I have played both CK2 and EU4 and found the latter much harder to get into. It has so many mechanics that are poorly or not explained at all.
Whether playing as Portugal or England the pro move is to leave that alliance immediately.
The wiki and especially Reddit are great resources, but if you have questions about specific countries just post them here, many of us have 1000+ hours played and can answer them.
This is good advice. Castile/France/ottomans are all good choices for starter countries imo. Muscovy is also fun although Iāve never played it as a beginner so I canāt actually guesstimate difficulty.
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Muscovy is the easiest one to form Russia. Novgorod is supposedly a fun challenge but I havenāt done it yet.
But like, how are you supposed to know that?
a lot of people look for expert strategy guides online but i just love to play the game. i donāt try to glitch the game and take over the world with ryuku, i just enjoy guiding a nation through 400 years of alternate history
I tried castille and even then I get rolled if I try to attack granada.
I managed to have a more successful start with castille, allying with France and Portugal, which was a mistake because Portugal allies with England and france/england immediately get into a war within the first few years of the game.
So that led to an all out brawl with portugal, which I managed to win and cripple them pretty badly. France picked up the peace treaty and all the money though.
Then I invaded granada and grabbed just one province but it took 618 days and a lot of men. I feel like Iām making mistakes but the game isnāt really giving me feedback on what they are.
Iāll continue with castille but I just get the feeling Iām gonna get ROFLstomped again at some point by like 40k english soldiers invading me for no reason at all. However, I am learning in these early conflicts england does not seem to win them at all so allying with France has been more convenient. They wiped out some rebels for me already.
One thing Iām generally clueless about is how to make more money other than through conquest + taxation. Trade is kind of mystifying to me at this point. Oh well. Cool game but I am not sure Iāll be able to invest the time into it because itās not great at giving clear direction.
I should try this game sometime. I used to play a whole lot of Total War back in the day.
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Thereās really a ton of good info out on the Web you can use to git gud. The game has been around since 2013 so the info available is voluminous. Any question you have has probably already been answered 5 different ways.
As to the specific problem of attacking Granada, I didnāt really kick off the Reconquista until after the Iberian Wedding fired (Iberian Wedding is a historical event where Ferdinand and Isabella (or some other people) marry and Castile and Aragon form a PU, which is even better if Aragon manages to keep Naples under personal union because you get their help too. That event can fire as early as 1450 if their rulers have different genders or are in regency iirc). https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Spanish_events
Once that happens your resources increase significantly, and even if you canāt raise armies you can take out loans and hire enough mercs to smoke them fairly quickly. Just donāt wait too long, otherwise they will ally with north African nations or worse even Ottomans and theyāll be a bitch to get rid of and you need those provinces to form Spain.
Donāt worry about England they are too far away to concern you. Just donāt try to go toe to toe with their navy, because they will wreck your Spanish Armada just like they did irl. Spain really is a very powerful nation to play once formed. They have great ideas and mission trees.
Goofy is also correct wrt Ottomans, theyāre probably in the best shape of any other single nation at the start of the game. They just won the battle of Varna and crippled eastern europe and the way forward is wide open. Or you can avoid the euros and push east. Lots and lots of options.
You make money through conquest but thatās only part of it. Itās important to control the good provinces that have higher development, and also ones that have estuaries and trade nodes and gold mines (rare) when possible. As for how trade works, many veterans donāt fully understand it and I count myself as one of those. Here is a good youtube on it that explains it in depth though it bugs me he mispronounces āGenoaā
Siu King has a great youtube channel with a ton of info and he also streams the game.
Also donāt be afraid to restart if things go south for you early on, no shame in it weāve all done it.
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You should invest the time. Itās worth it. This is a pretty good beginners letās play by a fairly well known/respected eu4 youtuber.
Itās from 2016 but itās not so far out of date that it doesnāt do a decent job of explaining the basics well enough.
The only really big mechanics they added since then that I recall are army professionalism (you get it by hiring generals and drilling armies) and buying development for mana. Iām fairly confident I could play an entire game in a valid way without doing either.
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Reduce military spending to 0/near 0 when at peace and turn off fort maintenance. These eat huge unnecessary amounts of money in your monthly budget. Only increase when you have rebels or are about to declare war. Use this extra space in your budget to max your army up to your force limit. Wars become very expensive, so try to build up a warchest of funds before, but donāt be afraid to take loans.
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Oh and for godās sake DONāT ATTACK ARAGON! If relations are bad send a diplomat to improve them. You are basically attacking yourself if you do that.
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If youāre thinking about it, Iād do it now before the sale ends
Yeah Quill does great tutorials for strat games
I started the game with aragon already rivaling me. My understanding this isnāt always the case? Thanks for the writeup. Maybe we should have a separate EU4 thread ? This looks like a game with the depth I always wanted out of civ games ( I know itās not civ but what I really wanted from civ all along was this game, I think).
Always looked a little too complex for me but Iām unemployed and have a lot of free time now. I will look at that letās play.
Iām gonna reroll with castille and focus on just building my armies and staying the fuck out of england/france bullshit.
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So, it seems to be that Iām going to be stuck at Stanford for at least 6 weeks M-F, getting treatment about 2-3 hours a day - but otherwise, Iām going to be sitting on my butt killing time in a hotel room - Iāve seen a fair amount of this EU4 discussion - good way to give it a shot? Iām not really in the mood for any shoot-em-up/zombie slasher type of games at present. Or any other thoughts? Iām guessing that between a mediocre laptop and hotel type wifi access, I may run into some programs that wonāt run well - but I was hoping a strategy type of thing might pass the time. Any suggestions appreciated.
thanks
MM MD
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Crusader Kings in depth Europe 1066-1366
Europa Univeralis in depth Europe 1492-1792
Or if you just want a more global game, with a lot of depth, find the most recent civilization game your computer can run
Aragon rivalling you doesnāt matter. You both have the same dynasty and the event where you get a personal union with them will still probably fire. I donāt actually understand how the marriage/dynasty stuff in EU4 really works on a deep level, but you both have the same dynasty which makes that kind of thing super likely.
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Ive never played the game but hereās the link if you want it and a bunch of DLC: Humble Europa Universalis IV Bundle
If you like card games, consider giving Hearthstone a shot.