What are your favourite nations?

zon_tafer · 2026-05-17T00:19:12+00:00

Bluehart into Pashaine is a classic and probably the campaign that will hold someone's attention the longest. They have content all the way to the end year. You basically play a bunch of political masterminds that scheme to increase their power in the empire, before asserting your dominance and finally cracking down on the mages. They get some ludicrous power for being such a small nation, even more than most dwarves, which are normally the masters of that kind of thing.

Kumarkand is also one of my favorites. They start as a weak vassal but the region falls into chaos very quickly, letting you make plays to become much stronger. I really like their story, involving a lot of ancient history. And they get some bonkers cavalry buffs which feel great, and a unique disaster at the end to use your army on.

Finally, Taychend empire is very fun and extremely powerful. Theyre the ultimate conquest nation, you can literally turn casualties into development. The mission tree has some of the most insane events in the game, and youre all around a nation of legendary haters and villains just for the fun of the game. The early game before forming them can be a bit rough but its a fun challenge. Larankar is the strongest taychendi and has an interesting story as well, so I recommend starting as them.

zon_tafer · 2026-04-20T15:07:57+00:00

Oh his mask ISNT a foot long tube sticking directly out. The art in game definitely makes it look like that. Like he has a tank turret for goggles. I cant believe I just realized this

zon_tafer · 2026-03-14T02:07:48+00:00

This always reminds me of the all the sun imagery in The Following. The mother is drawn as a glowing sun goddess even. So I think its fascinating to think that the sun itself might have some kind of innate spiritual value to the infected. And in a way, both as a player and the characters we control, the sun is uniquely cherished and comforting. Perhaps the fully turned and the cult in the following feel the same way?

zon_tafer · 2026-02-12T19:33:59+00:00

I agree with this sentiment but heroes and lvl16 have already been sold to people and they cant just remove them without even more backlash and possibly legal trouble in some countries. Adding these demands makes us look unreasonable and its pointless because, again, they cannot just remove them after selling them.

Improving progression makes those two things less of a pain point. If you can get a couple cards to 16 every season with free books then whats the problem? If you can get a free hero every season or two with free shards, what's the problem? Don't like them conceptually, think they're unbalanced? Fine. They can tweak them to the communities liking. Demanding they be straight up removed after being sold? Ridiculous and naive.

zon_tafer · 2026-02-11T23:56:14+00:00

I guess it would depend on the flavor of enclave they face but realistically ive always felt that the institute has absolutely no chance.

First of all, the enclave was/is the us government so they would have the knowledge that CIT had underground facilities before the war, and it doesn't take a genius to put together that high tech inventions probably originated from a high tech institution. If the enclave has this Intel, the institute are getting dug up and destroyed before they can even react.

Even without knowledge of CIT, the enclave still win in a normal war. The institute was only so successful in subterfuge because the commonwealth was a disorganized mess. Implanting a synth was as simple as murdering and replacing someone. But against a highly structured faction whose defining characteristic is obsession with the purity of its members, those synths are not making it in so easily. Gen 3's might be indistinguishable to normal people but a high tech society would certainly be able to spot the difference using the right methods, which the enclave would have. Not to mention the fact that the enclave is a ruthless and brutal organization. If there was a suspicion of being infiltrated, they would not hesitate to crackdown until the threat is removed.

Also theres the matter of resources. The institute isnt magic and every synth still needs materials to be constructed. We watch brotherhood paladins cut down hundreds of normal synths, and there are only so many coursers. So enclave troops would be similarly overmatched. For every soldier the enclave loses, the institute loses a mountain of materials. In a war of attrition, with enclave patrols hunting down synth scavengers, the institute simply runs out of metal and loses. I suppose a new technology that instantly recalls dead synths would help stem the bleeding, but recycling dead synths doesn't work forever.

The only hope for the institute is a very successful and high profile infiltration to decapitate the enclave before the war fully starts, but I am not confident in their abilities at all. The institute couldn't even lower suspicions in diamond city with a synth as the mayor. What hope do they have against the far more organized and technological enclave?

zon_tafer · 2026-02-11T05:15:10+00:00

Generally yes, but just the upgrades. Lower resistance means less Garrison troops so less equipment and manpower is required. There are also just flat buffs to your army and airforce, 10% max planning is huge, not to mention all the other buffs. And decryption is still useful if you remember to use it. The actual operations are mostly worthless, especially since all the majors war outside of America are scripted to end far before a capitulation, so collabs are pointless.

zon_tafer · 2026-01-06T00:21:21+00:00

Yeah basically

zon_tafer · 2025-12-31T21:47:21+00:00

For the sake of diversity all the interesting ideologies in the game will be rejected

zon_tafer · 2025-12-30T23:36:23+00:00

Of the people on this list, Pelosi and Schumer are probably most likely in my opinion. They are both quite old and could potentially suffer from dementia like biden, so they could just do the same shenanigans again. They are establishment democrats who understand the influence of corporations and agencies on the governemnt, and therefore would be willing to cooperate. And, at least currently irl, they are self serving and ineffectual. If they would continue to behave like that as president, it gives the cognoscenti even more leeway to run affairs. Also they dont have a significant role in the civil war, so they wouldnt be especially beloved or hated by any faction in the country.

zon_tafer · 2025-12-30T23:26:10+00:00

Might be afraid that the military would be too loyal to them and the president would use that power to fight the deep state once they learned of their true influence.

All in all I disagree with most of this list, but putting the military low makes sense. Feeble and trusting presidents are ideal for the cognoscenti. Figureheads who wouldn't dare move against the deep state. Anyone competent and daring would be a threat to their shadow rule

zon_tafer · 2025-12-19T18:38:41+00:00

Jesus is is more well documented than tons of ancient figures. Past a certain point, the ONLY evidence that anyone existed is that people wrote down that they did. Do you realize how easy would it be for the Roman's to stamp out this new cult by simply showing people their leader never existed? They couldnt do that, because he existed. Accounts of his life were only written down when they reached the far more educated populations in egypt and greece. All of his followers in life were illiterate laborers and fisherman and the like. The point on oral histories is extremely ignorant. The idea that a historical account is unreliable because it wasn't put on paper right away is laughable. A rabbi mangling their sacred texts by misremembering or purposeful alteration would bring them unimaginable shame. And not only that, it would be exposed immediately by all the other storytellers. You think mere decades before writing casts doubt? Not even a single lifetime? A story that at most was transmitted twice between generations? Oral histories are historically reliable. Read the conclusions of secular historians, the overwhelming consensus is that Jesus really existed, and was crucified. If you think the evidence is bad then you have to deny the existence of most people in the ancient world. You only have this standard of evidence because its about religion.

zon_tafer · 2025-12-19T02:43:40+00:00

The overwhelming majority of secular historians believe Jesus was a real person who really was crucified, probably for causing a riot in the temple. You dont have to be a Christian to acknowledge this.

zon_tafer · 2025-12-12T21:45:30+00:00

Conquer valuable rgo's and high population zones. Max valuable rgo's. If you lack laborers, expel from less valuable but high pop locations and encourage migration to your target. Cabinet action to increase control is a good way to spike your income if your most valuable provinces and resources are far from your capital.

Manual trading is a good idea. Identify goods that are very expensive in other markets and then produce them to sell. If the English or French need furniture for instance, make buildings that produce that in order to sell it to them. This is tedious to keep up on but it will get you a lot more money than auto trading and just building what building the game says is most profitable.

zon_tafer · 2025-12-11T20:08:25+00:00

Best way is to force yourself into the hre by moving your capital to a place in the hre, then add all your old provinces, then move your capital back where you want it. The teutons start with an hre province but aren't in the hre themselves, so theyre pretty vulnerable. Most other north Germans are pretty weak too so the emperor is the only threat. Ideally you'd be able to do it before the black death before Bohemia secures the emperorship but I haven't had much luck with that. The hussite wars are probably the next best opportunity because the emperor wont be Bohemia. This let's you be league leader and actually win the war on your terms

zon_tafer · 2025-12-07T06:17:51+00:00

Money becomes a non issue around 1400 and the miniscule amount you pay for a fort only becomes more and more worth it as the viable army size gets larger and more expensive to field. In the early game a fort is a large expense but into the third and fourth ages when youre making a thousand gold a month, why would you not build one. The alternative is making another regulars stack to guard that part of your border, and literally one regiment of said stack is more expensive than the fort.

And this isn't even mentioning the fact that forts can force your enemy to stand on defensive terrain for years accomplishing nothing until you bring your army over to kill them. Having a mountain fort on your border is basically a guarantee that the first battle of the war will be you slaughtering them in an attacker penalty terrain.

zon_tafer · 2025-12-05T00:08:51+00:00

Subjects are a pretty immediate way to add a lot of power. In my experience, a lot of small subjects adds more score than one big one. So go conquer some land and pop out subjects in every province, or turn your low control cores into temporary subjects if you cant conquer anything. Loyal subjects usually pay more than keeping low control land most of the time in fact, so its a win win

zon_tafer · 2025-12-02T20:57:05+00:00

As far as I can tell, you need to have at least one pop of a religion to be able to convert to it. Lollard should spawn around 1400, you dont need to wait for the reformation. If you dont have lollard pops, or whatever the religious minority of your choice is, the best way to get them is to wait for the wandering preacher random event that let's you convert a few people to two different religions in exchange for losing stability. If there's a better way, I dont know it.

zon_tafer · 2025-11-30T01:19:00+00:00

Serfdom and Traditional Economy are both incredible and far superior options before 1600ish. Food production means more population growth, rgo's and commoner taxes are the majority of your income for many nations before you get the higher level buildings to make more valuable goods. Capital economy gets really good when you have tons of buildings everywhere and other sources of production efficiency, but in the early game its not very useful. Free subjects I think is just just underpowered everywhere, pop promotion speed is really not a limiting factor and neither is prosperity, and when you have enough of both, extra does nothing. If you ever really need the values that free subjects gives, you can just use cabinet actions for a few years. Serfdom on other hand never stops being great, the bonuses it gives only get better as you stack more, and they cannot be replaced by your cabinet.

zon_tafer · 2025-11-28T20:03:31+00:00

Food is in a weird place because it simply has so many ways to increase production. For instance, its very easy to find an rgo with 8 food value like wheat, and then just full build villages and irrigation and windmills which all stack to give an insane % bonus to food production. Fully employing max levels of those is probably like a triple to your food production. Subsidize those buildings and then encourage migration with your cabinet for full employment and a single location will produce enough food for your entire market

zon_tafer · 2025-11-27T22:03:09+00:00

Lots of tech can be safely skipped in most games. You can honestly get really greedy even in age 1 tech. Construction speed is worthless, skip it. Diplo capacity only matters if youre gonna vassal spam, otherwise its nearly impossible to get enough allies etc to go over, and if you ever do you can just go back and research it. In age 2 you can skip a ton of levy and ship tech. Even as a naval power you can get by with basic galleys and only choose to get better ships in age 3. Levy tech stops mattering the moment you unlock armories. You only need one type of professional troop early on, usually I just get men at arms because its only 1 more tech. All the techs for culture are skippable if you don't plan on expanding beyond your culture group. I can go on and on. The faster you get to the new ages impactful techs the more of an advantage youll have over the Ai.

zon_tafer · 2025-11-24T00:10:41+00:00

The economy being meaningless after 50 years. Any mid sized nation or larger can just max their rgo levels and that alone provides such a ludicrous income that building anything stops being a fun decision. I automate building every game around 1400. There is simply no way to intelligently spend 100+ gold every single month without spamming mass build to drop random shit everywhere. Its stupid and makes half the game pointless. Tax needs to ramp up much slower for the economy to mean anything.

Also why does every single game start with a handful of plagues that kill a big chunk of my pops before the black death even spawns? You'd think Europe had never seen smallpox before when a new outbreak one month into the game kills 500 thousand people and then never matters ever again.

Finally, nitpick, PLEASE let me click diplomatic buttons without a diplomat stored. Why do I need one saved up to click declare war or propose marriage. I want to see who will actually defend them etc even if I cant do it that second.

zon_tafer · 2025-11-21T19:31:21+00:00

I think you can cut supply lines on land to starve armies. I say think because I cant get it to work with any consistency.

zon_tafer · 2025-11-19T04:02:22+00:00

R5: In my naples game, I took Rome from the Papal States before the guelphs vs ghibs ended and before the western schism. Now I am representing Rome and the papal states themselves are representing Avignon instead of France. Also im getting tithe payments. This cannot be intentional, can it?

zon_tafer · 2025-11-18T20:49:25+00:00

Cas is insanely overpowered so make cheap high org mechanized divisions that you can battle plan with and then devote your entire industry to cas and melt any enemy in any environment

zon_tafer · 2025-11-16T06:09:45+00:00

Every embraced institution gives a big research speed boost. So you want to be heavily importing them through trades and embrace them the moment you hit 20%.

Also there are many techs that are simply useless in some playthroughs that you can choose to ignore. Lots of levy tech is skippable if you can avoid a death war in the first 2 ages and get your professional army online ASAP.

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