Give me a nation to play

[SomebodyButMyself]

Hi there. Novice player here(139 hours) I’ve done a a couple of major power campaigns and minor nations campaigns. Need a few suggestions for future playthroughs.
DLCs:
Marr nostrom, common sense, el dorado, art of war, emperor, third rome, lions of the north and res publica

 

[Iieisiskke]

Initial suggestions: Sweden or Denmark - Updated Relatively Recently in Lions of the North
What kind of playthrough are you looking for?

 

[Sharkoman]

I think you'll like Aragon, Sweden, Lithuania, Hungary, Bohemia, Naples, Timerids, Japan, or Holland/Netherlands area. Lions of the North has some pirate republics you could play(don't know if you also need Golden century as well as lions of the North.)

 

[Blust]

Jianzhou

 

[Nwaij]

Ternate

 

[Josar]

If you want a mid sized nation im the HRE, Bohemia might be a good choice.

 

[sinisalo]

Come on man, throw us a bone. Some criteria at least, you know how many nations there are and with no preference of any kind listed it's a bit difficult to make a recommendation.

So I'll say Ethiopia

 

[Reni Malaj]

Rassids

 

[nobodyinparticular]

Lithuania with Lions of the North is really good. You open with mil focus to balance your mana spread (since your starting ruler is 4-4-1) and pick Aristocratic ideas first (a near perfect pick for Lithuania), then I like following with Infrastructure and Trade.

You rival Poland and build an anti-Polish coalition to gank them that ideally includes at least the Teutonic Order and either Hungary or Bohemia (Austria will almost always refuse to attack Poland because they're friendly due to mutual rivalries). Go for show strength on Novgorod on Nov 11th while you put your diplomats to work on improving relations. Once you declare on Poland for restore union with your buddies, declare on Livionian Order a month later (since Teutons won't join) and gobble them up first. Within a couple years you've got a very good power base with all the right culture right religion Baltic land from the Livonian Order and Poland subjugated.

 

[Sharkoman]

Lithuania with Lions of the North is really good. You open with mil focus to balance your mana spread (since your starting ruler is 4-4-1) and pick Aristocratic ideas first (a near perfect pick for Lithuania), then I like following with Infrastructure and Trade.

You rival Poland and build an anti-Polish coalition to gank them that ideally includes at least the Teutonic Order and either Hungary or Bohemia (Austria will almost always refuse to attack Poland because they're friendly due to mutual rivalries). Go for show strength on Novgorod on Nov 11th while you put your diplomats to work on improving relations. Once you declare on Poland for restore union with your buddies, declare on Livionian Order a month later (since Teutons won't join) and gobble them up first. Within a couple years you've got a very good power base with all the right culture right religion Baltic land from the Livonian Order and Poland subjugated.

Why would you do show of strength on Novgorod instead of taking valuable provinces away from Muscovy to significantly hinder their growth?

Poland can't do anything besides take Wallachia and the Teutons unless Hungary or Bohemia get ganked but Muscovy can quickly steamroll after taking Novgorod and the Tartars. Once Muscovy and Crimea have been taken care of you won't have to worry about your defences in the east or the Caucasus..

Your goal early game as Lithuania is to take care of Muscovy and prevent ottoman hegemony in the Black Sea, Scandinavia or Poland without Lithuania aren't really anything you need to worry about as far as threats but taking out the Teutons before Danzig appears will ensure a weak Poland and access to the rich German states and give you most of the Baltic trade node.

I would vassalize the Livonian Order in between Muscovy wars and have them take the regular provinces or distract enemy armies while you siege the forts. I'd keep Riga as an easy war goal against HRE emperor Austria and either dismantle Hungary Union or take provinces from Austria after cutting through Poland and Bohemia

 

[iClipse]

Lithuania with Lions of the North is really good. You open with mil focus to balance your mana spread (since your starting ruler is 4-4-1) and pick Aristocratic ideas first (a near perfect pick for Lithuania), then I like following with Infrastructure and Trade.

You rival Poland and build an anti-Polish coalition to gank them that ideally includes at least the Teutonic Order and either Hungary or Bohemia (Austria will almost always refuse to attack Poland because they're friendly due to mutual rivalries). Go for show strength on Novgorod on Nov 11th while you put your diplomats to work on improving relations. Once you declare on Poland for restore union with your buddies, declare on Livionian Order a month later (since Teutons won't join) and gobble them up first. Within a couple years you've got a very good power base with all the right culture right religion Baltic land from the Livonian Order and Poland subjugated.

Fun fact: Lithuania can form Poland (easy culture Swift). So, forcing Pu on Muscovy, then integrating Poland and forming Poland to then form Commonwealth is possible. You're a bit overpowered after this though.

 

[iClipse]

Why would you do show of strength on Novgorod instead of taking valuable provinces away from Muscovy to significantly hinder their growth?

Poland can't do anything besides take Wallachia and the Teutons unless Hungary or Bohemia get ganked but Muscovy can quickly steamroll after taking Novgorod and the Tartars. Once Muscovy and Crimea have been taken care of you won't have to worry about your defences in the east or the Caucasus..

Your goal early game as Lithuania is to take care of Muscovy and prevent ottoman hegemony in the Black Sea, Scandinavia or Poland without Lithuania aren't really anything you need to worry about as far as threats but taking out the Teutons before Danzig appears will ensure a weak Poland and access to the rich German states and give you most of the Baltic trade node.

I would vassalize the Livonian Order in between Muscovy wars and have them take the regular provinces or distract enemy armies while you siege the forts. I'd keep Riga as an easy war goal against HRE emperor Austria and either dismantle Hungary Union or take provinces from Austria after cutting through Poland and Bohemia

You get a PU on Muscovy though. So as long as you can beat them, you'd rather have them be strong. I remember conquering the required stuff for the PU and then giving back provinces for them to form Russia, for the free real estate in Siberia.

 

[Sharkoman]

You get a PU on Muscovy though. So as long as you can beat them, you'd rather have them be strong. I remember conquering the required stuff for the PU and then giving back provinces for them to form Russia, for the free real estate in Siberia.

I didn't know you could get a PU on Muscovy like that.

I've never played Lithuania, too big and too strong to start out, strongest nation I've played was England ( to form Angevin) and Aragon ( which can PU both Spain and Portugal and have them colonize for you while you vassalize Byzantium). I'm more of a fan of interesting OPMs (like the Knights or So), flavorful nations like Bohemia, Hungary, Aragon, Naples and Persia and difficult nations like Moldavia.

 

[nobodyinparticular]

I've never played Lithuania

Well I have and I consider it more optimal for opening moves to show strength on them.

 

[cuendillar]

Well I have and I consider it more optimal for opening moves to show strength on them.

I actually prefer to ally, rather than attack, Novgorod early on. It only costs a diplo slot and effectively keeps Muscovy from declaring on them so that they're instead forced to expand into wrong-religion, wrong culture land against the hordes. Slows them down alot with very little effort from your side. Later on, they can help you out when taking down the Muscovites but that's secondary to keeping them intact.