>>2295364
you're getting old anon

>Rigan Federation
>Markgravate of Krakau
You fail as a Prussiaboo. It is the United Baltic Duchy, the Free City of Krakau, the Kingdom of Poland and the Kingdom of Weiss Rutland

File: Screenshot (282).png (3.5 MB)

3.5 MB PNG

>>2295364
>This is a FOUR thread
based, this is still peak

File: 773908-24.jpg (162.9 KB)

162.9 KB JPG

>>2295364
Heh.

>>2295378
I wasn't copying Brest-Litovsk, that's boring. Riga isn't a monarchy, it's a federal republic with devolved cultural rights. United Baltic Duchy is a shit name. Krakau had to be a margrave because, at the time, it was on the Poland-Lithuania front lines.
>Kingdom of Weiss Rutland
This one is actually good. You should've said something in the last thread when I was spending WEEKS trying to come up with a good name for my inevitable Ruthenian puppet.

>>2295364
god damn that's a near perfect map except switzerland and sweden

>>2295413
The thing is Rigan Federation is still stupid name, because Riga just a single city. It should be something that represents that it is a state governed by Baltic Germans. Hence why I said UBD. There are plenty of other good names too. Something about Livonian restoration, perhaps. And Markgravate is a shit name because this land goes far above the size of what is considered to be Markgravate.

>>2295436
>It should be something that represents that it is a state governed by Baltic Germans.
That's what Rigan Federation does. Riga is the seat of power and where the Baltic Germans live.
>Something about Livonian restoration, perhaps.
No, it's bigger than Livonia. Same reason UBD doesn't work, it goes beyond the Baltic. Look at how far south it is, that's Polish and Belorussian culture. And it has a bit of Novgorod
>And Markgravate is a shit name because this land goes far above the size of what is considered to be Markgravate.
You dumb nigger. I just told you it was a Markgrave at it's inception. There was a hostile Poland and Lithuania right next to it for a long time. Also, Brandenburg got pretty big while still being a Margrave

I never did properly learn 4, might as well learn it now since it's going to take a couple of years until 5 is 'good'

>>2295364
I tried it out recently after playing EU5 but it feels so jank I just can't

>>2295364
Sovl

>>2295407
Wtf is this

File: 236850_1145.jpg (488.2 KB)

488.2 KB JPG

>>2295364
I'll check out eu5 in a couple months when the game settles into a good state and it goes on sale, but for now, while It isn't base game, I may as well show my map.
Decided to play as the Sword Covenant into Covenblad. Their whole gimmick is that they have a hidden descent meter that gives you buffs depending on how much you've fallen from grace. I found their good path not that compelling, especially since the missions seem to really want you to have higher descent, but the minus aggressive expansion was just the better deal since the MT also wants you to take some bites out of the empire, then Covuria (who's probably been your ally up until now).
Mechanically, they're pretty similar to the Blade Marches, but trading in the extra Mil points for mage stuff, in practice that means they get really good generals and you have a pretty easy time keep Military Tradition at 100 as well.
I took the Troll warfare doctrine, but if you want to go full in on getting busted generals this nation is probably your pick. Mages, +2 shock as your ambition, +1 fire from half-elf doctrine, +1 shock and fire from offensive ideas, +1 maneuver from defensive, and +1 siege from aristocratic. Then you got your guaranteed war wizard and you get a unique disinherit event that makes your heir powerful mage?
Although switch in half-elf or half-orc military probably isn't a good idea when compared to going elf military you can do that for another +1 fire or +1 shock.
Anyways they seem like one of the better candidates to form the Black Demesne, I'll probably do that next time I play them.

>>2295522
The time to learn 4 was like 8-9 years ago, dude. It's a bloated mess now.

>>2295418
sweden looks good

File: Screenshot 2025-12-04 185753.jpg (486.2 KB)

486.2 KB JPG

>>2295418
>sweden
Denmark is my puppet, they were reduced to just Bornholm so I diplo-vassalized them and then got them their cores back. Sweden also owned all of northern Russia. Russia didn't form until maybe 20 years before that screenshot and I actually never fought a war against them. All that Rigan/Cossack/Transcaucasian land I took from Sweden, Lithuania, and the Ottomans. I fed Muscovy their cores and released Novgorod from Sweden so they could form Russia

Starting a brunei campaign to form malaya

>>2296362
Can you use your vassals nationalism CB?

>>2296775
Probably, but I'm not loading the game up to check
I'm pretty sure overlords have access to all their subjects CBs

>>2296362
>those borders by 1672

>>2296885
What's the rush?

>>2295364
>over 24 hours later only 16 replies
holy dead game....

>>2296362
I prefer thesr borders over the Sweden exclave. Although the big Lithuania, that doesn't actually have any of lithuania in it and the tiny poland are funny.

>>2297145
I only decided to kill Sweden because they were Lithuania's long time ally. I figured that, since I would be fighting them a lot, I'd make Russia's formation and end goal. I forget why they have that exclave though. I remember returning all of Muscovy's cores then releasing Novgorod. So who knows

>>2297166
Can't fault you there, in my game I still ended up with a bunch of provinces I could grab with nationalism but never bothered to, even when doing so would make better borders.
There comes to a point where fighting massive wars for just three or two provinces is just more hassle then it's worth and you decide to put the game down for a bir.

>>2297203
>There comes to a point where fighting massive wars for just three or two provinces is just more hassle then it's worth
Yup. Truth be told, Lithuania had 4 more provinces and I used the console to annex them into the cossacks for the map before I took the final screenshot. Lithuania were guaranteed by Russia, Catholic with Spain as DoF, and allied with Sweden and France.
I was not fighting that war just to annex 4 steppe provinces for a prettier border

I was gonna pirate eu4 on my new pc and pirated eu5 instead without noticing, I'm so fucking stupid

>>2295364
I've been away from my beloved Fulo too long...

File: eu4_2025-12-16_00-06-51.jpg (1.2 MB)

1.2 MB JPG

Playing Voltaire's Nightmare pacifist playthrough (plus threaten war is also not allowed)
Not even 300 years after the start date, Iberia is finally united. This is why I love EU4 over EU5. The diplomacy gameplay is just on a completely different level. Between being able to specialize into diplomacy through ideas, to renting condottieri, allying someone for a short period just to break their other alliances, and returning cores for favors. It just can't be compared to the poor diplomatic options of five.

>>2295364
Nobody plays this game anymore

>>2298262
That's what you get when paradox constantly releases unfinished games, but I don't doubt they'll add some more diplo stuff in the future.
Hopefully at least.

>>2296293
Why didn't you form Castanor or Black Demesne in this run?

File: fanfiction.jpg (235.4 KB)

235.4 KB JPG

>>2298501
Well I have the button to form Castanor, I just don't feel like it from a role playing perspective. Castanor is like Alenar to me, I think they're lame. I had already united all of the Essanni people, except for my vassal and those three pvinces held by Grombar. Don't ask why there was a single province of non-Escanni within now former Marhold, I don't know why that was there either.
I would have gone Black Demesne but it felt off since I purged the non-virtuous elements from Blade Coven instead of the virtuous ones, I couldn't devote my nation wholly to magic in order to form the BD. I had already sort of gone past the point I saw this runs story going.
In the story in my head, Covenblad smashes though Ibevar and hooks around to purge Corvuria of the undead, while taking less of Escann leading to pic rel. Yellow is Covenbladic vassals while the rest of Escann is ruled by a handful of petty kings and Marrhold. Escann is never 100% united but Covenblad becomes the dominate power and it's wars with the empire where the its cornite mage-knights decimate the forces of the Alchemist Emperor Varaine leads to the groth of Revalinism and Artificery, eventually culminating in the quite revolution within the empire where a lot of the monarchies became constitutional under growing pressure caused by the Covenbaldic invasion and also the costly failed colonization of Aelantir.
It wasn't so quiet for the Magisterium, their tower now the holding place of the cube, but they fled to the Lorentish colonies to form their own magocratic state there after Covenblad rejected Magocracy and the expelled the believers of the black doctrine in the black-cornite wars. Corinism was actually so successful this game only Grombar and the Lorentish sphere of influence are Regent Council while the core of the Empire is Revalian. So there weren't any league wars, so I added black doctine vs cornite relgious wars to the fanfiction in my head.

File: eu4_2025-12-16_17-59-26.jpg (1.4 MB)

1.4 MB JPG

>>2298262
Just gonna take the rest of Libyan coastline, southern Italy, Corsica, and Sardinia, and I think that's it.

>>2299090
Did you diplo vassalize all these people? That's crazy

File: 20251217144629_1.jpg (485.6 KB)

485.6 KB JPG

Feels fucking good.
Milk Jolof for all it's worth.

File: Screenshot_20251218_133851.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

Best province to move my capital to before enacting Solomic Empire?

>>2295364
>Europa Veritas mod
Very buggy and not updated since late 2024.
>Victorium Universalis
Extremely slow.
Fuck this shit, man. You guys know any historical mod except these two? I like EV for the fact that armies remain historically accurate and you don't have to deal with a headache of 500k ottoroach doomstack.

File: Screenshot_20251218_192751.png (1.7 MB)

1.7 MB PNG

Using Cawa infantry feels like cheating. The biggest worry during early game is always manpower and they gave me a button to convert 2 mil points to 500 men.

>>2301146
Nuts, right?

>>2295364
you're game is shit

Haven't been able to get into since I WCd. Felt like beating the game.

>>2301146
Why haven't you gone for beja but all other sizeable enemies, also immediate stability events. Where did you move your capital btw?

>>2300717
I know this is late to the party but I would have moved it to one of the gold mines like you did or a center of trade/decent trade good like silk in a high devcost location like a mountain for concentrate dev/pillage capital spam. Last thing I would say is it would have probably been worth moving it to a province in the Gulf of Aden if you hadn't moved your main trade city already

File: 20251219054718_1.jpg (556.5 KB)

556.5 KB JPG

>>2295364
Nice to see people still playing this game. Tbh I like EU5 but I'm just waiting for more of the kinks to be ironed out/1.1 releases before playing it again. How fares the campaign anons?

>>2301608
I've been planning out a campaign for half a year, but actually playing it wasn't nearly as engaging as I expected it to be. Not needing Beijing, Canton, and Nanjing as EoC would be more meaningful if you weren't incentivized to grab ports there.

>>2300740
MEIOU, so good that Paradox hired its devs to work on EU5

File: Screenshot_20251219_122655.png (2.3 MB)

2.3 MB PNG

W-w-what?

File: Screenshot_20251219_123004.png (1.9 MB)

1.9 MB PNG

>>2301549
>Why haven't you gone for beja but all other sizeable enemies, also immediate stability events.
I was allied to them for a short period of time and had a truce until 1454. After that I didn't have the time, or rather I decided that my time was better spent attacking Mamluks while I was at tech 5 and they were at tech 4. Beja had no allies so I figured I could easily conquer them when the Egyptian threat has been dealt with (that is, right now). Are there really stability events for conquering them in particular? Conquering Makuria, Dongola and most of Alodia was enough to fulfill the mission. 1 additional point of stab would have been helpful because I had to manually stab up to +3 to enact Solomonic Empire early.
>Where did you move your capital btw?
Kaffa, the gold-producing province in the South. One of my missions required developing it to 6 production so I decided that I might as well move my capital there for the dev cost reduction, push the production up to 10 and then increase adm and mil development enough to make Renaissance appear.

>>2301604
I think that moving it to the Gulf of Aden would have been a mistake because now I can just move my main trading city somewhere to the Alexandria trade now and steer there from both Ethiopia and Aden. Among the provinces that I took from Mamluks, three of them have trade centers or estuaries.

File: Screenshot_20251219_195413.png (1.6 MB)

1.6 MB PNG

I'm the real KARA BOGA

File: 20251220102846_1.jpg (511.9 KB)

511.9 KB JPG

>>2302209
Based, fuck the Ottomans

>>2295364
What graphic mod is this? Looks very crisp

File: eu4_61.png (3.4 MB)

3.4 MB PNG

Thoughts on my Empire?

File: Screenshot_20251108_154018.png (2.4 MB)

2.4 MB PNG

>>2303466
My Russia is bigger.

>>2303731
idk why but I tend to play slower extending the campaign, i formed aksum in my run

>start Teuton run
>Poland gets the union and allies Bohemia
oh fuck me

>>2303466
>1653
Nice

>>2295364
>He still plays Prussia and is bad at it

>Take the Tunisia area in the war. Then go bankrupt repeatedly until you have 100 devastation (going bankrupt adds 10 devastation to all provinces). The first bankruptcy can be declared manually, but this button can't be used while being bankrupt. So the subsequent bankruptcies must be achieved by taking the maximum amount of loans and spending all the money while running a deficit. A high deficit can be achieved by using the loans to hire and upgrade advisors. This is far faster than trying to raise devastation using other methods such as occupying the land while at war and using scorch earth.
There should be some other way

File: Screenshot_20251223_155833.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

>>2303742
I'm not done yet. That said, one of the prerequisite missions to form Aksum requires mil tech 20 or 80% professionalism and there's no way I'm gonna play long enough to earn that. Professionalism and crownland requirements in missions are the biggest cancer because there's no way to get either of those fast without suboptimally wasting ungodly amounts of mana specifically just on that.

File: Screenshot_20251223_180523.png (2.1 MB)

2.1 MB PNG

Why build light ships when I can just beat Ferrara in a war and make them transfer trade?

>>2305513
Looting provinces causes devastation in chunks. If a province goes two years without being looted, it recovers its loot pool, so you can loot it again.
Why are you try to devastate Tunisia?

>>2306440
probably going for the achievement to get the area to 100% as an Italian

File: eu4_62.png (3.4 MB)

3.4 MB PNG

In a few years I'll conquer everything here

>>2301738
Meiou is beyond bloated and extremely slow.

>>2295364
I still wish I could get client states earlier without being a Gr*koid

>>2306803
Just edit the government files, that's what I did.

Im playing Anbeannar
Just opened a cave to the underworld, my lands are now infested with the super plague and my income plummets
Its fun

Jihad won

File: eu4_63.png (3.6 MB)

3.6 MB PNG

White ppl are too weak

File: eu4_64.png (3.4 MB)

3.4 MB PNG

Qaraqorum, the city of the world's desire

File: eu4_65.png (3.4 MB)

3.4 MB PNG

Perfectly balanced cavalry

>subjects that declare an independence war will automatically peace out of their overlords wars
this is such a fucking bullshit "feature" I fucking hate this piece of shit game

>>2295364
what mod?

>>2309194
>>2302805
NII's Graphical Pack

>>2309150
How did you conquer that much land? Will you go for a WC? Only subsaharan african and seasia are missing I think

File: eu4_35.png (3.5 MB)

3.5 MB PNG

How can I conquer this province and give it to my eyalet, which has it entirely surrounded? I'm not allowed to conquer it with my own claim since I can't core it. I can't transfer occupation to Egypt since it hasn't joined my war. I can't invite Egypt into the war because it's a core eyalet, and it can't declare its own wars for the same reason.

>>2309820
Can you vassalize the nation? You'd be able to annex after 10 years and annex after

>>2309823
Yeah, I can, though I'd rather not spend a diplomatic slot on it for 10 years. I could vassalise and then turn it into its own eyalet, which doesn't take the slot... at that point I might as well just let it hang around for the rest of the game as a curious historical artifact, I guess.

>>2309820
>achievements disabled
Peace out then use the console to annex. That's why I never play ironman

>>2309830
I just recently picked up all the expansions, so I'm not playing ironman while I'm still learning the mechanics. Not inclined to straight-up cheat, though, especially not as the Ottomans. I figure that the game mechanics not allowing me to do something that should be straightforward makes up for all the other times they let me get away with something ridiculous.

>>2309837
>Not inclined to straight-up cheat, though
It's not cheating though. You're annexing land totally surrounded by your subject. And the annex command means you won't have any cores on it. Do what you want, but IMO it's the game's mechanics failing you and you're using the console to rectify that

>>2309820
Do you own those provinces south of Egypt? Can you seize land from Egypt or do you need to be at peace? I you can answer "yes" to both, then make a coring path by seizing land.

>>2310407
Not directly, no; that's Alodia, which is also one of my eyalets... just a regular one. Seizing land from vassals doesn't require peace, but it does follow the normal coring rules, so that's no good.

>>2309664
A combination of yuan ideas and mission rewards, caliphate reform that gives PWSC, absolutism and Mecca and Malta that also give PWSC, Alhambra is nice too as it gives admin efficiency

Oh and an unstoppable cavalry only army that melts any enemy, I had 65% cav combat since the early 1500s, I started as Timurisa

>>2310875
Timurids are so strong I genuinely feel gimped playing any other country now, I tried an England game and holy shit the army quality discrepancy is absurd

I think only Ottos are close enough to Timurid strenght and their army still considerably weaker

>>2310498
Get some port on the Indian Ocean with enough coring range to seize Suakin from Egypt?

File: Screenshot_20251231_151848.png (2.1 MB)

2.1 MB PNG

I was wrong about the mission required to form Aksum. I thought it was the last mission (The Blessed Empire) but it was just one of the missions in the middle (Surpass Our Past). That mission isn't gated behind the 40 professionalism requirement, so I did manage to complete it in a timely manner. I also got Prester John in the meantime but it activated after I cored Constantinople and I didn't take a screenshot fast enough.

>>2312587
Yeah I thought it was some dlc trickery with you, it's right there from beginning in decision tab just getting half of southern arab coast grants permanent claims in same culture group horn of africa

>>2295364
Decided to play Dithmarschen and got into a weird colonial game which I don't normally do, but the thing that I want to get advice on is how do you manage South East Asia as a European power? I just find it to be almost a headache dealing with colonies in Africa, the Americas and South East Asia, even turning down the speed I wonder how IRL empires did it.
Ideally and larp wise I wish I could make a client states, like in KR with a German East Asia, I wish I could have made a Dithmarshen East Asia but that isn't an option as a German minor, you can establish an India company, but not a separate tag like Netherlands or England does

>>2313540
>I just find it to be almost a headache dealing with colonies in Africa, the Americas and South East Asia, even turning down the speed I wonder how IRL empires did it.
>Africa
Not at all during this time.
>Americas
They lived in a world where Portugal didn't just give birth to a continent's worth of people in a decade
>SEA
Alliances with local kingdoms who have it out for the guy who wants his port back.

>>2313579
Very true.
The difficulty is more so, I feel like I have so many colonial garrisons and so few at home it's hard to manage say a 20k stack in Mexico, 15k stack in West Africa, 20k stack in SEA and a 20k stack in the HRE.
Your eyes need to be global, rather than local, I think that's why I enjoy going back to large but contiguous European powers.

>>2313591
Control your message settings, learn/set all of your hotkeys, put combat-relevant map modes (forts, supply, loot, etc.) in easy-to-remember areas, and start working with neighbors so you don't end up with strong neighbors able to deathwar you.
Britain's doctrine wasn't just them being dickish.
Also, you really shouldn't be fighting (directly) in West Africa. If you do, try using a vassal or march, or just use mercenaries like a colonial power would've.

File: 20260102001949_1.jpg (610.9 KB)

610.9 KB JPG

>>2295364
if were being honest with ourselves 5 just sucks, the biggest thing that makes 4 better is that it doesn't take a 105+ IQ to raise armies

>>2313717
A Nu-Paradox game... being wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle?
No....

>>2313718
EU4 is the start of nu-paradox, though.

Oh boy, here I go doing another Russia run.
I shouldn't find them so enjoyable.

That was the most disastrous 25 years of Muscovy I've ever had.

>>2313767
How did it happen? Muscovy can eat Novgorod right off the bat and when they do, they have twice the army strength of all of their neighbors together with their vassal swarm. The only real threat is Poland-Lithuania if they take the union, but even so you can just release a vassal from Great Horde and build nomad tech group cavalry to completely demolish them.

>>2313717
V sucks because none of its complicated systems actually matter. AI is lobotomized. IV is a more difficult and challenging game than V. It's easier to understand, but harder to play and do well. V is the first time I see as many YouTubers play an EU game on very hard. Other than Siu-King, almost no one played IV at very hard because it made the game significantly more difficult. AI in IV is very aggressive when they have military advantage and very hard gives them +50% bonus to manpower and force limit. Other than that, V has:
>much worse UI
>worse art direction
>AIslop province backgrounds

File: Captura de pantalla_20260102_145035.png (1.5 MB)

1.5 MB PNG

Can I win this or should I restart? First time with France.

>>2313901
for a middling player that's a white peace, for a good player 100% ws

but if you have to ask, it might be tricky

>>2313901
Try it. You have a lot of manpower. If you haven't unlocked 6 ideas total yet, then do it ASAP. You get 1 national idea for every 3 generic ideas from idea groups. France's 2nd national idea gives +15% morale, which is of huge help in the early game. Prestige also gives morale and you have a lot of it, which is good.

It might seem counter-intuitive, but you should NOT focus on Burgundy at first if they are disloyal towards Austria. The way you can find this out is by hovering over their PU relationship with Austria. If they're over 50% liberty desire, they are disloyal. This means that they will not help Austrian armies and will just stay in their own territory unless you attack them directly. So if Burgundy is over 50% liberty desire then stay out of it at first.

Focus on Castile and Aragon. You have mountain forts along the Pyrenees. Try to attack Castilian and Aragonese forces while they are besieging those forts. When a battle happens on a province with a fort, the side that owns the fort always counts as the defender and gets defender bonuses (this applies even to forts that don't block hostile movement like lvl 1 capital forts). In mountains provinces this means +2 to every dice roll for you. Defeat their armies this way and then besiege their forts. Concentrate your forces to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to you in reverse because they also have forts on mountain provinces.

While you're doing this, you might have to detach units to fight the Austrians if they get too much progress on some of your forts in the eastern part of France. The best time to do it is immediately after winning against Castile or Aragon. Getting the timing right when microing armies requires practice so even if you lose you'll learn a lot. Your goal should be to separate peace Castile as soon as possible. White peace is good enough. This will kick Aragon out of the war too because they're under Castilian PU. After that happens, focus on Austria and Burgundy.

>>2313767
I fucking hate the horde tribute event. The fact that refusing means the GH gets to raid all your land for free pisses me off. Refusal should give the GH a humiliate CB that THEY have to dec on you. Why is it that I'm unable to stop the raiding? Pisses me off

>>2314001
Pay your tribute whitey

File: image-min.png (1.3 MB)

1.3 MB PNG

>>2313823
Found me sneeding about it to a friend
>But I went bankrupt 20 years in
>Paid the horde too much
>Supported Swedish Independence
>WP'd as it had the inverse of the nations who normally support against me
>Lithuania, Poland, Tuetons, Livonia all allied Denmark
>Declare on the horde
>Things go well
>Pretender 40-50k troops
>30-40k seperatist troops
>25k enemy troops (which was managable)
Just had a second game which went, well worse.
>Pic related.
As for why I didn't go West, the French was the defender of the faith.

Nu-Russia attempt, 4 bankruptcies
Normally I can tactfully run the clock, build up the country and build an economy, but with Russia, I seem to just fuck it up always.
Can't even get a single stack without going to -60 ducats.
Gold mine also only produced 0.15 ducats a month.
It's so fucking over niggers

I'm addicted to playing the Timurids and I'm thinking of starting yet another run as them

which is the better faith catholic or protestant (orthodox excluded)

Catholic if you can monopolise the Curia

>>2314370
>>2314440
You're not supposed to play passively and try to build up your long-term economy at the beginning of the game, especially if your starting trade node is poor. You're supposed to take out merchant loans, buy mercs and use your numbers superiority to win wars for land from your primary targets and money and war reps from their allies. In addition to making your own country stronger, it also weakens your rivals and lets you take more land from them later on. You shouldn't have let Poland form Commonwealth at all by taking Smolensk early on. Supporting the independence of Sweden is pointless. You're not even gonna keep them as an ally because they border you and they will desire your land after they go independent. Lower autonomy on newly cored lands. It makes more rebels spawn, but the additional manpower and taxes more than make up for it.

>>2314370
>>2314440
>>2314598
Correction: taking Smolensk will not prevent the PLC from forming (it's only useful for forming Russia as Muscovy), but you should have crippled them before they were able to form it either way.

>>2314440
>Gold mine also only produced 0.15 ducats a month.
Always dev your gold mine to have 10 production (bird mana). That will give you a decent balance of income and inflation/depletion chance

>>2314601
Why should one deny them forming a single block, poland just formed plc in my france playground while I'm about to peace muscovy and make them my personal union (wish they formed russia, so they can colonise the far east)

>>2314598
I played many games of Muscovy in EU4 back when it was new, generally blobbing up to the Russian Empire's maximal borders and stopping there. I never went after Poland early, because they're a satisfying mid-game boss once you let them get going. The problem is after your first couple wars with Poland, there's really no challenge left, and the whole rest of the game is just beating up useless hordes in Asia. Boring.
I couldn't imagine trying to cripple Poland early, even if it is the optimal choice from a min-max perspective. Gotta roleplay in these games or they're no fun.

>>2314515
Shia Islam is objectively the best religion of the game mostly due to mysticism exploit
Catholic with all bonuses + curia a close 2nd

>>2314630
>mostly due to mysticism exploit
The what?

>>2314638
When you reach 75 mysticism you can click a button to gain a bunch of manpower instantly, it is pretty nice on its own but combine it with a slacken recruit before and you can get over 200K men and even over 1M dependending on your country size

>>2314656
Doesn't being Shi'ite only make that harder?

>>2314657
Not anymore no, you legalism/mysticism is not about being at war with x religion anymore

File: 1747188206540054.jpg (531.5 KB)

531.5 KB JPG

I really didn't think the answer would be something this simple.

File: 1750357612107910.jpg (613.1 KB)

613.1 KB JPG

>>2315408
It wasn't.

File: 1748294987154187.jpg (649 KB)

649 KB JPG

>>2315451
Yeah, okay. That's fine.

>>2296289
Svea rike

File: Gold Rush.jpg (611.7 KB)

611.7 KB JPG

Not sure if this is actually much of a accomplishment, but got Gold Rush. Horrific border gore, but otherwise very happy. Especially with having essentially crushed Muscowy (Though I need to hurry up asap and knock out the remnants before Denmark and Poland eat them. Got pretty lucky with Crimea not becoming a Ottoman vassal, and then also extremely unlucky with England allying with Muscovy for some godforsaken reason. In the end, interference during a Swedish independence war secured my victory.

Now going to try to keep up this momentum and get the Mongol Empire before 1650...

>>2316242
Abolished it before the Triangle Trade event fired.
That should do more.

File: eu4_66.png (3.4 MB)

3.4 MB PNG

England game

Probably gets asked every thread but what are the "must have" DLCs?
And to follow that, QOL mods?

>>2316671
Domination is the best and most important in my opinion

>>2316671
The answer is just pirate them.
There are so many and the game up through the more recent ones is like a jenga tower. Remove the wrong dlc and parts just stop working correctly because not even paradox remembered which features were free or paid when they updated the game.

>>2316671
Depends on who you want to play as, for example King of Kings is worthless if you've no interest playing the Eastern Roman Empire, Armenia, Georgia or a Muslim nation in the middle East.
But like >>2316672 said, Domination is probably the best since it gives content for all the most popular and historically relevant nations.
I would just pirate all dlc thobeit.

>>2316726
>>2316744
>just pirate
A real answer please?

>>2317044
That is the real answer.
EVERYTHING through leviathan at minimum is mandatory. Going back from there you cross into the archaic realm of ancient history where things can start to break without dlc. Post leviathan you can pick and choose more based on what you want.

>>2316658
There are no christian nations that are aren't my PU or colony left as the Ottomans and the Hordes killed Russia btw, I'm the king of all EVROPA

>>2317283
>>didnt cuck ottomans by taking constantinople

>>2317294
I was allied to them to keep the german cucks out of coalitioning me

I want to try the Third Odyssey mod, is taking everything with you worth the debuff or will I gimp myself too hard?

>>2317069
>EVERYTHING through leviathan at minimum is mandatory.
I hopped off the DLC train with Mandate of Heaven. I rolled back to 1.19 and stayed there. Feels good man. Can't believe they're still bloatmaxxing EU4 to this day.

>>2317477
I started playing the game right after emperor was released I have no idea how the game works without any dlc released before it (except the shitty and cringy sabaton songs that I make sure to disable every game)

>>2317486
I played it from launch for the first three or four years or whatever it was. The game started out good, even 1.0 it was a clear improvement over eu3. Some of the early DLCs were whatever, while some were virtually required (Art of War was massive for QoL), and there was a palpable sense of the game improving as they patched it. Then after a few years of this it went downhill and they got into the swing of every expansion being “here’s some busted new mechanic, here’s a clicky to push for buffs with enough new not-mana” and even worse, they’d put something to punish you in the free patch but put the benefits in the accompanying DLC. Basically EU4 was the devolution of nu-paradox in real time.
Also I fucking hate eu4s development. Triggers the fuck out of my autism when some shitty AI spams their mana on some useless province in the middle of nowhere. It was way better when it was static and only changed by (preferably non-random) event or mission rewards.

>>2317509
Province dev was fine until they manabloated the game with estates. It used to be devving was something you could only really do strategically or when you had an amazing ruler for a while and got ahead on tech with a big mana surplus. Now estates just guarantee even average rulers will be ahead on tech and have to dev just to not cap out.

>>2317069
Sorry for late reply. Alright, thank you.
Apologies for the tone after "just pirate": I am in no way against pirating Paradox dlc at all, I condone it. However I thought it did reduce the point of asking for quality over just getting them all.

>>2317581
Imperator ruined EU4 for me. The pops organically reaching equilibrium around your empire just absolutely destroyed development for me, it's so arbitrary and gamey. That, and Imperator's beautiful map.

File: what the fuck.jpg (985.1 KB)

985.1 KB JPG

peбятa we have a serious пpoблeмa

I'm relatively new (no DLC) and trying to learn the actual mechanics with a small country after picking a big country first and stomping with colonies.
I feel like I've become a death-looper. (Iron man)
>randomly pick Crimea
>always poor, always eventually die to Ottomans/Russia sandwiching me
>deathloop over and over trying to find a way to survive and find some way to stay in green economy. Eventually I decide Ottomans are The Enemy and I must ally all hordes except Great Horde and leave Golden Horde stuff aside until The Enemy is subdued.
I was going to blog about my struggles but instead I'm just going to say 2 major gripes.
>war mechanics
Have like 5 allies? Too bad. While you were waiting for the call to arms cooldown to end, the ottomans just declared war on a 2-province country who was your ally's only other ally. Now you get to watch your ally die and now they're coming for you when the rest are chopped up, or the remaining allies will just abandon you.
So:
>Is there a way to see whether allies will help you in a defensive war, like you can see as an attacker?
>Is there counterplay to this silly war targetting thing that the computer (and myself to be fair) does all the time?
Also the situation when multiple people war the same target is pretty dumb, you just end up with a game of chicken standing around waiting for the cpu to call for peace first.
I'm probably missing something.

>>2318774
>second gripe
When I finally got a promising start, I hit a stage of Government Reforms where I'm forced to choose between a seeming dead-end of progress there, or change my government type. I don't know what the government types do so I picked theocracy to try it out. To my horror, instead of keeping my previous bonuses or maybe at least letting me pick as many bonuses as I already took, all my horde stuff was deleted and I was given a whole TWO REFORMS as a reward for making it to 1550 in a decent position. It felt like switching to theocracy nerfed me in every conceivable way, are nations like this really just hopeless?
>no movement speed buff, which seems like the best ability in the game
>no tribal conquest casus belli, which is just better than conquest
>lose ability to become the Golden Horde, whatever that does but it seems cool
>lose my 100 legitimacy buffs in exchange for base devotion, which I seemingly usually want to decrease with event choices
>just generally become less unique, lame
It felt like my combat ability got instantly worse too, but to be fair I don't really understand combat at all. It feels like a dice roll whether I'll win an even fight, even if I have superior military tech... I dunno. I was letting movement speed carry me, by allowing me to react to enemies appearing out of the fog and escape, or pick off isolated units.
The only thing that seemed better about switching government types was that I made a little more money, but I was already starting to reach money prosperity there after I took Constantinople from the Ottomans (I could only take property on that side because the forts weren't down on my side, I needed to end the war because my ally randomly decided to leave a confirmed-won war)

>>2318779
It is a dice roll. But the reason hordes are strong is they can overload on cav which are stronger in the early game. Generally as a horde you don't reform out until you're too big for it to matter or the game is late enough that cav has dropped off.
Good options for smaller nations are anything in italy not venice because it'll teach you how to maneuver diplomatically and provides an obvious midterm goal with the formation of italy.

File: temp.jpg (65.8 KB)

65.8 KB JPG

>>2318795
>cavalry bonuses
>takes until the 1500s to actually get in the green consistently even with pure infantry armies
It feels really hard to tell how strong a unit is for the cost and stuff. Like I get that higher numbers is better, but so is lower cost, and I don't know what fire, shock, morale, combat ability, etc. do ultimately.

>>2318815
>do ultimately
And by that I mean, how much impact they have compared to each other and in general.

>>2318815
Hordes are all feast or famine. They want to run expensive cav armies and make up the cost through taking gold and reperations.
Fire and shock amplify damage during the various combat phases. Early game shock is king. Morale is how long an army will continue to fight for. Combat ability is just a multiplier and it's generally not great until you reach high values. Poland for instance can reach 120% cavalry combat ability.

>>2318774
Play Golden Horde or Orient is you want a easier Horde to play. Crimea actually requires some effort.

>>2318774
If you're a new player you shouldn't be playing no one that neighbors the ottomans. If you want a fun horde do Kazan or Oirat, Oirat looks big in the map but all their land is shit.

>>2318670
What the actual fuck is that Austria

this game was fun in mp. im glad I got to experience it

File: temp.png (2.1 MB)

2.1 MB PNG

>>2319701
>>2319921
That'd be giving up though... I've already felt close to knocking down the ottomans a couple times but something always ruins it.
Actually this attempt had a super lucky start in that respect. One, this is the first death loop where Austria made Hungary its subject. It's 1545 and the Ottomans have been stuck in their cage since the 1450s. While I wasn't looking Karaman expanded east before Ottomans did somehow and now Karaman is allied with me and Mamluks. I'm allied with Karaman, Austria, Nogai, Kazan, and Ajam. And Georgia is my vassal. The only problem is I don't have a casus belli on Ottomans. For some reason Mamluks will never, ever ally with me until they have already lost to the Ottomans multiple times.
I think this is the run where I become Golden Horde, but I also think I'm going to fall behind really hard soon because it's also been very unlucky in other places. I'm in severe financial difficulty and won't be able to afford colonialism for a long time.
>Austria won't help vs. Muscovy so I have them take Lithuanian reconquest cores for me against Ryazan-Lithuania alliance
>comet
>immediately after, go to war with numbers and tech advantage against Muscovy with horde allies
>war turns costly and nasty because both allies go behind enemy lines to siege different forts for no reason and don't even try to run when they get picked off (why does only the ally AI do this? enemy AI knows I'm coming for them the second I right click and runs away)
>saved by sweden also warring Muscovy, but I'm already deep in debt
>khan immediately dies, causing a succession war event that spawns rebels in every uncored province, and there's 10-15 of those
>I now have like 16k troops, including a mercenary against 60-70k rebels
>another comet to top it all off
>somehow get through it with like 5k troops left
I have to keep deathlooping to spite the game at this point

Is Mamluks beginner friendly?

>>2319941
AI was going for WC.

>>2320019
>The only problem is I don't have a casus belli on Ottomans
Just fabricate a claim, dumbass

>>2320104
I don't have a border!
Actually, is there any point at all in fabricating claims as horde? I can just war any bordering nation with tribal conquest/feud.

>>2320106
>I don't have a border!
You can fabricate over sea tiles. You can't fabricate on Constantinople since you don't have a province in that sea tile, but you can fabricate on Akkerman, Sinop, and Kastamonu (God, I've played this game too much)
>Actually, is there any point at all in fabricating claims as horde?
Having a claim gives you 25% lower coring cost (35% if it's a perma claim IIRC) and might give you less AE when you take it, but that I don't remember as well. As a horde, I probably wouldn't bother since razing will generally give you enough mana to core stuff and you generally conquer provinces in vast swathes. But if you're truced with a country you know you want to fight again, I'd make some claims if I didn't know what to do with my diplomats

>>2320124
>razing will generally give you enough mana to core stuff
Pretty sure that's a DLC thing

is paradox forum website broken for anyone else?

>>2320186
It's been so long idk what is and isn't DLC. Just pirate them all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8wXyyPYbFQ

File: temp.png (2.9 MB)

2.9 MB PNG

This map looks kind of metal really.

>>2321358
1762 and you only achieved those borders as a horde??

>>2321406
I posted it because of the shape.
But yeah, I'm learning. Playing out a run where I went deep in debt fighting Muscovy and didn't have colonialism until sometime after 1600 probably?
I'm only now catching up in tech. Not having money also means I don't get as many monarch points from advisors, and tech costs more from not having institutions.
For most of the playthrough, even just having an army near, not at force limit would put me in the red from maintenance unless I constantly micromanaged the slider.
All my expansion directions were walled off pretty well by alliances except Shun, which I tried to invade by myself but my armies took massive damage trying to fight through their forts for whatever reason. But Delhi just attacked me and I managed to win some land by picking off armies with forced march. I made them nullify their alliance with Bengal so Bengal will help me next time.
Perm and Novgorod are vassals. Kazan is still alive because they're allied with only Ottomans so I can declare war on them before the end of the playthrough, but currently they're at 500k+ soldiers to my 180k or so.

File: temp2.png (3.1 MB)

3.1 MB PNG

A swarm of ants...
Not sure when I should stop and accept the W, I'm always scared my allies will randomly leave the war

>>2321561
>Not sure when I should stop and accept the W
If you're in a dominant position (as it looks like you are) peace out when you get what you want. The AI is pretty bad at regrouping and making comebacks
>I'm always scared my allies will randomly leave the war
Your allies will never peace out unless they're losing. Maybe if they're in two wars, one with you and one without you, and they're almost fully occupied by one of the countries you aren't at war with, their low war enthusiasm means they'll peace out of both wars. But that's a pretty rare circumstance.

>>2295364
Time for another timurids campaign

>>2314628
Lithuania usually lags in tech and ideas behind Poland and it doesn't have the insane military bonuses in Polish national ideas. PLC has very slightly weaker military ideas than base Poland, but is still much more difficult to fight than when 2/3rd of their army are shitty Lithuanian units.

>>2314629
You do you. You're playing suboptimally because the game becomes too easy and boring for you otherwise, the anon I originally replied too had the opposite problem. I'd still switch to Very Hard sooner than artificially prevent myself from crippling AI countries early because it's too satisfying.

>>2317581
You're not blobbing enough if you end up with a shitty ruler and enough mana to dev.

File: Screenshot_20260115_153330.png (2 MB)

2 MB PNG

What is up with female consort age in this game? Why would they have my ruler marry a woman who's practically at menopause's doorstep when he needs to sire an heir? Also, Date is the most underrated daimyo.

File: Screenshot_20260115_171843.png (2.1 MB)

2.1 MB PNG

I had to go for a shitty peace deal because while I had the biggest daimyos on my side, the Ashikaga side had naval superiority and controlled all of Kyushu. Ashikaga just kept building units there even after I stackwiped their starting army of 14K and I was starting to run out of manpower.

File: Screenshot_20260115_174034.png (2.4 MB)

2.4 MB PNG

Ugh... Kyoto, the renaissance capital of the East...
Thoughts on using expand infrastructure twice to make it appear here even though it already had 20 dev to start off with? I think it's going to be more worth it than starting with some shitty province in the long run because I get 40 dev at 0% autonomy and lots of income from silk. This also makes it so that it's not going to be useless to build a courthouse here later on.

File: Screenshot_20260115_202814.png (1.3 MB)

1.3 MB PNG

Rakkii~

File: Screenshot_20260115_213725.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

Korea foolishly ceased to be a tributary of Ming.

File: Screenshot_20260115_215102.png (1.8 MB)

1.8 MB PNG

Why didn't Toyotomi just go from the other side?

File: Screenshot_20260115_222321.png (1.7 MB)

1.7 MB PNG

14.06.1472, the day when the Korean army disappeared.

File: Screenshot_20260115_225109.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

Uh-oh...

File: Screenshot_20260115_233028.png (1.8 MB)

1.8 MB PNG

The Chinese apparently decided that the Koreans don't deserve their own state anymore.

I always have a hard time invading Korea. Playing as them is pretty powerful.

File: Screenshot_20260116_130155.png (1.9 MB)

1.9 MB PNG

>>2322723
Me too. I just got lucky with circumstances. I think this is the first playthrough when I invaded them this early. Also, Ming changed their mind and gave back all of their lands.

>>2322742
It looks like you have a pretty solid Japan run going on.
Do you have any ambitions for your campaign?

File: Mamluks 1444.jpg (725.5 KB)

725.5 KB JPG

Mamluks first tick
3rd largest army
5th largest income
6th great power
Has 3 vassals and claims on Anatolia

This nation seems formidable but it almost always loses to the Ottomans.

File: We shall let it pass.jpg (868.2 KB)

868.2 KB JPG

Early game Ottomans are in a medium sized war against Albania, Venice and Papal States.
Strike the beast down before it becomes a tyrant.

File: Pass straight into Hell.jpg (840.5 KB)

840.5 KB JPG

Now, this is the part where I say it's nothing personal and you look back at me as if I was your most hated enemy.

>>2322875
AI Mamluks annoy me so much.
>never ally me even though I want to kill the ottomans more than anything
>see occupied Mamluk territory, they've allied Cyprus just so Ottomans can war them
>quickly ally and improve Cyprus so I can join the war
>Mamluks go off to siege Tunis and fight rebels, and leave me alone to solo the ottomans
>summon 2 mercenary armies to stall them cause I'm mad
>Mamluks finally show up, get warscore to +30% and start taking territory
>but Cyprus is captured, and the instant Ottomans turn red Cyprus surrenders and accepts full annexation
I wish you could tell the AI "don't surrender you stupid dweeb we're winning"
Ottomans have ridiculous plot armor, it feels like they have better AI than their surroundings in every way. They get a free France ally if you wait too long too.

>>2322875
They're technically number 2 great power but because Syria was turned into a vassal by devs they rank lower now

And yes. Mamluks are an amazing nation and Egypt is easily top 5 best nations, but I can't help but feel a timurids who complete their mission tree them form mamluks is always better

When I play Mams I usually form Rûm too

>>2322951
Mamluks are hard to ally because they have a ton of subjects but in my Byz games I usually ally them and focus on killing europe first. I also move capital to Italy asap

>>2322723
Once I saw Korea killing all of Japan and is crazy the AI Korea can easily do that, they just refuse to do it

>>2322910
The optimal way to play mamluks is to ally albania and call them to war against ottomans with promise of land rush biga and blockade the strait to trap ottoderps in europe, trust me, Ottomans will send their whole army to siege albania is hilarious

File: Mamluks 1487.jpg (839.4 KB)

839.4 KB JPG

Hey! I'm trying to play a tall Mamluks with minimal territorial expansion.
How goes your campaign?

>>2323141
I was playing england angevin but got bored once I conquered all of europe

File: Screenshot_20260116_202829.png (1.8 MB)

1.8 MB PNG

>>2322747
It was supposed to be a colonial run at first, but the opportunities in Asia just keep coming so I, uh, hybridized it a little.

File: Screenshot_20260117_131724.png (1.6 MB)

1.6 MB PNG

I diplo-annexed 5 daimyos almost at once to be able to take "Japan in United" decision quickly. Fun fact: if So becomes a pirate republic, you can pass that decision while they're still your vassal because they don't have the daimyo government type. Even so, they don't take a diplo slot after you become Japan. Pretty interesting.

File: Screenshot_20260117_163833.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

As for why I wanted to become Japan really bad: I wanted to attack Ming and the Shogunate is specifically disallowed from using the Mandate CB. The war with Ming had to happen in order to boost PP and not miss out on month +1 mana for too long. They're my only possible rival.

File: Screenshot_20260117_164430.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

I also thought I'd take this opportunity in order to blitz through Korea. That way I'd get something out of attacking Ming even if the war with them goes badly. Ming can't join because they're already at war with me.

File: Screenshot_20260117_165124.png (2 MB)

2 MB PNG

They deleted their forts, so I just besieged Hanseong, busted its walls and stormed it with mercs.

File: Screenshot_20260117_165819.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

I carpet sieged the rest for easy 100% war score. I didn't even have to fight Korean troops and Ming barely started to move their own.

File: Screenshot_20260117_170059.png (2.1 MB)

2.1 MB PNG

I also wrapped up a war in Mesoamerica in the meantime. I left them with one province because it was enough for my colony to get ten and give me a merchant and other bonuses, then I moved my troops back to Asia.

File: Screenshot_20260117_172739.png (2.1 MB)

2.1 MB PNG

The war with Ming was easier than expected. Even with Mandate above 50, they kept sending their units into Oirat wastelands and losing big numbers of them to attrition. I took Beijing while they were distracted.

File: Screenshot_20260117_175146.png (1.8 MB)

1.8 MB PNG

I won some battles and they were left with 50K troops and no manpower. I took Nanjing and then some other cities.

File: Screenshot_20260117_182950.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

Pretty sweet peace deal. Can anyone guess why I gave two provinces to Oirat?

File: Screenshot_20260117_183235.png (2.3 MB)

2.3 MB PNG

Immediately after the peacing out Ming, I attack one of their tributaries and the retarded Ming AI wants to fight me again. I could fabricate on Haixi with the age ability because I had a claim on a neighboring province from missions.

never liked how the daimyō missions encourage you to become EoC or destroy it, except they made the former lock you out of becoming the shōgun, and the latter lock you out of some of Japan's missions

File: Screenshot_20260117_185205.png (2 MB)

2 MB PNG

My ruler died while commanding during a victorious battle with the Chinese. What a way to go out. A true Gustav Adolph of the East. He was pretty young too, still in his thirties I think.

File: Screenshot_20260117_190427.png (2.2 MB)

2.2 MB PNG

More money, war reps (I didn't take them last time because I knew I would war them again immediately) and a shorter truce. I love this cheese. I left it off without peacing out Haixi yet, but it's a formality. I have to move some troops to America ASAP and start conquering natives there for gold. The wars with Ming stalled my progress there quite a bit.

>>2323320
I don't think anyone at Paradox really expected the players to stay as independent daimyo for long. Subject daimyos can't go to war with China and the shogun doesn't have the Mandate CB. It's pretty weird that those missions go as far as they do.

>>2323328
>It's pretty weird that those missions go as far as they do.
It's because they were originally for a unified Japan, too, and still are without Domination. That's why the one has "is Japan" as a valid condition even though there's no way to clear it by being Japan if you're playing with DOM
They just never bothered reworking it with the DLC, nor ever fixing up how the two trees interact

>>2323291
>but the opportunities in Asia just keep coming so I, uh, hybridized it a little.
Kek, the quintessential Japan playthrough. Asia can't help but open themselves up to you

>Play tiwi
>200 years doing nothing
>Spanish settle near me
>I modernize right before they declare on me
>After a crippling war I drive them out
>A few minutes later some indian fuck who started to colonize declare on me while I have crippling debt and no manpower

File: temp.png (3 MB)

3 MB PNG

>>2321358
>>2321406
Final map with a lot of overextension. Japan released Mongolia and Yan for me to annex separately from Shun, which was very nice of them.
I feel like I learned at least something from this playthrough, if only with how I need to babysit the ally AI at all times to not have them throw away my wars for me. I saw how useful it is to become Golden Horde at least, since I didn't know what the benefits were.
I still feel like I can have a better start as Crimea, as I was deep in debt from difficult wars and didn't have colonialism until after 1600. I want to have a true win over Ottomans and I didn't really get it until the very end this time, taking a random string of land in Macedonia.
Having read up on what DLC does, it sounds like hordes get a lot of new stuff. I've been playing with:
>no estates whatsoever (other countries have them)
>no razing
>no special units or special horde vassals?
>legitimacy instead of horde unity (ability descriptions already spoil this in the base game)
>different missions
>none of the general DLC stuff like diplomatic favors, knowledge sharing/stealing, edicts, age abilities, or spies having meaningful effects other than fabricating claims that I don't need very much, for most of the game
>probably more
Overall it sounds like playing with DLC would be way, way, easier which at this point feels... kind of lame? I'm not sure if I want to make the game easier if I'm trying to beat my last run. I don't know.

>>2323525
Why play a horde with no dlcs? With no dlcs they're just a worse monarchy

>>2323537
Maybe, honestly I didn't have much reason to pick them and just tried something, but they felt unique-ish.
They have the special tribal casus belli, and they get some buffs like more movement speed, better cavalry, extra manpower/force limit. I missed those buffs when I changed government type via reforms (never doing that again)

>>2295364
What mods are being used here

>>2323558
NII's Graphical Pack
Waifu Universalis
Ages Expanded
Advisors Expanded

Other than that, I edited the game files to give Prussia the ability to make Client States

How do non-Crimea horde players deal with Crimea being vassalized by Ottomans and required to spawn Golden Horde?

>>2324056
Just fight the Ottos, simple as.
Obviously you fight them last, after you've had time to build up. But hordes are strongest in the early game and do bonus damage on flat terrain. Additionally, you don't really bother with forts, so you let the Ottos walk into your land, hit them in the Steppe with 90% cav, deal 10:1 casualties, and repeat until the Ottos have no manpower

>>2324094
I savescum until crimea picks the other option

File: Kill yourself 1.png (303.1 KB)

303.1 KB PNG

>>2324117

Last time I played eu4 was without Domination and Wind of change. Do they really affect gameplay?

File: Screenshot_20260118_133020.png (2.4 MB)

2.4 MB PNG

>>2324056
I started my Gold Rush run as Great Horde and conquered them before they became an Otto vassal.

>>2324142
Ashley's so cute. I stopped frequenting Coffin threads when hagfags started spamming them.

>>2324706
>Ashley's so cute. I stopped frequenting Coffin threads when hagfags started spamming them.
They've largely fucked off by now, at least on /vg/. /v/ is a shithole that I never go to

File: Russia.jpg (747.6 KB)

747.6 KB JPG

People who say Russia is their favourite country are lying right? All I've done for 40+ years is watch my armies march from far East Asia to Europe and back again.

Russia is only enjoyable early game when you are fighting in Europe

>>2325102
>People who say Russia is their favourite country are lying right?
Much like how most people who say China is their favorite country are nationalistic Chinese players, most people who say Russia is their favorite country are nationalistic Russian players

>>2325153
I'll stand on Jurchen to Qing being one of the most fun snowball campaigns in EU4

File: Screenshot_20260120_190955.png (3.1 MB)

3.1 MB PNG

>>2325153
>people who say China is their favorite country
Which China?

SO why did florry abandon eu5? did he ever explain it

>>2325167
the Sino-Zhuang one. in particular one where you form Thailand before Sinicising

>>2325168
The early game setup in 5 must be horrific if you're a streamer trying to retain viewers. Least in 4 its just setup 3 rivals throw out some privileges, unpause.

>>2325168
I was watching his stream just now and he said that it feels meaningless when he gets 10% discipline in EU5 compared to EU4.

>>2325102
Filtered, Russia is one of the most fun countries to play. Sweeping across the Steppe and East Europe is so fun

>>2295364
I'm thinking about start playing this but they are soo many dlc. Are the dlc just more factions/nations to play as or add in more mechanics in game?

>>2325255
The second.
The method is either buy the base game and pirate the dlc or wait for a megasale or humble bundle when you can get the whole thing for a reasonsble price.

>>2325176
Retarded if true. Regardless of what game it is, if the problem is long setup then you should be setting up before starting the stream.

>>2325176
>>2325335
It's not a setup issue.
Eu5 isn't an exciting game to watch because there's not a lot of "game." It's more to tickle the simulator part of the brain that tingled when you saw pops migrating around in imperator. People complain about all of the gameified aspects of eu4 but those aspects are exactly what makes the game entertaining to watch.

>>2325102
My favourite country is the one I play at the moment, one of the best part of russia is you do not care about a.e at all

fuck eu5 i'm not touching that shit ever again

why did they make the generic Chinese missions so busted again?
did they really think that many people would be going for Shun or some other minor releasable?

>>2325552
No. It's to make sure the Chinese Ai actually consolidates after a mingplosion.

File: Screenshot_20260121_152452.png (2.9 MB)

2.9 MB PNG

Shun took the Mandate.

File: Screenshot_20260121_175205.png (2.6 MB)

2.6 MB PNG

I have a spare idea slot, lots of spare sword mana, and I unlocked a mission that can halve the naval hegemon ship requirement to 250 (allowing me to pick it very soon) if I pick and fill Naval Ideas. Should I?

>>2325672
as far as "filler" groups go, naval is unironically worth it for the finisher alone

>>2320019
You are horde. And an incredibly weak one that will get left behind by higher dev, higher mana, higher income nations.
Just kamikaze yourself. Loans, all the cavalry, over forcelimit. You should be able to defeat ottos alone. Trust me, the game will get harder the more time passes unless you defeat them.
You already got muscovy once, so you are doing well.
>Fort on a plains province for defensive horde battle.
>Rush all the other hordes around you so you can raze and get tech 4
>Focus mil
Your biggest problem will be manpower and admin. Unlike other countries that should focus on morale at the start, small hordes should focus on discipline, combat ability, etc. So they can kill more and die less. The ottos can recolver their insane manpower pool in some years, while you need to make your men count. But money is easy. 25% warscore on ottomans will get you all the ducats you ever need.
>Make some vassals to aliviate your admin bottleneck
>Keep conquering, for the raze mana, specially the military one.
>And the money, always take 25% on ducats.

>>2325335
But then people won't see that I started the game in le ironman!

>Franco-Ottoman alliance event
Ah my hated old friend I'd forgotten about you

>>2325718
I'm not an expert, but I wonder if that really works in the base game. There's no razing and for horde there's no estates. So in order to get monarch points I need to have advisors ($$$) and I have to keep up with the tech curve to not die. If I'm poor I'm poor in every aspect.
It also really feels like Crimea is afflicted with bad rolls, because the second I get a khan or heir with above 3 on any stat he dies between age zero and the first day of his reign. It's happened so often. And that's with me always disinheriting the starting 0/0/2 heir on day 1.
I did run myself into over 10 loans of debt fighting the ottomans once because my ally peaced out while winning, and I "won," but I did not survive long. What's really annoying is a lot of the time, the way I win is by having a European ally and taking the capital/forts on their side of the strait, which means the Ottomans insist I can never take the forts on my side (I never outnumber them and they have forts on advantageous terrain.) And that means I can't take any land I actually want because of the stupid fort rule, so I have to settle for Constantinople if I don't want to get out of it with just money (money is nice but I feel like I spend more in the process of winning so I better get something tangible out of it.)
And then in this case, where my money is shot, so is my army if I don't want to hold on to mercenaries, and Crimea does not have a great fleet so I don't have many transports to shuttle people around fighting rebels, which tend to be frequent after those loan wars. I end up paying a lot of reinforcement fees and fall behind in tech and manpower and then it's over. In the run I posted that happened against Moscovy instead, so at least I could take their good land I needed, and I wasn't sandwiched between multiple strong enemies anymore.
I do have some things I feel like maybe I'm figuring out/starting to question more though about this whole thing, though.

>>2326113
>I do have some things I feel like maybe I'm figuring out/starting to question more though about this whole thing, though.
1) An AI tried to sell me a province for like 300g. It made me think, how much is a province actually worth? I felt like even 100g is kind of a lot, and it put in perspective what I'm actually doing when I go into debt during wars, or even just lose soldiers and have to pay for them.
2) I only really realized looting existed when I started playing horde, and now with that perspective, it almost feels like it can be better to not own a province and just come in to loot it occasionally. You get what, like 5-6g per province every time? That's like 3 years of 0.16g base tax from owning it... And depending on the country it takes way less time to loot everything and then leave with just money, than to siege forts and get the war score high up. I don't know how I'd actually apply this, but maybe this is what I'm supposed to be doing and haven't been. Feels horde-like. Seems tricky to draw the line though on what I really want out of a peace deal.

ever since i started playing multi with my friends singleplayer feels like a downgrade and i never feel like doing a new solo run. What's a good modded tag i could do? Anbennar included

>>2326131
>anbennar
Gnomes.

Culture-swapping to Chinese: Is there any reason to not go for something other than Manchu? idk maybe the Jianghuai naval doctrine, the Sino-Korean stuff, the Sino-Altaic stuff, or Wei-Suo end up being more valuable in some contexts than banners

>>2326304
Are Manchu actually in Chinese culture group? I thought they were separate until you did a Jurchen unique mission to add them similar to the Sino-Korean one

Oh yeah, I meant to ask
>try using vassals to conquer more land
>they get too big
>okay, it's about time to annex
>....in 100 years when it's done
How do you decide when to absorb your vassals? It takes way longer than I thought when you actually fed them land.

>>2326384
when i have admin capacity i absord, when i dont i wait.

>>2326340
Jurchen is the Tungusic one
all Jurchen provinces (maybe not ones someone else owns?) flip to Manchu upon the formation of the Manchurian tag

>>2326384
I hold vassals to culture groups, take a province or two of a neighboring culture tag, absorb, spit out a new vassal to retake their lands.

>>2326404
>>2326473
Huh, so you absorb vassals very quickly.
I avoided doing that because of religious/culture problems with the land. It's the biggest reason why I started making vassals, since when I took that land myself my religious unity tanked and it didn't really make me much money for the administration points and manpower effort.

>>2326792
Depending on how far away it is you can always just trade company it and raise autonomy instead. I tend to only really use vassals for core reconquest you can pretty much carve up the Ottomans and Poland that way, or if I'm doing major early game blob like Russia or France and I'll be overextended as all hell otherwise.

File: temp.png (3.2 MB)

3.2 MB PNG

>>2326803
For specific details, I'm the one trying base game Crimea. On the plus side I think I finally broke the loop with my current run, so I'll be free of this curse and can try other things. I'm not sure I can recreate it consistently though.
I want to get as big as possible quickly so I can clear the army strength requirement to have a major European ally before the Ottoman death clock reaches zero. (Or before Poland eats me itself, if that's the ally.) That means I want to block Ottomans off from the Georgia area while also expanding north to Moskva for Golden Horde.
I guess that qualifies as
>I'll be overextended as all hell otherwise.
But it's more about the costs of doing all that early game, than overextension itself.

I start out with Theodoro and Circassia as the easy conquests. But when I rushed Georgia/Qoyunlu first to lock the Ottomans in a cage, I got like 50% religious unity or something stupid, it made negative money as states, and my missionaries were too weak to convert it at the start of a ruler's life, even if I full-core them which feels like a huge waste of points early game. So I make Circassia a march, and focus my expansion north for the Sunni provinces instead. Plus being Golden Horde is so much better than being a starting kingdom, I think that has to be the priority.
Ryazan was partly the religious thing and partly because I had no points to core all that stuff. I started annexing it in ~1550 and it's still not done. It got fed like 8 provinces after that by Poland in our war against Denmark so I have to placate it sometimes. I can manage the religious conversion now though.
I'd like to make Greece or something in central asia into a vassal to eat land, but vassal army size compared to mine is already a bit too high, and I have 5/4 relations already. I'm staying close to governing cap (especially after the annex finishes) and I can't really afford courthouses even now, so more vassals would be nice.

>>2326839
>5/4
Oh yeah, it WAS 5/4 until the war that just finished.
Khorasan was my ally and also Ottomans', so I kept going to war with Ottomans while Khorasan was already in a war allied to me.
But this time Khorasan joined the Ottomans war like a year after it started or something. I guess it's for the best since I need its land for missions anyway.
Now that Ottomans are semi-contained I could probably go for Mongol Empire or unite Islam, but I need Commonwealth land for Mongols and that's my only real ally. Spain looks like a monster this game and already rivaled me. I'll just do what seems fun.
I actually managed to ally Mamluks this game but they're just so worthless as an ally. They always go off to siege Tunis or something. It's dangerous if they get declared on too, since I can't call Poland. Now they're weak and threatened so they didn't even join the Ottoman war, I guess there's no point keeping them.
Ajam or other countries in that area always betray me. Hordes get threatened by me and won't help, or they break alliance, except Uzbek which is nice but in the way of my expansion unfortunately.
The only ally I can ever really rely on is Poland or Austria/Hungary, but sometimes Poland just hates me to death from the start, and I can't ally Austria unless they absorb Hungary so I have to do Hungary first, which is dangerous because sometimes Hungary just dies.

I kinda want to start a game and form the Netherlands. Any mods or event changes I should make beforehand? Revolution popping up for no reason kinda annoys me but thats quite late game anyway.

File: Screenshot_20260123_212129.png (1.9 MB)

1.9 MB PNG

>You have to sue for peace, let Spain take half of our country and create bordergore because we surrender unconditionally. Don't like it? Enjoy 20 war exhaustion :^)
Fuck this shit. I was literally a few MONTHS too late.

>>2326979
doesn't peacing out ANY country you're at war remove that malus, at least for a bit? or did they patch that?

File: temp.png (71.8 KB)

71.8 KB PNG

Huh, that's new to me

File: Screenshot_20260123_213140.png (3.1 MB)

3.1 MB PNG

The Empire of China is gone. I'm going to divide some of this between my subjects because I'm at 174% OE now.

>>2326981
Idk. It would have built up again anyway because I'm sure that Spain would rather sit on that war for years instead of peacing out at 25%. I also need to be at peace to give former Shun lands to my vassals. I didn't want to transfer occupation during the war because my -25% war score cost against different religions age ability didn't apply to them and I had to take everything directly for full annexation to be possible.

Spain has 6 provinces in Peru now so a Spanish CN is going to form. I'm going to mark those provinces as vital interest, wait until Shin-Shikoku fabricates claims on them, and tell them to start a war in colony. Hopefully they can take the gold and Lima to clean up the bordergore and save me the trouble of fighting Spain directly.

>>2326983
It's actually pretty common if Mamluks survive long enough. They have a high chance of taking colonial ideas coded somewhere in there for some reason.

>>2327015
I think it'd be fun if the AI were more flexible like that more often, at least as an option.
Like, why shouldn't Italian nations make colonies?

The mamluks are a fun and strong nation but I just feel I would be stronger if I just formed the mamluks as the timurids anyway

>>2326908
Forming the netherlands is awfully easy since everyone hates burgundy

>>2327015
>They have a high chance of taking colonial ideas coded somewhere in there for some reason.
it's because the AI is strongly inclined to take exploration ideas if it has a lot of ports

>>2325102
Nigga you're supposed to keep separate armies to deal with east and west, or grab defensive ideas and just watch enemy armies killing themselves marching into you like irl

Can some modder change the Muscovy tribute events so that refusing to pay tribute just gives the Golden Horde a humiliate CB? It's so ridiculous that they can devastate your land for free if you don't pay. I should be allowed to fight back

Stuck with castille annexation as particularist rebels sieged pacific islands which is in ti

>>2327180
Well im trying as Brabant atm. Around what year am I supposed to declare independence? France and England are supporting me but im losing a lot of money atm (realized its because of the forts) and I dont know what estate policies or government reform I should enact, and what idea group should come first.
I tried declaring independence while Burgundy was busy in Denmark in 1465 or something but they walked back and btfo my troops that couldnt run anywhere because of forts. France helped me a bit but Burgundy was allied with Britanny and Aragon which spread their forces.

>>2326908
>>2327245
I typically start as Holland and get my independence ASAP. Usually you can get at least two of the following: England, France, Austria, Aragon, or Castille to back you
Just build up to 10 units, dec for independence, and hide behind your fort. Let your allies do ALL of the work. I like to take Antwerp off of Brabrant when I peace out, but keep in mind that if you take land, your allies will want it to. I usually pick one ally to keep. I give them enough land to make them happy then let everyone else get pissed off and break the alliance

>>2327248
I see. Last time I played was 4-5 years ago. Are those new ideas any good like court and infrastructure? I also remember some estate thing where u could get mana/a good general/ other shit once in a while. Is it gone or only reserved for kingdoms and empires?

>>2327245
I always kick it off as soon as possible since waiting means you have to wait for france and england to finish their war and you risk the burgundian inheritance firing. I just make sure I've fabricated claims on a key province or two so I can take them along with my independence. Don't form the netherlands until you've taken all the territory you want because doing so ejects you from the HRE.
It's also preferable to get france involved so you can force them into a truce timer and restrict them from taking land from a weakened burgundy.

>>2295364
Thinking of starting a Granada game but I'm sure I'll ditch them once I blob enough and notice how shit their military is compared to the timurids

>>2327253
Court is one of those groups that is very convenient but a lot of people sleep on it because the benefits are less direct. Infrastructure is the new economic, a great group loaded with great events. economic was nerfed and is now mainly for space marine builds with econ/qual or if you're producing gold.
Estates are no longer active clicking for bonuses. You assign privileges and get bonuses but have to balance the impact on influence and loyalty. That is when you're not seizing land every 5 years at the start because getting +1 of each mana outweighs putting down angry estates. The opening estate meta is different based on how big you are.

>>2327264
So as Holland its best to get the +1 mana for each one?

>>2327268
In the case of holland you can either take all three or take two and sell titles to get some extra money to fund your independence war.

>>2327206
Golden Horde and Great Horde are different things.
Great Horde are pretender losers.

>>2327206
Also hordes already get a free CB on everyone with a border, which you have, so there's no point in humiliate. What's stopping you from killing them?

>>2327293
You know what I mean
>>2327296
>What's stopping you from killing them?
Because I need to conquer Novgorod before Denmark moves in

File: temp.png (749.9 KB)

749.9 KB PNG

Whoops. I was really hoping they'd have some kind of liberty desire reduction for this because it's a guaranteed massive development march.
Oh well, if I messed up, I messed up. I wanted the government cap space though.

>>2327654
You should have released them as a mongol brother realm by the mission, not by the decision

>>2327654
I did. Got the event popup, choosing between creating them as a march or just getting some pity development in their potential capital instead.
Also the image was with them having 0 army, now they have 170k troops. So if they don't rebel on me, enemies will definitely die the second they walk in there.

Ok got independence war fired as Netherlands....which provinces should I grab? Antwerp and Breda?

>>2327732
Typically you can only grab 1 without seriously pissing people off. Antwerp no question

>>2327735
It says I can get two without getting a coalition against menor is it not worth it?Also is Antwerpen more powerful than Brugge? I also cant offer Austria anything so they gonna be butthurt...

>>2327740
Also should I force flemish independence?

>>2327746
Nah. Forcing independence is costly and they'll break free on their own anyway.

>>2327749
Got breda and antwerp. Thought about going after Utrecht before France, Austria or Castille drags me into some gayass war. Also how the fuck do you make money?

>>2327654
It's also a disaster because that was a decent chunk of income AND a huge bottleneck for my trade route.
Also it's weird, they keep deleting their entire army despite having 0 manpower every time a war ends. I don't understand. It's not even mercenaries.

File: temp.png (103.6 KB)

103.6 KB PNG

>tribal succession crisis
Feels like the game does this on purpose

>>2327784
Most of holland/netherlands income is trade. Get a commanding share of the english channel node. Colonize to pump more into it.

>>2327796
In busy conquering the provinces first though. Should I het the Dutch trade fleet naval doctrine?

>>2327818
Yeah
The extra colonial range helps reach the americas before most others.

>>2327821
But then exploration as idea first or infrastructure?

>>2327822
I do infrastructure > exploration > expansion. Putting off a mil idea isn't that big of a deal since you're mostly fighting little guys that early and you're not really expanding outside the low countries unless you're doing a sweaty run.

>>2327827
What about government reforms? I can choose stadholder monarchy already despite not being Netherlands yet. Or should I wait for the Dutch republic?

>>2327842
Pretty sure when you form a new tag reforms reset and you can select new ones

>>2327846
I see. Should I take stadholder monarchy or domnoble reforms in the meantime though. Its kinda vague desu.