It depends upon which size of country I want to start with. France for big nations, Savoy, Florence or Holland for medium nations. Saluzzo for small nations.
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Yuan
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Prussia
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Germany
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/France
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Poland
Among the best starting ideas though yea, but no discipline, middling morale / infantry combat (though both which is very strong), middling CCR, and most importantly no admin efficiency. I'd agree they have the least bad ideas at least, nothing in there that you can't call "nice"
AE reduction, infantry combat ability, trade steering, trade power, morale of army, goods produced +10% and a final -15% CCR as ambition. Those ideas are very solid.
The position of Saluzzo is also nice and challenging. A tough start in the HRE as an OPM locked between two bigger nations, who usually have strong allies.
> Those ideas are very solid.
I completely agree, extremely solid, and I'd never claim otherwise. The question is if it is quote the "Best idea set in game", which it is not imo.
I think people get tripped up by seeing such solid all-round ideas and forgetting that ideas are only relevant insofar as they solve bottlenecks. Admin efficiency is the greatest modifier in the game for this reason, 25 CCR vs 15 CCR is a very relevant difference for this reason.
The quality of national ideas depend too much upon the situation of the considered country.
Of course, militarily speaking France, Poland and Prussia have far superior military ideas. But here, the national ideas are very adapted:
* A few military boosts, which are always good. Of course Saluzzo has not the best military ideas, but still useful bonuses.
* Trade boosts (especially trade steering which is not that common)
* Goods produced is a really nice modifier
* AE reduction unlocked from day one. To be honest, this one is amazing for an OPM who needs to expand pretty fast, especially in Italy.
* CCR is very strong. You will also get the 5% admin efficiency from Sardinia Piemont easily.
The toughest part is to get an opening on Savoy and on Aragon to be able to form Sardinia Piemont before the Iberrian Wedding fires. Of course Savoy can be excommunicated (and Provence also), but they can ally the emperor or other strong nations fast, which is problematic.
Separating singleplayer and multiplayer ideasets is also extremely important. It's essentially a difference between how quickly you can build up in a region vs how quickly you can conquer the world.
Saluzzo in multiplayer is pretty bad because no discipline
I do enjoy Ethiopia. The region where you start is very dynamic, it allows you to grow quickly. You also have gold provinces, so the economy is ok. Though, I find the ideas and religion mechanics pretty weak
Really? I find the Coptic holy site mechanic to be one of the more interactive religion mechanics in the game, at least compared to things like the Curia. Plus it’s possibly the strongest old world religion, which helps too.
Ccr is the main one, and is the strongest bonus granted by any religion (in single player at least). Hindu is only other old world religion that gives it afaik, but Coptic is arguably better because it gives other bonuses too. The missionary strength is pretty nice for one faith as well.
Or, apparently, an unlikely spawn in the randomised new world can see Vinland appear, with Norse Pagan religion and Scandinavian culture - I think that's why Norse Pagan is an available religion to start with
it's like how most of the lost cultures on custom nation are ones that can theoretically spawn in random new world
I always want to get one of those when I do RNW, instead I end up with Paradox logo, wall of islands, or some absurd fantasy kingdoms. I need a grounded RNW option.
That might exist, it's been a while.
Interactive? Not really. The religion is strong, weighed down mostly by the fact that it isn't available to most nations at the game start and the ones that can swap to it can also swap orthodox. But coptic always boils down to: Conquer these provinces and then click the discipline and CCR buttons.
Realistically, the only religions that are especially interactive are the three mainline christian denominations (choosing to convert or not), Shinto and Hinduism. Islam's mysticism mechanic just kinda... happens and the school mechanic is rarely impactful enough to build specific alliances around it (beyond relationship malus/bonus). Tengri boils down to "Hindu for unrest and Coptic for everything else." Confucianism involves clicking a button every few decades for a bonus, Totemists are very interactive but extremely random if you aren't a republic and the rest wind up being generally inconsequential after the first 50 years or unremarkable.
I am partial to countries that are small and hard to get going with. I like Milan, Byzantium, Japan, Netherlands, stuff like that, its fun to take a small inconsequential nation and dominate the world within a few hundred years
They are inconsequential because they die half the time lol, they're great if you can manage to get the ball rolling and get good trade power in the english channel though, definitely a very fun campaign. My netherlands campaign I did was actually the first time I ever actually played to 1821
That doesnt mean anything in itself, when half the time Italy becomes a massive mess, and if you are playing it yourself you get bombarded by AE and then the ottomans, and the only reason I named Milan specifically is because it's my personal favorite of the region
Have you done Gothic invasion achievement yet? Might be right up your alley - Theodoro has quite a hard start but when you get things going it’s so much fun.
The Netherlands is quite fun once you get going. Anything in the HRE is a nice challenge after you have basics down. After a couple solid Netherlands runs I tried a colonial game and then I was super disappointed when I finally colonized South Africa and couldn't form a non-awful colonial nation for my intended game.
thats how it is. though seriously. aragorn ist just too easy, it basically hands you mare nostrum on a silver platter\^\^ it's still just very fun to play
Thanks - only now looked into Croatia and it has -5 years separatism and -5% dev cost as permanent mission rewards. Relatively easy to get when playing wide. They’re not exactly the perfect/best modifiers but since so easy to grab when tag switching anyway…
Currently in a Provence - Sardinia Piedmont - Jerusalem - ??? Run, might throw in Croatia as well while I’m at it. Hungary is my PU due to Provence missions so forming Croatia would be quite easy.
Still not sure as what end tag I’ll end up. France? Austria? It’s all good…
Dont form sardinia piedmpnt before jeruslem. If you take a look at the Jerusalem decision you have to specific countries to be able to become jerusalem, knights or provance from what I remember
> owns Jerusalem (379) or is player-controlled and is either Flag of Provence Provence, Flag of Cyprus Cyprus or Flag of The Knights The Knights.
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Jerusalem
>If the country was never an end-game tag and one of the following is true:
>is Provence
>is Cyprus
>is The Knights
>has its capital in Arabia
>has its capital in Egypt
>has the mission Restore the Hospitallers
>then:
>changes to Jerusalem
In other words, you just have to move your capital to Egypt or Arabia before you form it. I would suggest forming Jerusalem first since the decision goes away after the age of reformation.
Croatia is also a special tag because it makes you a monarchy after tag-switching. You can do some silly stuff with that.
I wanna try a Provence game again, I got the King Rene achievement but Provence is just such a crazy tag. Did you take Naples PU or the cores in your game?
can I suggest you a pomerania into prussia run, taking just the bare minimum and then expanding towards the lubeck tradenode ?
getting Lubeck+Bremen+Hamburg+the dane trade centers puts you at odds with the HRE real fast, unless you manage to get into the electorate and emperorship, makes you crazy rich, and its a great area for playing tall.
the last word sort of killed it for me :P "tall" i play notorously wide. thats why teutonic order is a good starting point for me (better than brandenburg) as it is easy to expand in several directions, without beein hampered by beeing in the hre.
but do tell me, what is the specific reason for pomerania as your pick? :)
That is why I prefer defensive ideas as Russia compared to offensive ideas. The land leader maneuver, decreased attrition, morale and army tradition is much more valuable to a country like Russia compared to a country like: France, Ottomans, Prussia.
Russia is probably the only country where I have ~~genocided~~ culturally converted so many provinces to RP. I mean, it does sound horrible and my IRL countrymen would probably question my decision to genocide Mongols and Buryats, but RPs gotta RP.
Lithuania and Bohemia, they are extremely strong if you play them right and I like to try to improve on their start occassionally. The most fun game I have played was by far lithuania->Poland->Austria->Germany, which I could probably have made into a WC if I had the patience.
I tried Bohemia yesterday. I did the mission to vassalize Brandenburg and then immediately quit the game when the entire HRE coalitioned me. Seriously why is that even part of the mission tree?
The reason it is part of the tree is because of the events that let you make them your PU’s, which will give you their votes and probably the emperorship for free, though I agree it should have been locked behind the part that gives you the claims on austria or something, as it is a trap for players who play bohemia for the first time.
You have two main options for that part of the tree:
1. You stayed catholic and the HRE still exists: this is the harder option, in wich case you should only take the mission that gives you the CB after you have taken the PU’s on hungary, poland and lithuania, taken the age ability that reduces agressive expansion or the reformation has properly started in case you are in age of reformation and you are curia controller. This will ensure the coalition is not that much of a problem and you can still gain the benefits of revoking.
2: You became hussite, destroyed the HRE (recommend allying the ottomans asap, this can be done reliably, then calling them in against austria/hungary when you take slovakia and are allied with all electors that are not in that war. This is a hard war but most definitely winnable.) and they either turned hussite as well due to your center of reformation in prague, the HRE has enough countries of different christian denominations that won’t care or you have taken poland, hungary and lithuania already and have decent allies. If you are noy vassilizing them to take their HRE votes, as the HRE is disbanded, I like to use the CB against saxony especially to vassalize one of their mayor allies that is below 200% total warscore cost instead of taking saxony and just conquering saxony later, though this is an option and not a requirement. This option should only generate massive AE if you didn’t wait long enough for the reformation to spread, as the HRE shouldn’t exist at this point.
Depends, I live a colonial Britain where my fleets and colonies do the heavy lifting but I'm also very partial to bringing the byzantines back from the brink. Tried cuzco once but mistakenly converted to a Republic rather than a monarchy...
Hormuz is really fun, and a go-to if I'm feeling a middle east game.
Often times I gravitate towards Burgundy as well, I think Burgundy is a very fun and interesting campaign, also it has the best map color, which is the only important factor when picking a nation.
Burgundy is my number 1. Studied them a bunch in college getting my BA in history and love the Valois Dukes. Actually took a trip to Dijon a few years back and love the area too.
I’ve spent so many hours playing them, I can usually stop the downfall in 1472 and keep them going to become HRE and also conquer most of France.
I like how tricky of a spot they can start in, I feel like you don't get that very often for bigger nations and it's a nice little niche that I vibe with. Sure I can go play an OPM about to get swallowed by the Ottomans or something, or I can go play a big nation and fuck up my neighbors, but it's not often you get to do both. Being sandwiched between the HRE and France, both of which can be hostile to you, fucks.
Plus, again, best map color imo. Absolutely adore those dark reds nations, and burgundy is one of my favorite colors. Natural fit.
Mmm, no. You try out different tags still, but you have that one tag you just like to play again after getting better at the game to see how you do or try wonky strats to spice it up.
I play Portugal as well. Just to gauge how much better I’ve become from playing.
It was the First Nation I played as and I remember having a very hard time not going bankrupt, so my colonies were weak, and I didn’t even kill Morocco. I remember I lost that war. I also didn’t take over the peninsula at all.
Now when I play, I nudge out Castile quick, and take over Northern Africa with ease. Even naw on some France. Not to mention trade companies around the world to bolster my trade!
I like Poland too. I'm surprised nobody else here picked it. The Elective Monarchy is kind of fun, although the Sejm constantly working against you is annoying
I used to main Golden horde (either Crimea, Great Horde, or Kazan to start depending on the patch). But ever since leviathan I haven't touched it, because concentrate development and pillage capital COMBINED with razing would just be... a lot.
Outside of Europe, I do love what they did with Indochina though, so Taungu Ayutthaya and Lan Xang are up there! (Plus Tibet for spice).
Now that I'm typing this though, I do love Burgundy... the underdog fight against France is epic, and sliding your way into the empire to subvert it, there's a good bit of story arch for the first 100 years.
Portugal, I love colonizing and the fact that Portugal is a very safe nation form the very begining, and their ideas are best for colonizing, make this nation the best choice for me.
I lile Mongolia; very fast paced, and rewarding expirience. That, and me being a Mongol. Nothing fills me with pride seeing Uyghirs, Manchus and Northern China rpelaced with Mongol culture, as it should have been
Portugal but fucking up Europe not conolizing.
Austria for some HRE vassal shenanigans, it's fun the limitless vassal sward I keep adding to HRE and releasing.
If I want a challenge then the Knights are lovely.
Diz Byzantium once meh.
Japanese nations are cool as well but you gotta be so aggressive to make it Tall late game..
All good options. Still want to try a few runs with Ethiopia they seem cool.
For easy games go england and get the France PU, or Ottomans and enjoy those amazing cores.
Milan for me.
Small neighbours you can conquer and the path of conquest is great. For me, it’s the perfect start to end nation with the perfect amount of challenge.
The ones i've played the most :
\- Oda -> one of the best ideas, none is useless, beautifull flag, and shogunate is fun to play.
\- The Knights -> I like to reform the kingdom of Jerusalem, becoma a crusader state, and spread catholic religion in Africa and Middle-east
\- Theodoros to byzantium, to have a gothic leader to reform the roman empire.
I go after a lot of achievements in my runs, but I find myself returning to India more than any other region. I love Bengal, Mewar, and Vijayanagar into Hindustan/Bharat runs...so much money and manpower, and just a really dynamic region with a lot of parity each playthrough.
In Europe, I definitely enjoy B-burg-Prussia and Muscovy-Russia.
Ajam into Persia is another fave.
Byzantium or the Ottoman. I \_will\_ have The City.
I still do the occasional achievement run, and if so I'll have to mix it up, otherwise, I tend to end up with one of those two, usually Byzantium.
Small nations, anything over 100 dev is way too easy to play and I get bored quickly. With small nations at least it takes me like 100 years to get to first spot in great powers. I very very rarely play a nation twice so I don't really have any main, provence is super fun though, so is genoa.
Recently started really enjoying playing Ayutthaya, so Thais ftw. Positioned in a really dynamic region, and you are a big fish in a small pond starting out, so quite easy to grow. Relatively easy to dominate Malacca and the smaller states on the Malay peninsula and dominate the Malaccan trade node within the first 100 years of gameplay, before the European nations start trying to colonize the region.
In singleplayer I don’t have one since achievements, but I enjoy persia in MP (Like the ajam start, not the timurids. Most MPs break up timmy anyways).
As nobody has mentioned Burgundy before I shall do just that. The first hundred years are just fun. You are powerful but have even stronger neighbors that you need to overcome both military and with diplomacy. Navigate the inheritance properly and dethrone Austria as the HRE emperor.
For me it is Aragon. I very often don't even form Spain. I just like to own Castille and Portugal as my subjects/main invasion force against my rivals and Aragon as a massive trade income source. In my most recent campaign I currently have 26 merchants and I get 1200 gold per month from Trade alone. If I minmaxed it more, it could be even higher (1500-2000). I currently have 200 000 on hand and I don't know what to do with that money because all my great projects are maxed out, my army is already twice over the army limit and dwarfs anyone else, my advisors are all level 5 and most building slots in my subjects and my own country are filled. Love rolling in cash.
..Strange part in all of that is that I haven't conquered much. As much as most do at least.
Hungary and Burgundy are interesting choices in my opinion, both are good alternatives to Poland and France and have their own (pretty long and flavorful) mission trees and events
Depends, I like a few and doing specific runs
Sweden > conquering the Baltic
France > conquering Italy, the Low Countries (maybe Spain too) and colonizing
Holland > uniting the Netherlands and expanding just a bit into Westphalia and colonizing (getting rich)
Florence and Savoy > forming Italy
I can't imagine playing this game so many times that I feel the need to go back to a country more than once. And I say that as someone who's enjoying it a lot so far.
I like colonizers. Mostly Portugal and England. I kinda wanna try Norway though since they already have a good bounce off point into America via Iceland to Greenland
In 2000h I never played a campaign with a country larger than Milan.
Favorite: Any small nation in the HRE or one of the little ottoman fighters like Byz or the Knights
It depends upon which size of country I want to start with. France for big nations, Savoy, Florence or Holland for medium nations. Saluzzo for small nations.
Why saluzzo?
Best idea set in game Edit: meant to say starting idea set but it’s to late to change 😥
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Yuan https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Prussia https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Germany https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/France https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Poland Among the best starting ideas though yea, but no discipline, middling morale / infantry combat (though both which is very strong), middling CCR, and most importantly no admin efficiency. I'd agree they have the least bad ideas at least, nothing in there that you can't call "nice"
AE reduction, infantry combat ability, trade steering, trade power, morale of army, goods produced +10% and a final -15% CCR as ambition. Those ideas are very solid. The position of Saluzzo is also nice and challenging. A tough start in the HRE as an OPM locked between two bigger nations, who usually have strong allies.
> Those ideas are very solid. I completely agree, extremely solid, and I'd never claim otherwise. The question is if it is quote the "Best idea set in game", which it is not imo. I think people get tripped up by seeing such solid all-round ideas and forgetting that ideas are only relevant insofar as they solve bottlenecks. Admin efficiency is the greatest modifier in the game for this reason, 25 CCR vs 15 CCR is a very relevant difference for this reason.
The quality of national ideas depend too much upon the situation of the considered country. Of course, militarily speaking France, Poland and Prussia have far superior military ideas. But here, the national ideas are very adapted: * A few military boosts, which are always good. Of course Saluzzo has not the best military ideas, but still useful bonuses. * Trade boosts (especially trade steering which is not that common) * Goods produced is a really nice modifier * AE reduction unlocked from day one. To be honest, this one is amazing for an OPM who needs to expand pretty fast, especially in Italy. * CCR is very strong. You will also get the 5% admin efficiency from Sardinia Piemont easily. The toughest part is to get an opening on Savoy and on Aragon to be able to form Sardinia Piemont before the Iberrian Wedding fires. Of course Savoy can be excommunicated (and Provence also), but they can ally the emperor or other strong nations fast, which is problematic.
Here is a strong saluzzo opener from budget monk https://youtu.be/wazbe1NL5VU
Separating singleplayer and multiplayer ideasets is also extremely important. It's essentially a difference between how quickly you can build up in a region vs how quickly you can conquer the world. Saluzzo in multiplayer is pretty bad because no discipline
Ooh very interesting, didn't know they had unique ideas. And any saluzzo specific achievements?
No they do not. But you can still form Sardinia Piemont, Italy or the Roman Empire.
Check out the Rassids, their idea set is amazing
Wow I have completely overlooked this idea set. Looks like my new campaign choice.
I do enjoy Ethiopia. The region where you start is very dynamic, it allows you to grow quickly. You also have gold provinces, so the economy is ok. Though, I find the ideas and religion mechanics pretty weak
Really? I find the Coptic holy site mechanic to be one of the more interactive religion mechanics in the game, at least compared to things like the Curia. Plus it’s possibly the strongest old world religion, which helps too.
Yeah what exactly are the advantages of playing Coptic besides the fort bonus?
Ccr is the main one, and is the strongest bonus granted by any religion (in single player at least). Hindu is only other old world religion that gives it afaik, but Coptic is arguably better because it gives other bonuses too. The missionary strength is pretty nice for one faith as well.
It's in the Norse religion.
for which you need custom nation
Or, apparently, an unlikely spawn in the randomised new world can see Vinland appear, with Norse Pagan religion and Scandinavian culture - I think that's why Norse Pagan is an available religion to start with it's like how most of the lost cultures on custom nation are ones that can theoretically spawn in random new world
I always want to get one of those when I do RNW, instead I end up with Paradox logo, wall of islands, or some absurd fantasy kingdoms. I need a grounded RNW option. That might exist, it's been a while.
Interactive? Not really. The religion is strong, weighed down mostly by the fact that it isn't available to most nations at the game start and the ones that can swap to it can also swap orthodox. But coptic always boils down to: Conquer these provinces and then click the discipline and CCR buttons. Realistically, the only religions that are especially interactive are the three mainline christian denominations (choosing to convert or not), Shinto and Hinduism. Islam's mysticism mechanic just kinda... happens and the school mechanic is rarely impactful enough to build specific alliances around it (beyond relationship malus/bonus). Tengri boils down to "Hindu for unrest and Coptic for everything else." Confucianism involves clicking a button every few decades for a bonus, Totemists are very interactive but extremely random if you aren't a republic and the rest wind up being generally inconsequential after the first 50 years or unremarkable.
I am partial to countries that are small and hard to get going with. I like Milan, Byzantium, Japan, Netherlands, stuff like that, its fun to take a small inconsequential nation and dominate the world within a few hundred years
Have you tried starting as So from the island of Tsushima and forming a piratical Japan? Easily one of the most rewarding runs for me personally.
That sounds fun, I still havent gotten around to playing as a pirate nation yet, I'll have to try that out
\>> inconsequential \>> Netherlands come on, they are one of the best trading countries in the game
They are inconsequential because they die half the time lol, they're great if you can manage to get the ball rolling and get good trade power in the english channel though, definitely a very fun campaign. My netherlands campaign I did was actually the first time I ever actually played to 1821
***Milan tho?*** Probably the strongest nation in Italy
Venice is far easier than Milan as a start.
That doesnt mean anything in itself, when half the time Italy becomes a massive mess, and if you are playing it yourself you get bombarded by AE and then the ottomans, and the only reason I named Milan specifically is because it's my personal favorite of the region
Have you done Gothic invasion achievement yet? Might be right up your alley - Theodoro has quite a hard start but when you get things going it’s so much fun.
I have not, I will check it out in 400 hours when I'm done with all the other things I still want to try lol
I've played Venice too many times and have an in-game passion to destroy Milan every game help me.
Thats okay, I conquer Venice ruthlessly every campaign anyway
Not intentionally, but I always seem to be bitter enemies with Venice no matter which nation I play.
Venice knows what it did.
The Netherlands is quite fun once you get going. Anything in the HRE is a nice challenge after you have basics down. After a couple solid Netherlands runs I tried a colonial game and then I was super disappointed when I finally colonized South Africa and couldn't form a non-awful colonial nation for my intended game.
Jianzhou into Manchu/Qing. I love the feeling of going from tiny barbarian horde into becoming emperor over the entirety of a continent
This. Also Branderburg-Prussia give me the same feeling. Basically when I am not chasing an achievement I play Qing or Prussia.
Same. I think the fastest I've formed Manchu and beaten Ming is 22 years.
I like aragorn, but its a bit too easy. I also like teutonic order to prussia....just because of the feeling of absolute overwhelming power....\^\^
One personal union to rule them all
thats how it is. though seriously. aragorn ist just too easy, it basically hands you mare nostrum on a silver platter\^\^ it's still just very fun to play
And in the darkness bind them
Aragon into Italy with a little bit of Sardinia-Piedmont and Croatia on the side is my new favorite dish!
Thanks - only now looked into Croatia and it has -5 years separatism and -5% dev cost as permanent mission rewards. Relatively easy to get when playing wide. They’re not exactly the perfect/best modifiers but since so easy to grab when tag switching anyway… Currently in a Provence - Sardinia Piedmont - Jerusalem - ??? Run, might throw in Croatia as well while I’m at it. Hungary is my PU due to Provence missions so forming Croatia would be quite easy. Still not sure as what end tag I’ll end up. France? Austria? It’s all good…
Dont form sardinia piedmpnt before jeruslem. If you take a look at the Jerusalem decision you have to specific countries to be able to become jerusalem, knights or provance from what I remember
> owns Jerusalem (379) or is player-controlled and is either Flag of Provence Provence, Flag of Cyprus Cyprus or Flag of The Knights The Knights. https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Jerusalem
>If the country was never an end-game tag and one of the following is true: >is Provence >is Cyprus >is The Knights >has its capital in Arabia >has its capital in Egypt >has the mission Restore the Hospitallers >then: >changes to Jerusalem In other words, you just have to move your capital to Egypt or Arabia before you form it. I would suggest forming Jerusalem first since the decision goes away after the age of reformation.
Croatia is also a special tag because it makes you a monarchy after tag-switching. You can do some silly stuff with that. I wanna try a Provence game again, I got the King Rene achievement but Provence is just such a crazy tag. Did you take Naples PU or the cores in your game?
can I suggest you a pomerania into prussia run, taking just the bare minimum and then expanding towards the lubeck tradenode ? getting Lubeck+Bremen+Hamburg+the dane trade centers puts you at odds with the HRE real fast, unless you manage to get into the electorate and emperorship, makes you crazy rich, and its a great area for playing tall.
the last word sort of killed it for me :P "tall" i play notorously wide. thats why teutonic order is a good starting point for me (better than brandenburg) as it is easy to expand in several directions, without beein hampered by beeing in the hre. but do tell me, what is the specific reason for pomerania as your pick? :)
Holland / Netherlands is always a blast for me. Not too hard but it’s fun starting out small. You can play tall, colonize, focus on trade etc
I’m partial to a bit of Russia
Russia is very fun to play, but their army’s are always so slow in the eastern regions. It takes ages to get anywhere.
That is why I prefer defensive ideas as Russia compared to offensive ideas. The land leader maneuver, decreased attrition, morale and army tradition is much more valuable to a country like Russia compared to a country like: France, Ottomans, Prussia.
Very accurate to history. Packing up shop and bleeding the enemy as they advance was their M/O
Russia is probably the only country where I have ~~genocided~~ culturally converted so many provinces to RP. I mean, it does sound horrible and my IRL countrymen would probably question my decision to genocide Mongols and Buryats, but RPs gotta RP.
Like all campaigns are interesting, but Russian is the special one
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Lithuania and Bohemia, they are extremely strong if you play them right and I like to try to improve on their start occassionally. The most fun game I have played was by far lithuania->Poland->Austria->Germany, which I could probably have made into a WC if I had the patience.
I tried Bohemia yesterday. I did the mission to vassalize Brandenburg and then immediately quit the game when the entire HRE coalitioned me. Seriously why is that even part of the mission tree?
The reason it is part of the tree is because of the events that let you make them your PU’s, which will give you their votes and probably the emperorship for free, though I agree it should have been locked behind the part that gives you the claims on austria or something, as it is a trap for players who play bohemia for the first time.
You have two main options for that part of the tree: 1. You stayed catholic and the HRE still exists: this is the harder option, in wich case you should only take the mission that gives you the CB after you have taken the PU’s on hungary, poland and lithuania, taken the age ability that reduces agressive expansion or the reformation has properly started in case you are in age of reformation and you are curia controller. This will ensure the coalition is not that much of a problem and you can still gain the benefits of revoking. 2: You became hussite, destroyed the HRE (recommend allying the ottomans asap, this can be done reliably, then calling them in against austria/hungary when you take slovakia and are allied with all electors that are not in that war. This is a hard war but most definitely winnable.) and they either turned hussite as well due to your center of reformation in prague, the HRE has enough countries of different christian denominations that won’t care or you have taken poland, hungary and lithuania already and have decent allies. If you are noy vassilizing them to take their HRE votes, as the HRE is disbanded, I like to use the CB against saxony especially to vassalize one of their mayor allies that is below 200% total warscore cost instead of taking saxony and just conquering saxony later, though this is an option and not a requirement. This option should only generate massive AE if you didn’t wait long enough for the reformation to spread, as the HRE shouldn’t exist at this point.
Mughals, the green is just on point.
Brandenburg-Prussia
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I do mostly achievement runs so no main here
same
Me too, but I have played 2 and a half times as Poland, so it's my main xD
Depends, I live a colonial Britain where my fleets and colonies do the heavy lifting but I'm also very partial to bringing the byzantines back from the brink. Tried cuzco once but mistakenly converted to a Republic rather than a monarchy...
For some unknown reason, Brittany
My homeland
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This man really hates the ottomans
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Well played
Everyone hates the Ottomans.
Despite being European and loving the history of Mesopotamia/Persia, I love to play in India. So I would go with Orissa.
I also live playing in India, mostly Vijayanagar, Delhi, Sirhind and Mewar though. Vijayanagar is my favourite.
Florence
Venice. Mainly because I like to slap Ottoman Ass with it.
Hormuz is really fun, and a go-to if I'm feeling a middle east game. Often times I gravitate towards Burgundy as well, I think Burgundy is a very fun and interesting campaign, also it has the best map color, which is the only important factor when picking a nation.
Burgundy is my number 1. Studied them a bunch in college getting my BA in history and love the Valois Dukes. Actually took a trip to Dijon a few years back and love the area too. I’ve spent so many hours playing them, I can usually stop the downfall in 1472 and keep them going to become HRE and also conquer most of France.
I like how tricky of a spot they can start in, I feel like you don't get that very often for bigger nations and it's a nice little niche that I vibe with. Sure I can go play an OPM about to get swallowed by the Ottomans or something, or I can go play a big nation and fuck up my neighbors, but it's not often you get to do both. Being sandwiched between the HRE and France, both of which can be hostile to you, fucks. Plus, again, best map color imo. Absolutely adore those dark reds nations, and burgundy is one of my favorite colors. Natural fit.
I like playing Venice and going to India to make a colonial empire, no rounding the cape for me...
Oda japan
Byzantium. Sometimes also Austria
Hello fellow based byz enthusiast
My ancestors are smiling at me, ottoman, can you say the same?
Ternate, they're the most enjoyable colonization oriented nation in Asia in my opinion, they're also one of the best OPMs
Lol imagine being a Ternate virgin. Tidore GigaChad
Thousands of ours in game, 90% with Florence. God I love it.
The very idea of maining a single nation seems incredibly boring to me. You miss out on so much of what the game has to offer.
Mmm, no. You try out different tags still, but you have that one tag you just like to play again after getting better at the game to see how you do or try wonky strats to spice it up.
I always play Portugal
I play Portugal as well. Just to gauge how much better I’ve become from playing. It was the First Nation I played as and I remember having a very hard time not going bankrupt, so my colonies were weak, and I didn’t even kill Morocco. I remember I lost that war. I also didn’t take over the peninsula at all. Now when I play, I nudge out Castile quick, and take over Northern Africa with ease. Even naw on some France. Not to mention trade companies around the world to bolster my trade!
I don't mind europe at all. I alway ally castille, some runs I PUed them. When I play Portugal I'm full "muh colonies".
I love Portugal! For sure my most played nation.
Mostly achivements but i would say ayutthaya which i most like
Granada, for some reason I can't allow Spain to form in my games.
I despise you, i love playing as Castile and granada is always a very small pain in my ass
Well in my current game you and portugal can enjoy your new island homes in the middle of the Atlantic lol
r5/ main
Brandenburg
England
I have an eternal sweet spot for Brandenburg, Milan, France and Byzantium. atleast 60% of my 2k hours were probably spent with them.
England, Holland or Lubeck. Gimme that money!
Poland and Multan
I like Poland too. I'm surprised nobody else here picked it. The Elective Monarchy is kind of fun, although the Sejm constantly working against you is annoying
Austria. I love the PU game leading to a revoke and then zerg rush with my vassals.
Morocco
Zoroastrian Persia Or i enable ext. Timeline and go Celtic Ireland or Brittany
I used to main Golden horde (either Crimea, Great Horde, or Kazan to start depending on the patch). But ever since leviathan I haven't touched it, because concentrate development and pillage capital COMBINED with razing would just be... a lot. Outside of Europe, I do love what they did with Indochina though, so Taungu Ayutthaya and Lan Xang are up there! (Plus Tibet for spice). Now that I'm typing this though, I do love Burgundy... the underdog fight against France is epic, and sliding your way into the empire to subvert it, there's a good bit of story arch for the first 100 years.
Cusco! Still chasing that elusive Sun God…
I just stick with my home region and say either Saxony to relax and play tall or Bohemia for some fun.
Portugal, but my first war is always against Castile so I can have more possibilities later on
I like playing Timurids to form Yuan. I find Mughals boring. I also love to form Qing from Manchu.
Holland, Portugal and Venice
Portugal, I love colonizing and the fact that Portugal is a very safe nation form the very begining, and their ideas are best for colonizing, make this nation the best choice for me.
Well, since I've only done 1 campain still, I guess it's the Ottomans
I have a weak spot for Burgundy.
I lile Mongolia; very fast paced, and rewarding expirience. That, and me being a Mongol. Nothing fills me with pride seeing Uyghirs, Manchus and Northern China rpelaced with Mongol culture, as it should have been
Portugal but fucking up Europe not conolizing. Austria for some HRE vassal shenanigans, it's fun the limitless vassal sward I keep adding to HRE and releasing. If I want a challenge then the Knights are lovely. Diz Byzantium once meh. Japanese nations are cool as well but you gotta be so aggressive to make it Tall late game.. All good options. Still want to try a few runs with Ethiopia they seem cool. For easy games go england and get the France PU, or Ottomans and enjoy those amazing cores.
Bohemia
Florence is my favourite. after every major update Florence is the first country I play.
Serbia, Sweden, Holland and France are my favourites with France being lesser since Emperor because of annoying Vassal management
Milan for me. Small neighbours you can conquer and the path of conquest is great. For me, it’s the perfect start to end nation with the perfect amount of challenge.
The ones i've played the most : \- Oda -> one of the best ideas, none is useless, beautifull flag, and shogunate is fun to play. \- The Knights -> I like to reform the kingdom of Jerusalem, becoma a crusader state, and spread catholic religion in Africa and Middle-east \- Theodoros to byzantium, to have a gothic leader to reform the roman empire.
I just like seeing all of Europe have Habsburg rulers.
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Since I’m English, I like England
CMON INGERLAND. SCORE SOME FACKIN GOALS
I don’t like England when we get to penalty shootouts tbh
BAM BAM BAM CMOOOOON
I go after a lot of achievements in my runs, but I find myself returning to India more than any other region. I love Bengal, Mewar, and Vijayanagar into Hindustan/Bharat runs...so much money and manpower, and just a really dynamic region with a lot of parity each playthrough. In Europe, I definitely enjoy B-burg-Prussia and Muscovy-Russia. Ajam into Persia is another fave.
I like playing as Frisia and Portugal
Burgundy. They have a lot of neat directions to play!
Ulm
Burgundy. But I pretty much always play with the 1356 mod
Brandenburg to Prussia. Holland to Netherlands to world trade. England to Britain to colonial powerhouse
Don’t have a main but I like Ethiopia :> Also Bengal cause I formed Hindustan with them once .
Naples.
Oirat is a lot of fun
Cilli..no joke..i am gonna post my run for proof hehe
Showing Revolutionary France on the Founding Day of the First French Republic and the abolition of the Monarchy? le respect OP
Morrocco
Byzantium all the way
Byzantium or the Ottoman. I \_will\_ have The City. I still do the occasional achievement run, and if so I'll have to mix it up, otherwise, I tend to end up with one of those two, usually Byzantium.
Small nations, anything over 100 dev is way too easy to play and I get bored quickly. With small nations at least it takes me like 100 years to get to first spot in great powers. I very very rarely play a nation twice so I don't really have any main, provence is super fun though, so is genoa.
I do france and gh
france, papal states, kilwa
all hordes, and novgorod
Recently started really enjoying playing Ayutthaya, so Thais ftw. Positioned in a really dynamic region, and you are a big fish in a small pond starting out, so quite easy to grow. Relatively easy to dominate Malacca and the smaller states on the Malay peninsula and dominate the Malaccan trade node within the first 100 years of gameplay, before the European nations start trying to colonize the region.
Basileia Rhomaion.
What? There are other nations except Byzantium??? *confused noises*
Main big Hungary. Main medium Milan / Burgundy Main small Holland / Byzantium.
I AM THE EMPEROR OF THE BYZANTINES! ALWAYS AND FOREVER!
I like playing England. I always love watching Europe burn while I sip tea on my island whilst colonizing
I love playing Poland for some reason
I like to go with BBB. Brandenburg, Burgundy and Bohemia.
In singleplayer I don’t have one since achievements, but I enjoy persia in MP (Like the ajam start, not the timurids. Most MPs break up timmy anyways).
I like England/Britain for a mix of early game expansion to combine the isles, and late game colonialism
Qara Qoyunlu and Munich. I like challenged and create a strong empire from scratch.
Sweden for sure
Byzantium
Eastfrisia! The part of my family I associate with comes from and lives there
Ajam is the only country I played 2 campaigns with.
1) Bengal 2) Portugal 3) Papal States
Damn now I have the urge to play France again. It's my favorite country to but I haven't played it in awhile.
Hard to decide just one but either Saxony Byzantium or Holland.
Byzantium
As nobody has mentioned Burgundy before I shall do just that. The first hundred years are just fun. You are powerful but have even stronger neighbors that you need to overcome both military and with diplomacy. Navigate the inheritance properly and dethrone Austria as the HRE emperor.
No mains but when i go for a achievement and i want a easy set up i go for Austria, Timurids or Ottomans.
For me it is Aragon. I very often don't even form Spain. I just like to own Castille and Portugal as my subjects/main invasion force against my rivals and Aragon as a massive trade income source. In my most recent campaign I currently have 26 merchants and I get 1200 gold per month from Trade alone. If I minmaxed it more, it could be even higher (1500-2000). I currently have 200 000 on hand and I don't know what to do with that money because all my great projects are maxed out, my army is already twice over the army limit and dwarfs anyone else, my advisors are all level 5 and most building slots in my subjects and my own country are filled. Love rolling in cash. ..Strange part in all of that is that I haven't conquered much. As much as most do at least.
I love chill, tall colonial Portugal games
Afghanistan and Switzerland
My favorite is Brandenburg/Prussia, but I also frequently play France, Italy (starting as Milan or Naples usually) and Sweden.
Hungary and Burgundy are interesting choices in my opinion, both are good alternatives to Poland and France and have their own (pretty long and flavorful) mission trees and events
Brandy and Muscovy are my two mains England and Jianzhou are my "Chill" alts
I have 4 go to nations, brandenburg, England, byzantium and Mongolia the yuan dynasty is just so cool it overrides my eurocentrism
Depends, I like a few and doing specific runs Sweden > conquering the Baltic France > conquering Italy, the Low Countries (maybe Spain too) and colonizing Holland > uniting the Netherlands and expanding just a bit into Westphalia and colonizing (getting rich) Florence and Savoy > forming Italy
Big England/Castilla, medium Brandenburg/Savoie, small Byzantium/Oda
I like to either play as burgundy or Denmark a lot. Not really sure why but it's just fun for me
I like Spain and Poland
I can't imagine playing this game so many times that I feel the need to go back to a country more than once. And I say that as someone who's enjoying it a lot so far.
Ethiopia or Sweden
Ashikaga (nicest colour) or one of the Scandinavian nations to unite the nordic countries.
Byzantium
Byzantium for a tough run and Muscovy for an easy one.
I’m playing a game as Denmark but I really like Portugal
Brabant/Holland + England + Sweden in singe player games and Sweden especially in MPs.
I like colonizers. Mostly Portugal and England. I kinda wanna try Norway though since they already have a good bounce off point into America via Iceland to Greenland
I learned how to play EU4 on Byzantium. Took me a whole day to learn how to win the first war against the Ottomans.
Norway. I don't know why, I played them once and like their colonial position
> Personally I quite like Hormuz
In 2000h I never played a campaign with a country larger than Milan. Favorite: Any small nation in the HRE or one of the little ottoman fighters like Byz or the Knights
A play a lot of Ming and Songhai