The Europa Universalis IV Thread

[Emperoreddy]

My Prussian game continues.

Leagues are forming, and now it is a matter of time for the powder keg that is the HRE to blow. Must of the smaller princes joined me in the Protestant league. The Hapsburg in Austria joined up with the Emperor's in Bohemia in the Catholic league. In a shocker, England has also joined the Catholic League (along with declaring me their rival).

France kicked England out of main land Europe so I'm curious how they plan to fight the upcoming war. The Prussian navy stands at the ready to repel a sea invasion, while the well disciplined Prussian army sets its sights on Bohemia and Austria.

The King in Prussia will be Emperor again.

The Poland/Lithuanian PU is crippled from the war of Prussian ascendance along with the growing threat of Muscavy on their eastern border. Hungary is being ripped apart by in fighting has independent states start to form within its borders. The Ottomans oddly have not taken advantage as they pushed eastward into Arabia. Further east is still a mystery.

Meanwhile a newly formed Spain and Portugal's colonial rivalry has erupted into full scare war in western Europe. France remains oddly ideal, its borders stabilized and England removed from the mainland, they focus on development, while their neighbor Burgundy pushes into the HRE, especially Bohemia.

The Italian peninsula remains divided among the nation states, while papal influence has reached an all time low thanks to the Reformation.

In the North, Normandy suffered a civil war, while both the Danes and Swedes patiently wait to see the outcome of the upcoming religious war inside the German borders.

 

[bigdirty]

Just did my first ever attempt at a Byzantium game. After a few starts that resulted in quick finishes at the hands of the Ottomans, I finally got a good one going where I allied with Hungary and Austria early on. Of course, no amount of insults could entice the Ottomans to attack me at that point, so I decided to sit back and wait until I had enough favours built up to bring my new allies into my own war.

Thing were looking good, I had more than 10 favours with Hungary, and was maybe just a year or two from getting my 10 favours with Austria. And that's when Hungary got dragged into a war with Poland. The Ottomans saw the opportunity and attacked me.

The war actually was going fairly well, me and Austria were able to defeat the Ottomans in the first three major battles, but I couldn't get them to follow me over to Constantinople, which was under siege. Finally, I took the two forts between Greece and Constantinople, and around this time, Hungary had finished their war with Poland, and things were looking up.

But then, three time in a row, we had almost re-taken Constantinople when the Ottomans attacked us with their full force. The third time, we had the siege up to 49% when we were attacked, and with the Ottomans getting the defensive bonuses for occupying the fort, we ended up losing a very close battle and couldn't recover. Game over.

If I had just been able to re-take Constantinople, that would've left me in control of all the forts on the European side, and we could've easily repelled any Ottoman attempt to re-take them. So close to a successful Byzantium game.

 

[bigdirty]

Just did a second attempt as Byzantium, and this one went much better. Got lucky early on and received four of my core provinces after an Ottoman attack on Albania didn't go too well for them. Allied Austria and Hungary after that, and twice when I was attacked by Ottomans, they came to the rescue and I was able to take some more provinces, and also managed to grab a few provinces from Venice.

Then one day, I decided it was time to actually attack the Ottomans instead of waiting for them to attack me. They were at war with Persia, so I went for it, bringing Austria and Hungary along for the fun. At this time, the Ottomans were inexplicably allied with Frankfurt and Mecklenburg, so it didn't seem like a big problem.

But what I wasn't counting on was Austria and Hungary having no interest in actually fighting. They joined the war, moved their armies down to my territory, and did nothing. Ottoman sent a 35k army to Constantinople, but nobody is willing to come attack them with me. I attacked with a 44k army, but it's the Ottomans, so of course I lost. Meanwhile, Austria is sitting literally one province over with their 40k army, all they had to do was join the battle and we'd win it easily. Instead they just sat there and watched me get destroyed. Meanwhile, Hungary took off and started chasing Frankfurt's 10k army in a circle all over Europe, so they're no help. Ottoman reinforcements arrive, and they take on Austria's army. At that point, there was no chance at victory. Ottomans sieged half my country before my army could even recover its morale, and Austria didn't even both sending it's army back down to help.

Really sucks when you spend 150 years struggling against a massive empire, then finally get them to the breaking point, and your allies decide that they're not going to bother helping out in any battles.

 

[Bjorn Le]

I find you need to get the ball rolling very quickly with Byzantium (probably for any Balkan attempt to be honest, maybe explains my Albanian struggles). Crush the Ottomans in their cradle before they can get too big. That means in the first war you need to take high development provinces in both Anatolia and Greece. Don't worry about Venice, you can always use your allies to beat the later. The fact that the Ottomans were even big enough to contest Persia means they got too big IMO. I've had a few successful runs as Byzantium, and I usually tried to ally Poland and Hungary. I don't know if allying Poland is still viable now but I find Poland-Lithuania/Commonwealth is a more reliable ally than Austria.

 

[bigdirty]

My biggest problem was that I couldn't crush the Ottomans early on. Almost immediately after that first war, they allied both France and Bohemia, so attacking them just wasn't going to work.

Tried to salvage the game and after a long time, I managed to recover somewhat. Austria and Hungary went to war with each other so I had to pick a side and chose Hungary. Then got alliances with Castille and Muscovy. First defensive war after that went well, grabbed a couple provinces. Then Muscovy got attacked by Denmark, Poland and Bohemia, so that was pretty much the end of them. I got attacked again, and this time it was only me, Hungary and Castille(who didn't actually send any troops despite having the only navy in the world better than the Ottomans). Ottomans moved in their 150k stack and sieged down all my forts before I could even finish hiring mercenaries. This was the screenshot I took about a month before that war started:

One thing I found really annoying in this playthrough was how nobody else ever seemed willing to attack the Ottomans no matter how weakened they were. In my second war, we demolished the Ottoman army, only problem was their ships were blocking the strait so I couldn't siege down those provinces and run up the warscore. But at on point their manpower was gone, and they only had about 20k soldiers. Mamluks had over 40k at that time, and full manpower, and didn't capitalize. Not to mention that Poland/Lithuania could've brought their allies into a war at any time in the last 100 years and beaten the Ottomans easily.


Also, I never even noticed until right now that Morocco took over Portugal. Kinda makes me want to try a Morocco playthrough now.

 

[bigdirty]

Well, I'm officially obsessed now. Gave Byzantium another try, allied Albania at the start right before Ottomans attacked them again, this time I ended up getting all of my cores back in the peace deal. Allied Hungary and Poland, and attacked Ottomans while they were at war with someone else. everything was going great, we defeated them in 3 or 4 battles, occupied every province on the European side, and we were basically just waiting for them to cross the strait again so we could destroy them.

And then Bohemia decides to get involved and tries to enforce a white peace. I refused and me and my allies went up and mopped the floor with Bohemia. But while we were doing that, Ottomans moved in and sieged down three of my forts, including Constantinople. It was all downhill from there.

But now it's just annoying the hell out of me so I'm going to have to just keep trying it over and over until I finally get it.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Lmao.

I started a Bohemia game just for whatever. I never played them before so I decided to give it a shot. I married with Austria and eventually got their dynasty. I kept the von Habsburg dynasty and then I guess Hungary had the same dynasty and their leader died giving me the Union over them instead of Austria.

It's only 1455 too. It's my 3rd PU ever.

 

[Ducksforcup]

Well, I'm officially obsessed now. Gave Byzantium another try, allied Albania at the start right before Ottomans attacked them again, this time I ended up getting all of my cores back in the peace deal. Allied Hungary and Poland, and attacked Ottomans while they were at war with someone else. everything was going great, we defeated them in 3 or 4 battles, occupied every province on the European side, and we were basically just waiting for them to cross the strait again so we could destroy them.

And then Bohemia decides to get involved and tries to enforce a white peace. I refused and me and my allies went up and mopped the floor with Bohemia. But while we were doing that, Ottomans moved in and sieged down three of my forts, including Constantinople. It was all downhill from there.

But now it's just annoying the hell out of me so I'm going to have to just keep trying it over and over until I finally get it.

Gods it's such a hard game now (The Byzantine game). Keep at it...when you win, it is SO SATISFYING.

 

[bigdirty]

Gods it's such a hard game now (The Byzantine game). Keep at it...when you win, it is SO SATISFYING.

Yeah, my favourite part of EU4 is starting as a country that's badly outmatched early on, then finding some way to win, so I just can't give up on Byzantium.

In a few tries now, I seem to be able to get all my cores back pretty easily. Ally with Albania, and hope Ottomans attack them first. Albania always seems to ally Hungary, so the combination of the three of us(with Albania's insanely good general) is usually enough to get me all my cores back early on. I'm thinking my goal after that need to be building a massive navy. If I can control the strait, I can strategically allow some of the Ottoman army across, then block the strait to prevent the rest from joining in until I can get a stack wipe. Then repeat as necessary until their army is gone.

Lmao.

I started a Bohemia game just for whatever. I never played them before so I decided to give it a shot. I married with Austria and eventually got their dynasty. I kept the von Habsburg dynasty and then I guess Hungary had the same dynasty and their leader died giving me the Union over them instead of Austria.

It's only 1455 too. It's my 3rd PU ever.

I love playing as Bohemia, done it a bunch of times, but wow I've never had that kind of luck. How's your relationship with Poland? If they're not a rival, you could ally with them and basically conquer Western Europe at your leisure. Or if they hate you, use Austria to conquer Poland at your leisure.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

I love playing as Bohemia, done it a bunch of times, but wow I've never had that kind of luck. How's your relationship with Poland? If they're not a rival, you could ally with them and basically conquer Western Europe at your leisure. Or if they hate you, use Austria to conquer Poland at your leisure.

They rivaled me off the start and I allied with Austria.

I went to war against Poland without Austria's help. I thought I had a chance but it failed. It was a taxing war for both and so I peaced out right away when they gave me a favourable loss deal. I only lost 1 province and that was fine with me, and was one of the Silesian ones. I ended up taking Berlin later shortly. It's 1506 and the Protestant Reformation is starting to happen. Burgundian Inheritance happened and Austria got it.

I am also the Emperor. So far I passed 2 reforms

 

[bigdirty]

Another promising start as Byzantium, and another game where everything manages to go wrong.

First war, I get all my cores except Edirne. But that's okay, because Ottomans are severely weakened and I've got Poland and Austria as allies, so I can get it back in the next war. Then my king dies and my 5-6-4 heir takes the throne, but I get pretender rebels spawn in Constantinople... and without Edirne, I have no land access to Constantinople, and my army is down in Greece. Oh, I and just disbanded all my transport ships so I could make a huge fleet of galleys to control the strait in my next war. So after just getting myself out of debt from the first war, I now have to take out a ton more loans to build a new transport fleet, and even more loans to build an army capable of defeating the rebels. I did finally defeat them, but they enforced demands when I had the siege of Constantinople at 49%. So I get a nice 0-0-2 king instead, and 14 loans to pay off.

And that's when Ottomans attacked. Austria didn't join the war, since they were too busy finding a way to lose a war against Nassau. Poland joined but didn't actually move any of their troops, even when their own cities were being sieged.


It really seems like everything has to go absolutely perfect in the opening 30 years or so to pull this off. Everything can be completely derailed by one bad event, or one stupid ally.

 

[CaptBrannigan]

Reading about this game in this topic has me really wanting to try it out.

 

[Bjorn Le]

You're making me feel bad about my Byzantium games. I didn't have to restart very much to get it going.

Reading about this game in this topic has me really wanting to try it out.

It's a very difficult game to get into but immensely satisfying. I have over 1500 hours put into it and I buy every DLC on day one. Paradox is an amazing company who actively listens to their player base (even though they complain a lot). If you're serious about trying it, watch some Let's Plays and see if it's something you would enjoy then buy it with the DLC when it's on sale. As far as let's play plays goes I like DDRJake (he's a Paradox employee and he's hilarious) but he might not be the best person to teach the game

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Reading about this game in this topic has me really wanting to try it out.

Itès a fun game.

There is a learning curve too. I have 740 hours, and I'm still trying to learn stuff and try new things.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Nearly 1 million men died in the League War. My Prussian lead Protestant League came out on top, but somehow because of the huge change in electors, Sweden is now Emperor. The HRE is shrinking down to about 35 Electors now, and because only Protestants can be Emperor I will most likely be crowned next.

Spain ended up joining the Protestant side, I imagine to fight with their rivals in England, while Poland/Lithuania joined the Catholic League along side Bohemia, Austra, England, and some smaller states.

England was never able to get a proper army across the channel until the very end of the war. I was able to call in my ally Muscovy. The combined Spanish, Prussian, Muscovy, armies laid waste to the bulk of Austria and Poland's forces.

Poland lost the most. They were completely crushed to the point that they lost their entire armies, and had to go bankrupt. Lithuania lost some land to Muscovy, while I took the remaining Prussian lands. The bankruptcy caused massive peasant rebellions to break out across Poland. Lithuania broke off their PU with Poland, and are dealing with their own stability issues. So there will be no Commonwealth in my game.

As a result, along with a war that finished off the Great Horde, Muscovy has now formed Russia. We are allies now, but with Poland becoming a non-factor, control over Eastern Europe is going to come down to Prussia and Russia. For now the alliance holds and we were able to slow down the Ottomans in a victorious crusade.

France is still sitting rather quietly. They own the majority of their traditional borders, but have not attempted to blob past that. They still sit near the top of the Great Powers list so that is concerning.

Spain has also conquered all of southern Italy. Venice is the only traditional Italian power left.

England is getting close to forming Great Britain, but still hasn't annexed all of Scotland yet.

 

[bigdirty]

Finally did it. First war against Ottomans went beautifully, got all my cores back. For the second war I build a fleet of 25 galleys and wouldn't let the Ottomans cross into Europe. Poland joined me in the war, and we ended up getting 100% war score, wiped out the Ottoman army and navy.

Right afterwards I force vassalized Wallachia because why not, I was on a roll. Joined Hungary in a war with Venice and got one of the Greek islands. My truce with the Ottomans is done, and they are currently fighting a very evenly matched war against Qara Qoyunlu(I know I spelled that wrong). As soon a Hungary's war exhaustion goes away, I'm dragging them along to give the Ottomans a final nail in the coffin.

And now, finally, I can go to bed.


I did see one odd thing however. I had to promise territory to Poland to get them to join the war, but at the end I realized they didn't have any claims on Ottoman territory. They had occupied several provinces, and I was willing to let them have any one of them in the peace deal, but they wouldn't take any. Then after the war they nearly broke our alliance because presumably they were angry that I wouldn't give them any of the provinces that they refused to take. Just seems kinda weird.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Good job, man!

 

[bigdirty]

Yikes. Made probably the dumbest mistake ever today. Still playing Byzantium, I had conquered most of Anatolia and Egypt, but I really wanted to take over Albania and southern Italy(Aragon) for a long time, but their allies were fantastic so I never had a good opportunity.

One day I had finished coring 6 or 7 provinces all at once, so I had all the messages about it come up, and so I just started hitting the escape key a bunch of times to get rid of all the messages. I noticed too late that the last message wasn't about a province I had just cored, it was a message that Burgundy had just inherited Aragon in a PU and it was giving me a chance to fight them for it. Oh, and Burgundy's only ally was Albania. So yeah, I could've conquered Albania and inherited Aragon at the same time.

The lesson here is to always pay attention to every message you get.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

I started a game as France because I'm going to do Master of India. I wasn't paying attention to the HRE stuff and I was elected Emperor so I was forced into the Catholic League. I was planning to join the Protestant league or not join any side at all. Protestants own Central Europe.

They got Ottomans, England, Russia, Sweden, Venice and Brandenburg and bunch of smaller nations. All we got is me, Spain, Aragon, Hungary, and Commonwealth a couple of smaller guys. Austria is still yet to pick, so hopefully they join the Catholic League.

it sucked too since the Ottomans and Brandenburg were my allies. Commonwealth is still mine. I think we have a chance, but the smaller nations do add up in comparison to ours.

Portugal has 6 of the 7 electors voting for them, so hopefully my leader dies and they get elected or would that change anything for me?

 

[bigdirty]

I started a game as France because I'm going to do Master of India. I wasn't paying attention to the HRE stuff and I was elected Emperor so I was forced into the Catholic League. I was planning to join the Protestant league or not join any side at all. Protestants own Central Europe.

They got Ottomans, England, Russia, Sweden, Venice and Brandenburg and bunch of smaller nations. All we got is me, Spain, Aragon, Hungary, and Commonwealth a couple of smaller guys. Austria is still yet to pick, so hopefully they join the Catholic League.

it sucked too since the Ottomans and Brandenburg were my allies. Commonwealth is still mine. I think we have a chance, but the smaller nations do add up in comparison to ours.

Portugal has 6 of the 7 electors voting for them, so hopefully my leader dies and they get elected or would that change anything for me?

If Portugal gets elected then you'll again be able to choose which side of the war you want to join. You could also abdicate the throne if you don't feel like waiting.

I actually had a game once as Bohemia where I was leader of the Protestant league, and was getting set to start the war. I was best friends with France and Russia, both of whom joined my side and things were looking good. Then France became emperor, immediately broke our alliance and rivaled me. Suddenly it was me, Russia, useless old England and a handful of small nations on the Protestant side, while the Catholics had France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Poland/Lithuania, Denmark/Norway/Sweden, most of Italy and the Ottomans. Never saw it so lopsided before.

 

[MadArcand]

I started a game as France because I'm going to do Master of India. I wasn't paying attention to the HRE stuff and I was elected Emperor so I was forced into the Catholic League. I was planning to join the Protestant league or not join any side at all. Protestants own Central Europe.

They got Ottomans, England, Russia, Sweden, Venice and Brandenburg and bunch of smaller nations. All we got is me, Spain, Aragon, Hungary, and Commonwealth a couple of smaller guys. Austria is still yet to pick, so hopefully they join the Catholic League.

it sucked too since the Ottomans and Brandenburg were my allies. Commonwealth is still mine. I think we have a chance, but the smaller nations do add up in comparison to ours.

Portugal has 6 of the 7 electors voting for them, so hopefully my leader dies and they get elected or would that change anything for me?

I can't believe you get a gift like that and try to get rid of it.

They won't even declare the league war on you if you have all Iberia, PLC and Hungary on your side. Keep in mind your normal allies would help you as well. This looks like eventual catholic empire by default.

Though as France you should try to become emperor ASAP if only to fully inherit Burgundy. Fremperor = best emperor.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

I can't believe you get a gift like that and try to get rid of it.

They won't even declare the league war on you if you have all Iberia, PLC and Hungary on your side. Keep in mind your normal allies would help you as well. This looks like eventual catholic empire by default.

Though as France you should try to become emperor ASAP if only to fully inherit Burgundy. Fremperor = best emperor.

Well, Brandenburg is about to break our Alliance.

The Electors hate me because they are all Protestant.


I just realised looking at the picture, that Portugal is in the Protestant League too. No wonder they are voting for them.

 

[MadArcand]

Well, that's worse. In that case you can't hold onto the title anyway.

Speaking of HRE shenanigans, I had a hilarious game as Hesse (for Hessian Mercenaries). Became emperor, PUd and inherited Bohemia and then decided to play a Sith Emperor kind of game... not protecting the Empire but eating it from the inside instead. Which led to this:

Apparently you can be a one-man HRE.

Ended like this:

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Yeah, Ottos just broke our alliance. Castille and I stopped rivaling each other and became allies. I allied Scotland, and they joined the Catholic League. Hopefully, Austria chooses soon.

 

[StrictlyCommercial]

Seems like we're all on similar pages in where we play. Just got the Big little duchy or whatever achievement for 1,000 development as a Duchy with Austria. Started by forcing a PU on Bohwmia, then got the Hungary PU. Stopped the Shadow Kingdom and pushed back the Ottomans early (although they are still getting huge by pushing East). Spent 20 years buying down war exhaustion after 100%ing Burgundy to force the inheritance. Discovered that every time you make peace the war exhaustion timer resets, so I just attacking small alliances and patrolling the HRE to not blow up from WE. Amusing when you HAVE to go to war to reduce war exhaustion.

Up to 1550 or so with Bohemia and Hungary integrated. I've contained all my major enemies (France, Ottos, Commonwealth). Also managed to get the Empire down to only a single heretic Prince. League War was just enabled and its currently just Saxony on the prorestant side with 20 or so nations on my side. Going to have to wait it out to pass the last 3 reforms it looks like.