Nation for me

[Salem4]

I have just started playing EUII, and was surprised how bad I was, and gave up after a while, especially because of all the rebellions, bad economy, and treacherous allies. I played the grand campaign with Regular Spain, since I thought this was an easy nation to defend, and also had a lot of expansion possibilities into the Muslim world without upsetting the Christian community (I have played Medieval: Total War too much).

Is there any easier nation to play? I would like it to have at least some of these:
* Easy to defend. (Few borders, few enemies etc)
* A good number of land based expansion possibilities.
* Good economy.
* European nation.

I thank you in advance for potential answers.

 

[bluelotus]

France 1492.

 

[Txini]

France is the easiest with no doubt

 

[Vynd]

I agree, France in 1492 is an excellent choice. If you want to start in 1419 then it is harder to pick a definite favorite. Austria is a very good European nation for expanding on land and it has a solid economy. It's not particularly defensible though. If you play Austria be aware that if you are patient then you will inherit both Bohemia and Hungary through events.

Russia is also a very good nation for building a big European empire. There is no Russia in 1419 but if you play as one of the minor Russian states, like Muscovy, and eliminate enough of the other Russian minors then you will be able to become Russia. Russia is easy to defend on account of the brutal winters, and they have events that will give them claims on much of the eastern part of Europe. Plus they can colonize Siberia.

Sweden is also very good. They start 1419 as a vassal to Denmark but are strong enough that you could probably afford to break that early on and then go your own way. For that matter, Denmark is quite capable of being a major land power along the Baltic, just watch out for the events that can anger Sweden and drive them out from under your control.

 

[unmerged(41964)]

France 1492.

IMHO, Spain in 1492 is much better than France. I'm playing a game as Spain right now that I started in 1492 and in one war I was able to make France my vassal. It's really easy when your monarch is Ferdinand y Isabella and you have a 40,000 man army under El Capitan.

 

[unmerged(1047)]

England seems to meet all of your parameters except a good land-based expansion path... maybe Sweden, although I haven't played it much myself... and Ottoman Empire and the Russian principalities of Muscovy and Novgorod are always fun for land expansion, although the economies aren't great...

 

[The Andy-Man]

If you don't mind going naval, then England.

Otherwise i'd suggest France or Austria.

Perhaps, seeing as it was your first game, you just wasn't used to it. Give it a couple of goes and spain shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Hallsten]

Definately France 1492.
If you want to go naval and colonise Spain 1492 is also a good bet...

 

[Storey]

I've always felt that Russia is one of the best countries to learn to play the game with. You can ignore the naval part of the game and concentrate on the land aspects of the game. Lots of events and good military leaders. Also you'll get explorers and can use them to explore Siberia. Oh and you'll learn quickly about attrition. If Russia isn't European enough then Austria is another good country to try. Both in the 1492 scenario. Just remember be patient you have 400 years to grow.

Joe

 

[Incompetent]

* A good number of land based expansion possibilities.

Are you using the latest beta? If so, Spain, and bizarrely England, have very interesting 'land' expansion possibilities, in that Spain can march across the Straits of Gibraltar and get a land connection to much of Africa (together with a frontier bonus ) and England can win the HYW and have a land connection to the Continent via the Straits of Dover.

If there aren't straits across these places, I'd say the classic land powers are France, Austria, the Ottomans and Muscovy/Russia, in increasing order of difficulty. None of these is particularly strong in 1419, but they're all pretty strong in the 1492 scenario, so if you want an easy game, start there.

 

[unmerged(36846)]

I started spain 1492. It is easy but boring! I managed to colonize all central and southern america and annex the mayas, incas and aztecs before 1520 but still the yearly income was only about 150! I thought after colonizing america, i could just begin industrializing spain but i couldnt.

 

[unmerged(28727)]

France in AGCEEP in 1419 is pretty hard, but hell screw this, learn with the sharks. I suggest Byzantium, Novograd, The Knights, Lorraine. Oh don't forget Pskov. My first game ever on this was as Byzantium. Boy that didn't turn out too well :rofl: . No seriously trust me

 

[crash63]

For me it's without doubt France 1492.

Very easy and less colonisation than Spain. It's easier to learn.

 

[unmerged(37697)]

Best Nation?

I'd go with England.

France and Spain are decent nations to start with (especially the latter; a newly unified Spain can be extremely powerful depending on the path(s) you choose) but it's more fun and a lot easier with England seen as you're isolated from Europe, so won't have to worry about being invaded from all sides like a lot of the other major European powers often do. Plus, you've generally got the advantage of a superior navy and it's of course much easier to colonise with England.

So, I'd go with them. They also have both the continental and the colonisation routes open to her. I've made with peace with France in the early 18th century and concentrated on N. America, so I never lost the colonies and managed to unite about 2/3 of the continent under British rule.

I've also gone the other way and abandoned by American conquests and defeated the French, Spanish and Dutch and taken back my (rightful) possessions in France and taken out the Austrian Grand Army.

So, anything's possible. Unfotunately, there's rarely any middle ground. It's extremely difficult (as it was in real life) to both maintain a large and powerful standing army to fend off the French and/or Spanish and defend the British Isles themselves AND reinforce your armies in the Americas in order to quell the many revolts there.

So, choose wisely, but with England, ANY route is open. Hell, I took 1/3 of China.

Jim