personal unions are a terrible mechanic

[ropestring3]

I am venice, i declare war on naples, right about to sue for peace, then i realize that in the middle of the war, they fell into a personal union with france. because of a stroke of bad luck, my campaign was over, a few hours of my life were wasted (I had to reset since they wanted to take many provinces and weaken me and then ottoman would get me). Pure chance decided that I had to lose, that is no fun. Personal unions add little to the game, since you can't do much to influence them, it makes the game more like monopoly (roll a die to win/to do poorly)

[[deleted]]

That is really unfortunate. Hopefully, things go better the next time :)

[Black_Rat]

For the record it is actually fairly easy to manipulate PUs in your advantage, only for monarchs, but still it is very possible to play a game that only looks for PUs.

[grotaclas]

Normally countries don't fall into a personal union while at war. This union with France is due to the event The Baronial Revolts[eu4.paradoxwikis.com]. I think it is an oversight by the developers that this event can fire while Naples is the primary target of a war. The iberian wedding for example can't fire in such a situation.

[PuttBlug]

No they aren't a terrible mechanic, you just got unlucky. I don't play ironman games for that reason, if you do you accept the possibility that at some point something might happen that won't be to your liking.

[Rodi]

Its a bug I think. Naples became a subject through wvent, which maybe shouldnt fire while at war

[Medicles]

I think PUs got heavily nerfed anyway. At least in 1.29 there was a chance to get nations under PU through their rulers dying without an heir, but that is apparently not possible anymore and PUs only happen via events and missions.

At least i havent seen a PU happening in that way since release. I think it has something to do with the new heir mechanic.

[EA Latium]

Originally posted by Medicles:

I think PUs got heavily nerfed anyway. At least in 1.29 there was a chance to get nations under PU through their rulers dying without an heir, but that is apparently not possible anymore and PUs only happen via events and missions.

At least i havent seen a PU happening in that way since release. I think it has something to do with the new heir mechanic.

Now that you point it out I wonder if it was intentional.

[Anaverageguy41]

Originally posted by Medicles:

I think PUs got heavily nerfed anyway. At least in 1.29 there was a chance to get nations under PU through their rulers dying without an heir, but that is apparently not possible anymore and PUs only happen via events and missions.

At least i havent seen a PU happening in that way since release. I think it has something to do with the new heir mechanic.

That's definite confirmation bias, I've seen it happen several times since 1.29 and i'm sure several others have as well.

If a nation doesn't have an heir it has a small chance of firing the newborn daughter/maid event which spawns a weak claim heir.
Possibly why you've never seen a natural PU recently

[Medicles]

Originally posted by Anaverageguy41:

Originally posted by Medicles:

I think PUs got heavily nerfed anyway. At least in 1.29 there was a chance to get nations under PU through their rulers dying without an heir, but that is apparently not possible anymore and PUs only happen via events and missions.

At least i havent seen a PU happening in that way since release. I think it has something to do with the new heir mechanic.

That's definite confirmation bias, I've seen it happen several times since 1.29 and i'm sure several others have as well.

If a nation doesn't have an heir it has a small chance of firing the newborn daughter/maid event which spawns a weak claim heir.
Possibly why you've never seen a natural PU recently

Of course its my own opinion and not a fact, but do you have an example of a PU happening without an event or mission involved after 1.30?

Originally posted by EA Latium:

Now that you point it out I wonder if it was intentional.

I can see that, but i dont like it. I dont really see a reason to marry into an old ruler anymore, because the chance of something happening in my favour is way too small now.

[Plant]

Russia I still see fall under natural PUs (non-event or mission) late game.

[ropestring3]

Originally posted by Pastor LuL:

No they aren't a terrible mechanic, you just got unlucky. I don't play ironman games for that reason, if you do you accept the possibility that at some point something might happen that won't be to your liking.

yeah I know, I was just frustrated so I made this post to vent. I don't like save scumming because it feels like cheating (and makes me all to conscious that the game is just a sandbox with colors filling in a map of the world)