When it comes to strategy games, I'm a bit of a cheater. Before major decisions I tend to make saves and will not hesitate to go back to them if it doesn't work out the way I wanted it to. During my game of Europa Universalis 4 I've recently run into one of these decisions. Let me set the stage.
I'm playing as Venice, a Merchant Republic, around 1496. My goal is to pretty much expand my economic dominance as far as possible and rake in the ducats Scrooge McDuck style. I had set my sights on expanding into India/East Africa.
To reach this goal, I figure I needed a Red Sea port. Standing between me and the Red Sea are the Mamluks. So I declared war on them. After a few key battles I broke their army and took most of their provinces. At the peace table, I asked for and received the Sinai Peninsula, including Gaza and Judea.
So I had reached my goal, but was it worth the effort? It was a long war, and I took quite a manpower and ducat hit. I also had to use a lot of Administrative/Diplomacy power. It left me with a bunch of new lands to core, and a lot of rebels to potentially fight.
I also may have made a mistake when selecting my second National Idea. I chose Economic instead of the one that provides explorers and colonists. So I can't actually make use of my newly acquired ports. On the plus side, I have more Trade Power in the Alexandria Trade Node now.
I'm debating restarting from my save back before the war. Although I don't know what direction I'd take from there.
Just a Sap in the Mistlands
15 hours ago
