Post your Europa Universalis 4 Empire

[Blust]

Fun game with Georgia for the Saint Georges achievement. The start is painful, I often got attacked by QQ as soon as the truce ended and had to start another run. But at some point I managed to get an ally, and then I was able to stand on my own. The strelsty units carried me a bit too at the start.

It was fun building a kingdom into Persia while holding the Ottomans at bay in the west, with all defensive ideas and traditions. I was able to white peace them every time, until I managed to grab Burgundy and Russia to help me fend them. And then everybody wanted a part of them, thus the mess in the Balkans. And Europe is worse :
Spain inherited Austria and became military hegemony, Delhi vassalized the OPM Ottoman which he integrated and then conquered some part of Hungary. Canada and USA took some provinces in western France too, because why not.

 

[Austregisel]

The Khanate is Ill! MEIOU&Taxes 2.0

 

[Sukramo]

Got the new Byz achivements with this run. Only took two tries, i Stayed defensive until Austria/Hungary helped me while he was busy in the easy. Go into Naples early, dont get attacked and its pretty easy.

I´ve got the same dynasty as Muscovy and could easily got for a WC, but already did a Byz WC in a prior patch, so here is where I leave the world a better place.

 

[Blust]

Playing Armenia feels very similar to playing Georgia : struggle for a century, expand east while building forts in the west. I stacked attrition modifiers until I had something like + 7 attrition and +3 max attrition so the ottomans never had fun sieging my borders.

France got a PU on Hungary, and contested Spain for the Balkans once the Ottomans started crumbling

 

[Basileos]

Warning! One of the most ahistorical post in this thread!

Here is my OT OF campaign by Norse Russia (!), formed by Poland (!!).

Here are some reasons to choose Poland for Norse campaign:
1) Poland can easily get 6/6/6 ruler from event
2) Poland is strong enough and in good geographical postition to reach Sweden early
3) Poland can become emperor about 1450-1460 which helps alot at early game
4) As emperor Poland can get some PUs like Burgundy and Milan. If you are extremely lucky - yopu can get Jagellon generated ruler and form PU over Lithuania
5) When Emperor become Norse, HRE dismantled, which helps alot in conquest of Europe
6) You can feed Bohemia and PU them via mission which saves alot of AE
7) Polish mission is the only one way to become defender of faith for Norse country
8) You receive additional missionary from parliament which helps alot for Norse country
9) BOBR KURWA!
Only one disadvantage is that Poland cannot form Russia itself so you need to switch to Pomerania or any other German tag before forming Russia.

Ideas were Religious-Exploration-Administrative-Influence-Mercenary-Offensive-Espionage-Quality.

Early strategy is to conquer Sweden ASAP for switching primary culture, because Norse event MTTH is about 100 years and sometimes campaign could be ruined just by a lack of time.
After Sweden is conquered I feeded Hungary to Bohemia, crushed Lithuania and Muscovy, and at late XV century started wars with colonizers to prevent spreading Christianity in New World.
After formation of Russia I colonized Siberia and immideately moved my capital to Brazil to allow my Norse cossacks colonise entire New World.

It was very crazy campaign with alot of runs, ruined by random (usually Norse evennt hadn't fired before Reformation), but very unusual and funny.

 

[Nostalgium]

It's not my biggest Mughals. It's not my best Mughals.

But.



It is my funniest Mughals.



Formed through an MP campaign as a laugh. We realized that through allying and blitzing the Caucasus, a Bohemian and Persian player can cooperate to bring the word of Jan Hus to India by 1500.

Other highlights include a Castile that failed to form Spain throughout the entire campaign because Morocco conquered the Azores off of Portugal, on which Castile had no claim, locking them out of forming Spain as it requires no Muslim nation to control a province in Iberia.

 

[Manwe_Sulimo]

It's not my biggest Mughals. It's not my best Mughals.

But.

View attachment 1092098

It is my funniest Mughals.

View attachment 1092099View attachment 1092100View attachment 1092101

Formed through an MP campaign as a laugh. We realized that through allying and blitzing the Caucasus, a Bohemian and Persian player can cooperate to bring the word of Jan Hus to India by 1500.

Other highlights include a Castile that failed to form Spain throughout the entire campaign because Morocco conquered the Azores off of Portugal, on which Castile had no claim, locking them out of forming Spain as it requires no Muslim nation to control a province in Iberia.

Oh I love how the Timurid Dynasty spread across almost all Eurasia, any PUs?

 

[Nostalgium]

Oh I love how the Timurid Dynasty spread across almost all Eurasia, any PUs?

No, unfortunately. The contender for that on my end was Nubia, but it was a lazy campaign, so I never got around to it.

 

[rfcfanatic]

Republic of Jolof. A nation which does not receive any significant military bonuses apart from the +10% Siege Ability. Well, sieges felt shorter than usual indeed. Other than that, battles felt more challenging. Especially early against Mali and more so later against Spain and Portugal when the lack of morale and discipline bonuses became evident. It became easier only after completion of Innovative and Quality ideas when the Modern Firearms Techniques policy increased Infantry Combat Ability by 15%. But still, not good enough without Offensive ideas.

Established quite a bit of colonial subjects in colonial Brazil, Colombia, La Plata, Cuba and Australia in various imperialist wars against Spain, Portugal and Great Britain. Still couldn't conquer Africa fully though, due to trade interests in European trade nodes.

 

[Zxeres]

Nough Said.

 

[Lightbanee]

Another failed attempt to form Roman Empire with Byzantium urgh Italy is such a roadblock especially when your ally France decides to be Defender of the Faith so you have to fire proxy wars to actually attack Italian nations and England decided to be PU happy they had PUs on Portugal and Bohemia which made that extra difficult,

Allies: France, Savoy, Austria, Timurids

 

[Lightbanee]

My first Oirat game had plenty of fun destroying things my only regret was not keeping Oirat ideas feels like the Yuan ideas are weaker.

Allies: Bahmanis (Deccan), Ottomans, Dai Viet
Tributary: Bengal

Had the Cav combat bonuses from Horde, Aristocratic, Offensive and Quality and the Mandate Banner Cavalry modifier

 

[superscunk]

One Faith, close call!

 

[Lightbanee]

My second run at Ethiopia went a bit better this time, managed to get military superiority over the Mamulks and was able to hit them before the Ottomans took anything so I was able to secure the Aksum formation conditions really early,

Allies: Portugal, Spain, Austria, Timurids

 

[Lightbanee]

And now my most successful native campaign, I formed Inca by 1474 which game me plenty of time to prepare. I got lucky where Portugal was weak after losing land to Aragon. No Spain so Castille was weaker which meant they took longer to expand so that also helped. When I discovered Europe I was able to get an alliance with Aragon and France so I never got attacked which allowed me to land the invasion on Portugal taking out their land and giving me access to the westernized units.

Allies: Aragon, France, Genoa, Ottomans.

Can't wait for the new DLC, I want to play with the Aztecs and maybe now be able to form Rome with an Italian kingdom

 

[ecrurudesby]

Ardabil into Persia into Eranshahr

I created an early vassal of Armenia who transformed into Great Armenia which was cool. Kept them for most of the early game. After I integrated them I wanted more vassals in my community so later on I nurtured Punjab, then Nagaur, Wallachia, Mysore, Nogai, Astrakhan, Tirhut, and Najd. My only regret is not being more assertive with Arabia. I was worried I would struggle to get 15 Zoroastrian nations so I set free and converted most of southern Arabia and just let them be, only in the last few years did I vassalise Najd but it was too late; either one vassal owning it all or owning it myself would have been better borders.

There was a middle-eastern standoff between the Ottomans, Mamluks, and myself. I think the Ottomans played themselves by allying Karaman. I wanted the Ottomans as a challenge but they never grew to their usual strength, just hummed along between me and Austria, who split them with me after I made the first move. My biggest challenge (more of an annoyance at ALL THE FORTS) was Austria into Germany. Don't think Ottomans ever beat them in a war. They owned all of the Balkans and all of Greece. Ming stayed upright all game. They were the ones to go Revolutionary, ending our alliance. They only really started to weaken after I forced them back into a Monarchy. Poland was a valuable ally, France was decent too, just peaced out early once. Bengal was a pain, couldn't release much from them.

I got more achievements than I planned. I eventually wanted to get to tier 5 DoF so i just released a bunch of client states and then reloaded the save. Very cheap and feels like it should be disallowed like it is for getting your dynasty on eight thrones.

Oh and I got insanely cheap dev cost in the Age of Reformation with the Great Works of Iran and the unique Age ability. Also during that same period I had very cheap build cost, with Ruler personality, Policy, mission reward, and Religion. Used both of these things to build my nation during the 16th century.

Went Court first as I knew my other needs could wait. It was alright, though I think the absolutism idea should be buffed from -20% to -40% impact from privileges. Didn't create any Trade Companies whatsoever so the Merchants from Trade and Monuments were crucial (I would've benefited from more Merchants). I was able to get Global Trade to pop in Persia. The price increases for Silk were astronomical. I got very high Absolutism easily and maintained a decent amount of privileges and 100+ Absolutism without ever going through Court and Country.

 

[Blizzrd33]

Inner Turmoil achievement run as The Isles:

Allies: Portugal, Castile
Junior Partner: Burgundy

Turns out it's better if England doesn't rival Scotland if you want them to support your independence, because they desire your capital and are hostile if they rival your overlord.

England and Denmark both supported my independence straight off the bat in Dec 1444. I gave France Maine and Bordeaux from my English ally to get them out of the war ASAP. Denmark sieged down the Dumfries fort for me which was nice so I took all the cores of Gaeldom plus Ayrshire and Dumrfries along with my independence in 1446, while giving Lothian to England to keep them only slightly upset with me and still willing to be my ally. I ditched Denmark. I immediately released Gaeldom as a vassal because I needed to stab up from -3 and couldn't afford to core those provinces.

Started improving relations with Castile, because the plan was to invade one of the north African subjects of Morocco with their support once I had the 3rd Exploration idea and the coring range to reach them. This never eventuated, although I did go Exploration-Expansion with my idea sets. Castile ended up losing their first war to Granada and gave up three provinces to Granada. Portugal then defeated Granada and took a few Castilian cores in the peace deal, while Aragon sniped one from Granada to finish them off.

I forced spawned Renaissance in Ayrshire through devving, using mostly admin and mil points.

During the 1460s Burgundy declared war on England while Portugal was busy and took Calais and forced England to release Meath and give up three vassals it had acquired in Ireland. I was in this war too but didn't get impacted by the peace deal. Also during this time, France declared on England for its remaining cores and again I was included in the war but separate peaced out in exchange for breaking all deals with England.

In the 5 years of peace with England, I annexed Gaeldom and got claims on Meath, Ulster and Leinster (former English vassals) all of which had no allies. I annexed Meath and made Ulster and Leinster my vassals. This allowed me to build up my force limit to 16 which was about the same size as England's standing army. Portugal was in debt and dishonored it's alliance with England when I attacked them for Lothian, a couple of other English provinces in Scotland and Ireland, humiliation and about 500 ducats.

After mopping up Ireland it was time to start colonising. With the 3rd idea from Exploration (+50%) plus a Colonial Range advisor (+20%) plus 10% from the decision that is enabled from the Burgher new world charter estate privilege I was able to reach mainland Canada for my first colonial province. I took a Burgher diet mission to colonise Greenland for faster colonisation as my second colony, my third was in South Carolina and my fourth was Arguin in North Africa.

While I was at war with the native Americans in Florida and Jolof in West Africa, I got Burgundy as a junior partner. They had been allied to Aragon but Aragon fell under PU to Castile, and Burgundy was rivalled to both Austria and France so they chose me. Austria declared war on me for the Lowlands, but with Spain and Portugal's help I was able to white peace them out just as I conquered my 20th non-island province in North America.

 

[Sukramo]

Remember a few posts back when I said I would end my Bz run after getting the new achis? SURELY i wouldnt do a SECOND Byz WC......

.....The Emperor protects........

Export? To Mars?

 

[rasp01]

England to Roman empire by 1543, stable. no ai.

 

[Sharkoman]

I did a casual Hussite Bohemia and converted mainland Europe except most Lithuania lands because of the Orthodox acceptance modifier they have and Portugal and Denmark which I could technically easily take before 1821.

I got a lucky PU of France late game and France was the biggest subject I've ever got with over 1M troops which helped me a lot with my constant over extension rebels. Also used France to annex Spain. Naples was reduced to a single province by the Papal States and Tunis was reduced to below 100 development so I was able to Diplo vassalize them and retake their cores. Iraq was released from the remains of the Ottomans and I wanted Baghdad and a way to enter deep into Persia territory. Lithuania is an easy PU as you just have to PU Poland which is a bohemian mission.

I consistently had over 200% overextension for the last century of the campaign but while being at war my subjects were quickly on top of the 2.5 million revolt happening every time I conquered the German states. I have over 800 agressive expansion with England, Persia, Russia and old allies Scandinavia and Portugal. I survived the coalition by truce dodging for half the campaign but eventually everyone was able to join which slowed my expansion. Managed to break the coalition in the HRE and was able to eat them up but attacking countries that weren't in the coalition or releasing new nations and letting them ally ones that were in the coalition. Coalition surprisingly never declared war even though Great Britain, Portugal, Scandinavia and Persia were all active and without a truce. Honestly looking forward to a stretched out 3 front war

The Protestant League won with ease after I destroyed the Catholic HRE to the point where only Scandinavia and the Knights of Malta were the only nations able to become the emperor. Later France was able to join the HRE being my vassal and almost formed the Roman empire as a kingdom inside the HRE which eventually only became me and my subjects. All I was missing was Portugal, which also owned Morocco and Great Britain, but I had all the German states and eastern Europe to Moscow