Paradox Grand Strategy

[radiant wasp]

Because you know it will require time to do and go buy new DLC

STFU with that question, HoI4 player

[novel crescent]

That would be nice but SA was pretty irrelevant during the war

I'd much rather have them unfuck the USSR's focus tree

[radiant wasp]

And you know Japan still have shit focus tree

But developers want to make SA

Maybe even rework any combat system completely to make game feel fresh

Hi to Stellaris

[marsh topaz]

Paradox be like: "Let's give 9 hours of content to guatemala. Hm? US rework? Germany rework? Never heard of those countries before."

[radiant wasp]

Wait, I understood how world works

God created HoI4 developers team to make useless new content for countries, when main should be reworked

When TNO developers delete paths instead making useful new content

Literally perfect balance

Oh and yeah, make a screenshot, 3 years of UK content will be completly reworked 999999 times before UK release

[marsh topaz]

Goes to show that the literal pony mod is somehow better than 90% of other mod teams, and even the main game's devs

As much as I won't read the twinkle sprinkle guides to every city ever, I do appreciate the fact it's there

And they're constantly posting teaser content, as well as making nearly every country interesting in some way

[drifting dock]

They're only doing what people want, which is more countries to play and weird events for folks to enjoy. The vast majority of it is removed if played on historical.

[marsh topaz]

Idk who the "Roaman Kaiserate" is, or why Zebra Caesar is smack dab in the middle of Zebrica, but he's got no focus tree and he's conquering all the other focus-less nations around him

[radiant wasp]

People want make more stuff for mods

64% of players are regularly playing with mods

PDXCON 2019 stats

[drifting dock]

I play with mods, but most of those mods are UI stuff and don't break the checksum. A good chunk of people play one of the bigger mega mod things.

[sharp solar]

They have placeholder events that give them wargoals and cores on all the southeastern zebra and two nearest gryphon nations past certain dates, and eventually Kiria, if the great gallop onward failed and they had a civil war. Another exception is that they will not fight Talarayi if Kiria is both harmonic and player-controlled (to give you a chance to do a special invasion content).

Talonsvaal also has the same events, except that they will never attack Kiria.

Also, I just got that award they added in the last patch https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/809454117428133939/1198019756154957939/obraz.png?ex=65bd61d7&is=65aaecd7&hm=b5940aa9a2b25f47cb6e89ebd4aa5d71054d4ec2dbda95aa9f99fc5539696b28&

[vernal kiln]

What's the best zebra nation to play as to get the FOE achievement

[sharp solar]

Colthaginian Republic, by far.

You could try to do the Ascencion achievement first and then do the nuking of Canterlot. But be aware that that is a very long achievement, practically a continental conquest with some unique mechanics on top.

But if you are in no mood for that, you could still do the regular historical playthrough with them first, and at the end invade the Dragonlands to get strategic bombers in range. For air superiority, you will need a couple of carriers though, park them in Fillydephia's bay, and the 1016-era carrier fighters should be able to reach Central Equestria strategic region.

[runic moss]

Polytopia reference username?

[sharp solar]

No. I've been using this nick years before that game came out. I learned of it when someone asked me the same question one day.

[sharp solar]

By doing the latter, you could also go for the "make Zaphod happy" award, which is also specific to Colthaginian Republic. For that you need to raise harmonites' loyalty to at least 50% and then complete the final focus in the three (something with the sufrit in the name, can't remember at the moment).

The 10 trade routes achievement is also possible on the same run, but that might be a bit trickier to achieve if you don't know what to do (and Chiropterra started to conquer their neighbours).

[vernal kiln]

I wanted to do a communist colthage playthrough but i kept getting screwed over by other mods

[keen flower]

what mods? I'm kinda burnt of EaW at the moment and don't want to just be learning eu4

[vernal kiln]

they werent good mods

it was a couple mods designed to add some flavor but it just ended up buffing democracies and debuffing everyone else

[keen flower]

oooof

They tried to rebalcne it like it was irl not realizing how lucky the axis were irl

[vernal kiln]

like were talking -50% org to all units for everyone who isnt a democracy

it was super dumb

[keen flower]

why?????

Like I get buffs and nerfs but stuff like that is almost as ridiculos the PRC's buffs for fighting the kmt is cold war:iron curtain

[sharp solar]

From what I've heard, a lot of their content works under the assumption that PRC wins, so they wanted to ensure that they always do.

[keen flower]

yeah that's what makes it slightly less ridiuclous

just the prc effectivly gets 125% attack and defense against the Kmt and 50% more org becaue of national spirts which I don't think is removable unless you hold shanghai for 50 days

I don't think issue with the whoe prc winning, just don't give them the 75% core attack and defense when the kmt army is already dogshit

[radiant wasp]

Guys, remember main thing

Never put all your divisions on Dniepr as USSR in MP

Or hard single mods

Or you will have L in 1 year

[keen flower]

where is Dniepr anyway?

near romania or something?

[runic moss]

River. Flows through Smolensk-Belarus-Ukraine

[keen flower]

oh that River!

did they have any reasons for putting all divsions on the frontline? other than just hrrr drr All units here and they won't be able to push desipte all the buffs

[radiant wasp]

Only this a real reason

But if you ger pushed you will be circelled with 99.99% chance

Because your infantry will be without entrenchment

So only tanks will save you from encirclement

And for USSR with debuffs because The Great Purge you can't counter tanks

[keen flower]

alribht that makes more sense, I don't do modded mp so the balance is lost to me

what was the main controller's plan if the coeps didn't put every divison at the river

[radiant wasp]

Make several retreat lines

Lose less divisions because circles

And survive even 2 or 3 years

Until D-day

Or massive land lease

With L Japan

[keen flower]

so it was stanard roaching p much

[radiant wasp]

Yeah, but could work

We didn't have to build on USA 9999999999 rubber refineries for all allies

Like literally built mils from 1941

With 450 factories and 1 mils take 30 days

[keen flower]

that's a lot of mils, that would probably work

[radiant wasp]

Japan was literally dead, 0 oil could be in autumn of 1942

And only 70 iron with closed seas

And 0 fleet, I killed all main fleet and subs

[keen flower]

so coeps threw the game that badly that you couldn't get a chance for a real dday after neutering Japan

[radiant wasp]

I said on 1940 that this division location will end badly

I joined the game in 1941 as coop on USA

[keen flower]

so the main let hte coeps do this despite it going against their plan?

[radiant wasp]

6 coops against main

[keen flower]

that poor main didn't deserve that hell

[radiant wasp]

Next time these people will listen main at least

I remember played as coop 6 people USSR

We played on Total War Mod

Main did a good USSR, but Allies lost everything

Egypt, Raj, Australia and balls

So Japan decleared a war and we were surrounded

But we fought until the end

1 people on Finland front, 4 for German and 1 for Far-East front

I remember we had another game on that mod, we had only 5 players, but Allies had literally Rollercoaster in India

As coop I was screaming at all SOV players do not watch on India on pain of being shot

Somehow Allies saved India and we took Berlin

Without Allies lend-leases at all

😎

Because only India were stopping from Japan to declare war to us and commit 99999 troubles to Allies

[marsh topaz]

For some reason while reading this, I got a flashback from a Germany game I played during like, the Cold War mod or something.

Heres a screenshot I took from the game a while back

MacArthur nuked Iwo Jima 3 times

You can just see the age of this

[runic moss]

For those who played the Gigastructural Engineering mod for Stellaris, has anyone played against the crisises added by said mod?

[novel crescent]

Yes

You will need asteroid artillery batteries on your main chokepoints

The crisis is far harder with GSE

[runic moss]

Or just rush systemcraft

[novel crescent]

GSE is for people who find vanilla too easy imo

[runic moss]

I've played all 3 crisises, but I've never played Endtekk Blokkats or higher

[novel crescent]

min/max your alloy production you're gonna need them

[runic moss]

I'm about to start a run against Lux Aeternum

[runic moss]

Have you tried the Ancient Caches of Technologies mod?

Or its various submods and addons?

[novel crescent]

I haven ot

[runic moss]

Its overpowered as heck, but there's a lot of content

Its what the higher difficulties of GSE crisises are designed for

One of its submods, Secrets Beyond the Gates, add an even more OP crisis

[runic moss]

I regret nothing

[novel crescent]

madlad

[radiant wasp]

https://youtu.be/4iBXgrDqvn0?si=QSE411vwuXzMWsEH

Top 3 useless PDX DLC ever

[drifting dock]

Neat video, but I have to ask why.

[marsh topaz]

Paradox wants to add more content to the continent that doesn't have any

[novel crescent]

It doesn't have any because SA was irrevelvant for the most part during the war

This effort could have been used to revamp the USSR

[sharp solar]

I guess that new content sells better than reworked content.

[marsh topaz]

Man, this DLC is the first one that I really just don't want to buy, but I'm going to have to anyways if they add any other reworks into it so the game doesn't bug out

[marsh topaz]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/394360/view/3981812773510307084?l=english

This is what they got so far

[radiant wasp]

https://youtu.be/yNI7KkdCBu4?si=OocTVlFgyvxikOPh

[vernal kiln]

Why with the loud stereotypical buff voice

[radiant wasp]

Because he is Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance

And he has a dream

[minor tulip]

I saw this on premier

[radiant wasp]

Now another MP tip

If you have 4 or more people on one country, find fucking man who can control air

Because I lost the game, because USSR wasn't able to manage aviation

(I was on UK and somehow we won Japan)

Like I could literally kill Japanese Fleet, but I didn't have enough time

[drifting dock]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClkhKHePN4U

[sharp solar]

An EaW teaser

And today I learned it's Starlight Ridge, not Reach. I guess that's what I get for never watching the English version.

[radiant wasp]

Damn, I got headache after HoI4 MP

It was supposed to be speedrun Spain game

And Sov capitulated in autumn 1942

My body, why

[keen flower]

what the hell do the ottomans gain by allying the nethlands

[drifting dock]

Keeps Spain from having fun and gives them an excuse to interfere later.

[keen flower]

I think they're fine enough with both Austria and britan in most cases

[vernal kiln]

Ai just wanna to screw you over

[keen flower]

Makes sense, this is paradox ai and needs all the help it can get

[runic moss]

Any up to date HOI4 guides? Planning on getting the starter pack.

[keen flower]

Depends on what nation

[vernal kiln]

Play with friends

Also try getting everything off G2A

Shit is too expensive for it's worth

[keen flower]

For the US Literally anything could work, In RT56 espially you can get off the depression in January 37 iirc, other than that CaS is king

[runic moss]

How?

I also heard Canada's good for a beginner to learn the mechanics

[keen flower]

For getting off the depresson in January 37 ?

or anything working

[runic moss]

Getting off the depression early

[keen flower]

Give me a moment to draw an outline

but effectivly in road to 56 the focus tree for the us has slightly shorter focuses than normal hoi4 meaning you can go down the communist path and it's way of getting off the depression as well as the democractic path's way of getting rid of it

[runic moss]

I see

[keen flower]

going to make a chart rq for it, should explain it easier, the method still works well in vanilla, just not nearly as effectivly

[runic moss]

Thanks

[keen flower]

70 + 50 + 70 + 35 + 35 + 70 = 330 . The only reason we can't get rid off it faster is because we have to draft legislatoin for the Fair Labor standards act

[runic moss]

Thanks

[keen flower]

anyway for beginner nations I'd say go with Italy, It lets you learn the basic mechanics and if anything goes wrong germany can save you

[keen flower]

fun fact! This is pronounced Nack-eh-dish irl

[runic moss]

Does HOI4 generally favor the Allied side or the Axis side?

[finite dust]

Weird question

I would hope, being a strategy game, there is balance so you can win equally with one side or the other

A bad strategy game is one in which the meta is to play one faction because it's designed to be dominant

[runic moss]

By favor, I mean if you leave everything to the AI and go spectator

I know you can win by playing either side

[cursive tide]

Well it tends toward history

That's a weird question

Why wouldn't it

[runic moss]

Its mainly to help me decide which side that I should start with. People on Youtube say play a minor nation or Germany, people previously in this channel say play Italy or the USA

[cursive tide]

That's because some nations are more complex than others

The UK is a beast of a nation, because empire

Play whoever feels fun! You're gonna fuck up, a lot, and that's ok

[runic moss]

I see

[drifting dock]

There are generally two paths you tell the AI to run before the game starts: Historical or Ahistorical.

Historical will generally have a set list of things the AI will spend political power on in order and build up to certain standards. You will generally get WW2 to start roughly on time, but it is not 100% accurate. RNG plays a role and it is possible for things to happen that otherwise would not.

Ahistorical throws all of that out the window with a chance that all the major faction leaders (UK for Allies, Germany for Axis, and USSR for Comintern) will flip/break apart/do nothing, along with other weird shit that is DLC dependent on firing.

If there is something the game favors, it will be civ factories, mil factories, Fascist/Communist diplo options (Democracies can not puppet other nations; only release), limited use of armor, no paratrooper use (not hardcoded, but it has to be enabled) and control of fuel, along with trying to set up a counter for the player. Certain AI nations will also hyperfocus/ignore certain things, so it will take time and knowledge to know what and where

[runic moss]

Thanks

[quartz gulch]

it's always been so crazy to me that such a small country like the UK was one of the biggest empires ever for a while

[vernal kiln]

well when you Rule the Waves, its hard to compete against them

Im glad the US was lucky enough to win the war

[cursive tide]

you didnt win
your country was too troublesome to keep

[vernal kiln]

True

[sharp solar]

They still sell the starter pack? This is what I bought a while back and still have, but after they released AAT, I couldn't find it on Steam, seemingly replaced with a much more expensive ultimate version.

Nevermind, it's still definitely there.

[echo willow]

You might find this helpful
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2943980823&searchtext=Navy

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2714213712

[marsh topaz]

That stalin picture is kinda funny

[drifting dock]

Do note that the guides use a lot of math to arrive at the conclusions that they do, which is mostly bang-for-IC per unit.

[sharp solar]

If frank is going to get the starter pack, then that means no MTG, which means some of the advice in that guide might not be applicable.

[drifting dock]

A lot of the basic principles are still good, but won't be as tuned. IIRC, they did add prebuilt plane and tank templates as FreeLC not too long ago, so you can get some of that.

[prisma sonnet]

Although in Equestria at War ponypower is much more limiting than it usually is in the base game (the world is less populated and most countries are much less populated than the majors in vanilla)

(This makes trickleback far more valuable, for instance, because even a relatively modest armed force is likely to start stressing your ponypower pool just to exist, much less while taking losses)

[radiant wasp]

I played another game as UK

Another Sov cap because wasn't take some perks in MIOs

I am going insane

Literally every fucking game is the same

And I got enough insane to spend 99999999 hours to make Soviet build

[runic moss]

How to play Canada?

[wet canopy]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/809454117428133939/1209858084835557406/image.png?ex=65e87325&is=65d5fe25&hm=c46ec02f4541235f697598ae0b85c109d799ccd52841153f0b6178ac2401d03e&

[marsh topaz]

Foal scouts
Of chiropterra

[rocky reef]

I trust that as far as I can throw it

[prisma sonnet]

[runic moss]

Finally finished my first HOI4 run

[radiant wasp]

You know, today I completly understood how to be STAVKA

4 coops lost 90% divisions in 6 months

🗿

Typical USSR expirience

And I was told from experienced players, this was a good USSR for first time

But coops on Axis were better than mine

So joever

[rocky reef]

decided to start up an Austria campagin, Turns out I can go colonial austria if I really want to and I just think that's kinda cursed

[drifting dock]

You got sorta lucky with the RNG for that event there. You didn't get it all, but you don't have to fight France for the claims either, let alone a low Spanish chance of them getting it too.

[runic moss]

I'm planning on starting EAW as Stalliongrad. Is it beginner friendly, and what's the strategy?

[rocky reef]

that's just eu4 in a nutshell, also this was 1455, I'm going to snowball hard enough to retake constainaple

[rocky reef]

the strategy is play a nation that doesn't have a old content warning event when you load it up (unless it's azir)

I wouldn't say it's to difficult though, Equstria will be fighting a 2 front war against you and they barely have enough for the changlings early on in the war

[runic moss]

Alright

[runic moss]

What about Equestria itself?

[rocky reef]

It's about average in difficult for first time players

[runic moss]

I see

[rocky reef]

Once you get rid of it's debuffs it starts to scale

[runic moss]

So like vanilla USA

[rocky reef]

yes

it is more challenging than the U S though because it's significantly harder to get rid of the debuffs

[runic moss]

What's the focus order?

And when does the Changeling war start?

[prisma sonnet]

Also unlike the U.S. your enemy is right there.

Griffonian Empire ||without yeeting|| is probably the easiest new player start except for the River Federation countries (which is cheating a little as most of them don't have to worry about wars at all for years and years after the start). Or at least it was for most of the time I played.

[runic moss]

I see

Well....

When does the actual war start?

[rocky reef]

That is up to you. Figure out why you need and go from there

[rocky reef]

typically early 1011

[rocky reef]

You've actually seen the River Fed nations have wars that aren't against hellqull or itself that weren't caused by you?

[prisma sonnet]

I was in fact specifically thinking of Hellquill but also the VNthat country Kasa hates that I think Wittenland sometimes ends up at war with.

[rocky reef]

oh makes sense

my favorite riverland wars are when I fight them as the republic to get hellquill and longsword

[prisma sonnet]

I liked the one time I played Harmonic Nimbusia, formed the RivFed, and led it into war against ||Grover II|| once we got to that part of his focus tree (I did have to cheat a lot for him to get there). Felt good winning that one, man.

Plus it let me play with all of the late game toys that usually don't come out.

[runic moss]

Okay thanks

[rocky reef]

I tried to do that just I got fed up of feeding || Grover II|| infinite manpower

[prisma sonnet]

Lots of tanks. Lots of forts. Lots of artillery.

Lots of airplanes, too.

It's not so much that I was on the offensive from the start but I mauled his divisions over and over again and eventually he ran out.

[rocky reef]

that tracks

he probably didn't bother coring the everything and just jumped into war

[prisma sonnet]

I think I also screwed around a little to get the RivFed as big as possible.

I tend towards a very attritional strategy where I wear down the AI until they're out of bodies and/or equipment and then roll over them, and I had basically ages to prepare for it.

[rocky reef]

So Hillfolk ,Genclfy, Firtree, Beeg longsword( can join the faction no idea about being a federation member),

[prisma sonnet]

Hillfolk, Genclyf, at that time (not sure about now) Nimbusia could also core the deer and Kasa (and that other country).

So it was beeeeeeg.

I don't remember if I got Longsword and Ukrainians into the faction or not.

[rocky reef]

Longsword has the harmonic path

[rocky reef]

Ukrainians?

[prisma sonnet]

The Cossack country, can't remember what they're called off the top of my head.

It's been a long while since I played.

[rocky reef]

Zaphzia i think?

the one He gets a special for

[rocky reef]

no clue if they can

I know Lake city sometimes carves them up and the rest of the evi valley

[prisma sonnet]

Oh, they absolutely can if they go Harmonic, though it's hard to keep them there.

[rocky reef]

oh yeah

i might boot up EaW expand on a scenario where the dooted line report is completly accurate of who will invade

I'm between debating adding || changling fragarence || to it or || goat ||

[random sandal]

worst borders ever

[rocky reef]

aside from the river federation stuff that looks pretty normal for the empire after FEA becomes the empereror

[prisma sonnet]

Bedtime thoughts: It would be cool to add events in 1006, 1054 and 1181 to CKIII, representing the supernovas of those years...it's not like anything you could do in game would change any of that, they blew up thousands of years before the game even started and that's just the year the light pulse reached Earth...

[floral marten]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/281990/view/4196862191910637932?l=english

Over the years, as more content has been added to Stellaris, we have been hearing an ever-increasing number of requests for a subscription option as an alternative to purchasing them individually.

We’re happy to announce that we are adding a subscription option to Stellaris, allowing players to access all released DLCs for Stellaris at a fixed monthly fee. Future DLC releases will be available to subscribers on day 1.

So basically you can pay monthly to have access to all released DLC, instead of having to buy the DLC individually.

[runic moss]

Well frick my techrush runs

[floral marten]

From what I was reading, tech rushes are basically dead

[runic moss]

I guess I'll have to enable Gigastructures

Matrioshoka Brains go brrrrr

[novel crescent]

I'm cool with this

The meta needed a refresh

[floral marten]

Eh, I'm a little concerned, because I always had trouble keeping up in the early game. I'm not sure if this will even things out, or make it worse for me.

[vernal kiln]

I have never understood the point of subscribing for DLC, that seems like it'd be horrible long term

[cursive tide]

maybe

how often do you use all the DLC you paid for? i bought lithoids and literally never play them

[radiant wasp]

I played only 1 time for all these packs

[cursive tide]

was it worth the financial investment?

for the record: subscription DLC is dumb, but i can see it having legitimate uscases

[radiant wasp]

I bought it while there were cheap DLCs

On sales

So every species pack I took for 1.5-2$

Maybe even cheaper

I am mad that Astral Planets costs 11$

Literally x4 price for 2 years

[floral marten]

I prefer owning them but, given the game now has several hundred dollars worth of DLC, I can understand why someone would prefer to pay for a subscription. Especially if they only play for a few months and then put the game down.

[drifting dock]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/tinto-talks-1-february-28th-2024.1625360/

[floral marten]

I have no idea what game they're teasing.

[radiant wasp]

EU4 Leviathan 2

[drifting dock]

I don't know either, but it is the main studio that works on EU IV (and now Project Caesar). I do suspect it is EU V, just to bring the last main PDX series up to their current engine that they use.

[radiant wasp]

God, please not EU V, because EU V will be without content for years

Victoria 3 still isn't playable

[rustic valve]

I don't mind

I like to buy finished games, so I don't care whether they release it incomplete or not because I just won't buy it until it is

[radiant wasp]

Sad, that after EU V release there won't be any new content for EU IV

When EU IV has the most content among PDX games

[rustic valve]

EU IV doesn't need any more content. It has the most content.

[cursive tide]

New eu iv dlc: moon nazis

Wait I'm thinking hoiv

[rustic valve]

Moon imperialists

[drifting dock]

Those exist in Stellaris already.

[rustic valve]

Yeah we need them in EU4

[cursive tide]

Eu4: atlantis

There we go

Joke works again

[floral marten]

We will never get Stellaris 2.

[radiant wasp]

Yeah, since there were 999999 reworks in Stellaris

I feel that PDX will just make update to last version of Clausewitz

[vernal kiln]

We need a game set during the space race

[runic moss]

That's HOI4 mods

[vernal kiln]

No but like a proper game

One entirely focused on it with intricate details and money system and geopolitical events

Could be more than the US and Soviets too, some ahistorical

[sharp solar]

What an impeccable timing. I hope it works out.

[sharp solar]

Ended up with a decent chunk, all things considered.

[runic moss]

The New Order: Last Days of Equestria

[sharp solar]

And here's the final border after partition negotiations.

[sharp solar]

|| https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/514266705287970850/1213899209489653830/image.png?ex=65f726bc&is=65e4b1bc&hm=190ddfaf652c51b1200aa16810179a9d7a6347cb0c9a970e32ef0400b5e716ed& ||
A teaser for a future Equestrian Civil War breakaway state, ||Fillyudelphia||, showing a part of their focus tree.

[novel crescent]

What is this, a crossover episode?!

[radiant wasp]

There are 2 ways

You know both references

Or better do not research this at all

Guys, it's not worth opening up this topic. You are young, joking, everything is easy for you. That's not it. This is not a Zone 51 or even the archives of the special services. It's better not to get in here. Seriously, any of you will be sorry. It is better to close the topic and forget what was written here. I fully understand that this message will arouse additional interest, but I want to immediately warn the inquisitive - stop. The others just won't find it.

[floral marten]

I have no idea what this is referencing.

[radiant wasp]

This wasn't joke

That's reason why I prefer do not mention this content in EaW

That patch is hidden and was made for people for know it and know context

[marsh topaz]

I know TNO and EAW did a collab once, but that's about it

[echo willow]

We had other collaborations with other mods in the past. In particular, Old World Blue and Kaiserreich, Red Flood, and the newest collab with Unification Wars last year. Do have a look at those content in the game rule settings

[marsh topaz]

Oh yeah, I knew that. I was referring to the stuff above with the TNO relation.

[drifting dock]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2671060/Crusader_Kings_III_Legends_of_the_Dead/ It's out.

Steam

Crusader Kings III: Legends of the Dead

What good are grand accomplishments and heroic deeds if no one sings of them after you have gone? A royal legacy is only useful, after all, if it can provide cover and legitimacy for those who come after you. Live on in the memory of your subjects and rivals in Legends of the Dead, a Core Expansion for Crusader Kings III.Crusader Kings III: Lege...

Price

$19.99

▶ Play video

[radiant wasp]

And I want share my last coop game with friends in Stellaris

We had 5 people in the game, 2 hive minds, 1 mega corp, 1 normal empire, 1 robot

4 people were tired because 1st speed is too much slow, 2nd speed is too much fast, too many stuff to read/check

Only I were able to deal with 2nd speed, because I was machine

[vernal kiln]

So many references :0

[vernal kiln]

Uhh I guess he means do not bother looking up anything about the New Order as it's very controversial

Not a fan of TNO anyways similar to how I don't look into stuff like Kaiserreich or all the other alt history mods

I like me ponies with tanks

[marsh topaz]

Oh yeah, TNO is incredibly controversial considering it's a "what if the axis won ww2, but slightly reasonably?" Mod. At least in comparison to "Man in the High Castle", like most alt history ww2 themes tend to take

My review: I don't like the mod very much, runs too slow, system's too complicated. I prefer the other one if I'm going for that era's theme, where Japan lost, but Germany won. Because that's leagues more reasonable in the context of OTL, even if it's still far-fetched.

Oh what is it called?

Thousand Week Reich, that's it. Same premise, less complicated.

[novel crescent]

The writing in TNO is great tho

Hell, just look at the post-apocalypse events

There's like 300 of them

It also doesn't glorify the Axis; the world is clearly worse off for them having won

[marsh topaz]

You are correct, yeah. The axis also ends up outright collapsing no matter what after funny moustache man kicks the bucket, which is funny and probably incredibly accurate.

[drifting dock]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSunS8wpU54

[vernal kiln]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/s/BMwmMCDZbU

Seems like it's about robot spiritualism

Kinda neat I guess

[echo willow]

New update and DLC for Hearts of Iron 4 has dropped

[vernal kiln]

What does the new update do?

[sharp solar]

The patch itself? The coolest change is being able to build forts without worrying about clicking on the units that stand on the tile.

There is also of course the whole DLC released today as well, focusing on South America, specifically Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

[echo willow]

A new DLC with content for South America

Please be aware though that there is currently an issue with FPS map and the new DLC

So you might want to take off some mods if there is an issue

[sharp solar]

What's FPS map?

[rocky reef]

Wait it's already released?

[vernal kiln]

Not that interested in the dlc but sure ig

[sharp solar]

Yes, 3 hours ago.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/tinto-talks-2-march-6th-2024.1626415/
Looks like EU5 is in the works.

[rocky reef]

Is it promising or should I just stick to RT56

[sharp solar]

IDK, I don't get DLC. I stick to the starter pack and play EaW.

[marsh topaz]

It doesn't seem to add all that much, outside of content for South America and a few minor tweaks here and there

It's more akin to the DLC's that added like, Poland's focus tree, as opposed to No Step Back or Man the Guns, which revamped the gameplay

[rocky reef]

Ig that makes sense, I'm pretty they at one point said they planned on alternating between small and big dlc

[drifting dock]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/1b8y9br/into_the_light/

[floral marten]

YT version, since Reddit is being flaky for me RN:
https://youtu.be/GsDqi-thw5w?si=0bU_hgOHmjgCXnKB

[drifting dock]

Ah. You can see which people played which game by whether or not they are freaking out before the video finishes.

[rustic valve]

You can fix reddit embeds with rxddit

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/1b8y9br/into_the_light/

[drifting dock]

I forgot about the rx thing when I posted that.

[floral marten]

Doesn't fix Reddit itself breaking nearly every day, unfortunately.

[prisma sonnet]

Since I'm reading a book about the history of modern Iran at the moment (modern = 1501 to today, i.e. big overlap with EU4), I was thinking of doing an EU4 playthrough with the aim of doing "better" than the Safavids did historically.

(I kind of tend to do this when I'm reading history books...)

One thing I was wondering was what country to play as...I wanted to play a Persia which is very open and embraces its cultural and religious diversity, so I was thinking one of the Timurid splinters or the K states in the west (I can never remember their exact names)

[runic moss]

What's the second easiest HOI4 nation, other than the US?

[rocky reef]

That depends on what you're struggling with

Like Generally Germany is considered the 2nd easiest but I think it doesn't matter what you play as long as you have fun with it because hou4 isnt really difficult

[radiant wasp]

USSR

You have insane production

And you can in 1937-1938 declare war to Germany

And you will have free game

[rocky reef]

I think that describes most nations in hoi4 once you get a decent understanding

Hoi4 ai makes the game basically free half the time

[novel crescent]

Sounds cool

[radiant wasp]

You know, 50+ tanks per day on 50 mils is USSR gameplay

Like you don't need braincells at all

[rocky reef]

What a perfect balanced game paradox created

Though I will say if you're declaring that early you don't really need tanks against ai

[marsh topaz]

I was playing kaiserreich as totalist Italy yesterday for a bad guy run. And uh, didn't expect Austria-Hungary to outright collapse and for Austria to get instantly annexed by the Germans

The reichspakt looked a bit OP

[prisma sonnet]

Unfortunately it’s kind of fighting how Persia is set up, its missions and special government reforms and mechanics really want you to impose religious uniformity at least and maybe cultural uniformity as well.

I’m tempted to mod it to set this up, but that’s a bit much…

[floral marten]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2840100/Stellaris_The_Machine_Age/

Steam

Stellaris: The Machine Age

A new age of galactic adventure begins. As your scientists discover ever more advanced means to commune with the machine, your society will face new ethical and social dilemmas. Biological species grapple with the effects of rapid augmentation, while the very nature of identity is thrown into question by the rise of synthetic consciousness. Mean...

Release Date

Coming soon

▶ Play video

https://youtu.be/MSunS8wpU54?si=G0vVTP96XE6m1Lo4

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-335-announcing-the-machine-age.1626445/

[runic moss]

NEW CRISIS?

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Also bye bye synthetic dawn

[radiant wasp]

Free DLCs for HoI4

[runic moss]

huh?

I have them all anyways

[rocky reef]

Wait paradox is actually doing this?

Who are they and what have they done with paradox

Granted these dlcs are all kinda bad as far as dlcs to with how old they are

[radiant wasp]

Maybe because too much anger after Trial of Allegiance

Especially from places where regional prices were increased

[rocky reef]

Maybe but Battle for the Bosphurus seemed worse with Turkeys entire tree being bugged to shit

[rocky reef]

Yeah that would do it

[radiant wasp]

I don't want pay fucking 1100 roubles to write PDX go fuck yourself with increasing prices twice in last 2 years

First time x1.5, this year x2

[rocky reef]

Dw I'll see if I can just mail them a letter saying that

[radiant wasp]

[rocky reef]

Bout to be grinding this all day

Wait fuck wrong channel

[sharp solar]

More context for the free DLC https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/thank-you-for-your-service-spring-sale-steam-store-update.1630917/

[drifting dock]

TLDR: Starter Edition has become popular enough to be rolled into the base game.

[sharp solar]

After March 21st, they will become a part of the base game. To avoid any potential save incompatibility, they let you redeem them earlier.

[novel crescent]

Dope af

[cursive tide]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/281990/view/4147324498218238955 a proper meachine based expansion coming out? despide the fact they ;iteraly had a machine based expansion?
thats neat, i might play stellaris again when that gets released

Individualistic Non-Gestalt Machine Empires
yay something i've wanted since the original expansion

[radiant wasp]

Damn, Mongol Empire is so fucking big

While I did almost peace in Ireland

(Only in my lands, my vassals suffer because, I want everybody and all money )

[vernal kiln]

holy shit, thats the largest I've seen em

that would be sick to bring into Eu4

or Eu5 👀

[novel crescent]

Post the screenshot when they inevitably implode

[floral marten]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-336-the-origins-and-situations-of-the-machine-age.1635464/

[novel crescent]

Looks great

[radiant wasp]

Nobody plays other starting dates in EU4 because lack of government reform progress mostly

Especially for French Revolution dates

And mostly interesting XVIII century starting dates

[rocky reef]

I thought we didn't play them because they're really buggy

[novel crescent]

https://equestriaatwar.wiki.gg/wiki/Horses

Horses are their own race in Equestria at War

[marsh topaz]

That is awesome

They're probably referring to the saddle arabian places that don't have any notable content yet

[sharp solar]

They are canon in the show after all

[marsh topaz]

Pony in charge of a griffon country. (Scandalous)

[celest girder]

Is EaW compatible with the new DLC yet, or I should wait a bit before buying it ?

[rustic valve]

You ought to check the mod page or discord server

[sharp solar]

It is compatible. The new DLC is a country pack, so it changes almost nothing in EaW.

[celest girder]

oh, ok

is the fact that it's only a country pack the reason why people are so disappointed ?

[sharp solar]

Honestly, I'm not even sure it changes anything at all. Macawia now uses Brazilian Portuguese voices, but I don't know if that requires the DLC, or if it was part of the 1.14 patch for HoI4.

[celest girder]

so, no point at all in buying it if I'm exclusively playing EaW ? Got it

[sharp solar]

Maybe? I don't play unmodded, but based on what Paradox has said, the confusion about what the DLC includes might have been partially to blame. They have fixed that with the new naming scheme for DLC.

Perhaps another reason is that people don't like it that Paradox has spent considerable effort of making content for countries that didn't contribute that much to WW2.

[celest girder]

I see

[prisma sonnet]

While countries that did are left incomplete or age badly (see the Soviets for a long time, for instance)

[sharp solar]

Didn't they get reworked in No Step Back? Or do you mean that that was the case before that DLC?

[prisma sonnet]

Before that DLC yes. That’s why I said “for a long time” and not “now”.

[sharp solar]

In any case, with the first three DLC becoming a part of the base game, it opens up a possibility to rework some of the older nations again, like China, Japan, and German.

[red belfry]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/europa-universalis-iv-development-diary-26th-of-march-2024-hisn-kayfa-hormuz-oman-theodoro-trebizond.1644582/

Gothic or Tatar Theodoro

Komnenoi will get the ability to marry Muslims and maybe? other religions.

[zenith crest]

THE GRAPHICS ARE BAD!
ON A 4X GAME!
OH NO!

LITERALLY UNPLAYABLE!

[floral marten]

Don't post in all caps, please.

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/n2Hod1tb3Z0?si=aXtf3LImhbb0Dijo

[drifting dock]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/why-did-we-pick-1337-for-the-start-year.1642258/

[floral marten]

leet

[drifting dock]

If it is EU V (probably is), that's 107 more years of play, but it will take that long to be "complete". I wonder what will get redone, what will be new, and what will be DLC'd and waiting on for years.

[sharp solar]

That's assuming they don't make the end date earlier as well.

[red belfry]

Large ERE, Timur, and the Black Death are the biggest reasons I like it.

[zenith crest]

is paradox game company starting to fall apart?
Cities Skylines 2 flops
Millennia flops
Hearts of iron 4 DLC flops
Victoria 3 flops

[drifting dock]

No.

• Cities 2 needs more time, but it's okay
• Millennia is too new to say yes/no, but a Civ clone will forever be compared to Civ
• Latest DLC is trying to get more people to play nations that did shit all in WW2. It's not Leviathan bad, but certainly wasn't really wanted
• Vicky 3 is in decent shape, and a lot of the issues were from people expecting a more polished 2, but are upset that they can't exploit certain things anymore

[red belfry]

Everyone I know that plays Vicky still doesn't like Vic 3.

But I can't speak personally to the effect.

[radiant wasp]

Vic 3 is literally trash

With no interesting mods to fix the game

The Great Rework is dead

Minor nations aren't playable at all

No sphere of influence and 0 possibility to construction something in your puppets

But we have South America DLC

When all PDX workers go to Brazil

[sharp solar]

Aren't spheres of influence going to become a thing next patch?

[novel crescent]

Vicky 3 launched without spheres of influence?

Tf

[floral marten]

I'm hoping Millennia gets some good patches, I like the concept but it seems to be a bit messy in the execution.

[radiant wasp]

Yes, and you must pay for thing that must be in base game

Like imagine Crusader Kings 3 without Feudalism part

[prisma sonnet]

I don't think Victoria 2 had Spheres of Influence in the base game, without the expansions 🤔

It's been a long time though.

[floral marten]

That's the big problem with the 4x genre, you almost always have people who love features that weren't in the base game. Which means new versions of the game get review bombed for also not having it in the base game.

[floral marten]

Yup. Never fails.

[cursive tide]

same with the sims games tbh

sims 5 is gonna hve like nothing in it base game

[novel crescent]

Yeah but TS4 was missing some pretty huge features on launch

Pools, namely

Toddlers were introduced with TS2

[cursive tide]

i do have to raise the counterpoint of: well duh these games are going to be compared to the predecessors current state, why would you release a worse game?

because... why would you release a worse game?

[prisma sonnet]

Usually because the current state of the game is the result of many years of added content and it’s not financially viable to develop all of that again for a new game?

[cursive tide]

sure
but my point isnt incorrect, if the last game had a lot of features that the latest game is lacking, no matter what the game is, you do get to wonder why they arent there

[floral marten]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-337-individualistic-machines-and-machine-gameplay-updates.1647802/

[floral marten]

Machine leaders will now instead use lifespan rules, but enjoy some extra benefits:

• As real go-getters, their starting age lies between 5-10 years, so at the age of 30 they can run your science department with 20 years of experience.
• All machines also have an additional +20 years to their default lifespan of 80, resulting in a base lifespan of 100 years.
• They are now affected by lifespan-increasing technologies and modifiers, for example, those from Ascension Paths, which we will cover later in this dev diary.

Both biological empires going Synthetic and Machine empires will also reset their age upon completing Ascension to reflect receiving their new bodies. Somewhat paradoxically, all together, these changes should actually result in your Machine leaders being able to better withstand the test of time than they could were when they were theoretically “immortal”.

Oh wow, they completely revised Machine habitability

As a base, all machines have a 50% Habitability floor, so they will never have below 50% habitability on any world. We felt that this was important because we wanted to retain the feel that machine empires could colonize anywhere reasonably well.
...
They start with Dry, Wet, or Frozen Habitability, which provide a base 75% habitability on all three biomes associated with the trait and 50% for all other natural biomes.
As usual, these habitability traits can be changed through robo-modding.

An important quality of life improvement for Machine empires - we have extended the capacity to assimilate other machines or robots into your main species to all machine empires.

Machine
Shipset

[cursive tide]

damn, immortal machines are the best part about them tho :(

[floral marten]

Well, there was a problem where they weren't actually Immortal.

Immortality is a funny thing in Stellaris - under some circumstances (especially as the game goes on), due to the accident and death events that could target machines, you can end up in a state where a theoretically “immortal” machine leader is actually far more vulnerable to death as the years went on than a normal biological leader.
...
In summary, your machine leaders no longer need to fear random death and will live to the ripe old age of 100 years without any additional improvements.

Some forms of immortality, however, have been retained, like the Gestalt Councils and some special ascension traits. All Virtual machine leaders are immortal while Modularity has access to advanced lifespan-increasing traits that can be applied to your machines.

[drifting dock]

Resistance is the Ratio of Voltage to Current Futile​

[sharp solar]

I think I don't quite understand something. If there were events specifically targeting machines, how does giving them lifespans stop them from being susceptible to them? I feel like that would make them even more vulnerable, as they can now die from either them or the old age.

[drifting dock]

How it is right now, it is possible for an "immortal" leader to just up and die, short of having a specific tag that truly prevents that.

[sharp solar]

That I do understand. But I would think that the same thing could happen to mortal leaders as well. So on average, immortal leaders should still outlive mortal ones.

[floral marten]

I think the issue was that mortal leaders could have things that modified them to keep them healthier for longer, while "immortal" bots were subject to the whims of RNJesus

[radiant wasp]

Victoria 2 had very poor support after release, and make Victoria 3 even more poor on release is really achievement how to make people angry

Like literally 19th century is the age of imperialism and aggressive capitalism, but all you can do to take markets by diplomacy

New system of raw resources makes world suffer from oil troubles in late game, because minor nations can build 1 factory per year

While Victoria 2 allowed make your population literally starve, to industrialize

[radiant wasp]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/s/h0brmQ9Stv

[floral marten]

Good lord, that was fast.

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/R-cIemUcOA8?si=4k99HLimPeDry5Mi

[novel crescent]

F

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/6x5oy2BKi94?si=usnOvWahVC1IMZp9

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/JCrUIy0g7CY?si=2iwwdMlGr3hE8Ztl

[radiant wasp]

https://youtu.be/aNCqOgpZ14g?si=L6AGM9D0oNdYaSF9

Part about computers killed me

Paradox Development Stuido developer who did it, please suffer eternity

After 26:34 starts part about computers

It works so fucking bad

[floral marten]

Eh. I'll give it a watch, but in my experience these iceberg videos are exaggerated clickbait.

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/mcNmp-nDPKk?si=gHlzpFkm0GIHsad3

[cursive tide]

[runic moss]

KAISER KATTAIL IS IN EQUESTRIA AT WAR

AND SIRENALIA IS IN GIGASTRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

[vernal kiln]

Who's kaiser kattail

[floral marten]

Apparently leader in a Stellaris mod, with cat people who want to take over the galaxy through mind control.

[vernal kiln]

Ah oke

[runic moss]

He's a universe-hopping time traveller in the Gigastructural Engineering mod who wants to take over the universe for a lot of lore reasons. He is represented by a crisis called the "Katzenartig Imperium" in the mod.

[sharp solar]

Basically a guy with the ability to retry his conquest of galaxy an infinite number of time through the power of travelling into the future so far that the universe restarts again from the Big Bang (like in Futurama).

[marsh topaz]

Behold, the most progressive empire in the world

[novel crescent]

Cursed timeline

Very un-American

[marsh topaz]

Constitutional-Monarchist USA

It was a fun game, although the start sucked

[floral marten]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-339-civics-and-structures-of-the-machine-age-and-auto-modding.1657446/#post-29526546

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/H7VT8gx5zAQ?si=5pxD_WdBiZxQCRIU

[tough falcon]

So hype

[cursive tide]

ye

should get a stellaris game together when this drops

everyone plays a machine empire lol

[novel crescent]

I have a hard time imaging how they can fuck up this expansion

all of the new content looks sick

[cursive tide]

i havent een paying that much attention, do we have a release date?

[floral marten]

Not yet

[vernal kiln]

But I like playing ponies

[cursive tide]

machine ponies then

[vernal kiln]

Que wooden toaster's Prototype song

[runic moss]

Me who just plays mods:

[tough falcon]

I don't have the energy for mods in Stellaris most of the time

Unless it's a big project like planetary diversity and giga

That stays updated

I just end up coding fixes in my free time and I ain't got time for that shit

[floral marten]

Yeah, I don't bother with any mods except ones that fix something I consider broken, or just a basic "ponies in <game> mod" for fun. If I'm playing Stellaris, I want to play Stellaris, not "custom kludge of Stellaris that will break the first time something patches".

[runic moss]

Also

Equestria at War Mac is back I think

Played till 1008 and didn't crash

I GET TO PLAY EAW NOW

[sharp solar]

I think Paradox might have fixed that with patch 1.14

They never mentioned it in the patch notes, though. And it's not like there are many people who keep trying to play EaW on Mac, hoping that it maybe this time it won't crash. So no wonder that took a while to be discovered.

[radiant wasp]

Because organic macro in multiplayer is killing

1st speed is fucking slow

2nd is too much fast

3rd is F1 speed

Especially when you try go synthetic

You literally can be deadlocked after dying ALL leaders of empire

[cursive tide]

it was a suggeston for the game we'd play not a comment on mulriplayer in general
i ahvent played stellaris in about a year

[sharp solar]

So I dug for a bit, and it seems it has been fixed in patch 1.13.5

"Fixed a CTD on macOS related to large maps (multithreaded pathfinder running out of stack space)."

[red belfry]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/europa-universalis-iv-development-diary-9th-of-april-2024-timurids-and-mughals.1662191/

[runic moss]

How do you hold the front as Equestria for the Great War?

I had river buffed forts and the Changelings broke through them like tissue paper

[prisma sonnet]

Did you make sure to have AT support and/or line in your defending divisions?

Generally speaking the trick is to 1) build more forts and/or 2) build more units…

2. can be done by building “reserve” divisions (garrison divisions with just a few battalions of infantry) and upgrading them to real divisions at the start of the war.

You should be able to produce enough materiel for this, and while it tanks their experience the fact that you can have a lot more divisions makes up for this.

(Also the changelings will help…)

[runic moss]

1. Yes. I have packed AT.

2. There are two tiles where the Changelings can pile at me from 3 directions and break through

3. I'm somehow outnumbered

My idea was similar to the USSR strat in which you hold the river line, but the Changelings have much better tanks than the Germans

And they've got like 2 years of militarization over me

[prisma sonnet]

Hmmmm…my only suggestions would be to redo the fort line to have no pinch points like that and if they do have pinch points like that then to build up those forts higher 🤔

I know it used to be the case that sufficiently high-level forts would lead to the AI doing nothing.

[runic moss]

Hmmmm

[prisma sonnet]

I do remember having similar problems the last time I played, but honestly it’s been quite a while…

[runic moss]

If I make too many divisions I wouldn't be able to equip and supply them properly

The problem is that when the Changelings break through in one tile they snowball over the rest

[prisma sonnet]

Yeah, that’s an issue.

I see a few solutions here

1. invest in more infrastructure/railroads to supply more divisions better…you might be able to optimize your MIL usage and builds too, I never had much of a materiel issue as Equestria.

2. Move the defense back behind the first supply regions and destroy the railroads and infrastructure in those regions. Now the changelings are the ones with supply issues.

3. Defense in depth…separate out your defense into multiple weak lines that aren’t there to stop the changelings but slow them down and attrit them. The problem I see here is ensuring you have enough divisions and that they can actually hold your final fallback position…particularly as the changelings are mechanized and you aren’t.

Oh, one other thing, have you been investing in you Air Force? Air superiority and CAS can massively tilt the balance of power by nuking their defensive stats and directly dealing damage.

I think air superiority also makes them move slower, but I’m very unsure of that.

It also plays to Equestria’s industrial strengths and (initial) pony power weakness…

[drifting dock]

Having any Air will slow the enemy down, even if they are superior in that aspect (although you will lose at some point).

[runic moss]

Thanks

[rocky reef]

You could use your puppets troops as a reserve in the weak spots, I know that tfg is finally in the base game so that's possible

[runic moss]

Thanks

But who are my puppets....

[rocky reef]

You're playing as Equstria

The crystal empire starts as a puppet and usually never gets high enough autonomy to stop you from taking their units

You could do this with new mareland and the buffalo as well but new mareland usually has to much autonomy because of their focus tree and the buffalo units honestly aren't good

[runic moss]

oh

[runic moss]

Also I'm pushing back

[prisma sonnet]

Doesn't the Crystal Empire on Historical get broken out by focus? Or has that changed too?

[prisma sonnet]

Which really shouldn't be a problem for Equestria--more so in a hypothetical multiplayer scenario, since New Mareland is basically designed to be an air controller from the ground up or was the last time I checked.

[drifting dock]

I haven't played that mod (only vanilla and the Fallout one), but the basic principles work for all of them.

[sharp solar]

Generally, in the Great War Equestria will initially be pushed back, as they start to remilitarize and Changelings have a timed buff. If Equestria is pushed far enough, they can even call Stalliongrad for help. Only after some time Equestria will start coming out on top.

[vernal kiln]

I dunno how you manage tho, every time I play the changelings get stomped on by Equestria

[sharp solar]

I think they might have received some slight buffs recently. Not that much to affect the outcome much, though.

Changelings can win if the Equestrian Civil War is still ongoing when they start their invasion. Even better if New Mareland is independent and unfriendly towards Equestria.

In my first attempt at Sirenalia, Changelings won before I reached the focus to offer an alliance. Rather that trying to fight them, I decided to restart. When I eventually succeeded, they were still beating Equestria hard, but I still had the chance to join them and contribute plenty.

[thick vessel]

Changeling (player) can crush (historical) equestria with good tank micro and air superiority. The AI doesn't know how to encircle w/ tanks effectively, or manage supply, so equestria pushes back after a while.

[rocky reef]

not by that time of the war no

[prisma sonnet]

I thought that normally they stopped being a puppet before the war even started. Maybe they were still a Dominion or something? I just recall that after a few years you usually couldn't build stuff there any more.

So you had to be kind of on top of your game [or change the rules obviously] to ensure a good fort line and relevant infrastructure got built up there before they de-puppetized and you couldn't do anything to strengthen your northern flank.

[rocky reef]

No they just raise their autonomy level, but you can still keep their troops I think

would have to actually play as EQS with historical on though

give me a second

[rocky reef]

tanks? why get those when you can puppet OLE and PLB for troops then rush war. At that stage of the game you can just encircle all their divisons then vp rush

That's how i get the award for killing EQS before 1010 anyway

[rocky reef]

right started an EQS Game, I'm going to afk it until the war starts

[thick vessel]

what's wrong with tonks they're fun
Also why can't tanks kill EQS before 1010, with a 1:25 casualty ratio?

[rocky reef]

They can I just prefer making shitty inf since after the first but there really wont be much combat

Anyway yeah turns out CRY does raise it's autonomy level to high to request forces from by war time.
I guess I'm just used to stealing their forces and never using using them
Anyway I'm going to continue playing Cold war : Iron curtain from begining to 1991

[floral marten]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-340-a-new-crisis-a-release-date-and-announcing-the-stellaris-season-08.1662209/

As mentioned at the end of the video, The Machine Age will be arriving on Tuesday, May 7th.

It is now available for pre-purchase for $24.99 or regional equivalents.

But there’s more - based on the popularity of Crusader Kings’ Chapter III, we’ve decided to celebrate our eighth anniversary by offering a similar expansion pass including all of the major Stellaris releases of the year for $39.99, which comes out to over a 20% discount.

Rick the Cube is a Machine portrait. Creating an empire using this portrait will require the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack (or The Machine Age, when it releases). Synthetically ascending (requires Utopia) will allow you to choose the Rick the Cube portrait without Synthetic Dawn, or without any DLC it can be used by researching and building robots and robomodding.

[drifting dock]

CKIII Ch 2 started it, since you get a discount and it pops up when released. HOI4 (mostly Starter Edition) and now Stellaris are following suit.

[floral marten]

It's not a bad idea.

[drifting dock]

As long as the products are good, it's alright, unless you want to wait for a deeper sale years from now.

[tough falcon]

lbr I'm too impatient for more space content

I bought that immediately lol

[rocky reef]

Yo I've been thinking and is it worth ever researching construction techs early game for HoI4

I know this sounds crazy but let me cook. Construction only boost the civ factory itself right? So it only gives an Initial boost of 20% assuming you rush both techs early game means you'll only get a 20% boost which really isn't much when accounting for consumer goods.

For most nations this doesnt give enough to justify wasting around a year for both techs

Let me do some math, say you start with around 50 non consumer good factories, that's only around a 3.5 civ factory buff

Why do that when you soend that time researching something else.

Just a little theory I'd like some feedback on from people who actually know hoi4

[runic moss]

Unless you are USA

And can take the hit to research cause 6 slots

[rocky reef]

Star you are scaring me , are you writing an essay to debunk me?

[thick vessel]

1. It's 1 research slot for a year.
2. 20% of 50 civs*5ic/civ/day*3 yrs is 54750 ic, so 7.6 mils or 5.069 extra civs. If you build more civs they will be buffed too.
3. Consider the exponential growth for late game too! However, since construction time is additive, it's not as effective if u already have lots of construction buffs for exponential growth.

[drifting dock]

Depends on when you start and the nation played. Basically, you would like to at least get the first level down, maybe two before shit goes hot. It helps with the build up and helps with repairs and it might be enough to overpower someone with more factories, but they can't keep all of them online.

[thick vessel]

The other question is - what will you be researching instead?

[rocky reef]

Yeah that's what I'm trying to figure out to see if it would be viable

, initially i was thinking suppitt stuff but im currently considering AT/AA to convert it later in the game

I would try planes but 36 planes aren't worth it really unlike tanks where the chassis only really changes the reliability

[thick vessel]

What nation are you considering this strat for? Other construction speed modifiers / focuses also play a role in how effective construction tech is + allows for in-game testing

(Because it's additive not multiplicative)

[rocky reef]

France as the initial testing Nation, China for a real strategy

[thick vessel]

Oh wait base hoi4? thought it was EaW and literacy debuffs to research and construction is a concern

[rocky reef]

Lol

Nah If it was I'd be thinking of an GRI minor

Most minors in EaW are shithole nations anyway, with only 2 civs actually working where you lose basically nothing by putting it off for other tech

Also ngl I forgot about free repair why typing up my little theory

[thick vessel]

And you're forced to research swords and shields anyway

[rocky reef]

Amen

That's part of the reason why some of the only nations I haven't played are in the karthinian area

I can do a FRN and WNG, but the rest I struggle to motivate the ill to play a nation that will get obliterated by wingbardy since they will outscake me

[red belfry]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/europa-universalis-iv-winds-of-change-1-37-free-patch-new-monuments.1665571/?utm_source=discord&utm_medium=post&utm_content=post&utm_campaign=eu_eu_20240416_for_dd

May 8th release.

I can't wait for the Timurid and Mughal trees.

[rocky reef]

rip my campaign of going from the start of hte mod ( 1949) to the end of the irl cold war (1991)

mod keeps crashing at this point and I'm doubtful of finding a fix

update : apperntly croatia was the issue so I had to console kill them

[prisma sonnet]

💀 🇭🇷

[keen flower]

Not exactly the strangest thing to happen this campaign tbh ,
I'm just glad I probably will finish it today because at post 1980s I realized from what I can see only frande, The USA, and the soviets have any focus trees left

[rocky reef]

I elected Gerald ford and this stuff is broke

i think that's a good sign to call it quits

highlihgts of the campaign were realizing the soviets had a bigger and better navy than me
and afgahnistan getting cores over iran and iraq after it split, so currently the mujahedeen have cores over all that
Yugoslavia lost it's cores over croatia
all the events about Martin Luthur king jr when I had affirmative action already enabled

I ended up with puppets in Korea ,japan, China, Taiwan, indonesia , spain, and italy and india
Germany ended up uniting peacefully in like het 60s or 50s under west Germany
the soviets backed down during the hungarian revoultion so they're still communist but not in the warsaw pact
I made the soviets go down the path to invade turkey and greece to give myself a harder challenge, so all of eastern europe is a direct pupet of the soviets
Africa endeed up decolonizing but portugal hasn't got the memo and I'm trying to figure out how to mediate a way to get them out
Korea ended up united because of Mcarthur's threats
Simmilary Macarthur and Dwight Ike Einsienhower are imortal and still haven't died

[floral marten]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/stellaris-dev-diary-341-become-the-crisis-cosmogenesis.1665800/

[floral marten]

Oh my god, I love this. So you basically decide "We really want some of that Fallen Empire tech, but on our own terms" and start fucking with reality to do so. If you hit the end point of the Crisis and succeed, most of your pops fuck off to a brand new universe they created, leaving a small custodian population behind to observe what happens.

And they updated the feature that lets you select a new empire after losing the game to continue playing, so that after winning with this Crisis, you can keep playing in the now-damaged galaxy with your old empire remaining as a true Fallen Empire.

[cursive tide]

omg that sounds epic

[floral marten]

This crisis has successfully scared the crap out of Montu.
https://youtu.be/0eHwtgpPq_Y?si=gLebj4DGHLQvE4rD

[drifting dock]

https://old.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/comments/1c851cv/johan_confirms_that_project_caesar_will_have/

Johan confirms that Project Caesar will have about 500 years of gameplay

[rustic valve]

Years are not really a meaningful measure of playtime or content

The level of detail can differ a lot

[red belfry]

I didn't really play after the 1600s anyways.

I'm really excited about the start date though. I can't wait to be hyped for an inevitably bad release.

[drifting dock]

1337-1837 is a bit of time and fits nicely with some of the older games and their timelines.

You're right though about the content. It's not going to have nearly everything EU4 does now and it will take years to get there, assuming they don't have too many issues with the newer mechanics this game will push.

[red belfry]

I'm interested in how they plan progression out of they're ditching MTs.

[radiant wasp]

I would like well made alternative dates

Because other starting dates in EU4 is dead

You don't have reforms

Estates

Nothing

[rustic valve]

CK2 alternate starting dates are fun

For EU4, the game is easy enough that starting from a later date is fine if that's your thing, but I understand that they should be more representative of what the country was like at the time

[rocky reef]

first time I've seen oleania actually join the UPN before the changlings attack them

also the first time I've seen Olenia declare on the changlings

(there is a feature when equstria flipped to the solar empire making the changlings no longer a puppet

[novel crescent]

The weirdest time-line

[runic moss]

Has anyone played Escalation 84?

[sharp solar]

I haven't, but it seems it hasn't been updated since October. That might potentially cause some issues.

[runic moss]

oh

[marsh topaz]

I've played Escalation '84, pretty fun submod, I hope it gets updated

[runic moss]

Bring out the systemcraft

You might need more firepower

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/-8xLgA05uNo?si=F9XyHgyOCeyOMIzx

[marsh topaz]

[keen flower]

At what point did you microing

[echo willow]

War with River Federation

[runic moss]

What do i do after i beat the changelings

AFK until someone wardecs me?

[marsh topaz]

If Stalliongrad isn't doing their hostility path under Sinister Serov, then pretty much yeah

The pony continent is very much lacking in content as of right now, it's fairly old and doesn't do a whole lot besides staying on the continent

Wingbardy under Beakolini can try to secure New Mareland, and that one communist griffon nation underneath Longsword can (potentially) declare on Equestria, but that one is like near end game stuff.

[runic moss]

oh

[runic moss]

Annexed those guys too

[keen flower]

Do a bit of the post War tree ( deciding what do with the monarchy) then move onto a different nation like the Grififonian empire or aquillia

[novel crescent]

Hippogriffia under the Sirens has a war dec on Equestria as their end game content

[sharp solar]

But it takes ages for them to get there. Story wise, they are supposed to help changelings win, but even as a player you really have to rush to get it done.

[novel crescent]

Yeah you're pretty much going against them alone

[runic moss]

Who has actually played against Kaiser Kattail?

Not in Stellaris, in EAW

[sharp solar]

Not me, but some people have tried. AI Kattail has it easier than the player Kattail, for example by magically spawning units on a different continent that it would otherwise struggle to invade. Someone tried destroying their own port where they were set to spawn in in advance, and have their own army surround it. This way the would only need to handle regular landings from then on. Ultimately defeating him would require a lot of patience, though. If you start in Zebrica, it will be much harder.

There used to be an exploit where setting Hippogriffia's path to Sirenalia would ultimately result in a hippogriffian civil war, with Kattail only being at war with one side, thus ultimately preventing him from finishing his focus tree. This might potentially allow you to wait until he gets a debuff from running out of time. This has been fixed in today's patch (now Kattail will automatically declare on any such breakaways on a weekly tick).

[keen flower]

Been to busy to , might try it later though

[sharp solar]

I wonder which nation would stand the best chance against him. Maybe another AF one, like Emperor of Griffonkind.

[runic moss]

Is the New Mareland exile path actually possible?

Is it actually possible to retake Equestria if the Changelings have won?

[sharp solar]

There is a path for that in New Mareland? If you want this type of gameplay, you might be interested in playing as Equestrian Liberation Front. You'll have to actually defeat the army that you've built.

[keen flower]

Difficult but not impossible

But there is no content for if you do retake it.
I've had thoughts about learning how to create submods to add content but I would have to leaen and write stuff from scratch

[runic moss]

EAW Equestria vs vanilla USA, who would win?

Tech equalized

[keen flower]

The US obliterates and its not that close
EQS starts with more mills but has a 30% debuff to building them, EQS also has a much harder time getting rid of the debuffs compared to vanilla US

And finally the most important difference, manpower, the US on volunteer only (from what I remember) can field a 1 million man army, while for EQS takes going up to extensive conscription for that
The only thing EQS has going for it is building slots I think, but that won't matter if they get steamrolled

[marsh topaz]

I will say tho, pony infantry is a lot faster than human infantry, but human infantry is leagues stronger than pony divisions. The lower pop count of EAW makes smaller sized infantry units the way to go, as a way to not burn ponypower. The base game however does not have this issue for larger nations, and even a fair bit of minor nations.

Generally, human divisions will have way more HP than pony divisions, house more equipment and manpower, and have a way larger navy.

The navy portion would be the real deciding factor, because taking the whole Pacific War out of account for this supposed one on one, the US has the combined power of the Atlantic and Pacific fleets

[runic moss]

Then can an AI USA be beaten with player Equestria?

[marsh topaz]

Depends on the skill level, but no

Players find a way regardless of nation

I've seen people do world conquests with Tannu Tuva and Luxembourg in the older versions. They're just built different.

Er, yes they can be beaten

[runic moss]

Rush em earlygame?

EQS does start with more stockpiled stuff

[keen flower]

The best strategy for the that would be to trigger the lunar civil war and then justify manually

[runic moss]

Actually no, cause US navy is 3x larger

Then again, default US ships are trash

[keen flower]

The US has 14 divispns or some starting off in vanilla with like 14 mils, rushing would work

[marsh topaz]

Thats how most good players do it tbf

Rushing the US in like 1936 and 1937 is apparently incredibly broken

[keen flower]

Factually true

[runic moss]

22 on their homeland

[marsh topaz]

That is the german strat however, so it might not register well with Equestria.

[runic moss]

How do you rush USA as Germany?

[keen flower]

The strat still works with the UK, if you flip fascist

That's why I think the Lunar empire is the best bet if eqs is to win

[marsh topaz]

I think you justify on them right as the game starts, or you take denmark first to get greenland so you have a closer port for naval invasions

[runic moss]

What if its RT56 USA?

50% ws to get rid of isolation instead of 30%

[marsh topaz]

I mean, I'm sure either civil war nation would work, they spawn with like 50 divisions or something

[keen flower]

Yes but the lunar empire can justify immediately

[marsh topaz]

Nightmare would be faster tho, since supremacist

Yeah

[runic moss]

Our Town vs Tannu Tuva?

[keen flower]

Depends on if it's player or ai

[marsh topaz]

It would be a tie if it were AI

Neither start with ports, neither would build ships if they did (since the AI is incredibly jank and dont build navies)

[keen flower]

Player our town if it can form stg in time

Otherwise tanu Tuva because the generic focus tree is stronger than. The our town one 3 mils and civs from the tree vs 2 civs

[echo willow]

Mmm, I'm not too interested in that new april fools content

I did see someone defeat Kaiser Kattail as April Fools Dread League (Kingdom of Eternity)

[novel crescent]

Have you ever done an ELF game?

And is winning viable without exploits?

[sharp solar]

I have done it. My goal was to earn all the Changeling awards, so I also did the Blitzkrieg, so my army wasn't all that big. And the changelings had to deal with the southern front, so they weren't able to cover the entire frontline and were easily encircled. The only "exploit" I did was to set the AI paths for the easier Blitzkrieg. This meant that the Southern states helped me early on, but I couldn't count on New Mareland. And after defeating Equestria I stopped caring about production and research (I allowed them to do make what they were making, but didn't make changes).

While deleting armies and stockpile is an option, I didn't do that.

[echo willow]

Spent the day making aircraft and template designs

[keen flower]

Interesting idea using the lunar civil war, to try and kill equstria before 1010, while it sounds good with Equstria having to deal with a two front war against you, doesnt that mean the ai would have gotten rid of all its debuffs
Also with the civil war going on you would have less opportunity to encircle them since the ai's units would be off fighting the civil war

More importantly than all that the award specifics you have to own canterlot, so sure while you'd feel like you got a lot, you don't end up with that much because the lunar empire will be ae to take most of it
So while it's a strategy worth trying I don't know irs if it's optimal

Obtatory need nerd emote here 🤓 and congrats for actually getting it done

[sharp solar]

Encircling is good, but what's even better is making the entire army dissapear due to their country capitulating. You rush in, Equestria capitulates due to fighting on two fronts, as you rush to cover the land. If Luna takes Canterlot in the peace conference, simply defeat Luna (you will likely have Stalliongrad helping you with that, as they would join the Great War on Equestria's side). Having a big nation helping is imo more important than the debuffs.

I also set Olenia to join me willingly, and got the bears puppeted before the war. In the end, I finished the main GW around October with the capitulation of Stalliongrad. After that it was just a matter of mopping up the South, which I finished the following year (but that's irrelevant to the award).

[uneven heart]

Are there any good mods for HOI4 that make the game more simple or easier ot learn? I wanna get into it but it's too overwhelming. With EU4 and CK3 you can take things at your own pace without worrying about tons of mechanics and how to work them together.

[vernal kiln]

I can never seem to make good plane templates

My agility just tanks if I do a mission

[runic moss]

Honestly? Mods make the game harder

Play half a run as Canada to get the basic controls down, anothe half to experiment with techs and builds, and when you feel confident, play USA

Or Germany

[echo willow]

Equestria at War is sort of a “better” way to be bad

https://tenor.com/view/mlp-winter-clothes-marshmallow-my-little-pony-cozy-glow-gif-15682607

[echo willow]

You might find this guide to be helpful in your designs https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2714213712

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/aGCJscyqKkk?si=hF817BHh-xnOhVzB

[echo willow]

Number one rule… Designs are more effective if they are specialized to a specific role. Multi-role designs just don’t really go well in hoi4

[echo willow]

Yeah. Unfortunately there aren't any mods that make it easier to learn. There are however ironman compatible mods on the Steam Workshop that give your game more quality of life.

FPS map mod, colored railways, modifier icons, etc etc

[uneven heart]

Right

[echo willow]

I've learned the game through watching a lot of hoi4 videos. They're a reliable source to look through since the in-game tutorial only just gives you the basics

FeedbackGaming, Taureor and Bitt3rsteel are some of the Youtubers I watch to name a few

[rocky reef]

oh, I just don't trust not to find a way to end the lunar civil war early, which is definitly possible if both new mareland and the crystal empire actually join Eqs, and at that point EQS will have gotten rid of all it's bad national spirts which would definitly slow you down

[sharp solar]

I barely had to fight any Equestrian units due to them being busy fighting Luna. New Mareland won't join Equestria if they are MARESOC (possibly in some other paths, but I haven't tested every possibility). There is a big risk that AI Big Sister fails to do the purge and ends up in a civil war herself, but that is likely to stall for a long time, as the harmonists are unable to launch an invasion on the northern island.

[sharp solar]

I had the same thing happen to me. I couldn't find Twilight Sparkle during the war with the changelings, because I needed some island in the south-east, and it was held by Disciples of the Night (Changelings were not able to defeat them before the ELF uprising came and pushed them away).

Overall, the ELF story suffers a little bit from not accounting for an alternative turn of events. It kind of assumes that the Equestrian Civil War never happened and that it rose up through Lilac messing up in Manehattan rather than simply never forming the protectorate in the first place.

[keen flower]

Why is it so big wtf

[runic moss]

What? They have a metal gear? Here?

[sharp solar]

It's from this year's April Fool's content. IIRC, this tank is like 500 meters in length, and its canon can fire nukes to across the globe.

[runic moss]

I think it’s called the Riesiegerpanzers or smth

And that’s it’s canonical strength

[keen flower]

I think I play to much paradox or least EaW

I just had this wacky ass dream about a power struggle between keremaski and verany over who would lead the pan griffin republic, somehow it involved flordia or something?

[cursive tide]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/281990/view/4197994429738055755 sooo... anyone interested in setting up a machine age game?

[drifting dock]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHoimFC99-E

[runic moss]

Cries in can't afford dlc

[drifting dock]

New OST is kick ass too.

[cursive tide]

so, fun thing about paradox games and DLC...

[runic moss]

what

[drifting dock]

Also, TIL that the guy that did a lot of PDX's music for about a decade stepped away 6 months ago.

[runic moss]

cries in steam

[drifting dock]

If the hosts has the DLC, then everyone can play with it, regardless if they own it or not.

[runic moss]

I'll have to learn the mechanics

[floral marten]

If you're in a multiplayer game, only the host needs the DLC, if I remember right.

https://youtu.be/oyqCRVtCn84?si=CTOsBbjT313EddLw

[keen flower]

yeah that's probably the best part of any paradox multiplayer

[vernal kiln]

cries in finals week

[floral marten]

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/stellaris

70% off base game, 50% off DLC packs

[drifting dock]

For those with the latest Stellaris update, you will want to get into the beta patch. Due to a Swedish holiday, the fixes won't be live until next Thursday.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/281990/announcements/detail/4176602971946315651

[drifting dock]

And for the EU IV folks, Winds of Change is out very very soon.

[tough falcon]

What did it fix

Ah not the thing i was thinking of

oh well

[drifting dock]

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/pdx_publishersale24

[floral marten]

https://youtu.be/Hq929TtI9-Y?si=8vGT-LULBkzwTXh0

[runic moss]

Sparkle, are we the baddies?

[rocky reef]

just did the wholesome route for twilight theory
I have to say that was a trip and a half and I had fun doinhg it

I did end up using the console for the changling war because I could not be assed at that point , and I have played far to many equstrian games recently

yeah I had some wacky commanders by the end of this

also theoritically I could play as the regency rn

[novel crescent]

Tf is this monkey doing in my horse mod

[keen flower]

We solved racism that's what happened

With our cast or Zebrican knuckles, chungus, and Floopa racism was fixed

[vernal kiln]

[runic moss]

Does anyone play the TWR mod?

[keen flower]

I don't but I might download it soon after I finish playing every nation with content in Equestria at war so probably like a week

[echo willow]

[runic moss]

Has anyone played RT56?

[keen flower]

A bit why?

[runic moss]

Actually

I'll probably be executed for that

[keen flower]

I mean I agree

[runic moss]

RT56 has more lategame stuff while EAW lategame after you conquer Equus/Griffonia is just "research tech until you run out"

I managed to unify the continent as Equestria and now I'm left with doing nothing as Wingbardy and Aquileia duke it out

[keen flower]

I mean I only agree because Rt56 is effectively vanilla +

[keen flower]

Would you believe me if most people think intercontinental late game wars are hell

[runic moss]

I know

[keen flower]

EaW is more of a story-focused mod, and very rarely does that story end up going intercontinental

[runic moss]

Even in RT56 I had to fight a post war USSR with 300 something divisions

And also, Wingbardy vs Hippogriffia just won't end

[keen flower]

It does though? There's am event that will fire after some time

[runic moss]

There's a round 2

[keen flower]

Trying to think of what you're talking about

[runic moss]

The North Zebrican War ended

And when I look back after defeating the changelings and Stalliongrad Wingbardy was fighting Hippogriffia again

[keen flower]

Sirenalia might not get the event

[runic moss]

What's Sirenalia?

[keen flower]

It's a timer that goes down and eventually triggers. A peace with wingbardy, or atleast offers peace via event

[keen flower]

I read that wrong

OK yeah I think I figured out that happened

That is an edge case

I assume HiP joined the UPA while they were are war with STG ,CHN, and WNG

[runic moss]

No

[keen flower]

Then what the fuck happened

[runic moss]

Hippogriffia never tried to join the UPA

Maybe Wingbardy justified manually?

[keen flower]

Modt likely new mareland got indepence for a second and joined the middle sea treaty via decision

[runic moss]

And now Aquilea is fighting Wingbardy, and whoever wins is going to outscale me because I'm running out of resources to build anything

[sharp solar]

@runic moss If Winggarten was formed after the first North Zebrican War, then round 2 likely started out as hostilities between Winggarten and Hippogriffia.

[runic moss]

Oh

Also

I just checked, the Aquileian AI is running on -210 steel and somehow still going

[sharp solar]

But yeah, EaW nation are primarily intended to be played until their story ends. Some stories end sooner, some later. The latter are those who benefit from the expanded tech tree. If you wish to play beyond that, that's on you.

[runic moss]

What do I do in the case of intercontinental war?

Because I'm already lategame

[keen flower]

In this case I'd suggest you quit the game and play a new campaign, like Ardlent

[sharp solar]

Equestria is also one of the oldest nations in the game. Its content date back to the time when Equus was the only continent in the game. It is being reworked, but it's unlikely to be conquest-focused. Well, at least not in the harmonic path.

[runic moss]

Alright

Have yall actually fought intercontinental war before?

[sharp solar]

There are generally few nations that go on intercontinental conquests. Even conquest-focused nations tend to focus on their own continent only. Though there might be some exceptions, like Star Father, from Zebrica, focusing on Griffonia in late game.

You could try enabling this year's April Fool's game rule and play as Abyssinia.

[runic moss]

Kaiser Kattail

[sharp solar]

Yep. I see you're already familiar with him.

[runic moss]

I've played against him in Stellaris and he's kind of a pushover

[sharp solar]

Well, here you can play as him.

[runic moss]

What's the strat

I heard he's strong but also challenging

[sharp solar]

I've never actually did any world conquests. I have conquered Equus as Changelings, half of Griffonia and Nova Griffonia as the Empire, and Zebrica as Azir. I have also assisted Changelings in conquering Equestria as Sirenalia, and later in that playthrough performed an intercontinental naval invasion on Wingbardy.

I mean to do a Star Father playthrough (which would involve invading Griffonia) at some point in the future. My previous run ended in failure, where I couldn't even take Hippogriffia, as I was a lot less experienced back then.

[keen flower]

As sirenallia and the changings,

And that one New mareland campaign that I ended up liberating the hoemland

[sharp solar]

I don't know if I can be of much help there. I played that one on the easiest difficulty, and quit at the point where the story suggests that it might be a good moment to do so, after conquering about half of Zebrica (after that you would need to declare on entire continents at once). Kattail is strong, but there is a ticking clock, where you get debuffs to defense and surrender limit. It's still possible to win even with them, but it's gonna be a challenge.

[keen flower]

I don't think it could be that hard, their buffs are ridiculous from when I tried a campaign of fighting against them

I remember checking out the casualties and realized I hadn't done any for over a year

[keen flower]

Same honestly, I plan of doing a star father campaign but laziness and the length of it outs me off

[sharp solar]

I'm largely reluctant to start a long playthrough late in the patch lifecycle, in fear of having it be stopped by a non-save-compatible patch.

[thick vessel]

The fun isn't playing as the Kaiser, it's playing as another april fools nation against the kaiser. Like dread league. Or maybe even the Regency (without taking the final focus)

[keen flower]

I mean it can't be that hard to play as a normal nation against the kaiser

[prisma sonnet]

Ironically Equestria has a fair chance of going intercontinental if the Empire reunites...well, the empire and gets to the end of their tree before Grover VI reaches his majority. Or at least did, because of the Empire's wargoal on Nova Griffonia; if Equestria is allied with Nova Griffonia or has puppeted them after a war, there you go.

Or of course if Wingbardy is still around and New Mareland is in the UPA.

[keen flower]

That's why you support keremasmi, you don't want to have to fight them when you want to go to bed after invading north zebrica (I play with the diarchy expanded sub mod)

[runic moss]

Can a continental war be actually won?

Because I'm going hyper late game to explore the tech tree

[keen flower]

Yes any way can be won

If you're still playing as equstria just justify manually

[runic moss]

I have a giant tech lead, but I do worry about if either of the two Griffon nations swallow up the other for like 600 mils and completely outproduce me

I'm out of chromium to make any more stuff even though I can easily build 500+ mils

[keen flower]

Are you trading with your puppets?

[runic moss]

New Mareland has 0 chromium, and I've swallowed up the entire continent already

[keen flower]

Oh

Trade laws maybe?

Either way produce planes since they don't take chromium

[runic moss]

Planes take chromium now

Or at least, jets do

[thick vessel]

with how OP the late game kaiser buffs are, if ur slow, u get outteched and outscaled

and I specifically mentioned regency because the 5-way civil war is a pain to speedrun

[sharp solar]

That is unlikely, unfortunately. The Nova Griffonia focus is at the end of the first tree. If they can't start it it before Grover's coronation, they will get the student protests instead after completing the two prerequisite ones.

A more likely scenario is Beakolini attacking New Mareland.

[prisma sonnet]

Unlikely maybe but I've had it happen 🤷‍♂️

I remember Luna leading a massive amphibious invasion of NE Griffonia, and then multiple huge armored offensives to encircle and maul big chunks of the Imperial army...

[runic moss]

Well Beakolini is dead in my game

He got into a fight with the Griffonian Republic and got curbstomped

[runic moss]

Aquileia vs Wingbardy. Which is easier?

[vernal kiln]

Wingbardy In my experience

[runic moss]

I won the intercontinental war

[runic moss]

Which EAW nations can beat their vanilla counterparts assuming equal tech?

[marsh topaz]

I feel the changelings would win against Germany. Ponypower isn't much of a problem for them, and their units move a lot faster than human infantry units going by stats. A blitzkrieg would be difficult against beings that would move entire armies within hours, rather than days.

Not to mention the lore reasons as to why a human nation would have lots of trouble against beings that can shapeshift into anything they want. Especially if their army looks and dresses very similar to you.

The only thing base game Germany really has, is a fairly strong navy that I believe is bigger than the Changeling's navy, but for the sake of Germany and Changeling Lands being rather "same continent" with their main enemies, it makes sense that they'd border each other in this scenario.

I'm on the fence about this tho, since Germany still does have a fairly advanced starting army, and is up there with the US in terms of industrial power in-game

[prisma sonnet]

Equestria can easily beat France because it has more ponypower and industrial potential 😆

Plus magic of course.

(I am not being entirely unserious here, there are definite French characteristics to Equestria even if it's not culturally French like Aquileia)

[marsh topaz]

Equestria is like, a mixture of a bunch of different allied powers. The US, UK, and France have draws, but there's also Russian draws from the base game stats, and not to mention the South American bat vibe in the southeast.

EAW Equestria is a wild place

[runic moss]

Has anyone won the North Zebrican War as Hippogriffia?

With Chiropterra, Colthage and Wingbardy teaming on you, its basically impossible

[novel crescent]

Yes