Paradox Games

That should be fun. The only part of England I don't own now is Northumbria. Funny. Ragnarr Lodbrok died decades ago in a duel with another Norseman, and it's only now we're facing that Petty Kingdom. I think I'll take down Wales first so I have fewer potential enemies when the Holy Wars start.

I just wish it was a bunch of different little petty kingdoms instead of being the Kingdom of Lombardy. Having a well-established kingdom just seems to make things too easy.

The Crusades are only 52 years away IF you take Braunschweig (or other relevant county). Tack another ~180 years on if you don't. If you can keep their MA below 5%, they cannot call Crusades, but you might want them to start so that you can respond with Great Holy Wars, especially if you're the Fylkir/Fylkja, though you'll also need to get the Muslims Jihading. Can't play Great Holy War Fylkirs until everyone else can play Crusader Kings and Jihad Sultans, after all.

By the way, don't forget to take Stettin and thereabouts so that you can get Jomsvikings after 900.

edited 26th Jul '15 10:43:53 PM by Balmung

Oh, I also tried my first game of Hearts of Iron 3. I think I need a bit more info on how the combat system works. I think I got the production system down now but I only lasted a little while as Belgium when Germany declared war on me. I held them off several times through Liege and Namur but eventually they overwhelmed me.

That's how it happened in real life. The Germans were a juggernaut at that point in time and steamrolled everything in a lightning war. It's what Blitzkrieg means, actually. It's not shameful to lose to them. It's common. Even the powers of France couldn't hold them out.

And thanks for the heads up on the timing for Crusades. That gives me another century or two to play with in conquering stuff. I don't really want to stop them from starting Crusades, I just want to keep them busy elsewhere so I can raid with impunity when the Isles are under my control. I'll probably take Wales, then commit the first of three wars against Northumbria. Once that's won, I'll start uniting the Irish tribes, then take on the second war. By that time I'll probably have a border with Pictland and can start taking them out of power.

Yes, I know, but it's possible to hold the Nazis off if you prepare enough.

Oh, it's possible. You'd probably need forts in place in key areas. I never have figured out how to garrison those things. Is it a passive thing where just having soldiers in the county means the fort works?

Rivers are important barriers. They're already "free forts" in a sense. Since I've been playing modded Ho I 3 far longer than vanilla, it might be harder for me to give some tips, so uh...

• If you're going defensive anyway (because it's the only option lol): go 1 infantry brigade, 1 artillery, 1 anti-tank, plus 1 more "wild card" which could be another infantry brigade or keep it down to three for that division especially if manpower is at a premium.

• Vanilla AI is quite easy to lure into traps, or at least into provinces where you can easily outflank them and make local counter-attacks. Then you leave that place and the AI thinks, "NO ARMIES IN THAT LAND ITS OURS NAO" again. lol

• You have no choice but to always have local superiority, usually both quantitatively and qualitatively. For example, along the Dutch-Belgian border, or just before Brussels, etc.

• Always have a mobile division or two...or three. Preferably a full-Corps of fast moving divisions lol. I'd guess they'd mostly be light armor (light armor x2 + tank destroyer) or motorised (2x motorised + 1x spg/tank destroyer) divisions.

edited 27th Jul '15 6:10:46 AM by entropy13

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

Turns out one of my indirect vassals had a claim on Northumbria, so the place fell in one shot. He was a Catholic, but since he wasn't zealous about it and owed me for pressing his claim, he's seen the light. Doesn't hurt that he was the bishop of Canterbury and is now an Archbishop-Prince thanks to me. Though I really should revoke the count of Northumbria from him, take the fucker's land, and give the county itself to the Archbishop so he has a stronger claim to his new land. I should also get down to rearranging some of the succession laws to strengthen the country. Like giving women the right to inherit, for starters.

Is it just ATE, or is it also in vanilla that vassals now get the same succession laws as your primary title at the time they get the title? Because it's neat that I can make vassals with laws other than agnatic-cognatic gavelkind, but I already miss my vassals getting saddled with gavelkind. It made it easy to break up a conquering vassal by simply giving him the title to the duchy he just took and waiting for inheritance to split the titles.

I think it's base. I can't change anything but Centralization laws in anything but my Empire title.

That's not what I'm talking about, and it's just normal to only have one set of demesne laws (all tax laws, all levy laws, centralization, and tribal authority). And it's normal for crown laws (crown authority and investiture) to be preserved unless the title is destroyed. And it's how kingdom and empire succession laws have worked, as those are more tied to the title. However, in the past, succession and gender laws for county and duchy titles given to vassals would always default to Agnatic-Cognatic Gavelkind if possible, while now, they keep the succession laws of my primary title at the time I hand them out. My (non-baron-level) vassals are currently a mix of Agnatic-Cognatic Gavelkind (diplovassalized), Agnatic-Cognatic Primogeniture (diplovassalized), Enatic-Cognatic Gavelkind (handed out before I reformed the Rust Cultist faith), Enatic-Cognatic Primogeniture (handed out after reforming, and it should be noted that I do not have high enough crown authority for my vassals to enact this on their own), and Patrician Elective (merchant republics, duh).

Eh, so long as they don't start inheriting together, I'm not too upset, but it does mean that I need to be more careful when I hand out new duchies, since any overly-large accumulation of power won't simply disintegrate on succession.

Well, I started another Belgium game. This time I managed to hold out until the Spring of 1940 against Germany, but they ended up outflanking us through France (they couldn't go through Amsterdam because I guess they were neutral right up until after France surrendered and they drove us into exile). Now I have to rebuild in my territories in the Congo. Maybe I'll rebuild there (I need to rebuild my IC, and I need the research for me to build factories before I can do that), then drive up and hit Italy's possessions in what used to be Ethiopia, then possibly invade Italy if I can.

Which startpoint do you, er, start?

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

1936.

As I understand, the HoI series is deliberately not a series that focus on the minor powers. It was designed to be player as the big guys. The play and be successful as a weaker player such as Belgium is possible, but it is something that was supposed for the veterans of the game. I believe a newcomer is supposed to play, at last, as a regional power, not as an underdog in the line of fire of the most dangerous nation in the game.

Yes, but that's boring XD

Hopefully you got all the expansions. Then get Black ICE too. And THEN you can now properly bring Germany to a standstill in 1940...with Poland, like I did.

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

Well the version I bought has both For the Motherland and Their Finest Hour in it, though for some reason you can't run the game with both active at once :P

You've got to love the Byzantine Empire's ability to repeatedly grant/revoke viceregal duchies until a guy rebels, revoke a county, rinse and repeat until you have all his land with no tyranny incurred and no piety cost for excommunication.

edited 30th Jul '15 2:26:45 PM by CaptainCapsase

I just saw a duke subjugate a guy with two kingdoms. At this point, I can safely say I've seen it all.

Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!

Eh, if the Duchy's big enough I don't think that's too much of a big deal. Anyway when I go back to After The End I'll probably vassal myself to Hudsonia. I'll use their might to fight New York and get those cities, along with Connecticut and South Jersey, then break free from Hudsonia and form Gotham.

edited 30th Jul '15 5:51:37 PM by theLibrarian

I've seen screenshots of AI Castile making the entire HRE a tributary state

1) Latest Paradox hint:

And apparently, when asked, a lot of people at Paradox said they'd love to do a space game.

2) Paradox just trademarked "Stellaris".

Project Augustus is a space GSG!

edited 31st Jul '15 3:01:12 AM by IFwanderer

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

So space 4x / GSG?

Give me cute or give me...something?