PDX Games IX: Western Pre-Turkic Empire

[Abserdia]

Crushed the Greeks dream of Freedom. 9/10. Failed to destroy the Armenians over the border in Russia? 1/10.

Not gonna lie, I don't have the mental fortitude to deal a billion Russian troops. And even if I did try, I don't know how I would do it. Even at my height, they always consistently had MORE than double my troops. I wouldn't have even made it an inch into their territory, quality of my troops be damned.

Russia and China occupy the same niche in Victoria 2. They’re both very scary until you learn they’re pretty bad, and then they become VERY scary.

[Heloin]

Crushed the Greeks dream of Freedom. 9/10. Failed to destroy the Armenians over the border in Russia? 1/10.

Not gonna lie, I don't have the mental fortitude to deal a billion Russian troops. And even if I did try, I don't know how I would do it. Even at my height, they always consistently had MORE than double my troops. I wouldn't have even made it an inch into their territory, quality of my troops be damned.

The mistake is thinking that you ever go on the offensive. Turtle and leave obvious holes in your line for the enemy to exploit. Then leave no survivors.

Not gonna lie, I don't have the mental fortitude to deal a billion Russian troops. And even if I did try, I don't know how I would do it. Even at my height, they always consistently had MORE than double my troops. I wouldn't have even made it an inch into their territory, quality of my troops be damned.

Russia and China occupy the same niche in Victoria 2. They’re both very scary until you learn they’re pretty bad, and then they become VERY scary.

Mother Russia will make the unprepared beg for the end. Your blood will feed the motherland.

[Abserdia]

Not gonna lie, I don't have the mental fortitude to deal a billion Russian troops. And even if I did try, I don't know how I would do it. Even at my height, they always consistently had MORE than double my troops. I wouldn't have even made it an inch into their territory, quality of my troops be damned.

The mistake is thinking that you ever go on the offensive. Turtle and leave obvious holes in your line for the enemy to exploit. Then leave no survivors.

Russia and China occupy the same niche in Victoria 2. They’re both very scary until you learn they’re pretty bad, and then they become VERY scary.

Mother Russia will make the unprepared beg for the end. Your blood will feed the motherland.

I still haven’t done that Japan vs. Russia campaign I’ve been meaning to...

[Heloin]

The mistake is thinking that you ever go on the offensive. Turtle and leave obvious holes in your line for the enemy to exploit. Then leave no survivors.


Mother Russia will make the unprepared beg for the end. Your blood will feed the motherland.

I still haven’t done that Japan vs. Russia campaign I’ve been meaning to...

The constant threat of a long war of attrition with China always hangs over any Japan game. A Sicilian with a Giant and Spaniard warned me about that.

[Bralia]

Not gonna lie, I don't have the mental fortitude to deal a billion Russian troops. And even if I did try, I don't know how I would do it. Even at my height, they always consistently had MORE than double my troops. I wouldn't have even made it an inch into their territory, quality of my troops be damned.

The mistake is thinking that you ever go on the offensive. Turtle and leave obvious holes in your line for the enemy to exploit. Then leave no survivors.

Kinda like the UK strat but on land? Hmmmm . . . it's a good idea, but I still don't know if I the troop numbers to handle that. If I only had one entrance into the empire, maybe, but having both Romania and the Caucasus to worry about makes things extremely hard.

[Diarcesia]

My first Stellaris WC. Not Ironman though.

[Heloin]

The mistake is thinking that you ever go on the offensive. Turtle and leave obvious holes in your line for the enemy to exploit. Then leave no survivors.

Kinda like the UK strat but on land? Hmmmm . . . it's a good idea, but I still don't know if I the troop numbers to handle that. If I only had one entrance into the empire, maybe, but having both Romania and the Caucasus to worry about makes things extremely hard.

Last time I played the Ottomans I had my Maginot line in the Caucasus while I kept the fighting in Romanian and the Carpathians. The problem with playing the Ottomans is you're likely on a similar tech level to the Russians most of the time so it's going to be a slow war until you can get those decisive battles needed to break the Russian lines.

Probably building forts along the Iranian border as well but I'm having trouble remembering, I've not played Vicky in a year and I can't recall how bad the military access in that game was. I'm including how mods changed it because who plays Victoria without mods?

[Heloin]

My first Stellaris WC. Not Ironman though.

(Image)

I can't read anything but a good job nonetheless!

[Abserdia]

Kinda like the UK strat but on land? Hmmmm . . . it's a good idea, but I still don't know if I the troop numbers to handle that. If I only had one entrance into the empire, maybe, but having both Romania and the Caucasus to worry about makes things extremely hard.

Last time I played the Ottomans I had my Maginot line in the Caucasus while I kept the fighting in Romanian and the Carpathians. The problem with playing the Ottomans is you're likely on a similar tech level to the Russians most of the time so it's going to be a slow war until you can get those decisive battles needed to break the Russian lines.

Probably building forts along the Iranian border as well but I'm having trouble remembering, I've not played Vicky in a year and I can't recall how bad the military access in that game was. I'm including how mods changed it because who plays Victoria without mods?

Me. I’m Who.

[Heloin]

Last time I played the Ottomans I had my Maginot line in the Caucasus while I kept the fighting in Romanian and the Carpathians. The problem with playing the Ottomans is you're likely on a similar tech level to the Russians most of the time so it's going to be a slow war until you can get those decisive battles needed to break the Russian lines.

Probably building forts along the Iranian border as well but I'm having trouble remembering, I've not played Vicky in a year and I can't recall how bad the military access in that game was. I'm including how mods changed it because who plays Victoria without mods?

Me. I’m Who.

*begins judging intensely*

[Abserdia]

Me. I’m Who.

*begins judging intensely*

A lot of the popular mods add too much. They never find a satisfying middle ground for me, and they slow the game down to a crawl.

[Heloin]

*begins judging intensely*

A lot of the popular mods add too much. They never find a satisfying middle ground for me, and they slow the game down to a crawl.

They fix everything that's broken. Slowdown is worth it to save the world from looking like a Jackson Pollock painting every single game.

[Abserdia]

A lot of the popular mods add too much. They never find a satisfying middle ground for me, and they slow the game down to a crawl.

They fix everything that's broken. Slowdown is worth it to save the world from looking like a Jackson Pollock painting every single game.

Victoria 2 is the only Paradox game where I exclusively like weird bordergore. Unless I’m involved in it, it’s fun to look at.

[Heloin]

They fix everything that's broken. Slowdown is worth it to save the world from looking like a Jackson Pollock painting every single game.

Victoria 2 is the only Paradox game where I exclusively like weird bordergore. Unless I’m involved in it, it’s fun to look at.

Where's the commissar? I'd like to report a Heresy.

[Bralia]

*begins judging intensely*

A lot of the popular mods add too much. They never find a satisfying middle ground for me, and they slow the game down to a crawl.

Oh dude, PDM fills that niche perfectly. It's not exactly the most complete mod, but it's still relatively perfect for that "middle" experience, imo. I, too, have never been able to enjoy HPM or HFM, although my opinions are on their game design decisions than performance. Divide by Zero, which I've just been playing, is basically a complete PDM experience but also does a little more, so take that recommendation for what you will.

[Abserdia]

A lot of the popular mods add too much. They never find a satisfying middle ground for me, and they slow the game down to a crawl.

Oh dude, PDM fills that niche perfectly. It's not exactly the most complete mod, but it's still relatively perfect for that "middle" experience, imo. Divide by Zero, which I've just been playing, is basically a complete PDM experience but also does a little more, so take that recommendation for what you will.

I’ve tried PDM before. It’s fine, but I prefer vanilla. Maybe I just like bad things and bad games, but Vic2 is the Paradox game I have the fewest problems with.

[Bralia]

Oh dude, PDM fills that niche perfectly. It's not exactly the most complete mod, but it's still relatively perfect for that "middle" experience, imo. Divide by Zero, which I've just been playing, is basically a complete PDM experience but also does a little more, so take that recommendation for what you will.

I’ve tried PDM before. It’s fine, but I prefer vanilla. Maybe I just like bad things and bad games, but Vic2 is the Paradox game I have the fewest problems with.

How do you do it? It's so very sad, there's just no content outside of the Great Powers at all. . I can't handle it.

[Lunas Legion]

Crushed the Greeks dream of Freedom. 9/10. Failed to destroy the Armenians over the border in Russia? 1/10.

Not gonna lie, I don't have the mental fortitude to deal a billion Russian troops. And even if I did try, I don't know how I would do it. Even at my height, they always consistently had MORE than double my troops. I wouldn't have even made it an inch into their territory, quality of my troops be damned.

This is what allies are for. Bring Germany, or even Austria. Or attack Russia when they're fighting one of the previous two.

[Ifreann]

My first Stellaris WC. Not Ironman though.

(Image)

Nice, get wrecked, rest of the galaxy.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Had a fun game as the Ottomans in Vic2, Divide by Zero mod, a mod which simply makes PDM a much more complete experience. I really wanted to send off the game by dismantling the Danubian Federation, but my game crashed on December 29th and that demoralized me just enough to want to call it here.

The short version of the history of my game starts with the outright annexation of Egypt. Nobody stepped into the Oriental crisis. Not a single GP intervened either way. It was REALLY weird. And so I just pushed my luck all the way and it worked out for me. Afterwards, as a result of my success, I decided to pursue a half-game-long line of decisions that granted me accepted cultures and cores on everything Bedouin, Mashriqi, and Maghrebi (just Tunisian cores), and finally getting the real prize, Misri (the Egyptian culture) at the end. That same chain forces me to lose cores in the European part of my empire, but things turned around in the latter half of the game and I got a nice chunk of them restored thanks to Turkish majorities in those provinces. And over the course of the first half of the game, I straight-up deleted all small nations in the European area. Greece took the longest to deal with, but was surprisingly easy to handle, having prepared to deal with the Ionian islands purchase ahead of time.

My government over the course of the game has been kinda nuts. Start of the game was pretty standard, trickling reforms through as slow as I could manage without suffering any major upheavals. But then I got the chance at another Absolute Monarchy again with the end of the decision chain that had me choosing to form an Islamic empire. I was REALLY sad I couldn't hold onto that Absolute Monarchy, I learned really quickly that I could not withstand the rebellions because, in this particular mod, the rebels are obnoxiously strong. The one thing that I was happy to keep to the end was the Nobody Gets Out border policy. Nobody fled to the Americas in the last half of the game!

Moving on to notable events, the very first picture I shared is what Germany looks like when it's been dismantled. Germany allied themselves with America in a crisis war and not only did not a single European power side with them, they got ganked by EVERY continental European power, including myself.

What was that crisis war over, you might ask? California. In the FIRST Great War of the game, America drastically lost and produced this mess, which inevitably spawned this war, the Second Great War over California. America has spent its time in the last half of the game cycling between democracy and fascism.

Also of note, this mod punishes colonial powers hard in the late game, to simulate the push for decolonization and the UK has lost a modest bit of their African territory. I wish I could show India, but that's nsfw.

And finally, one last classic screenshot of one of those moments where you just don't know how it happened. This moment happened sometime around 1900, I think, completely unrelated to late game decolonization.

That North America is fucking cursed oh my god.

[Heloin]

Had a fun game as the Ottomans in Vic2, Divide by Zero mod, a mod which simply makes PDM a much more complete experience. I really wanted to send off the game by dismantling the Danubian Federation, but my game crashed on December 29th and that demoralized me just enough to want to call it here.

The short version of the history of my game starts with the outright annexation of Egypt. Nobody stepped into the Oriental crisis. Not a single GP intervened either way. It was REALLY weird. And so I just pushed my luck all the way and it worked out for me. Afterwards, as a result of my success, I decided to pursue a half-game-long line of decisions that granted me accepted cultures and cores on everything Bedouin, Mashriqi, and Maghrebi (just Tunisian cores), and finally getting the real prize, Misri (the Egyptian culture) at the end. That same chain forces me to lose cores in the European part of my empire, but things turned around in the latter half of the game and I got a nice chunk of them restored thanks to Turkish majorities in those provinces. And over the course of the first half of the game, I straight-up deleted all small nations in the European area. Greece took the longest to deal with, but was surprisingly easy to handle, having prepared to deal with the Ionian islands purchase ahead of time.

My government over the course of the game has been kinda nuts. Start of the game was pretty standard, trickling reforms through as slow as I could manage without suffering any major upheavals. But then I got the chance at another Absolute Monarchy again with the end of the decision chain that had me choosing to form an Islamic empire. I was REALLY sad I couldn't hold onto that Absolute Monarchy, I learned really quickly that I could not withstand the rebellions because, in this particular mod, the rebels are obnoxiously strong. The one thing that I was happy to keep to the end was the Nobody Gets Out border policy. Nobody fled to the Americas in the last half of the game!

Moving on to notable events, the very first picture I shared is what Germany looks like when it's been dismantled. Germany allied themselves with America in a crisis war and not only did not a single European power side with them, they got ganked by EVERY continental European power, including myself.

What was that crisis war over, you might ask? California. In the FIRST Great War of the game, America drastically lost and produced this mess, which inevitably spawned this war, the Second Great War over California. America has spent its time in the last half of the game cycling between democracy and fascism.

Also of note, this mod punishes colonial powers hard in the late game, to simulate the push for decolonization and the UK has lost a modest bit of their African territory. I wish I could show India, but that's nsfw.

And finally, one last classic screenshot of one of those moments where you just don't know how it happened. This moment happened sometime around 1900, I think, completely unrelated to late game decolonization.

That North America is fucking cursed oh my god.

I just noticed something horrible. Is that Deseret in Colorado, and is that Mexico in Nevada and Utah?

[Bralia]

That North America is fucking cursed oh my god.

I just noticed something horrible. Is that Deseret in Colorado, and is that Mexico in Nevada and Utah?

That's Mexico. I don't know why that happened.

[Heloin]

I just noticed something horrible. Is that Deseret in Colorado, and is that Mexico in Nevada and Utah?

That's Mexico. I don't know why that happened.

I suggest throwing some petrol on that dumpster and lighting a match.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Did the baltic states really need focus trees?

That's Mexico. I don't know why that happened.

I suggest throwing some petrol on that dumpster and lighting a match.

She hit the end year of the game unfortunately.

[Punished UMN]

Did the baltic states really need focus trees?

No, but did you really expect a good DLC policy out of Paradox? Stellaris is light-years (har har) ahead of any other pdox dev team on this issue.