Europa Universalis IV

this has probably been linked before.
I seriously have no idea how this is possible, or how people even work out how to do it.
I play the game at such a lower level even though I have 1000s of hours in it.

I haven't watched the video yet (I'm at work) but how is that even possible? It seems like 28 years isn't even enough time to march your armies across the globe, even if you killed everyone instantly and never had to seige anything. As mentioned above, some people really know how the game works a little too well.

Even with the save scums, the military micro alone is insane.

I'm thinking my one culture goal isn't going to happen. I think I have all the diplo points I would need but because culture conversion time can't be lowered and because of needing separatism gone, I basically need to have the entire country conquered by 1760 (without rebellions popping up).

Even if I pick up humanism and use a -5 separatism policy, I'd still have to have everything conquered by 1775. I have the power to do that but I'm pretty sure the overextension will litter my lands with so many rebels that will just keep adding separation. Using harsh treatment, raising autonomy, and careful use of armies might give me a slim chance but it's going to be tough. Those European provinces are so damn developed. It was probably a mistake waiting so long to take them out (particularly the HRE).

Extra coring cost would have made a world of difference.

Furry said:

Once every single province has rebelled, rebels will slow down. Don’t forget to suppress rebels with some armies to take away a lot of the tedium. Just make sure it’s about a 40 stack or your army could die 1720+

Click to expand...

Yeah, but that modifier goes away faster than separatism, so you still have to find a more permanent solution. It might be enough as a stop gap, but all it takes is one missed rebellion and one culture is lost. That's what's so rough about that challenge, especially since there's no way to reduce culture time. I could save scum but I think that'd probably make the accomplishment feel hollow.

Also, I can handle about 150-175% overextension without rebel issues (if no revolution) but I think I'm going to have to have a higher OE pace than that.

Maybe when the revolution and the shit 25 unrest goes away it won't be such a whack a mole. That really screws with it.

I'll give it a good shot anyway, maybe save a backup to retry once.

Oh shit, forgot about a government reform that takes off 10 years from separatism... that just bought me a lot more time. That plus the -5 policy and the -10 from humanism could be all the difference.

Edit: If I'm not misunderstanding something and based on my actual viewing of provinces that had a rebellion take the land... now I get ZERO separatism from a rebellion! It's weird, though, as some rebel provinces that were fully controlled seem to differ by 5 points when they should be in the same, in my eyes. Maybe something to do with my timing of taking the reforms/policies versus when they started.

If this also applies when first coring a province... holy shit, why didn't I do this before. If that's accurate, that would mean my deadline for having all provinces under control moves to 1785.

Edit 2: After some further testing, it looks like the separatism reduction only affects the initial 30 years when you first conquer the province. Rebels still add 10 years. Maybe some of the places I was checking before had forts nearby that I didn't notice. That's a bummer. Still, getting the reduction from initial conquering will be a big help regardless.

I think I was confused because I don't thinks separatism takes hold when revolution is in the province.

Well, it ended up being pretty close but I finished my the one tag, one culture, one faith, all provinces, world conquest with the Teutonic Order. Phew! I'm glad I did this because now I won't ever have that nagging urge to "do it all" again on a future playthrough and I can have a more regional focus and not always be so completely warlike.

One culture is definitely a bitch. I almost didn't have enough diplomacy to get it done in time, even though my WC was over in 1760. However, being able to exploit one dev in every province provided me just enough of the edge to squeak past, though it was hell on my fingers and hand. Those goddamn European cities with 50+ dev were awful (since nothing reduces culture conversion time) and I didn't really have the admin points to concentrate dev and/or move the capital to a low dev province to be able to concentrate more dev. The last blitzkrieg of war was pretty fun, though. I had so much money I went 800+ over my force limit and made 50-100+ stack armies to steamroll everything. So much manpower the attrition didn't matter at all, especially given how quick the sieges were.

My idea groups were Divine -> Religious -> Administrative -> Diplomatic -> Influence -> Horde -> Espionage -> (Drop Influence) Humanist -> Expansion. Outside of one difference, it's really hard to imagine picking any different ideas. I suppose I could skip Divine but there was a TO mission that required a MIL tech, thus the choice. In hindsight, I really should have gone with Humanism earlier, definitely before Espionage (which I chose for AE reduction and siege ability). Taking years off separatism was a big light bulb moment and really made going way over 100% OE super manageable. I'm not sure I could have taken it before any of the others simply because they're just so powerful; maybe Humanism before Horde would have been optimal but at the time I had a ton of MIL points and was always low on admin. The other big light bulb moment was not ignoring trade companies and fixing/understanding my trade situation during the mid-game. I went from barely scraping by financially with a a handful of loans often to being totally in control financially in the space of about five years, all just from fixing what I already had. If I had been playing that correctly from the beginning, I'm guessing I could have finished 20-40 years earlier.

I was the Teutonic Order, Mongol Jerusalem, Poland, then the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth. It was my first time doing that kind of elaborate fuckery so it was a lot of fun. Actually having worthwhile missions to do during the entire game instead of just the early/mid game made things a lot more fun for me. The Commonwealth had some absolutely killer missions to push me forward at the end, particularly the 15 years of -15% CCR, +25% culture conversion attached to the ruler, and 5 reform for every university. I pumped universities before finishing that mission and ended up with 1800 reform so I could quickly finish the tree (a blob campaign means slow reform progress) and also switch out some earlier reforms as needed.

Great campaign and still so much EU4 I've yet to explore.

Was thinking of maybe doing a custom nation for my next playthrough (achievements be damned)... kind of crazy how powerful you can make them, even with the restrictions they give you. Plus there's so many different and unique abilities you can use. These National Ideas + Holy Horde, lol.