Europa Universalis 3 Wiki:Nation style

This style guide should apply to all national strategy guides in the EU3 Wiki.

Goals

• Follow Europa Universalis 3 Wiki:Style
• Allow for numerous different viewpoints and strategy possibilities
• Describe strategy from the national perspective (e.g., "Steady investment into Trade technology is important for a trading nation like Genoa," or, "Germany's next important target is France")
• The main sections should be used for conventional, reasonably historical strategies.

Things to Avoid

• Step-by-step instruction or directive (e.g., "move your troops to this province," or, "build exactly 10 Cavalry, and use them to attack this province")
• First-person or second-person perspective; i.e., the use of the words "you" or "I"
• Narrative; e.g.,
  • Narrative (avoid), "The player should then build several big ships to provide adequate naval defense for the colonies."
  • Objective, "Colonization can provide significant income if the shipping lanes are well-protected. Big ships will provide the best defense in the open waters of the Atlantic."
  • Contributors may often attempt to substitute, "you," with, "the player," to avoid writing in a first or second-person perspective. However, even referring to the reader as, "the player," leads directly to directive or instruction. The preferred style is to simply state the effect of specific actions.
• Bragging about conquests or exploits
• After-action reports
• Mention in the title of the section if a particular strategy heavily incorporates gamey tactics, highly unconventional objectives, or blatant AI exploits; e.g., "BB-Lite Formation of Germany (gamey)," "Venetian France (unconventional)," "Ming BB-Free World Conquest (exploit)," etc. If a particular strategy is not highly exploitative, etc., just provide an in-line warning to the reader.

Organization

• Country guides should follow this naming convention: Country strategy
• If an article contains strategies for multiple expansions, include an appropriate version section title

Article structure

Everything below can be considered a skeleton article for a strategy guide. Copy and paste all categories below to have a solid structure in a new guide.

Overview

Create an introduction for the nation. Location, very basic history, neighbours and some flavour.

Initial Position

Provide strategic advice on various aspects of the initial position of the country: advisors, tech research, domestic policy sliders, National Ideas, decisions/missions, strengths/weaknesses, diplomatic situation, etc.

This section should address the unique capabilities, goals, strengths/weaknesses of a country's initial set-up. All aspects of a country's policy are included in this section because each aspect can change according to the player's actions and goals.

You can use the Sliderbox template here to display the nation's starting sliders.

Economy

A sound economy is fundamental to any strategy. The basics of establishing the necessary income can be described here; i.e., establishing trade, regulating inflation, economic National Ideas, etc. More intricate strategies may depend upon the player's actions and goals. Central questions: Does the nation have any COTs? Is it well suited for trade?

Decisions and Missions

Tell about or link to country-specific decisions and missions, including unification options.

Heir to the Throne 4.0

The version number only needs to be included for the latest expansion. Strategies for earlier versions should be written for the most recent patch.

The strategies are organized from latest to earliest expansion.

Since each nation has a number of different objectives/goals it can strive for, each separate objective/goal can be listed in its own section. All aspects of the country - advisors, tech research, domestic policy sliders, etc. - that are dependent upon the pursued objective/goal can be elaborated here.

It may also be helpful to include a SWOT analysis at the beginning of each separate strategy section.

Strategy A

How to lead this nation to greatness.

Strategy B (exploit)

Strategies that employ particularly unusual, ahistorical or otherwise debatable methods should always be placed after more conventional strategies.