an hour... it is fine now I have time"

I wanted to share a few points that I haven't seen anywhere else explicitly mentioned:

#1. For my opening moves before unpausing Nov 1444:

1a. ally Fezzan, Anizah, Dulkadir and Hisn Kayfa. Removed the guarantee on Ragusa. After a month, sent a gift to Fezzan (while you can, since you cannot gift while running a deficit). Consider even giving them subsidies for a few months to increase the relation to +190 quickly. The goal is to vassalize and eyalet Fezzan ASAP. My third war was against Tunis with Fezzan claims which allowed me to vassalize the cobeligerent Granada (and kept Castille at bay in Iberia). Plus when you are coming back from the Granada war and have 15 transports with one artillery in the Granada bay, you automatically complete a sweet mission that gives you good relations with Granada. You then can ask them for a province. Take it and core it ASAP so you have coring range of the west Mediterranean and Iberia/Bay of Biscay. Also, having Anizah as your ally really messes up the Mamluks which now have no other route of expansion. Don't wait for too long because they will ally someone bigger by the 1460s.

1b. I rivaled Hungary, Mamluks and Venice. Whenever I had a diplomat available, I embargoed all my rivals and insulted Venice for a future mission (but don't sacrifice diplomats too much from improving relations with allies that will be soon core-eyalets).

1c. deleted all forts except the one across Constantinople for the war with Biz. As soon as you wipe Biz's army, delete all forts. Keep only the one in Constantinople for the next few years. I kept one I got in a Balkan province later one for my wars against Hungary and Austria and one I got in Dulkadir area for my wars with Mamluks and the AQ/QQ gang.

#2 Don’t get a military advisor at the very start. I saw a lot of people getting one. It is a waste of money because in a month when your money saved is ±20% of your income Urban shows up. He will show up after a month tick after you get the Burgher loans because that satisfies the requirement. Complete the normal missions you can (maybe hold on the one that gives you +10% morale for a few years, use it for the bigger guys). Then declare on either Biz or Achaea (depending on who doesn’t have allies). Attack the allieless Greek first, then after a month tick attack the other Greek country. Ideally you are fighting two wars at the same time here and peace them out at the same time too. You have four artillery, one for each fort (Constantinople, Achaea, Morea and the Biz’s vassal province)

#3 my key moves within the Arabian peninsula were to:

3a. ally as soon as a diplo slot opens (ally whoever is closest to your capital, you can also check if they would vassalize you or if they care about "economic development". My order of vassalization was: Fazzan, Hisn Kayfa, Dulkadir, Ramazan Anizah, Shammar, Mushasha, Medina, Najd, Dawasir, Yas, Mikhlaf, Mahra, Hadramut, Aden, Yemen. I also diplo vassalized Touggort, Shirvan, Gazimuth and Biapas because I had the slots open, they were friendly and it was easy (took 3 months). Closest to the capital were more willing to diplo vassalize, then as soon as I get them, the farther aways would accept a diplo vassalization and so on.

3b. improve relationships with the closest vassal to +190, try to avoid letting a month tick without having a diplomat in someone's vassal capital improving relationships. A month that tick is a month wasted of improving relationships

3c. the other diplomat can be working on guaranteeing the other small Arabic Peninsula countries that are you allies, giving them gifts, giving them military access (after you ally them), marrying them. But most important is to not let a month tick without improving relationships if you can avoid it.

#4 The +2 diplo slots that you get from strong duchies needs two vassals at the same time to activate, BUT ONLY one vassal/march to keep it active. So get STRONG DUCHIES asap and always keep a vassal in the rotation so you don't lose it. This gives you 6 diplo slots (well one is for a vassal) but you get faster diplo vassalizations of all small countries this way. As soon as you vassalize someone, eyalet the vassal you were keeping all along, you only need one active vassal but it can rotate and you should.

#5 Don't let vassals and eyalets sit too much without core-eyalettting them. First of all, their relationships with you sours as time passes with vassals or eyalets and it becomes harder and harder to core-eyalet them (I would say after 1-5 years, it becomes significantly harder, especially because you keep expanding). Core eyalets gave me 0 liberty desire throughout the entire run until 1500 even asking them to reroute their trade. Most importantly, core eyalets are the only ones that count for the province count for the challenge. Eyalets and vassals don't count.

#6 I was 1000% into birding looking out for favorable RNG (but obviously completed the run in ironman mode):

6a. I birded the start until Poland was NOT rivaling me (difficult) and also until Tunis was allied with Granada (easy)

6b. I birded a sh!t ton at different years because I kept taking too long with an area of conquest, or declaring with the wrong CB, or if a very unfavorable event happened (-2 stab hit, mehmed death). Those were unacceptable. I did not bird for Mehmed to have -10 aggressive expansion, but it was very much welcomed. I did bird if Mehmet got a negative trait. Toward the end, I didn’t care if he died or not (around 1490), it was already too much work for me.

6c. i didn't bird for getting a good siege general at the start, too much birding for me takes a ton of time to restart the game and mental energy as well.

#7 lots of people focus on allying Crimea early. I didn't think they were a big deal to have as a march, specially not to occupy a diplo slot early on which gives you the possibility of having more and more core eyalets. Remember core eyalets = manpower and money. I allied them later on like in the 1460s, gained enough trust and completed that mission. Everything was copacetic for them to become my march, but their freaking ruler died while THEY were at war, and that prevents them from becoming your march or tributary. BUT NO WORRIES, they WILL become your march when the next ruler dies given that you keep the +150 relation and 60 trust or somewhere along that ballpark. Of course, they need to be at peace. You don't though.

#8 I rerouted trade on all my core-eyalets that were occupying a center of trade anywhere. That did increase their liberty desire above zero but then i proceeded to exchange all favors for trust (you get to 100 favors with core eyalets quickly!), that lowered LD down again to 0.

#9 against popular opinion, I thought espionage was essential for the aggressive expansion (AE) bonus. Also the favor growth modifier (proves useful when you wanna break an alliance with the big guys like France, Poland or make them come into a war). Espionage also has an extra diplomat and the policy with offensive gives you extra spy network ability and another diplomat I believe.

#10 Allies were more useful as "land to be conquered by the enemy" than "ally's army for useful fighting". Except maybe Poland who really went to bat when I was fighting Hungary. But in the case of France, yeah they are quietly sieging that one fort while you have already sieged 8 forts.

10a. I allied Poland early on to gather favors with them for the Hungary war

10b. I allied France around 1460-1470 thinking about them helping me with an early Castille/Aragon/Portugal war (to release Galicia, Asturias, Leon, Catalonia, Valencia and Sardinia)

10c. I allied Saxony in the 1470s as well right before my war against Austria and all the HRE countries I could fight. That way I don’t have to occupy Saxony (one of the electors)

10d. allied England around the 1470s but that alliance only served to decrease AE with them. I have seen it in other games where they would sometimes come and help in your big war against the HRE. Depends on RNG.

11. get the Kaba and Malta forts ASAP. I improved Kaba first to +3 because it also gives you better boni apart from the WSC. I used a combo of manpower and straight loans. By that time I was paying 15 ducats in interest to loans, but they were well worth it

12. I took the less popular Mamluks decision to NOT eyalet them and instead get the sweet warscore reduction. I wasn’t too worried about the Egypt/Tunis mission tree. You need to connect to the red sea with YOUR provinces however, in order to get the Kaba monument province. I took the Lebanon center of trade provinces for the extra merchant and connected down to the red sea in my first war against the mamluks.

13. I went to war with Hungary early on before Austria PU them. I took the mission that gives you the Hungary Conquest CB BEFORE Austria PU them otherwise it will NOT be available. It was crucial because using that CB you can get all of Hungary for 60% warscore which also has huge implications for AE, almost gave me no AE for me.

Should we reconsider the default "fantastic four" buttons? Specially for the phone apps?

How many times does the average user had to share their deck of cards that it necessitates one of the four button shortcuts?

I propose we switch the "share deck" one for "redo" your last action. A much much needed dedicated button (how many times do you answer the wrong choice by mistake and wanna redo it?)

Playing as ottomans and about to attack Venice

Why would Venice with 27k troops, keep 93% of their troops in two separate islands far away from their capital? My question is, from a coding perspective, what makes them do that? They don't have any possible rivals (I am not a rival atm) nearby. If I attack them, with a much heavier navy, they would be trapped on the islands. They must know that. So what is going on with this AI behavior?

Mysterious phenomena n the night sky have often been interpreted as a bad omens. No shit sherlock, finally a good astronomical sign for a change.

Employing a natural scientist during 1577 did it, not having innovative as I initially thought

Red = GB, Orange = Madyas, Yellow = Ternate, Green = Hadramut, Blue = France, Indigo = Brunei, Violet = Wu

What a beautiful mess!

Was weirded out by the "Portuguese Mesopotamia" in South America region. I though either was a weird AI name misplacement mistake or there was something more to it. I suppose this region gets the "meso potamia" nomenclature by being in between the Parana and Urugay rivers. In real life, Argentina has a province called "Entre Rios" which is this region. They could've named it Argentinian Mesopotamia and gotten away with it too.

What other geographical terms have you learned from the game?