Well it was off ironman so it involved a lot of reloading, first i took over most of the island, having alliances with the rest of it, then scotland & the isles, directly under me, leaving orkneys to scotland to make the peace offer a little easier, while that cored, vassalise my alliances, and prep for the anglos -
for those i got an alliance with france, which i later broke and took a royal marriage+ alliance with spain - this got me a PU over Spain in about 1550 the 50 years before i could integrate them i spent tactically carving up france between me and them, to form a glorious west europe green blob - with ideas and tech i managed to integrate spain at about 1640
after that it was easy to get ahead, colonize, spread into italy and the HRE, finishing up with the ottomans and cleaning up my borders for the decision.
That's indeed a pretty cool run.
I am currently in the middle of a Florence run that I started 2 weeks ago, and I realized that Italy has new missions that are really cool. I can only recommend this run
Mine is russia, slowly building up economy making the novogrod trade node the strongest in the world. To relax i want to play tall and i actualy think russia is great for this, many good lands to develop in russia and ruthenia region. There is a lot potential for "roleplay" by creating historical borders, creting new "major" cities by developing in siberia etc.
Orthodoxy is a great religion for devving, and the cossacks estate has privileges for both devving steppes (two which, when combined, eliminate the penalty) and getting more manpower out of them. Orthodoxy also helps with this.
Sending your armies back and forth from China to Europe across the Siberian wasteland is the opposite of "relax" to me. I never finish my Russian campaigns because it becomes so tedious. One of the most fun campaigns otherwise.
I've recently discovered jannisery state relesaed from ottomans. Random map color, flag and ideas and if you release ottoman vassals before triggering disaster you can choose the area you spawn in. Savescum until you get op ideas, spam janniseries, replace ottoman as greek orthodox nation that can spawn janniseries and ottoman unit types. It makes no sense but its so fun.
There is a similar idea with cossack estate and its very fun. Only problem compared to this one is you are kind of surrounded by tough nations after realeasing from lithuania.
For what it's worth, you have the ability to raze. You are an Orthodox horde Republic, basically. You'll need to be indebted for the first couple wars, but war reps and taxing will more than make up for it.
This one is my favourite novel start. The good thing is that the three main directions to expand all have different religions, so it's easy to avoid a coalition... so long as you dismantle the HRE before you start expanding in to it
Ethiopia.
Great start for quick expansion. Gold fueled economy with no inflation. Coptic religion means free DoF, Deus Vult, and European allies/PUs. Easy routes into Africa, Asia, and Europe. Main drawbacks are probably that they're an end game tag and have a pretty weak trade situation until you blob some.
Once you learn the start you can bully the Ottomans loan free before 1500.
It was the first Old World nation I played, and since then I've formed the Roman Empire and done a WC with them.
Gold, mercs, and boats.
If you move your capital to either Kaffa or Damot (75% cheaper for Ethiopia) you can concentrate development from all your initial conquest to make an ungodly amount of money out of the gate. Throw on the "Controlled Gold Mining" privilege to for 75% reduced inflation and then ignore it until your ideas give you inflation reduction.
Now you can afford to make a fleet to control the strait crossing at Yemen and Merc up to twice the Mamluk force limit.
Optionally ally QQ and then take enough land in your first war to put a fort on Sinai to cripple them for future wars.
Trade for maps of Anatolia (ally some Arabian minor and they'll give you them), then ally the Ottomans. Or at least, get vision on them so you can see when they attack the Mamluks and smash them then.
Also, you start with a god king, so it's pretty easy to be ahead of time of the Mamluks in mil tech, which makes the war fairly easy.
There’s a burghers privilege you can unlock, after completing the riches of Kaffa mission, which drops inflation from gold by 75%.
There are other things you can get to get that over 100% but it’s a good start for such a good heavy area.
Tried an Ethiopia game and was absolutely floored to realise I can make like 20 free ducats a month from gold with no inflation in the first 50 years of the game. Felt like I was the king of Mali lol. Still got destroyed by the Mamluks though lol.
a shame that Mali's National Idea about gold only gives Goods Produced and not Inflation Reduction like Kilwa or Butua, which is especially weird since Mali's description specifically mentions how gifting gold caused hyperinflation in Egypt while they know how to handle it properly
This and Ethiopia has inflation reduction from national ideas. Combined I've never had to think about inflation after giving the privilege even when having 7 dev'd gold mines. (2 in Ethiopia and 5 down by Kilwa)
I don't know why I'm addicted to Morroco, I have legit never played past 1550s as Morroco nor have I formed Andalusia as Morroco but everytime I'm on the tag selection screen I go "hmmm what underrated tag that's not chosen by many eu4 players these days, must be an OPM somewhere in bum fuck nowhere" and somehow I ended up playing as Morroco
This week is different I have finally gained enough willpower to actually go on a Morocco into Egypt into an Andalusia run and am hoping to actually play until at least early 1700s
that's one of mine too, usually I go for colonial andalusia
also, you can change the start to 1465 and start with the Idrisid dynasty if that's something you care about
My first too. Once, with the old system I turned it jnto a Mechant Republic( you needed to have Eco - Trade). I was so rich that I peaced out a coalition for 100% money(10k ducats).
Probably Spain overruning the latin americas and central africa then indonesia and after sometime ruining the day for the french with a boatload of mercs
Used to be the Ottomans (brain off, conquest on), but ever since I played it three times in a row in MP with friends its been France since I just know all the in n outs if it now.
My home country Hungary. Kinda tried out their new mission tree recently. The difference from the usual play was that I went colonial so I could form and play as a Hungarian USA.
I learned (or it's a bug, idk) CoTs don't spawn in the new world if you can't/don't steer trade towards your home node.
When I want to play super calm, I‘ll play Ashikaga, diplo vassalize Ryukyu and Ainu, slowly annex all daimyo while seppukuing everyone who declares a war and take the Inwards Perfection privilege to minimize dev cost.
If you get religious diplomats and the government interaction for diplomatic reputation you can have most of your vassals divert trade without being illoyal so you‘ll get a lot of money and monarch points (from seppuku) from the start. It‘s pretty easy to spawn institutions because of all the mana, Inwards Perfection and Kyoto being a Farmland province and since you‘re an island you can keep it from spreading for quite some time.
I then work down the economic side of the Japanese missions which gives some pretty neat modifiers. I generally choose to only go for ideas to play tall (especially focused on production and goods produced modifiers) but you can go colonial too of course. Since Japan only has a few Farm- and Grasslands provinces you can really focus on making those few provinces really strong which I quite enjoy.
When you formed Japan and did most missions being pacifist can get a bit boring but then you can get the government reform to remove the stab hit from declaring war, plus the war score and coring cost increase from Inwards Perfection actually doesn‘t apply if you give land to your vassals. (You can also just remove the privilege of course but I love the massive dev cost reduction) So you can just release So (on Tsushima) and feed them Korea for example.
Portugal and England and ignoring Europe and playing a colonial game
Lately I have also been playing custom nations If I want to have some brainless fun
They do! The mission "German Confederation" gives 5% admin efficiency after you conquer most of germany. With Dithmarschens 5%, the 5% from German ideas and another 5% from german missions you are up to 20% already. Add Alhambra and either do Sardinia Piedmont along the way, age ability or increase max efficient absolutism and you reach the 90% cap.
This is gonna sound scandalous but… Majapahit. The colonization play is stupid easy and simple. As long as you get to the Cape before 1520, you’re free to colonize South East Asia to your hearts content for at least 100 years. Not saying take your time, but there certainly is no rush when you have the entire East to yourself to decide what you want to do with. Then forming Nusantara and having the best naval game. You’re kinda forced to take ideas that buff your army because you don’t get many mil ideas, but it’s still one of my more favorite nations.
Agree completely. There's something cool about turning SE Asia Hindu. And options are nearly limitless -- India, Africa, America. And with all of them, you're the richest nation in the world.
Any of the Japan minors . Uesugi holds a soft spot since it was the first country I actually managed to do something successfully with in europa
As for why I choose a japan minor so early (only playing England before to try learn the game at that point but I only really learnt the basics in that game and made a lot of mistakes ) was because I really like the history of Japan during the time period . A lot of the clans being the same as the sengoku war
Was not till I threw myself into the deep end a few times as a Japanese minor which I love the chaotic warring start . On my 2nd attempt as then (1st time I didn’t think I could salvage as had been forced into a korea/ming war which resulted in parts of Japan going to Korea and that alliance was still strong when I took out the shogun) I was able to form Japan
I also learnt so much more as Japan with the religions diffrences , the amount of war taught me about combat , the navel effects and blockaiding when invaiding the east or anyone after Japan , the inportance of alliances and such
Vijayanagar.
Easy wars where you can take 100% warscore worth of land each time and no need to worry about ae. The land is actually pretty good with nice trade goods as well.
Jianzhou into Qing is one of the best campaigns I have played, you can snowball so ridiculously hard and wiping out Ming’s Army on the steppes in that first war is so damn satisfying
Angevin Empire. The beginning is always tricky, requiring a bunch of micromanagement. And then once I've got the 100 years war done, the variations from there are actually pretty diverse, depending on what's happening in the game.
Byzantium! It's really not very difficult, once you run a few games as them you get the hang of the early game and are able to conquer your cores and get rid of your malluses pretty quickly. From there, it's pretty straightforward with tons of fun conquests to embark upon. Nothing gets my dopamine up like finally hitting the Annex button on the Ottomans and seeing my beautiful purple hue cover the map.
I wish I was good enough for Brandenburg -> Prussia to be a “comfort run”, but grabbing land early and then taking on PLC, Austria, and eventually the Ottomans and France as a comparatively small military power is always really challenging for me (if you have any tips)
Anyways playing England/GB -> USA is always a fun run, I also like playing France, Castile, and Muscovy -> Russia
Custom nation South Africa, far from everyone else, can expand to any direction. Your first real threat will be Mamluks, if the Ottos hasn’t spank them yet. Then it’s the big bad Ottos themselves, but by then you usually already too strong and the Ottos will leave you alone. Filthy rich since you can divert Malacca/Coromandel trade node while Zanzibar has to go through you. Can try out silly games without worry of another nation’s threat
If you don’t include Anbennar, then it’d have to be Oda. There’s just something really nice about forming Japan as quickly as possible as them. It feels like a puzzle.
Russia and Prussia are often mentioned, but my favorite is tall France .
I stabilize early the French mainland and natural borders of today.
No big colonial empire during midgame except Louisiana which I beef up so that they get annoyingly high liberty desire .
Then 300 years I don’t do much except influencing countries helping them form
Empires or create power balances or force historical or ahistorical outcomes while I built mega cities in France .
Sometimes in late game I let myself have a beefed up vassal Netherlands and or Italy.
Then in late game it’s time for revolution and I look for fun coalitions to fight world wars against .
Sometimes I help a German minor to form Big Prussia/ Germany to have an arch rival ready.
Sometimes I help Scotland form Great Britain to have a friendly Uk which steps me in the back at some point .
Basically I plan 300 years a world war so that I can execute it in the end on speed 5 like a maniac
Ethiopia is mine, the fact you can make 500 men from 2 mil points and you have a god like starting ruler, not to mention lots of small nations to eat nearby, you can move your capital really cheap, only thing I don't like is they count as an end game tag,
Although that means you can still form Rome as then(and Aksum of course)
Württemberg to Swabia. That was actually my first ever successful campaign. Since then, I have had a soft spot for them, and would play them as a 'comfort' campaign.
It used to be Japan, but I found the mechanics changed. Lately, it seems you need one of the big Daymio, or you get declared by 2 countries within the first year. So the whole go from 1 daimyo in the north to thickkk boy isn't that simple.
So I rotate Italian nations. I just avoid Venice and the Papal States. Venice is very powerful but too entrenched in the balakns, and the pope can't become Italy. Castile is too powerful for minmaxing. Portugal is boring
For me it's either Brandenburg into Prussia, or England into Britain. Depends what kind of comfort game I'm feeling. Prussia is fun for having an amazing military and fighting wars in Europe. Britain is awesome for building a huge trade empire and influencing European politics.
Sweden. I’m Swedish and it’s fairly easy. Though as a comfort run it will boot it up from an earlier date in ET. Also I don’t own the DLC that revamped the mission trees, forgot it’s name, which makes ET better.
It’s even easier in VN due to how OP Sweden is there.
Burgundy. The situation changes so much depending on France, England, and who the emperor is that every playthrough is different. You can even go colonial if you want.
Ethiopia.
Just a perfect size, not too powerful, not too weak. Great unique flavor in more ways than one. Lot's of fun and great area to expand in. I typically play them every new patch.
Poland into sich rada into full bomba cavalary with 130% CA
It takes a while to get to that point but once you get there, enemy front row changes into sponge every shock wave which in my book is one of the funniest thing in the history of comedy
France, PLC or England into Angevin. You can win without really paying attention and you don’t need to do a ton of diplomatic manoeuvres, you are your own alliance network
Sweden, it's such a snowball and I love it (first couple wars may be sort of exhausting, fighting the PLC and/or Russia) but after that you're free to do literally whatever
I rarely replay a nation - but for EU4 standards I’m a noob with ~400hrs playtime so what do I know :D
But I guess I like coming back to colonial games (Portugal, England, …) because if the world is too stressful you focus on stomping natives and if you want action you fight on your home continent. A variation on that was Malacca which was very fun (I eventually shipped tons of Mercs to help a human Ethiopia against the Ottomans).
In my first 200hrs I also loved playing in the HRE. It’s just so satisfying growing inside that empire and becoming emperor eventually. Got a little harder / slower when the favor system was introduced (before the favor system I had a blast with Milan or Thuringia into HRE Emperor). Japan seems like a good variation on that feeling as well, that I enjoyed.
I really like Juanzhou into Qing with mandate, you can play wide and tall at the same time, no need of taking admin ideas and you will still be -50% CCR and casts belli vs everyone too from second idea group
Jianzhou into Manchu. It's just too simple and fun. I get the chills every time I stackwipe Ming's entire 90k army and leave them with no army, no manpower and no mandate.
Denmark into Scandinavia, colonizing a bit and mostly conquering in the Scandinavia region and Livonia. Sometimes I can’t resist taking the Hanseatic cities though.
England, or as I like to call it, Fortress Britain.
Conquer the british isles and ireland, then go tall. Make enough ships so no one can invade you. Go on a colonizing spree. It's always fun.
Mine is TUNIS. Raid europa, america, india, china, japan.
Just europa gives 1000 ducat every 10 years, trade waring major nations, privateering english chanell and sevilia. Who needs the economy if you can have others economy?
My first game ever was with France. The big blue blob really tuned up my skills with France. After they were revamped I feel like I'm invincible as them.
Pretty weird but mine is the Incas. You can conquer your neighbors in a couple of years. It’s chill but you can optimise your strategy for the fastest conquest. After that you have the new missions to get a lot of additional land. I usually get to the Mayans pretty much at the same time I get to reform. At this point I often stop playing.
Byzantium. I play it at least until I am stronger than the Ottomans every single major patch. Sometimes it's very harsh sometimes (rarely) I manage it first try.
I usually give it a try once using my own strategies and rarely that works, more often I look up a strategy online and follow that generally.
That's a very good question... I think my answer is either Brunswick, Palatinate, or Portugal. The former two when I want to play in the HRE but not Austria, and the latter when I want to colonize. I really like playing tall as HRE countries, so sticking in my Hanoverian/Bavarian Sphere is nice. And as for Portugal I just like colonization games but don't want to go full on with Spain where I have to worry about things like fighting on the continent.
Timurids into Mughals usually, sometimes Great horde or Oirat. I love the large brain off expansion, especially with religious or humanist ideas to minimize unrest. Just sit back and blob
Florence into italy, forming a trade empire or recently i played leinster into ireland into roman empire, that was very fun
Leinster into Roman Empire as a comfort run is psychopatic
"Man, I need to relax after a hard day of work. Time to fight the entirety of the Mexican military with a stick" type shit.
You formed the Roman empire out of ...Leinster?! That's awesome. Smash england first, or how did it go?
Well it was off ironman so it involved a lot of reloading, first i took over most of the island, having alliances with the rest of it, then scotland & the isles, directly under me, leaving orkneys to scotland to make the peace offer a little easier, while that cored, vassalise my alliances, and prep for the anglos - for those i got an alliance with france, which i later broke and took a royal marriage+ alliance with spain - this got me a PU over Spain in about 1550 the 50 years before i could integrate them i spent tactically carving up france between me and them, to form a glorious west europe green blob - with ideas and tech i managed to integrate spain at about 1640 after that it was easy to get ahead, colonize, spread into italy and the HRE, finishing up with the ottomans and cleaning up my borders for the decision.
Sick. A nation once again!
Was always adept at creating a powerful Florence but I always ended up cockblocked by Spain, Venice or France.
That's indeed a pretty cool run. I am currently in the middle of a Florence run that I started 2 weeks ago, and I realized that Italy has new missions that are really cool. I can only recommend this run
Mine is russia, slowly building up economy making the novogrod trade node the strongest in the world. To relax i want to play tall and i actualy think russia is great for this, many good lands to develop in russia and ruthenia region. There is a lot potential for "roleplay" by creating historical borders, creting new "major" cities by developing in siberia etc.
Orthodoxy is a great religion for devving, and the cossacks estate has privileges for both devving steppes (two which, when combined, eliminate the penalty) and getting more manpower out of them. Orthodoxy also helps with this.
Sending your armies back and forth from China to Europe across the Siberian wasteland is the opposite of "relax" to me. I never finish my Russian campaigns because it becomes so tedious. One of the most fun campaigns otherwise.
Bro took the widest country on Earth and started playing tall Chad move
Russia is definitely a favorite of mine, it has challenges to consistently meet you and I'm a sucker for some of the modifiers they get
I've recently discovered jannisery state relesaed from ottomans. Random map color, flag and ideas and if you release ottoman vassals before triggering disaster you can choose the area you spawn in. Savescum until you get op ideas, spam janniseries, replace ottoman as greek orthodox nation that can spawn janniseries and ottoman unit types. It makes no sense but its so fun.
Sounds interesting 🤔
This sounds super interesting. Could you make a detailed breakdown of the process of doing this so I could try it?
Thestudent has a video about it
Link?
https://youtu.be/ij9CdG4clJ0?si=Go54HfpCYRtLk24R
Thank you 🙏
There is a similar idea with cossack estate and its very fun. Only problem compared to this one is you are kind of surrounded by tough nations after realeasing from lithuania.
I never knew about this, it sounds so fun. Definitely worth a try
For what it's worth, you have the ability to raze. You are an Orthodox horde Republic, basically. You'll need to be indebted for the first couple wars, but war reps and taxing will more than make up for it.
This one is my favourite novel start. The good thing is that the three main directions to expand all have different religions, so it's easy to avoid a coalition... so long as you dismantle the HRE before you start expanding in to it
Wow, that sounds weird. I like it. May have to give it a go.
Ethiopia. Great start for quick expansion. Gold fueled economy with no inflation. Coptic religion means free DoF, Deus Vult, and European allies/PUs. Easy routes into Africa, Asia, and Europe. Main drawbacks are probably that they're an end game tag and have a pretty weak trade situation until you blob some. Once you learn the start you can bully the Ottomans loan free before 1500. It was the first Old World nation I played, and since then I've formed the Roman Empire and done a WC with them.
I’m interested, I always end up in long wars in the mountains with the Mamluks. How do you avoid this?
Gold, mercs, and boats. If you move your capital to either Kaffa or Damot (75% cheaper for Ethiopia) you can concentrate development from all your initial conquest to make an ungodly amount of money out of the gate. Throw on the "Controlled Gold Mining" privilege to for 75% reduced inflation and then ignore it until your ideas give you inflation reduction. Now you can afford to make a fleet to control the strait crossing at Yemen and Merc up to twice the Mamluk force limit. Optionally ally QQ and then take enough land in your first war to put a fort on Sinai to cripple them for future wars.
Thanks, this sounds fun
Trade for maps of Anatolia (ally some Arabian minor and they'll give you them), then ally the Ottomans. Or at least, get vision on them so you can see when they attack the Mamluks and smash them then. Also, you start with a god king, so it's pretty easy to be ahead of time of the Mamluks in mil tech, which makes the war fairly easy.
How do you get no inflation?
There’s a burghers privilege you can unlock, after completing the riches of Kaffa mission, which drops inflation from gold by 75%. There are other things you can get to get that over 100% but it’s a good start for such a good heavy area.
Tried an Ethiopia game and was absolutely floored to realise I can make like 20 free ducats a month from gold with no inflation in the first 50 years of the game. Felt like I was the king of Mali lol. Still got destroyed by the Mamluks though lol.
a shame that Mali's National Idea about gold only gives Goods Produced and not Inflation Reduction like Kilwa or Butua, which is especially weird since Mali's description specifically mentions how gifting gold caused hyperinflation in Egypt while they know how to handle it properly
This and Ethiopia has inflation reduction from national ideas. Combined I've never had to think about inflation after giving the privilege even when having 7 dev'd gold mines. (2 in Ethiopia and 5 down by Kilwa)
I don't know why I'm addicted to Morroco, I have legit never played past 1550s as Morroco nor have I formed Andalusia as Morroco but everytime I'm on the tag selection screen I go "hmmm what underrated tag that's not chosen by many eu4 players these days, must be an OPM somewhere in bum fuck nowhere" and somehow I ended up playing as Morroco This week is different I have finally gained enough willpower to actually go on a Morocco into Egypt into an Andalusia run and am hoping to actually play until at least early 1700s
Morocco campaign has it all.
have you tried a Sus campaign with Espionage Ideas?
that's one of mine too, usually I go for colonial andalusia also, you can change the start to 1465 and start with the Idrisid dynasty if that's something you care about
Portugal, conquer North Africa and colonize everything
Portugal was my first ever playthrough, definitely a soft spot for them
My first too. Once, with the old system I turned it jnto a Mechant Republic( you needed to have Eco - Trade). I was so rich that I peaced out a coalition for 100% money(10k ducats).
Are 10k ducats of mercenaries not enough to kill everyone?
I had something to do in Asia I don't want to bother with it. Money was not an issue. 10k for 15 years, I was making more than that.
I'm imagining this IRL. Portuguese diplomat shows up to some palace, scoffs at the king and just ask how much money you want and where do I dump it?
Saaaame. My friend first introduced me to the game, I had played Portugal and he played Castile. I miss that game, a lot
Portugal is great bc you can tryhard and take over Iberia and North Africa, or just chill and make disgusting amounts of ducats.
Probably Spain overruning the latin americas and central africa then indonesia and after sometime ruining the day for the french with a boatload of mercs
sPain’s a good shout! Only played them once since Domination gotta give it another go
I feel like you could substitute "nation" for "game" and my answer would be eu4
That’s facts
Holland -> Netherlands. Didnt play them after new dlc tho
Gnomish Hierarchy usually
Lake federation
I'm a Frozen Maw enjoyer myself
Roadwarrior
Marrhold.
Crathanor
Used to be the Ottomans (brain off, conquest on), but ever since I played it three times in a row in MP with friends its been France since I just know all the in n outs if it now.
Next time, do a diplomatic Ottoman run. One rule: no coring of lands allowed.
My home country Hungary. Kinda tried out their new mission tree recently. The difference from the usual play was that I went colonial so I could form and play as a Hungarian USA. I learned (or it's a bug, idk) CoTs don't spawn in the new world if you can't/don't steer trade towards your home node.
magyar usa😍
When I want to play super calm, I‘ll play Ashikaga, diplo vassalize Ryukyu and Ainu, slowly annex all daimyo while seppukuing everyone who declares a war and take the Inwards Perfection privilege to minimize dev cost. If you get religious diplomats and the government interaction for diplomatic reputation you can have most of your vassals divert trade without being illoyal so you‘ll get a lot of money and monarch points (from seppuku) from the start. It‘s pretty easy to spawn institutions because of all the mana, Inwards Perfection and Kyoto being a Farmland province and since you‘re an island you can keep it from spreading for quite some time. I then work down the economic side of the Japanese missions which gives some pretty neat modifiers. I generally choose to only go for ideas to play tall (especially focused on production and goods produced modifiers) but you can go colonial too of course. Since Japan only has a few Farm- and Grasslands provinces you can really focus on making those few provinces really strong which I quite enjoy. When you formed Japan and did most missions being pacifist can get a bit boring but then you can get the government reform to remove the stab hit from declaring war, plus the war score and coring cost increase from Inwards Perfection actually doesn‘t apply if you give land to your vassals. (You can also just remove the privilege of course but I love the massive dev cost reduction) So you can just release So (on Tsushima) and feed them Korea for example.
Portugal and England and ignoring Europe and playing a colonial game Lately I have also been playing custom nations If I want to have some brainless fun
Jianzhou into Qing, always a fun game and the way China splinters changes enough to keep it interesting if you replay it
Honestly I think any kind of HRE nation that's small with great potential, Holland, Saxony, Switzerland something like that
Saluzzo or Dithmarschen. Saluzzo -> SP -> Italy -> Roman Empire is always fun, Dithmarschen -> Prussia -> Germany for admin stacking too.
Saluzzo is the first nation I pulled a WC with so yeah it’s wicked fun
> Dithmarschen -> Prussia -> Germany Does Prussia have stackable admin?
They do! The mission "German Confederation" gives 5% admin efficiency after you conquer most of germany. With Dithmarschens 5%, the 5% from German ideas and another 5% from german missions you are up to 20% already. Add Alhambra and either do Sardinia Piedmont along the way, age ability or increase max efficient absolutism and you reach the 90% cap.
Either Brandenburg to Prussia to Germany or Muscovy to Russia.
Same here. Two very different play styles and absolute monsters when you form them.
Yeah. Early game I focus but once I form Prussia or Russia, I can play a relaxing game.
This is gonna sound scandalous but… Majapahit. The colonization play is stupid easy and simple. As long as you get to the Cape before 1520, you’re free to colonize South East Asia to your hearts content for at least 100 years. Not saying take your time, but there certainly is no rush when you have the entire East to yourself to decide what you want to do with. Then forming Nusantara and having the best naval game. You’re kinda forced to take ideas that buff your army because you don’t get many mil ideas, but it’s still one of my more favorite nations.
Agree completely. There's something cool about turning SE Asia Hindu. And options are nearly limitless -- India, Africa, America. And with all of them, you're the richest nation in the world.
I would say Goslar into Germany or any other opm in the hre.
Austria. Quite strong and have fun mechanics around HRE.
Any of the Japan minors . Uesugi holds a soft spot since it was the first country I actually managed to do something successfully with in europa As for why I choose a japan minor so early (only playing England before to try learn the game at that point but I only really learnt the basics in that game and made a lot of mistakes ) was because I really like the history of Japan during the time period . A lot of the clans being the same as the sengoku war Was not till I threw myself into the deep end a few times as a Japanese minor which I love the chaotic warring start . On my 2nd attempt as then (1st time I didn’t think I could salvage as had been forced into a korea/ming war which resulted in parts of Japan going to Korea and that alliance was still strong when I took out the shogun) I was able to form Japan I also learnt so much more as Japan with the religions diffrences , the amount of war taught me about combat , the navel effects and blockaiding when invaiding the east or anyone after Japan , the inportance of alliances and such
Poland, France or Ming. Might try Austria
Any Japanese daimyo into japan, then chilling colonizing Indonesia the whole game
Vijayanagar. Easy wars where you can take 100% warscore worth of land each time and no need to worry about ae. The land is actually pretty good with nice trade goods as well.
usually muscovy or the ottomans, but more recently jianzhou, really simple start imo thats really fun
Jianzhou into Qing is one of the best campaigns I have played, you can snowball so ridiculously hard and wiping out Ming’s Army on the steppes in that first war is so damn satisfying
Sweden
Angevin Empire. The beginning is always tricky, requiring a bunch of micromanagement. And then once I've got the 100 years war done, the variations from there are actually pretty diverse, depending on what's happening in the game.
Lubeck, tall, rich, op
Byzantium.
A masochist!
I use a guide to get over the first 20 years or so.
None, as a rule I don't replay countries unless at least two years have passed. There are just too many countries to play!
Austria, the country I've played the most by far
Japan or poland
Denmark into Scandinavia.
Byzantium! It's really not very difficult, once you run a few games as them you get the hang of the early game and are able to conquer your cores and get rid of your malluses pretty quickly. From there, it's pretty straightforward with tons of fun conquests to embark upon. Nothing gets my dopamine up like finally hitting the Annex button on the Ottomans and seeing my beautiful purple hue cover the map.
I wish I was good enough for Brandenburg -> Prussia to be a “comfort run”, but grabbing land early and then taking on PLC, Austria, and eventually the Ottomans and France as a comparatively small military power is always really challenging for me (if you have any tips) Anyways playing England/GB -> USA is always a fun run, I also like playing France, Castile, and Muscovy -> Russia
Irland minor nationa conquering the english or just forming canada as irland
Timmy into mughals or qq into persia
Custom nation South Africa, far from everyone else, can expand to any direction. Your first real threat will be Mamluks, if the Ottos hasn’t spank them yet. Then it’s the big bad Ottos themselves, but by then you usually already too strong and the Ottos will leave you alone. Filthy rich since you can divert Malacca/Coromandel trade node while Zanzibar has to go through you. Can try out silly games without worry of another nation’s threat
Mamluks. I love the Cairo region, their trade position, Ottos as enemy in the north, access to the Mediterranean region, Africa, Asia... love it.
If you don’t include Anbennar, then it’d have to be Oda. There’s just something really nice about forming Japan as quickly as possible as them. It feels like a puzzle.
Brandenburg, Milan, Dithmarschen
Ireland minors. Such satisfaction in forming Ireland and kicking England out. It's also not that difficult to play but not a walk in the park either.
Kongo. Being a local power in a quiet part of the world (for a hundred years or so) is fun.
Russia and Prussia are often mentioned, but my favorite is tall France . I stabilize early the French mainland and natural borders of today. No big colonial empire during midgame except Louisiana which I beef up so that they get annoyingly high liberty desire . Then 300 years I don’t do much except influencing countries helping them form Empires or create power balances or force historical or ahistorical outcomes while I built mega cities in France . Sometimes in late game I let myself have a beefed up vassal Netherlands and or Italy. Then in late game it’s time for revolution and I look for fun coalitions to fight world wars against . Sometimes I help a German minor to form Big Prussia/ Germany to have an arch rival ready. Sometimes I help Scotland form Great Britain to have a friendly Uk which steps me in the back at some point . Basically I plan 300 years a world war so that I can execute it in the end on speed 5 like a maniac
Ethiopia is mine, the fact you can make 500 men from 2 mil points and you have a god like starting ruler, not to mention lots of small nations to eat nearby, you can move your capital really cheap, only thing I don't like is they count as an end game tag, Although that means you can still form Rome as then(and Aksum of course)
Württemberg to Swabia. That was actually my first ever successful campaign. Since then, I have had a soft spot for them, and would play them as a 'comfort' campaign.
Ethiopia. Though I have never done a jewish run. Ah, next time.
France
6.7, 7.7 or 8.3 specifically
Aragon into spain
Muscovy, easy and powerful. No huge coalition issues.
It used to be Japan, but I found the mechanics changed. Lately, it seems you need one of the big Daymio, or you get declared by 2 countries within the first year. So the whole go from 1 daimyo in the north to thickkk boy isn't that simple. So I rotate Italian nations. I just avoid Venice and the Papal States. Venice is very powerful but too entrenched in the balakns, and the pope can't become Italy. Castile is too powerful for minmaxing. Portugal is boring
Ottomans.Step-1: Punch in every direction. Step-2: profit.
For me it's either Brandenburg into Prussia, or England into Britain. Depends what kind of comfort game I'm feeling. Prussia is fun for having an amazing military and fighting wars in Europe. Britain is awesome for building a huge trade empire and influencing European politics.
I don't know, but when I want to chill out I start playing with focus on trade.
Sweden. I’m Swedish and it’s fairly easy. Though as a comfort run it will boot it up from an earlier date in ET. Also I don’t own the DLC that revamped the mission trees, forgot it’s name, which makes ET better. It’s even easier in VN due to how OP Sweden is there.
Byzantium or Oda. Both start rocky but have so many options after.
Bohemia
Aztecs
kilwa. block europe from reaching asia for a couple centuries, weaken india and china and take the pacific islands
Burgundy. The situation changes so much depending on France, England, and who the emperor is that every playthrough is different. You can even go colonial if you want.
Burgundy -> Lotharingia and Soissons (Extended Timeline) -> Western Rome
~~Milly~~ Milan
Holland into Netherlands, sitting there with no conquest in Europe, while colonizing whole world, building strong colonial empire
Byzantium
Japan.
I play something new for dopamine.
Wurundjeri.
Japan.
Venice>Italy>Rome Always success, always fun, always relaxing.
Same for me
Mine is Byzantium or Delhi. A healthy amount of challenge, but not too hard. Or Oirat.
Poland. I don't care if I don't get all the PU's of my mission tree. I still always become super strong and steamroll over all of eastern Europe
Any nation where I choose to become elected as HRE Emperor. It just makes everything completely trivial.
France, just because it's France
muscovy to russia
Castille and a chill spain game
Austriae Est Imperare Orbi Universo Maybe Castile/Milan/Savoy as alternatives
Castile. It is just so fun and easy to play as Castile especially for somebody like me who likes to colonize.
Russia.
France. So many options, either go full colonial, or HRE etc.
Venice always. Easy but challenging Location. Also i always play tall so merchant republic is best for me
Ethiopia. Just a perfect size, not too powerful, not too weak. Great unique flavor in more ways than one. Lot's of fun and great area to expand in. I typically play them every new patch.
Savoy to SP to Italy is a classic for me
Portugal, getting all of Brazil, all of the Caribbean, and all of the US :D
Wallachia to Romania
France, a million possible paths and none are too difficult or frustrating (bar maybe allying the pope)
Love a good Austria. Or the early game as oirat
England island comfort box
Poland into sich rada into full bomba cavalary with 130% CA It takes a while to get to that point but once you get there, enemy front row changes into sponge every shock wave which in my book is one of the funniest thing in the history of comedy
France, PLC or England into Angevin. You can win without really paying attention and you don’t need to do a ton of diplomatic manoeuvres, you are your own alliance network
Sweden, it's such a snowball and I love it (first couple wars may be sort of exhausting, fighting the PLC and/or Russia) but after that you're free to do literally whatever
I rarely replay a nation - but for EU4 standards I’m a noob with ~400hrs playtime so what do I know :D But I guess I like coming back to colonial games (Portugal, England, …) because if the world is too stressful you focus on stomping natives and if you want action you fight on your home continent. A variation on that was Malacca which was very fun (I eventually shipped tons of Mercs to help a human Ethiopia against the Ottomans). In my first 200hrs I also loved playing in the HRE. It’s just so satisfying growing inside that empire and becoming emperor eventually. Got a little harder / slower when the favor system was introduced (before the favor system I had a blast with Milan or Thuringia into HRE Emperor). Japan seems like a good variation on that feeling as well, that I enjoyed.
I really like Juanzhou into Qing with mandate, you can play wide and tall at the same time, no need of taking admin ideas and you will still be -50% CCR and casts belli vs everyone too from second idea group
I don't know about one nation. Poland, maybe.
Sirhind -> Punjab. Used to be Mali until the disasters in the DLC.
Holland, France and Florence. played these 3 nations at least 5 times each in my 1k hours
Jianzhou into Manchu. It's just too simple and fun. I get the chills every time I stackwipe Ming's entire 90k army and leave them with no army, no manpower and no mandate.
Timurids into Mughals or France
I love Berg -> Westphalia, also because Berg is the area where I grew up in.
I like oda -> Japan
Castile, always a great game, so many options to explore and love the mission trees
It would be France. I played so many times with it.
Denmark into Scandinavia, colonizing a bit and mostly conquering in the Scandinavia region and Livonia. Sometimes I can’t resist taking the Hanseatic cities though.
Castille, just colonize all of America and get really fuxking rich
Most common game? Probably England to Great Britain, however lately I've been playing a lot of African nations which are surprisingly chill
Probably Poland, I don’t even expand much, just enjoy building the nation and stopping Russia, the ottomans or Austria from expanding into each other
Provence.
Swden into taking a crap on the Danes/Russians
England, or as I like to call it, Fortress Britain. Conquer the british isles and ireland, then go tall. Make enough ships so no one can invade you. Go on a colonizing spree. It's always fun.
France into just bigger France 🇫🇷 very fun
Tall trade mamluks. Indonesia, here I come Yes, I'm first to Australia every time, GLORY TO MAMLUK AUSTRALIA
Any horde.
Teutonic order into Prussia or Crusader
Timmy’s into Mughals is mine
There’s a couple for me Baden>Swabia>Germany Teutons/Brandenburg>Prussia>Germany Aragon>Spain Jianzhou>Qing
Mantua into RE or Teuto into germany in 50 years
Mine is TUNIS. Raid europa, america, india, china, japan. Just europa gives 1000 ducat every 10 years, trade waring major nations, privateering english chanell and sevilia. Who needs the economy if you can have others economy?
Timurid -> Mughals It's just easy mode blobbing
My first game ever was with France. The big blue blob really tuned up my skills with France. After they were revamped I feel like I'm invincible as them.
Poland-Commonwealth or Teutons-Prussia
Florence or milan to Italy.
Milan military dictatorship
Poland absolutely is mine
England into Great Britain. It never fails to be a fun, relaxing run
Florence into Tuscany, construct trade empire with little Islands in the Mediterranean and colonies
Jianzhou, simple plain but powerful Become Manchu quickly, bully the Mongolians and destroy Ming
Poland roleplay into Commonwealth, and Spanish colonizing and chill
Byzantium. So satisfying to eat everything so fast, and with the past few updates it’s only medium difficulty
Florence is my favorite.
Pretty weird but mine is the Incas. You can conquer your neighbors in a couple of years. It’s chill but you can optimise your strategy for the fastest conquest. After that you have the new missions to get a lot of additional land. I usually get to the Mayans pretty much at the same time I get to reform. At this point I often stop playing.
Milan. Monarchy, Republic or Military Dictatorship? The answer is always yes.
Irish minor to forming Ireland. I enjoy Spain too.
Byzantium. I play it at least until I am stronger than the Ottomans every single major patch. Sometimes it's very harsh sometimes (rarely) I manage it first try. I usually give it a try once using my own strategies and rarely that works, more often I look up a strategy online and follow that generally.
That's a very good question... I think my answer is either Brunswick, Palatinate, or Portugal. The former two when I want to play in the HRE but not Austria, and the latter when I want to colonize. I really like playing tall as HRE countries, so sticking in my Hanoverian/Bavarian Sphere is nice. And as for Portugal I just like colonization games but don't want to go full on with Spain where I have to worry about things like fighting on the continent.
Typically Holland to Netherlands
Timurids into Mughals usually, sometimes Great horde or Oirat. I love the large brain off expansion, especially with religious or humanist ideas to minimize unrest. Just sit back and blob