Norway tactics?

[satioh]

Ofcourse getting rid of Denmark and trying to snag some Provinces from both Denmark and Swedenis an obvious early move, but then what?

Got a few options. As for land I would either sell orknøy to get Scotland of my back or use that as a foothold to take over Scotland. If you sell it, you get a bit of money and you never have to worry about the Scotts attacking you, wich is useful early on.

Option 2 is focus on Mainland Europe, but that quickly gets you into trouble with some powerfull nations and the HRE, so maybee better a bit later.

Third option is north east. Take over atleast northern Sweden and go east to Novgorod and so. Not sure how good those provinces are or if they got some different continent malus.

4rth and final option is to rush admin tech and get QFTNW. Yes I know Norway will get it eventually, but probably around 1600 wich is late to the party. Get some provinces over there and fight the native tribes before anyone else have the range. It also sets the setting if you later want to go for "Get out of here"

If I go for 4, would it be a good idea to move the capital over there later, when they are richer than my EU holdings, or would it be better to stay in Europe and just use the colonies as a income boost?

For money there is only 2 options, getting some provinces that are way richer than Norways, (Expanding somewhere in Europe), or go trading. Trading will also help if you go colonies. Will it be a good idead to max out my naval capasity with light ships and focusing on building up the naval supply limit? I think Nnorway got some nice bonuss to ships too.

Also. Are the slider removed? I played another country and I can't find them, but I keep getting events that boost or reduce Mercantilism and I don't even know where I can check what I'm at atm. Are tehy still there? If so where are they? And what sliders would be usefull? If they are gone, what are they replaced with?

[Myll]

Related issue - in all my recent game starts (which I sort-of am play-testing just the first 50-100 years of the game to see how things initially unfold) -- Denmark is always getting broken apart and then consumed very quickly in the current game. It's as if the Dev's hate Denmark and always want it to lose.

[Marquoz]

Sliders were an EU3 feature. They have never existed in EU4. Your mercantilism value can be found in the Trade tab. You should familiarize yourself with every tab and the information each contains.

As for overall strategy--whatever you want. Any nation in EU4 can literally conquer the entire world if played well. Decide on your goals and accomplish them. As Norway, I generally become Emperor of the HRE early on, stay Catholic, and get the vassal swarm. I also conquer all of Great Britain, the Low Countries, and northern France so that I can collect in the English Channel. And of course I take over all of Scandinavia, the Baltic, Russia, and so on as well.

[Marquoz]

Originally posted by Myll:

Related issue - in all my recent game starts (which I sort-of am play-testing just the first 50-100 years of the game to see how things initially unfold) -- Denmark is always getting broken apart and then consumed very quickly in the current game. It's as if the Dev's hate Denmark and always want it to lose. :2017meatball:

Denmark usually loses control of Sweden in my campaigns. Norway can go either way. But Denmark generally survives in some form. It's rare that I see them do well, but it's also rare that they cease to exist.

[satioh]

Ok on a semi related topic. I tried Castile to check out some of the changes withouth worrying about messing up to much and to check colonizing and exploreing.

So I got QFTNW and hired 1 explorerer and put him in a ship. I can now tell him to go autoexplore in certain areas of the world. Ok that is handy, but it seems I can't tell him to explore a province manually. I would also like him to go up and down the coast a few times to discover some more land provinces, but it doesn't seem to be an option. is there ONLY autoexplore now or can you still do it manually in some way?

[Marquoz]

Only auto-explore. You assign a region within range, and the explorer discovers everything they can within that range. Once a sea zone has been explored, the land adjacent to it becomes available for exploration when you give a further "coast" exploration order. Or you can hire a conquistador, put them ashore somewhere that you've already explored, and have them engage in a land expedition.

If you've run out of things to explore by sea, you need more colonial range. Tech, ideas, and advisors can all provide this.

[Marquoz]

Oh, and I recommend you refer to the wiki frequently. Here's the page on colonization, for example, which also covers exploration:

https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Colonization

[satioh]

Ok, so I read up a bit. Apparently it's the El'dorado expansino that change exploration. While I think the autoexplore is handy I hate that I can't do it manually. So I'm considering not loading it up if I do another exploration game, but I'm sticking with it for now. Maybee it grow on me.

Question is: If I start an ironman game withouth el'Dorado and later load it and continue, as it has some nice stuff later, will I still be able to get the achivements I'm going for it will it be nullified since I added a DLC mid game?

[Marquoz]

Yeah, you can't change things in mid stream like that. And auto-explore is vastly superior to the old system. You don't have to worry about things like attrition. Without auto-explore, you'll have to babysit your explorers constantly and the entire process is much, much slower. You also don't discover coastline automatically with a coast explore mission. Instead, you have to sail back and forth over and over again until it reveals.

So annoying. Autoexplore FTW.

[bri]

There are pros and cons to the auto-explore set-up with El Dorado. On the plus side your ships won't suffer any attrition unless the explorer dies and it cuts down all of the micro (since you can only order units into terra incognito adjacent to known areas). On the flip side you are limited to only auto-explore which is limited by your colonial range so you can't use manually exploring past range to then extend via no-CB forced vassalization and so on.

[satioh]

Btw, I hope conquistadors don't work the same way? There are a lot of natives in some areas and early on they pose a big threat. I'd like to reevaluate the situation after each combat.

[bri]

Originally posted by satioh:

Btw, I hope conquistadors don't work the same way? There are a lot of natives in some areas and early on they pose a big threat. I'd like to reevaluate the situation after each combat.

Nah, you can manually explore with conquistadors if you want, however you will lose out on the 7 Cities events if you do that instead of sending a conquistador out to hunt for them.

[satioh]

Originally posted by bri:

Originally posted by satioh:

Btw, I hope conquistadors don't work the same way? There are a lot of natives in some areas and early on they pose a big threat. I'd like to reevaluate the situation after each combat.

Nah, you can manually explore with conquistadors if you want, however you will lose out on the 7 Cities events if you do that instead of sending a conquistador out to hunt for them.

Oh. I don't even know about that event. Wich areas should I avoid exploring to not block me out from that event? I discovered all the coast from a bith south of Brazil and up to and including all of the caribeen and some of the inland areas in South America, but not that much.

I also have some more question. Norway got 2 achivements that is for that country only. I want to try and do both at the same time. So I'm thinking of going colonisation very early, but also beat up on Sweden and Denmark enough to atleast vassalice them. Then I can feed them the rest of my Scandinavians holdings when I'm ready to move the capital. So here is the question.

After I get the achivement "get out of here", I want, and need if I want Norwegian wood, my provinces back. I know I can't vassalice a country with over 100 development, but if I have already vassaliced them and then feed them provinces, can I later integrate them even if they now have over 100 development? And would it be better haveing 2 or 3 vassals, like Sweden, Denmark and possible Iceland and integrate them back, or would be easier to just have 1 huge vassal, owning all of Scandinavia? Also I know relative power is a thing for Liberty desire, so I plan on probably just take out Denmark and keep Sweden small and only feed it the provinces I need to move my capital, When it comes time to get the achivemnet. I plan to either give it all to Sweden, or give some to Sweden and release Denmark and Iceland if that is a better solution, and as soon as the achivement pops, I integrate it all back. To do that I figure I need a rather big and powerfull empire going in America for them to not wanting to break free immidiatly. Does it matter if they are in EU and my holdings will be mostly/only in the Americas?

I'm mostly familar with EU3 so I need to know if it works the same way here. If so I need to adjust the tactic a little bit.
1. Do I need atleast 1 province next to my vassal to be able to integrate them or can I do it withouth a shared border?
2. If I capture most of Scandinavia and core itm and then release Sweden/Denamark. In EU3 you lost those cores if you didn't hold it for 50 years. Is this still the case or can you only loose it, but peacedleas and similar?
3. Do you get a malus for having cores you don't own in EUIV? I know you did in EU3, but not sure about here. If I loose the cores or get a malus for having cores I don't contest I won't bother coring them early on.

Assuming everything goes well and I got a powerfull American Empire and got Scandinavia back. Would it be best to just possble move my capital a bit further south and take hold of those nice jucicy Careabian and the Mexican and Incas gold, or would it be better to move back to Europe as I need to do some conquest over there sooner or later to get the Naval supplies provinces there. Does it matter where my Capital is for colonies wanting to spawn? Aka are they less likely to spawn if my Capital is in America as opposed to be in Europe. I know you can do that if you change your name tag, but I can't do that.

I know a lot about EU3, but still pretty much a newbie to EUIV and a lot of these little details I have no idea about yet, and it's kinda important to know for the strategy. Not only in my planned Norwegian run, but also in future runs. So would really appriciate the input.

Edit: On a non related topic. I see some stremears have a button in their diplomacy tab that let them set provinces od interst. I don't have that button and I assume it's becouse they have a DLC I don't have. Wich DLC is that? That seems like a super handy functions. Hopefully someone can give me info in less than 6 hours as it's 50% on DLC for EUIV for only 6 more hours. 19.00 CET

[Marquoz]

satioh, I'm going to recommend you read the wiki. You have many basic questions about the game. The wiki answers all of them. You can use the link I gave in a previous post and then search for topics of interest. If things are unclear, we'll be glad to clarify.

To hit a few of your points:

--Your capital should be located in the English Channel trade node in the Low Countries. The English Channel is by far the best trade node in the game, especially for colonizers. Don't move it to the Americas. Do what I advised earlier--conquer all of Great Britain, northern France, and the Low Countries and move it there.

--You don't want "one giant vassal." Vassals have liberty desire in EU4 that's largely based on how strong they are in the aggregate. You want a series of small vassals that you steadily integrate over the course of the game.

--You don't need shared borders to integrate vassals.

--You don't want to release vassals with lots of land you've cored. You want that land for yourself, especially if you're going for Norwegian Wood. You'll need to conquer a very large portion of the world for that achievement. You need to be extremely strong.

Etc.

BTW, if you're going for achievements that require major blobbing, I strongly recommend that you take and complete Admin, Diplo, and Influence as three of your first idea groups. They are literally indispensable to such runs.

[bri]

1) The events can be triggered any time a conquistador with the mission explores a new province in the new world (NA/SA) so to maximize your chances you want to explore as little as possible before sending them.

2) The 100 development limit is to peacefully vassalize an independent nation. You can release vassals of any size. You can also integrate vassals of any size, all it means is it takes longer. One bigger vassal is better in terms of relative power calculation (as the vassals' force limit is non-linear) while multiple smaller ones is better for other aspects of the liberty desire equation as there are modifiers for the development of the individual vassal being above certain levels.

3) There are some rare modifiers for liberty desire for same/not same capitals that would impact you depending on where your capital was but not many.

4 (your 1)) No, you need at least one province cored by the vassal to be within colonial range of one of your cores OR if the vassal is on the same continent as your capital you can integrate it if it has one core province adjacent to any other province that is owned and cored by your subject (including the one you want to integrate)

5) You will lose cores/claims on any province you release, sell, or grant to another nation.

6) There is a -.1 prestige/year per province penalty for unowned cores, this does not apply to core provinces owned by your subjects.

[Marquoz]

Oh, and one other thing. Norwegian Wood is one of the harder achievements in EU4. Frankly, I think it's much too ambitious for someone who is just learning the game. You should be playing strong, more forgiving starting nations like the Ottomans until you learn the new systems.

But if you insist on trying for Norwegian Wood, I'm 100% serious about taking over the entire English Channel node and making it your collection point. You're going to have to be a global colossus to get this achievement, so the best trade node in the game should be one of your most important goals. And you'll want your capital in the Low Countries instead of somewhere like London to prevent the Dutch revolt.