First time playing EU IV - best tips wanted

[trojan1234]

However, when I declared war on them in 1453, all their allies jumped on me and I was left by myself to face four countries. After a costly conflict for some years, seeing as to how their navy superiority didn't allow me to cross the Gibraltar Strait to land troops in my North African colonies and as they were about to be occupied by Granada's allies, I was forced to make peace with them.

First about the naval supremacy, I would suggest you to check ledger(shortcut L) when you are planning upcoming war. You can check how many armies/navies your future enemy field in ledger armies/navies. Galleys are cheap and good for inland sea fight, you can go bit over forcelimit with galley spam if you needed.

Also, at first I tried breaking up my armies into smaller units to outmaneuver and flank the enemy like I did in HOI3 but it served no purpose. It appears the best way it to doomstack the troops and send them to the fight, even the sieges need troops in big numbers.
How many troops on average should I have as Castile? Should I keep my troops always together or should I break them up ? Also, during a war, should my priority be the destruction of the enemy army or the occupation of their territories? I've seen some territories go back to their original owner once, why? What is the best strategy in your opinion?

You did right, need to divide into smaller units. If you select your army and hover your cursor on province, you will find supply limit of the province. Supply limit is the number of regiments that can stand in the province without additional attrition. For example, if you as Castile have total forcelimit 40 and average supply limit with your current mil tech is 15, then it's better to split three 13 regiments stacks stationed in different provinces. War priority is generally 1) defeat enemy army on the border 2) sieze enemy forts 3) if enemy come back, push back again but keep 1 or 2 regiments at the forts you were sieging, oherwise you need to siege from zero again 4) keep 1-3) until you decided to peace out.

About the war score, what is necessary to make it rise to 100%? Even when I was occupying all of Granada, my war score was not 100%. Does the score go up over time the longer you occupy a foreign territory? What is the best way to achieve a quick and high war score?

If you want to full annex, then you need warscore closer to 100%. To do that, you need to achieve wargoal and to occupy all enemys'(Granada and her allies joined in the war) forts. For example, with conquest cb, you will get bonus warscore if you occupy target province. Best way for taking down enemy forts is to field artillery after you unlock mil tech 7. Siege time will significantly reduce if you having full(5) artillery bonus. You can hover artillery icon in siege screen to see how many artillery needed for full bonus, for example, fort level 1 requires 5 ariltillery to get full 5 bonus.

 

[ArzhurG]

You don't want to make a 2/3/6 a general as you can use all those mil points to fill out a mil idea and get up to date in tech which is far more valuable than a general. Also your rulers mil stat has no bearing on their general skills your AT does.

If you look at the wiki page for military leaders (http://www.eu4wiki.com/Military_leader) you will see that military skill of a ruler/heir does affect the pool of pips. For a general it's just army tradition while for rulers/heirs it's 0.5 x "army tradition" + 7 x "military skill" (which only adds up to 92 for 100 army tradition and 6 military skill, as opposed to 100 for generals in this case).
As a side note to the OP you can only make a male ruler/heir of 15 or above into a general.

 

[Aries666]

If you look at the wiki page for military leaders (http://www.eu4wiki.com/Military_leader) you will see that military skill of a ruler/heir does affect the pool of pips. For a general it's just army tradition while for rulers/heirs it's 0.5 x "army tradition" + 7 x "military skill" (which only adds up to 92 for 100 army tradition and 6 military skill, as opposed to 100 for generals in this case).
As a side note to the OP you can only make a male ruler/heir of 15 or above into a general.

Fair enough but seeing as they only receive half AT my point that using a 6 MIL ruler as a general being a waste still stands.

 

[Wizzington]

- Get some big allies that are in a position to defend you. Do this ASAP.
- If you're losing a war, try to get out of it quickly instead of waiting until your army is gone and your land is ravaged.
- Rival people who rival you or who you want to conquer.
- Don't let stability stay below 0.
- Don't let war exhaustion stay above 5.
- Don't let disasters trigger.
- Don't fall behind on mil tech.
- Have fun.

 

[josh127]

- Get some big allies that are in a position to defend you. Do this ASAP.
- If you're losing a war, try to get out of it quickly instead of waiting until your army is gone and your land is ravaged.
- Rival people who rival you or who you want to conquer.
- Don't let stability stay below 0.
- Don't let war exhaustion stay above 5.
- Don't let disasters trigger.
- Don't fall behind on mil tech.
- Have fun.

That's a really good and concise list for someone new to the game. Avoids a lot of the fine points, but covers major issues that will bring you into a death spiral.

 

[klandri]

Fair enough but seeing as they only receive half AT my point that using a 6 MIL ruler as a general being a waste still stands.

Not at all. I said you should do it at lower army traditions. If you have 20 army tradition your 6 sword ruler becomes a 52 AT general. If you have 0 AT your 6 sword ruler becomes a 42 AT general. Even at 50 AT it becomes a 67 AT general but at that point it's probably not worth it.

 

[LoriKe]

Also don't conquer too much in a single war to avoid getting above 100% overextension, which will cause many uprisings and pay atention to the agressive expansion you generate with other countries by conquering. If you gather too much of it countries will start to make a coalition against you which is needless to say is very bad for you.

 

[josh127]

Not at all. I said you should do it at lower army traditions. If you have 20 army tradition your 6 sword ruler becomes a 52 AT general. If you have 0 AT your 6 sword ruler becomes a 42 AT general. Even at 50 AT it becomes a 67 AT general but at that point it's probably not worth it.

Don't ever waste a good ruler as a monarchy. You have no control over what the next one will be.

He can still become a completely average general though or a highly mobile generat with poor stats. If you have a 6 in MIL you can either re-roll generals for better points in a stat you want, run generals over the leader limit, run a policy, national focus a different MP, and do all this while teching/grabbing ideas to get ahead.

As a side note to that, there's a risk that comes with using your ruler as a general. If he dies while leading an army you get an extra stab hit. That makes it often not worth using your ruler as a general even if you made him one. As a monarchy I'd only make my ruler a general if I really needed one and was behind in tech or if I had a ruler I wanted to die (with my luck the heir would go hunting right after I made the ruler a general too).

As a republic or theocracy I'm much more likely to use the ruler as a general, although with a theocracy it would more often be the heir.

 

[klandri]

Don't ever waste a good ruler as a monarchy. You have no control over what the next one will be.

Thing is I'm not talking about a 6/6/6 ruler but a 2/3/6. If you're up to date on tech and don't have military idea groups to catch up on there isn't much you need your excess sword mana for. You can always use more admin points and even bird points are useful for integrating vassals but the excess sword mana isn't good for much except rolling generals at which point you may as well assign your ruler.

 

[Aries666]

Not at all. I said you should do it at lower army traditions. If you have 20 army tradition your 6 sword ruler becomes a 52 AT general. If you have 0 AT your 6 sword ruler becomes a 42 AT general. Even at 50 AT it becomes a 67 AT general but at that point it's probably not worth it.

Now consider that your 6 mil ruler will live less than half as long due to being a general, and one actively used, at this point it becomes apparent that you really don't want to be wasting those monarch points even more so if you are a non-western monarchy.

 

[Aries666]

Thing is I'm not talking about a 6/6/6 ruler but a 2/3/6. If you're up to date on tech and don't have military idea groups to catch up on there isn't much you need your excess sword mana for. You can always use more admin points and even bird points are useful for integrating vassals but the excess sword mana isn't good for much except rolling generals at which point you may as well assign your ruler.

At 2/3/6 you aren't really guaranteed to get anything better in adm and dip by killing this ruler off seeing as the average is 3. If you had a 0/0/6 (the chances of which are incredibly small) and you were up to date in tech and ideas, sure make that a general.

 

[josh127]

Thing is I'm not talking about a 6/6/6 ruler but a 2/3/6. If you're up to date on tech and don't have military idea groups to catch up on there isn't much you need your excess sword mana for. You can always use more admin points and even bird points are useful for integrating vassals but the excess sword mana isn't good for much except rolling generals at which point you may as well assign your ruler.

And because I have 6 MP I can focus admin and I can buy a better admin or diplo advisor even though I won't be able to afford a MIL advisor.

Now if you're saying "I have a better heir than ruler and he's of age, so I want to make the ruler a general", ok, I buy that, but that decision is not based on the fact that I have a 6 stat in MIL.

 

[CzokletMuss]

Over 1100h in EU4, here are few tips from me:

1. Ally France.
2. Don't declare war against France.
3. Don't attack Russia in winter.
4. Don't wage war in HRE too often.
5. Be careful with loans.
6. Expansion is better than development.
7. Always keep up in military tech with your neighbors and rivals.
8. Your enemies have allies - you need to have allies too.
9. Don't play the colonization and trade game until you get a good grasp of the basics.
10. When in doubt, go to official EU4 wiki

 

[hwoosh]

OP, sounds like there is one skill you need to learn above all others:

Read the tooltips! Pay attention to the UI!

I have a very detail-oriented, methodical disposition, so stuff like not noticing you are breaking a truce to attack Granada or that you need to actually make a peace deal once you have won the war sounds bonkers to me. Slow down a bit, enjoy the process of learning the ins and outs of the mechanics, and pay attention to the info the game is giving you.

 

[theJ]

hm...
*Always keep you diplomats busy - improve relations, sign treaties, fabricate claims... you may not use all of it, but they're essentially free, so why not?
*Try to stay at maximum relations - at game start, you can have four allies. That's portugal, france, austria and a vassalised navarra - all of whom will come in to save your butt if you ever get in over your head. Which you will. A lot.
*Always double-check the "declare war" screen before actually declaring war; it'll tell you which allies will be called in to which sides, as well as any truces you might be breaking before you do anything overly silly.
*Be careful about aggressive expansion(you have a mapmode for it) - remember when Germany decided to annex three countries in a row and the whole world united against them? You do not want to be Germany in this example.

As for army construction... there is a limit to how many units your nation can reliably support(visible on the military tab as well as the unit recruitment screen). You can go above this in a pinch, but it will dramatically increase the cost of your army.
Try to stay at or just below this number at all times.

Note that both cavalry and artillery is A LOT more expensive overall than infantry. Infantry can be spammed almost mindlessly without worrying about money, but cavalry and artillery can not.
Roleswise, infantry is there to take hits in place of your expensive stuff. They are mostly filler in the early game, but gain a fair bit of punch later on.
Cavalry is your primary damagedealer in the early game, but loses this role fairly fast as time goes on, in favour of flanking bonuses. I would keep 2-4 in every army, pretty much regardless of era.
Artillery is the heavy hitter in the mid-late game, and by the end can make up almost half of your army. Early game though, they are good for sieges and little else. Keep one or two around for that purpose for now, but don't bother with any more than that(yet).

As you've already guessed, there's little point in spreading your armies out in this game. Winning is all about setting up the perfect singular battle, where you have as many advantages as possible, from numbers, to terrain, to leaders, to tech... always try to deal with the enemy army FIRST, before sieging out their provinces... if possible.

Only real reason to split up is to handle attrition... for now, this should mean you'll keep two armies in total, usually next to each other so they can reinforce each other for a decisive battle, before splitting apart once again.

*phew*... that got lengthier than I intended. Hope you find it useful

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Thing is I'm not talking about a 6/6/6 ruler but a 2/3/6. If you're up to date on tech and don't have military idea groups to catch up on there isn't much you need your excess sword mana for. You can always use more admin points and even bird points are useful for integrating vassals but the excess sword mana isn't good for much except rolling generals at which point you may as well assign your ruler.

I disagree, especially because that's an excellent ruler still. Focus ADM and dump excess MIL into development if you have the DLC.

 

[Pancakes997]

Build to your forcelimit (in the army tab) if you can afford it.

It's best to only make bad rulers/heirs generals (i.e. under average of 9 total monarch points). your heir (and i think current ruler) is terrible, make him a general.

Do you get the stability penalty if your heir dies in battle like you do with your king?

 

[neondt]

- Lower army maintenance when you're not at war
- After a big battle, shift-click the "consolidate regiments" button. You don't need to understand why.
- When you have an army 10x larger than an enemy army, you instantly destroy it. Take this opportunity whenever possible.
- In the early game, the only important stat for generals is shock. You might want to re-roll generals until you get one with decent shock.
- You don't need very much cavalry if you're not playing a horde. Just keep a few regiments in your armies and you'll be fine.
- Don't attack enemies on mountains unless you have overwhelmingly greater numbers or a much, much better general.
- Before you attack an enemy army, check the province they're standing on to see where the river crossings are. Avoid these if you can.
- Construct buildings in the most worthwhile provinces. e.g. you want to build your temples in provinces with the most base tax, markets in provinces with high trade power, and workshops in provinces with the best trade goods.

 

[ArzhurG]

Do you get the stability penalty if your heir dies in battle like you do with your king?

It's -1 stability if your heir dies in battle and -2 if your ruler dies in battle.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Here are some Castile-specific points:

-Tactically, once you occupy those three provinces, you don't need to keep your troops IN those provinces. Keeping too many units in one place can needlessly cost you manpower from attrition.

-The center province (capital) has a fort that has to be placed under siege and taken. Only need 3 or 9 regiments to take it down, the rest of your army can be transported to Africa to fight Grenada's allies. The two provinces on either side can be taken down in just a month with only 1000 troops (1 full strength regiment), but provinces can be auto-liberated if it is next to an unsieged/unoccupied fort.

-Castile starts with a truce with Grenada at the beginning of the game that expires in 1448 I think. If you attack before then, you will take a big stability hit. It's a good thing to keep stability up, and it's expensive to recover it if you lose that many points so early. If you desire to attack immediately, you absolutely can, but keep in mind there is a penalty for breaking truces.

-The game lasts some 400 years. You can do other things while waiting for the truce to end. For Castile, first thing I like to do is take the Papal opinion mission, get opinion to 100 for the bonus, THEN take the Reconquista mission in 1446 or 1447 and attack the day the truce ends. This also gives me time to build some boats and make allies for Castile.

-Speaking of allies, Castile can usually ally with Portugal and Burgundy, rarely with Aragon or England, once in a blue moon France... Getting at least one more naval power like Portugal on your side will help keep the seas clear for your transports. (It depends on the semi-random dynamic of rivalries which combination of allies will be possible in any given game.)

edit - They recently changed the war declaration screen so you have to click in a check box exactly which allies you want to call into the war. Allies will no longer automatically join wars if they are willing. This change now lets you pick and choose who you want in the fight.