Europa Universalis IV

[JHeaton]

Yeah, early game Muscovy runs can be like that if PLC take an interest in you. It's dirty, but you can always consider trying to get an alliance with the Ottomans early on until you're a bit more stable. The way I did it was to just constantly keep vassals which were strong enough but not too big, that way you get the bonus from additional force limit on top of their own armies, then start to gobble up your neighbours.

I'm actually tempted to start a new run soon. I've been wanting to play in India for a while now, but since the new DLC is going to focus on that, I think I might be better off doing some achievement runs elsewhere. Something like Prester John or Abu Bakr II’s Ambition, perhaps.

 

[bakes0310]

Too dumb to play this if it's anything like ck2. Not the kind of player who can have long gaming session.

 

[JHeaton]

Too dumb to play this if it's anything like ck2. Not the kind of player who can have long gaming session.

EU4 is a bit simpler than CK2 in many ways. It's much easier to get a casus belli for war, you can expand at a quicker rate and your progress isn't tied to marriages, birth etc. It's definitely not super-simple, by any means, but I think it is much easier for people to get in to. Beginning with Portugal, Castile or France makes it so that you can start off in a fairly solid position and learn the game, without having to worry about taking a loss here and there.

 

[suenstar]

Too dumb to play this if it's anything like ck2. Not the kind of player who can have long gaming session.

I'd say Europa Universalis IV is a little easier to get into than Crusader Kings 2, I find it much easier to keep focus in EUIV.
Depending on what your goals when you begin a campaign as a country, they can last for ages (e.g. if you choose to conquer the entire world, it'll can take months).

 

[Panos]

Too dumb to play this if it's anything like ck2. Not the kind of player who can have long gaming session.

CK2 is a Grand Strategy Dynastic RPG Simulator. Where 30,000+ AI Agents having the same goals as the player.
EUIV is a country (140-200 depending how many colonies are) Grand Strategy game. Believe me CK2 is the hardest and most complex of all the PDX games, and you can spend whole game struggling to hold your seat as a mere king of two duchies. Even Vicky2 is less complex that CK2.

As new to EUIV (just three days / 24 hours player) found it way easier to play than CK2 as a noob. But is more difficult at the same time, and more random than even the 769 start at CK2. No two games are the same unfortunately even if you start with big "easy" nations like Castile. Yeah easy my..... While Portugal is classed as easy also, good luck with her...... The moors will be knocking your door constantly and you need to find a way to win wars with less troops than them.

So to sum up. Both are completely different game.

 

[JHeaton]

While Portugal is classed as easy also, good luck with her...... The moors will be knocking your door constantly and you need to find a way to win wars with less troops than them.

That's what Ceuta is for.

Honestly after the first war, you shouldn't really have too many problems unless either the Mamluks or Ottomans get involved, just don't try to bite off more than you can chew when you're still getting to grips with the game.

Really the bigger problem with Portugal is that you are not going to expand very much in the old world, which means it can be harder to keep your colonies from becoming rebellious, since there is so much more development available in the Americas.

 

[Panos]

That's what Ceuta is for.

Honestly after the first war, you shouldn't really have too many problems unless either the Mamluks or Ottomans get involved, just don't try to bite off more than you can chew when you're still getting to grips with the game.

Really the bigger problem with Portugal is that you are not going to expand very much in the old world, which means it can be harder to keep your colonies from becoming rebellious, since there is so much more development available in the Americas.

The biggest problem with Portugal is manpower. You might be able to fluke a victory for Tangiers or Granada, but after than it only takes 1 rebellion and you are out.

 

[JHeaton]

The biggest problem with Portugal is manpower. You might be able to fluke a victory for Tangiers or Granada, but after than it only takes 1 rebellion and you are out.

Very early on, perhaps, but that's the point at which you are most able to leverage a strong ally (Castile) to your advantage. Being clever about your early-game moves as Portugal can make your life significantly easier (this is one of the reasons I would rather recommend Castile to people as a starting point), but it is still relatively hard to mess up on any catastrophic level, in my opinion.

Generally I would ignore Granada entirely, unless you wish to establish early dominance in Iberia, and I wouldn't try to take Tangiers in your first war with Morocco - Melilla and Fez, taken together, are a far better choice since you can release Fez as a vassal and feed them subsequent Berber provinces (up to a point) without having to eat the hostile core creation cost penalty yourself, greatly saving on early-game admin points. They'll also give you a bit of a boost to your income and force limit, whilst suffering less unrest since they will have the same religion and culture group as the occupied provinces. You will still have to deal with that later, but it's easier to do so once you have completed the Religious idea set. In terms of actually fighting, using your allies and a small amount of mercenaries early on is one of the best ways to preserve manpower, as is only using as many troops as are actually required for that particular fort level, moving the rest off the province to reduce attrition damage. Letting the enemy move on to Ceuta then attacking them (if numbers are similar) will work to your advantage since you get the defender bonus in highland terrain. You can also allow the enemy to just take attrition damage for a while and watch their manpower deplete. Having the Earl of Avranches as a general from day one is quite powerful here, so as long as you can even up the numbers a bit, you should be okay, even if the Muslim tech troops are a bit better than yours at that stage of the game.

After that, simply keeping revolts to a minimum is your goal, but since you are vassal-feeding it shouldn't be such a big deal at this stage at all.

 

[No1newts]

This game just chews time, meant to go to bed at 10 and just finished

Never played France so decided to give it a whirl, had a tough start and long, drawn out war with combined England, Portugal and Aragon v France, Castile and Savoy but after winning that things have snowballed.

Ate Brittany, Provance and English territories in France. Took huge chunks out of Burgundy so I own most of the north Europe coast and just trying to gobble up the Flanders region right now while forging colonies in the Guinea coast to control flow into Bordeaux.

Got a really strong ally net of Castile, Savoy, Bavaria and Bohemia and we just tend to smash everyone to the extent most just avoid us now. I almost had Castile in a PU (which started a huge war with the commenwealth over who got it) but randomly my king passed away mid succession war and then it just reverted Castile back to an ally without a PU, never seen that before! On the plus side broke the back of the Commenwealth and got 1400g war settlement as well as making them release subjects and cores so fracturing the realm.

UK is the only real problem I will face late (if alliance web holds) as Austria has been neutered by constant war, Commenwealth doesn't seem to want to come back for more and seems more intent on sparring with Ottomans. UK has taken the isles and parts of Denmark as well so don't fancy tangling with them though they don't have a single ally left apart from Portugal probably just chew up as much of Europe and Africa as I can and coast the rest.

I love the expansion that adds the factions (with furFra it's clergy, borgeauois and nobles) it adds great flexibility to be able to respond on the hop. Then having war taxes and currency devaluatioin feel much more in control of war finances now.

 

[JHeaton]

Sounds like you're about ready to set about dismantling the HRE, then.

 

[No1newts]

I've had a nibble and took about 4 provinces out of the empire so far, if my allies would side with me and not the empire o would probably win but not sure they would yet.

If I want to take Flanders I'll need an empire war as after Burgundy were playing hard early they've now retreated and become a member of the empire now they are on their knees. Needed the extra protection from me

 

[Darujhistan]

Got a really strong ally net of Castile, Savoy, Bavaria and Bohemia and we just tend to smash everyone to the extent most just avoid us now.

Kind of a flaw in EUIV, too easy to make yourself too strong for AI to attack with alliances, especially if you abuse the diplo relations (as the hit for having too many dip rel's is meaningless). Great game though.

 

[No1newts]

I don't think it's too easy to get alliances spread out, I've lucked out that at the start of the group Castile were favourable to me and that Savoy, Bavaria and Bohemia were all hostile to Austria.

So there's the element of luck, despite being allies you still need to manage your Diplo rep to keep them inside and it also locks you of getting closer to other nations.

Because of my choices ive been in an almost constant state of near war with Austria and UK and it's took a real balancing act to manage that without being in huge debt or constantly having no manpower from little wars.

So yeah, it can be powerful when achieved but it takes work to achieve and maintain (and luck)

 

[suenstar]

Started a new game last night as Siena, completely forgot how slow a HRE game can be with how aggressive everyone around you gets if you take land belonging to other members.
Aiming to dig my way over towards the Poland-Lithuania blob as they'll be a good target to chip away at while the rest of the HRE argue with each other.

I should be fine as long as Florence doesn't decide to take my land before I can hop across the water and begin my expansion through Ablania's land.

 

[No1newts]

Get the feeling my game will Peter out a little. Blinking reformation centres ended up causing the religious unity calamity to kick off and because they've been hit by the reformation centres I cannot get enough religious unity to close it off so for 40 years now I've been having constant, draining rebellions.

At the same time I got drawn into Sweden independence war with the UK and also Savoy brawling with Austria AND an almost world war of France & Castile Vs Aragon, Austria, Papacy and other various parts of the Empire.

Won every single war like a boss but I'm now at 0 manpower, used every bit of favor with my estates, racked up 12 corruption though currency debasing and have 2k worth of debt sitting on my head. Keeping a lid on the rebellions is stopping my manpower recovery (or at least slowing it down consoderably) and it's also stalled my territory expansion overseas. On the plus side I'm now in a power blob with Castile, Commenwealth, Savoy and Sweden and then Austria, Papacy, Bavaria and UK are on the bones of their behind after taking a fair beating.

As I said can see it drifting while everyone recovers form 50+ years of grinding war, after that... And if no one drags me into another daft war in the meantime I may have to take a good pop at Austria

 

[No1newts]

Started a new game last night as Siena, completely forgot how slow a HRE game can be with how aggressive everyone around you gets if you take land belonging to other members.
Aiming to dig my way over towards the Poland-Lithuania blob as they'll be a good target to chip away at while the rest of the HRE argue with each other.

I should be fine as long as Florence doesn't decide to take my land before I can hop across the water and begin my expansion through Ablania's land.

I really struggle with smaller nations to get going without bigger nations kicking my behind early.

 

[JHeaton]

I do love a big war like that, they can be quite fun.

I started a new game myself as Mali, hoping to be able to get those South American colonies going soon. Already conquered all of Jolof's territory and got a third gold mine from Kong. The inflation is going to murder me if I am not careful, though! Hopefully if I can get a border with a European power I can try to reduce the institution deficit and get my tech level on-par with them so that I can avoid getting trampled. Plans are to dominate the western African coast and maybe move up to take a bite out of Morocco, whilst building up colonial nations slowly. Probably going to go horrible wrong though.

 

[suenstar]

I really struggle with smaller nations to get going without bigger nations kicking my behind early.

I enjoy overcoming the struggle of initially surviving the onslaught and growing from one province nations to something that can compete with the likes of France, gives a great sense of achievement when you eventually become able to go toe-to-toe with the big dogs.

 

[No1newts]

I enjoy overcoming the struggle of initially surviving the onslaught and growing from one province nations to something that can compete with the likes of France, gives a great sense of achievement when you eventually become able to go toe-to-toe with the big dogs.

Best I ever had was turning Holland into a fairly strong power but in that game I lucked out massively as Castile took the Burgundian territories in a PU, forced them to release me and then allied me so managed to take all of modern day Holland and formed the Dutch nation. Happy to admit that was luck and having Castile behind me all game though

 

[philstanbridge]

I've had some fun with this, with both teeny nations and major ones alike. All games play slightly differently depending on your ambition. Ryoku is a good one to play. That tiny little island province next to Japan. Try a WC with that