I used to doodle maps in my notebooks in highschool. Maps being the only thing I knew how to draw, I quickly got pretty good at it through all the practice.
One day one of my friends noticed my doodles. Maybe they were impressed, but I think more than anything they were just confused lol. They looked at me like there was something wrong with me. And to that, they're probably right. š»
I was working with a lady the one time. She was Asian. Of Mon descent. She was quite surprised when I knew what that even was and more surprised when I told her where they came from.
Straight from the culture map mode. Thanks eu4.
I know Iberia so well now coz I started playing CK2 and started as King of Leon. I have since then started so many playthroughs in Iberia with different start points :)
If actually happens sometimes if you ever have a chance to meaningfully interact with people from unique ethnic backgrounds. I got some irl points for talking to this basque girl about her home in the Basque region. All from playing Spain and Navarra lol.
you joke but unironically it turns my gf on when I tell her random historical facts I learned from eu4. the right one for you is out there boys you'll find your fellow autist girl eventually š
Some more fun trivia about the Mon from before EU4's timeframe:
Before the Mon were relegated to lower Burma, they once occupied and ruled all of modern Thailand. The Lavo Kingdom was perhaps the most famous historic Mon kingdom which shared roughly the same borders with Ayutthaya in EU4.
Unfortunately, a series of devastating wars in the 10th and 11th centuries weakened the kingdom, allowing foreign powers such as Srivijaya and Khmer to install their own rulers and exact tribute. The Khmer maintained Lavo as an intermittent vassal for over 2 centuries and heavily exported their culture, causing many Mon to assimilate into Khmer society. It was during this chaotic period in which the Tai people migrated southwards into the area.
As the Tai population grew, so did their influence. Thanks to their egalitarian nature and the multicultural state of the vassal kingdom, the Tai people quickly adopted a mixture of Mon and Khmer customs and became involved in local politics. By the 13th century, as Khmer influence was waning, the Tai people had become the dominant political group throughout the region. The Tais in Sukhothai soon rose up in rebellion and proceeded to found their own kingdom and conquer most of Lavo. By 1351, the city and kingdom of Ayutthaya was founded, and this new center quickly grew to dominate the region. By 1444, the majority of Mon people had either fled from, assimilated with, or married into the Tai people. The new Ayutthaya Kingdom centered itself around its multicultural heritage and the Thai identity was born.
They are indeed different, even though they sound the same. Tai is the name of the greater people group which Thais are a part of. There are a large variety of Tai peoples, including the Thai, Lao, Shan, Zhuang, Dai, Ahom, and others.
Historically, there was very little difference between the Tai peoples. Even today, most Southwestern Tai languages are mutually intelligible to some fair degree. It's all a massive dialect continuum stretching from the tip of Assam to the top of Malaysia.
Over the centuries following the Tai migrations into Southeast Asia beginning around 800 AD, the Tai people would slowly diverge into different ethnic groups and political polities. The rise of modern Tai kingdoms like Siam and the drawing of colonial and national boundaries would eventually solidify the distinctions between different Tai peoples. "A language is a dialect with an army and a state" and all that.
Fascinating! I was watching a video on Thai restaurants and how they are probably the best example of soft power in the world, and it talked about how when the Thai government basically had to create the concept of Thai food but I didnāt realize it was because of that
The problem with learning geography with Paradox games is that you end up learning many ancient regions instead of modern cities and such, so you sound like a very old dude.
See, now, if you played ALL paradox games, using cheats since the age of 7, now you know too much, Beijing ? Khanbaliq ? (There was even a Korean and Japanese dynamic name)
That is definitely the case (morea my beloved) but I am a curious person and I ended up doing tons of reading on random things I didnāt understand at the time so I would say the negative impact was somewhat mitigated
I mentioned Moldavia in an interview because my interviewer and I got off topic, they tried correcting me cause some people from the office had gone to Moldova a decade ago. The polish king I mentioned was actually from Walachia, but I said 'either Moldavia or Walachia as his birthplace'. I decided not to correct the interviewer about the historical name change and got the job! Stephen BƔthory's election was wild. You think Clinton V Trump in 2016 was crazy, imagine running for election against a Habsburg and LITERALLY Ivan the Terrible, just because the King of France died and his younger brother wanted to rule France instead of your country.
I sometime blurt out Constantinople instead of Istanbul. Some people don't even know it's the same city, those who do know look at weirdly, like I'm trying to deny some half millenia history
Yeah the only other people outside of Paradox fans Iāve heard call it Constantinople have been terminally online ātradā Christians who think we need more crusades or something. So definitely not a group you wanna be mixed up with lol
I refuse to accept that the cityās name isnāt ĪĻĪ½ĻĻĪ±Ī½ĻĪ¹Ī½ĪæĻĻĪæĪ»Ī¹Ļ/ŁŲ³Ų·ŁŲ·ŁŁŁŁ. But back in my day thatās what we called it. Well, typically I wouldāve said Constantinopolis or Konstantinopel or Constantinople. But thatās neither here nor there.
And irl historical empires as well, almost like the borders are non-sensical and purposely drawn to be as debilitating to both nations as possible š¤
In high-school my history teacher made me his class favourite and would make me answer questions about geography and history to show other students they could and should know these things.
Occasionally he'd be all "how.. do you even know that?".
It was quite fun to info dump as part of class lols but I also sorta hated being put on the spot.
One time we were covering ww2 and I brought up internment camps and how the usa is not so innocent. We then listened to a song called "kenji" by fort minor which is about the camps, and we watched a short documentary on it. Everyone was disgusted, he was proud to have an opportunity to talk about it. They did not teach it in the curriculum tho..
I liked that teacher a lot, he was awesome and genuinely cared for his students.
I leaned all of the geography from eu4 (apart from the VERY basics that are actually taught in the usa).
I learned a lot of history bc of eu4, not from the game but the game directed my learning a bit. I played as Brandenburg->Prussia->Germany and learned all about the region. Etc etc. I would read about the history or specific events that happen in game and its super fun, I still do it today.
(We did not have a geography class btw. It was just history and whatever minimal geography you need for a basic idea of events)
You arenāt missing out on geography classes, they donāt teach geography in there, they just check whether you know it or not, as well as some miscellaneous stuff about the Earth that is I guess too specific to be mentioned in biology class
Iām studying to be a teacher, but my boyfriend is already a teacher and his students keep telling him its useless to know geography as they can just use their phone and open google map. Iām laughing and crying at the same time.
This is a similar issue to language usage with technology. The younger generations of japan are having more trouble recalling how to write kanji, but can easily recognize it when seeing them in the texts. When you type out the kana it pops up suggestions of kanji that you could mean based off the sounds of the kana.
To be fair I do understand the point and agree with it on some topics but geography is important to understand as a whole. History as well. If you can't recall a words spelling but know the word, eh look it up.
Tho the argument for tech dependency is very valid. And I'm with you lols its a laughing and crying moment ;~;
Well, we puts them in situations like Ā«Ā Ok, but if you donāt have your phone? Or youāre planing a trip to a foreign country and your wifi is not available? How are you going to find your stuff?Ā Ā» they are always like Ā«Ā But sir, everyone has a phone or wifi!!Ā Ā»
Iām just sad when i heard that.
The entire point of technology is to make certain skills unneeded though. their points are completely valid, *in regards to navigation.*
In regards to all the other reasons to learn geography, like enriching oneself with knowledge of our planet and the cultures on it, there is for course no replacement. You should focus on that aspect more than an outdated technique of navigation.
Thatās true though at the same time everyone here does know basic geography, itās just that our teacher had a habit of asking about places we didnāt even know existed
The extent of geography for my schools ended at "plains, plateau, forest, shrubland, desert, etc" and a few notable countries (Egypt, England/GB, Spain, Mexico, China, India, and sorta Germany but only that its in Europe and was a belligerent in ww1/ww2).
I understand that every country won't be covered but the usa should properly cover france too, at minimum.
They never once covered the HRE, protestant reformation, ottomans, the qing dynasty or it being overthrown to create a more modern day china, the papacy, etc.
When It covered china, India, and Egypt it was only about ancient times and a very surface level thing. "Egypt made the great pyramids, China was rich and made their own writing system earlier than most anyone else, Aztecs were colonized by Spain (no details about the reality), france didn't like England, England didn't like france also Winston churchhill is cool" that was the sort of curriculum we had.
It annoys me so much lmao I complain about it everytime my schools are mentioned.
>They never once covered the HRE, protestant reformation, ottomans, the qing dynasty or it being overthrown to create a more modern day china, the papacy, etc.
You think that's egregious ? You're from the USA. I'm from France, just next to germany. I also studied german for more than 10 years. Not once has the HRE ever been mentioned. The first time I heard of the HRE was from playing total war warhammer, before eu4, and the whole concept of having a german-sounding empire with elector counts sounded like the craziest invention that was entirely confined to fantasy.
Wtfffff.. it was P important for French history too sheesh
This is a problem everywhere tbh, the usa just has a reputation but its far from the only offender.
I do wonder why they wouldn't teach about HRE in France tho.
For European countries that is not a small town at all.Ā It's a proper city and the biggestĀ city in a 50 km radius (whichĀ again, is a lotĀ in Europe)
Was playing lethal company and met some Spanish dude. He said he was from the north part. He was completely blown away that I knew he was from Asturias and I guessed the city he was from Oviedo. Iām American he said he never met a non Spaniard who knew where Asturias was.
Had a conversation with someone who started telling me an anecdote about the Teutonic Order, and then added "But of course you wouldn't know what that was".
It turned out that both of us were Europa Universalis players.
> It turned out that both of us were Europa Universalis players.
Not only are there two Europa Universalis players within the same vicinity but they are both outside too, what are the odds
About 2 years ago I went with my ex to her sorority date night and I started talking to one of her friendsā boyfriends. Asked him what games he liked and he told me EU4 and I was genuinely surprised to meet another person who played it besides me. We then proceeded to drink and talk about history all night. We even did a round of shots to mourn the loss of Constantinople. One of the best nights of my life.
As an American I find a lot of Europeans tend to be surprised when I know about their small country/city or can ask questions about deeper culture/language.
Me to the Italian girl I just met: "Oh, you're from Calabria? I hear the mountains there are beautiful!"
Me internally: "I lost my whole army in those damn mountains, Calabria sucks."
I run a hostel for hikers. Had a Czech arrive and I asked if he was from Prague. He said no, itās another big city but no one knows it. I said is it Brno? He damn near fell out of his chair lol.
I got a test question correct because of HOI4 once. They were asking what Brazilās main export was. I wasnāt sure if it was oil or rubber, but then I remembered that thereās no oil in Brazil in HOI4
While thereās some significant national dislike of the Qing, I would push back on the idea that many Chinese people have significant opinions on the Yuan dynasty. In a very vague sense, sure, the Mongol conquest is perceived as a bad event, but not like, reviled on a personal level.
If I were to put it in European terms, itās like asking a Frenchman from Normandy about English rule vs asking an Irishman about English rule. The Frenchman probably knows about it from history class, would probably agree that it was bad, but only the Irishman is remotely likely to hold a grudge about it. When it comes to the Yuan, most Chinese are more like the former, with the Qing, more like the latter.
Good comment and all but english and norman history is not so much a case of opressive english rule over normandy, but rather of opressive norman rule over england.
which is ironic considering that Chinese people have killed the most Chinese people
7 of the 10 deadliest wars are Chinese civil wars or something
Yuan Mongol rulers were relatively low in bloodshed when it comes to Chinese casualty
Itās not very practical knowing a bunch of European place names and specific regions, but it does come in handy sometimes. While I was in Europe last summer, a guy I met told me that I had āgeography rizzā because of how well I knew European geography. Of course, I have EU4 to thank for that. I remember talking to one Czech girl who was impressed that not only I knew what a Moravia was, but also the major cities and history of the region. Needless to say, we got drinks later that night, said she liked me and wanted me to visit her in her hometown.
Also, whenever I play a campaign for a while, place names just get burned into my memory. Iāve had several instances where Germans Iām speaking to just shit themselves whenever I pull out phrases such as āOberpfalzā or āUnterfrankenā or āStraubingā out of my ass (my Bavaria play through years back seared those areas/province names into my memory).
Knowledge of EU4 gold mines is also something that can be helpful. From my many different Muscovy campaigns, Iāve memorized the name of the gold mine province owned by Kazan (Zlatoust). I met a Russian girl who said she lived in the Urals, so I kept tossing out names of place names until I landed on Zlatoust, which immediately made her face light up. Not only had she lived there, she was astonished that an American living in the South knew about a relatively small city in the Urals, and I just started spouting off about the cityās mining industry or something.
> From my many different Muscovy campaigns, Iāve memorized the name of the gold mine province owned by Kazan (Zlatoust)
Useless trivia but it actually means Ā«āÆgolden mouthāÆĀ» in Russian, and itās also the birthplace of 12th chess world champion Anatoliy Karpov
I have seen the meme too, but he didn't cry when Karpov appeared, he cried when he lost on time (in a lost position) and also because the crowd was agitated
>but he didn't cry when Karpov appeared, he cried when he lost on time (in a lost position) and also because the crowd was agitated
Yeah & there wasn't any boss music in the original video.
I am European, so I donāt really learn European geography, but I definitely take note of which cities were important in what time periods and plan my vacations accordingly. For example EU4 is the only reason my wife and I visited Cuneo. It was extremely beautiful but also a bit out of our way. Did a week long trip in the general Milan, Turino, Genoa neck of the woods.
It works both ways though. We went to Tuscany last year and when I was back home conquering Etruria in imperator you can imagine my disappointment at discovering that Luna does not in fact produce marble in the game!
You know Carrara marble, that Agrippa and Augustus and the later emperors build Rome out ofā¦
We lost a Marshall toy in the ruins of Luna (Luni today), if you find it please hook up.
We looked into it but iirc they hadnāt started extracting it back in the republican era in which imperator starts.
At least thatās what we concluded back then, if you have better info Iād offer to change it, if I still worked on that game :)
Thanks for the reply and the kind offer! Itās true they hadnāt started extracting it immediately. The town was founded in 177 B.C. and the extraction of the marble probably only started in the first century B.C. as it is mentioned by Pliny.
The Luna marble is the most renowned kind of marble the Romans used as well.
I just wouldāve decided differently because there are other marble sources in the game even though the Romans didnāt use it yet as I understand it. The eldest remaining building in Rome using marble is from 143-132 B.C..
The Greeks however did use marble for sculptures from around 650 B.C.. Therefore generally having marble in the game is a must of course.
Exactly, eu4 is an excellent travel ideas map. I really like old architecture and town layouts of that time. Today there might be other, newer, bigger cities around that don't have that old town vibe. But eu4 shows you the most important cities in that area *in 1444*, so almost without fail these cities look very nice.
I was at this mural in Dresden:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCrstenzug](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCrstenzug)
Where I corrected a tour guide who was telling his group that Frederick III was "the King" who protected Martin Luther. I said, "Do you mean Prince-Elector?"
Yeah I recently just finished a study abroad trip in Europe and surprisingly I knew a lot about small cities and such in Italy and the rest of Europe I would be like oh I know Trento and Ferrara as Iām driving by them in the bus lol.
a lot of interesting history in west Africa like Mansa Musa giving so much gold to Egypt that he caused hyperinflation there, or Abu Bakr sailing to find the Americas way before Christopher Columbus was even born
One of the most random times my EU4 knowledgeable was triggered was when in my English finals there was a listening exercise about the Haida tribe (the light green ones in Alaska/Canada) and while it didn't help me in answering any of the questions it gave me a little confidence boost to have a rough idea what they were talking about.
Another time we were talking about the process of German nationalism and the path to a unified German state in history class and the teacher asked how Prussia was formed and I literally just reworded the conditions for the decision as I had just started a Prussia run the day before.
Had a quiz at some teambuilding from work. One of the question was "who were the elector in holy roman empire". Boy did EU4 came in clutch in that one.
What kind of job is that? The electors of which year? Because it did change over time. Besides the initial electors, eu4 is not accurate because throughout the game anyone can be an elector.
What kind of game was it? it looks like an oddly specific question but very large at the same time.
It was a trip to KarlŔtejn Castle, which was built by and for Charles IV., who was Holy Roman Emperor. So the quiz we had (just for fun and some small rewards) was focused mainly on him. So one of the questions was who were the electors who elected him. He died few decades before the EU4 start date, so the list was the same as when you start EU4 campaign.
Frequented a bar where they had a Hungarian bartender. He had a special interest in the history of his home country, which he loved talking about, but it was clearly too niche for most people. Seeing his face light when I could follow along with his stories was priceless (what sane person would even have heard about Swabian regions/culture?).
When I became a history teacher they had something called the PRAXIS Test that tested you on both your knowledge of the content as well as stuff like classroom management and various educational theories. The content section for history was absolutely brutal, but there were several questions about the fall of the Byzantine Empire and rise of the Ottoman Empire that I nailed thanks in no small part to my thousands of hours in eu4. And thatās how eu4 helped me become a teacher.
One time I met a Lithuanian girl who was surprised I had even heard of her country. However, unimpressed, she asked me to name a cityā¦ drawing a blank, I blurted out āKaunas.ā Then she was even more surprised, thinking I wouldāve said Vilniusš
Nah she probably would know, having been to KlaipÄda there's still lots of mentions of Memel and things named after it. It was named Memel from 1252 to 1923, can't really ignore it (also when under German occupation, but we can kind of ignore that).
The only thing I ever found is that Lithuanians don't really care about it either way, not like with Estonians where Tallinn being called Reval seems to come up a lot.
I like that eu4 makes me interested in history and that eu4's lore has a lot of overlap. Just make sure you don't trick yourself into drawing conclusions on history because it makes sense in the lore.
For example, when I was first playing this game, I was like "wow, I totally understand why Spain and Portugal became colonial powers due to proximity to the New World and how much less of a PITA it is to fight outside of Europe. Why would I ever fight France for two scraps of land when I could go beat up some nations who are behind in tech?" And then I drew conclusions about real history.
After all, this is just a game and while attention to detail is paid with the lore, it's not necessarily accurate to draw conclusions about history because of the game.
There's some book out there that I can't remember the name of that has the thesis "Europeans colonized because they were too weak to take over eachother". I think my early experiences with the lore made the history more believable
I really like the differentiation you made between real history and EU4 'lore.' There absolutely are inaccuracies in the emergent gameplay of this board-game which, frankly, are needed in order to either make the **game** more fun, less confusing/complicated, or both.
I mean
that's great and all but you said wrong things.
Spain did spend in real life most of its resources fighting the French (in Italy through the Italian wars until the 1550s) rather than colonizing. Just pointing that out
I went to my sisters college graduation and scored a date with one of her friends whose family was from Armenia after I impressed them w knowledge I gained entirely from europa 4 lmfao
I met someone from Oldenburg and he said āYou probably donāt know where that is thoughā. I said near āBremen/Frisia, right?ā and they were shook
I met someone named Bharat. He didn't 'look' Indian, he had more of an Arab vibe. He was very surprised I immediately asked if his family came from India.
My favourite is the old post somewherenhere about a travel agency using EU4 as their map for visiting "Ruthenia".
I think it had Spanish Crimea or Denmark owning Pskov...
Also... that's not Ruthenia!
Ahhh when I was 18 at my first job a girl asked me to guess where sheās from. She hinted the elephant on the flag. Itās been cool 10 years of EU4 for me
I had a similar experience, there was a guy who I met in DC who told me he grew up in Germany. I asked what part and he said most people wouldn't recognize it, but near Lake Konstanz. And I was like, "oh, so like Bregenz?" and he was absolutely stunned. We went on to talk about German politics (we are in DC after all) but at the end of the conversation, he made a remark that he was still amazed at what I knew.
EU4 has its moments. And by moments I mean 4000 hours worth of moments.
TBH, I just need to transfer that mentality to the job I'm starting soon and I should be pretty well off lol. Wonder if anyone has some experience tangentially related to this idea.
I made a great first impression with one of my coworkers in another department because CK2/3 has given me an inordinate amount of knowledge about her native Wales, while EU2/3/4 gave me a lot of knowledge of English history.
Welsh people love it when you know they're NOT Irish.
I got an answer no one else got at bar trivia one time because I was the only one who knew the ruling Chinese dynasty in the 15th century thanks to EU4
I play geoguessr a bunch too and over there its sometimes really helpful too, like knowing landshut and julich in germany or makassar and banten are in indonesia and scoring nearly 5k because I know where it is.
I used to work with surveys at an airport, and once a guy from Hungary asked me If i knew what was the capital of his country. I didnt even blinked, Just said "Budapest" like was the most Common thing. He was quite surprised.
Im from south America, this happened in Brazil.
I was going to say thatās not super unusual knowledge in America, but Iām sure it was pretty surprising in Brazil! Not a big Eastern European population there
These games actually do really help with some basic history and geography learning. Now that I am in my grad studies I interact with a lot of people who have come from all across the world and being able to know where they come from is honestly such a great icebreaker. The way some people's eyes light up when you show that you know the area they are from is kinda magical, its great for first impressions.
Iām an American who was lived abroad for a few years and Iāll never forget the time I ran into an Italian guy from Verona who was absolutely floored I knew where it was, and where it was in relation to Venice.
Have had a few times where I surprised Europeans in similar situations. Sometimes itās not as useful though, because I only know the outdated names or regions.
Back in school (IN GERMANY) we had to list the most cities or something like that and I named a lot of obscure ones I learned about from PDX Games or historical songs. But no one (even the teacher) knew them and then shamed me for making my "team" "lose" by saying "invented" names. (Yes, they refused to google and we werent allowed to)
I had a couple of reactions through out the years from playing paradox games. First was a Senegalese surprised that I knew who the Fulani are. A Bolivian surprised that I knew about the silver mines in potosi. And lastly was I being excited of meeting a Norwegian Sapmi person in London.
My true heir of timur campaign forced me to obsess over the geography of the subcontinent. Helped a ton with Indian coworkers who are amazed that a westerner knows anything about anything in India. Recognize that there are some drastic differences between Indians in the south and the north and they lose their fucking minds.
Yeah one time I met this German girl from Nurnhurg/Nuremberg. She said I probably didn't know where that was cause I'm American and I said isn't that near Regensburg and kinda close to the Czech republic? She was kinda shook!
I'm from the USA; my partner is from India. On our first date I asked which part of India and she said, "you've probably never heard of it, but Arunachal Pradesh" and I said "ahh yes, it cannot be colonized or traversed"
I was the only one in my college level history course to know where the Gulf of Bothnia was.. because I did a Sweden run the night before the quiz. >_>
I managed to do a similar thing in a Thai history class (while studying in Thailand). As a group, we were asked to name kingdoms that existed alongside Ayutthaya in the 14th century.
You can imagine their confusion when the one white guy in the class could name more than the rest of them.
Managed to do the same with Burmese kingdoms later that semester.
I work with a lot of internationals and seeing their face when I guess their town is so much fun, even better when I say "the one with the fortress no?", a Spanish guy wouldn't believe I never visited Ourense
My student hosted this small little event where I got to talk with a girl from Turkey. And during a talk with her, she said shes not exactly from Turkey, but from region called Circassia, and she asked if me and the boys knew where it was. I of course, got a huge banana on my face and said "of course".
EU4 introduces players to a lot of place names and historical context, such as HRE, Burgundy, protestant reformation, the Papacy, etc. But I donāt think it teaches actual history, unfortunately.
If history is an egg, EU4 teaches the shell, whereas most of the egg and yolk is discarded.
I had a Spanish boss start, which is unusual since Iām in Australia and thatās pretty rare. He didnāt expect me to give a lecture on the Iberian wedding and Union of Castile and Aragon to become Spain.
I did an European Volunteering. Thanks to BT and Voltaire's Nightmare, I managed to be great at introducing myself to foreign volunteers. I just asked which part of their country they were from, until I nailed it. Worked for Caltenberg, Freising, Essen, Coni, Basilicate, Tartu, Wroclaw, Massa and a few others.
It was a very funny icebreaker.
Two stories:
I was traveling in Germany and was talking to stranger who was telling me about him traveling in Turkey. I talked to him about places like Izmir and he said, "I thought Americans weren't suppose to know geography."
I was a trivia night and the final question was about this "Croatian dog breed gets its name from where it's from." I remembered the area Dalmatia is in starting Croatia and we got it right and won trivia that night.
I think I win this:
I currently study history at a top UK university that runs admissions interviews. In my interview, I was presented with a visual primary source (canāt say exactly what) and told a bit of context. Anyways, it turned out the primary source in question was from Novgorod, and when I mentioned that I knew they were a fairly mercantile society with trading links all over the Baltic in my answer, they were super impressed at that knowledge.
In the past couple of weeks Iāve written essays on Frederick the Great and reform under the Habsburgs. Anyways my (admittedly cursory) understanding of how the empire functioned and of Austrian claims to each of their territories went over very well. Also reference to Sundgau was appreciated.
I once drew a (very rough) map of the world from memory for some colleagues. Just the outlines (coasts). They were somewhat impressed.
But the Americas were too far north.
Yeah. Did not even draw greenland.
I used to doodle maps in my notebooks in highschool. Maps being the only thing I knew how to draw, I quickly got pretty good at it through all the practice. One day one of my friends noticed my doodles. Maybe they were impressed, but I think more than anything they were just confused lol. They looked at me like there was something wrong with me. And to that, they're probably right. š»
Not EUIV, but as a kid I played so much Port Royale that I could draw the Carribbean from memoryĀ
I was working with a lady the one time. She was Asian. Of Mon descent. She was quite surprised when I knew what that even was and more surprised when I told her where they came from. Straight from the culture map mode. Thanks eu4.
eu4 map mode rizz?
Shit I need to step up my game because I barely know half the provinces in my own country.
Which country
Spain
I know Iberia so well now coz I started playing CK2 and started as King of Leon. I have since then started so many playthroughs in Iberia with different start points :)
If actually happens sometimes if you ever have a chance to meaningfully interact with people from unique ethnic backgrounds. I got some irl points for talking to this basque girl about her home in the Basque region. All from playing Spain and Navarra lol.
you joke but unironically it turns my gf on when I tell her random historical facts I learned from eu4. the right one for you is out there boys you'll find your fellow autist girl eventually š
Some more fun trivia about the Mon from before EU4's timeframe: Before the Mon were relegated to lower Burma, they once occupied and ruled all of modern Thailand. The Lavo Kingdom was perhaps the most famous historic Mon kingdom which shared roughly the same borders with Ayutthaya in EU4. Unfortunately, a series of devastating wars in the 10th and 11th centuries weakened the kingdom, allowing foreign powers such as Srivijaya and Khmer to install their own rulers and exact tribute. The Khmer maintained Lavo as an intermittent vassal for over 2 centuries and heavily exported their culture, causing many Mon to assimilate into Khmer society. It was during this chaotic period in which the Tai people migrated southwards into the area. As the Tai population grew, so did their influence. Thanks to their egalitarian nature and the multicultural state of the vassal kingdom, the Tai people quickly adopted a mixture of Mon and Khmer customs and became involved in local politics. By the 13th century, as Khmer influence was waning, the Tai people had become the dominant political group throughout the region. The Tais in Sukhothai soon rose up in rebellion and proceeded to found their own kingdom and conquer most of Lavo. By 1351, the city and kingdom of Ayutthaya was founded, and this new center quickly grew to dominate the region. By 1444, the majority of Mon people had either fled from, assimilated with, or married into the Tai people. The new Ayutthaya Kingdom centered itself around its multicultural heritage and the Thai identity was born.
Are Tai and Thai different or is that just a spelling mistake?
They are indeed different, even though they sound the same. Tai is the name of the greater people group which Thais are a part of. There are a large variety of Tai peoples, including the Thai, Lao, Shan, Zhuang, Dai, Ahom, and others. Historically, there was very little difference between the Tai peoples. Even today, most Southwestern Tai languages are mutually intelligible to some fair degree. It's all a massive dialect continuum stretching from the tip of Assam to the top of Malaysia. Over the centuries following the Tai migrations into Southeast Asia beginning around 800 AD, the Tai people would slowly diverge into different ethnic groups and political polities. The rise of modern Tai kingdoms like Siam and the drawing of colonial and national boundaries would eventually solidify the distinctions between different Tai peoples. "A language is a dialect with an army and a state" and all that.
Fascinating! I was watching a video on Thai restaurants and how they are probably the best example of soft power in the world, and it talked about how when the Thai government basically had to create the concept of Thai food but I didnāt realize it was because of that
Tai is kinda like a culture group that includes Thai-related people like Thai, Dai, and Mizo
"Ma'am, that -20% advisor cost Great project in Pegu is the dope."
Same with me when I knew where Hainan island was.
Same here with a date who was born in Amol, Mazandaran!
Yo, that's my neighboring region!(Gilan/Lahikan myself)
She is from Pegu? :D
Back in high school I sucked at geography and was doing badly and eu4 even with its quirks and inaccuracies saved my ass
The problem with learning geography with Paradox games is that you end up learning many ancient regions instead of modern cities and such, so you sound like a very old dude.
Baluchistan? Easy. Turkmenistan? Uhhhhh
Nogai š„³
"Back in my days there was Nogai..." š§š»
And when I got drafted it was all about how do we make Dai Viet happen?
The Mongols: *Dai Viet flashbacks*
More likeš
uwu ?
See, now, if you played ALL paradox games, using cheats since the age of 7, now you know too much, Beijing ? Khanbaliq ? (There was even a Korean and Japanese dynamic name)
Number of times I have called Thessaloniki āSelanikā because of EU4.
Don't slip up and do that in Greece lol
šµOh he might've went on livin' but he made one fatal slip : when he called Thessaloniki Selanik. When he called Thessaloniki Selaniiiiiik.šµ
But honestly, it's easier to say. Turks cooked with this one
but thessaloniki is so much more epic
That is definitely the case (morea my beloved) but I am a curious person and I ended up doing tons of reading on random things I didnāt understand at the time so I would say the negative impact was somewhat mitigated
I mentioned Moldavia in an interview because my interviewer and I got off topic, they tried correcting me cause some people from the office had gone to Moldova a decade ago. The polish king I mentioned was actually from Walachia, but I said 'either Moldavia or Walachia as his birthplace'. I decided not to correct the interviewer about the historical name change and got the job! Stephen BƔthory's election was wild. You think Clinton V Trump in 2016 was crazy, imagine running for election against a Habsburg and LITERALLY Ivan the Terrible, just because the King of France died and his younger brother wanted to rule France instead of your country.
I deadass once asked a buddy of mine what they call the Dutch East Indies nowadays
I laughed waaaaaay to hard at this. I feel like most of people I know wouldnt even know what the Dutch East Indies were. Let alone where they were at.
Yeah.... he still hasn't let me live it down.
I sometime blurt out Constantinople instead of Istanbul. Some people don't even know it's the same city, those who do know look at weirdly, like I'm trying to deny some half millenia history
Real OGs call it Byzantium
Yeah the only other people outside of Paradox fans Iāve heard call it Constantinople have been terminally online ātradā Christians who think we need more crusades or something. So definitely not a group you wanna be mixed up with lol
Tsargrad š¤
Carograd
Byzantion
I refuse to accept that the cityās name isnāt ĪĻĪ½ĻĻĪ±Ī½ĻĪ¹Ī½ĪæĻĻĪæĪ»Ī¹Ļ/ŁŲ³Ų·ŁŲ·ŁŁŁŁ. But back in my day thatās what we called it. Well, typically I wouldāve said Constantinopolis or Konstantinopel or Constantinople. But thatās neither here nor there.
It's Istanbul not Constantinople, been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's busyness, but the turks
āWhere is Ragusa on this map? Why is there some city called Dubrovnik there instead??ā
Ancient? What's ancient about ElsaĆ-Lothringen?
"France declared war on you"
Lmao people are suspecting that your like a vampire or theres some Highlander situation going on when in reality you just play a lot of EU4.
Iām always startled when I see the India-Pakistan borders because they go so much against the natural drift of paradox gameplay in that region.
And irl historical empires as well, almost like the borders are non-sensical and purposely drawn to be as debilitating to both nations as possible š¤
I remember hearing about one EU4 player that wrote Ceylon instead of Sri Lanka on a school test and lost some points over it.
Like when Mr Burns wanted to send a telegram to the Prussian consulate in Siam.
In high-school my history teacher made me his class favourite and would make me answer questions about geography and history to show other students they could and should know these things. Occasionally he'd be all "how.. do you even know that?". It was quite fun to info dump as part of class lols but I also sorta hated being put on the spot. One time we were covering ww2 and I brought up internment camps and how the usa is not so innocent. We then listened to a song called "kenji" by fort minor which is about the camps, and we watched a short documentary on it. Everyone was disgusted, he was proud to have an opportunity to talk about it. They did not teach it in the curriculum tho.. I liked that teacher a lot, he was awesome and genuinely cared for his students. I leaned all of the geography from eu4 (apart from the VERY basics that are actually taught in the usa). I learned a lot of history bc of eu4, not from the game but the game directed my learning a bit. I played as Brandenburg->Prussia->Germany and learned all about the region. Etc etc. I would read about the history or specific events that happen in game and its super fun, I still do it today. (We did not have a geography class btw. It was just history and whatever minimal geography you need for a basic idea of events)
You arenāt missing out on geography classes, they donāt teach geography in there, they just check whether you know it or not, as well as some miscellaneous stuff about the Earth that is I guess too specific to be mentioned in biology class
That sucks tbh Geography is quite important and super neat
Iām studying to be a teacher, but my boyfriend is already a teacher and his students keep telling him its useless to know geography as they can just use their phone and open google map. Iām laughing and crying at the same time.
This is a similar issue to language usage with technology. The younger generations of japan are having more trouble recalling how to write kanji, but can easily recognize it when seeing them in the texts. When you type out the kana it pops up suggestions of kanji that you could mean based off the sounds of the kana. To be fair I do understand the point and agree with it on some topics but geography is important to understand as a whole. History as well. If you can't recall a words spelling but know the word, eh look it up. Tho the argument for tech dependency is very valid. And I'm with you lols its a laughing and crying moment ;~;
Well, we puts them in situations like Ā«Ā Ok, but if you donāt have your phone? Or youāre planing a trip to a foreign country and your wifi is not available? How are you going to find your stuff?Ā Ā» they are always like Ā«Ā But sir, everyone has a phone or wifi!!Ā Ā» Iām just sad when i heard that.
The entire point of technology is to make certain skills unneeded though. their points are completely valid, *in regards to navigation.* In regards to all the other reasons to learn geography, like enriching oneself with knowledge of our planet and the cultures on it, there is for course no replacement. You should focus on that aspect more than an outdated technique of navigation.
Thatās true though at the same time everyone here does know basic geography, itās just that our teacher had a habit of asking about places we didnāt even know existed
The extent of geography for my schools ended at "plains, plateau, forest, shrubland, desert, etc" and a few notable countries (Egypt, England/GB, Spain, Mexico, China, India, and sorta Germany but only that its in Europe and was a belligerent in ww1/ww2). I understand that every country won't be covered but the usa should properly cover france too, at minimum. They never once covered the HRE, protestant reformation, ottomans, the qing dynasty or it being overthrown to create a more modern day china, the papacy, etc. When It covered china, India, and Egypt it was only about ancient times and a very surface level thing. "Egypt made the great pyramids, China was rich and made their own writing system earlier than most anyone else, Aztecs were colonized by Spain (no details about the reality), france didn't like England, England didn't like france also Winston churchhill is cool" that was the sort of curriculum we had. It annoys me so much lmao I complain about it everytime my schools are mentioned.
>They never once covered the HRE, protestant reformation, ottomans, the qing dynasty or it being overthrown to create a more modern day china, the papacy, etc. You think that's egregious ? You're from the USA. I'm from France, just next to germany. I also studied german for more than 10 years. Not once has the HRE ever been mentioned. The first time I heard of the HRE was from playing total war warhammer, before eu4, and the whole concept of having a german-sounding empire with elector counts sounded like the craziest invention that was entirely confined to fantasy.
Wtfffff.. it was P important for French history too sheesh This is a problem everywhere tbh, the usa just has a reputation but its far from the only offender. I do wonder why they wouldn't teach about HRE in France tho.
I dont know when you were in school but we do study the HRE in french highschool.
Seems like everyone has a story about a girl they met from "a little European town you've probably never heard of". Mine was from Ulm.
Fun fact: Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, too.
Another win for the mighty Ulm. This city can't take a break
For European countries that is not a small town at all.Ā It's a proper city and the biggestĀ city in a 50 km radius (whichĀ again, is a lotĀ in Europe)
Was playing lethal company and met some Spanish dude. He said he was from the north part. He was completely blown away that I knew he was from Asturias and I guessed the city he was from Oviedo. Iām American he said he never met a non Spaniard who knew where Asturias was.
You were lucky he wasn't from GijĆ³n, which is Oviedo's rival and arguably a more important city nowadays. Cool story!
Had a conversation with someone who started telling me an anecdote about the Teutonic Order, and then added "But of course you wouldn't know what that was". It turned out that both of us were Europa Universalis players.
> It turned out that both of us were Europa Universalis players. Not only are there two Europa Universalis players within the same vicinity but they are both outside too, what are the odds
As you can see the odds are not 0
He didn't ask what are the odds not
The odds are !=0
The_odds_are*
About 2 years ago I went with my ex to her sorority date night and I started talking to one of her friendsā boyfriends. Asked him what games he liked and he told me EU4 and I was genuinely surprised to meet another person who played it besides me. We then proceeded to drink and talk about history all night. We even did a round of shots to mourn the loss of Constantinople. One of the best nights of my life.
A 5% chance
I'm assuming they were enroute to restock on pop. ;)
That kind of assholey thing to add to be honest.
We already know he's an EU4 player.
Bro the Teutonic Order is super mainstream what was that bitch talking about
As an American I find a lot of Europeans tend to be surprised when I know about their small country/city or can ask questions about deeper culture/language.
"Ah yes, I know all about your hometown - It's an imperial free city, right? Well at least until I have my say about it."
Me to the Italian girl I just met: "Oh, you're from Calabria? I hear the mountains there are beautiful!" Me internally: "I lost my whole army in those damn mountains, Calabria sucks."
Lmao im dying
Not as much as his armies did!
LMAO RIGHT
how? Playing as Naples trying to get free of Aragon?
Playing as released Sicily, trying to invade Naples
āDamn Spaniards cut my crossing at Messinaā
This comment has me laughing so hard hahaha. "ulm you said????????"
Itās funny visiting Germany and recognizing most of the city names as eu4 countries
I run a hostel for hikers. Had a Czech arrive and I asked if he was from Prague. He said no, itās another big city but no one knows it. I said is it Brno? He damn near fell out of his chair lol.
"Ohhh, that's one of my favorite places to conquer! Wait, let me explain..."
Everyone is surprised when an american knows anything about geography. You might the top 0000000.1% of your country. No disrespect intended.
0000000.1% is 0.1%
I guess knowing percentages is being in the top 0.1% of their country.
Hey you're not Orthodox! You're Coptic! You don't eat pig!
Me discussing with the teacher that Prussia actually conquered Tokyo in 1734
1534 you mean, right?
I got a test question correct because of HOI4 once. They were asking what Brazilās main export was. I wasnāt sure if it was oil or rubber, but then I remembered that thereās no oil in Brazil in HOI4
And Vicy3 can teach you how to turn the Amazon into a giant rubber plantation by opressing the natives. So much learning.
Butā¦ Brazilās main export was never rubber at any point in history. Even during the rubber boom the main export remained coffee.
I donāt remember the exact wording of the question
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Chinese hate Yuan and Qing because they are foreign dynasties. Especially Yuan, too many people died because their conquest.
While thereās some significant national dislike of the Qing, I would push back on the idea that many Chinese people have significant opinions on the Yuan dynasty. In a very vague sense, sure, the Mongol conquest is perceived as a bad event, but not like, reviled on a personal level. If I were to put it in European terms, itās like asking a Frenchman from Normandy about English rule vs asking an Irishman about English rule. The Frenchman probably knows about it from history class, would probably agree that it was bad, but only the Irishman is remotely likely to hold a grudge about it. When it comes to the Yuan, most Chinese are more like the former, with the Qing, more like the latter.
Good comment and all but english and norman history is not so much a case of opressive english rule over normandy, but rather of opressive norman rule over england.
which is ironic considering that Chinese people have killed the most Chinese people 7 of the 10 deadliest wars are Chinese civil wars or something Yuan Mongol rulers were relatively low in bloodshed when it comes to Chinese casualty
Itās not very practical knowing a bunch of European place names and specific regions, but it does come in handy sometimes. While I was in Europe last summer, a guy I met told me that I had āgeography rizzā because of how well I knew European geography. Of course, I have EU4 to thank for that. I remember talking to one Czech girl who was impressed that not only I knew what a Moravia was, but also the major cities and history of the region. Needless to say, we got drinks later that night, said she liked me and wanted me to visit her in her hometown. Also, whenever I play a campaign for a while, place names just get burned into my memory. Iāve had several instances where Germans Iām speaking to just shit themselves whenever I pull out phrases such as āOberpfalzā or āUnterfrankenā or āStraubingā out of my ass (my Bavaria play through years back seared those areas/province names into my memory). Knowledge of EU4 gold mines is also something that can be helpful. From my many different Muscovy campaigns, Iāve memorized the name of the gold mine province owned by Kazan (Zlatoust). I met a Russian girl who said she lived in the Urals, so I kept tossing out names of place names until I landed on Zlatoust, which immediately made her face light up. Not only had she lived there, she was astonished that an American living in the South knew about a relatively small city in the Urals, and I just started spouting off about the cityās mining industry or something.
> From my many different Muscovy campaigns, Iāve memorized the name of the gold mine province owned by Kazan (Zlatoust) Useless trivia but it actually means Ā«āÆgolden mouthāÆĀ» in Russian, and itās also the birthplace of 12th chess world champion Anatoliy Karpov
Dark souls music plays
*Misha crying*
I have seen the meme too, but he didn't cry when Karpov appeared, he cried when he lost on time (in a lost position) and also because the crowd was agitated
>but he didn't cry when Karpov appeared, he cried when he lost on time (in a lost position) and also because the crowd was agitated Yeah & there wasn't any boss music in the original video.
not in the video but it was playing in his head
Donāt forget to name your 6/6/6 daughters after that Czech girlā¦ when you play Bohemia or Great Moravia
I am European, so I donāt really learn European geography, but I definitely take note of which cities were important in what time periods and plan my vacations accordingly. For example EU4 is the only reason my wife and I visited Cuneo. It was extremely beautiful but also a bit out of our way. Did a week long trip in the general Milan, Turino, Genoa neck of the woods. It works both ways though. We went to Tuscany last year and when I was back home conquering Etruria in imperator you can imagine my disappointment at discovering that Luna does not in fact produce marble in the game! You know Carrara marble, that Agrippa and Augustus and the later emperors build Rome out ofā¦ We lost a Marshall toy in the ruins of Luna (Luni today), if you find it please hook up.
We looked into it but iirc they hadnāt started extracting it back in the republican era in which imperator starts. At least thatās what we concluded back then, if you have better info Iād offer to change it, if I still worked on that game :)
Thanks for the reply and the kind offer! Itās true they hadnāt started extracting it immediately. The town was founded in 177 B.C. and the extraction of the marble probably only started in the first century B.C. as it is mentioned by Pliny. The Luna marble is the most renowned kind of marble the Romans used as well. I just wouldāve decided differently because there are other marble sources in the game even though the Romans didnāt use it yet as I understand it. The eldest remaining building in Rome using marble is from 143-132 B.C.. The Greeks however did use marble for sculptures from around 650 B.C.. Therefore generally having marble in the game is a must of course.
Exactly, eu4 is an excellent travel ideas map. I really like old architecture and town layouts of that time. Today there might be other, newer, bigger cities around that don't have that old town vibe. But eu4 shows you the most important cities in that area *in 1444*, so almost without fail these cities look very nice.
Swedish woman at a bar: "How the hell do you know about varmland and smoland!?" In my infinite smoothness I respond "umm, I like geography".
I was at this mural in Dresden: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCrstenzug](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCrstenzug) Where I corrected a tour guide who was telling his group that Frederick III was "the King" who protected Martin Luther. I said, "Do you mean Prince-Elector?"
Summon the elector counts!
Yeah I recently just finished a study abroad trip in Europe and surprisingly I knew a lot about small cities and such in Italy and the rest of Europe I would be like oh I know Trento and Ferrara as Iām driving by them in the bus lol.
when in high school I was on the trivia team and EU IV helped with being good at the geography and history questions
A customer became shocked when I spook him about Songhai empire (his natal region)
Understandable, most people don't even know there used to be countries there, let alone empires.
a lot of interesting history in west Africa like Mansa Musa giving so much gold to Egypt that he caused hyperinflation there, or Abu Bakr sailing to find the Americas way before Christopher Columbus was even born
One of the most random times my EU4 knowledgeable was triggered was when in my English finals there was a listening exercise about the Haida tribe (the light green ones in Alaska/Canada) and while it didn't help me in answering any of the questions it gave me a little confidence boost to have a rough idea what they were talking about. Another time we were talking about the process of German nationalism and the path to a unified German state in history class and the teacher asked how Prussia was formed and I literally just reworded the conditions for the decision as I had just started a Prussia run the day before.
How did they respond to admin tech 10?
I think that's one I left out
I hope you made sure to specify it was only possible because the Prince of Brandenburg wasnāt also the emperor of China.
ducal prussia or king-in-prussia through, they have different conditions(if i remember correctly)
Had a quiz at some teambuilding from work. One of the question was "who were the elector in holy roman empire". Boy did EU4 came in clutch in that one.
What kind of job is that? The electors of which year? Because it did change over time. Besides the initial electors, eu4 is not accurate because throughout the game anyone can be an elector. What kind of game was it? it looks like an oddly specific question but very large at the same time.
It was a trip to KarlŔtejn Castle, which was built by and for Charles IV., who was Holy Roman Emperor. So the quiz we had (just for fun and some small rewards) was focused mainly on him. So one of the questions was who were the electors who elected him. He died few decades before the EU4 start date, so the list was the same as when you start EU4 campaign.
The ecclesiastical electors were more or less constant, yeah?
Frequented a bar where they had a Hungarian bartender. He had a special interest in the history of his home country, which he loved talking about, but it was clearly too niche for most people. Seeing his face light when I could follow along with his stories was priceless (what sane person would even have heard about Swabian regions/culture?).
When I became a history teacher they had something called the PRAXIS Test that tested you on both your knowledge of the content as well as stuff like classroom management and various educational theories. The content section for history was absolutely brutal, but there were several questions about the fall of the Byzantine Empire and rise of the Ottoman Empire that I nailed thanks in no small part to my thousands of hours in eu4. And thatās how eu4 helped me become a teacher.
One time I met a Lithuanian girl who was surprised I had even heard of her country. However, unimpressed, she asked me to name a cityā¦ drawing a blank, I blurted out āKaunas.ā Then she was even more surprised, thinking I wouldāve said Vilniusš
Luckily you didn'd said "Memel"
Yeah I donāt think she wouldāve even known what Memel is
Nah she probably would know, having been to KlaipÄda there's still lots of mentions of Memel and things named after it. It was named Memel from 1252 to 1923, can't really ignore it (also when under German occupation, but we can kind of ignore that). The only thing I ever found is that Lithuanians don't really care about it either way, not like with Estonians where Tallinn being called Reval seems to come up a lot.
I like that eu4 makes me interested in history and that eu4's lore has a lot of overlap. Just make sure you don't trick yourself into drawing conclusions on history because it makes sense in the lore. For example, when I was first playing this game, I was like "wow, I totally understand why Spain and Portugal became colonial powers due to proximity to the New World and how much less of a PITA it is to fight outside of Europe. Why would I ever fight France for two scraps of land when I could go beat up some nations who are behind in tech?" And then I drew conclusions about real history. After all, this is just a game and while attention to detail is paid with the lore, it's not necessarily accurate to draw conclusions about history because of the game. There's some book out there that I can't remember the name of that has the thesis "Europeans colonized because they were too weak to take over eachother". I think my early experiences with the lore made the history more believable
I really like the differentiation you made between real history and EU4 'lore.' There absolutely are inaccuracies in the emergent gameplay of this board-game which, frankly, are needed in order to either make the **game** more fun, less confusing/complicated, or both.
I mean that's great and all but you said wrong things. Spain did spend in real life most of its resources fighting the French (in Italy through the Italian wars until the 1550s) rather than colonizing. Just pointing that out
Itās like playing Victoria 3 and trying to find a source of rubber.
I went to my sisters college graduation and scored a date with one of her friends whose family was from Armenia after I impressed them w knowledge I gained entirely from europa 4 lmfao
I met someone from Oldenburg and he said āYou probably donāt know where that is thoughā. I said near āBremen/Frisia, right?ā and they were shook
My company is working with a new major customer from Germany that is based in Bremen. They were shocked when I mentioned the Hanseatic League.
I met someone named Bharat. He didn't 'look' Indian, he had more of an Arab vibe. He was very surprised I immediately asked if his family came from India.
Lol, it's like an American guy named "America"
Amerigo Vespucci
My favourite is the old post somewherenhere about a travel agency using EU4 as their map for visiting "Ruthenia". I think it had Spanish Crimea or Denmark owning Pskov... Also... that's not Ruthenia!
Ahhh when I was 18 at my first job a girl asked me to guess where sheās from. She hinted the elephant on the flag. Itās been cool 10 years of EU4 for me
She was from Dahomey?
Ayutthaya
I had a similar experience, there was a guy who I met in DC who told me he grew up in Germany. I asked what part and he said most people wouldn't recognize it, but near Lake Konstanz. And I was like, "oh, so like Bregenz?" and he was absolutely stunned. We went on to talk about German politics (we are in DC after all) but at the end of the conversation, he made a remark that he was still amazed at what I knew. EU4 has its moments. And by moments I mean 4000 hours worth of moments.
TBH, I just need to transfer that mentality to the job I'm starting soon and I should be pretty well off lol. Wonder if anyone has some experience tangentially related to this idea.
I made a great first impression with one of my coworkers in another department because CK2/3 has given me an inordinate amount of knowledge about her native Wales, while EU2/3/4 gave me a lot of knowledge of English history. Welsh people love it when you know they're NOT Irish.
such dedication, germans have built entire cities to be references to eu4
I got an answer no one else got at bar trivia one time because I was the only one who knew the ruling Chinese dynasty in the 15th century thanks to EU4
I play geoguessr a bunch too and over there its sometimes really helpful too, like knowing landshut and julich in germany or makassar and banten are in indonesia and scoring nearly 5k because I know where it is.
I used to work with surveys at an airport, and once a guy from Hungary asked me If i knew what was the capital of his country. I didnt even blinked, Just said "Budapest" like was the most Common thing. He was quite surprised. Im from south America, this happened in Brazil.
I was going to say thatās not super unusual knowledge in America, but Iām sure it was pretty surprising in Brazil! Not a big Eastern European population there
These games actually do really help with some basic history and geography learning. Now that I am in my grad studies I interact with a lot of people who have come from all across the world and being able to know where they come from is honestly such a great icebreaker. The way some people's eyes light up when you show that you know the area they are from is kinda magical, its great for first impressions.
Iām an American who was lived abroad for a few years and Iāll never forget the time I ran into an Italian guy from Verona who was absolutely floored I knew where it was, and where it was in relation to Venice. Have had a few times where I surprised Europeans in similar situations. Sometimes itās not as useful though, because I only know the outdated names or regions.
Back in school (IN GERMANY) we had to list the most cities or something like that and I named a lot of obscure ones I learned about from PDX Games or historical songs. But no one (even the teacher) knew them and then shamed me for making my "team" "lose" by saying "invented" names. (Yes, they refused to google and we werent allowed to)
I had a couple of reactions through out the years from playing paradox games. First was a Senegalese surprised that I knew who the Fulani are. A Bolivian surprised that I knew about the silver mines in potosi. And lastly was I being excited of meeting a Norwegian Sapmi person in London.
My true heir of timur campaign forced me to obsess over the geography of the subcontinent. Helped a ton with Indian coworkers who are amazed that a westerner knows anything about anything in India. Recognize that there are some drastic differences between Indians in the south and the north and they lose their fucking minds.
Beware forming Roman Empire too often. You don'nt want to call London Londinium
I love being a map game autist
Bro scared the hoes
Yeah one time I met this German girl from Nurnhurg/Nuremberg. She said I probably didn't know where that was cause I'm American and I said isn't that near Regensburg and kinda close to the Czech republic? She was kinda shook!
I'm from the USA; my partner is from India. On our first date I asked which part of India and she said, "you've probably never heard of it, but Arunachal Pradesh" and I said "ahh yes, it cannot be colonized or traversed"
Pub quiz, what two present day countries are located in Livonia...
I was the only one in my college level history course to know where the Gulf of Bothnia was.. because I did a Sweden run the night before the quiz. >_>
I managed to do a similar thing in a Thai history class (while studying in Thailand). As a group, we were asked to name kingdoms that existed alongside Ayutthaya in the 14th century. You can imagine their confusion when the one white guy in the class could name more than the rest of them. Managed to do the same with Burmese kingdoms later that semester.
I work with a lot of internationals and seeing their face when I guess their town is so much fun, even better when I say "the one with the fortress no?", a Spanish guy wouldn't believe I never visited Ourense
My student hosted this small little event where I got to talk with a girl from Turkey. And during a talk with her, she said shes not exactly from Turkey, but from region called Circassia, and she asked if me and the boys knew where it was. I of course, got a huge banana on my face and said "of course".
Not all provinces in Germany in EU4 are actual towns, so be careful
I dont think they have noticed :=)
And wait till you play Voltaire's Nightmare. Oh,sweet thundering Jesus...
EU4 introduces players to a lot of place names and historical context, such as HRE, Burgundy, protestant reformation, the Papacy, etc. But I donāt think it teaches actual history, unfortunately. If history is an egg, EU4 teaches the shell, whereas most of the egg and yolk is discarded.
I had a Spanish boss start, which is unusual since Iām in Australia and thatās pretty rare. He didnāt expect me to give a lecture on the Iberian wedding and Union of Castile and Aragon to become Spain.
I did an European Volunteering. Thanks to BT and Voltaire's Nightmare, I managed to be great at introducing myself to foreign volunteers. I just asked which part of their country they were from, until I nailed it. Worked for Caltenberg, Freising, Essen, Coni, Basilicate, Tartu, Wroclaw, Massa and a few others. It was a very funny icebreaker.
Two stories: I was traveling in Germany and was talking to stranger who was telling me about him traveling in Turkey. I talked to him about places like Izmir and he said, "I thought Americans weren't suppose to know geography." I was a trivia night and the final question was about this "Croatian dog breed gets its name from where it's from." I remembered the area Dalmatia is in starting Croatia and we got it right and won trivia that night.
I think I win this: I currently study history at a top UK university that runs admissions interviews. In my interview, I was presented with a visual primary source (canāt say exactly what) and told a bit of context. Anyways, it turned out the primary source in question was from Novgorod, and when I mentioned that I knew they were a fairly mercantile society with trading links all over the Baltic in my answer, they were super impressed at that knowledge. In the past couple of weeks Iāve written essays on Frederick the Great and reform under the Habsburgs. Anyways my (admittedly cursory) understanding of how the empire functioned and of Austrian claims to each of their territories went over very well. Also reference to Sundgau was appreciated.