Complete Noob here

[Lord_P]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on the EUIV forums.

I have played this game enough to know my way around most of the mechanics. But I always seem to have the worst luck. Ottomans show up on Spain's shore with their army (200% the size of my army). France brings it's fleet on the waters of my Ottomans (and their fleet is 40 ships vs my 17 ships). So that's why I am looking for a smooth, easy start to learn the game.

What can you recommend?

 

[Wenla]

More playing?

Seriously speaking, Ottoman is (IMHO of course) good starting country.

 

[jazzroen]

smooth and easy start to learn the game? that has Portugal written all over it.
I recommended my friend to start with Portugal as well to get a hang of the game. So far it seems to be the perfect learning country. Just ally and hide behind Castille and you can focus on the different aspects of the game one by one.

 

[kente]

IMO the best country to start is France: it starts with an easy war (so you can figure out how battles and siege works), have vassals (so you can figure out how they works) and it has medium strong neighbours. Anyway you should (in your first run) start a war at time and take few (1 or 2) province at time so you could check how fabbricate claim, Overextension (OE), Aggressive expansion (AE) works. And then you can colonize when you took the expansion idea (i suggest as 2 or 3 idea) so you can learn how colonisation works.

 

[FloatingOrb]

France is good but Ireland is known as tutorial island.
Pfft sorry thats a ck2 reference, do not play as ireland. Good starting nations are France, Ottos, England, Venice (maybe you 4th playthrough), Denmark, Muscovy, and austria. Portugal is good for colonization, but I feel it's too easy to really learn the game, and Castile can go horrifically wrong if you make a bad decision.

England is probably the new tutorial island. I suggest using the EU4 wiki often for your first 20 or so games.

 

[nicechinos]

France is good but Ireland is known as tutorial island.
Pfft sorry thats a ck2 reference, do not play as ireland. Good starting nations are France, Ottos, England, Venice (maybe you 4th playthrough), Denmark, Muscovy, and austria. Portugal is good for colonization, but I feel it's too easy to really learn the game, and Castile can go horrifically wrong if you make a bad decision.

England is probably the new tutorial island. I suggest using the EU4 wiki often for your first 20 or so games.

Muscovy is best to learn. No hurry in anything. Strong all-rounder with colonisation, military and other aspects balanced out.

 

[ahyangyi]

Since OP is complaining about losing wars as Ottoman and Castille...

I'd suggest OP just chooses a major power, keep playing and remember that losing one war or two doesn't mean game over. Then you can explore game mechanics at any pace you want.

Or even better, use the Dwarf Fortress mantra "losing is fun" at EUIV, and pick any country and just try it out.

 

[ahyangyi]

Also, since the in-game tutorial probably doesn't help too much, take a look at http://www.eu4wiki.com/Europa_Universalis_4_Wiki .

 

[Lord_P]

Ok, thanks to you all for suggestions. I will try them out.

 

[fleetothemoon]

I think Hansa is a better nation for learning purposes. It is smaller and thus, you can get a better sense of achievement when you expand. Hansa is richer than some of the medium powers, it is surrounded by relatively weaker neighbors, and protected from the stronger external nations by the Emperor. It has the potential to form the best cultural union in the game. Playing Hansa forces you to learn AE mechanics and opportunistic expansions, unlawful imperial territory mechanics, imperial mechanics, trade mechanics, diplomacy, republican mechanics, how to use land, naval and mercenaries.

 

[Qoff]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on the EUIV forums.

I have played this game enough to know my way around most of the mechanics. But I always seem to have the worst luck. Ottomans show up on Spain's shore with their army (200% the size of my army). France brings it's fleet on the waters of my Ottomans (and their fleet is 40 ships vs my 17 ships). So that's why I am looking for a smooth, easy start to learn the game.

What can you recommend?

France is a good country to start with. The most newbie friendly countries IMO:

- Portugal
- Castille
- France
- Poland
- The Ottomans
- Muscovy (not so much in this patch)