Europa Universalis Takeover Plan

Well, playing the Scottish (and reading the manual later on) made me learn that reducing religious tolerance doesn't make your country convert to another religion. It's pretty hard to change your religion and coming from a Catholic nation - the only religion available are Protestant and Reformed once they become available. The cost in changing the state nation is pretty high.

So I decided to pick one of the super power of this time - Portugal. I'm aiming to be a trade leader at the start and start colonizing lands later on. The mechanics of the game doesn't make conquest easy. Controlling a territory is not the same as owning it unlike in the Total War series where you need but take the city and it's yours. The territory can only be yours once peace settles and the enemy country agrees to let you own it. There's also attrition, manpower and war exhaustion which makes making a horde of troops pretty tough. I don't even think trying to take over Europe is possible. Other nations don't like a nation going and annexing territories all the time.

Another thing, since the battles are determined by the computer and not by your control, the game requires more strategic thinking than the tactical combat needed in Total War. Unit morale plays a big role in the fights and not just sheer troop number.

So the only way to be a world power is to avoid the old world and take over the new world. Truthfully, I don't really enjoy this game since I don't get the satisfaction of taking over countries. I actually like Hearts of Iron 2 better with the constant war. I'll try putting in the other expansions and see how the game changes. My inner megalomaniac wants to take over the world.

So now as Portugal, I've generated more money and researched more technology in a couple of decades than playing as Scotland or Morroco. I've been into a war with Brittany but that ended in a stalemate - I had a super power navy with almost no army and he had a decent army but with a navy that would not match mine. I managed to take his capital for a few days but he then brought the bulk of his forces to retake it.