Hello - I just got EU IV, and I'm a tad overwhelmed with my start as Austria, so I was wondering if there was a better country to start with as a new player. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. 
Suggestions for starting country in nOOb campaign
- Thread starter Strompator
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I'd suggest starting as Portugal. Break your initial alliance with England so you don't get called into pointless wars. Ally with Spain and keep them as your best buds. Pick on the North African nations and colonize the New World.
Or Castile, that's what I did in my first game. Ally with Portugal and keep them as your best buds. Pick on the North African nations and colonize the New World.
Poland and the Ottomans are good nations to start off with as well, The Ottomans wont have any real problems until you start getting into wars with the Mamlukes and Austria while Poland can form the commonwealth and move onto breaking Russia's nose with no real enemies afterwards besides a potential super denmark or HRE
I'd say France, Denmark, or Castile. France has a strong tax base, great ideas, plenty of starting vassals, and high manpower. Denmark has the Swedish and Norwegian attack dogs, a Holstein vassal protecting its southern border, but its starting economy is lacklustre. Castile is well protected from enemies in europe (BBB) due to Navarra and Aragon to the east, has good ideas for early colonisation, and can field a larger and more disciplined army than Portugal.
If I had to pick one, I'd go with France. Sure it starts off in the HYW, but it's pretty easy to win. Just set naval maintainance to zero, split your army up to seige each english continental possession and assign generals to them. Wait for the warscore to tick up to around 40+, then get one or two provinces from them. The rest is gravy.
If I had to pick one, I'd go with France. Sure it starts off in the HYW, but it's pretty easy to win. Just set naval maintainance to zero, split your army up to seige each english continental possession and assign generals to them. Wait for the warscore to tick up to around 40+, then get one or two provinces from them. The rest is gravy.
France. Very easy nation, and you get to play around with most of the game mechanics--colonization, trade, religion, vassals, HRE, etc..
England's got an awfully easy start if you don't have an interest in beating France in the hundred years war. Offer France peace on day one and give them back some of their cores, sell the rest of your French holdings to some of their rivals. Conquering Scotland and the Irish is a pretty easy next step, then you're all set to colonize or revisit the mainland and payback the French.
This.
If you want to learn the ways of war go with the Ottomans in the 1492 start (that was the demo), attack Mamluks and other asian/Islamic countries. Don't attack the west until you've beefed up. Low piety is the key to tax income (random events will let you choose to go low or high piety).
Or France, just don't get so conquest happy that all of Europe DoWs you (although, being France, you might just win).
<troll>Try playing a nation like Cologne or Trier. The difficulties of playing as Austria is that you're in charge of protecting the member states as much as possible, and that isn't exactly the best starting campaign.. on the other hand, if you play as an elector, then you can rely on Austria's protection while you start get going.
Likewise, Armagnac is a good beginner state. You're a vassal of France; your protection is sort of guaranteed by them. You can just take exploration ideas, find the new world and declare independence when you feel comfortable.</troll>
Likewise, Armagnac is a good beginner state. You're a vassal of France; your protection is sort of guaranteed by them. You can just take exploration ideas, find the new world and declare independence when you feel comfortable.</troll>
But seriously, Portugal for Colonization/Trade, Ottomans for war and either Denmark or Castile for all around flexibility would be my choices.
Portugal will probably be a peaceful game (so long as you break your alliance with England and make sure to keep Castile happy), with only occasional attacks on less technologically advanced enemies.
Ottomans will be smashing everything in their path, as you're the big fish surrounding by enemies who are weaker than you.
Denmark and Castile have more options, with decent potential for military or economic dominance.
Portugal will probably be a peaceful game (so long as you break your alliance with England and make sure to keep Castile happy), with only occasional attacks on less technologically advanced enemies.
Ottomans will be smashing everything in their path, as you're the big fish surrounding by enemies who are weaker than you.
Denmark and Castile have more options, with decent potential for military or economic dominance.
I would personally not recommend England because I tend not to fight very many wars with western majors and even fewer land wars. The best countries to start with in my opinion are France, Muscovy, and maybe ottomans. I would recommend France because you won't have to westernize. If you choose a non-western nation, make sure to research how westernization works. It can be VERY rage-quitingly frustrating if you don't know how it works.
As a note: eastern and ottoman nations do not need to westernize if and only if they don't plan on fighting westerners. If you do, westernize ASAP.
As a note: eastern and ottoman nations do not need to westernize if and only if they don't plan on fighting westerners. If you do, westernize ASAP.
Yeah, I knew Austria might not be too good, but I tried it anyways. The consensus seems to go around Castile, Portugal, and France. Hmmmmm. I didn't try those because I didn't want to get involved with all the colonization stuff just yet, but I guess I'll flip a coin and try one. The suggestion to try as a vassal is tempting though it seems it would make things harder since you would always have a major power breathing down your neck.
Thanks for the replies!
The benefit of choosing Portugal is that you can focus solely on colonization and trade—and learn the mechanics thoroughly—without too much pressure to pay attention to the continent. Colonization is really much more straightforward than the other ins and outs of playing an expansionist game: vassal feeding, aggressive expansion and coalition management, and the like.
France isn't really a good coloniser.
You could do it on the side, but you'd be better off just focusing on Europe.
Muscovy isn't a good starter nation IMO. It is all too easy to generate a dogpile against you that will lead to a rage-quit. I don't like France much either due to the headache vassal parade at the start (assuming the earlier start dates before they get their act together).
/agree
I strongly suggest playing different beginner countries with different purposes. You learn aspects of the game thoroughly that way rather than get your feet wet a little in all of them. France is excellent for learning the Coalition mechanics and Aggressive Expansion
I will say, that if you decide later in the game (1600s) to start into the colonization game as France, it's surprisingly good, even into the 1600s (by that time your lack of an easy path to the west is compensated for by trade tech)(vassalize Nethelands and colonize vicariously). But when you play France, you do it to roflstomp everyone around you. With zero allies, even a new player is pretty dangerous. With a decent ally or two to balance out some of the AI enemies, you're Godzilla, and Europe is your Tokyo.
Which is exactly why both nations are good starter nations. Surrounded by people who want to kill you, vassal management, and well positioned to fight back and win if proper strategy is employed. These are exactly the things that need to be learned to have fun at eu4. Then you can play Byzantium for a bit more challenge.