Where We're Going, We Don't Need Rhodes: A Knights Hospitaller AAR (Europa Universalis IV)

Hey again Steem folk.

Today I have for you something I enjoy making and sharing and comparing. This is what's called an after action report for a campaign in the game Europa Universalis IV. I've explained what they are and why in a previous post: https://steemit.com/gaming/@p5ych0path/europa-universalis-iv-anyone-interested-in-aars

In this campaign I was running version 1.19.2 of EU4. The new Mandate of Heaven DLC is out right now, but I haven't gotten it yet. I encourage you all to check it out.

Which Nation:

Today I'm going to share my Knights Hospitaller AAR. If you're familiar with the game, you'll know that most casual players consider the Knights useless and a waste of time, but if you're actually familiar with the game, you'll know that the Knights have so many opportunities in the world. I'm not a pro-gamer, or a pro at this game, but I've got 1100 hours in the game (please help I have no life) and I think that qualifies me to say some things about it.

So, who are the Knights, you might be wondering. Well, according to Wikipedia, the Knights Hospitaller "is the medieval Catholic military order... headquartered variously in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta..." In the game's start of 1444, the Knights own only one province, their capital of Rhodes. If you know a little geography, you might be aware that Rhodes is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, south of the coast of modern day Turkey. In game, the majority of the region to the north is Ottoman territory. Ottomans hate Catholics. The Knights are Catholic. Well, their island is Orthodox. It's a little weird obviously.

So, here we go.

The Highlights:

 As you can see by this map, I took the decision to form Greece in the end game simply because why not. Also in the last brutal war against the Ottomans, I gained the provinces need to form Greece.  

Shortly after taking this map screenshot and unpausing, my New World land all unexpectedly turned into colonial nations. I hadn't considered this as my capital moved from Barahonas to Athens, causing my former land to switch. It made little difference as I had only two more game days left anyway and I had defeated my greatest foe. 

Here is the map just before taking the decision to form Greece. I began this campaign as the Knights. Initially the game went slow. In the first fifty years, I spent time developing Rhodes, teching up, and grabbing Quest for the New World ideas. 

In addition, I captured Pisa and Siena so that I could use them as a jumping off point to St. Thomas, which was the closest territory I could colonize. During colonization, however, The Pope decided to take them from me, but that didn't bother me as I had done what I intended. 

From there it was a grueling juggle of ducats spent on colonizing like crazy. I also took Expansion ideas as soon as I was able in order to speed up the process. England got half of the Caribbean before I could colonize it, but I was able to take a large swath of South America in the early game. 

I later began to colonize the Florida region as well as Easter Siberia and Hawaii due to need for land to give to the Nobility and Clergy so they would like me. 

Here is the final screen. This is for Ironman proof as well as to show off my mighty Knight's Grecian empire. In the game, the only way to get achievements is playing in Ironman mode.

The difference in playing Ironman is that you can't reload your saves and you can't use most mods that affect gameplay. Some people still manage to "save scum", but I've yet to figure that one out.

My European, Anatolian, and North African holdings after the Greece formation. After taking the decision to form Greece, my capital moved to Athens from Baharonas (Caribbean).

My lands in Eastern Siberia plus Hawaii after going Greek. 

One good thing that came of this was the Five Colonies achievement, which was unintentional, but whatever.

My newly formed colonial nations after forming Greece. Colonial nations form after you colonize five provinces within the same region in the New World and, since I had all that land already, the switch to Greece turned them all colonial.

Showing off my Knights empire. This was prior to forming Greece.

Just before taking the Greece formation. This is shortly after a massive war with the Ottomans.

As you can see, I decided to keep to my Knight ideas and ambitions. This decision was due to the fact that I thought Greek ideas weren't as useful and because why not.

My old capital before the switch. Also it seems that the Scots wanted to double the oxygen level in the area. (probably not accurate, I'm not a chemist.) 

So, before I could form Greece, I was embroiled in a massive war against the super Ottomans who had gone mostly unchecked and devoured much of eastern Europe by this point. I had much help and they were also involved in another massive war with the other European powers I wasn't allied to. The battle lasted from about 1810 to about 1816, after which I took the Greek lands to core. 

For the unfamiliar, the Ottomans are sort of like the "end boss" of EU4. They start as one of, if not the, strongest empire in the game and, if not dealt with early, they are very difficult to fight until the late game.

This was quite a disturbing turn of events during the war. The 214k Ottoman stack somehow managed to cross the Edirne-Biga Straight, which I had blocked with my navy. As you can imagine, this complicated the war quite a bit. 

Unbeknownst to me, there was a patch that made it impossible to block enemy straits that weren't occupied. I had no idea until a chap on Reddit explained it to me. Even with 1100+ hours, you still have a lot to learn.

Other Interesting Stuff:

Something interesting I noticed during the campaign. At the time, I had no idea cities could form into their own nations. 

This was another thing I had no clue about until I witnessed it. Apparently in the newer patches, nations have the ability to form single province cities to create trade leagues. Seems useful if you're an economy oriented player.

So early in the game, I noticed there was a small stack of rebels sieging Corfu. At this point, it had already been thirty years since the siege began. What happened obviously is that the 8k rebel stack had just under the number of men it takes to siege Corfu's fort and Corfu's army was nonexistent. I began to track this siege in 1492 out of curiosity. 

They're still going strong. 

Guys...?

Guys... It's been over eighty years... Should we stop, or....? 

At this point, I sort of quit paying attention to the almost hundred year siege in order to stay focused. It was a sight to see though. Can you imagine several generations of men sieging one damn castle.

Final Thoughts:

Alright folks, that ends my Where We're Going, We Don't Need Rhodes run.

I hope that you enjoyed and maybe went out and grabbed a copy of EU4 yourselves. I also hope that those of you who already play might join me in posting your AARs. I'd love to see Steemit become a place we can celebrate and compare each other's campaigns much like Reddit's EU4 subreddit.

Thanks to all of you for reading and Steem on!

If you have questions, comments, or advice, just let me know below.

 I'm P5ych0path, signing off.