Paradox Games

And no wormholes or Gateways or L-Gates, huh? Well, unless those Xenophobes have a defensive pact with someone you haven't met yet, there shouldn't be an issue with declaring them your rival and conquering them at some point, it's not like anyone will miss them. Just be ready to blow some Influence on the martial law planetary edict once you conquer them. Or if you're Pacifist, declare an ideological war to flip their ethos to yours, hope they open their borders afterwards/exploit the open borders during the mandatory truce period, and send your science ships, constructors and colony ships through their territory to claim stars on the other side of it at a greatly increased Influence cost.

The alternative would be to build tall, taking Voidborne for Habitats, building as many anchorages on your space stations as possible, until you have a fleet that can take out the Marauders before they go all Mongols on you. Problem is, by then it's possible that another empire will have claimed the systems on the other side of the Marauders.

Edited by Tacitus on Sep 27th 2018 at 10:50:35 AM

Current earworm: "A New Journey"

^ Actually that one I'm playing robots (generic ones, research focused?), and for some reason I can't declare them rival...robots can't declare rivals?

I'm thinking of trying to declare war on the xenophobes and get their planet and kick them out...not sure if best idea or not.

Also there's a wormhole...although I think it looks scary? And I don't think wormhole stabilization is exactly an early tech isn't it?

Edited by onyhow on Sep 27th 2018 at 9:25:40 AM

Give me cute or give me...something?

No way in hell it's Spain - the content of the rest of the dev diaries doesn't support it at all. It's not a democracy, doesn't have any historical interaction with the new governments in exile mechanic, and it would surely go hand-in-hand with an overall rework of civil wars.

Why not? If anything, every minor that's gotten an updated focus tree has been adjacent to another minor that also got a focus tree in the same DLC.

You can also flip Equestria to be ruled by Nightmare Moon through a civil war.

Optimism is a duty.

Yeah, civil war event causes Equestria to fragment like crazy.

First run I went as Equestria though I sorta beelined for the focus path that prevents Sombra from happening. Sorta got rolled by the Changelings cause I didn't build enough divisions and they managed to break through front lines.

Second game was with monarchist griffonian empire and Griffon empire can get stupidly powerful. Was lucky enough to get guaranteed by Equestria despite the fact I blobbed into former Prywen so they temporarily let me join their faction when southern communist wingbardy bloc declared war on me. The fact Crystal Empire and Equestria also guaranteed the minor counties/duchies next to home region was kinda annoying, along with the fact Equestria created a puppet wingbardy (which locks out focus for turning the southern states into cores) after the south communist attack. Was able to blob into Aquiela and northern alliance + Windfall(?). Was annoying that Equestria and Crystal Empire also guaranteed minor states that weren't covered by the annexation focuses so eventually decided to wardec Equestria and was basically able to push them out of the eastern hemisphere for the most part.

Yeah, I played the Griffon Empire last night. Went pretty well, but I lost out to the Duchess when I attempted to fight a four-front war which went somewhat well, but not well enough for me probably because I was too ambitious. I'll try again later and beat everything except the Duchess's lands first, then launch a three-front attack.

Oh, it's because it looks like (if the Xenophobes are the blue empire in your screenshot) you aren't actually adjacent to any of their controlled systems via hyperlanes yet, which is a requirement for declaring someone your Rival.

Well, it might cause other empires to consider you a threat, but the bigger issue is that since you're not Rogue Servitors or Driven Assimilators, the only way to keep conquered organics is as bio-generators, otherwise you'd be purging them through displacement or more direct means. Which would have a greater effect on your foreign relations than simply taking their planets, especially among any Xenophile empires.

It ought to come up well before the Midgame Crisis (if that even triggers), earlier if you have a wormhole in your territory. It's only scary if there's some Fanatical Purifiers or Militant Isolationists on the other side, otherwise it's an escape from getting hemmed-in. And a way for Marauders to get past your defenses if some Rival sics them on you or you refuse to pay tribute.

Current earworm: "A New Journey"

I've started playing Equestria at War, the nation I chose was The Dread League. Mainly because they were the faction that really jumped out to me as the most atypical, an undead autocracy led by either vampires or necromancers isn't really something I expected to have an opportunity to play as in a HOI 4 mod.

The faction that I chose to back was the Society of Bones because while an Elite army of Vampires and Thralls is fairly interesting the opportunity to drown the world of My Little Pony under a tide of dead flesh is unbelievably cool. So far the tech and foci are nicely converted and really help make the mod interesting.

Interestingly it runs ridiculously well, fastest speed in vanilla HOI 4 or Kaiserreich is decent on my computer but slows down quickly while it's absolutely speedy in ER. Which is rather gratifying.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Sep 27th 2018 at 8:02:38 AM

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

Hellenism got its Doctrine released in the Holy Fury Reformations thread.

I think someone's planning to yank the carpet out from under us.

Stellaris dev diary: Trade value and trade routes.

It's official: CKII has gone to Hell-enism.

Let the endless feuding continue unabated.

"After forcefully locking priests and cardinals within their own churches, Greek soldiers consigned the holy buildings to the flames."

Really? We are going full Nazi war crimes with this? Wow.

Optimism is a duty.

Maybe you'd like to play another of their fine, family-friendly games, like Stellaris.

I imagine that Hellenist secret society might make it much easier to convert to Hellenism.

Well, once someone starts it (which is vanishingly unlikely for the AI).

I wonder where the best place to try and form the Roman Empire is. Should I go for a Justinian and use the Byzantine Empire, or start in Italy itself?

No, I think it said you can only form those Hellenic societies after you restore Hellenism.

Optimism is a duty.

Pretty sure they meant the secret cult - the second option in the Roman Empire screenshot implies, you can secretly convert and gather support for your cult instead of converting publicly immediately and triggering a civil war.

Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.

That is indeed what I meant.

Thank god for game rules allowing this kind of garbage to but shut down. Bit annoyed that they wasted a Dev Diary slot on this, I was looking forward to actual content.

I mean, I'm still hyped for Holy Fury, it looks like it won't be a Monks and Mystics style let down.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

I definitely can't wait for Holy Fury. So many new things I'll be able to do. An easier way to become primogeniture, new ways to create your culture, and so many other things.

Actually, if Hellenism always has a doctrine or two enabled, even if it isn't specifically chosen, that it'll be kinda OP

Not so much - Zunism also has part of Astrology autoenabled, Aztec, Norse and Tengri all have part of their special doctrines baked in, and Haruspicy isn't a really powerful doctrine. It's Civilized that is insane. It's a Warmonger who can make peace.

Also, Hellenic is a monogamous religion, which means you either take Polygamy or are behind in the eugenics game.

The thing is, many of those other faiths need to take their special doctrine to keep their special mechanics when they reform (eg. Norse has to use its special doctrine just to keep river travel and prepared invasions). Hellenism always has Haruspicy and Temple Dedication and whatever reformation doctrines it takes are pure bonus.

True, though it's not always clear what stays and what goes. Zunism keeps Hermeticism, for example.

Also: Female rulers can take consorts now.