PDX Games IX: Western Pre-Turkic Empire

[Gemeanwealth of Man]

As for the poll (which I can't believe I didn't notice until now) I must admit Spiritualists are the ones I generally trust the least amount, within the context of Stellaris, and 99.9% of my reasons can be summarized with saying The Shroud.

[Salus Maior]

Oh I know, I just never do the Satanist society.

A little too fantasy for my historical game. Also I'm a good Catholic boy.

Yeah I always turn the Satanists off entirely. That society is a bit too out there. I can accept the Hermetics creating early guns and plate armor and stuff and I'm fine with warrior societies being OP in terms of Martial skill but the Satanist societies are just out there.

I'm a bit salty that they never implemented late-medieval historical developments like Parliament and gunpowder in a decent way.

[Washington Resistance Army]

Yeah I always turn the Satanists off entirely. That society is a bit too out there. I can accept the Hermetics creating early guns and plate armor and stuff and I'm fine with warrior societies being OP in terms of Martial skill but the Satanist societies are just out there.

I'm a bit salty that they never implemented late-medieval historical developments like Parliament and gunpowder in a decent way.

That's one thing I like about CK3. Adding bombards as an early form of gunpowder weaponry is really cool and I like stuff like that but honestly apart from the admittedly amazing religious mechanics I just don't see much reason to play CK3 yet. It's missing a ton of stuff that to me is vital to enjoyable gameplay in CK2 nowadays. Societies, artifacts, bloodlines etc etc.

[Andsed]

So fun times in Stellaris. I was fighting a two front war and one of the allies was someone who I had previously beaten and had a couple claims on but was prevented from attacking because of their alliance. However I was now ready and since the new party was stronger I planned to send my main fleet over there to take three systems from them while my secondary fleet would defend the gains I took from my previous foe.

Things went well and I captured the three systems and defended my holdings and destroyed a couple fleets. However I saw that the big thing preventing me from enforcing my demands was I was demanding unoccupied systems. I was confused as I had taken all the claimed systems and none of my systems were taken, but then I remembered that I forgot to remove my claims on the systems of the other ally. Thankfully I am a save scummer and so I reloaded and removed those claims. On the plus side I now know I can indeed fight a two front war against two powers who are equivalent to me so thats reassuring.

In my latest game, one of the two fronts I fought in (in which I was severely outteched and outmatched) was basically me camping in the chokepoint border system and making its starbase a bastion with one of my two fleets (of roughly equal size, at that point 5 destroyers+20 corvettes) orbiting the starbase. The enemy basically sent fleet after fleet into that one system and lost every time. To be fair though I also couldn't make any gains in their systems the two times I got bold enough to expand. I think I'm going to do a lot better if/when we go to war again.

Yeah two front wars can honestly be such a pain in the ass. I managed to win one against the Ytrelllan Union(who I took two systems from in a previous war) and their ally the Iferyx Amalgamated Fleets. I had my main battle fleet (which was IIRC 19 corvettes and 3 destroyers) fighting the Iferyx to take three of their systems. Said systems were laid out in a way that to get to my bordering systems and the other 2 systems you had to go through one so I planned to just take it first and then take the other two and then camp out there but I did end up having to push out to get the required war score.

The Ytrelllan front saw me having to defend two systems with my secondary fleet of two destroyers and 8 corvettes along with a starbase and some defense platforms. it was a bit touch and go but it went okay.

Now I just gotta beat my toughest foe, my administrative capacity being too small.

[Gemeanwealth of Man]

So while I was making life a living hell for my two neighbors -thanks to the fact I managed to worm my way into forming a 4-state large federation with two of the three strongest polities in the Galaxy- the Great Khan appeared, and he's making life hell down in the Galactic South. He holds ~23% of the Galaxy now. Here's hoping he dies and gets his empire partitioned before he reaches me or any of my allies.

[Renoa]

I fully believe Child of Destiny cannot happen for a player. I don't care what the code or wiki says, I've played a lot of CK2 and never once gotten it

I got a child of destiny daughter in my Lombard game that I talked a lot about but I'm sure no one remembers. I was really excited to play as her, but then I had a son who became my heir and I couldn't get rid of him in time. At a certain point she invaded and took over Novgorod, then patrilineally married some Turkic dude and when she died her kingdom was split into a billion pieces among her idiot sons and they were all soon swallowed up by the Mongols, and her legacy was dead after a generation and a half. It was rather anticlimactic.

[The Hindustani State]

How the fuck do you stop the Carlist revolt as Falangist Spain? It seems near impossible to win the Spanish Civil War as the nationalists without Franco

EDIT: Nevermind I was stupid, you have to rush to capitulate the Republic before the Carlist revolt fires, then take the "eliminate the Carlists" focus for the attack bonus

[Valrifell]

I fully believe Child of Destiny cannot happen for a player. I don't care what the code or wiki says, I've played a lot of CK2 and never once gotten it

It's a myth, a collective legend perpetuated by liars on PDX's payroll.

[Diarcesia]

Playing as Saxe-Weimar in Vic 2 drives me crazy.

Why would you do this to yourself?

Made another try today. Managed to get to Great Power.

[Bralia]

The last of the North American EUIV DDs.

[Andsed]

So whats the point in Stellaris where you have to much empire sprawl? Cause I am already at 127/100 in terms of administrative capacity and my plans of expansion is gonna add like 20 something more to that.

[Abserdia]

So whats the point in Stellaris where you have to much empire sprawl? Cause I am already at 127/100 in terms of administrative capacity and my plans of expansion is gonna add like 20 something more to that.

The + tech cost will eventually slow your progression to a crawl if you keep expanding willy-nilly. Going over the soft cap is fine, but going way over it will cause problems.
So, whenever you feel like you're overextended is the point where you're overextended.

[Salus Maior]

The last of the North American EUIV DDs.

Oooo, I do love me some Native American content.

[Andsed]

So whats the point in Stellaris where you have to much empire sprawl? Cause I am already at 127/100 in terms of administrative capacity and my plans of expansion is gonna add like 20 something more to that.

The + tech cost will eventually slow your progression to a crawl if you keep expanding willy-nilly. Going over the soft cap is fine, but going way over it will cause problems.
So, whenever you feel like you're overextended is the point where you're overextended.

Well despite all the expanding I just did the tech cost is only around +13% IIRC so its not too bad. Probably gonna stop expanding so rapidly though. influence takes way to long to generate for that. I honestly only did it so I could colonize the First Leagues home-world.

[Bralia]

Crusader Kings 3 Dev Diaries will return. Soon. It is inevitable.

[Bralia]

So I decided to have a quick little CK3 observer playthrough by just speed-5ing in Iceland. These are the highlights:

Bro, this Jesus dude is SICK. Gimme all your tithe money, you punk-ass baroNERDS!

This Norse king joins up with a invasion force, but something seems off about his new friends . . .

[Renoa]

So I decided to have a quick little CK3 observer playthrough by just speed-5ing in Iceland. These are the highlights:

Bro, this Jesus dude is SICK. Gimme all your tithe money, you punk-ass baroNERDS!

This Norse king joins up with a invasion force, but something seems off about his new friends . . .

King Greger: "I just like warrin'. Don't much care who it's fer or 'gainst."

[Atheris]

Playing Red World as the UAPR, and what exactly is the Golden Gate League? Militant Nationalists? Democrats? Nazbols?

[Andsed]

Damm I think a group of pirates may be the biggest military challenge to me right now. I found a large stack while trying to do some surveying. There was a 9k, 5k, and around 900 power fleets just vibing in the system. I found them when I just got cruisers and they had like over a dozen or so IIRC.

How a bunch of pirates in the middle of nowhere have a bigger fleet then established empires with large amounts of infrastructure is just one of those great mysteries I guess.

[Bralia]

You can make the Crises work for you in the next Stellaris DD.

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

I don't know whether this is more appropriate to post here or on the GameStop stock thread, but:

"We deny allegations," Paradox Interactive has announced, "of this group being composed of EUIV players who understand trade, Victoria 2 economy min-maxers, and Cities Skylines traffic optimizers."

[The Huskar Social Union]

I don't know whether this is more appropriate to post here or on the GameStop stock thread, but:

"We deny allegations," Paradox Interactive has announced, "of this group being composed of EUIV players who understand trade, Victoria 2 economy min-maxers, and Cities Skylines traffic optimizers."

Heh

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

Heh

I mean, it's obvious, right? There's supposedly millions of people getting into this and no way there's that many people who understand the Victoria II economy system. It's an enigmatic black box that hands down bankrupt factories and unemployed workers like a cruel god rejoicing at the arbitrary suffering of its followers.

...which, come to think of it, makes it kind of like the actual stock market.

[Abserdia]

Heh

I mean, it's obvious, right? There's supposedly millions of people getting into this and no way there's that many people who understand the Victoria II economy system.

Well, you see, the market is--
the local markets--
the world market is where--
uh

[Serrus]

I don't know whether this is more appropriate to post here or on the GameStop stock thread, but:

"We deny allegations," Paradox Interactive has announced, "of this group being composed of EUIV players who understand trade, Victoria 2 economy min-maxers, and Cities Skylines traffic optimizers."

Here's how trade works--
You make sure all your trade with arrows goes back to the one with the plus, then you get a coastline and fill the sea zone around the node you can now reach with light ships until the money is a number of your own preference.