Europa Universalis 3: The Learning Cliff!

[Dragonborne88]

I bought Europa Universalis 3 during the STEAM sale on Christmas, and have tried multiple times to get into it since I hear the gameplay is quite fun once you figure it out. Which leads me to the main issue of the game. I'm sure it IS quite awesome once you do figure it out, but the tutorial is completely worthless (in my opinion) of helping you figure out the finer details of the game.

The freedom that the game allows you seems great, but there are meters abound, things going on constantly that I don't know how to control, and, in the game I actually tried doing something in randomly, it took 50 in game years to "conquer" a city...that's like 2 hours in real time holding this town that is constantly rebelling and being recaptured, which means the timer resets.

Has anybody ever played this series that can actually give a few good pointers? It also doesn't help that the manual for it on STEAM is bugged and crashes so I can't read it. If you have any neat stories, feel free to share as well. I've read some pretty epic ones in the past.

 

[wammnebu]

Yes i bought my copy over the steam sale too, and have many of the same complaints and likes you do.


1. start playing as a easier civ, i made the mistake of always playing as Novgorod or Navarra.
2. If seige is taking a while add more infantry, use spies to "bribe defenders" if your willing to risk it you can assault the city.
3. go here http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php and make an account, and start reading the forums. There is a great HttT stategy guide someone made
4. while you are there read some AAR's they are interesting and provide useful ideas about how to use the game

let me know if you have any luck, im still working on it too

as for stories i dont have much except for the papal states colonizing africa

 

[Dragonborne88]

I think I tried Scotland, which turned out badly since they have no economy in the beginning. Then I tried Spain, did better economy wise, and actually managed to TAKE the city. But in order for it to become yours, I needed to hold it for the 50 in game years. That is like impossible to do with how chaotic things get in war. I was hoping that wasn't the case, but I haven't found otherwise. >.>

Thanks for the pointers though, I'll have to check out that site.

 

[wammnebu]

I think I tried Scotland, which turned out badly since they have no economy in the beginning. Then I tried Spain, did better economy wise, and actually managed to TAKE the city. But in order for it to become yours, I needed to hold it for the 50 in game years. That is like impossible to do with how chaotic things get in war. I was hoping that wasn't the case, but I haven't found otherwise. >.>

Thanks for the pointers though, I'll have to check out that site.

by spain im guessing castile?
oh one huge thing i discovered (hes right about generals by the way) is that you should not have just one large army marching through the map, it suffers to much attrition, and once its worn down your ability to wage war is shot. Make it formless so you can deploy troops where needed.

Ive heard England is one of the best starting nations

 

[veloper]

England is good.

France will attack you mainland provinces early on, but if you ignore all their peace offerings, they will eventually default back to you, when the war is forced to a conclusion. They can't get to your island.

Scotland will prolly attack you while France is harrassing you, but they can be easily beaten and conquered completely and made a vassal, without incurring a negative reputation or revolts.
You can easily claim the far corner of Bretagne after they declare war on you and predictably lose and France will never go for it, because they won't move troops through neutral territory.
The Irish kingdoms will eventually incur causi belli so you can invade them one at a time with only a small penalty and nobody will come to their aid.
Make peace and claim some provinces or vasalage as soon as you're on top. You'll be #1 very early on.

Other tips:
Cavalry beats infantry. You only need a little infantry to lay sieges. Don't even bother with storming cities, just wait patiently with a small force and they'll surrender.

A few more points in centralization is good.

Spend your tax money on research and troops. Let the treasury grow very slowly if at all, because of inflation and turn advantage.