Big Blue Blob - UPDATED Guide ( WITH PICTURES AND VIDEO )

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Romaoplays

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This is my guide to the Big Blue Blob Achievement: ( Things in Bold letters: Important || Things Underlined: Very important )

To make the game easier and make best use of this guide you have to make sure of two things:
1- Burgundy isn't rivaled to you
2- Castille and Aragon don't ally each other

-First of all: Send alliance offers to: Castille and Burgundy they'll be your power block to prevent coalitions from attacking; And break the guarantee on Scottland right away

Also don't spend any points on Diplo and Admin tech - You'll need them, and more than you might think

-Second you'll have to attack England, grab all the mainland [ Except for Calais ] and Pale ( It doesn't have a fort anymore )

-Immediately after use Castille to attack Aragon( You can promise land, it won't be 100% peace offer anyways, and you have to do it before they get the union )

-You can let Castille do all the work while you attack Ulster to control half of the straight for Scottland

- If your truce's up and if it looks like Castille can handle it on it's own, attack Scottland and grab *everything* except for their Capital; If not, go help Castille do this step right after.
Scotts.png


-Get 3 of the low development provinces south of Naples, 2 of the Aragonese Islands on the mediterenean ( They're low development and Castille won't have sieged them ) and fill the rest with land for Castille - You don't want to backstabb them
Naples.png

-Now use your diplomats to fabricate Claims on Norway ( They have some islands adjacent to you ) and the Serbian region ( That's why you needed those 3 provinces on Naples )

-Attack Denmark with Burgundy's help [ Or without it, if Sweden is disloyal ] And take iceland, the islands,and bordergore your way into Muscovy/Novgorod/Livonians

Scand1.png


-Now you should have a coalition with the British Isles and Muscovy - ally Poland now that you're as close to preventing it as you can

-Now you'll have to move your capital to Scandinavia to be able to core everything: Wait for the FULL CORE on the Norwegian Province to finish, sink all your points and click the button to move your capital

-Now Attack Serbia/Bosnia/Venice and grab as much low dev as you can without triggering a huge HRE coalition, you don't have to do this all at once, you'll have time to attack them at least twice - But don't be a slowpoke either

Serbia__1.png
Serbia__2.png
Serbia__3.png


-Annex an easy Novgorod if you can ( On all my 3 tries Muscovy didn't eat everything ) - Including the stuff unconnected on the north that's hard to see

Novogorod.png


-Re-Attack Scandinavia before they can join the coalition!!And grab as much low development in the north as you can

Scand_2.png


- Now you just have to count your provinces and annex as much as you *need* on either Venice and/or the Livonian order, if you kept your allies in line there should be no coalition, and if there is one and you already have enough provinces - Hire Mercs to protect the land so that it can be cored.

This is the *short* video with the timelapse and the exact provinces you'll need:





BONUS: If the inheritance fires, it'll make your job easier, but it isn't a requirement, on mine I got the inheritance after I already had all the provinces, so it just made it 2 years-shorter

Special Thanks to @Quaade who incentivated me to do the achievement and gave me Hoi4 after he lost the bet :D

What do you think? Did you like the strategy? Did it work for you? Would you have done something different?
Please comment below!
 
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But you can just break the alliance and attack after the truce.
Well, yes but the ruler died before the truce was up :p ( On all 3 of my runs )
 
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Should have told you lost on the first attempt, or the second one you failed miserable :p
 
Should have told you lost on the first attempt, or the second one you failed miserable :p
It's recorded on my channel :D
 
So I can check that you no-cbed which was agaisnt the deal :p
 
Don't listen to that guide, it's from the same guy that posted one how nahualt caddo which is a horrible idea is overpowered :rolleyes:.
First why not rush admin tech 5 and get admin ideas? They pay back extremely fast by removing 25% of the paper mana cost on coring and making land take 25% less time to get cored. It's quite unlikely to have enough paper mana to core enough provinces without them.
Second point, it's very unlikely for burgundy to not start with france as rival. And in case they have not you as rival at start not only it's very likely for them to rival you halfway through the playthrough (which can result in coalition) but they will be a very bad ally nonetheless by dragging you into bad wars or getting destroyed without player intervention.
Third point, allying scotland to invade england is much better than revoking guarantee. Just park your army there and dow england by calling them by land promise and don't give them anything as you don't care about the alliance.
Forth point is that there is no mention about spamming alliances with smaller nations to both lower the AE you get with them and to raise the limit on AE you can take before they are willing to coalition you. As france you can likely go for 10 or 11 alliances as most of europe loves you cause it's france, with the added benefit of disencouraging your punchbags from forming a coalition. Seeing how far you can push allies with AE while keeping the alliance is also a fun side game on eu4.
 
, it's from the same guy that posted one how nahualt caddo which is a horrible idea is overpowered :rolleyes:.
I have no idea on what's nahualt caddo, wtf are you talking about?
First why not rush admin tech 5 and get admin ideas? They pay back extremely fast by removing 25% of the paper mana cost on coring and making land take 25% less time to get cored. It's quite unlikely to have enough paper mana to core enough provinces without them.
No, it's the short term, you'll finish by 1500, the lower cost ( Which I'm pretty sure does not exists, but even if it does, IT ) WON'T pay off, and you're more likely not to have enough if you do that

Second point, it's very unlikely for burgundy to not start with france as rival.
Not that unlikely, it did in 2 of my 3 games, if you're unlucky you can restart as many times as you want.

And in case they have not you as rival at start not only it's very likely for them to rival you halfway through the playthrough (which can result in coalition) but they will be a very bad ally nonetheless by dragging you into bad wars or getting destroyed without player intervention.
Don't know where you got this " "statistic" " from, but if you keep the relations above 100, they won't become hostile, not breaking the alliance and not rivaling you

Third point, allying scotland to invade england is much better than revoking guarantee. Just park your army there and dow england by calling them by land promise and don't give them anything as you don't care about the alliance.
It isn't. specially because you need Scottish land to fabricate on Norway and if you delay the truce you won't be able to do 2 wars against Denmark, besides, if you *need* Scottland to beat England as France, you're a very bad player.

Forth point is that there is no mention about spamming alliances with smaller nations to both lower the AE you get with them and to raise the limit on AE you can take before they are willing to coalition you. As france you can likely go for 10 or 11 alliances as most of europe loves you cause it's france, with the added benefit of disencouraging your punchbags from forming a coalition. Seeing how far you can push allies with AE while keeping the alliance is also a fun side game on eu4.

You don't need that, the only ones who can really join by the end will be: England ( Historical rival ), Scottland ( Wants your land ), Denmark ( Same ), Russians - Possible to get an alliance, but I call it unlikely, Austria ( Historical Rival ) and venice, who will most likely want your land too...

So please stop talking shit on a perfectly reasonable and good guide.
 
Since the introduction of the state system, going for the BBB achievement got really easy. You don't have to go anymore into Scandinavian region and try hard on the low dev stuff. You can easily get enough provinces by forcing Burgundy Inheritance, Expanding Into Iberia, Taking over Scotland/Ireland and English mainland. Also Naples is a good option if you get the Anjou event. I have done it twice before and after the state mechanic. In second run I got the provinces needed by 1490. Its so easy to leave high dev provinces as territories you wont lack ADM points at all.
Also the AE getting not really a threat, the only people you really have to deal with are the Iberian & English region and if you keep the truce rotation correct there wont be any coalition at all.

If you want you can go for emperorship and force inheritance to go fully in your hands. Getting enough electors as france is not hard but depends on some luck of course.

Didn't count it completely but Scottland, Ireland , parts of English mainland, French & Iberian clay is almost enough to reach the 100 provinces.
Also one good thing to stay " close " in the areas give you less micro, more control and a viable ally, the ottomans because you not expanding into Balkan region.

Of course you can still do how you explained but I think its the " more effort way " .
 
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Wait what
Nah... my bad... Read Ulster before Pale, which I know there is no chance in hell you could have made a claim on first ;-)

Should have stopped you when you failed the first few times :-D but well... Got a DLC out of it myself... Just forgot another I could have used... but well...
 
Didn't count it completely but Scottland, Ireland , parts of English mainland, French & Iberian clay is almost enough to reach the 100 provinces.
Also one good thing to stay " close " in the areas give you less micro, more control and a viable ally, the ottomans because you not expanding into Balkan region.
I think you would fall short with british isles... However, if you also go for a few provinces in aragon and some of the danish islands you should manage... However, even if you don´t state everything you will still have to pay a lot of admin to get them... Also, stating does make some of this easier since you have more manpower and income which when you war that much in such a short period of time you likely will need very much.

Dislike the balkan approach someone loves... Mainly since they have different religion some of them, which means you risk having to place an army there to secure it for a period, and lose manpower... You can decrease this when you conquer in same-religion and raise autonomy for some spots, especially accepted culture this would that it goes below 0 very fast, mostly before any rebels rise up and the lost income from autonomy is not that much compared to losing manpower and having to reinforce your armies which will most likely include pricey mercs :)
 
I think you would fall short with british isles... However, if you also go for a few provinces in aragon and some of the danish islands you should manage... However, even if you don´t state everything you will still have to pay a lot of admin to get them... Also, stating does make some of this easier since you have more manpower and income which when you war that much in such a short period of time you likely will need very much.

Dislike the balkan approach someone loves... Mainly since they have different religion some of them, which means you risk having to place an army there to secure it for a period, and lose manpower... You can decrease this when you conquer in same-religion and raise autonomy for some spots, especially accepted culture this would that it goes below 0 very fast, mostly before any rebels rise up and the lost income from autonomy is not that much compared to losing manpower and having to reinforce your armies which will most likely include pricey mercs :)

Manpower is a no brainer you will be in constant war and have to use mercs for sure. In both runs ive got over the hole time my force mixed with mercs. You going all in for BBB and don't really care about loans or debase , because you wont pay it back till you achieve the goal. So you don't care about manpower & money at all. All you care is having enough Mana and truces running out to conquer again.
 
Since the introduction of the state system, going for the BBB achievement got really easy. You don't have to go anymore into Scandinavian region and try hard on the low dev stuff. You can easily get enough provinces by forcing Burgundy Inheritance, Expanding Into Iberia, Taking over Scotland/Ireland and English mainland. Also Naples is a good option if you get the Anjou event. I have done it twice before and after the state mechanic. In second run I got the provinces needed by 1490. Its so easy to leave high dev provinces as territories you wont lack ADM points at all.
Also the AE getting not really a threat, the only people you really have to deal with are the Iberian & English region and if you keep the truce rotation correct there wont be any coalition at all.

If you want you can go for emperorship and force inheritance to go fully in your hands. Getting enough electors as france is not hard but depends on some luck of course.

Didn't count it completely but Scottland, Ireland , parts of English mainland, French & Iberian clay is almost enough to reach the 100 provinces.
Also one good thing to stay " close " in the areas give you less micro, more control and a viable ally, the ottomans because you not expanding into Balkan region.

Of course you can still do how you explained but I think its the " more effort way " .
I'm not quite sure that's possible, they still have quite a lot of development so you'd most likely have to trucebreak to even be able to *take* ( not core ) enough provinces, besides, the people in the HRE do care about you taking stuff on lower england and on the Aragonese/Napolitan region, so the coalition would be waay larger than you think ( And you'd have to fight all of them at the same time to be able to finish it, it's not really a viable option... )
 
I'm not quite sure that's possible, they still have quite a lot of development so you'd most likely have to trucebreak to even be able to *take* ( not core ) enough provinces, besides, the people in the HRE do care about you taking stuff on lower england and on the Aragonese/Napolitan region, so the coalition would be waay larger than you think ( And you'd have to fight all of them at the same time to be able to finish it, it's not really a viable option... )

it is possible, if you don't mind try it. I would show you screens from my doing but I don't record them at all. You can do a simply math when you cycle truces around in the regions ( England/Iberia/France ).

Yeah its true that the HRE cares abit about you conquer English mainland but if you cycle it right you will always have a 15 years truce with England and keeping relations high with them (HRE) and having the ottomans as an ally prevent any coaltion at all. You burning in 15 years almost 45 AE for sure that's enough to keep the HRE out of all your business.

I just gave another route to do it, everyone can try it out and decide for himself whats suit his playstyle more.
 
I'm not quite sure that's possible, they still have quite a lot of development so you'd most likely have to trucebreak to even be able to *take* ( not core ) enough provinces, besides, the people in the HRE do care about you taking stuff on lower england and on the Aragonese/Napolitan region, so the coalition would be waay larger than you think ( And you'd have to fight all of them at the same time to be able to finish it, it's not really a viable option... )
It should be possible sure, if you don´t state it... There might be an increased cost since they are higher dev... but on the other side, they can´t develop much in the short time anyway... Also, you could simply focus on admin which gives you 2 more and since estate advisors come cheap you should at least have a +2 there aswell... perhaps a theologian to reduce unrest a bit :)