Post your Europa Universalis 4 Empire

[elessar9]

Stiff upper Lippe completed.

I haven't done any of the other "release and play as" achievements (Wales, Asturias, Man) as the typically employed nation ruining strategies really do not appeal to me. This one was fairly straightforwardly done with releasing Lippe from Berg on day 1. The independence war is not too difficult and after that it is a standard steady HRE OPM game. I got a foothold in the British Isles through Scotland so never had any issues with the wooden wall.

 

[Glizdogon]

The Mongols have united to form a mighty horde!
I am glad for once that the Oirats Horde/Mongol Khanate are actually playable for once, but I didn't expect things to go this smoothly. I ran into a war with Ming very early on and I wiped the floor with them (constant 1000-2000s hits on THEIR land!) so badly they lost the Mandate of Heaven and spawned Zhou into the map. Manchu and other forces would bully Ming from that point on. Is the starting tech between nomads and China difference supposed to give such an edge? I could pretty much do what I want at that point, noone in the area can pose a threat (except Muscovy in the future eventually). The only limits to my expansion are the religious and cultural costs... and not let us talk about tech...

 

[eoncommander]

Everything's coming up Mulhouse!

Quite a fun game - my first as any HRE minor. Lucked out with the diplomatic situation at the outset, and was able to annex Baden as soon as I hit mil tech 4. I stayed a republic for about 80 years before I reelected enough to devolve into a monarchy, and I was elected emperor a few years after that. By far the trickiest part was finagling the two swabian provinces away from Austria (this was before becoming emperor); I tried to use my ally France as a battering ram, but they were thousands in debt for decades on end, so I built a coalition of HRE electors that was just big enough to take on Austria. Eventually switched over to ally Spain - they had Naples and Portugal in a PU. I picked up Bohemia and Berg as PUs through claiming their thrones, Flanders and Gelre by accident, and a large Savoy by contesting against Austria. I'm also allied to electors Palatinate, Mainz, Nassau, Brandenburg, and Dalmatia (I just recently inherited Bohemia, and earlier in the game inherited Berg and a very large Savoy), all with high trust; I will probably return to this game to pick up the Trustworthy achievement - and perhaps try out some Realm-War on big bosses Spain and the Ottomans.

Oh, and the Pope has had a hell of a time. Vassalized by Naples, who promptly fell into a PU under Spain. Eventually annexed, they were released in Braunschweig, conquered, released in Bamberg, conquered again, released in Brandenburg, and are about to be conquered once more.

 

[Koopatin]

maybe nothing special here but a nice co-operative 2 player game. More a SP game in MP. We never really were able to help each other. just 2 wars against ottomans. mini quiz (easy, i know) what nation did the other player play?

also, I tried if you still get all colonies of a nation you annex. You do. never knew if that was working as intended but always kind of nice. And my conquest of spain made South America go free.... for a time.. we finished the game at that point otherwise i would have taken South America for myself.

oh yes and I got a random PU over Austria. Fought Russia over it because they were my rival. also weird to be able to claim a throne from a rival without any other reason. But I take it.. before that Austria was always an annoying defender of faith.

 

[Vinje]

View attachment 674776

mini quiz (easy, i know) what nation did the other player play?

Bahmanis --> Deccan?

 

[reivaj89]

Bahmanis --> Deccan?

I'd say the same, never seen Deccan forming on its own.

 

[szypul]

On The Rhodes Again

Starting as Knights (got King of Jerusalem too)

 

[Fire and Ash]

Take that Hapsburgs achievement run. I feel like if I was better at the game, it could have been a WC, but I was just happy pulling this off.

No long explanation on this one, I don't think it's necessary. This has been a personal challenge for a while now. I wanted to get better at EU4 and before I started specifically going for achievements the two nations I decided I would try to get good at the game with were Hungary & Morocco. Hungary missions give you PUs over all Eastern Europe and I wanted to finish it. With 100 years left I did.

Couple of things I did learn from this one.
1. States Generals are the mark of death if you want to retain your PUs.
2. If you go orthodox before completing the Bohemia PU mission, you will not join the HRE.
3. The weaken Austria mission isn't great, because unless they've been hit previously, if Bohemia goes, they become emperor. The last hundred years of this game has been me trying to eat them.
4. Lots of people say it, but few people understand it, at least I didn't. It's ok to lose a war, in some ways it can even be a good thing. I got Dow'd very early on by the Ottos and despite having a number advantage with allies, I had to take the defeat. I still fought them to make sure they only took two provinces, but they were still going to win. That's how it be with the Ottos in the first 50 years. They've got the pips and at most, if you are lucky, you will be able to match them with Moral and Discipline, but not with anything else. Give them way they want and build up. Dev where you can, build to force limit and be ready for the next one.


All in all, a fun run, but I'm not sure I'll take it the last stretch. I'm feeling pretty burnt out and at points I've started to become lazy. I'll just throw stacks of a 120,000 men everywhere and ignore the casualties. If I do go any further it will be for the 1 million soldiers achievement.

 

[Koopatin]

Bahmanis --> Deccan?

correct. i said its an easy quiz ^^

 

[BrandNewIain]

I decided to do an Austria game before the new patch came out and it was honestly a lot of fun. Best parts being the HRE vassal swarm and randomly getting a PU over Portugal and its colonies.

Worst parts were that everywhere went revolutionary and I didn't want to go to war with the libs.

 

[szypul]

Kingdom of God

 

[Atilla 'The Hun']

After a long time, I decided to start a game as classic Poland and it was one hell of a ride.

Say hello to the Russian Polish Empire.

Vassals and dominions.

Some cultural integration happened along the way.

And at last, what is an Imperial Polish Empire without some colonies?

 

[raikaria]

Welcome to my Provence run. I could have pushed more; but I couldn't be asked to play the final 20 years.

Anyway, this game was... interesting. Iberia kinda failed, with Castile refusing the PU; and then Morocco and France invadeing most of it. Northern Iberia is actually Gascon. Castile is only as large as it is because I fed it back cores.

The Emperor is French! I wasn't even trying for this. It just kinda happened around 1500. Austria isn't in the HRE because they actually fell under PU with me ~1720; and since they are a PU; they could not accept to become a vassal and got kicked out. Weird mechanic.

Also; apparently if you have HRE subjects, they actually stop counting for your diplomatic relations slots when you pass the reform *BEFORE* the vassal swarm. I had Dalmatia and Switzerland as vassals; and Astria under PU; and when I passed the 'Always same country' reform, I gained 3 diplo slots.

Also; apparently despite having a CB to force non-HRE states bordering the HRE to join it; Sweden, Lithuania and France did not gain that CB.

Brandeburg and Castile [alongside some minors] refused to become vassals and got forced back in. I also forced in Poland once I had the devouring swarm. So they were not subjects of mine, but were members of the HRE.

Proof Austria is my subject.

And then I pressed the button. Partly as a proof of concept. Yes; the non-vassal HRE nations got intergrated too; includeing Poland; Castile and Brandenburg. Shame I couldn't force Lithuania and Sweden in.

Greece is a March I was feeding Ottoman land it.

Also I got the Dutch and Castilian colonies. Florida is independant, not in Florida; and is actually a Great Power.

Not shown: Mughals having skipped Eastern India and invaded South-East Asia. They own about 90% of Indochina, West India; and the Persian region.

 

[szypul]

Queen of Mercury

 

[elessar9]

Following Lippe my second day 1 vassal release campaign was Moravia. Starting as a weak Hussite nation in a far corner of the HRE presents a difficult challenge, especially when Poland refuses to collapse and instead forms a strong Commonwealth. Early to midgame expansion was slow going. Austria supported my independence but were mainly useless for offensive operations. It took quite some careful work before any other major could be convinced to assist in my cause.

In the end, though, all Slavs have been brought under the Great Moravian banner, and of course converted to the true faith.

Incidentally, those looking for cheap achievements may be interested to know that "Czechs and Balances" does not require you to stay Bohemia. And since releasing starts you off with 100% crowland this one was immediately achieved on the first day of the campaign.

 

[Sybot]

The Caliph of the Great Lakes. While I was doing Victoria Three, I decided to convert and go for the unification of Islam as well. After unifying the Lakes, it was fairly straightforward. The hairiest parts were the initial wars against Kilwa to get my hands on the delicious East African gold, and the time I accidentally got into a war with Iberians and France at the same time because I hadn't paid attention to who was DotF. The Mamluks and Ottomans were surprisingly minor issues compared to previous African campaigns I'd done, by the time I had to fight them I had enough money and manpower that I could fight them evenly and then overrun them as needed.

Besides that, highlights are an AI Deccan and France and Britain putting aside their differences to ally for some reason. Mazandaran is my hefty march, with 180k troops by itself.

 

[szypul]

True Sons of Carthage

 

[Fire and Ash]

Current status of my rather chill Dai Viet game.

I've been getting hype for the new expansion and decided to try Dai Viet. Immediate thoughts were that I liked their ideas a lot, but their position/religion was awful. Canton is their collection node. Outside of expanding into china, you aren't getting much more of that, so you want to expand towards Malaya. Problem I had was that because I was external to the religious group I drove up AE like crazy. I initially thought I could get around this be vassalizing, but no chance. I've spent the last 150 years juggling AE with my other South East-Asia Neighbours & Malaya. I could have expanded more into them, but events up north made me pause all that.

Around 1500 the Ming exploded. Their Authority was at an all time low and I think they get the event that spawns the Shun, Yu & Wu. I had about 40k army at this point and only the quantity idea group. The war was an absolute cake walk. Since that way whenever AE allows it, I eat more and more of China. Since I took the two gold mines in China, I've been rolling in money, so I'm pretty built up.

Plan for the future is to try and eat all China, South-East Asia and Malaya. I've got more art & mp than anyone else at this point, so its just a question as to whether I want to deal with Coalitions.

 

[Harczi]

Current status of my Byzantine restoration:

Serbia is my vassal state. I haven't played EU4 for a while so I decided to go for Byzantium to re-learn some skills.

I have been relatively cautious in my conquests and the Ottomans effectively collapsed after my 2nd war with them as everyone (Mamluks, Naples etc) started warring them which made conquest slightly easier.

I am somewhat locked in my positon due to Sunni/Catholic DOTFs (Mamluks and Poland respectively)

My future plans consist of conquering the entirety of Dulkadir and taking most prosperous provinces from Mameluk and creating a Syrian vassal. Once that's done, Sunni lands such as Tunis will be up for grabs, especially so since Castile is relatively weak.

 

[Loveeulongtime]

My OPM game. Thought I want to try a game as a Free City and stay with it the whole game growing only with vassals.
Got France as an ally very early on but they're there mainly as a defensive ally, my most valuable allies were the smaller/mid sized HRE nations that I can get favor points a lot faster from.
The game was a mix between fun early on, to oh so boring once I need to do constant wars to get prestige so I can keep my vassals in line.
My first vassal was East Frisia, their NI is icky, but also the easiest to get as vassal lol. Only had them for a long time until I got lucky when Brandenburg went under and I released them from a core. Released Prussia shortly after religious war (they were a beast even in vassal form!). Released Galicia for better navy and baby Ashanti which I had barely anytime to do anything with lol

Money comes mainly from trade node early on. Renting army out while waiting AE down was also very profitable. Once I got my vassals big enough and the policies for vassals payment, those become my main income. The only time I've ever relied on vassal money for my income lol

Keeping the vassals in check is pretty much the name of the game until Age of Revolutions. "Anti-revolutionary Zeal" and "Loyal Subjects" make things so much easier. Look at those sweet, sweet vassal payment! lol

Worst thing about being OPM is the low manpower. I usually can only be a besieger, or play support to my vassals. Engage battles only on those that I know I can stackwipe. Any prolonged battles will destroy my manpower very quickly. While mercs are an option, their small size means they're also there for support or to get their generals (mostly siege generals). With only 29 naval limit, any war outside europe is a pain too.

And lastly, the province behind it all, hiding behind my vassals, the glorious(ish) province of Hamburg, home of the best hamburgers in the world! (The province developments is like that since I put points only when I have excess, and since mil points was a struggle for me at the early going, ADM is what get poured on it mostly).

Bonus screenshots: One of the few times you'll see A.I. Brazil as #1 Great Power in the game, by quite a bit too. (After Portugal lost all of their european provinces, they moved their capital to Morocco and some events that I'm not familiar with, released Brazil, put Portugal under their PU and now Brazil stronk or something like that)