What are your goals in EU4?

[Ixor779]

We complain about bugs, reasonably, and we wish for features. But what do you do in EU4 as it is? Do you only play ironman and go for achievements? Do you dream of world conquest? Do you strive to stay as close to history as possible or do you try to create some alternate balance to the world by 1800?

Personally I pick a country like Hungary, and go for dominance of eastern Europe or other similarly small goals. If it happens by 1500 then everything else is play as you go. How about you?

Oh and happy belated thanksgiving.

 

[Ak1995]

Achivements is one of my main goals.
I also Aim to try make historical sized Empires or ahistorically as well.

I try different approach, with different ways of playing x nations, i rarely play same country same way.

 

[jazzroen]

I like to see new things happen every game so I pretty much always play with no lucky nations. hence, no achievements.
I usually set myself a few goals to work to and when I achieve those I try to think of some new ones. If I can''t I'll start with a new country. Can't say that I've played much beyond 1750

 

[FloatingOrb]

Currently I speed run confirming thasallocracies with various nations.

So far arragon, denmark, the hansa, and Portugal are super easy mode, can confirm within 200 ish years. trying my luck with genoa, and haven't managed it yet. France is such a dick...

 

[Andrei Cuza]

Atm it's Ironman for the achievements. My goal is to get the all of them (someday).

Besides that, since Eu3 I would try to play as passively as possible, trying to stay within the historical borders etc. But usually I couldn't resist the temptation to go warmongering.

And most importantly you got to have pretty borders. If I don't get neat borders I feel like I failed.

 

[lockdown51]

Achievement hunting in ironman play. Which I have to say is a great way to learn the game since you can't console cheat your way out of problems.

Dismantling France.

Trying to save the Americas. By which I mean I try to kill off the colonizers as much as possible. I just like watching the Americas develop on their own.

Or if I am an Asian country I try to "protect" the Americas against the evil influences of the European colonizers. By colonizing America myself.

By most importantly, I must echo Andrei Cuza. Pretty borders. They are a must. I try to get mine to fit inside of trade zones. Ditto for any vassal states.

 

[ChildeR]

Some achievements make for good goals, like Market Control or No Pirates in my Caribbean. Formable nations are also good goals, especially from a difficult start. Sometimes "survive" is enough of a goal for the first century or two.

I hate "winning" the game so I usually set moderate sized goals that do not lead to outright dominance. The only games I end up playing through are ones where I am not #1 before the very end. Also, if playing in Europe I usually maintain a powerful ally, like France, helping them blob some so that when they turn on me I have a nice boss to deal with.

 

[xereck]

World Conquest never appealed to me, instead I try to roleplay the country I choose to play. Usually that means I strive to make somewhat historical decisions/outcomes and pretty borders. I also imagine what other realistic goals the country I play could have had if they were to survive and succeed the initial goals. For example a Denmark succesfully integrating the Kalmar Union would naturally strive to control the Baltic region and gain some colonies in Greenland/Canada to create a North Atlantic empire.

 

[zodium]

I just do weird stuff. Right now I'm ignoring AE with the Ottomans to see how viable fighting constant coalition wars are, and my goal is to conquer every coastal province. (It's pretty intense when the entire Western tech group has 500-999 AE by 1500.) Before that, I made a pirate empire with Naxos and made pirates the dominant trade power in every node.

And, of course, my signature. Every non-revolter tag in the game was a HRE vassal. :V

 

[hitchens]

I only play Ironman, and before I never used to. In fact I didnt start playing Ironman until 2014, now I cant live without it.
All my games are about blobbing, but the bigger I get the more boring it gets.

I never ever colonize the new world or Africa, its just so boring.

If you don't need spreadsheets to plan and a calculator to execute your strategies, you aren't planning or executing hard enough.

And the oposite of this ^^

 

[DevastatingTech]

Re-establishing historical empires and nice borders.

 

[Jahayya]

Rules the world with Inca.

 

[pgroves]

Obviously having nice borders trumps everything

 

[Kansai-kun]

Obviously having nice borders trumps everything

Oh yes. I always set one primary goal for my country at the start of the beginning and try to achieve that.

 

[Arizal]

Usually, I begin with humbles objectives, then while trying to defend myself from my neighbours I blob and finally my country becomes ugly.

 

[pgroves]

I also try to plan the order of conquests and annexations to get as many accepted cultures as possible

 

[Teije]

Usually, I begin with humbles objectives, then while trying to defend myself from my neighbours I blob and finally my country becomes ugly.

It is hard to resist taking that one more province in a peace deal that results in my beautiful borders getting all ugly. Then I regret it and sell the province or create a vassal.

On topic, I always set a goal at the beginning that seems appropriate for the country and try to meet it. When I do, I might go for another achievement or abandon the game - never played past 1700. Never continue with a game if I blob too much - gets too tedious. Always play Ironman - I like not being able to reload and the achievements. Which is something I disparaged when they first appeared.

 

[Mudcrab]

1. To reach 3,000 hours logged never having played an HRE club nation. On 1800+ hours atm and doing very well.
2. Always Ironman/hard. Been a real coward so far with no AI bonuses enabled, but that'll change starting with my new Majapahit campaign.

 

[josh127]

I like to start as an underdog and see how powerful I can get. The Jihad achievement was right up my alley. It was all about building a big blobby nation that belongs to you. There were worthy enemies in the area and a big annoying Ottoman not far away. Some of my typical late game goals were met, disbanding the HRE starting as ROTW nation, and converting Rome (the only true way to end a Jihad run).

Speaking on the late game goals - I find those fun when they're not just pure war, but require some planning as well. Disbanding the HRE by finding alliance chains to get them all at war with you at once is quite fun to plan. Converting Rome requires planning, although Najd does make it a lot easier.

As for WC, I used to think I wanted to do it, now I don't. I don't like railroading in the game, and have no problem with calling it the History Channel. Following a WC plan that is cookie cutter where I didn't take part in strategic planning for it feels like I'm watching the Alternate History Channel. I don't mind getting a takeaway from what other people do, and I enjoy working out strategies with other people, but to follow an entire playthrough template based on someone else's strategy is as bad as watching Burgundy destroy France only to see the inheritance event.

Maybe if my reformed Prussians disband the HRE, own all of Europe, and are partway through Asia at the end of the game I'll consider a WC run sometime in the future. But if I do it, I'll do it under my terms which might use some strategies I've picked up from others but will not be primarily based on it.

On the achievement front I like them for alternative goals to what I would normally do, but I'm not 100% sold on them. In 1.7 I chose Sofala over Kilwa because I felt it was a better start for me (and a funny color to spread throughout the world). I could have played pretty much the same game as Kilwa with the better start position and went for Queen of Mercury. So, yes, they're good, but I'm not madly in love with chasing them.

 

[Artyom87]

i like to have a challenge but I also only like famous nations like prussia or russia. So I do a little roleplay, and blob. Then quit as soon as it becomes obvious the game is not a challenge any longer

lately Ive been thinking about going for achievement, but no luck so far as I quit long before they are reachable because games become dull

my dream would be a game where you can pic any nation you want and it'd be a huge challenge. Like the ottomans in 1444