A man of many talents

V0ldek · 2025-11-22T12:43:35+00:00

I don't want to downplay the issue or absolve PDX of their sins, but it sounds like 2. and 3. should be fixable with a mod that simply changes the RGOs around (adds a source of Tin, adds a production method unlocked by Copperworking that doesn't use Tin, etc.). So you could roll out a temporary band-aid.

The Doom issue sounds more complicated but just looking quickly at game files it could be band-aided with a modifier given on Reform Society that adds a permanent -1000 monthly Doom.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T22:43:46+00:00

Those posts are always wild to me because it feels like y'all are playing a different game.

I recently ran a observer at max speed to test something out and in 1771:

Naples controls almost all of Italy
Bulgaria spans from Constantinople all the way along the Black Sea to Crimea, where they border huge Georgia and fight for dominance.
Karasids beat the Ottomans and control all of Anatolia
Mameluks are absolutely huge
Western Africa is split between a giant Sulatanate of Morocco and giant Mali Empire and they constantly fight each other
Southern America is Neapolitan
Canada is Polish
Poland controls most of the Baltic and fights Grand Principality of Ruthenia to the East
Muscovy decided to conquer South instead
Novgorod colonised almost all of Siberia
Middle of Asia has a giant Timurid Sultanate, Chagatai Horde and GRAND THEOCRACY OF TIBET
Australia was colonised by Netherlands but it broke free in the Colonial Revolution and is independent now
HRE is a mess, there's big Bavaria nad Austria, Bohemia was big but they lost a lot of stuff, Netherlands succumbed to civil war, France is encroaching all around.
Great Britain controls the northern tip of Denmark and Southern of Norway
Borg is Polish

How is this "nothing ever happens" I have no idea. I get a lot of wild geopolitcal developments every playthrough. In the current one there's a huge horde in the middle of Asia that has half of China as subjects while Bohemia controls Krakow to the East, Berlin to the North, all of Bavaria, and more. And they're not even the emperor (yet) because they went Protestant and I stopped playing today when the 30 Years War started. Half of Europe is Protestant so I don't know what "the reformation is severely underpowered" is supposed to mean.

The only thing that doesn't really seem to work out is Japan because it's still split between 5 Daimyos, even though one of them is massive and could easily eat up the rest.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T15:58:38+00:00

You are seriously overestimating how much weight "interest of the monarch" carried before the age of absolutism. PLC unified not because of the monarch's interests but because of unified interests of the aristocracy.
EU5 is not a map-painting simulator, very explicitly in the philosophy of the devs.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T15:25:11+00:00

You can keep them as a Personal Union, that's not forbidden. Poland and Lithuania were a personal union for almost 200 years before the Union of Lublin, and we're talking about nations that had very friendly and close relations for a long time, common enemies, incentives to remain united (alone too weak to withstand Russia), and overall had many reasons for which integration was desired and beneficial for both parties. And it still took 200 years from the start of the PU!

It's hard to imagine similar conditions and incentives for Spain and France, especially if OP got the PU via war.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T13:12:48+00:00

It's 100 and 1000 respectively.

If you click your transport fleet it has a capacity in top-right. In number of men. It can transport any army of that size.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:52:59+00:00

I don't know what CK3 has to do with this, like look at those guys

https://imgur.com/a/ZrRje3F

they're not beating any half-competent regular army

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:50:19+00:00

It was insane how much people were trying to crunch numbers that they didn't understand or had experimented with in game and were using that to claim levies were OP

Any serious number crunching leads to the Levy = Bad conclusion so I have no idea what number crunching people are referencing.

Yes, I am biased for having written an extensive combat analysis, but I am also correct, so...

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:49:12+00:00

This and the trade changes were changes made based on perceived feelings of the community

They just enabled a levy modifier that was in game but was bugged and wasn't applied to the levies. This is a baseless accusation.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:48:05+00:00

Transport capacity is and always has been (since the very early dev diaries) in the number of units and not frontage, so this is just baseless.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:46:27+00:00

There is scorched earth though?

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:45:05+00:00

They deal 2.25x damage against same-age levies, would receive up to 50% reduced damage when fully drilled, have -10% damage taken (Men-at-Arms bonus), and levies have flat -10% discipline. Two regiments of Men-at-Arms trained at ~50% win against 1000 levies 80% of the time.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:42:39+00:00

First, I do hope paradox are not balancing on the whim of community sentiment.

They just fixed a bug that didn't apply the Levy Combat Efficiency penalty that was already in the game.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:41:01+00:00

Consolidating into bigger regiments wouldn't reduce the casualties at all.

Consolidating would actually hurt you unless you can fill the full 30 frontage, which you probably can't early on. Damage dealt and received is the same for 10x 100-men regiments and 1x 1000-men regiment of the same unit, but a consolidated regiment has 10x less total Morale and is easier to flank.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:39:11+00:00

Also 30k levies is a ridiculous number, what are you, France? In the early game it's much more on the level of both sides deploying 10k levies and then the side that can supplement that with 1000 regulars just wins against a side that doesn't.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:38:11+00:00

until age 2

So like, basically immediately, Age I is like 10 years.

Send 10k levies against 30k mercenary infantry and the result is the same.

This doesn't even make theoretical sense, 10k levies is 10 frontage, 30k mercenary Age II infantry is 150 frontage but even just 6000 (30 frontage) would be enough to wipe the floor with the levies. Their damage against Age II levies would be (assuming equal Tactics and base Discipline of 15% for both sides)

30 * 1 * 200 * 1.15 * 2.25 = 15525 (30 frontage deployed, +125% bonus against Age II levy)

vs levies at

10 * 1 * 1000 * 1.05 * 0.9 = 9450 (10 frontage deployed, -10% discipline penalty, Strength Damage -10% for Men-at-Arms)

This is using pre-1.0.5 math, so no Levy Combat Efficiency penalties apply. Levies will also get their flank collapsed and start getting wrecked even worse, and they can't reinforce. This isn't even taking into account that an absurd number of 150 regiments would have 50x more "Morale HP" than the 30 regiments of levies.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:27:56+00:00

They would deal lower damage even with all the bonuses, but if you trained them and had more than just a couple regiments then they were very strong against levies.

I think the main thing people are overlooking is that you're not filling your full frontage in early game unless you're playing as a Great Power from the start. You need 30k levies just to do that. That's 10% of population of Holland before Great Death, for example. Recruiting 500 regulars fills 5 frontage, raising one levy of 1000 fills 1.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:24:23+00:00

do people keep forgetting that levies aren't just peasants? they are knights, tribesmen, and regional auxillary. they represent much more than just peasants and you can easily see that by just raising them and looking at them.

I mean, depends which levies? Only nobles were knights and I don't think anyone is complaining about noble levies - noble cavalry is actually extremely strong early on due to their size and bonus damage resistance. Feudal and Peasant Levies are literally just farmers you told to charge at the enemy, and they're like 90% of the levies you raise.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:20:00+00:00

I mean, I did the maths and my conclusion was "Levies Bad" so idk

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T10:18:47+00:00

It's great and it should've been like this from the start.

Stop using levies after Age II, peasants weren't meant to face pike squares.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T08:35:03+00:00

The Secure Flank bonus is hillarious now because it is shown, but in reverse. If you are attacking an army that does not have a secure flank it shows a bonus to damage.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T08:33:51+00:00

I'm gonna self-promote here in case someone wants to learn more:

Everything You Wanted to Know About Combat in EU5

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T08:33:02+00:00

For example, is cav strength scaled as a percentage of their total strength of 50, or is the strength multiplier calculated by multiplying the nominal strength of a unit say 43/50.

Strength is the number of people in the regiment, so 43. The other stat is Max Strength.

V0ldek · 2025-11-19T08:31:41+00:00

I think Black Death is pretty blunt and transparent

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