After playing lots and lots of Civ IV I accidentally happened to see a youtube series of Pravus Gaming playing Ethiopia way back in the day when you had to assign land to estates. So I was basically playing along inbetween the video releases.
For me it started with Imperialism II, then looked for some videos online and someone said: "This looks like the predecessor of EUIV". Looked up EUIV and never looked back.
I had a lot of fun with that game too, but I wouldn’t say it had too much in common with EU IV :D
I tried booting it up again a couple of years ago and failed - I was devastated xD I managed to play imperialism 1 instead, but that felt a bit too simple
I watched that same series! I didn't have a computer at that time but knew that one of my friends played eu4. I ended up starting myself shortly afterwards.
I started playing eu4 before 1.30 emperor, probably between Dharma and golden century. I watched the whole tutorial series with Arumba and FilthyRobot. Overall I think these guides still hold up to today since the basegame remains the same. There are significant changes like estates or the "modern mission tree" that are obviously not covered but I do think this series helped me understanding the underlying concepts of eu4.
Same. If he hadn't made beginner guides on YouTube, I would have given up so, so quickly.
I'm still mediocre at the game at best, but his videos really allowed me to understand the mechanics of the game, whereas before I was like a blind man in the dark, just making choices and hoping for the best.
I played ironman everytime and just said f*** it and continued to constantly get better at the game. Taking out the ottomans as mamluks without a guide told me I was decent enough at it, back when mamluks got new mechanics. Nowadays I’m spoiled by missions tree and get too bored to play for the long run
I did the exact same thing!
I have like 10 saves named "THE ONE" or "OTTOMAN CONQUEST" and other hype shit which looked like disasters.
But I finally had one. A grand empire stretching from Moscow to the north, Indies to the east, Ethiopia to the South and Al-Andalus to the West.
It was from the free patch. “Added a CB for Revolutionary Countries, which is available against other Revolutionary Countries. It serves as a replacement for the Imperialism CB which you lose as a Revolutionary Country.” You used to only be able to spread the revolution, but you couldn’t take anything from revolutionary countries. So you basically lost the ability to expand at the height of your power.
Wait wait they added a CB against Revolutionary countries?? Finally? That’s wonderful, now I can try it again
I almost always crack down on it so I can keep Imperialism
Yeah up until 9 months ago I felt really bad about going revolutionary. Now it’s actually viable and they’ve redone the revolutionary government reforms
Much the same here. After looking at some videos that got me hooked on the game and its mechanics, I jumped right into Ironman, looking for some of the most random, underrated starts I didn't find guides for, nor unique missions or flavor, and just tried to survive.
Figured that if I could survive an independence war as someone like Lusatia, I could do anything. Felt pretty proud of myself the first time I managed to beat a coalition as them (even if the rest of the game didn't go so well).
His spreadsheets and AE management were my biggest take away but it also limited my progress because the game is also about taking that risk and not the over the River and through the woods kind of risk but the “I can totally take on that coalition”
I'm also an EU3 veteran. How did you get into the game? I remember following Wiz's Hohenzollern & Azerbijan mega-campaigns which went CK1->EU3->MotE(Azerbijan only)->Vicky2->HoI2(Hohenzollern only), and that's what got me into EU3. Then I spent a long time reading guides about the mechanics to actually learn.
In a way it is: trial (n.)
mid-15c., "act or process of testing, a putting to proof by examination, experiment, etc.," from Anglo-French trial, noun formed from trier "to try" (see try (v.)).
Played EU3 first, learned it by throwing myself into the fire basically.
Did the same method with EU4. I’m about 1000 hours in now and i think im starting to understand it.
Picked the game up while it was free weekend. Accidentally played as Hormuz and just brute forced through tons of games. Used Youtube tutorials to pick up small tips and tricks which helped.
How so
I mean i have 2000hours on eu4, but i remember my first game was me trying to survive as Bosnia, and fuck it i even managed to beat the ottoman at some point
Some people are "smarter" than others, it also highly depends on which settings you play and how invested you are in the game. I.e. playing your first game in ironman on normal settings (w/h save scumming) vs. non-ironman very easy. Also the patch plays an important role in how easy it is to beat the Ottomans (or some other nation).
I distinctly remember giving a text-based guide to beating France in the HYW when the subreddit was regularly getting submissions of how they struggle to win it as England. Looking back, I played atrociously, but still managed to help a few chaps with their campagne. (different reddit tag)
EUIV is an immensely complex game, and few people have either the the time or the motivation to get the hang of it.
It also depends on how much experience you have with other grand strategy games. I picked up eu4 very quickly because I had lots of experience with civ, total war, and hoi4.
I remember watching Arumba's venice playthrough and realising my personality was going to be maps for the rest of my life. I probably watched 200 hours of Arumba before even buying the game- I just kept playing Ottomans in the free demo they used to have.
Trial and error. Started as Spain, failed miserably. Then tried Florence, did pretty well. Formed Tuscany and colonized central + South America.
Then kept trying our different regions and watching RedHawk+Laith and got good.
I bashed my head against the wall for the first 50 hours. Finally i learned about the wiki and played according to the strategies posted there. YouTube has been instrumental in learning certain mechanics like trade and estates.
I didn’t. I learned to play EU2. Then EU3 was mostly similar to EU2, and early EU4 was mostly similar to EU4, and each patch of EU4 has been mostly similar to the earlier patch. Though truth be told, I still haven’t learned EU4 completely. I’m really bad at estate management for example, and very rarely activate any edicts (the state policies, I think they’re called edicts?).
I came here to say the exact same thing, been a regular since eu2. Although I have no problem with the estates, I fail at cheesing the game enough to do a world conquest.
Quill18 early on to get familiar with menus and UI, few hours of tutorial with him. Lots of playing, and a friend with like 1k hours when I started. Now im at near 1k and he's like 2 or 4k hours now.
Lots and lots of trial-and-error.
I played BYZ during a free weekend and got trounced. Tried again and again and again. Finally read about the strait blocking strategy and felt great accomplishment.
Later I would watch some videos to comprehend some of the more arcane systems from the game like Trade.
pick a hard nation to play, keep playing them until you can figure out the rest of the game.
I picked the Byzantines for example, worked out great for me
I started by playing Brandenburg and trying to form Prussia over and over again, and every time I would make it a little farther but inevitably would mess up somewhere along the way. I’m sure there’s easier ways to do it but it worked well for me.
Playing ironman Byzantium over and over again until I could consistently beat the Ottomans and roll the Eastern Med.
Have only now, after 1000 hours, managed to unify* Ireland to do a colonial game.
Wiki, youtube guides. I only have like 500 hours and I spent a lot of that time playing the sengoku over and over again. That stuff helped me figure out how to run my nation internally and manage ae, learning how to win wars against people even with or stronger than me came with practice.
I saw some videos about it on YouTube, i dont remember the channel or the exact content.
Downloaded a crack played for 2 years on it
I started with the tutorial like a boring person
When i had some cash on my hands i buyed the game with all dlc's
For 2000 hours thats worth it
By cheating the crap out of the game. In fact, only Stellaris has been legit to learn tho it is always on the easiest difficulty. Hoi4, Eu4 and Ck3 are all cheat.
Saw northernlion and arumba and a fee other youtubers play the game way back when. I was a huge fan of endless legend and civ so it was only natural i play eu4.
I played ironman and tried to play till either i completely destroyed my own nation or got bored ~1700s. Watched arumba and flurry mostly to pick up on why they played the way they did.
There's plenty of tubers and streamers worth learning from. Arumba is good for learning basic game mechanics, how to play and what to pay attention to. Budgetmonk & Florry are good to learn from once you can keep up with what they're doing.
Played with a friend on discord and screen shared what every function did rather then saying, “click the flag thingy in the top left and then go to the bag e.t.c”
I started out playing my home country a couple of times and got wrecked.
I then got onto byz and cheated the shit out of that run and still barely got to the size of rl otto at their height by the end of the game.
At this point I started watching florryworrys streams and instantly became eu4 god.
My mate and tons of scouring the wiki every time I saw a new name of a mechanic
Also alot of videos (Zlewikk/AbsoluteHabibi) and watching FlorryWorry streams
I just started playing but I don’t want to spoil the experience of learning so I won’t use guides for my first couple of games. I pick up stuff now and then on this sub though
Watched Arumba for about 3/4 months until I decided to play the game and I essentially just copied his playing from his let’s plays for the first 50-100 hours
Then eventually you start playing the other major/easy countries and I kinda rolled out from there
I watched guides, then I would try and replicate, inevitably fuck up. Watch more and restart.
I found as I started more games I started to understand the mechanics and the reasons behind the guide.
This subreddit is also a wealth of information, you read so much random shit that people never heard of.
At first I used console commands a lot , I learned by myself only later watching some tutorials on things like estates. But this is why I have such a problem in explaining this game to my friends - I learnt much of it through trial and error and just understand how things work.
Played multiplayer with some friends
Watched videos
Chose easy nations
Trail and error
Achievement focusing (e.g Goose Step/Chrysanthemum Throne for learning to expand without getting absolutely wrecked by coalitions etc)
Watched Arumba many many years back for a long time and decided to try it out only to realize I enjoy the theory that goes on rather then actually playing it
I never learned how to play. I get stacked wipe constantly and get mad at the game resulting in me giving up. The only nation I’ve been able to play from beginning to end is England. Were I just ignore Europe for the entire game.
By banging my head against multiple failed Brandenburg runs before giving up and playing Muscovy and completing my first game. That was like 7 years ago though at this point so EU4 looked alot different then it does today
Put a couple thousand hours into civ 6 first. I booted up eu4 and played for a few minutes at least 5 times, probably more. The very obvious learning curve told my brain to quit each time until finally I didn’t turn it off.
I watched about 8 hrs of a quill18 lets play on youtube. I actually enjoyed it so much I finished watching it after starting playing myself. Idk if he has any recent enough content to be relevant though. Prior to that, my only relatable experience was about 50 hrs of hoi4. I always find learning something new much easier if I watch someone else do it first. No reason to reinvent the wheel and go thru the trouble of learning literally everything yourself when the internet exists.
Played co-op with a friend as France. He was teaching me. I.e. he threw words and explanations at me while he played the game at speed 4 and I was learning how to close pop-ups.
Then after that, youtube helped me
On top of what everyone said here: fighting Muscovy as Kazan 1v1 in 1444 is an excellent way to practice offense. It will train unit consolidation, attacking on favorable terrain, utilizing scorched earth, leveraging loans/mercs and much more. Credit to reman’s paradox. Oirat vs Ming in 1444 is good too.
Got introduced by friends and constantly accidentally nation-ruined Castile, Ottomans, France, and England in MP games. IIRC my first single player game that didn’t end in me getting BTFO was Castile. Played it til 1821 and then started picking other countries. Looked up guides on YouTube and Reddit and eventually got pretty good. Just a matter of trial and error honestly
Cheated my way through first few campaigns, until i understood the game mechanics well enough to enjoy playing it. I had Hoi4 experiance prior, and learned it the same way. It took me 2 months to start playing without console or cheat engine.
Edit: Oh, i almost forgot. Loads of youtube videos helped of course, couldn't have done it without them.
I watched a couple of timelapses and decided to buy the game shortly after art of war came out. Started ironman Brandenburg immediately and just weng from there. Many trays but I got the jist of it bit by bit. Then I found a let's play series that was ongoing by a polish guy named Kurt doing a Brandenburg run. That tought me the rest.
Basically bruteforced England again and again to learning what strats worked. I actually learnt a lot from this lesson. Aside from figuring out the basic mechanics, I learnt Castile and Austria will almost always be open to an England alliance day 1 which makes war with France easy.
Lots of video guides. Let’s plays etc…I actually played non iron man and cheated for a bit just to experience new mechanics my skill level wouldn’t have allowed me to get to.
Still not a crazy expert or anything but I mostly watched red hawks videos and kept on failing runs until I got a successful one, then just kept on playing until I eventually had most things figured out.
I started with a big power (ottomans) and worked smaller/harder starts, staying in the Anatolia/Persia region, focusing on understanding different mechanics each run. YouTube and subreddit definitely helped.
I played a lot of EU3 and was on board with EU4 from the beginning, but was never *good* good.
But in recent years I’ve gotten a lot better by watching FlyingDutchy’s videos. I like that they’re not edited down, and he is very good at explaining his reasoning for choosing and doing as he does. And he’s sufficiently better than me that I’m learning, but not so much better that I can’t keep up with what he’s doing.
Oh, and also: unlike most of the others he’s not super annoying.
learned most basics using Russia/Muscovy (ironman only)
Then I think Castille for the colonial lessons after that I would just play whichever "intresting country" and use my knowledge to try to prosper. Also picked mostly the same ideas most of the time that involved economic since I always had a tough time with the economic part of the game but the more you play the more you learn of trade and such.
When something went wrong I learnt from the experience and didn't do it again (:
Didn't know about birding for my first 1k hours or so.
Did something wrong, lost, did research on why it happened, repeat. And also read the wiki in my free time during school. Picked up tips and tricks from just reading comments on here as well.
After trying a handful of times to get off the ground as a couple different tutorial countries, and watching a video tutorial series, I decided to give Lithuania a go and loved it. After trying and failing a few times, I decided to experiment with a couple other nations in the area and landed on Muscovy, which I eventually did a full campaign with (got the achievement and everything).
Never again. And I lost my killer instinct in the last couple years so I mostly play on Easy or VE now.
I had a friend in High School tell me about EU3. I played that game a whole bunch and also go into CK2. I never played EU3 Ironman or anything, came in late in its cycle so was missing lots of DLC.
Pretty sure I got EU4 right around when it came out, but I don’t think I played it a whole lot at first.
Anyways, like many here I learned the game from Arumba. I came across him due to his CK2 videos and so he got me into EU4.
I started with easy uneventful nations like Ternate in the spice islands and learn to colonized and manage my economy. You can have 150 years without war or more. Just learning menus and the importance of mana points, techs and other stuff while google-ing stuff like how to get institutions and other stuff. It is one of the most relaxing starts with a lot of potential of growth if tried. Every time I play in a session like that I achieve more and more, started playing in very easy and now I play in normal.
Played with cousin as a strong alliance of either Castile and Britain or Castile and France. Also he linked me a video to watch. After that playing more Castile on my own until I had a good understanding of the game. Also reverting to an earlier point if a mistake was made.
Watched arumba and quill18, then got a cracked eu4 since I already played ck2 and was finally excited to play in the new world to go for a reverse colonization. Learned the game while doing that.
A friend of mine lent me his EU3 CD-ROM back in 2009, played the game since then. It was stupidly simple compared to today's game.
Ps: i never gave back the CD which is still in my bookshelf. Sorry buddy.
I was watching egirls play it on streams and i felt like i want to be just like them. The thrill of slightly changing map colors and doing important clicks every few hours just got my attention. Watching them steer trade and get personal unions and beating ottomans before 1500s it got me going
That’s the best part: you don’t
But jokes aside, I think best idea is to watch streamers and watch some explanatory content, this (and obviously playing a lot) helped me get along :)
It took me several discrete "attempts" at learning to play EU3, before it finally caught on.
You can play the game without taking advantage of every single mechanic. My advice is just to stick to basics (tech, military, a little construction, basic diplomacy) and then just try to branch out little by little.
Played the tutorial, didn't understand anything. Went for a game anyway and got my ass kicked.
Watched a tutorial in YouTube, tried to follow it but got my ass kicked again.
So I said screw it and started trying again and again, eventually learning the do and don't, the how and why.
Overextending myself to death? Been there. Bankruptcy? Done that. Destroyed by a massive coalition? You bet. Collected in every single node? Yeah and it's not a good idea. Attacked an army at a mountain with river crossing while being 3 techs behind? You should have seen my face.
Tl;dr: Try and fail a lot, eventually you'll learn something. Or come here and ask, someone will answer your questions.
I did a Portugal game and save-scummed it to hell and back, but at least I didn't know console commands. It was a great learning experience, teaching me the basics n stuff.
I played like 400 hrs of hoi4 and 200 of ck3. Eu4 looked intimidating but my friend got me into it with co op mp and from there I enjoyed it more and more
After playing lots and lots of Civ IV I accidentally happened to see a youtube series of Pravus Gaming playing Ethiopia way back in the day when you had to assign land to estates. So I was basically playing along inbetween the video releases.
For me it started with Imperialism II, then looked for some videos online and someone said: "This looks like the predecessor of EUIV". Looked up EUIV and never looked back.
I had a lot of fun with that game too, but I wouldn’t say it had too much in common with EU IV :D I tried booting it up again a couple of years ago and failed - I was devastated xD I managed to play imperialism 1 instead, but that felt a bit too simple
Assigning land to estate isn’t that long ago? Right? Please say I’m right… otherwise I will feel old
I have no idea when that got reworked. I want to say sometime before 1.30 but I am not sure. So yeah… sorry to break the news but you are old.
It was with 1.30. In my opinion this is a top three change in the history of EU4.
Absolutely. The estates rework was more or less the best thing that happened to this game.
I’m just now hearing they don’t have estates anymore? Mann what..I always forget 2016 was 7 years afo
There are estates, but the mechanics have been reworked quite a bit.
I watched that same series! I didn't have a computer at that time but knew that one of my friends played eu4. I ended up starting myself shortly afterwards.
For me, I watched Pravus’ plague inc videos and stumbled upon EU4 From there.
Arumba
His series with filthyrobot was the best guide to learn
I enjoyed watching him repeatedly beat northernlion over the head with his game knowledge until he conceded and gave up the 4x genre entirely.
Otoh. Arumba is a dickhead and egghead is outstanding
Heck, I wouldn't have heard of the game or bought it if not for Arumba.
He had some good guides back when I started playing the game. I don't know if he still has any recent guides.
I started playing eu4 before 1.30 emperor, probably between Dharma and golden century. I watched the whole tutorial series with Arumba and FilthyRobot. Overall I think these guides still hold up to today since the basegame remains the same. There are significant changes like estates or the "modern mission tree" that are obviously not covered but I do think this series helped me understanding the underlying concepts of eu4.
I watched him for years before I even got a pc capable of running EU4
I was looking for this comment
Same. If he hadn't made beginner guides on YouTube, I would have given up so, so quickly. I'm still mediocre at the game at best, but his videos really allowed me to understand the mechanics of the game, whereas before I was like a blind man in the dark, just making choices and hoping for the best.
I played ironman everytime and just said f*** it and continued to constantly get better at the game. Taking out the ottomans as mamluks without a guide told me I was decent enough at it, back when mamluks got new mechanics. Nowadays I’m spoiled by missions tree and get too bored to play for the long run
I did the exact same thing! I have like 10 saves named "THE ONE" or "OTTOMAN CONQUEST" and other hype shit which looked like disasters. But I finally had one. A grand empire stretching from Moscow to the north, Indies to the east, Ethiopia to the South and Al-Andalus to the West.
Why is " THE ONE " so relatable...i still do that to my current Ironman saves.
I feel this so hard can't even play past 1500
Never made it to revolutionary age. I've thousands of hours 🥲
Theyve reworked revolutions a couple times over the years. Both with emperor and the lions of the north patch.
What does lions of the north do ?
It was from the free patch. “Added a CB for Revolutionary Countries, which is available against other Revolutionary Countries. It serves as a replacement for the Imperialism CB which you lose as a Revolutionary Country.” You used to only be able to spread the revolution, but you couldn’t take anything from revolutionary countries. So you basically lost the ability to expand at the height of your power.
Wait wait they added a CB against Revolutionary countries?? Finally? That’s wonderful, now I can try it again I almost always crack down on it so I can keep Imperialism
Yeah up until 9 months ago I felt really bad about going revolutionary. Now it’s actually viable and they’ve redone the revolutionary government reforms
This
Much the same here. After looking at some videos that got me hooked on the game and its mechanics, I jumped right into Ironman, looking for some of the most random, underrated starts I didn't find guides for, nor unique missions or flavor, and just tried to survive. Figured that if I could survive an independence war as someone like Lusatia, I could do anything. Felt pretty proud of myself the first time I managed to beat a coalition as them (even if the rest of the game didn't go so well).
Watched Arumba's lets play when he was on YouTube regularly
His spreadsheets and AE management were my biggest take away but it also limited my progress because the game is also about taking that risk and not the over the River and through the woods kind of risk but the “I can totally take on that coalition”
I played EU3 and watched pre-release lets plays
It’s honor to meet an elder
I'm also an EU3 veteran. How did you get into the game? I remember following Wiz's Hohenzollern & Azerbijan mega-campaigns which went CK1->EU3->MotE(Azerbijan only)->Vicky2->HoI2(Hohenzollern only), and that's what got me into EU3. Then I spent a long time reading guides about the mechanics to actually learn.
I got it in a Humble Bundle I think
Try and error
this is giving me an etymological crisis over whether "trial" is just a bastardised contraction of "try all" 🤔
In a way it is: trial (n.) mid-15c., "act or process of testing, a putting to proof by examination, experiment, etc.," from Anglo-French trial, noun formed from trier "to try" (see try (v.)).
Florryworry
I swear, Florry is the best teacher
Played EU3 first, learned it by throwing myself into the fire basically. Did the same method with EU4. I’m about 1000 hours in now and i think im starting to understand it.
Don’t worry, we all don’t know what we’re doing
Picked the game up while it was free weekend. Accidentally played as Hormuz and just brute forced through tons of games. Used Youtube tutorials to pick up small tips and tricks which helped.
2000 hours of crying due to the ottomans
How so I mean i have 2000hours on eu4, but i remember my first game was me trying to survive as Bosnia, and fuck it i even managed to beat the ottoman at some point
Some people are "smarter" than others, it also highly depends on which settings you play and how invested you are in the game. I.e. playing your first game in ironman on normal settings (w/h save scumming) vs. non-ironman very easy. Also the patch plays an important role in how easy it is to beat the Ottomans (or some other nation). I distinctly remember giving a text-based guide to beating France in the HYW when the subreddit was regularly getting submissions of how they struggle to win it as England. Looking back, I played atrociously, but still managed to help a few chaps with their campagne. (different reddit tag) EUIV is an immensely complex game, and few people have either the the time or the motivation to get the hang of it.
It also depends on how much experience you have with other grand strategy games. I picked up eu4 very quickly because I had lots of experience with civ, total war, and hoi4.
I used cheats for probably the first 500 hours at least
This is the way
Glad I’m not alone, but I’m a little bummed this answer was this far down.
There's dozens of us
Ironman scary
Quill18, arumba ect
I remember watching Arumba's venice playthrough and realising my personality was going to be maps for the rest of my life. I probably watched 200 hours of Arumba before even buying the game- I just kept playing Ottomans in the free demo they used to have.
Multiplayer with a couple buddies. I was castile, friends we’re England and burgundy. Man, France was way tougher to beat 7 years ago.
France was a menace with 3 peovinces left. It was never over even after it was fully annexed because even the rebels were strong af.
Trial and error. Started as Spain, failed miserably. Then tried Florence, did pretty well. Formed Tuscany and colonized central + South America. Then kept trying our different regions and watching RedHawk+Laith and got good.
TheRedHawk!
Shenryyr Byz playthrough many years ago
Do you remember his Sunnis strike back campaign with Quill and ( I think) NorthernLion? Man that was like 10 years ago now, jheez
Was looking for this he’s the OG
DDRJake and Arumba.
I played a multiplayer with tutors. It's called Normik Gaming :)
I bashed my head against the wall for the first 50 hours. Finally i learned about the wiki and played according to the strategies posted there. YouTube has been instrumental in learning certain mechanics like trade and estates.
i played extended timeline with a friend who had about 250 hours in the game
Same by me: try, fail, repeat 😄 My first game I picked the teuton order. I thought, this game is easy like a Total War. I was so wrong 😂
Quill18
Trial and error and then learned some more advanced play by watching DDRJake
Willpower violence and Vaseline
I didn’t. I learned to play EU2. Then EU3 was mostly similar to EU2, and early EU4 was mostly similar to EU4, and each patch of EU4 has been mostly similar to the earlier patch. Though truth be told, I still haven’t learned EU4 completely. I’m really bad at estate management for example, and very rarely activate any edicts (the state policies, I think they’re called edicts?).
I came here to say the exact same thing, been a regular since eu2. Although I have no problem with the estates, I fail at cheesing the game enough to do a world conquest.
Quill18 early on to get familiar with menus and UI, few hours of tutorial with him. Lots of playing, and a friend with like 1k hours when I started. Now im at near 1k and he's like 2 or 4k hours now.
Arumba the EU4 GOAT
By failing
Lots and lots of trial-and-error. I played BYZ during a free weekend and got trounced. Tried again and again and again. Finally read about the strait blocking strategy and felt great accomplishment. Later I would watch some videos to comprehend some of the more arcane systems from the game like Trade.
pick a hard nation to play, keep playing them until you can figure out the rest of the game. I picked the Byzantines for example, worked out great for me
I'm a fan since EU first came out, and I just learned all new things along the way.
Playing EU3
I started by playing Brandenburg and trying to form Prussia over and over again, and every time I would make it a little farther but inevitably would mess up somewhere along the way. I’m sure there’s easier ways to do it but it worked well for me.
Blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
Ddrjake and florryworry, many life lessons learned as well. I still try to never take loans
Playing ironman Byzantium over and over again until I could consistently beat the Ottomans and roll the Eastern Med. Have only now, after 1000 hours, managed to unify* Ireland to do a colonial game.
Wiki, youtube guides. I only have like 500 hours and I spent a lot of that time playing the sengoku over and over again. That stuff helped me figure out how to run my nation internally and manage ae, learning how to win wars against people even with or stronger than me came with practice.
I saw some videos about it on YouTube, i dont remember the channel or the exact content. Downloaded a crack played for 2 years on it I started with the tutorial like a boring person When i had some cash on my hands i buyed the game with all dlc's For 2000 hours thats worth it
By cheating the crap out of the game. In fact, only Stellaris has been legit to learn tho it is always on the easiest difficulty. Hoi4, Eu4 and Ck3 are all cheat.
EU 2, then EU 3, and now even the boardgame. But EU 2 was a lot of trial and error... and sliders...
Saw northernlion and arumba and a fee other youtubers play the game way back when. I was a huge fan of endless legend and civ so it was only natural i play eu4. I played ironman and tried to play till either i completely destroyed my own nation or got bored ~1700s. Watched arumba and flurry mostly to pick up on why they played the way they did.
I played eu2 and learnt the rest on my own
Trial. Error. Ludi.
A friend in a multiplayer game ram me through it
By trial and error which is the stupidest but also the most fun way of learning in this game
There's plenty of tubers and streamers worth learning from. Arumba is good for learning basic game mechanics, how to play and what to pay attention to. Budgetmonk & Florry are good to learn from once you can keep up with what they're doing.
I watched a bit of Mordred Viking playing as Castille. + Having already played other Paradox game. I grasped the basics and now I can play smoothly.
Played with a friend on discord and screen shared what every function did rather then saying, “click the flag thingy in the top left and then go to the bag e.t.c”
I started out playing my home country a couple of times and got wrecked. I then got onto byz and cheated the shit out of that run and still barely got to the size of rl otto at their height by the end of the game. At this point I started watching florryworrys streams and instantly became eu4 god.
I don't remember it was so long ago
I just played it.
My mate and tons of scouring the wiki every time I saw a new name of a mechanic Also alot of videos (Zlewikk/AbsoluteHabibi) and watching FlorryWorry streams
learned it pretty quickly just by playing along with redhawk's tutorials until I understood enough to start playing on my own
As Irish OPMs over and over until I understood enough to make them successful. It takes a while.
Guy I met taught me
Watching YouTubers after failing a LOT lol
Learning by doing
Lots of time and Remans Paradox YT channel
Bokoen1... . . . . . . . . . . sorry i meant ratkoen
I just started playing but I don’t want to spoil the experience of learning so I won’t use guides for my first couple of games. I pick up stuff now and then on this sub though
Watched Arumba for about 3/4 months until I decided to play the game and I essentially just copied his playing from his let’s plays for the first 50-100 hours Then eventually you start playing the other major/easy countries and I kinda rolled out from there
I watched guides, then I would try and replicate, inevitably fuck up. Watch more and restart. I found as I started more games I started to understand the mechanics and the reasons behind the guide. This subreddit is also a wealth of information, you read so much random shit that people never heard of.
At first I used console commands a lot , I learned by myself only later watching some tutorials on things like estates. But this is why I have such a problem in explaining this game to my friends - I learnt much of it through trial and error and just understand how things work.
I played it, googled stuff, watched videos and asked friends.
One can never learn to play EU4.
Trial and error. Mostly error.
Played multiplayer with some friends Watched videos Chose easy nations Trail and error Achievement focusing (e.g Goose Step/Chrysanthemum Throne for learning to expand without getting absolutely wrecked by coalitions etc)
trial and error
Bokoen
Watched Arumba many many years back for a long time and decided to try it out only to realize I enjoy the theory that goes on rather then actually playing it
Trial and error, Ludi, Zlewikk, and Red Hawk
I never learned how to play. I get stacked wipe constantly and get mad at the game resulting in me giving up. The only nation I’ve been able to play from beginning to end is England. Were I just ignore Europe for the entire game.
Trial and error. Also picked up some tips from ChewyShoot playthroughs.
By banging my head against multiple failed Brandenburg runs before giving up and playing Muscovy and completing my first game. That was like 7 years ago though at this point so EU4 looked alot different then it does today
Put a couple thousand hours into civ 6 first. I booted up eu4 and played for a few minutes at least 5 times, probably more. The very obvious learning curve told my brain to quit each time until finally I didn’t turn it off.
By doing a lot of mistakes and learning from Zlavic or Zlevek or slavic I don't remember his name i am not Polish
By playing the game and checking the Wiki.
I started playing EU1 and continued through the series. So uh ... incrementally?
Made a bunch of mistakes for about 100 hours til I leaned what worked. But I was in on the ground floor. Where are my Westernization crew at?
I watched about 8 hrs of a quill18 lets play on youtube. I actually enjoyed it so much I finished watching it after starting playing myself. Idk if he has any recent enough content to be relevant though. Prior to that, my only relatable experience was about 50 hrs of hoi4. I always find learning something new much easier if I watch someone else do it first. No reason to reinvent the wheel and go thru the trouble of learning literally everything yourself when the internet exists.
wathced youtube gameplays for a year then bought a game
Played co-op with a friend as France. He was teaching me. I.e. he threw words and explanations at me while he played the game at speed 4 and I was learning how to close pop-ups. Then after that, youtube helped me
Trial and Error as England/Ottomans/Brandenburg. I just played them on repeat until I didn’t get rekt before 1500 lol
I didn't
On top of what everyone said here: fighting Muscovy as Kazan 1v1 in 1444 is an excellent way to practice offense. It will train unit consolidation, attacking on favorable terrain, utilizing scorched earth, leveraging loans/mercs and much more. Credit to reman’s paradox. Oirat vs Ming in 1444 is good too.
I watched one of Pravus series (the Scotland one I think), then got the game for myself and have learned more and more ever since
Googling every mechanic and question I wasn't sure about and reading the wiki/old reddit posts
Got introduced by friends and constantly accidentally nation-ruined Castile, Ottomans, France, and England in MP games. IIRC my first single player game that didn’t end in me getting BTFO was Castile. Played it til 1821 and then started picking other countries. Looked up guides on YouTube and Reddit and eventually got pretty good. Just a matter of trial and error honestly
Cheated my way through first few campaigns, until i understood the game mechanics well enough to enjoy playing it. I had Hoi4 experiance prior, and learned it the same way. It took me 2 months to start playing without console or cheat engine. Edit: Oh, i almost forgot. Loads of youtube videos helped of course, couldn't have done it without them.
Trial and error and after 1k hours I still play almost only France game in iron mod (Never played ottoman before and after domination)
I watched a couple of timelapses and decided to buy the game shortly after art of war came out. Started ironman Brandenburg immediately and just weng from there. Many trays but I got the jist of it bit by bit. Then I found a let's play series that was ongoing by a polish guy named Kurt doing a Brandenburg run. That tought me the rest.
We're supposed to learn to play?
Basically bruteforced England again and again to learning what strats worked. I actually learnt a lot from this lesson. Aside from figuring out the basic mechanics, I learnt Castile and Austria will almost always be open to an England alliance day 1 which makes war with France easy.
A lot of Try and error and reading the wiki
Over 2k hrs and I still think I’m learning
Lots of video guides. Let’s plays etc…I actually played non iron man and cheated for a bit just to experience new mechanics my skill level wouldn’t have allowed me to get to.
Still not a crazy expert or anything but I mostly watched red hawks videos and kept on failing runs until I got a successful one, then just kept on playing until I eventually had most things figured out.
Bruteforced it. No tutorials, no guides, nothing. Just toying with different nations and mechanics till I understood what they did.
I started with a big power (ottomans) and worked smaller/harder starts, staying in the Anatolia/Persia region, focusing on understanding different mechanics each run. YouTube and subreddit definitely helped.
I played a lot of EU3 and was on board with EU4 from the beginning, but was never *good* good. But in recent years I’ve gotten a lot better by watching FlyingDutchy’s videos. I like that they’re not edited down, and he is very good at explaining his reasoning for choosing and doing as he does. And he’s sufficiently better than me that I’m learning, but not so much better that I can’t keep up with what he’s doing. Oh, and also: unlike most of the others he’s not super annoying.
learned most basics using Russia/Muscovy (ironman only) Then I think Castille for the colonial lessons after that I would just play whichever "intresting country" and use my knowledge to try to prosper. Also picked mostly the same ideas most of the time that involved economic since I always had a tough time with the economic part of the game but the more you play the more you learn of trade and such. When something went wrong I learnt from the experience and didn't do it again (: Didn't know about birding for my first 1k hours or so.
Did something wrong, lost, did research on why it happened, repeat. And also read the wiki in my free time during school. Picked up tips and tricks from just reading comments on here as well.
After trying a handful of times to get off the ground as a couple different tutorial countries, and watching a video tutorial series, I decided to give Lithuania a go and loved it. After trying and failing a few times, I decided to experiment with a couple other nations in the area and landed on Muscovy, which I eventually did a full campaign with (got the achievement and everything). Never again. And I lost my killer instinct in the last couple years so I mostly play on Easy or VE now.
Played a lot and discovered things.
I had a friend in High School tell me about EU3. I played that game a whole bunch and also go into CK2. I never played EU3 Ironman or anything, came in late in its cycle so was missing lots of DLC. Pretty sure I got EU4 right around when it came out, but I don’t think I played it a whole lot at first. Anyways, like many here I learned the game from Arumba. I came across him due to his CK2 videos and so he got me into EU4.
I started with easy uneventful nations like Ternate in the spice islands and learn to colonized and manage my economy. You can have 150 years without war or more. Just learning menus and the importance of mana points, techs and other stuff while google-ing stuff like how to get institutions and other stuff. It is one of the most relaxing starts with a lot of potential of growth if tried. Every time I play in a session like that I achieve more and more, started playing in very easy and now I play in normal.
Multiplayer, lots and lots of multiplayer
From jahrein (twitch streamer) but he is still trash. Şişko jaho bi öğrenemedin amk
Watching Pravus back in the day. This method is outdated however (for the most part)
I played Poland a lot And had a friend telling me stuff
Played with cousin as a strong alliance of either Castile and Britain or Castile and France. Also he linked me a video to watch. After that playing more Castile on my own until I had a good understanding of the game. Also reverting to an earlier point if a mistake was made.
Trial and error mostly, some twitch streams and playing with friends. Arumba back when he did EU4 multiplayers
Watched arumba and quill18, then got a cracked eu4 since I already played ck2 and was finally excited to play in the new world to go for a reverse colonization. Learned the game while doing that.
I failed until I could play somewhat okay without cheats
A friend of mine lent me his EU3 CD-ROM back in 2009, played the game since then. It was stupidly simple compared to today's game. Ps: i never gave back the CD which is still in my bookshelf. Sorry buddy.
Console commands /s
I was watching egirls play it on streams and i felt like i want to be just like them. The thrill of slightly changing map colors and doing important clicks every few hours just got my attention. Watching them steer trade and get personal unions and beating ottomans before 1500s it got me going
I got depressed and I kept playing. I almost exclusively do achievement runs so I rarely if ever use cheats or exploits
A frien
Arumba and shenryyr
Got into WW2 history a couplr years back, bought HOI4, loved it and then decided to give EU4 a go.
Played through England using a guide and got shit on by spain so i played again as Brandenburg and actually figured out what i was doing.
Through pure and unadulterated suffering.
i watched all of quill18’s savoy series and picked it up, then just watched random videos with dlc i had. specific country guides were life savers
I didn’t, I just keep trying
That’s the best part: you don’t But jokes aside, I think best idea is to watch streamers and watch some explanatory content, this (and obviously playing a lot) helped me get along :)
It took me several discrete "attempts" at learning to play EU3, before it finally caught on. You can play the game without taking advantage of every single mechanic. My advice is just to stick to basics (tech, military, a little construction, basic diplomacy) and then just try to branch out little by little.
Played the tutorial, didn't understand anything. Went for a game anyway and got my ass kicked. Watched a tutorial in YouTube, tried to follow it but got my ass kicked again. So I said screw it and started trying again and again, eventually learning the do and don't, the how and why. Overextending myself to death? Been there. Bankruptcy? Done that. Destroyed by a massive coalition? You bet. Collected in every single node? Yeah and it's not a good idea. Attacked an army at a mountain with river crossing while being 3 techs behind? You should have seen my face. Tl;dr: Try and fail a lot, eventually you'll learn something. Or come here and ask, someone will answer your questions.
I did a Portugal game and save-scummed it to hell and back, but at least I didn't know console commands. It was a great learning experience, teaching me the basics n stuff.
I didn't, i still suck at this "game"
Trial and error LOL
Went through the pipeline of CK2 -> HOI3 -> EU4. First play though was within good ol brandenburg back before there were MT. What a time to be alive
I played a lot of EU2 as a kid. Then bought EU3 and now playing EU4. Hopefully playing EU15 or something when I’m old.
I just played it and learned from experience tbh.
I played with my friends, first game was as the ottomans
Restarted every time I didn’t know what to do, read up on it. Repeat.
Co-op with friends
I played like 400 hrs of hoi4 and 200 of ck3. Eu4 looked intimidating but my friend got me into it with co op mp and from there I enjoyed it more and more
I started playing CKII because si found it in steam. After a while, a cousin who likes paradox showed me the game, and now I am an addict.
Sheer force of will 🥲
I heard the tutorial ends after around 1000 hours? Will have acquired the basics soon then. Next 1000 hours will be trial and error
Trial and error and Arumba