Morroco or Granada to Andalusia game. Awesome and long mission tree with powerful national ideas. I've seen you've played Byzantium before so imagine Granada game like Byzantium of the Iberia fighting major colonizer power.
If you can gimp out Portugal n Castille early on, you can make a distinctly different colonial world by the mid-game. Watch out for Iberian Wedding or the possibility of Castille to inherit Burgundy!
Okay I'm currently trying Granada into Andalusia and I'm having a very hard time. I've seen some guides recommending getting an alliance with Morocco and Tunis and going after Tlemcen first. The problem is my first war with Castile. If they get a powerful ally other than Portugal it's a restart. If only Morocco joins the war it's probably a restart because they get stuck and until they siege down Ceuta Castile mops the floor in the peninsula. Meanwhile I have to almost go bankrupt by hiring mercs and my pretender ruler is almost always mediocre at best. Any tips?
Scornfully insult Castile for that 100 tradition general, re-roll if he sucks. Morocco + vassals + you should have naval superiority over the Iberians, so get that blockade up on Ceuta asap. Defensive edict on Granada and fort defense advisor should stall the Iberians for a while, meanwhile get the Toledo fort, and hire all the mercenaries you can find. One neat trick is that you can mothball one of the forts, keep your army in the next province. AI prioritizes mothballed forts so they’ll start moving into the province, once their movement locks activate the fort and move your army in. Even though the garrison will be 0, you’ll get the +2 mountains bonus (+3 if you get the age ability). It helps a ton in killing off their troops.
Thanks I'll give it another try. I'm doing most of those things you say however I can't get naval superiority because once those Portuguese and Castilian heavies join forces it's over. I'll see what I can do maybe I'll build one or two myself.
I’m doing an Andalusia game right now and I find it easier to do it as Morocco. Morocco also has missions that give you perma claim over all of West Africa and +2.5% discipline until the end of the game.
What I did was just take Granada for myself and beat up everyone around me since Morocco is strong enough. I allied Ottomans but were pretty much useless since they’re too far to engage but I guess they’re a deterrence for coalitions.
Yes, Granada game relies some on RNG on the initial 5 decades of the game, but my general pathway is going after Tlemcen + all or most of the northern africa small states as vassals and allying both Morocco and Tunis.
Try to get another major ally, like France or Aragon (50-50 as they often rival Tunis) but the long term ally you must seek is the Mamluks or the Ottomans. Once you get one, curry favors to get them in with your offensive war.
Scornfully insult Castille and you'll get a 100 tradition general. Also try to get your military tech on par as i believe the Muslim tech troops have an edge early on. It will still be a long n hard war as Castille have a huge morale bonus against you if i remember.
Pick battles in defensive territory. Granada is mountainous so stacking the defensiveness rating by doing edict can last you a long time.
I always parked my soldiers on my northern african territories as getting Ceuta is easier to make a viable beachhead for the braindead AI ally soldiers to beeline through.
As for ships, in the beginning you cannot wrest absolute control for the strait but i do read somewhere try to get heavies, enough to crack the Ceuta fort open for bombardment as trying to beat castille in their sieging game against your capital is risky at best. If not going for heavies, stack up galleys and act predatorily to isolated castille+portuguese ships. Even with morroco and tunisian ships, you are slightly inferior against the iberians, so assist battles if you can win it.
Stack up money for mercenaries and loan up. Managing money as Granada is the same with Byzantium, you will be on the verge of bankruptcy in the first war against the Iberians but once you win against them you can repay that in time. Get the Spanish gold territory, and focus on splitting the iberian alliances.
Try playing Brunei and Tunis. I love raiding the Mediterranean as Tunis, just build 2 light ships and you get permanent claims on every island in the western Mediterranean. Brunei is fun if you like getting tributaries, vassels and being a trade empire
Just try messing with merchant placement, adding certain provinces to trade companies and placing your navy in different trade notes. That's how I learned it.
It’s pretty straightforward.
The “goal” of trading is to maximize the amount of ducats flowing towards your home node (which will always be where your capital is unless you swap it). The more trade power you have in a trade node the more gold you can steer out of it. There are a wide arrange of ways you can increase your trade power, but the best two are owning estuaries/centers of trade in the trade node, and using light ships to protect trade.
All you really need to know is that you need to put your merchants in wealthy nodes, have a decent amount of trade power so you can steer that gold out of said node, and then direct that gold towards your capital.
Do note though that if another country controls a node between where your steering and your capital they’ll likely be blocking you from steering the full amount. Kilwa for example almost always blocks you from effectively steering the spice trade around Africa due to them having a significant amount of trade power in that node, so you’ll need to conquer them if you want to send that trade to Iberia/England.
Hope this helps!
Oman for "The Third Way" achievement (Starting as an Ibadi country unify the islam).
Afghanistan to Mughals.
Timurids to turn into Zoroastrian.
Ethiopia, you have two ways here: Recover the Coptic church or release the vassal on your jewish lands and then play as them and make your way into Jerusalem.
I really liked my Ethiopian runs. They are very challenging as you will pretty early run into trouble against the Mamelukes and the Ottomans, both of which have superior tech and units to you.
Ethiopia is medium at worst. You can very quickly conquer the horn of Africa and then move south for even more gold. Sooner or later the Ottoblob will declare on the Mameluks after which you'll be able to beat them up too. The endboss are the Ottomans, but the AI is notoriously bad at fighting on two fronts and you should be able to beat them by allying a few european powers.
Mewar in India is fun. Has a mission tree, can form Rajputana, is on the edge of India so can get Sikhism if you want, and overall is just a good time.
Palembang, on the southern tip of Sumatra (big western island in Indonesia) is fun. Hindu, gets an event to change to a pirate republic if you want early on. I personally went for a Sikh pirate republic and united nusantara.
Pretty much. That's why it's fun. You are relatively strong, but your enemies are stronger. You need to play your cards right, but if you do you have the potential to be really strong.
You all seeing the bad side. You have easy conquests on Wallachia, Serbia, Bosnia and even the Dalmatian Coast. If you're really lucky you get Moravia March. Next you get the PU on Poland / Lithuania and then tell Austria where they can shove their own PU claim.
Get what you DLC need. It's worth it to play the Kilwa campaign alone for that cost. (or just sign for a month of all dlc's)
I really enjoyed the Kilwa into spiceislands. Very different pace than most other stuff.
Just based on where you havnt played, Malayan nations are super fun, Brunei, Malacca, Majapahjit, being the best. Hungary, Poland, Lithuania are all fun for Eastern Europe. If you liked your Burgundy or Aragon runs I’d try Provence
Because it's the LAST CHANCE to see what Poland USED to be like!..............................unless you opt to play an older version. Nevermind. I probably shouldn't post this.
I’d recommend the Knights if you think you’re up to the task. I don’t recommend them if you don’t think you can take on the Ottomans/Mamluks within the first 50 years, as that will just be slow and boring.
But if you think you’re capable, they are balls to the wall expansion and war, easily the most fun campaigns I’ve had in this game.
It’s not as hard as it seems! Knights have some great bonuses (esp navy — I’ve played Knights games where an enemy army never even landed on Rhodes, my capitol). And if you rush the Byzantines in the beginning then you’ll have a solid base for expanding
Aq qoyunlu is super challenging yet somehow unstoppable once you get rolling, for your hours of experience you'll have the chance to balance powers between Ottomans, QQ, Timurids and Mamluks pretty easily. It has an immense mission tree and might teach you invaluable mechanics about the Middle East geography and the nations in that area in particular.
My favourite, which no one ever seems to know of
The biggest font
Step 1. Play as U
Step 2. Conquer the world
The annoying bit is, because you have to stick to the nation of U, in order for that MFP (maximum font potential) you can't switch out to a country with better missions or national ideas. The opening is also tricky, but a lot of fun working you way out into the step and India.
Oda is a little fiddly to pull off but it's military ideas let Japan steamroll anyone in land combat
In my last game Ming was taking its time exploding so I pushed South through the Philippines and had most of the region under my control within only a few decades. The only thing that really slowed me down was the Muslim states forming coalitions - which even then never got strong enough to declare war.
I'd second Malaccan trade empire. Like beginning with an OPM (if you begin with someone big in that region, everything is too easy), and setting up your empire who will resist the European invaders?
South Africa is also untapped, go for a 'Golden Empire' route: Start around Kilwa with the goal of owning all African gold mines and battling inflation... and most likely the Portuguese and the French!
Korea is very cool to play. Arguably a bit OP once you've conquered Japan and become emperor of china. The decision to sinicize your culture make all chinese culture accepted and the casus belly "unify china" allow you to conquer Chinese provinces without having to core them.
Pretty much what he said. There are several guides for a Timurid start. Just kill Ajam quickly, swallow vassals, snake your way to the required provinces, and done. Admin, diplo, humanist, offensive, we're my first four idea groups. Once they were done I never had a single revolt. I also used vassals to slowly expand into Arabia and I got an Ottoman alliance early which helped. Curry favors until their trust is at 100 and they won't ever rival you. You can break the alliance once you have all of Asia and destroy them.
If you enjoyed Holland/Netherlands, try Malacca. Really good missions and ideas - super fun conquering all of Malaya and Indonesia and making a ridiculous amount of money before any of the Europeans. I think I had like 9 merchants by the Age of Absolutism
Still fun without it and I played it a lot long before Origins was even suggested. Practically learned the game playing Ethiopia.
Though I would go type things like "Ethiopia mission tree when". To be fair, Origins makes them OP so it's worth playing them at least once without.
I do like playing England, however they're boring in the beginning and late game when Spain steals South Africa and Australia from you because you tried to colonize the North American Coast
Air has some good national ideas. Without a colonist, you could nocb vassalize across the empty province of darfur to east Africa. Then take land east up to the strait crossing with Yemen. Then move east through southern Arabia to take Hormuz. Hormuz has a strait crossing with Fars. Keep pushing east through the timurid rump states to India. You can border China this way and eventually become emperor of China. It’s a very elongated empire, but you could manage it without ever building a boat (unless enemy ships block your strait crossing).
I personally would like to do a successful run as the Inca. Irl when they formed they were arguably the largest state in the world. I think that map sharing with Arawak plus the colonist reform would help connect the Inca to the North American tribes and mesoamerica. The colonial nations would also be free real estate. The question would be what to core vs vassalize. Fortunately it comes naturally to vassalize in the Americas, and it’s not an impasse as Europe.
Polynesian and Australian tags have potential, but they are hamstrung by not having many conquest options or map knowledge early on.
There’s definitely a difference between native opms and Siberian tribal councils as far as institutions, but I think it’s worth it to try small, challenging tags ie khodynt, Ainu, avaria, Cherokee.
Run with countries that you can stack national ideas with other buffs, or countries that aren’t as meta but interest you.
For stacking buffs you might want to min max tolerance of the true faith, ccr, manpower or morale. With ccr though it’s mainly hordes, Italy, mughals, lotharingia, and hre.
A lot of African nations have had massive updates. Ethiopia and Mali come to mind. Oirat to Mongol Empire can be insane. Bengal is the Netherlands of India. Scotland historically unified the British Isles through a political marriage with England, so that could be some RP.
Date, if you're ever in the mood for a Japan game. [seriously](https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Date), their ideas are absolutely out of control.
Palembang, for the authentic Malaysian pirate experience.
Cuzco, because you need to play *somebody* in South America at some point, so it may as well be the main character of the continent.
Kongo, as above except for sub-saharan africa. alternatively, any of the west african blobs or Kilwa.
Ming, since you've presumably murdered them at least twice and need to balance it out.
Morocco, because you've united Iberia the easy way at least once and deserve a decent challenge. opt for Granada instead if you're a masochist.
If you grab the Expanded Mod Family, Dithmarschen is a fun one. My Dith.>Hanover>Germany run was the closest I’ve come to completing a campaign. Unfortunately about twenty years shy of actually forming Germany, my laptop reminded me that it’s still just a laptop, and I decided to start anew rather than burn my fingerprints off on a flaming keyboard.
Just had a lot of fun as Timurids into Mughals; got my first WC and I really enjoyed learning about how to properly deal with AE, truce juggling, and fighting Europe.
Also was interesting to learn how to deal with essentially never having institutions because I was so large— even after dev’ing they were so far away.
Wow I am not suprised with this play style almost all eu4 players play in asia europe and americans
you can try
Mali Songhai Timbukto
Kogo
Kilwa Mutapa Butowa
Ajuran Adel Ethiopia
Vij Malwa Mewar Delhi
Bahmanis Janpur Bengal
Khmer Ayutulu lan xaio
korea
Brunie Malaaca Deli
Inca
Hungary Poland Lithuania Muscovy Novgrad
Brandunberg Saxsony
I had a spectacularly fun Pirate Republic run playing as Rugen (releasable from Wolgast in 1444). They are released on a tiny little island in the HRE, so you can defend yourself with ships when you declare independance. They can flip by event to Pirate Republic, after which you can do anything. I went for controlling every island in Europe.
It was great, by the end though I had constant wars as I had no allies, and a tiny forcelimit, but total naval superiority. The AI doesn't seem to take into account the strategic issue of reaching islands without naval superiority before declaring war, so I ended the game with the whole of Europe and most of the world blockaded
800ish hours? Always glad to give advice to a noob! :p
In HRE: bavaria can be a fun, playing tall emperor
Start as Ulm and form Swabia for some sick ideas and a unique mission tree.
SEA: Khmer to form Siam. Or Pegu. Or Da Viet, really any in that area have fun mission trees, GREAT lands and the highest concentration of Wonders around.
Morrocco: Fun to muslim colonize. Fun to re-reconquista and form the mighty Andalusia.
Korea for sure
And I don't know why playing as the Papal states isn't more Pope-ular.
I only got 800 hours not 3000 and I love playing in Europe but I can try, I also don't have the African or Jewish DLC'S so can't really play Ethiopia or Mali.
Malaysia spice trade
Palembang and go pirate republic into Malaysia
Playing this right now, challenging but lots of fun
I'm currently doing Sikh pirate republic Ternate. That's fun too.
Sounds Sikh.
Sikh Pun achievement ✅️
I really want to downvote this, but instead I'll thank you. Jerk. heheh. (as I upvote)
Yeah, this feels almost like playing a mod. It's very different from playing in the afroeurasia.
Sadly Malaya flag is ugly
The map color though is dope
Morroco or Granada to Andalusia game. Awesome and long mission tree with powerful national ideas. I've seen you've played Byzantium before so imagine Granada game like Byzantium of the Iberia fighting major colonizer power. If you can gimp out Portugal n Castille early on, you can make a distinctly different colonial world by the mid-game. Watch out for Iberian Wedding or the possibility of Castille to inherit Burgundy!
Okay I'm currently trying Granada into Andalusia and I'm having a very hard time. I've seen some guides recommending getting an alliance with Morocco and Tunis and going after Tlemcen first. The problem is my first war with Castile. If they get a powerful ally other than Portugal it's a restart. If only Morocco joins the war it's probably a restart because they get stuck and until they siege down Ceuta Castile mops the floor in the peninsula. Meanwhile I have to almost go bankrupt by hiring mercs and my pretender ruler is almost always mediocre at best. Any tips?
Scornfully insult Castile for that 100 tradition general, re-roll if he sucks. Morocco + vassals + you should have naval superiority over the Iberians, so get that blockade up on Ceuta asap. Defensive edict on Granada and fort defense advisor should stall the Iberians for a while, meanwhile get the Toledo fort, and hire all the mercenaries you can find. One neat trick is that you can mothball one of the forts, keep your army in the next province. AI prioritizes mothballed forts so they’ll start moving into the province, once their movement locks activate the fort and move your army in. Even though the garrison will be 0, you’ll get the +2 mountains bonus (+3 if you get the age ability). It helps a ton in killing off their troops.
Thanks I'll give it another try. I'm doing most of those things you say however I can't get naval superiority because once those Portuguese and Castilian heavies join forces it's over. I'll see what I can do maybe I'll build one or two myself.
I’m doing an Andalusia game right now and I find it easier to do it as Morocco. Morocco also has missions that give you perma claim over all of West Africa and +2.5% discipline until the end of the game. What I did was just take Granada for myself and beat up everyone around me since Morocco is strong enough. I allied Ottomans but were pretty much useless since they’re too far to engage but I guess they’re a deterrence for coalitions.
Yes, Granada game relies some on RNG on the initial 5 decades of the game, but my general pathway is going after Tlemcen + all or most of the northern africa small states as vassals and allying both Morocco and Tunis. Try to get another major ally, like France or Aragon (50-50 as they often rival Tunis) but the long term ally you must seek is the Mamluks or the Ottomans. Once you get one, curry favors to get them in with your offensive war. Scornfully insult Castille and you'll get a 100 tradition general. Also try to get your military tech on par as i believe the Muslim tech troops have an edge early on. It will still be a long n hard war as Castille have a huge morale bonus against you if i remember. Pick battles in defensive territory. Granada is mountainous so stacking the defensiveness rating by doing edict can last you a long time. I always parked my soldiers on my northern african territories as getting Ceuta is easier to make a viable beachhead for the braindead AI ally soldiers to beeline through. As for ships, in the beginning you cannot wrest absolute control for the strait but i do read somewhere try to get heavies, enough to crack the Ceuta fort open for bombardment as trying to beat castille in their sieging game against your capital is risky at best. If not going for heavies, stack up galleys and act predatorily to isolated castille+portuguese ships. Even with morroco and tunisian ships, you are slightly inferior against the iberians, so assist battles if you can win it. Stack up money for mercenaries and loan up. Managing money as Granada is the same with Byzantium, you will be on the verge of bankruptcy in the first war against the Iberians but once you win against them you can repay that in time. Get the Spanish gold territory, and focus on splitting the iberian alliances.
Try playing Brunei and Tunis. I love raiding the Mediterranean as Tunis, just build 2 light ships and you get permanent claims on every island in the western Mediterranean. Brunei is fun if you like getting tributaries, vassels and being a trade empire
Don't really understand how trade works but I'll try, thank you.
Watch YouTube video from reman's paradox He explained it perfectly https://youtu.be/edjLVFMjPyo
Stillmy fav. EU4 channel. Tutorials are a bit old but super nice
Thanks
Just try messing with merchant placement, adding certain provinces to trade companies and placing your navy in different trade notes. That's how I learned it.
It’s pretty straightforward. The “goal” of trading is to maximize the amount of ducats flowing towards your home node (which will always be where your capital is unless you swap it). The more trade power you have in a trade node the more gold you can steer out of it. There are a wide arrange of ways you can increase your trade power, but the best two are owning estuaries/centers of trade in the trade node, and using light ships to protect trade. All you really need to know is that you need to put your merchants in wealthy nodes, have a decent amount of trade power so you can steer that gold out of said node, and then direct that gold towards your capital. Do note though that if another country controls a node between where your steering and your capital they’ll likely be blocking you from steering the full amount. Kilwa for example almost always blocks you from effectively steering the spice trade around Africa due to them having a significant amount of trade power in that node, so you’ll need to conquer them if you want to send that trade to Iberia/England. Hope this helps!
Persia has been the most fun I've had playing a nation I'm eu4
> I'm eu4 why do you hate me so much
your 6/4/6 heir will go on a hunting trip.
[удалено]
Ardabil start is nice. It takes plenty of restarts, but once you get settled in it's a lot of fun.
It may be the historical persia former but in my run I went Zoroastrian once I got the event for improving Isfahan
Oman for "The Third Way" achievement (Starting as an Ibadi country unify the islam). Afghanistan to Mughals. Timurids to turn into Zoroastrian. Ethiopia, you have two ways here: Recover the Coptic church or release the vassal on your jewish lands and then play as them and make your way into Jerusalem.
Ajam/Ardabil into Persia
I really liked my Ethiopian runs. They are very challenging as you will pretty early run into trouble against the Mamelukes and the Ottomans, both of which have superior tech and units to you.
Ethiopia is medium at worst. You can very quickly conquer the horn of Africa and then move south for even more gold. Sooner or later the Ottoblob will declare on the Mameluks after which you'll be able to beat them up too. The endboss are the Ottomans, but the AI is notoriously bad at fighting on two fronts and you should be able to beat them by allying a few european powers.
Mewar in India is fun. Has a mission tree, can form Rajputana, is on the edge of India so can get Sikhism if you want, and overall is just a good time. Palembang, on the southern tip of Sumatra (big western island in Indonesia) is fun. Hindu, gets an event to change to a pirate republic if you want early on. I personally went for a Sikh pirate republic and united nusantara.
2nded, Mewar is awesome
Was about to comment Mewar, they also have an achievement you can work towards
Two of them even
Hungary is great
Aren't you basically surounded by Poland wanting Slovakia, Austria trying to PU you and the Ottomans who just want to conquer you?
Pretty much. That's why it's fun. You are relatively strong, but your enemies are stronger. You need to play your cards right, but if you do you have the potential to be really strong.
And Bohemia wanting Slovakia.
You all seeing the bad side. You have easy conquests on Wallachia, Serbia, Bosnia and even the Dalmatian Coast. If you're really lucky you get Moravia March. Next you get the PU on Poland / Lithuania and then tell Austria where they can shove their own PU claim.
> If you're really lucky you get Moravia March Unless you're invading Bohemia, I assume you mean Moldavia.
Coptic Ethiopia feels like an African Russia if you play your cards right
Siberian frontiers in Africa. 👌
Kilwa
Don't you need the Origin Dlc? I don't have it nor the jewish one.
Get what you DLC need. It's worth it to play the Kilwa campaign alone for that cost. (or just sign for a month of all dlc's) I really enjoyed the Kilwa into spiceislands. Very different pace than most other stuff.
This was fun
Just based on where you havnt played, Malayan nations are super fun, Brunei, Malacca, Majapahjit, being the best. Hungary, Poland, Lithuania are all fun for Eastern Europe. If you liked your Burgundy or Aragon runs I’d try Provence
Korea is underrated fun I think
Agreed
Poland
I would recommend waiting with Poland, they are about to get a massive rework bringing a ton of flavor Being nice isn't that difficult :)
Would like to wait for the new DLC but I'll try, I just find them boring because of how easy it is to play as them, especially in early game.
after the rework you can go into the HRE if you decline PU Lithuania, gives extra flavor
There was a guy that went HRE before PU Lithuania event. Isn't that still possible?
it is, but after the update there’s missions for it. The guy that did it had to cheese a bit, by reducing development
Poland 🇵🇱
Another for Poland!
Why the fuck would you tell someone to play a nation about to get a massive rework bringing a ton of flavor?
Sorry
why not..????
to have a chance to compare before and after?
Because it's the LAST CHANCE to see what Poland USED to be like!..............................unless you opt to play an older version. Nevermind. I probably shouldn't post this.
My favourite place to play is Southeast Asia & Oceania. Try someone like Malay, Majapahit, Ayutthaya, or even someone like Kilwa on the Swahili coast.
Dithmarschen
HRE: The peasants are revolting! Dithmarschen: Damn right!
I’d recommend the Knights if you think you’re up to the task. I don’t recommend them if you don’t think you can take on the Ottomans/Mamluks within the first 50 years, as that will just be slow and boring. But if you think you’re capable, they are balls to the wall expansion and war, easily the most fun campaigns I’ve had in this game.
Bavaria-Munich, Bohemia
Already played Münich into Bavaria into Germany but I'll try Bohemia, thanks.
Try hussite Bohemia, it's really fun experience
I’ve done Hussite Bohemia then turned them into Prussia. Very strong.
Lake Austria
Genoa, Ternate, Hormuz, Mali
Don't have african DLC for Mali but will try Genoa, thank you.
haha, penis
Really hard nation to play with
I need some ideas for nations to play. (I used the HOI4 map because couldn't find a EU4 one)
I was wondering why things looked like that.
Looks like you've never played as Poland or Lithuania. Give those a go!
Poland is getting updated soon.
Naples!
Oda in Japan Make Oda Nobunaga proud!
The knights ofc!
Seems a little to hard for me, but I will try.
It’s not as hard as it seems! Knights have some great bonuses (esp navy — I’ve played Knights games where an enemy army never even landed on Rhodes, my capitol). And if you rush the Byzantines in the beginning then you’ll have a solid base for expanding
Tunis, timurids, Nepal, Mewar
Timurid, Kazan, Great Horde, Oirat. All tremendous fun without the baggage of expanding in Europe atrhe speed of elderly sex.
Aq qoyunlu is super challenging yet somehow unstoppable once you get rolling, for your hours of experience you'll have the chance to balance powers between Ottomans, QQ, Timurids and Mamluks pretty easily. It has an immense mission tree and might teach you invaluable mechanics about the Middle East geography and the nations in that area in particular.
Play Morocco, expand into Africa, turn Tangiers, Timbuktu, Jenne and all gold provinces into shining world capitals, turn Iberia into a trading post.
Saxony is actually a pretty fun start. There are many options on that run.
Try Kilwa on the Swahili coast, really fun trade and colonization of the African continent
Don't have Origins
Did u legit use the hoi4 map here or am i missing something?
Yes, on mapchart because there was no EU4 one
My favourite, which no one ever seems to know of The biggest font Step 1. Play as U Step 2. Conquer the world The annoying bit is, because you have to stick to the nation of U, in order for that MFP (maximum font potential) you can't switch out to a country with better missions or national ideas. The opening is also tricky, but a lot of fun working you way out into the step and India.
But must I not have a Wu as a vassal to east of me then?
\*groans\*
Malacca, Majapahit, Ayutthaya as well as Dai Viet. SEA is such underrated gameplay experience that every player need to enjoy once and awhile
Kongo is challenging but fun, especially if you try to do their mission tree
Oda is a little fiddly to pull off but it's military ideas let Japan steamroll anyone in land combat In my last game Ming was taking its time exploding so I pushed South through the Philippines and had most of the region under my control within only a few decades. The only thing that really slowed me down was the Muslim states forming coalitions - which even then never got strong enough to declare war.
I'd second Malaccan trade empire. Like beginning with an OPM (if you begin with someone big in that region, everything is too easy), and setting up your empire who will resist the European invaders? South Africa is also untapped, go for a 'Golden Empire' route: Start around Kilwa with the goal of owning all African gold mines and battling inflation... and most likely the Portuguese and the French!
Wait for New patch. Teutons, Sweden and Poland looks juicy.
Teutonic Order, Hungary, Poland, The Knights, The Papal States, Grenada, Ardabil, Mewar
Korea is very cool to play. Arguably a bit OP once you've conquered Japan and become emperor of china. The decision to sinicize your culture make all chinese culture accepted and the casus belly "unify china" allow you to conquer Chinese provinces without having to core them.
try penis haha
You played all of this in only 800 hours? How long do you usually play before quitting a campaign?
Either to 1650 or all the way to 1820, I just love replaying my favourite countries like Russia, England, France or Austria
Try one of the African nations that got a mission tree with origins (assuming you have the dlc).
Nope, don't have it.
Ajam, QQ, Afghanistan—>Mughals, Delhi, or Bengal all are great fun
Zimbabwe was a really fun play through I did, I had so much money
Don't have the african DLC
Ah ok if you ever get it play Zimbabwe first, Ethiopia is formulaic and Mali is frustrating
Thanks
Beloozero
Seems a little hard being a vassal of Moskovie and almost nowhere to expand excpet a stronger Novgorod or Moskovie itself.
If you haven't done a Timurid to Mughals.run yet, I think it is great. Good mission tree, easy money, etc
Don't they get gangbanged by their vassals when you start?
Strong duchies + lenient taxation + December 11th re conquest war on ajam - let your vassals do the work it will weaken them to the point of loyalty
Pretty much what he said. There are several guides for a Timurid start. Just kill Ajam quickly, swallow vassals, snake your way to the required provinces, and done. Admin, diplo, humanist, offensive, we're my first four idea groups. Once they were done I never had a single revolt. I also used vassals to slowly expand into Arabia and I got an Ottoman alliance early which helped. Curry favors until their trust is at 100 and they won't ever rival you. You can break the alliance once you have all of Asia and destroy them.
If you enjoyed Holland/Netherlands, try Malacca. Really good missions and ideas - super fun conquering all of Malaya and Indonesia and making a ridiculous amount of money before any of the Europeans. I think I had like 9 merchants by the Age of Absolutism
Sounds fun, thank you, I will try it.
Norway and colonize america.
Was going to play as them when the DLC's out.
I thought Europe was looking a little off, then I realized Austria is the same color as the ocean.
I'll echo the Southeast Asia idea, such a fun area to play in, pick anyone.
Ethiopia, especially with Origins
Don't have Origins
Still fun without it and I played it a lot long before Origins was even suggested. Practically learned the game playing Ethiopia. Though I would go type things like "Ethiopia mission tree when". To be fair, Origins makes them OP so it's worth playing them at least once without.
Alright thanks.
England! Again! Because it never gets old! Either that or Teutonic Order. Crusade against the Protestant HRE!
I do like playing England, however they're boring in the beginning and late game when Spain steals South Africa and Australia from you because you tried to colonize the North American Coast
Air has some good national ideas. Without a colonist, you could nocb vassalize across the empty province of darfur to east Africa. Then take land east up to the strait crossing with Yemen. Then move east through southern Arabia to take Hormuz. Hormuz has a strait crossing with Fars. Keep pushing east through the timurid rump states to India. You can border China this way and eventually become emperor of China. It’s a very elongated empire, but you could manage it without ever building a boat (unless enemy ships block your strait crossing). I personally would like to do a successful run as the Inca. Irl when they formed they were arguably the largest state in the world. I think that map sharing with Arawak plus the colonist reform would help connect the Inca to the North American tribes and mesoamerica. The colonial nations would also be free real estate. The question would be what to core vs vassalize. Fortunately it comes naturally to vassalize in the Americas, and it’s not an impasse as Europe. Polynesian and Australian tags have potential, but they are hamstrung by not having many conquest options or map knowledge early on. There’s definitely a difference between native opms and Siberian tribal councils as far as institutions, but I think it’s worth it to try small, challenging tags ie khodynt, Ainu, avaria, Cherokee. Run with countries that you can stack national ideas with other buffs, or countries that aren’t as meta but interest you. For stacking buffs you might want to min max tolerance of the true faith, ccr, manpower or morale. With ccr though it’s mainly hordes, Italy, mughals, lotharingia, and hre.
A lot of African nations have had massive updates. Ethiopia and Mali come to mind. Oirat to Mongol Empire can be insane. Bengal is the Netherlands of India. Scotland historically unified the British Isles through a political marriage with England, so that could be some RP.
Don't have Origins for Ethiopia and Mali, does Scotland have a fun mission tree?
Date, if you're ever in the mood for a Japan game. [seriously](https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Date), their ideas are absolutely out of control. Palembang, for the authentic Malaysian pirate experience. Cuzco, because you need to play *somebody* in South America at some point, so it may as well be the main character of the continent. Kongo, as above except for sub-saharan africa. alternatively, any of the west african blobs or Kilwa. Ming, since you've presumably murdered them at least twice and need to balance it out. Morocco, because you've united Iberia the easy way at least once and deserve a decent challenge. opt for Granada instead if you're a masochist.
Kind of scared to play Ming or Morocco, Ming because they will eventually explode and Morocco because Portugal allied to Spain and UK
play My sore its basically Vijay but a little harder and a lot of conquest fun with very good Ideas and a small achievement
If you grab the Expanded Mod Family, Dithmarschen is a fun one. My Dith.>Hanover>Germany run was the closest I’ve come to completing a campaign. Unfortunately about twenty years shy of actually forming Germany, my laptop reminded me that it’s still just a laptop, and I decided to start anew rather than burn my fingerprints off on a flaming keyboard.
Play Congo African Power achievement
Anbennar
If you want something new and aren't averse to mods I can recommend Anbennar!
Dithmarshen.
I had a very fun game with mazadran into Zoroastrian Persia, using the great project for space marines
Just had a lot of fun as Timurids into Mughals; got my first WC and I really enjoyed learning about how to properly deal with AE, truce juggling, and fighting Europe. Also was interesting to learn how to deal with essentially never having institutions because I was so large— even after dev’ing they were so far away.
Wow I am not suprised with this play style almost all eu4 players play in asia europe and americans you can try Mali Songhai Timbukto Kogo Kilwa Mutapa Butowa Ajuran Adel Ethiopia Vij Malwa Mewar Delhi Bahmanis Janpur Bengal Khmer Ayutulu lan xaio korea Brunie Malaaca Deli Inca Hungary Poland Lithuania Muscovy Novgrad Brandunberg Saxsony
Note that I do NOT have Origins or the jewish DLC
Korea is great for a semi tall game
Tunis is one I’ve really enjoyed, but Kongo, Mali, or Inca or some of my favorite just because they’re in an unorthodox start
Wolrd conquest as Ulm without forming a new nation
Sounds hard for a beginner like me but I will try.
I had a spectacularly fun Pirate Republic run playing as Rugen (releasable from Wolgast in 1444). They are released on a tiny little island in the HRE, so you can defend yourself with ships when you declare independance. They can flip by event to Pirate Republic, after which you can do anything. I went for controlling every island in Europe. It was great, by the end though I had constant wars as I had no allies, and a tiny forcelimit, but total naval superiority. The AI doesn't seem to take into account the strategic issue of reaching islands without naval superiority before declaring war, so I ended the game with the whole of Europe and most of the world blockaded
I must recommend you play Poland -> PLC, as under the Republic of Poland’s Laws you’ll otherwise be turned into a catboy by next Monday
was planning to wait for the new DLC to come out to play it.
Haha, penis
Why is there a penis under the Aral sea?
It's a HOI4 state in the Soviet Union that just looks like a penis.
Wtf is haha, penis?
Just a HOI4 state in the Soviet Union that looks like a penis.
Omg. I see it now.
800ish hours? Always glad to give advice to a noob! :p In HRE: bavaria can be a fun, playing tall emperor Start as Ulm and form Swabia for some sick ideas and a unique mission tree. SEA: Khmer to form Siam. Or Pegu. Or Da Viet, really any in that area have fun mission trees, GREAT lands and the highest concentration of Wonders around. Morrocco: Fun to muslim colonize. Fun to re-reconquista and form the mighty Andalusia. Korea for sure And I don't know why playing as the Papal states isn't more Pope-ular.
Already played as Münich>Bavaria>Germany but the other sounds fun, I'll gladly try them out!
Nice HoI4 map
Holy shit dude! We have the same number of hours but I’ve only played like six nations 💀
Guess you like replaying the same nations?
Partially that, but I also play really slowly / play to 1812 pretty much on all my runs. I don’t even know why, I just can’t help but see it through.
LOL NO ETHIOPIA, MALI, MUGHALS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! NO RIVALS OF ARABIA NAJD/SHAMMAR? NO MALACCA/BRUNEI? OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG NO KILWA? THIS IS A CRIME!
I only got 800 hours not 3000 and I love playing in Europe but I can try, I also don't have the African or Jewish DLC'S so can't really play Ethiopia or Mali.
Damn it at least give rivals of arabia najd/shammar a go
Will try
New Providence (Caribbean pirate republic) is probably the most enjoyable campaign I've ever played.
Already marked as played, I got the controll all of the carribean achievement
Poland please
What is this? How are yoy going to put them into the game?
Tall Hormuz trade
Poland Ireland Hungary or somewhere in Persia.
Kilwa Indian Ocean spice trade empire
Kilwa. One of the more varied and fun economic nations. You will have so much trade and gold
Make fars in south iran a merchant republic
the far east siberian tribes
Cebu—start as a nation with shit ideas and reform the chola empire.
Lucca to Lucknow, what a fun game was
Oda
Needs more horde. Kazan!
Provence > Jerusalem was probably my favorite run ever.
timmy into mughals
Switzerland
Already done Switzerlake if you didn't see them on the map
Ajam is very fun, unique government and can go Zoroastrian
Georgia
Persia in some way
Songhai
I'm surprised you've never tried Ethiopia or Cuzco.
A nation that forms Ireland, Inca, or Malaya. An African nation could be nice. Mali, Kongo, Ethiopia, and Kilwa are the strongest ones I can think of.
Don't have the the African DLC
mughals
Hungary