The duch*ess of Burgundy Dies (2024)

So I have to ask, what on earth is the idea with this event? It just completely ruined my Burgundy run, which was going fairly well.

I chose to become the junior partner of Austria, because I had just taken some land from France and some from England. I figured I could just bide my time to recover after two costly wars, and eventually regain my independence, since there's no shortage of nations willing to screw over Austria.

The incident fired, and we went to war with France. We won, but at the end I had 8k troops and no manpower. At this point I was pretty happy to have Austria protecting me.

And this event happen. Who in the hell designed this? For those who don't know, I'm talking about this event: https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Incident_events#The_duch*ess_of_Burgundy_Dies

It gives no other option than to declare war on your overlord. I had 8k troops, no manpower, no one supporting my independence, and here is an event that forces be to declare war on my overlord, who, together with their allies, had something like 80k troops. I was, as expected, completely crushed. Austria took almost all of my French provinces, leaving me with pretty much just the lowlands. To top it all off, I'm still in a PU with Austria, and need to fight for my independence with half the resources I used to have.

I really don't understand why someone would design an event which *forces* you to declare war, even if you have no chance of winning it, and I'm extremely disappointed that I was railroaded into ruining my game.

aqvamare said:

Surrender on day 1 didn't work?

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That is what I did, which is what resulting in this:

Dominion said:

Not familiar with the event. Why couldn't you choose option 1?

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See Also

The History Behind the duch*ess of Burgundy Dies EU4 EventThe Burgundian Inheritance explained, and how it could be improved

In the game it wasn't available. According to eu4wiki it's only enabled if the country is AI controlled, presumably because the overlord actually inherits the whole thing so it's automatically game over for the player.

In short, this even means that it was game over as soon as I got PU'd, the game just waited an hour to tell me.

Vakz said:

I chose to become the junior partner of Austria, because I had just taken some land from France and some from England.

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you took a gamble and got punished/unlucky
it sucks but i wouldnt say there is too much wrong with it

Drukaris said:

you took a gamble and got punished/unlucky
it sucks but i wouldnt say there is too much wrong with it

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I really don't see how this is supposed to be a gamble that makes sense. I had no way of knowing that picking the PU meant game over. Nowhere else in the game does getting PU'd just straight up mean you lose. You at least get a fighting chance to regain your independence, but here I was forced to declare a war I had no way of being abl to fight.

User29 said:

It is extremely punishing and I wish the game had a way of telling you the AI is going to force inherit you if you don't fight, but you also automatically inherit all your little lickspittles in the Netherlands so there should be a cost of some kind

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Yes, of course, and I thought this cost was being PU'd. Fighting for your independence against the emperor isn't a cakewalk even with assistance. Of course, both England and France hates me, since I own some of their cores, so the only country willing to help is the Ottomans.

I actually did continue this, and managed to become independent. Of course, straight after, the Dutch Revolt disaster happened. While the rebels were still sieging their first provinces the country declared independence. I literally didn't even have time to move my troops there, so I don't know what the point of the disaster is compared to the old event. I lost the whole "reward" for being PU'd, making the whole so called "gamble" pointless.

I don't know what the designers intended for Burgundy in this patch, but to be repeatedly punished this much by pre-scripted events aren't exactly fun, nor are they "challenging", because there's no way I could have stopped them without already knowing they were going to happen. After peaking at almost 300 used governing capacity, I'm now sitting at 73, and don't exactly feel like continuing this run.

Vakz said:

I really don't see how this is supposed to be a gamble that makes sense. I had no way of knowing that picking the PU meant game over. Nowhere else in the game does getting PU'd just straight up mean you lose. You at least get a fighting chance to regain your independence, but here I was forced to declare a war I had no way of being abl to fight.

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you took the pu instead of fighting

and with that you gambled on your duch*ess living long enough to start an independence war instead of fighting a difficult war and the payoff would've been taking a big chunk of land while making new allies instead of enemies

you got unlucky and she died

Drukaris said:

you took the pu instead of fighting

and with that you gambled on your duch*ess living long enough to start an independence war instead of fighting a difficult war and the payoff would've been taking a big chunk of land while making new allies instead of enemies

you got unlucky and she died

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No, I gambled on something I had no way of knowing existed. The game never told me this would, or even could, happen. Just that I would inherit the lowlands and get PU'd by Austria. That is in no way a gamble.

You could file a bug report with the suggestion that the original event tells the player in big print "WHEN THE duch*eSS DIES YOUR SENIOR PU PARTNER WILL ATTEMPT TO INTEGRATE YOU BY FORCE"

That might clarify things.

You should know from seeing in single player games that it happens to the AI though.

Getting all your 3 PU partners instantly inherited is crazy strong and needs a counterbalance like the game puts in, I just agree that you should know what you've signed up for

User29 said:

You could file a bug report with the suggestion that the original event tells the player in big print "WHEN THE duch*eSS DIES YOUR SENIOR PU PARTNER WILL ATTEMPT TO INTEGRATE YOU BY FORCE"

That might clarify things.

You should know from seeing in single player games that it happens to the AI though.

Getting all your 3 PU partners instantly inherited is crazy strong and needs a counterbalance like the game puts in, I just agree that you should know what you've signed up for

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Then take a look at my reply above about the Dutch Revolts. If getting PU'd and losing most of what you gained you gained in the deal is the intended cost then I don't even see what the point of the event is, because choosing anything else but fighting makes zero sense. They might as well railroad you to fight the emperor right away and save you the time

Vakz said:

Then take a look at my reply above about the Dutch Revolts. If getting PU'd and losing most of what you gained you gained in the deal is the intended cost then I don't even see what the point of the event is, because choosing anything else but fighting makes zero sense. They might as well railroad you to fight the emperor right away and save you the time

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Well in your game you're quite powerful, significantly more so than at game start, the duch*ess just died early in your case. You could absolutely keep playing that game and go for the achievements or even WC from your position.

You're the Netherlands in 1483

User29 said:

Well in your game you're quite powerful, significantly more so than at game start, the duch*ess just died early in your case. You could absolutely keep playing that game and go for the achievements or even WC from your position.

You're the Netherlands in 1483

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Again, read the part where I lost all of the Netherlands straight after regaining my independence, due to them declaring independence while giving me no way to prevent it. I literally gained nothing from the PU event, and am weaker now than in 1444

User29 said:

while I agree about clarification being good, you definitely should not have been surprised by the dutch revolt, there are ways to avoid it and any burgundy game you should have decided on the strategy to avoid or deflate it

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The dutch revolt had been changed from an event to a disaster. It ticks up just by there being a protestant province in the lowlands, even if burgundy doesn't own it, while burgundy is catholic. Also remember that I'm in a PU, so I can't declare a war to take an convert it. I tried to convert to protestantism, but of course, Austria enforced religion on me. At that point, there was nothing I could do to prevent it, barring releasing the vassals, again negating the so called reward of the PU.