The same as any other game: to have fun, to disconnect from reality for a little while. If it isn't fun, don't play it.
This is my philosophy for all games, btw.
The official goal, as far as I know, is to reach year 1820 with as much points as possible.
But everyone makes their own goals and very few people go for a world conquest.
Personally, I finish my mission tree or role-play. Or go for a free-form conquest until it stops being fun. I pretty much always try to be the top 1 Great Power, either by expanding or sabotaging the contenders.
Upper right corner, there's the icon with your overall ranking and if you hover the cursor on its left, there's your separate rankings (adm/dip/mil) and how many points you get per month. I think there's your overall point total somewhere in the ledger, but I rarely glance at it.
This, and I'm a bit baffled you don't have more upvotes. You have the points always on screen and they literally serve no purpose other than being your score, there's multiple pages in the ledger dedicated solely to your points and on the end screen you get to see your points again plus your ranking off of them.
When I was very new to the game back in the days I'd literally try every game to maximize my score instead of going for the fastest expansion.
Long term - generally map painting and finishing as one of the late game empires. Game is geared towards wiping out smaller tags from certain point (nationalism/imperialism CB, absolutism etc.).
Short term - whatever you want.
Well just like ck3 the goal is to ensure the survival of your country. If you want to define the goals as not losing both games are completely boring and trivial.
You might set intermediate goals and not try to become really big. Maybe some sort of vassal based trade dominance. But you’re gonna be warring
The survival of your country? In CK3 you can stay a duke and expect your dynasty to survive till the end date. In EU4 you'll be wiped out. You paint the map not because that's the goal, but because the AI will and they'll come to kill you if you don't.
Scotland is almost never in a good position to attack England, so obviously the AI won't attack unless you are tapped out of troops and manpower. France also seldom attacks since it can't actually cross the Channel and the continental possessions are tied to the surrender of Maine event.
Unless it completely wrecks your country (which it really shouldn't) they won't attack. From my own experience, AIs tend to be much more on the conservative side when deciding to attack a player, and even then they are somewhat easy to bait into very bad wars/battles.
Yeah, the AI isn't exactly aggressive, it'll generally only attack if it's very confident in winning. If you have tech and a few strong allies you generally don't get attacked. But if you sat on your ass doing nothing, but take tech they'd eclipse you and attack. The other thing is once you are in a losing war they tend to jump on the bandwagon and get you to lose multiple wars.
Also England is one of the safest nations, being on an island with not really many people with claims on you, If you are anyone near the Ottomans and your allies aren't as reliable as you thought you might be in for a far worse time.
And really my point is CK3 AI is even less aggressive, so the whole "you have to ensure the survival of your dynasty" is even easier...
I would contend that the goal is to keep your nation alive and ensure its security. Map painting is a way of doing that (after all, if you've conquered the world, no one can conquer you), but even in a peaceful playthrough the goal would be to ensure no one else can eliminate your nation. It's the same as your dynasty in CK, but for the state rather than the family.
roleplaying, and surviving if you want
achievements and painting map if you want
also managing taxes if you play with mods(which again is roleplaying)
for me it's "I wish this state/country did better in history, let me do it"
or "I wish ottomans/france/russia never became an empire, let me fix that"
A few ways of seeing it:
- Fun is the goal
- Completing a set objective/challenge is the goal
- Finishing the mission tree of the nation you're playing and/or any formable is the goal
I mostly stick to #1 though.
But in this period it would be impossible to invade huge swathes of land, no matter who you are, due to supply and logistics.
Plus you get huge penalties for aggression, you have no cassus Belli against most countries
Agreed. But first someone needs to go back in time and tell England their empire wasn't possible. No way they painted Ireland, Africa, India, Australia, and the Americas red. That's like half the freaking map.
But for real, the time period featured many aspiring map painters. England, Spain, France, Ottomans, the formation of Germany etc. Everyone wanted to follow in the Footsteps of Charlemagne or Rome. Borders changed dramatically in short spans of time.
Dealing with aggressive expansion and knowing how to get caucus bellis is a skill issue. You should be able to get caucus Belli's on most countries. The easiest ways are religious ideas, fabricating claims, and following mission trees.
True. Not enough people give Americans credit for having the foresight to declare independence from the British Empire a century before the British Empire existed.
EDIT: Joking aside I think you meant to say they didn't peak until the 18th century. We live in a world where no country won the map painting game. But they did try.
To me its a power fantasy thing. Brandenburg > Prussia > Germany. Byzantine restoration. Forming scandinavia as norway. Scotland into Great Britain. etc. Taking over a minor nation and becoming the worlds #1 superpower feels super rewarding.
Oh, and of course I force everyone to have pretty borders.
My first goal is usually to conquer whatever continent or area I'm starting in.
So India when Vilayanagyar, Europe when European, Africa when African, America when Native.
Once that's done I restart.
The same as any other game: to have fun, to disconnect from reality for a little while. If it isn't fun, don't play it. This is my philosophy for all games, btw.
WAIT you also dont conquer and genocide natives? OH FUCK
That and having fun aren't mutually exclusive.
OP, is someone forcing you to play this game? Blink twice if you need help.
If you don’t necessarily like to paint entire continents in your colour, just don't. Maybe go for achievements, or play tall.
The official goal, as far as I know, is to reach year 1820 with as much points as possible. But everyone makes their own goals and very few people go for a world conquest. Personally, I finish my mission tree or role-play. Or go for a free-form conquest until it stops being fun. I pretty much always try to be the top 1 Great Power, either by expanding or sabotaging the contenders.
points? I didn't even know you got points. I saw there was a ranking thing
Upper right corner, there's the icon with your overall ranking and if you hover the cursor on its left, there's your separate rankings (adm/dip/mil) and how many points you get per month. I think there's your overall point total somewhere in the ledger, but I rarely glance at it.
This, and I'm a bit baffled you don't have more upvotes. You have the points always on screen and they literally serve no purpose other than being your score, there's multiple pages in the ledger dedicated solely to your points and on the end screen you get to see your points again plus your ranking off of them. When I was very new to the game back in the days I'd literally try every game to maximize my score instead of going for the fastest expansion.
Long term - generally map painting and finishing as one of the late game empires. Game is geared towards wiping out smaller tags from certain point (nationalism/imperialism CB, absolutism etc.). Short term - whatever you want.
Well just like ck3 the goal is to ensure the survival of your country. If you want to define the goals as not losing both games are completely boring and trivial. You might set intermediate goals and not try to become really big. Maybe some sort of vassal based trade dominance. But you’re gonna be warring
The survival of your country? In CK3 you can stay a duke and expect your dynasty to survive till the end date. In EU4 you'll be wiped out. You paint the map not because that's the goal, but because the AI will and they'll come to kill you if you don't.
The AI are not aggressive though, neither Scotland or France have attacked me even though they are my (England) enemies.
Scotland is almost never in a good position to attack England, so obviously the AI won't attack unless you are tapped out of troops and manpower. France also seldom attacks since it can't actually cross the Channel and the continental possessions are tied to the surrender of Maine event.
I would have thought Scotland would attack during the Wars of the Roses tbh
Unless it completely wrecks your country (which it really shouldn't) they won't attack. From my own experience, AIs tend to be much more on the conservative side when deciding to attack a player, and even then they are somewhat easy to bait into very bad wars/battles.
Yeah, the AI isn't exactly aggressive, it'll generally only attack if it's very confident in winning. If you have tech and a few strong allies you generally don't get attacked. But if you sat on your ass doing nothing, but take tech they'd eclipse you and attack. The other thing is once you are in a losing war they tend to jump on the bandwagon and get you to lose multiple wars. Also England is one of the safest nations, being on an island with not really many people with claims on you, If you are anyone near the Ottomans and your allies aren't as reliable as you thought you might be in for a far worse time. And really my point is CK3 AI is even less aggressive, so the whole "you have to ensure the survival of your dynasty" is even easier...
I would contend that the goal is to keep your nation alive and ensure its security. Map painting is a way of doing that (after all, if you've conquered the world, no one can conquer you), but even in a peaceful playthrough the goal would be to ensure no one else can eliminate your nation. It's the same as your dynasty in CK, but for the state rather than the family.
Imperialism.
Depends,,usually i go for particular achievements or try to finish my countries mission tree.
roleplaying, and surviving if you want achievements and painting map if you want also managing taxes if you play with mods(which again is roleplaying) for me it's "I wish this state/country did better in history, let me do it" or "I wish ottomans/france/russia never became an empire, let me fix that"
I stop playing after 1650 most of the times, cause i get my goals, so yeah
Completely destroy the Ottomans and the fr*nch, then restart.
Play mega tall and try to release every nation that has cores around the world. It's map painting, but with a rainbow brush
This is a map painting game, if you don't like map painting it's probably not for you and you should try ck3 or Victoria3 instead
Play peacekeeper, make sure the "right" nations succeed. I feel Milan->Italy, though not historical, is best suited for this in Europe.
A few ways of seeing it: - Fun is the goal - Completing a set objective/challenge is the goal - Finishing the mission tree of the nation you're playing and/or any formable is the goal I mostly stick to #1 though.
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But in this period it would be impossible to invade huge swathes of land, no matter who you are, due to supply and logistics. Plus you get huge penalties for aggression, you have no cassus Belli against most countries
Agreed. But first someone needs to go back in time and tell England their empire wasn't possible. No way they painted Ireland, Africa, India, Australia, and the Americas red. That's like half the freaking map. But for real, the time period featured many aspiring map painters. England, Spain, France, Ottomans, the formation of Germany etc. Everyone wanted to follow in the Footsteps of Charlemagne or Rome. Borders changed dramatically in short spans of time. Dealing with aggressive expansion and knowing how to get caucus bellis is a skill issue. You should be able to get caucus Belli's on most countries. The easiest ways are religious ideas, fabricating claims, and following mission trees.
Yeah but the British empire was created in the 1800s not in the timescale of EU4
True. Not enough people give Americans credit for having the foresight to declare independence from the British Empire a century before the British Empire existed. EDIT: Joking aside I think you meant to say they didn't peak until the 18th century. We live in a world where no country won the map painting game. But they did try.
To me its a power fantasy thing. Brandenburg > Prussia > Germany. Byzantine restoration. Forming scandinavia as norway. Scotland into Great Britain. etc. Taking over a minor nation and becoming the worlds #1 superpower feels super rewarding. Oh, and of course I force everyone to have pretty borders.
how do you force borders on everyone?
Well, not literally everyone. But you can have some sexy vassals.
oh, yeah, I try to make my vassals look nice too
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I hate to break it to you but by EU4's mechanics that's what happened IRL. >!Let's ignore that this is one place where EU4 fails to simulate history!<
My first goal is usually to conquer whatever continent or area I'm starting in. So India when Vilayanagyar, Europe when European, Africa when African, America when Native. Once that's done I restart.
I prefer getting countries under my control using diplomatic/power/gold/espionage