Did you know?- Tips and Tricks

[DPKdebator]

Got a "pro-tip" you want to share with people? Post it here!


Did you know? You can change a province and it's city's name by clicking on the name in the province section.
Did you know? Don't rely on your allies assisting you in a war 95% of the time.

 

[DanubianCossak]

If Russia forms, dont invade it. Summer or winter. Just dont.

Mind the French vassals.

Never underestimate Ottomans.

If youre into your game for less than 50 years, never attack Swedish stacks at 1:1 odds. Dont do it even if odds are 1:2 or 1:3 in your favor. Swedes are bloody powerful early game.

 

[Demusch]

When splitting up siege stacks, don't just move them into the province they're supposed to siege. Queue a command to move 1 province further, then cancel the last move when the stack is in the to-be-sieged province. Moving the army in this way means they don't take attrition from stopping on a foreign territory, saving you a siege month (and a tiny bit of cash).

 

[L33tfr0g]

Tired of coalitions against you?
Just attack an opm of the coalition and occupy this province.
Since the opm you attacked is the warleader, you get 100% warscore as long as the enemy doesnt hold any province occupied.

 

[slv]

If your cavalry ratio is close to 50% instead of detaching sieges with a button consider removing 1 infatry and 1 cavalry manually. That way you will not have insufficient support with your remnant army.

Culture Converting the Dutch provinces stop the Dutch revolt (though it's expensive).

Conquering the core province of a western nation allows westernisation even if this province was turned into a trade company.

Placing a Fleet in a Cape of Good Hope stops European Invasion.

Every reelection gives you more MP per reelection than the previous one (i.e. for the First Reelection you will be ruled by 522 instead of 411, giving you 3 extra MP per month. For third reelection you will be ruled by 6-4-4 instead of 4-1-1, giving you 8 extra MP per month). Consider picking a young-enough ruler and sticking him till its death (even if you RT drops below 40!) then don't reelect till RT is high than repeat the process. Note that 10 RT essentially gives you around a 8*12*4+50 ~ 450 MP, so in most events (like "A Trial") picking +Rep.Trad is advantegous.

If you plan to get offensive ideas in the near future consider randoming generals after you get leader shock/fire.

Having Holland/Brabant as a vassal will cause Burgundian Inheritor to cede provinces to them after Inheritance fires.

Sitting in mountains with an army nearby can help you kill the AI easily. If it doesn't attack just remove more troops from a mountain province till he attacks.

If you're losing a coalition war started by OPM you can occupy it for 100% warscore (if war was long enough).

No CB wars sometimes are worth it.

If you're not in HRE but want to invade it consider attacking non-HRE nations with HRE allies (i.e. Hungary, East Frisia, Papal States, Riga, Teutonic Order, Denmark) to not mess with the Emperor.

Emperor can't demand unlawful territory if either of you is war. Also he doesn't demand UT from allies.

If you are fighting the large empire and nearly destroying the stack, instead of winning the fight (and watching army retreating to siberia) consider retreating into neighbouring province in the very last day of a fight. Enemy army will not be able to run without morale, and you will have an easy stackwipe afterwards.

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

With AOW, you can now transfer occupation to you allies; in particular, you can transfer occupation to your vassals and give those provinces directly to your vassals in the peace deal. This can be very helpful in saving ADM points on coring, DIP points in the peace deal(both will be paid by the vassal), and also in creating nice borders and a strong vassal.

 

[Mr. Charisma22]

Things not to do:

1. Attack an army in the mountains.

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

Every reelection gives you more MP per reelection than the previous one (i.e. for the First Reelection you will be ruled by 522 instead of 411, giving you 3 extra MP per month. For third reelection you will be ruled by 6-4-4 instead of 4-1-1, giving you 8 extra MP per month). Consider picking a young-enough ruler and sticking him till its death (even if you RT drops below 40!) then don't reelect till RT is high than repeat the process. Note that 10 RT essentially gives you around a 8*12*4+50 ~ 450 MP, so in most events (like "A Trial") picking +Rep.Trad is advantegous.

This seems to assume that the average ruler is a 222, but actually, the average is a 333.

 

[FloatingOrb]

If playing Genoa, do not take provence. or anything bordering France. France gets a mission to ruin your day almost immediately.

Trade is immensely op now. Here are some tips to maximize your free money.
First, do not keep a merchant in your home node, the bonus is negligeable.
Second, unless it is a neighboring node funneling into your home node, collect from trade do not steer. Aside from a few idea combinations, it is not worth making steering trains (caveat, I havent dealt with african trade, may be different there.)
Third, trade fleets of 10 are what I use to protect trade. Nothing that special about the number, just keeps things tidy. You will appreciate tidyness as you start dealing with 5+ nodes and 6 10 different fleets.
Fifth, you do not actually need that many provinces to dominate trade. Just take the ones with bonuses, and you will do fine. Keeps AE down and makes it easier to keep the big bads of europe happy with you.

Some more tips.

Expand very slowly as a Holy Roman Minor. Take advantage of force vassal feeding by ceding them provinces in war, and try to spread out of the HRE proper as quickly as possible. For example, taking bites out of burgundy, poland, and the teutonic order.

Idea groups are not just the ideas themselves. Each one also has several events that come with it, that give thier own bonuses. Some are extremely potent, like humanist with the bonus tax base events, and religion giving free stability and prestige.

Rule of thumb, Morale in the early game, Discipline in the late game. Of course, both is best.

Having trouble with the ottomans? alley austria and poland. In 1.8 both of these nations seem to be itching to kick some turkish butt, I have yet to have them not answer my call to war if they were not already busy.

All by yourself and the ottoderps are closing in? Blockading the sea of Mamara works again in 1.8. Spam those galleys danny boy, spam them hard. Fun fact, Galley spam also helps for the berber states when it is time to deal with the ibereans. All ships are built the same in EU4 (aside from tech upgrade) so you can chunk aragon early and win some trade wars.

Did you win the lottery and PU france as Mantua? Is sweden getting surly and moving for idependance? Then it is time to be a super warmongerer! either France will be stuck on your side in war until it accepts your rule, or you can lose and release the tigers tail.

Colonizing gives something to do while AE cools down. You don't have to mess with the new world, mess around with africa for a bit, then return to europe to expand your land power when people forget about you.

 

[Stategem161803]

Looting can make the difference between becoming a world power and death.

You can loot any province of an enemy you are at war with which does not border a province you have military access in. When you loot a province, you get the base tax of that province in ducats immediately and that province gets the "looted" modifier. This nerfs the province and prevents it from being looted again for 6 months.

Hordes get double loot money. Meaning 2 x base tax.

"Military Access" includes occupied provinces and allies in the war.

 

[FloatingOrb]

Oh, A few more things about playing Merchant republics (its what I am into right now)

If in the mediteranian, take constantinople. Dont just vassalize byzantium, take the bloody province. It is worth about 5-6 gold a month in trade by itself. Plop down a trade post and your pushing 8. Well worth the admin cost.

Only reelect if you leaders start of in thier 30s. The stab mallus of low tradition is brutal.

If the aristocrates rebel just accept demands. Make sure these are the rebels that increase autonomy and subtract prestige. It will only cost you the prestige if they haven't won any sieges, and they are so damn strong that it tanks your manpower to deal with them.

Prioritize placing trade posts on important centers of trade in the early game. Take valencia from aragon, make it a trade post. Andalucia, Ragusa, Constantinople, Alexandria, etc. The second trade building give a percentage bonus which goes real nice when you put the trade posts and trade centers together. The earlier you do it, the earlier you get the gold.

Playing the Hansa? The above is especially true. Stay small, go for quality, keep the AE down. Specifically, cripple denmark, take danzing, then feel free to expand into burgundy. Coalitions hit republics really hard since it is hard to keep relations up without marriages.

I mentioned Genoa. Genoa got a massive buff in AOW. Take constantinople, ally France and hit aragon for valencia. DO NOT BORDER FRANCE! If france takes savoy, Consider moving to corsica, I hear the weather is nice there.

Venice can outfight the ottoderps fairly easily. Just spam mercenaries and blockade mamara. It's pretty easy mode.

For ideas, I am liking religious first for mediteranian republics more and more. Lets you conquer the sunnis and helps with the expensive stability. For the Hansa, I go plutocratic.

Mercantilism is AMAZING for republics. It is almost always worth taking.

My final advice, be very careful and have fall back plans. By fall back plans I mean literally places to retreat to. It only take 1 pissed off lucky nations in europe to ruin your day. Luckily if your a republic you tend to spread out a lot so one bad war is rarely crippling. Just take your business elsewhere. With this in mind, consider leaving the HRE and Genoa. Being able to run to sardinia if France is after you is very useful.

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

Having Holland/Brabant as a vassal will cause Burgundian Inheritor to cede provinces to them after Inheritance fires.

You mean the Emperor will cede the entirety of the Low Countries to your vassal?

If you are fighting the large empire and nearly destroying the stack, instead of winning the fight (and watching army retreating to siberia) consider retreating into neighbouring province in the very last day of a fight. Enemy army will not be able to run without morale, and you will have an easy stackwipe afterwards.

This is genius! I will definitely try it out the next time I'm fighting a large empire.