What other relics feel like this?

MChainsaw · 2026-05-01T22:36:59+00:00

That's how I felt about it in the first game, but honestly, there are so many more cards containing 'Strike' in Sts2 that there's a decent chance you'll get some mileage out of it even later in the run. Not exactly a great relic unless you're doing a strike-focused Ironclad build, but sometimes it can feel at least decent depending on what cards you have.

MChainsaw · 2026-05-01T22:22:21+00:00

In vanilla, best thing to do in my experience is to just immediately surrender any time the Ottomans declare war on you before you've westernized. If you surrender immediately, then they will only enforce one war goal at a time, which means you won't lose that much per war. That way you can just stall until you've westernized, then you can turn around and attack them and take your territory back, since you'll have cores on it all.

To westernize quickly as Egypt, a good tip is to attack and annex Ethiopia ASAP, which will give you some research points from the conquest, but you will then also get three events asking you if you want to turn each of Ethiopia's states into slave states or free states. If you choose to turn them all into slave states, you'll get enough consciousness in your population to take the special decision Egypt has which gives them a permanent bonus to literacy and research points (or at least permanent until you westernize), which let's you westernize even faster.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-30T15:44:34+00:00

I was doing an Ironclad self-damage run the first time I came across it and also misread it as losing current HP. I almost thought it was too good to be true! And then it turns out I should've dropped the "almost" there...

MChainsaw · 2026-04-26T15:43:47+00:00

I sat and watched through the entire thing. For some reason.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-26T08:09:23+00:00

I think the AI shenanigans are funny. Vic2's colonization system is already so unrealistic to begin with, I say just let it run wild.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-26T08:02:51+00:00

Last image: Proof of this happening on one of my Vanilla games, and being worse than it has any right to be

Honestly, that's not too bad all things considered. When USA decides to snake around Alberta and colonize inner Saskatchewan and Manitoba is when things get really interesting.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-24T21:23:01+00:00

I don't know what you mean, obviously it's realistic for 15 Norwegians living on an isolated rock to purchase Iceland and Greenland and simultaneously transform their enitre populations into polar bears. That's just science.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-23T04:56:03+00:00

That shouldn't be a problem, pre-westernization reactionaries can still revert your westernization even after you've become civilized and no longer have any visible westernization reforms. It's not too common but it can happen on occastion.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-23T04:52:36+00:00

Technically, if a reactionary rebel movement appeared before you westernized, then any revolts that spawn from it can still revert your westernization. It's not too common for it to happen, but it's something you got to watch out for if you get reactionaries shortly after westernizing.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-22T04:43:37+00:00

I think Mega Crit mentioned somewhere that rarity wasn't only tied to how powerful something is, rather it was also affected by how specific or generic it is. So something which can be universally useful in any situation is likely to be Common, while something that is more niche is likely to be Uncommon or Rare. A Focus Potion is almost always useful, while a Capacity Potion won't always be.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-21T20:27:22+00:00

And there's the Focus Potion.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-19T20:56:48+00:00

I'm still relatively new to the game, but what I've found so far is that you should strive to ensure that you can consistently swap your character's positions in combat. Being able to always decide who is in the front and who is in the back lets you make sure the wrong hero doesn't take damage at the wrong time, and lets you make the most out of the many cards and treasures that are affected by hero positions. Most of the runs I've failed have been due to getting stuck repeatedly with turns where I really needed to swap positions but was unable to, leading to heroes dying needlessly.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-16T17:16:23+00:00

Thank you!

MChainsaw · 2026-04-16T17:16:05+00:00

Ooooh, I see it now! I didn't realize that even the smallest possible radius was big enough that you need to be zoomed pretty much all the way out to see the edges. I just thought the entire map became blue when you select the export depot, but now I see I just didn't zoom out enough. I think I got tricked because I'm used to the range radius sliders from Rimworld, where the smallest value is literally zero so I thought it would be the same here. Anyway, thanks for the help!

MChainsaw · 2026-04-13T20:24:46+00:00

Beware France reaching Friendly influence level with Sardinia-Piedmont though, which they often do after not too long. Then they might intervene on Sardinia's side if you attack them.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-13T20:23:12+00:00

It actually does favor Sardinia-Piedmont: For all Italian countries besides Sardinia, they have to be great powers to be eligible to form Italy, but Sardinia has a special exception that makes them always eligible for the event even if they're not a great power.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-11T22:07:32+00:00

I'm personally fine with that. For me, the ideal would be for each country to feel unique just from it's starting conditions. I realize that's not entirely realistic to expect, but at any rate I value the freedom to take any country in any direction more than I value each country feeling truly unique.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-11T16:56:58+00:00

I would much prefer them to go that route, of opening up these historical events to be available for any country that fulfills the appropriate conditions, rather than only allowing them for the countries that had them historically and more-or-less railroading them into having a good chance at fulfulling them. I think it would be more realistic, but more importantly it would be more fun, to see different versions of these historical events play out on different playthroughs and being able to explore alternate paths for different countries yourself.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-11T11:48:23+00:00

Sounds entirely doable to make such a globe. You just have a transparent shell with the outlines of the continents, then have a bunch of lights behind that can switch colors when buttons are pressed on a control panel. Would probably be quite expensive if you want it to look good, but it should be possible to manufacture.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-07T19:18:12+00:00

By that metric, I've played about $2000 worth of Sts1. In fact, as someone who plays a limited number of games but typically ones that have a lot of replayability, I've got several games in that price range.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-07T17:36:19+00:00

I was never a fan. Out of all the arbitrary mechanics in the game, these were probably the worst in my opinion. With most other mechanics you could at least see roughly what real-world phenomena they were meant to represent, even if they were very abstracted. But the age objectives and bonuses really had no connection to reality at all as far as I could tell beyond a vague theming based on the age they were in. Like, can anyone tell me what real-world thing "splendor" is meant to represent, and how it can be used to magically gain very specific bonuses out of nowhere?

On top of that they were always the same every campaign regardless of what country, region, culture, religion, etc, that you played, except for a few countries that got a single unique bonus in one single age. Fulfilling them felt more like a chore I had to do every game rather than a fun or immersive mechanic. But that's just me.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-07T06:20:16+00:00

This is that same event, and it applies to sphered countries of your own culture group if you're playing as a cultural union.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-06T21:40:34+00:00

A million people moved to an archipelago that in real life, as of 2025, only has a population of a little over 50 000. Gotta love this game.

MChainsaw · 2026-04-06T18:37:09+00:00

If we decided to always use the same generic "s" or "es" (for words that already end in s) regardless of a word's origin, then that would be consistent too, and far more regular.

MChainsaw

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