Please Help

[KalypsoKirin]

I just got the game, and I feel like it's cheating me. Everyone says to pick Castiel to start, so naturally I do. I set myself a few short term goals and every time, less than 10 years into the game, everything goes south at the drop of a hat.
I typically beat up Granada just fine, they're pretty small, and their allies don't ever seem to want to join them when I attack, so, no problems there. But then, my allies start dragging me into big wars, or suddenly 200 k rebels spawn, or Aragon suddenly pulls 20 k troops out of nowhere after I destroy most of their army.
I thought Castiel was reccomended as a good start because it would be laid back and simple for most of the game. A few small wars early on, then smooth sailing to colonizing and maybe a large war or two after the midgame, where I'd have the ropes pretty well down, but it seems like the early years are non-stop threats and dealing with more threats than could possibly exist at a time.
No matter what I do, my country is ravaged by war, rebellion, etc. before the 1460's, and I just feel so overwhelmed I have no choice but to quit, start over, and try again and pray that I don't somehow get a million billion enemies knocking on my door.

 

[Dominion]

Castille is recommended because it's easy once you survive the early game. The early game itself definitely isn't easy for beginners.

Haven't played Castille in a while, but from what I remember you get hit by

- Castillian Civil war
- Granada event (more rebels)
- Several stabhits

Friend of mine recently took a hit at Castille and he went with the relaxed route.

- No allies other than Portugal
- Take Granada early
- Merc up during desasters. Take a few loans if needed. Nothing as horrible as these events will happen to you again after 1500.
- Once you get a female heir, kill your ruler to pick up Iberian Wedding

Highest debt he had was 4 loans, he got declared on by France once (trade war) and he killed his alliance with Portugal later on to vasssalize them.
Aside from that it was only colonizing.

Weirdest thing I noticed about your comment was "but then my allies start dragging me into big wars".
Who are you allying? Stop allying them. You're Castille, not the Ottoman Empire.
You want Iberia and America, maybe North Africa, but that's it. Leave Europe to the Europeans.

 

[KalypsoKirin]

Castille is recommended because it's easy once you survive the early game. The early game itself definitely isn't easy for beginners.

Haven't played Castille in a while, but from what I remember you get hit by

- Castillian Civil war
- Granada event (more rebels)
- Several stabhits

Friend of mine recently took a hit at Castille and he went with the relaxed route.

- No allies other than Portugal
- Take Granada early
- Merc up during desasters. Take a few loans if needed. Nothing as horrible as these events will happen to you again after 1500.
- Once you get a female heir, kill your ruler to pick up Iberian Wedding

Highest debt he had was 4 loans, he got declared on once by France (trade war) and he killed his alliance with Portugal later on to vasssalize them.

Weirdest thing I noticed about your comment was "but then my allies start dragging me into big wars".
Who are you allying? Stop allying them. You're Castille, not the Ottoman Empire.
You want Iberia and to colonize, that's it.

I only allied Portugul, Aragon, and Navarra over the few runs, and Portugul declared on Morrocco, while Aragon declared on the UK, and I didn't want to take the penalties from abandoning either alliance...
Most runs Aragon would rival me and declare on me. I'd start out winning, but then suddenly Aragon gets something like 20 k troops from seemingly nowhere.
I had been avoiding mercenaries because I didn't want to be in debt at all, should I really just spend all my money on them?

 

[Dominion]

I only allied Portugul, Aragon, and Navarra over the few runs, and Portugul declared on Morrocco, while Aragon declared on the UK, and I didn't want to take the penalties from abandoning either alliance...
Most runs Aragon would rival me and declare on me. I'd start out winning, but then suddenly Aragon gets something like 20 k troops from seemingly nowhere.
I had been avoiding mercenaries because I didn't want to be in debt at all, should I really just spend all my money on them?

You are being given the choice to lose the game or take penalties.
I recommend taking penalties.
Not only in this situation. It's more of a tip for every game you're ever going to play.
Penalties hurt. Losing the game loses you the game.

But back to topic. You don't ally Aragon because you get them gifted per event.
All you need to do is make sure your ruler and their ruler have a different gender and the year is between 1450 and 1530.
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Spanish_events#The_Iberian_Wedding_2

And yes, you should spend money on mercs.
You're Castille, nothing is ever going to happen to you after your initial crisis.

 

[Badesumofu]

One thing I learned very early on is to not follow allies into losing wars. -1 dip rep and 25 prestige is not a big penalty and some allies just like to declare insane wars. Or they are prone to getting jumped by the Ottomans or someone. Also beware that while you are drowning in rebels the AI may calculate that you would not honor a defensive CTA if you were an AI, and therefore be more willing to attack your allies.

Deny those CTAs.

Debt is not your enemy. Enemy armies are your enemy. They will do a lot more economic damage to you than debt will and also steal your land to boot. Merc up if you need to.

 

[Sfan]

Maybe try Portugal? They're a bit more boring, but a lot safer early game. This way you can experience the colonization game, and have a better understanding on what you can do in general. Once you understand how basic mechanics work you can go back to Castile.

 

[KalypsoKirin]

I tried again. Didn't change much but I guess I just got lucky or something because no baloney wars with superpowers and I have the Personal Union over Aragon and Naples.

 

[ForschungsFüchse]

I found in my game Portugal declared on Morocco literally every time the truce expired, the month it expired, for 150 years. Honestly, I would declare those wars yourself (after Granada) so you set the war goal, the timing (see below), and have your troops positioned. Take Tangiers for yourself as it will you give you more power in your Trade Node, give Portugal scraps, and take some land to create a vassal (Tlemcen is usually gone quick, Fez if possible) and feed that hard to core Berber land to them. I like to make them a March... this way they secure your South flank... one less worry.
Sounds just like you need practice with the combat mechanics, as you should be able to beat Morocco (unless Ottomans allied them). Some guides and videos can provide better advice than me, but broad principles: attack only when your tech level is the same as theirs or better; raise maintenance 4-5 months prior to attack: divide force into stacks of 12-15 with a 3 to 1 infantry to cavalry ratio (2:1 if you can afford it but not critical), make your useless heir a general and get another one; siege Fez (hope for a general with siege pips), keep other stacks behind to reinforce if your siege army is attacked (shock and maneuver general) and to take Tangiers (war goal, ticking war score); once siege is won use two stacks to chase down enemy army (again shock and man. general) behind them move an infantry heavy stack and constantly split off single regiments to blanket siege. Alternatively you could improve relations with a Moroccan neighbor, get military access, and send you army there (e.g. Tunis) then attack from the East, sieging Fez last, but then you should pick a different war goal (maybe the CoT there? but it is in the Sari trade node, so ...).

Anyhow! My point was actually not to give combat advice, I am no Napoleon, but some unrest advice. Maybe you know these but: raise stability before the war (as it will cost more to raise afterwards due to religious unity); unrest reduction advisor if you can get one. Once you get your provinces in the peace deal raise autonomy right away - this means you make no money from them, but worth it; once coring is done, your over extension will go away and with it some revolt risk, so core fast, or take less in the peace deal, and just know unrest will decline. You can place troops on the provinces to reduce unrest: if you do the math you can even lower their maintenance to find a sweet spot where the revolt risk grows, but grows slower, so that the separatism declines (.5) every year, and the revolt's expected date keeps moving to the future until it disappears. One they are cored, make them a state, give problem provinces to clergy (-2 unrest, but this is a DLC thing, Cossacks?). You can also make their culture an accepted culture (100 diplo MPs) but Spain has some events that change Grenada, so this is up to you... in other countries though, if you plan to take more of that culture in the coming century, promote it to accepted early (-2 unrest and will convert quicker). I also never convert until separatism is a bit lower (a couple years) and conversion speed faster (from decisions, ideas, etc.).

Or sometimes I just want the revolt to pop, not wait for it. When you take several provinces of the same religion/culture, like Granada, each contributes to the revolt. You want to control where the revolt happens, ideally on the province with a fort. Split your troops evenly, park them in the other three provinces, lower maintenance but not all the way, just enough so revolt risk in these provinces is a bit lower than the fort province, this time LOWER autonomy in the fort province only (if it cores before they revolt, send a missionary, basically get them mad), when revolt risk is at 80% raise maintenance on army and the fort, once the revolt breaks the rebels will have to siege the fort (so you can also delay raising troop maintenance, if the fort is fully manned, you will get a feel for timing in time). Move your 3 stacks to the province, make sure they arrive on or very near the same day. Since it is a fort, you will get the defender bonuses and easily stack wipe the rebels with low casualties. Unrest then goes -100 for "recent revolt" and by the time that is gone separatism will be gone (also is a good time to convert them).

Well, my two cents... good luck and enjoy!

 

[joos]

I am surprised you were allied to Aragon, as they usually rival Castile. As other posters have said before me, Portugal is all the ally you need as Castile in the beginning. Your biggest enemies - England and France - will be too busy with each other early game to pose a challenge. Aragon likes to vassalize Navarra early. If you want a relaxed game, let them take Navarra and wait for the Iberian Wedding to fire. Or, you could guarantee Navarra early (as they are an easy vassal target for Castile) and defend them against Aragon. When fighting Aragon, remember that they have a huge number of galleys which excel in inland sea combat. If you engage their navy with your heavy ships anywhere in the mediterranean, you will die. The Aragonese ruler also often gets excommunicated at France's urging - so look for opportunities there too.

Castile's starting ruler and heir are trash. You can disinherit your heir on day 1 and hope for a better heir - preferably the opposite gender of whoever will rule Aragon. This will ensure a speedy Iberian Wedding.

And finally, if you really want to learn the game, Portugal is a far better choice than Castile. Portugal has a very safe starting point, can colonize very early, dominate trade, has unique flavours and events, and can also eventually choose to interfere in European affairs. Since Castile and Portugal are historical friends, Castile will make a great attack dog for Portugal. One piece of advice if you go for a Portugal game is to dissolve your alliance with England on Day 1. Otherwise, the English will drag you into wars with France and might even force you to choose between them or Castile.

 

[grommile]

I just got the game, and I feel like it's cheating me. Everyone says to pick Castiel to start, so naturally I do.

No. No, not "everyone" does, and people who still do fall into three categories:

• A sadistic troll
• Behind the times
• A kind person who provides a paint-by-numbers recipe for coping with the horriblenesses of Castile's first fifty years.

Castile is easy if you know what you're doing. If you don't, it may well be the hardest start of any Euromajor.

 

[PrimeYuri]

No. No, not "everyone" does, and people who still do fall into three categories:

• A sadistic troll
• Behind the times
• A kind person who provides a paint-by-numbers recipe for coping with the horriblenesses of Castile's first fifty years.

Castile is easy if you know what you're doing. If you don't, it may well be the hardest start of any Euromajor.

castille was my first country. It took me many restarts but everytime I learned something new about the game. That is the purpose of newby countries; to learn.
It teaches you much more about the game than any other country. The PU game, The colonizing game, Disaster game, religious problems, etc
and most important it learns you that patience is sometimes necessary in this game. Especially in the first years it is good to do nothing, which was surprising to me. Not many games reward patience.

 

[doomknight4255]

I'd recommend firstly if you're brand new to the game, play on very easy mode and turn off lucky nations in options.

This is basically going to allow you a tremendous safety net when you're playing, if you make a huge mistake it won't be nearly as detrimental as on normal. After you're comfortable with the mechanics I'd bump up to normal. There's no shame in using training wheels if you're learning to ride a bike.

Eu4 has a large amount of caveats and such that you'll be able to learn just fine on an easier difficulty.

 

[Dominion]

I'd recommend firstly if you're brand new to the game, play on very easy mode and turn off lucky nations in options.

This is basically going to allow you a tremendous safety net when you're playing, if you make a huge mistake it won't be nearly as detrimental as on normal. After you're comfortable with the mechanics I'd bump up to normal. There's no shame in using training wheels if you're learning to ride a bike.

Eu4 has a large amount of caveats and such that you'll be able to learn just fine on an easier difficulty.

I'm not sure about that one.
Once played on easy just to try it out. Realized shortly after that half the things I usually do in a game are missing.
Zero routine, absolute sandbox mode. Do whatever you want, but without a chance to actually play the game.

The bonis you get from those difficulty settings will lead to you un-learning everything that's necessary.

Better to lose on normal mode than to win on easy.

I tried again. Didn't change much but I guess I just got lucky or something because no baloney wars with superpowers and I have the Personal Union over Aragon and Naples.

Glad to hear
And off you go into a relaxed game with a stable nation. Enjoy!

 

[grommile]

castille was my first country. It took me many restarts but everytime I learned something new about the game. That is the purpose of newby countries; to learn.

Would you also advocate 867 Ireland as a newbie start in CK2?

Not everyone thrives on a "thrown in at the deep end" approach, and Castile and 867 Ireland both look a lot like "thrown in at the deep end".

 

[doomknight4255]

While I don't necessarily disagree with you, constantly losing is incredibly demoralizing and isn't exactly the single best way of learning how to play the game.

I've bought at least 14 of my friends the game and the primary issues they've faced is literally learning things such as when to pick a battle, how morale works, idea groups, diplomacy, the importance of technology, and so much more.

It's incredibly possible to lose on very easy, I just hosted a MP game with three friends I'd just recently bought the game and witnessed two players (Castile and Portugal) get completely stomped by an AI France.

Having taught that large number of individuals the basics for EU4 the primary issue with Very Easy difficulty brings is that they'll get sucker punched by corruption, inflation, and a lack of manpower. But without having prior sitting down with them and holding their hand through I'm certain they'd be so very lost in the sea of overlapping mechanics.

Very Easy should only be really used in the case of a beginner, because to be fair no one likes losing if you're absolutely confused and outclassed, it's frustrating and leads to many people quitting I feel. It's not as frustrating when you're losing and you know WHY you're losing, because then you'll learn better from the experience.

 

[Dominion]

Would you also advocate 867 Ireland as a newbie start in CK2?

Not everyone thrives on a "thrown in at the deep end" approach, and Castile and 867 Ireland both look a lot like "thrown in at the deep end".

Castille can't even get declared on.
Compare it to other European powers.

England? Constantly at war with France.
France? Same, vice versa.

Both nations mean you start at war with a great power. That's not what I'd call suitable for beginners.

Other nations are even worse.
Austria? You 'lose' immediately because you're being told your objective is to prevent SKE which you can't do, followed by getting smashed by the Ottoman Empire or France.
Poland? Everything is going to kill you.
Muscovy? Dirt poor, heavy focus on economy or else you collapse.
Denmark? Sweden is going to crush you.

Castille?
Survive rebels. Colonize. Done.

Nothing is ever going to declare on you, nobody is going to interrupt your colonization, if you ever want to wage war you can freely choose between Portugal or Berbers.
And once you declare you have your personal unions doing a lot of your work.

Imo Castille is the second best nation to start with after the Ottoman Empire.

It's incredibly possible to lose on very easy, I just hosted a MP game with three friends I'd just recently bought the game and witnessed two players (Castile and Portugal) get completely stomped by an AI France.

I get where you're coming from, but the issue is that mistakes feel a lot different on normal than they do on very easy.
Heck, the whole game feels A LOT different than it does on normal.

Players tend to brush everything off as basics, mechanics you need to learn, knowledge you absolutely have to have, but that's not all there is.
It's also experience. To feel a coalition coming, to feel the need for mercs, to feel an enemy's strength.

Things like −33% Aggressive expansion impact distort your experience, same goes for lower unrest, yearly inflation, diplomatic reputation, etc.
It teaches a completely different behavior.

Using yearly inflation reduction as an example. I have a friend who, even after 400 hours of game time, cries about having 2% inflation. His focus is on either having an advisor to reduce yearly inflation, to pick economic to get rid of it or to buy it down.
Because he got used to having 0% inflation when he started the game. He's convinced inflation is one of the worst things in the game.

Sure, you'll have an easier time teaching them the game now, but as soon as they change settings it'll be twice as difficult for you to teach them how to play properly because not only do they now need to learn to watch these things, they also need to un-learn a lot of their behavior.

Playing on Very Easy or Easy is counter-productive unless these players plan to stay on that difficulty level.
Which isn't to say they shouldn't. Everyone is more than welcome to play however they want to.

But it's something you need to consider.

 

[PrimeYuri]

Well if you want them to win the game with Castille. open console command, press Form_union Fra and win the game.
They are going to lose the first few games anyway. Castille is pretty safe with only France as potential problem. It is not the Byzantines or something.

I have seen people suggest worse begin countries
Portugal is more problematic since you lose money in the beginning with full force limit and advisors and you want to take on Morocco.
England is more problematic with war of roses and france wanting your territory
France is more problematic since it takes time to get strong, most likely will try to fight HRE members and get too much AE in beginning.

 

[Brynjar]

I never understood why anyone would suggest Castile to new players. Rebels can probably be the single most demotivating factor in the game. Castile has unavoidable rebel events, which can get completely out of hand if you don't know what you are doing. In addition you have France on your borders, which in most cases will hate you, and are stronger than you.

Portugal is a much better choice for a new player, or even the Ottomans which in my opinion is too forgiving to help you learn the game properly.

 

[doomknight4255]

I'm just saying, the EU4 we started with isn't the EU4 we have today, vanilla with mechanics being added every six months is a LOT easier to chew than the current behemoth we've got in front of us today.

It's incredibly overwhelming to the new player and justly so, while I completely agree that again, the experience is completely different on easier difficulty, the OP is struggling likely with a plethora of problems associated with simply being new. The primary reason I recommend an easier difficulty is again, it's less to chew, yes you'll develop bad habits, but when you don't understand more advanced topics like army composition, playing the estates, judging the correct time to start a war, handling vassals, forming personal unions, maneuvering fleets, hiring advisers, or dealing with rebels it's probably a good idea to sit down and break out the training wheels.

From personal experience with my friends and as a game developer, people get really discouraged from constant failure when they're in an unfamiliar situation. It's very hard to look at this type of situation in hindsight because the amount of time we've got in the game, but I learned Eu3 by spamming console cheats, and to be honest I ended up learning a vast amount more in regards to the game mechanics. I didn't learn any advanced cheese strategy from it yeah, but I certainly learned when and how to win battles and deal with teching and minting.

I'm not saying easy mode will make OP a master, but I'd bet a pretty penny OP would learn a decent amount from the experience that will help greatly in understanding the game.

tl;dr you're right, easy mode will reinforce bad habits, but i'm pretty certain OP's starting from the absolute bottom and is pretty confused and this is a bandage solution but a solution nonetheless. It's really up to OP if they'll continue learning the game or not in the end.

 

[Dominion]

It's incredibly overwhelming to the new player and justly so, while I completely agree that again, the experience is completely different on easier difficulty, the OP is struggling likely with a plethora of problems associated with simply being new.

He got his Iberian wedding, he's done. He got his Castille run.
OP is in the clear. He can play the game exactly the way he wanted to.

From personal experience with my friends and as a game developer, people get really discouraged from constant failure when they're in an unfamiliar situation

That's the issue with EU4's lower difficulty settings.
Once you move up, everything's an unfamiliar situation. You're merely delaying a bad experience for them, not getting rid of it.

Losing a game as someone new to it is discouraging. Losing a game after you think you've familiarized yourself with it, after you feel like you've got a grasp of basic mechanics, is a lot worse.

It's why online chess is discouraging so many chess enthusiasts nowadays. Granted it does allow the sport to spread faster, thereby increasing overall numbers, but that's a different discussion.
My point is that in absolute numbers, a lot of players drop out.
They play in their own communities, feel like they're stable or even strong, move to online chess and get crushed game after game after game just to end up realizing they're way below average.

That's not in any way different from starting EU4, thinking you've got it, increasing your difficulty settings to normal and getting smashed like you've never played before.

tl;dr you're right, easy mode will reinforce bad habits, but i'm pretty certain OP's starting from the absolute bottom and is pretty confused and this is a bandage solution but a solution nonetheless. It's really up to OP if they'll continue learning the game or not in the end.

I don't see it. I really don't.

OP didn't come in saying he fails at everything and how horrible he is.
He came in saying he's getting smashed by rebels and getting dragged into unnecessary wars.
He survived rebels and got his PU. He got the perfect learning experience.

If anything more people should start their EU4 experience like him.

Feel validated by surviving a minor disaster, get rewarded with a stable position, take your time to learn mechanics while sitting in a good place and do whatever you want, be it warfare against Berbers, trade, colonization, general diplomacy, etc.

I feel like equating a single disaster at the start of your game to getting crushed over and over again as any GP by other GPs is exaggerating the difficulties you get to experience in Iberia.

Or, as someone else mentioned, give your friends Castille and console-gift them France as a PU.
They'll still get to learn the real game except the only potential enemy will be out of the picture.

I really like the idea @PrimeYuri presented. Maybe I'll switch from teaching people how to play with Ottomans to teaching people how to play with Castille and France as a PU minor.
It does sound like the perfect difficult setting for newcomers.

Pseudo-'Very Easy' without unnecessary modifiers and bypassing potential initial struggle.
Sounds appealing.

I never understood why anyone would suggest Castile to new players. Rebels can probably be the single most demotivating factor in the game. Castile has unavoidable rebel events, which can get completely out of hand if you don't know what you are doing. In addition you have France on your borders, which in most cases will hate you, and are stronger than you.

Portugal is a much better choice for a new player, or even the Ottomans which in my opinion is too forgiving to help you learn the game properly.

Not sure which patch you started on, but Portugal gets declared on by Morocco nowadays if you're not playing well.
It's not the same start we got to experience twenty patches ago.
If anything I would advise against picking Portugal unless you're already familiar with basic mechanics because you can and will get crushed by Berbers.