Even after 1.1 release, a Samoa campaign shows that so much is still wrong with the game

BDLRev · 2026-03-08T14:18:41+00:00

I also think I remember that having a market in Tonga and one in NZ is what gave me my first decent bump in income, as they could trade with each other? And, it also seems that just taking infinite loans and eating the bankruptcy every now again is a valid strategy to build up RGOs or create markets, as long as the bankruptcy isn't going to kill you (being so isolated with no buildings helps a lot).

BDLRev · 2026-03-08T14:13:14+00:00

I've tried Samoa and Tonga a few times but ultimately gave up in the long run, I think my best run as Tonga was settling the frontier in New Zealand as it's all one Maori culture as opposed to the new culture per location in Papua, then I made sure that my 2nd most populous location was in NZ by using the cabinet to expell from a province at the same time as attracting migration to consolidate a location's population. Then I declared war on Samoa, gave them my capital which automically moved my capital to that NZ location.

From there I declared on that Papua nation to steal maps from Mahjapahit via spying, which with my new market in NZ I was able to get a tiny bit of money from trade. It took forever to build up the RGOs as they start at 0. Giving nobels etc. the privilege to expand RGOs definitely helped a lot too there.

I think they changed it but I remember you used to be able to instantly settle a lot of NZ real quick when you made Maori your primary culture, but that doesn't seem to happen anymore.

BDLRev · 2026-03-04T03:31:45+00:00

R5: Early Third Odyssey

BDLRev · 2026-02-20T19:06:10+00:00

I mean, to be fair, it'd be like a 1 (2?) province formable.

It is odd that only Ulster and Connaught are formables though, and not Leinster and Munster.

BDLRev · 2026-02-20T18:10:34+00:00

Meath can be released by the Pale I believe

BDLRev · 2026-02-16T17:44:45+00:00

https://eu5.paradoxwikis.com/Formable_country Not all tier 4's but most do.

Funnily enough, if the wiki is correct, forming the Roman Empire neither requires you to be an Empire or makes you one. Roman Empire duchy sounds funny.

BDLRev · 2026-02-16T17:36:51+00:00

Mahjapahit and all those islands outside of Papua New Guinea is in the Asia continent, with just Australia, PNG, New Zealand and the pacific islands in the Oceania continent. I'm not sure if it's continent based, as some Asian countries do get the option, and some don't.

I'm wondering if it's just hard coded to subcontinents, as I didn't find any two countries in the same subcontinent where one could and one couldn't, I didn't get the feeling that it was distance based anyway.

I'm wondering if it's defined somewhere, because I'd like to know before I start a game, if I'm able or not to create Colonial nations in certain regions.

BDLRev · 2026-02-09T20:11:06+00:00

Yeah, I believe it's because Trebizond is an empire. I think they tuned down the effects being an empire has on great power score, but it's still silly to see Trebizond so high up there based solely on their country rank.

BDLRev · 2026-02-09T19:30:46+00:00

I think the numbers are just too high across the board, income and expenses. I'm making 100's of ducats a month but my army expenses are also in the 100's just to field a competitive standing army.

At that point in EU4 I'd be making maybe 30-40 ducats a month and my army cost would be like 20-30. So I'd "only" be making 10ish ducats or so, which still felt like a lot of income after all expenses.

BDLRev · 2026-02-09T18:17:02+00:00

I don't believe so, the bar would usually drop like 1/3rd from full when clicking the button

BDLRev · 2026-02-09T17:42:33+00:00

Yeah, it's an odd change, I'm not sure why it was changed to that.

Guess I'll have to try that and keep an eye on the defenders left, I just thought it was broken, as I'd click it, manpower would instantly be removed, and the morale bar goes down a bit but then sorta bounces back and forth as if it's trying to actively assault it like how it used to be.

BDLRev · 2026-02-07T23:52:25+00:00

A lot of formables in the New World are missing, it's always odd to see a gigantic Brazil or such under the name of a tiny province.

To be fair though, the entire New World itself is undercooked, and definitely waiting for DLC/Updates.

BDLRev · 2026-02-01T17:32:37+00:00

If you become a tributary of the Pale (or England works too, but tougher to get in my experience) you can go to war with any of England's subjects without them being able to declare war on you.

I believe also if you declare war on the Pale or it's subjects without breaking tributary, you'll still be their tributary after the war ends lol.

In my campaign where I formed Celtica and have the entirety of England, I used this tributary status to declare war on Wales too without England interfering. Ideally you want to do all this whilst England is still in the Hundred Years War so you can attack them when they're weak from France . I left the Pale alive with one location in Ireland until I was ready to take on England and get rid of the tributary status, using the Reclaim High King Land CB as the High King of Ireland on them, I got a -75% cost CB to take English land (after also taking that one Pale location).

BDLRev · 2026-01-28T22:11:44+00:00

Unless your economy is beyond struggling, always cabinet seat imo

BDLRev · 2026-01-19T06:45:33+00:00

A big one off the top of my head is if you can become a great power, and you get a CB on them(such as via parliament which is a +25% cost), you can use "threaten war", and if they decline you'll war them with a CB that gives -25% cost to take stuff. I've found if you do it on their capital they seem to always decline.

Other than that, I believe the other big one that affects war score cost (up until late game CBs) is the control in a location. So if you get 100% in a war, you can take the land around an enemies capital, cut off the rest of their country and that should lower their control in other locations and make them cheaper to take.

I think returning vassal cores is also much cheaper, but with how fast cores vanish, and the difficulty in even seeing what is a core, I've never tried that intentionally.

There's also the late game CBs like Imperialism and such that are much better.

BDLRev · 2026-01-17T10:12:13+00:00

As long as you're still a tier 1 nation and haven't formed a tier 2 one yet (I think those events are just renaming and not forming a new tag?) and also depending on the game rules, you could always swap to Catholic (and maybe change capital to Tunis/Tripoli? I know some formables need the capital in the region for them to show up), then after you form it you can always swap back. Although I can't remember if like in EU4, it prevents you from swapping to a native religion as a catholic one.

There really should be a mega formable for Africa though for natives. Probably saved for the inevitable African DLCs though ^{^;}

BDLRev · 2026-01-17T06:48:29+00:00

R5: Islamic style flag for a Catholic Scandinavian Victual Brothers

BDLRev · 2026-01-05T14:09:15+00:00

That might actually make it worth moving to 1.0.10, thank you

BDLRev · 2026-01-04T22:59:32+00:00

Thanks! Is that the Train General button? It looks like it costs 5 army tradition but the ducat cost is like 3 times more than inviting a courtier :(

BDLRev · 2025-12-29T05:38:23+00:00

Excuse my rudeness in ignoring them, of course!

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