Dracula's Revenge Trophy help

[Garret Mvahd]

So, normally I play EU4 outside of Ironman mode because I generally enjoy being able to reload and try things or just be on top because why not. Recently however I've been trying my hand at getting achievements and have been aiming at this one in particular, Dracula's Revenge.

For those who don't know, this trophy requires that you form the nation of Romania, starting as either Wallachia or Moldova, the only two Romanian cultured nations in the game and this poses a MASSIVE issue.

So here is the situation at campaign start, I'll use Wallachia because it's the nation I've tried this campaign with before. You start the game sandwiched between several great powers with no friends, at all. Poland is northeast, who is in a personal Union with Lithuania and will nearly always vassalize Moldova. North is Hungary, who lacks and heir and you can Ally them usually, but the lacking heir nearly always leads to them getting personal unioned by Austria, who will almost never Ally you due to power discrepancy and religious differences.

Serbia is a small nation to the west who is your rival from the beginning and Moldova doesn't like you cause you have land that they want. To the south is the Ottomans, who you have a truce with, but they are openly hostile and want all your land.

In my playthroughs, I have never been able to Ally any major power other than Hungary and Hungary dissolves the alliance when PU'd by Austria and my attempt to Ally with many smaller nations to increase manpower didn't work either. I even tried taking diplomatic ideas to give myself and edge and was trying to build favors with the Mamluks to try and Ally them.

In every attempt, either Poland or the Ottomans declared on me and then demolished me and I can't beat either of them, even when taking out bunches of loans and then hiring a bunch of mercs. Does anyone have any ideas at all about how to handle the situation and make it past the early game?

 

[Blizzrd33]

If you start as Wallachia I think your best hope would be to ally Byzantium and hope Ottomans fight other Turkish beyliks for a while so you can get to Tech 4 before they do. Call in Hungary and anyone else you can promise land to so that they'll accept the call to arms.

If I was planning for a Moldavian start, ally Poland (but don't become their march) and eat Wallachia from the outset. Then get either Poland/Lithuania or Austria/Hungary to accept a call to arms against the Ottomans and fight them for the Balkans preferably when they are in a war with the Mamluks.

I haven't tried for this achievement but I suspect the Moldavian approach might be the easier of the two options, however neither is going to be a walk in the park.

 

[Garret Mvahd]

If you start as Wallachia I think your best hope would be to ally Byzantium and hope Ottomans fight other Turkish beyliks for a while so you can get to Tech 4 before they do. Call in Hungary and anyone else you can promise land to so that they'll accept the call to arms.

If I was planning for a Moldavian start, ally Poland (but don't become their march) and eat Wallachia from the outset. Then get either Poland/Lithuania or Austria/Hungary to accept a call to arms against the Ottomans and fight them for the Balkans preferably when they are in a war with the Mamluks.

I haven't tried for this achievement but I suspect the Moldavian approach might be the easier of the two options, however neither is going to be a walk in the park.

Yeah I am aware of that. I did just strike on an idea that I hadn't yet considered. My religion. My only orthodox neighbors are Moldova and Serbia, especially since Byzantium is likely to cease to exist soon, but Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Lithuania are all Catholic. I serve to benefit more by switching to remove that penalty than I do by remaining orthodox. Well, apart from the instability of my provinces being orthodox and needing conversion.

 

[001andstillAlive]

Well, back when I did it a few patches ago, I joined in on the typical early Poland-Teutonic Order war and declared with Hungary, working my way into poland and crimea and build up while waiting for the big ottoman-mamluk war, that was pretty much it, lots of waiting around.

Back in the day it was also considered to be easier as Moldovia, thats probably still accurate, but you do not get the Draculesti dynasty, so thats a problem.

In general, depending on your willingness to restart, you could go for a save where poland does not take the PU (25%) AND/OR Moldavia stays independent (15%) to make life a bit easier, I don't like to do that but i'm stupid and a masochist.

Other things I can come up with on the fly:

Austria sometimes breaks their alliance with hungary around 1455, when the event that can give them the PU over hungary fires. If they don't get the PU, they get a CB which leads to the Hungarians being maybe a decent target (depending on the rest of their allies). You than could declare on them with maybe bohemian/venetian help with promise of land. Getting those allies would probably require you to set your attitude towards hungary to threatened, that sould help a lot.

If its not to "gamey" for you, maybe go for a no-cb war vs either Serbia, Herzegovina or Bosnia maybe even Bologna if they end up with no/weak allies while their allies are busy (like when the ottomans attack byz if serbia is allied to them) and vassalize them, than go from there, maybe you could even join the HRE. Especially Herzegovina/Bosnia is decent, since you could sit on them, bait Ragusa to attack them and then go for the old vassalize-and-get-pulled-into-the-war-without-their-allies-joining. Ragusa does not have a border though with the HRE tho IIRC, but at that point, if you allied hungary, you might be able to take venetian lands with their help to do so.

And I guess you could follow the same no-cb principle and use it in the caucasus and slowly get yourself a powerbase in persia. The problem there would be the Timurids, in my experience they are more likely to survive their vassal swarm since 1.33.

So ye thats the best I can do on the fly, hope it helps!

 

[Garret Mvahd]

Well, back when I did it a few patches ago, I joined in on the typical early Poland-Teutonic Order war and declared with Hungary, working my way into poland and crimea and build up while waiting for the big ottoman-mamluk war, that was pretty much it, lots of waiting around.

Back in the day it was also considered to be easier as Moldovia, thats probably still accurate, but you do not get the Draculesti dynasty, so thats a problem.

In general, depending on your willingness to restart, you could go for a save where poland does not take the PU (25%) AND/OR Moldavia stays independent (15%) to make life a bit easier, I don't like to do that but i'm stupid and a masochist.

Other things I can come up with on the fly:

Austria sometimes breaks their alliance with hungary around 1455, when the event that can give them the PU over hungary fires. If they don't get the PU, they get a CB which leads to the Hungarians being maybe a decent target (depending on the rest of their allies). You than could declare on them with maybe bohemian/venetian help with promise of land. Getting those allies would probably require you to set your attitude towards hungary to threatened, that sould help a lot.

If its not to "gamey" for you, maybe go for a no-cb war vs either Serbia, Herzegovina or Bosnia maybe even Bologna if they end up with no/weak allies while their allies are busy (like when the ottomans attack byz if serbia is allied to them) and vassalize them, than go from there, maybe you could even join the HRE. Especially Herzegovina/Bosnia is decent, since you could sit on them, bait Ragusa to attack them and then go for the old vassalize-and-get-pulled-into-the-war-without-their-allies-joining. Ragusa does not have a border though with the HRE tho IIRC, but at that point, if you allied hungary, you might be able to take venetian lands with their help to do so.

And I guess you could follow the same no-cb principle and use it in the caucasus and slowly get yourself a powerbase in persia. The problem there would be the Timurids, in my experience they are more likely to survive their vassal swarm since 1.33.

So ye thats the best I can do on the fly, hope it helps!

Well, back when I did it a few patches ago, I joined in on the typical early Poland-Teutonic Order war and declared with Hungary, working my way into poland and crimea and build up while waiting for the big ottoman-mamluk war, that was pretty much it, lots of waiting around.

Back in the day it was also considered to be easier as Moldovia, thats probably still accurate, but you do not get the Draculesti dynasty, so thats a problem.

In general, depending on your willingness to restart, you could go for a save where poland does not take the PU (25%) AND/OR Moldavia stays independent (15%) to make life a bit easier, I don't like to do that but i'm stupid and a masochist.

Other things I can come up with on the fly:

Austria sometimes breaks their alliance with hungary around 1455, when the event that can give them the PU over hungary fires. If they don't get the PU, they get a CB which leads to the Hungarians being maybe a decent target (depending on the rest of their allies). You than could declare on them with maybe bohemian/venetian help with promise of land. Getting those allies would probably require you to set your attitude towards hungary to threatened, that sould help a lot.

If its not to "gamey" for you, maybe go for a no-cb war vs either Serbia, Herzegovina or Bosnia maybe even Bologna if they end up with no/weak allies while their allies are busy (like when the ottomans attack byz if serbia is allied to them) and vassalize them, than go from there, maybe you could even join the HRE. Especially Herzegovina/Bosnia is decent, since you could sit on them, bait Ragusa to attack them and then go for the old vassalize-and-get-pulled-into-the-war-without-their-allies-joining. Ragusa does not have a border though with the HRE tho IIRC, but at that point, if you allied hungary, you might be able to take venetian lands with their help to do so.

And I guess you could follow the same no-cb principle and use it in the caucasus and slowly get yourself a powerbase in persia. The problem there would be the Timurids, in my experience they are more likely to survive their vassal swarm since 1.33.

So ye thats the best I can do on the fly, hope it helps!

I think it might, I never considered this, but I think I could use the no cb or humiliate rival cb to vassalize Serbia and maybe Bosnia, I never considered making a vassal, I thought I was too weak for that. I think I'll give that a try.

 

[noldorin]

you should look for ways to open to the balkans as soon as possible. for example war of serbia with no cb. probably, when the ottomans went on a campaign to anatolia or egypt, war should be declared and the straits should be taken.

 

[Garret Mvahd]

you should look for ways to open to the balkans as soon as possible. for example war of serbia with no cb. probably, when the ottomans went on a campaign to anatolia or egypt, war should be declared and the straits should be taken.

I think I will try that when I get home, either restarting until Moldova decides to remain independent and then conquering them or force vassalizing Serbia

 

[Guibou]

I think it might, I never considered this, but I think I could use the no cb or humiliate rival cb to vassalize Serbia and maybe Bosnia, I never considered making a vassal, I thought I was too weak for that. I think I'll give that a try.

You can't vassalize off the humiliate CB so you have to no cb. Better on a smaller nation than Serbia to keep them easily in check. Once that war is done, keep your troop in their land and attack the other nations around. Since you are on the same continent than your vassal you can take the land directly and core it yourself. Take the gold mine in Serbia before the Ottoman, and then once the smaller nation are done turn on Hungary if available. Once that done, an alliance with Poland can take the Ottoman in sight. Recruit a ton of merc and swarm the balkans. Ottoman will go waiste their time in Lithuania, wait for them to peace out Poland (and destroy their economy), than find yourself with 50ish %. Take constantinople and one bulgarian province to release them. Than.... turn on Poland ! Once youre a bit bigger and stop relations with Poland, Muscovy should be in alliance range and a good deterent on Austria/Bohemia agression while you are busy finishing off Hungary, Poland and Ottoman.

Alot of RNG on Hungarian inheritance and Ottoblob agressiveness, they might warn you and ruin the run. Don't be affraid to loan your soul and put your grand-kid in guarantee, if you don't spark in the first 20 years the run is done.

 

[001andstillAlive]

Oye, ye should have mentioned the gold mine, duh...

If you don't know where the button is&you have the Common Sense DLC, you can go to subject interaction and "seize province", that'll give Serbia like 40ish Liberty Desire, but damn its worth it-develop it to the moon, you need that gold income, trade will be worthless for a good while since the trade nodes there are reliant on having Italy to be good. Also, with...Cossacks? DLC you can set provinces to vital interest, that should lead to Serbia/Bosnia to making claims on the provinces so you can use their claim to get yourself some land.

Playing in the balkans is pretty much always purely a game of opportunism and switching sides often, so dont be afraid to change your plans on the fly.

 

[Garret Mvahd]

Okay so, update!

After trying for this achievement several times with Wallachia I finally decided to give moldovia a try. And this time it's actually gone fairly well, all things considered.

So during the event of when Poland tips to offer a leader to take over moldova, I refuse their offer and fought against The pretender regiments that popped up and was able to defeat them and then I made an alliance with Muscovy and a couple other smaller Nations. Then I got amazingly lucky with both Hungary and Lithuania not going for personal unions, meaning that Poland lithuania, and Austria-Hungary did not happen in this game, both Hungary and Lithuania have remained independent nations. This actually turned out to be very beneficial because I was able to get Muscovy and the other smaller Orthodox Nations that I allied to declare war on Lithuania to press my claims in exchange for promises of land and as a result was able to expand moldovia a little bit by laying claim to their southern provinces on the coast and thus cutting them off from the sea and removing them as a naval threat in that area as well as weakening them a little bit by giving some territory to Muscovy and a couple other places. Then I managed to secure an alliance with Bohemia, Serbia, and then eventually Poland and was able to use this Trifecta of alliances to declare war on Hungary who had annexed Wallachia early on in the game and through that conflict I was able to severely weaken Hungary by giving territory to Bohemia and Poland and claiming most of Wallachia for myself as well as giving a province back to Serbia, so now I have most of Wallachia and a decent bit of Lithuania and have consolidated my position a bit better, I've also built up my economy by investing monarch power but I'm lagging behind in technology due to developing my provinces as to spawn the Renaissance and we increase my economy. My military technology is not that far behind, only one Mil tech, however I'm falling behind quite significantly with Diplo technology and economic technology. My biggest problem at the moment is that Poland has actually taken some of Hungary that includes Northern transylvania, which means that in order to get the necessary provinces that I'm going to need to form romania, I am going to have to go to war with Poland at some point. So that's going to be fun. However on the plus side without Lithuania I should be able to get together enough alliances to combat them, especially Muscovy and Austria and Bohemia. All In all, I've also been very lucky with the Ottomans who haven't been very hostile towards me in this particular version of the game, they did declare war on Hungary for territory, probably for the Wallachia region, however knowing that I immediately declared war on them and took that region for myself, piecing out and claiming it before the Ottomans could take it, or at least most of it. The Ottomans then eventually settled the war and didn't take any territory at all and they haven't cleaned any of the territory that I possess and we actually have some decent relations, I've kept my Diplo relations with them up fairly high as much as I can. So the Ottomans actually haven't been much of a problem this time around. All in all, I think this might actually be the one attempt that might succeed.

I'll post some pictures when I get home!

 

[bokorthedust]

Poland has actually taken some of Hungary that includes Northern transylvania, which means that in order to get the necessary provinces that I'm going to need to form romania, I am going to have to go to war with Poland at some point.

If you own the Leviathan DLC, an alternate route would be to release Transylvania as a vassal and curry favors with Poland to ask them to return the core. It might tie up a diplomat for a while, but allows you to salvage the alliance.

 

[Garret Mvahd]

If you own the Leviathan DLC, an alternate route would be to release Transylvania as a vassal and curry favors with Poland to ask them to return the core. It might tie up a diplomat for a while, but allows you to salvage the alliance.

Well I do have the Leviathan DLC, but I didn't consider doing that. That's a good idea. Unfortunately, I am going to need to go to war with Poland anyway at some point, that is if I want to go for the missions, which give cores to land that they have.

 

[Garret Mvahd]

As promised, here is a picture of how things are going right now~

 

[Garret Mvahd]

Well, things have gotten interesting. My alliance was successfully able to defeat the Ottomans and I was able to take the last province I needed to form Romania. Now, all I have to do is secure all of the Balkans. Then I'll get the achievement. This'll be interesting.

 

[wthree]

Well, things have gotten interesting. My alliance was successfully able to defeat the Ottomans and I was able to take the last province I needed to form Romania. Now, all I have to do is secure all of the Balkans. Then I'll get the achievement. This'll be interesting.

I'm curious who was in your alliance, in all my games the Ottomans will always utterly obliterate Poland + allies.

Most recently Poland/Lithuania + Portugal + Castile + Aragon + Half of france + Byztanium

 

[Garret Mvahd]

I'm curious who was in your alliance, in all my games the Ottomans will always utterly obliterate Poland + allies.

Most recently Poland/Lithuania + Portugal + Castile + Aragon + Half of france + Byztanium

Well, my alliance consisted of Muscovy, Poland, Bohemia, and Serbia, plus myself. The Ottoman alliance consisted of themself and a few smaller nations. My alliance had an equal technology level and a slight numerical advantage, plus they were closer.

 

[Garret Mvahd]

Okay so this attempt of mine has gotten into a position that I am very certain I will not be able to recover from.

Basically this is what has happened. After a bit of recovery time, while I still had my loans from a previous war against The Ottomans where I took the territory that I needed to form Romania, I was confronted with a situation I couldn't avoid and that was the conquest of Serbia by the ottomans. So I preempted this defensive war by declaring war on the Ottomans and calling Muscovy, Poland, and Serbia to the battle and after a hard fought war and serveral additional loans, I was able to claim a lot of the Balkan area and drive a wedge into their territory. Shortly after that, I realized that I wasn't making enough money to pay back my loans even with no fleet and with army maintainence at 0 and with my forts mothballed, as the interest alone was still having me at -5 ducats a month.

Shortly after that, Bohemia was dragged into a war against France and their alliance and they called me in and I figured that since Bohemia was the current ruler of the HRE that this would be easy, so I joined. I figured it would buy me some time to get my stab up to 3 before I did what needed to be done and during the war, I was stack wiped, leaving me with no army left. After I got to stab 3, I declared bankruptcy in order to erase my loans and started the process of building back up and then got an heir installed on the Serbian throne. Almost immediately after that, the Ottomans declared war on Serbia for conquest and that left me in the position of being unable to do anything except break the alliance.

Now I am in a position where I have no army, no navy, and some very pissed off ottomans on my doorstep and barely making more than 5 ducats a month so I can't afford mercs without loans.

I am seriously considering starting over at this point

 

[petertju]

Okay so this attempt of mine has gotten into a position that I am very certain I will not be able to recover from.

Basically this is what has happened. After a bit of recovery time, while I still had my loans from a previous war against The Ottomans where I took the territory that I needed to form Romania, I was confronted with a situation I couldn't avoid and that was the conquest of Serbia by the ottomans. So I preempted this defensive war by declaring war on the Ottomans and calling Muscovy, Poland, and Serbia to the battle and after a hard fought war and serveral additional loans, I was able to claim a lot of the Balkan area and drive a wedge into their territory. Shortly after that, I realized that I wasn't making enough money to pay back my loans even with no fleet and with army maintainence at 0 and with my forts mothballed, as the interest alone was still having me at -5 ducats a month.

Shortly after that, Bohemia was dragged into a war against France and their alliance and they called me in and I figured that since Bohemia was the current ruler of the HRE that this would be easy, so I joined. I figured it would buy me some time to get my stab up to 3 before I did what needed to be done and during the war, I was stack wiped, leaving me with no army left. After I got to stab 3, I declared bankruptcy in order to erase my loans and started the process of building back up and then got an heir installed on the Serbian throne. Almost immediately after that, the Ottomans declared war on Serbia for conquest and that left me in the position of being unable to do anything except break the alliance.

Now I am in a position where I have no army, no navy, and some very pissed off ottomans on my doorstep and barely making more than 5 ducats a month so I can't afford mercs without loans.

I am seriously considering starting over at this point

Don't you still have your other allies except Serbia? If you do, they are probably enough to deter the Ottomans from invading you and giving you time to rebuild.

 

[Garret Mvahd]

I

Don't you still have your other allies except Serbia? If you do, they are probably enough to deter the Ottomans from invading you and giving you time to rebuild.

Have Muscovy, Poland, and Bohemia as allies, but I've been dropped by allies before when declared on

 

[Zohtun]

I

Have Muscovy, Poland, and Bohemia as allies, but I've been dropped by allies before when declared on

Build up trust and hope to hell that your bankruptcy ends before they reach the point where they'd break it. The Ottomans won't chain-war like a player, so as long as your alliances aren't off getting themselves stomped in other wars, they'll still honor a defensive pact (especially if they have rivalled the Turks themselves)