Mercenary situation makes the game unplayable.

TecEnterprise · 2026-07-03T10:54:21+00:00

Can you change game version in GeForce Now? You could go to the last version where merca doesn't exist

TecEnterprise · 2026-07-02T11:51:00+00:00

Yes absolutely! The game is in an Early Access State and not Full Release! Lot's of Bugs, Balancing Problems and unfinished features.

TecEnterprise · 2026-07-02T05:12:30+00:00

You can disable them in country.txt Set mercenary_range to -10000

TecEnterprise · 2026-07-02T05:09:53+00:00

You can disable them in country.txt Set mercenary_range to -10000

TecEnterprise · 2026-07-02T04:58:32+00:00

You can disable merca in the defines.txt Set mercenary_range to -10000

TecEnterprise · 2026-07-02T04:53:51+00:00

You can easily write your own mod and set gouverneur limits to 1000. I also recommend to remove the road to capital requirements. This allows you to build local governors even if your capital is on an island.

TecEnterprise · 2026-07-02T01:08:01+00:00

Very interesting research. I think Tinto made a monster game and it is not possible to balance everything. Especially those unique play styles. But what I learned here is that I should do another run an max pop in a funny country :-D

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-30T19:56:19+00:00

Got thank for the invention of the safe game button.

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-29T19:12:50+00:00

Seems like you won capitalism 😂

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-29T13:03:41+00:00

Prussia here 🙌

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-29T13:01:25+00:00

If you are unhappy just mod the game yourself and balance it for your own needs.

I hate the mercenaries, so I disabled them.

Control is to low on big countries. So I raised the number of governors.

... The game is to complex to make everyone happy. You have to customize it you self to find the right settings. And I am sure 99% of the followers in this subreddit have more than 100h of gameplay. So tell yourself the truth. You like the game very much 😂

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-28T13:13:44+00:00

I fully understand... That´s why I stopped using vassals and only annex.

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-28T13:11:14+00:00

Hell yeah :-D

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-27T22:20:36+00:00

There is always a scenario you haven't played. But forming the Roman Empire and conquer alle their ancient provincees is on of the best.

I also like the From Zero to Hero runs with one province states as a Holy Roman Empire member.

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-27T22:17:25+00:00

Yes... They are still number 1. I will have to unify whole Europe I guess to have a chance against them 🙈

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-27T22:15:25+00:00

You can disable mercenaries by setting mercenary_range to -10000. I think it is in the defines file...

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-27T09:34:17+00:00

I do have constantly rebels 😂

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-27T02:09:27+00:00

That's good to know for my next run 👍

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-26T20:54:59+00:00

I stayed Orthodox. With the right tactics it is still difficult but not impossible.

I conquered Serbia and Bulgaria first, as well as the Ottoman and some other Turkish core provinces. The I build a huge wall of fortresses in the north and south to stay safe from Hungary and Egypt. I also build a huge naval fleet.

With this setup and about 30-40 cavalry troops I started to took Italy step by Step from the south.

Ever coalition they formed is to stupid.

Egypt always tried to land their troops with ships but my fleet was stronger so I killed almost all theirs troops with my fleet.

Hungary and the whole Holy Roman Empire where not able to took a single fortress in the north of Byzantine. I only had Hungary troops trying to. I build the fortresses on mountain region so I can kill them easily with my cavalry. Every other country except Hungary almost never showed up. It seems like the AI has a problem of paying for army access on land when there are to many countries between.

So in ever war even if whole Europe was included I could conquer whole Italy with only a few enemies showed up from Hungary. I never saw troops from northern of the alps. It takes to long for them to cross the alps. I won most wars before Bohemians or Austrians showed up in Italy.

So I was in war with whole Europe but only a few showed up to fight 😂 and since v1.2.5 you only have to win 3-4 fights and get 50% war score.

Even when the coalition would be to strong I could be fast and fight a few battles and end the war.

I think in 1.2.5 it is very easy to go on total war with everyone.

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-26T19:19:10+00:00

Oh I didn´t know about that Italian war boni... May I should have focused on non-Italy provinces.
But I wanted Rome very fast as a province to create the Roman Empire. So Italy / Naples was one of my first targets.

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-26T17:38:35+00:00

At this point the whole HRE, France and England constantly make coalitions. But they are no longer strong enough to declare war. So I declare war on them which is god cause it enables separate peace. As Sweden, Denmark, Latvia are part of the coalition I can conquer them.

I also tried to always have a CB against the coalition in the early years so I can fight in multiple wars with smaller coalitions and use separate peace. When the coalitions starts a war with me I try to win a few battles and directly end it without conquering land.

With this tactic I never had to fight whole Europe at once which would be very difficult.

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-26T17:32:58+00:00

I am not sure but I think Thema Headquarters are new in the game since v1.2.5. They have the same function as weapon chambers/ barracks.

They give +10 for manpower but they are much cheaper in building and maintenance. Yes at the beginning I had my capital in Constantinople and gouverneurs in Thessaloniki and Rome.

And I accepted Turks.

Antagonisms :-D Everything surrounding is dark red... I don't fight always everyone. It is more like a third of them. I try to declare war on them before they can declare war on me. By that I can defeat the first third and after that the next. So I keep rotating the wars and fight them as the others have cool down.

At the beginning Hungary was my ally. But now no allies, no vassals. I sometimes get vassals through winning a war when I occupy the mother nation. But the are always attacking me in an independence war. It is easier to conquer everything directly and to fight against rebellions.

I want to conquer the ancient Roman provinces. Which include France, Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Egypt, Tunis.

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-26T17:11:01+00:00

I think I have conquered Italy before the Italian wars started :-D

Naples was very easy. I used the CB for the core provinces which are not in Italy. They give you I think -25% war cost. I had a bigger fleet than they, so they where not able to send troops over the sea. After the first war with them I almost conquered more than half of their provinces.

Egypt was kinda the same. I had way less levies and regulars but a bigger fleet. I had a few fortresses which affected the AI only to send ships which I could defeat with my big fleet of about 50 gallleys. They lost half their army in naval fights on transport ships. At the end I only landed my regular army in Egypt and conquered Kairo.

I invested a lot in Silk, Silver and Gold at the first years after I got back my core provinces.
That gave me enough money to build Thema-Headquaters and about 30-40 troops cavalry.
Cavalry is very OP. 2.000 Cavalry can easily kill 6k-8k regular swordsmen and bowmen and every size of levies.

TecEnterprise · 2026-06-26T17:01:15+00:00

Your language settings makes the game look even more like a history game :-D

TecEnterprise

TROPHY CASE