Advise for starting campaign

[Lord_Bean]

Greetings fellow worldleaders!

If I might take a moment of your time I'd like to ask some of your advice as a relatively new EUIV player on what would be a fun campaign to do. So I'm not looking for strategy tips or anything like that, but rather for some fun campaign goals with a nation. I'll give some background:

I've played some EUIV before at a friend of mine and had a fun campaign Holland > The Netherlands and later one where we tried to take one of the South American nations and resist colonization, etc. Now I've just splurged somewhat on the Europa Universalis IV: Collection and can finally do a proper full campaign myself. It means I got all the DLC except for Mandate, Rome and Cradle (I think).

I feel I got a decent grasp on the mechanics (although trade somewhat eludes me) and I've got a lot of hours on CK2 and quite some in Victoria II so I'm at least used to all the stuff the Paradox interface throws at you. I'm therefore not really looking for 'newbie island' (Ireland in CK2) but rather a challenge that has a good amount of flavour, but doesn't (usually) require several reloads to get a shot at surviving.

Furthermore I mainly enjoy starting small in Pdox games and then building from there, therefore I'm a bit apprehensive about starting as say France or Castille.

I don't really mind where I start, but I am leaning towards a European nation rather than option to Westernize, but I'm open to suggestions.

It would be especially good if it was a campaign that can last me somewhat longer, with evolving goals that don't quite spiral into; bulldozer everything around you untill the map is painted your color. That being said I'm a lot worse a role-playing (although that might be more of a CK2 thing) than I would like, therefore conquering often does become the bread and butter of my games.

Thanks for reading and look forward to hearing your ideas!

 

[Rigman]

It will depend on who you ask, but I just bought this game 2 months ago and really enjoyed Brandenburg -> Prussia -> Germany.

 

[TenshiN]

The most dynamic campaign i played recently was start as one of the Japanese minors with forming Japan, Invading Korea and then trying to become the world's leading naval power, all the while colonising all the islands and fighting for dominance with Ming.
Would strongly advise!

 

[Sfan]

If you want to start out small and in Europe the only options to avoid tricky starts are HRE countries because they are somehow safe despite their size (similar to counts in large kingdoms in CK2). Brandenburg, Saxony, Bohemia, Bavaria are the strongest non major countries in Europe and have a good potential. Milan/Florence can offer good options as well.

You do not westernize anymore so playing out of Europe is probably better. There are extremely interesting starts all over India with tons of possibilities and outcomes for the area which is very fun imo. You're also relatively far away of Ottomans and Ming so you can play safe early and then have two perfect endgame boss. HRE and India probably provide the strongest choices for small and relatively safe countries because there are many countries of similar size around them.

 

[Dominion]

It will depend on who you ask, but I just bought this game 2 months ago and really enjoyed Brandenburg -> Prussia -> Germany.

Only real answer tbh.

Gives you the option to expand into Russia, let's you fiddle around with HRE mechanics, has several endbosses, you're never actually threatened, overall the most relaxed campaign available and the payoff is space marines.

Another option would be Vijayanagar or Bengal. Almost the same feeling, but a completely different setup.

And after that you can try unifying Italy.

 

[Pelthis]

Playing hordes is always lots of fun. I'm so fucking noob at this, despite my hundreds of hours played, but even if I fail I always restart from time to time. Anyway, it's interesting gameplay and from Aq Qoyunlu to Jianzhou, you have lots of tag to choose from, depending on your mood.

 

[defy]

Byzantium > Rome. My first game on CK2 & EU4. But it's a bit harder in EU

 

[Sfan]

Playing hordes is always lots of fun. I'm so fucking noob at this, despite my hundreds of hours played, but even if I fail I always restart from time to time. Anyway, it's interesting gameplay and from Aq Qoyunlu to Jianzhou, you have lots of tag to choose from, depending on your mood.

I strongly advise not playing Hordes for beginners. This is immensely harder and requires a lot of mastery because the economy is garbage and you're highly instable.

 

[JSparks101]

Where to start....

For the Americas, a minor native would be interesting, east coast is probably better as their are a few non OPM nations to try rival. Aztecs are good but maybe a little generic, though a Mayan start is fun (Kiche have their own idea group but the others are generic). One of the Incas could be good but are often targets of Spanish aggression.

For Africa, I like Ethiopia, early game is easy enough and Coptic religion is quite good, you can aim to capture all 5 holy sites which is enjoyable. Kongo has a bit of flavour with Portugal, and Mali is a medium power, with a few early rivals, followed by Spain. Morocco can be a coin toss to see how stupid Portugal is - may be too easy though.

In East Asia, a Japanese minor is extremely fun, though I would go a 2 or 3 province nation as OPM's would be extremely hard on that end. Indochina is decent, whilst Dehli or Gujarat are good challenges in India - Vijayanagar is fun and is a good Hindu game and a challenge as no other major Indian power is Hindu (at least not close by). I did a fun vassal-annex run where I took no provinces that had a Hindu nation core, they are good for the vassalisation game with some decent bonuses.

In the Middle East, Oman is fun, and Ottomans is good when you just want war war war! Georgia has some nice ideas and a little space to expand - as soon as you get into Persia or the Steppes, you start getting enough power to rival the Ottomans. Kazan is hard, but if you can break Muscovy, their is a lot of possibilities.

Good colonisers that are a challenge would be Brittany and Scotland. You would need good allies and the ability to capitalise on the Hundred Years War. I'd suggest a Dutch minor but you have done Holland already. Portugal and Spain get a lot, I mean a lot of colonial flavour, but it gets too easy if you can Treaty of Tordesailles all regions.

Genoa and Venice are fun, trans-Mediterranean Republics giving you lots of options, dominate trade, trash the Ottomans and Mamluks or even colonise, you'll have enough money. I'd avoid a HRE run as you can feel quite restricted with bigger nations watching you, though a Brandenburg->Prussia seems a fan favourite that I just cannot fathom.

I understand this is a wall, so I'll sum up

American OPM - Hard, War, Weak Late Game
Kiche - Medium, Flavour
Aztec - Easy, War, Flavour
Incan - Medium, War, Flavour
Ethiopia - Medium, Tonnes of Flavour, Harder as it goes on
Morocco - Coinflip Hard/Easy
Mali - Easy, War
Japanese Vassal - Hard, Challenge
Dehli/Gujarat - Medium
Vijayanagar - Vassal-Annex
Oman - Trade, Hard
Georgia - Extreme Challenge, Coinflip
Kazan - Hard Early Game
Brittainy - Colonising, Hard, Coinflip
Scotland - Colonising, Medium
Genoa - Medium, Trade
Venice - Easy, Trade
​

P.S.

Flavour means specific DLC benefits. Mandate for East Asian and Indian nations, Rome for Eastern Europe, Cradle is not out yet but would benefit a Middle East campaign if you waited off.

Coinflips depend on who rivals who and who wins early wars.

War is where military excursions are pretty pivotal to benefits from DLC Flavour.

Difficulty is based on my playthroughs for over two years, so some thoughts may be out of date.





Any questions about any nation, just ask here on the forums!

 

[Robert de Bruce]

Instead of choosing Brandenburg, you could also use Saxony for Prussia->Germany (or unified HRE). Saxony is more into diplomatic and if you do Ironman you could aim for Meissner porcelain, too. With Tear down this wall.
Another, although tougher option would be an Irish minor or Scotland, but this means you will fight vs England to life or death early.
Russian region is nice, too. But either you start as Muscowy or it will be too hard for relative starters, I guess.
Ethiopia is a nice pick, too. You can instead also choose one of the smaller nations around there, increasing difficulty.
If you have already experience with starting as smaller PU partner, you could also have a look on Sweden (easy) or Norway (way harder).

 

[PhoenixG]

Sweden could be nice. While he looks decent sized, his eco is quite trash for the size. Although you need to fight an indepence war, but that is part of the fun.

 

[otaats]

Byzantium > Rome. My first game on CK2 & EU4. But it's a bit harder in EU

Trying that one out today.. It's easily one of the most frustrating starts in the game. Not so much because of the Ottomans, but because of damn Venice. They really have no limitations on whom to ally. In one game they ally Hungary, in the next Savoy, in the next France, in the next Genoa, and icing on the cake, ta-dah: they allied Ottomans once i took Negroponte, Corfu and Naxos from them. It's quite fun on paper, but all the variables make it so damn frustrating.

 

[otaats]

My advice: Ethiopia. I had so much fun with Ethiopia.

 

[Badesumofu]

For a real beginner, France is a good campaign. You start out strong and with plenty of room for mistakes. There are loads of different ways you can play that start and do well. There are plenty of flavour events and you start with a couple of half-price level 2 advisors which you can actually afford to hire if you want.

For following campaigns when you feel you are getting the hang of some stuff - Vijayanagar, Bradenburg, Ethiopia are all fun. They are all fun and have their own sets of challenges.

Playing a horde I am finding can be great fun but as stated above not recommended for a beginner. They can be very strong, but you're never far from complete collapse and have less room for error. I will say, Mongolia is fun. Tengri allows you to manipulate the diplomatic situation by changing syncretic faith very quickly. Oh look, we're Confucian now, hey Ming wanna support our independence? 100 WS - nice, okay let's take a bunch of land from our former overlords as well. Crush neighbouring hordes. Hello Ottomans! We're Sunni now, want to ally us? Cool. Sorry Ming, you heathens, we aren't paying tribute anymore!

 

[Robert de Bruce]

I'm therefore not really looking for 'newbie island' (Ireland in CK2) but rather a challenge that has a good amount of flavour, but doesn't (usually) require several reloads to get a shot at surviving.

Furthermore I mainly enjoy starting small in Pdox games and then building from there, therefore I'm a bit apprehensive about starting as say France or Castille.

Don't miss what OP said.

 

[Badesumofu]

Don't miss what OP said.

This is a case where I like to generalise my advice because threads like this tend to show up in Google searches and/or are read by other people with a similar question. You'll note, I hope, that I did include a couple of recommendations that are specifically appropriate to the OP as well.

 

[CoolSpin]

Sweden could be nice. While he looks decent sized, his eco is quite trash for the size. Although you need to fight an indepence war, but that is part of the fun.

Last time I played Sweden, I stayed in the union until all my provinces were dev 10, you are set back on tech for a while, but once you tech up it makes sweden a lot easier. Also dump points to Dalaskogen ^^

And if you want to try India, I found Bahmanis very fun, just jump on VJ early, and merc up but you got gold mine! Ultimately form Hindustan! There is also an achieve to get completely rid of VJ - A tale of two Families

 

[Viperswhip]

For war, Spain (Castile) and for easy mode Portugal.

I say this because France, Ottos and Austria are way, way too easy, so is Muscovy really, particularly if Poland didn't rival you (ally them fast).

Spain can be challenging because France and England tend to hate you, but there are some neat things you can do anyway, and you get to strangle the colonizing game. Portugal is good for colonizing and trade, but has no real enemies besides Morocco and well, let's just say, they are no threat.

Either can join the HRE if you want, and are decent countries to play. I am very partial to Spain, obviously.

 

[Lord_Bean]

Thanks all for your great suggestions! Tonight I'll finally have time to play (things got more busy than I expected).

I think I'll opt for Ethiopia as a first game. Seems like a fair enough challenge which I can take in many directions, but with plenty of minors around me to swallow early on. I'll get a grip on a non-Western power and their workings, now that Westernization is apparently no longer a thing (was a while ago that I played those previous games).

 

[LoyalistRedcoat]

Thanks all for your great suggestions! Tonight I'll finally have time to play (things got more busy than I expected).

I think I'll opt for Ethiopia as a first game. Seems like a fair enough challenge which I can take in many directions, but with plenty of minors around me to swallow early on. I'll get a grip on a non-Western power and their workings, now that Westernization is apparently no longer a thing (was a while ago that I played those previous games).

Good luck! Ethiopia can be a lot of fun but be aware that things can get very hard very fast if Ottomans turn their gaze to blobbing down through Egypt...