Europa Universalis IV Player Resources

[vvvasi]

Greetings to all EU4 players, old and new alike! This post is designed with two objectives in mind: to serve as an orientation for new players, and for existing players, as an easy reference to any useful resources.

This post will continue to be updated as needed; if you believe something should be in here, feel free to drop a suggestion in this thread. Take care that some of the resources are not necessarily tweaked for the latest game version, and many are community-based (and therefore, unofficial).

CONTENTS: 1. QUICK LINKS 2. LEARNING EU4 3. GENERAL TIPS 4. BEGINNER TUTORIALS 5. GUIDES 6. JOIN THE COMMUNITY 7. FIND A MULTIPLAYER CAMPAIGN 8. USEFUL TOOLS 9. MODDING RESOURCES​

EU4 Wiki​	Tech Support​
Report a Bug​	Make a Suggestion​
Official PDX Discord​	Official EU4 Discord​
How to roll back your game version​	​

• EU4 has a great deal of interacting mechanics, but it’s definitely not necessary to understand them all when you’re just starting out. Don’t be discouraged by setbacks, even if you find yourself losing wars and territory. Mistakes are often the best way to learn. And remember: there are no real victory conditions in a single-player EU4 game, so you set the parameters for success yourself!

• Our community loves to answer questions and offer tips for a successful campaign. Reaching out on the EU4 forums, Reddit, or on Discord can be a priceless learning experience. See join the community below for links.

• Our official beginner tutorials (below) are short, concise, and a good way to get started - but our passionate community also creates plenty of engaging video content that is equal parts entertaining and educational. Watching creators’ videos is another great way to learn the game. See video guides below for some examples.

Recommended starting nations:​

Absolute beginners

• Portugal - naval and colonial powerhouse, with only one land border to worry about (Castile)
• Ottomans - starts with huge military capacity and large swathes of land
• Castile - boasts colonial and military might, with options to expand in different directions. Note: Domination DLC introduces some extra challenges to the start of Castile campaigns and is slightly more difficult.

More challenging

• France - diplomatic and military advantage
• Muscovy - military might and a dominant power in its starting region

Good for learning more complicated mechanics

• Austria - diplomatic advantage as starting emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (which is also helpful for learning HRE mechanics)
• Ming - starts as Emperor of China with the Mandate of Heaven DLC. Also begins with the highest starting number of provinces & development on the map.

Useful links:​

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Wiki\Beginner’s guide​	Wiki\Jargon​
Wiki\Achievements​	Wiki\Category: Game concepts​
Wiki\DLC​	FAQ & Strategy Guides​
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Government ​

• During peacetime, you may find yourself taking a less active role in your country’s affairs, and as a new player it’s often preferable to be reactive than to click random buttons with functions completely unknown to you.

• It can be beneficial to take your time with conquests. Snapping up new lands in quick succession risks overextension, which has significant negative effects.

• Hoard those monarch points! You don't want to spend them as lightly as you do your ducats.

Diplomacy ️️️​

• Pay attention to diplomacy outside of your nation, as it has a very real impact on your own diplomatic efforts. For instance, if you wanted to maintain good relations with Austria, you would want to avoid allying with any of its enemies or rivals.

• Religion also plays a role in diplomacy. Sharing a religion with another nation confers bonuses to their attitude towards you, while having heretic (different religion, same religious group) or heathen (different religious group) views generally incurs diplomatic penalties.

• Be mindful of aggressive expansion diplo penalties from conquests. It's more than just a number!

Warfare ​

• A battle’s outcome is determined by far more than just how many units you have. Even with fewer units, an army or navy with (for example) better morale or more pips in a certain category can often come out on top. One way of comparing the relative strength of an enemy is to check their military tech level compared to yours, and to consult the ledger (in-game shortcut: L) -> Military -> Army Quality Comparison screen.

• When you lose a battle, units will often retreat and their numbers can be reinforced - unless defeat is so severe that a “stackwipe” occurs, removing units from the game. Your manpower and sailors determine how much of your army/navy can be reinforced.

• Army composition is also important, much like real-life battles - don’t just build units indiscriminately (there are exceptions, but with most nations you will generally find yourself building armies with many more infantry units than any other kind). We recommend checking out one of the relevant tutorials/guides linked in below sections for more information.

• Conversely, setting up your navies largely depends on what you expect to use your fleet for: whether transport, coastal battles, trade protection, etc.

EU4 Tutorial for Complete Beginners (playlist)​

#1 - The Basics​	#4 - Armies and Navies​
#2 - Trade​	#5 - Warfare​
#3 - Diplomacy​

There is a wealth of great and informative EU4 video guides out there, all of which are a great way to learn or improve your EU4 skills - regardless of how experienced you are. Here are just some examples.
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Ludi et Historia - Army Composition Guide​	Quarbit Gaming - EU4 General Guides (playlist)​
Ludi et Historia - The Complete Beginner’s Guide to EU4 Trade​	Red Hawk - EU4 Guides (playlist) (nation specific guides)​
Ludi et Historia - Guide to ‘Playing Tall’​	Reman’s Paradox - EU4 (playlist)​
Ludi et Historia - Estates Guide for Beginners​

Note that many of these were not created using the current game version, so some details may be outdated. It's also very much worthwhile to look into nation-specific tutorials, which can give you strategic insights you might not otherwise get from general guides.

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Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Discord

Discord (PDX general)

Reddit (unofficial)
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Official EU4 Discord​	Discord (PDX general)​
PDX Forums​	Paradox Community Discord​

Tip: If your favourite EU4 streamer or content creator has their own Discord server, try poking around there for people to play with.
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EUIV Paradox Simulator
Official EU4 Educators' Guide (EU for the classroom!)

Save file analysers:
Skanderbeg
PDX Tools​

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EU4 Wiki - Modding​	EU4 - Basic Modding Lessons (video)​
Modding Subforum​	EU4 Mods - Reddit​
Official EU4 Discord Server modding channel​

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Mod spotlights:​

If you're interested in hearing from modders themselves about their process, check out our mod spotlight series.
There are a lot of great quality EU4 mods out there, both on Paradox Plaza and Steam. This series highlights some of these more popular mods, as well as lesser-known mods, and even those that are currently in development. Here's what we've covered so far:

Europa Expanded
Ante Bellum
Idea Variation
Dirinas
Extended Timeline
Plati's Visuals
Land of the Free
Ages Reformed
Anbennar, pt. 1
Anbennar, pt. 2
Beyond the Cape
Mesoamerican Expansion
Gods and Kings
Modathon Season 2 (Babur's Gate 4, Upon A Crimson Horse, etc)
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[mneme]

Thanks for this !

 

[wobarch]

never I would say that ming is a good nation to start. - maybe Vijayanagar or Korea in asia, but ming is with mandate of heaven interesting but easy to doom as new player

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[Mindel]

I would suggest removing Ming from the list of beginner nations.

Or, better yet, actually fixing the problems with mandate events and missions so that playing Ming is more than just an exercise in masochism. The fact that AI Ming dies at the beginning of every campaign now should be a clue.

 

[Manwe_Sulimo]

Very good idea - this can indeed be a great help for beginners.

However, I find the list of beginner's nations a bit problematic. I would put Portugal at least at the bottom of the first list, if not even in the second list because their weak economy at game start, the trap of attacking Morocco and the looming PU war from Castile in the recent versions can be more challenging than Castile or Ottomans which are indeed the perfect nations for beginning colonial / land conquest respectively.

I would also definetly remove Ming, with the complexity of Mandate of Heaven and all the disasters surrounding them they are definetly not a beginner's nation, especially combined with ROTW specialities. Also Austria seems to be too complex for one of the first game due to the HRE mechanics.

Vijayanagar seems to be a good ROTW choice list for the list, Bengal or Jaunpur could also be options there.

 

[random somebody]

I would say remove not only Ming, but also all nations that recent DLCs focus on. For beginners, the new contents are too complicated and challenging, which kind of confuse them rather than help them learn basic mechanics. For example, starting as the 'strongest' nation Ottomans, beginners would probably ruin their experience due to janissaries.

 

[kingkarna1]

pro tip: always declare war with no CB (causus belie).
......
JK

 

[Akaislot]

Very good idea - this can indeed be a great help for beginners.

However, I find the list of beginner's nations a bit problematic. I would put Portugal at least at the bottom of the first list, if not even in the second list because their weak economy at game start, the trap of attacking Morocco and the looming PU war from Castile in the recent versions can be more challenging than Castile or Ottomans which are indeed the perfect nations for beginning colonial / land conquest respectively.

I would also definetly remove Ming, with the complexity of Mandate of Heaven and all the disasters surrounding them they are definetly not a beginner's nation, especially combined with ROTW specialities. Also Austria seems to be too complex for one of the first game due to the HRE mechanics.

Vijayanagar seems to be a good ROTW choice list for the list, Bengal or Jaunpur could also be options there.

2k+ hours & still not touched ming

 

[Marquoz]

I wrote a quick beginners guide in a Steam forum thread and thought I would cross-post it here as well:

To start, realize that EU4 is both complex and deep. You won’t be able to master it quickly. It will take hundreds of hours of experience before you actually get good at the game. And that’s fine! Make mistakes! Watch them wreck you! Lose! But learn from the process. It’s a fun experience.

Also, note that I strongly recommend you play the Ottomans for your first campaign. They aren’t the game’s most powerful nation, but they are the easiest of the great powers to learn with. They have a simple start and are most forgiving of the mistakes a new player is going to make. They have no dangerous immediate neighbors, the ability to almost ignore religion, a strong ruler, a solid economy and military, and many options.

Before you even unpause the game, you should customize your message settings. Pretty much every message in the game is customizable, and many of them should be set to "Pop up and pause." Army reaches destination? Pop up and pause. Fleet reaches destination? Pop up and pause. Battle begins? Pop up and pause. Battle ends? Pop up and pause. Siege ends? Pop up and pause. War starts anywhere? Pop up and pause. Etc. etc. etc. Letting the game sail on while your military sits without orders will cost you wars, and being ignorant of what’s going on around you will cost you the game.

Also, before you unpause, decide on what your goal is for the campaign you’re about to start. Are you trying to get a specific ironman achievement? Do you want to learn about colonization? Unify the Holy Roman Empire? Show Europeans that Japan can beat them at their own game? Having a goal will provide focus to your game.

Your most important resource is your monarch points. You get these from your ruler’s stats, your advisors, from estate privileges, and from power projection. These are complex topics that I won’t describe in detail here, but some high points are appropriate. First, note that monarch points come in three categories, Admin, Diplo, and Military. All three categories of points buy technological advancement and ideas, and all three also have additional uses. Admin is used to establish control of newly conquered land—to “core it” in game parlance. Diplo is used to peacefully integrate vassals and to hire naval leaders. And Military is used to hire army leaders. There are other functions, too, but those are most important. Getting as many monarch points as you can is crucial.

Advisors provide between +1 and +5 to their category every month. Small, poor nations can’t afford any. Strong starting nations like the Ottomans can hire +1’s immediately and soon grow to +3’s. And global powerhouses can afford +5 in all categories.

Estate privileges can provide an additional +1 to each category. Estates represent the great internal power blocs of your realm—the church, the nobles, the merchants, and so on. Estate privileges and crownland are not a simple topic and I won’t go into great detail here. As a beginner, focus on keeping your crownland above 30% to avoid penalties, and increase that value by “seizing crownland” whenever you can. Be careful with the privileges you grant. In addition to the ones that boost monarch power, focus on those that increase estate loyalty at least as much as estate influence. The most important single privilege is probably “Supremacy over the Crown,” which is usually but not always a nobility privilege. It boosts all estates’ loyalty equilibrium by 10% at the cost of allowing them to call periodic diets (legislative sessions). These diets will force you to choose between three missions to keep your estates happy—but many of these missions are great and provide useful bonuses.

Speaking of missions, each nation has a mission tree that can guide your playthrough. You don’t have to follow it if you don’t want to, but the rewards for doing so are powerful. I recommend looking at it frequently as your game position changes to see if an available mission is near completion. Then you can focus your efforts on it.

The most important thing you can do on a strategic level is create a good alliance web. If you and your allies are stronger than your potential enemies, those enemies will be too afraid to attack you. If you’re weaker, you’re going to be a target. Pick your allies carefully, with an eye towards future expansion. Tunis makes a good ally for the Ottomans, for example. The have a solid fleet, a decent army, and a good geographic position. They aren’t an early target of yours, but they’re close enough to help you against nations that you’ll fight soon, like the Mamluks. Also, note that alliances will shift during the course of the game. Today’s ally is tomorrow’s conquest target.

Speaking of conquest, warfare is a complex topic. But some general tips will be helpful. Battle results are determined by the following factors:

--Relative tech levels. Even a difference of one point can have a huge impact. Make sure you are the one in the lead.
--The terrain you fight on. Always attack in plains. Always try to defend in hills, mountains, or forests. Don't cross rivers to attack. Make your enemies cross one to attack you.
--Generals. But not just any general will do. Siege pips are wonderful against forts but do nothing in a battle. Fire pips are useless until infantry develop good fire values and cannons advance a few levels. Etc.
--Combat width and army composition. You want a front row of infantry + cavalry equal to your combat width. For most nations, a small number of cavalry (2 to 6, depending on combat width) is optimal. Your rear row should be exclusively artillery. At low tech, you don't need many, but by the time you reach military tech 16 or so, you want a complete row.
--Sending in a second army to reinforce the first in large battles after significant damage has been done to your side.
--Making sure your troops are fully funded in wartime and have time to reach max morale.
--Drilling. The AI loves to drill, and the bonuses it provides are powerful. Once you can afford it, drill your armies in peacetime.
--Advisor and ruler bonuses
--National and military idea groups--but note that you can do VERY well in combat without either of these.

Once you really learn how combat works, you will go entire campaigns without losing a single battle.

Finally, I want to mention idea groups. As you move through the tech tree, you will unlock a series of eight idea groups. The groups you pick will play a big role in defining your playthrough. As the Ottomans, in order, I recommend Admin/Diplo/Influence as the first three that you choose. I call those groups “The Big Three” because they’re so useful. The reasons why won’t make much sense to you yet, but trust me, you can’t go wrong with them. Humanism makes a good 4th pick for the Ottomans. After that, it gets more complicated, but Expansion and Trade should be on your radar (if your game gets that far).

I hope this is of use. Feel free to ask specific questions on these forums as you learn the game. And remember the point I made at the beginning: EU4 is complex, and you’re going to be bad at it for a long time. Enjoy the learning process.