r/eu4

Has this happened to anyone before?

It was the year 1577, when the vile Spanish autocracy declared an unjust war against the piratic confederation of New Providence. Little did they know, that their initial advances in the New World mainland would be answered by an unprecedented blockade of the Iberian peninsula.

Unable to defend its dependencies, the confederation took the war to the seas. The brave pirates fought tooth and nail to repel the invaders, demolishing fleet after fleet, capturing vessels and using them against the Spanish.

The war had reached a stalemate, since the, until an unexpected partnership was struck between New Providence, the malikate of Tafilalt, and the sultanate of Tunis. The North Africans would lend their ports to the pirates! Empowered by fresh supplies, the blockade of Spain started in 1608. Month after month, year after year, Spain's debt increased, reaching a staggering 13000 ducats by the end of the war, their populace being starved as commerce diminished.

Portugal, once the strict overlord of the Caribbean, thinking that the pirates were spread thin, decided to declare an ill-fated reconquest of the Bahamas. Instead of regaining their past holdings, they lost their last few settlements in the Leeward islands.

Emboldened by the loot fro the Portuguese war, the pirates rallied. An expeditionary force landed in the unsettled lands of Honduras, and after a series of hard fought battles, managed to regain control of the mainland. The Spanish morale quickly plummeted. The English colony of Mexico had wrestled control of Mexico from New Spain, leaving only the Spanish Crown Colony of Brazil to fight against the pirates. The Spanish Crown, facing increasing unrest at home, decided to accept the piratical peace offer, emptying their coffers in order to regain control of their commerce.

Charles Bellamy and his predecessors cemented their place in the history books as the admirals who defied the all-mighty Spanish Armada, guiding their nation through the longest war ever seen in the New World. The Spanish Conquest of Tullucan would last 50 years, and end with a triumphant victory of David against the mighty Iberian Goliath.

Not even 1600 yet in this image and I'm almost the Economic hegemon of the world, not to even mention Naval hegemony. The moment I unlock universities and am able to form La Serinissima (with boosted versions of all of Venice's trade spirits), I'll become the literal embodiment of Scrooge McDuck.

Being able to make 100+ ducats a month by the 1480s is just so broken, especially with how easy it is for Venice to just open up the Suez and get first dibs on the entire east. Factor in some CRAZY missions (like being able to produce HEAPS of cloves in Tidore and Ternate, and just getting straight claims on every trade center in Asia/India), and you have the best trading nation in the game, with easy ways to control the end nodes of Venice and Genoa, while also being able to freely turn Constantinople Venetian and controlling that third node. After the Suez is complete, you have free reign in Alexandria and Aden, with India being too weak to do anything to stop you so early on in the game.

This was from a run where I was being lazy, so I fear what somebody more dedicated could achieve with a monster nation like this. I've always been confused why I never see anybody posting about this, but I guess Venice is a bit of a sleeper.

I always felt that the reformation (Protestant and Reformed) religions in EU3 were more of an annoyance that an actual mechanic, due to how few countries embrace those faiths. The exception to this is when the player adopts one of them, or if one of the largest countries adopt it, which increases spread rate of those faiths. Orthodox religion also feels extremely weak in EU3 5.2, since Orthodox defenders of the faith are always weak and too far away to help, while if an Orthodox country declares war on Catholics they may end up at war with half of Europe, with the war leader being the strongest Catholic country. I always end up converting to Catholic if I play as Orthodox, and avoid adopting Protestant and Reformed religions because of how weak they all are.

EU4 did things a lot different. I like how religious war is implemented, and the reformation feels impactful and important. You no longer find yourself in a horrible position by adopting Protestant or Reformed religions, or by remaining Orthodox. Orthodoxy sometimes feels weak if only Russia remains that faith.

I don't have much experience in EU5 yet, but from what I've seen, reformation needs a lot of improvement. In my games, Protestantism and similar faiths are decent, but in these YT observer games they appear very weak. Orthodox is at least strong.

I only took screenshots from observer games. For EU4 I took them on my PC, for EU5 I found some observer games on YouTube, and since EU3 doesn't have an observer mode, I tried emulating it as much as possible, by either playing as American native, or by playing insignificant small vassal countries trying to not influence anything at all.

The images are from:

1. EU3 - my Creek campaign - almost all of Europe is Catholic
2. EU3 - I tried emulating observer mode by playing as tiny vassal countries and trying to not influence anything. When my country was (about to be) annexed, I switched to another country. I played as Serbia, Georgia and ended as OPM Iraq
3. EU4 observer
4. EU4 observer . Honestly, it surprised me how strong the reformation was in these 2 observer games, they are usually not that strong in my campaigns
5. EU 5 YT observer game from around game launch
6. EU 5 YT observer game beta 1.3.4
7. EU 5 YT observer game beta 1.3.6
8. EU 5 YT observer game beta 1.3.8

EU5 reformation on YT disappointed me a bit.

Did I stack overflow? Im playing anbennar so maybe that messed with it? Or maybe the fact that Im building around 50 drydocks for a mission? I have 328k sailors (both in reserves and max)