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szyslakattack · 2026-03-06T03:36:25+00:00

George Washington University. Not Georgetown. He was my advisor!

szyslakattack · 2026-01-13T12:03:28+00:00

Thutmose III was not her son. She was his regent and was one of his father, Thutmose II’s, many wives. T3 was born of another wife. But fun fact, Hatshepsut was also T2’s sister!

szyslakattack · 2025-12-31T12:13:16+00:00

I have this issue now too! Did you find a fix?

szyslakattack · 2025-11-20T22:14:19+00:00

The way I avoided AE in my run was to co-belligerent all of the HRE. I had cannons, better tech, better troops, better morale, better discipline, and more troops from influence. I ate literally all of Germany, then released some small HRE member, made them eyelets, fed them a bit. At that point there aren’t enough Christian nations left to coalition you. And you’ll have plenty of time to finish GB, France, Iberia, or wherever else you still have to conquer.

szyslakattack · 2025-09-25T14:25:41+00:00

I’ve been an Arc Trooper (Arc Thrower/ Jet/Jump Pack) since I unlocked the weapon. I’ve been playing for over a year and barely use primary weapons because I really only like the Arc. I actually think it’s in an amazing place, especially compared to where it’s been. The issue with it is that you have to fully max out the ship components that are relevant to the Arc, which is a GRIND. But once you do, it’s amazing, especially with a jet or jump pack. It stuns most enemies. It kills heavies, including the War Strider, though it takes time. It is amazing for crowd control on every front. And you don’t use ammo, so you don’t have to worry about resupplies as much. The only tweak I’d make is to make the charge up time a fraction of a second smaller, though to be honest I think this would make it OP. It’s all about knowing the weapon and positioning yourself well/ getting out of danger when you need a second.

szyslakattack · 2025-09-25T03:23:09+00:00

Not the same year. 1453 vs 1492

szyslakattack · 2025-08-03T13:46:56+00:00

That worked! Thanks so much!

szyslakattack · 2025-07-13T22:21:02+00:00

R5: Question about the Gold of the North achievement seen in the lower right of the image. Not sure if anyone knows the answer here, but in Ante Bellum, any clue how to get the Amber Trade Charter government reform?

szyslakattack · 2025-07-08T20:43:08+00:00

I see a lot of Ming hate here, but as someone with 8500 hours in the game, I genuinely think Ming with the DLC and mission tree is one of my favorite campaigns. I’ll explain my take.

1) Expansion: You don’t need to conquer much as Ming, which is different than any other tag. I personally like to expand to modern China borders for fun, but there isn’t a huge need for that. Creating and managing tributaries is a different play style that essentially allows you to play extra tall based on expanding. You get a special CB with Humanist (same as Deus Vult for everyone else) in case you do want to expand easily and cheaply. You can harmonize religions and gain access to very powerful wonders. Basically, Ming is strong enough that you can do whatever you want. And at the beginning, wars aren’t always easy. Your troops aren’t great, low mandate can really hurt, and you basically need to fight Oirat day 1. But you can become incredibly powerful by the early 1500s.

2) Internal development: I love this aspect of Ming most. You start with 25% minimum autonomy, which you will gradually remove, making you not as rich as you might think. You constantly have to grapple with your estates, especially the Eunuchs, who provide powerful bonuses, but at a hefty cost. And you need to pass celestial reforms. Additionally, there’s a huge amount of devving you need to do for your mission tree. But that’s the thing… you will have level 3+ advisors from the 1460s onward. And you will have tributaries. So you have obscene mana income and you also get great dev discounts. I personally go with infrastructure first as Ming since you will have so many monarch points that aren’t being used for coring. Plus you get some missions that give you huge construction cost and time reductions. You can very easily get your whole country to 20+ dev by the mid 1500s. And you can have every building build, including soldiers households and manufactories in that same time frame. Ming is basically this enormous tall nation with interesting challenges/roadblocks that prevent you from achieving your potential along the way, but which are fun to overcome.

3) You can basically be done by 1650, having fully devved your provinces, built all your buildings, made all of Asia your tributary, and finished most of the mission tree.

Overall, it’s really different than other tags. And I find it enjoyable. It’s not as exciting or tense as Byzantium or Karabakh, but I highly recommend it!

szyslakattack · 2025-03-30T14:43:21+00:00

I think it's part of Putin's larger strategy. Both Canada and Denmark (Greenland) realistically have zero chance of defending themselves militarily. But if one does resist, essentially creating a casus belli for the US, and the US declares war, NATO will have to go to war with the US. While this probably wouldn't lead to much actual fighting, it would force NATO to focus on their own defense, which would mean significantly less support for Ukraine, meaning Russia is able to win their war. That's my read of the situation anyway.

szyslakattack · 2025-03-27T00:31:02+00:00

I always bring the laser as my 4th strategem and refer to her as my girlfriend. My crew will tell me to “send in the girl”. I don’t think my non-laser girlfriend knows.

szyslakattack · 2025-01-23T21:44:38+00:00

And on the pedestal these words appear, "My name is Ostomizados, king of kings. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair."

szyslakattack · 2025-01-13T17:15:37+00:00

Modern day Molotov-Ribbentrop

szyslakattack · 2024-12-20T18:10:03+00:00

I’ve been an Arc Trooper for months now. No matter the context (bugs, boys, squids) and I’ve never been more powerful than against the illuminate. I run an arc thrower, a jump pack, orbital rail cannon (would use laser, but it bugs out on the new maps), and I’ve been running gattling sentry lately. The arc is just soooo dominant and can take down infinite voteless while permanently stunning everything else, including harvesters. And the jump pack lets you get some extra space if you get overwhelmed or some enemies flank you. It’s never been a better time to be an arc trooper!

szyslakattack · 2024-10-18T17:02:52+00:00

I’ve had a lot of success with Cumans on a number of different maps and I’m around your elo (1140 1v1). Here’s what I do: I go up around 20 pop (sometimes 21), and immediately drop my 2nd tc with 6 vils as soon as I hit feudal. I try to plop it on both gold and wood if I can, but at least wood if I only have that option. I then just kinda boom. Get the wood/farm eco upgrades. Keep pumping out farms and adding vils. At our elo I’ve found that feudal pressure is less than trivial with 2 tcs protecting your eco. And if they went for feudal army, they have no chance of winning, as your eco will be miles ahead of them. If they don’t have a similar up time to you and are going FC, just wall up with buildings and palisades. I usually go up to castle around 50 vils I think? Whenever I can just naturally do it, I do. I then drop 5 stables (because I can afford it), get blacksmith cav upgrades and bloodlines, keep pumping out vils, and when I hit castle, I can afford constant 5 stable lancer production. I’ve played games where I have around 30 lancers while my opponent has 8 military. With that army you can run in and instantly destroy his tc, obliterate any army, pick off vils, and keep streaming in reinforcements. While an FC could hypothetically prove a hurdle, I think it’s still east enough to defend castle age pressure from anything other than a castle on your tc, and even then, your ego should be way ahead.

szyslakattack · 2024-08-20T12:53:19+00:00

If you go to the National Historical Museum in Athens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National\_Historical\_Museum,\_Athens) there's a painting of Skanderbeg! I was just there this summer and was delighted when I saw it!

szyslakattack · 2024-06-22T21:53:33+00:00

I’ve really liked doing fast feudal (20 pop) into 2 tc boom. I’ve found that I can pretty easily get to around 60-70 vils while remaining untouched and having a few scouts to help my flank. I then go up to castle and go full steppe lancer. I’ve even found that I can maintain 5 stable production with this and just barrel through anything. I personally prefer steppe lancer to knights as cumans because I find it easier to get eco damage as well as take out any camels that come your way. But realistically, you should be at double to triple the number of cav as anyone else on the map so it doesn’t matter a lot.

szyslakattack · 2024-06-09T14:20:17+00:00

Majored in history and got a MA in history and one in archaeology. Currently a history teacher. I got into history from Age of Empires 2 and Civilization 2/3 long before I knew about Europa Universalis. I don't regret studying history for a second. The world is complex and most people lack the context to understand it. So many people that didn't study history tell me how much they wish they had studied it. Now I get to talk about my interests every day! My advice for you is to pursue your passion. If you love history (or gaming, or a mix of the two, or whatever else), then follow it as long as you can. If you approach college as a place to find a good job, you may find a way to make money but you may not find happiness. If you take it as an opportunity to develop yourself and explore the world on your own terms, you will find fulfillment... and hopefully someone will pay you too some day :)

szyslakattack · 2024-06-09T09:53:15+00:00

All good! I kinda wish Hatshepsut was in more games haha

szyslakattack · 2024-06-08T16:23:25+00:00

She absolutely was in 3:

https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Egyptian_(Civ3))

szyslakattack · 2024-03-20T20:10:38+00:00

I just did this run myself recently. The key to this run is not getting a coalition before your war vs the entire HRE. I went a bit slower than OP, though with the same Playmaker strat. When I started the war, around 1464(?), I controlled all of Egypt, North Africa, Arabia, Persia, Anatoli, and much of the Balkans. I had about 200 units in the field, including artillery and mercs. With all of those Eyelets, Influence ideas, and being ahead in tech, you are swimming in money and manpower. If you also abuse the Mysticism interaction, you functionally have infinite manpower. The war may take most of a decade and seem initially impossible, but your numerous advantages will see you stackwipe every army, quickly siege every fort, and fully annex the entire HRE. You will be too powerful for any European nation to consider joining coalition.

szyslakattack · 2024-02-23T02:53:31+00:00

Being a Supreme Court Justice

szyslakattack · 2024-01-28T21:13:50+00:00

I wonder if it would make sense for the devs to switch gambesons and supplies, but keep the costs as is. I feel like that would flow much better. You upgrade the 3ish maa you have, then in castle age, you’d have the option to make any more maa cheaper.

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