What will you play as first in EU4?

[Rainman05]

I am kind of disappointed that France was put forward as an "easy" nation. I really wanted to take them out for a spin. But that did open up the chance for me to play as Burgundy. I loved Burgundy in EU3.

Anyway. So far I'm considering:
1. Austria for that sweet HRE experience.
2. Muscovy for that cool uber expansion experience
3. Venice and make my fortune as a merchant state.

I don't know who I'll pick. Alternatively, Milan is always an option.

 

[PeteEU]

Ohh... it is finally out... arghhh more sleepless nights

 

[Gathomas88]

I was planning on starting out with my converted nation from CK2. However, considering the fact that I've never played an EU game before, and I don't have the slightest idea what I'm doing, I pretty quickly discovered that this was a bad idea. lol

I'm now thinking that Spain might be a good nation to learn "learn the ropes" with. Conquering the Aztecs sounds like a lot of fun.

 

[iliveonramen]

I always play as England. After taking over Scotland and Ireland I typically just concentrate on a huge navy and trading/colonization. It's perfect...same with Portugal...I'll typically buddy up with Castile and concentrate on navy and trading/colonization. After playing those two countries I'll start playing landlocked countries...typically Brandenburg.

I think my most fun games though are typically starting out with Moscow and creating Russia.

Anywho...will probably start with a colonizing/trading empire. England to me is the best just because I like to play the traditional role of checking the growth of France or other potentially too large European powers.

 

[iliveonramen]

I was planning on starting out with my converted nation from CK2. However, considering the fact that I've never played an EU game before, and I don't have the slightest idea what I'm doing, I pretty quickly discovered that this was a bad idea. lol

I'm now thinking that Spain might be a good nation to learn "learn the ropes" with. Conquering the Aztecs sounds like a lot of fun.

Spain is great country to learn the ropes with. France as well...both are pretty easy to run the tables with.

 

[iliveonramen]

Ohh... it is finally out... arghhh more sleepless nights

I've spent so many hours of my life on the series. When I was in middle school I was playing the first one for hours. It was like "wow...this game is awesome". So much to the game I was blown away.

 

[PeteEU]

I've spent so many hours of my life on the series. When I was in middle school I was playing the first one for hours. It was like "wow...this game is awesome". So much to the game I was blown away.

Just got it.. but it is getting a tad complicated now days plus I need to clean up the visual aspects.. everything seems so small.

 

[iliveonramen]

Just got it.. but it is getting a tad complicated now days plus I need to clean up the visual aspects.. everything seems so small.

My gaming computer kicked the can awhile back and I'm finished some things up before I buy a new one...I can binge play strategy games like crazy.

Once I buy myself a new one in a couple of months EU4/Rome 2/New Civ5 expansion packs are what I'm going to be doing for awhile.

So haven't played the new one vicariously playing through this thread.

 

[Rainman05]

So it's been a bit over 100 years in my game as France, let's see where I end up. Settings are no lucky nations and normal everything else.


I rule the largest kingdom and have started colonizing the americas. You can see I bit off a bit of Spain, Aragon and took a few provinces that should belong to the HRE. Time to reunite the Empire of Charlemagne . Also, started working on making French Canada up there. Maple syrup, yum, yum.

I decided to remain Catholic, a servant to the one true faith. Heathens beware! It helps since I've been the papal controller for almost an entire century now. As you can see, I am in no danger of losing my grasp on the papal curia, granting me good bonuses. though I haven't used crusader or excommunication much... I better start using excommunication to get some casus belli in Europe.

Looks like Spain is started to colonize the rich carribean provinces. I don't mind. Tell you why after the next pic.

Thanks to superior French diplomacy, and a good army, I made royal marriages with Portugal, which I then capitalized on to claim the throne, by force. Great success . I also made royal marriages with Brabant, which I already integrated the same as portugal, and have had a royal marriage with Flanders which I used to enforce a claim on the throne, and now they are in an union under me. last year, Naples went down the same road. they are in my union. I also cultivated ties to Hungary and Sweden, as well as maintain a few vassals, some within the HRE
Why did I cultivate relations with Hungary? Glad you ask. I intend on letting Spain grow, and when the stopped hating me (they have a -300 relationship with me), I will make a royal marriage with them, and then claim the throne .


The ottomans have the second largest army. They had it easy... a dying Byzantine Empire, weak and separated balkan states, some feeble muslim kingdoms. I can't wait for them to start another war with a weak Hungary, at which point, I shall march my armies and reduce the Ottoman empire to rubble, securing my supremacy in military and all. The ottomans are also the second in score after me, I lead with a comfortable, ever expanding 400 points.

I just realized the pictures look very dim. I have 134k troops while the ottomans have about 66k.

 

[marduc]

I have not had a lot of time to invest into the game yet, but I have dabbled with Portugal to get a feel for the changes in both trade and colonization. I may quickly become bored with them and move on to someone else however. There really is little competition for them (with a 1444 start) - It is easy to ally Castille and Aragon right out of the gate, already allied with England, and you have a leg up on exploration and can jump right into settling and establishing trade in nodes with little competition (other than your home node and competition with Castille).

I am debating whether to play them further in order to set up a nice spice island/india/capetown/brazil/portugal trade dominance or to take on another nation with a bit more of a challenge. I am eyeballing Denmark with the 1444 start, or even Norway. I am also considering the Netherlands, but they are not established until later, and even then they are embroiled in war with Spain in their early days. Ireland might be fun to try to unify, but you are a small fish with big players around and that might be an easy wipe if you get picked on.

I frankly do not know who I want to play at this point - aside from that I do not want to play one of the established "big boys" and that I want to at least go with European/western tech for my first (several?) playthrough. Too many possibilities, such a dilemma.

 

[Rainman05]

I have not had a lot of time to invest into the game yet, but I have dabbled with Portugal to get a feel for the changes in both trade and colonization. I may quickly become bored with them and move on to someone else however. There really is little competition for them (with a 1444 start) - It is easy to ally Castille and Aragon right out of the gate, already allied with England, and you have a leg up on exploration and can jump right into settling and establishing trade in nodes with little competition (other than your home node and competition with Castille).

I am debating whether to play them further in order to set up a nice spice island/india/capetown/brazil/portugal trade dominance or to take on another nation with a bit more of a challenge. I am eyeballing Denmark with the 1444 start, or even Norway. I am also considering the Netherlands, but they are not established until later, and even then they are embroiled in war with Spain in their early days. Ireland might be fun to try to unify, but you are a small fish with big players around and that might be an easy wipe if you get picked on.

I frankly do not know who I want to play at this point - aside from that I do not want to play one of the established "big boys" and that I want to at least go with European/western tech for my first (several?) playthrough. Too many possibilities, such a dilemma.

That's where I'm at. I tried France to get a feel for the game. 100 or so years in, I'm the biggest, baddest guy around. No more challenge. I am thinking what to go for next. Muscovy, Poland, Brandenburg, Byzantine are on my shortlist. An extended list includes Japan, Austria, Hungary and Sweden.

 

[marduc]

That's where I'm at. I tried France to get a feel for the game. 100 or so years in, I'm the biggest, baddest guy around. No more challenge. I am thinking what to go for next. Muscovy, Poland, Brandenburg, Byzantine are on my shortlist. An extended list includes Japan, Austria, Hungary and Sweden.

I have found myself eyeballing Japan quite hard as well, that looks like a fun empire to establish from nothing through sheer force of will, but I do want to not incur the tech malus for my first serious play-through.

 

[Rainman05]

I have found myself eyeballing Japan quite hard as well, that looks like a fun empire to establish from nothing through sheer force of will, but I do want to not incur the tech malus for my first serious play-through.

Poland or Muscovy is good. The tech malus on eastern tech group is just 20%. It's a bit of an extra penalty than it was in EU3. In EU3, eastern european tech had a 5% deficiency in research. Over there, western tech was research at 100% and eastern at 95%. I do think they should diminish the deficit in Eastern tech in a coming patch to either 110% or 105%.
same for ottomans, maybe after they conquer constantinopole and reorgnize their culture, they could go from maybe 125% to 120/115%.

 

[marduc]

Poland or Muscovy is good. The tech malus on eastern tech group is just 20%. It's a bit of an extra penalty than it was in EU3. In EU3, eastern european tech had a 5% deficiency in research. Over there, western tech was research at 100% and eastern at 95%. I do think they should diminish the deficit in Eastern tech in a coming patch to either 110% or 105%.
same for ottomans, maybe after they conquer constantinopole and reorgnize their culture, they could go from maybe 125% to 120/115%.

I love that the game is so in depth, and that when you get going you have so much time invested in a single play through, but damn it makes it tough to determine which nation is to to be the one to invest all that time into :2razz:

I have been staring at the game map and clicking around for the last 45 minutes, I think I am just going to fire up Portugal and see about dominating the Indian ocean for now. There is also the possibility of continuing my viking/norse pagan save from CKII, but I am fairly sure I will leave that one for a rainy day.

 

[Rainman05]

I love that the game is so in depth, and that when you get going you have so much time invested in a single play through, but damn it makes it tough to determine which nation is to to be the one to invest all that time into :2razz:

I have been staring at the game map and clicking around for the last 45 minutes, I think I am just going to fire up Portugal and see about dominating the Indian ocean for now. There is also the possibility of continuing my viking/norse pagan save from CKII, but I am fairly sure I will leave that one for a rainy day.

i don't like importing my ck2 game. If I would, there would be a Carpathian empire stretching from the mediterranian sea in the south, the black sea in the east, the baltic sea in the north and all the way to Strassbourg in the west with the capitol in Byzantium. Oh, and the aztecs would own Spain. Quite a turn of events there

 

[iliveonramen]

i don't like importing my ck2 game. If I would, there would be a Carpathian empire stretching from the mediterranian sea in the south, the black sea in the east, the baltic sea in the north and all the way to Strassbourg in the west with the capitol in Byzantium. Oh, and the aztecs would own Spain. Quite a turn of events there

I feel you on that....I'm not a fan of importing ck games or importing EU games into Victoria

 

[Gathomas88]

I feel you on that....I'm not a fan of importing ck games or importing EU games into Victoria

I gotta say. The "overextension" mechanic really makes it kind of pointless anyway.

What in the Hell is the point of starting off with half of Europe under my thumb if I have to piecemeal out my conquests one province at a time?

I want my unstoppable legions to roll over the world like the mad mutant love babies of Chingis Khan and Megas Alexandros on steroids, damnit, not flounder in the doldrums of historical mediocrity with all the other plebs!

:lol: