1901

Thanks for the tip on Hola… I tried some proxies afterwards, but they were awfully slow, so I gave up in the end.

1902

The new custom nations are pretty amazing. So many new scenarios to play out in the world! I do think 400 points is a better value to make them with assuming you don’t want to be a OPM. 800 points allows some ridiculously powerful stuff.

1903

Just a quick thing about attacking someone in the HRE. The HRE emperor can call in their allies. So when the war you planned to take on Sienna, bringing in emperor Austria who calls in Spain and England? Let’s just say unhappy things happen.

Not that I have any reason to mention this right now. Nope.

1904

Cusco->Inca Ironman after Westernization.

Gnw7IDY.jpg1907×1167

Aztec could be bigger, but I screwed up the last war. Sent the peace deal on the same day to Tarascan (ally in war) and Mixtec (war leader). So only the Mixtec deal was processed, Mixtec left untouched :’(.

Yup, it worked that way in AoW too. :-)

1905

Just created the fine kingdom of Prester John in south central Asia. Fear me, Mongols and Saracens. Rejoice Europe. Your “liberation” may soon be at hand.

1906

You know, I ran through the tutorial for EU4 this past week after it sitting in my backlog for a long while (I also have a massive collection of the DLC added) and I came out of it a bit overwhelmed (and excited by) the sheer detail in the game. Unfortunately, all that entered my mind was whether I really wanted to spend what leisure time I have attempting to learn such a massive game system. Seems a steep learning curve.

Is there any advice for a new-comer to the game that’d ease me into it and hook me? I’ve played a few other strategy games (Civ, AoE, RoE, HoMM, etc) but find my “builder-centric” nature doesn’t lend well to games heavy on conquest.

1907

I started playing the game for the free weekend and am feeling the same way. The game presentation makes me feel there is so much I don’t know and I spend my time worrying that I’m missing something crucial. Did all the tutorials and as in most strategy games, they do a good job of walking you around the interface, but they don’t give you a good idea for working an overarching strategy.

I have been watching some Lets Plays and one you tuber mentioned that you could do a decent job of it if you did nothing but respond to the messages that pop up in the upper left of the display. My son, who plays Crusader Kings II all the time, said that would be an acceptable way to start out.

But if any one has any good tutorials or the like, bring them on!

1908

The way I learned–and I was in the same boat as both Charlatan and Equisilus last month–was to do these things.

  1. Play the tutorial. It at least teaches you the basics of the interface.

  2. Watch a couple of let’s plays.

  3. Realize you don’t have to learn everything to play.

What I did was to select a land-locked country (in this case Brandenburg) that has a very obvious early objective. In this case, that’s simply taking the province of Neumark just to the east. It also has a fun and interesting (OK, to me, anyway) couple of long-term goals: form Prussia, and then if you’re really good, form Germany.

I didn’t fiddle with trade, really at all.

I didn’t fiddle with boats much, especially early on.

I didn’t fiddle with exploration or colonization at all.

Didn’t fiddle much at all with religion.

What I learned to do was this:

Make some diplomatic overtures and form alliances.

Going to war and the importance of getting a Casus Belli before doing that.

Moving my armies around on a map.

Sieging and taking provinces.

What you can and can’t do in settling a war with a treaty.

Putting first one advisor in place.

The importance of setting rivals.

Using the national ideas and missions, which are great for giving you short-term goals and “here’s what I should do next, I think” stuff.

I only used one mapmode, the second one from the left that shows who owns what.

I watched the first 6-8 episodes of Arumba’s let’s play as Brandenburg. Pretty much everything he shows is still valid, even with the new patching since he’s not venturing out to do exploration or colonization, so it’s fine. He spends far more time looking at his relations with the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire than I did, but it’s still great for showing you the how and why of your early diplomatic endeavors, going to war, piggybacking your smaller forces onto a bigger one and reaping prestige and glory, etc.

The other thing I learned in retrospect: the game is complex, but not nearly so much as I thought before I started.

1909

What to do as a strategy? Pick a goal, any goal. Do you want to play as Milan and form Italy? Go for it. Do you want to play as the Aztecs and just try and survive the Spanish? Why not (other than this is really hard if you are a new player). Pick a goal and make it you r objective to work on it. Some good beginner ones:

-Play as Muscovy and try and form Russia
-Play as Castile and form Spain
-Pick as Sweden and try and break free from Denmark
-Pick a smaller or weaker nation and simply try and survive, expanding where you can

For most nations you can also get some guidance from the missions. Choosing missions can give you goals that are reasonable, and are historically appropriate (if you are playing as a nation that isn’t using generic ideas, so most nations in Europe that aren’t One Province Minors, and major non European nations).

The suggestion to just do what the pop up tabs show is a good one. That will keep things moving along. No mission? Pick one and try and do it. Have a Casus Belli? Try and see if it is possible to attack successfully. If not now perhaps wait until the target is at war. They are a good starting point, and will prevent you from having a major breakdown. One thing though, you do not always need to have full advisors. In fact for smaller countries it is probably a good idea not to as they may cost too much. If you want any specific tips feel free to ask.

1910

Very helpful. Both CK2 and EUIV are different in that you have to make up your own goals, which can be a hard mindset to get into (at least it is for me). I’m much more comfortable with games where there is a clear goal laid out. I keep trying to approach these games more like Civ - conquer everything.

RPS had an article recently that someone has made a “mission generator” website, which will actually ‘generate’ goals for you to go for (I know it worked for CK2, don’t remember if EUIV was in there yet). Also, there are always the Steam achievements too. I’m not sure how useful those are for learning purposes, or if they are ‘silly’ achievements that don’t really promote playing the game properly though.

1911

What an incredibly clever counter-factual to start the expansion with. I might have come up with it eventually but i hadn’t really given much thought to the myth in a long time.

1912

All of Asia quivers as the Empire of Presbyteria spreads its noble wings…

1913

I’m still confused as to what Conquest of Paradise contains vs the free patch. Are the main 2 reasons for getting the expansion is to be able to play as Native Americans and have the random new world? Everything else seems to be included in the patch? From what I remember reading here, playing at Native Americans still isn’t interesting and people didn’t seem to like the random maps. Is that still the general opinion? Is this an expansion to pass on?

From the Wiki:

Conquest of Paradise
-A generator for a Random New World. The generator is limited to starts in november 11 1444 and isn’t compatible with CK2 converted games.
-An expansive addition of new mechanics for tribal nations in North America including migration, buildings, native ideas, reforming the government, a new mechanic for casus belli and federations.
-Another new feature is the ability to support independence of a vassal, protectorate or colonial nation.

Patch
-A new form of formable nations called colonial nations. Colonial nations form when a nation controls 5 cored overseas provinces in the same colonial region. -They are a subject under the nation forming it, but don’t use a diplomatic relation slot. The overlord gets trade power and tariffs from them while they have to be aware of the colonial nation’s liberty desire that can cause the colony to declare a war of independence if it increases to above 50%. Colonial nations are playable and have a separate idea group. They use their own, republican form of government; originally they would have governors appointed by the overlord instead of elections (the choice possibly affecting liberty desire), but as of patch 1.8 they are autonomous.
-Protectorates are introduced as a subject nation of technological inferiority that cannot be vassalized, but don’t take up a diplomacy slot and provide trade power in return for cheaper technology and the ability to call the overlord into defensive wars.
-Climate now starts to play its part in unit attrition.
-A new interface has been added, where you can view all your current subjects, and view their benefits to your nation.
-Attrition from being on a boat is added. It is 1% of the total army size and isn’t modified.
-More playable nations in North America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
-Added new events and decisions.
-Added new national ideas in North America.

1914

It depends, some are proper plans, such as forming Italy or Germany, others are gimmicks, such as own 100 provinces with no ports as Switzerland. They are fun though. Right now I’m working on Sultan of Rum, though I could take it almost at will at the moment. Waiting to unify Islam first.

In general as a beginner it is probably best to pick one of the listed nations at the bottom. Those ‘interesting nations’ are powerful enough to allow for mistakes, and have plenty of missions and events to push them along. You don’t have to follow that script naturally, but they provide a good goal if you are needing an idea. The achievements aren’t important. There are about a dozen that are generic and doable in almost any campaign, the rest require planning. I would actually recommend not going for them, as that requires Ironman mode. At least not on a first game. That way if you screw up and get ROFLstomped by Austria it’s not a big deal.

1915

If you are not a colonizer, or playing as a native, much of the benefit isn’t apparent. The support independence is a really nice power player tool though, but not one that is essential for beginners. It is still a worthwhile expansion, but almost all of them are optional.

1916

Well, I bit the bullet and purchased the game and the first 3 expansions, which were on sale. If anyone else does this and starts getting the “cannot contact key server” issue (they turned the key server off for the weekend for the free play …) you can navigate to the .exe itself and run it; it will work fine. If it complains about no key, well, that just means they turned the key server back on so run it through Steam.

While I’m sure I’m missing a lot, I took the Ottomans and am doing fairly well - holding my own in battles, getting rid of infidels, and slowly expanding. I won’t say I’m doing well, but I’m surviving! So far so good. And enjoying myself.

1917

The best advice on how to begin is probably the one others gave several times: Just start a game and start playing. If you don’t understand something, then ask.

My first game was with Hungary (yup, I’m a Hungarian so that was a nobrainer). I thought, I’d give the game a try and probably forget about it after the first finished game (as usual). In that game I learned about Overextension (referred usually as OE), some basic stuff about alliances, truces, casus belis. Really, the simplest things.
The second game was a Date->Japan game. I learned about vassals, vassal feeding as it was called in those times (getting land, then selling them to your vassals - a much simpler solution was added in AoW paid DLC with the Transfer Occupation system) and colonization.
The third game was a Siena->Italy game. I learned about the negative side of being in the HRE, about Personal Unions, which I abused heavily (then was modified in a patch, so no longer doable). I think, that was the first time I started to get a very very basic idea about trading and merchants.
The fourth one was an Aragon->Spain game with random New World. After Occupying the whole Americas I got bored and needed a new goal. To connect my Noth-African overseas provinces to my capital so they become normal provinces. Yes all around the Mediterran sea. Got bored after the 6-7th Ottoman war and still short like 4 provinces. :-/
The fifth one was the Ottomans. A lot of warfare in every direction. Aggressive Expansion hits like truck. Coalitions and all.
Then the first Ironman game as Bohemia->Emperor->Greyskin. HRE gameplay at it’s fullest.
The next Ironman game was again a Date->Japan game. I stopped it after getting the daimyo achievement and stuck in a cold war against Ming. They are the obvious (and best) choice as my next prey, but they are unwilling to broke up in the hands of rebels.
I dabbled in a bit with Brandenburg, but put it on hold (forever actually, since the new patch broke the old saves).
Then there was the Portugal colonizing game. Even more colonization with a lot of warfare against fellow colonizers. :-) And even more Aggressive Expansion limits.
Then the Cusco->Inca game I posted yesterday.

What I really wanted to tell with this: You don’t need to know everything or learn it in a single game to have fun. In each and every game you can learn something new, and that’s the best in it. (for the first 10 games at least)

1918

Good tips, folks. Thanks. Maybe it’s not so daunting as it seems at first glance. Just going for a goal and limiting what I’m trying to do sounds like a good plan at the start.

1919

I came across the Guns, Drums, and Steel tracks on YouTube while digging for the usual Arumba stuff. EU4 may have topped CK2 just for those alone. Looks like a lot of folks gripe that they are ‘out of place’ in a game like this, but it is okay to be wrong sometimes.

1920

Those are the only two pieces of DLC I have to make sure are completely disabled.

There’s so much wonderful music in EU4, and then you get to those tracks and they sound like a shitty high school band version of Mannheim Steamroller playing awful metal versions of EU4 tracks.

Just indescribably terrible. Maybe the worst game music choice I’ve ever heard.