What hilariously bad things did you do when learning the game?

[Reboundingdice]

When I first started playing EUIV (Back when you could assault a fort in a siege without a breach depending on morale I think?)

I thought assaulting the forts was the only way to capture them.

 

[chrnno]

Coming from EU3 heard talk of loans not mattering for EU4 thus as Castille I kept fighting everyone around* funded by loans until as the 16th century began I went bankrupt.
*Austria takes the top for within fifty years we fought seven times

And as Portugal thinking Africa was cannon fodder and getting pwned early on.

 

[frolix42]

One thing I did, back when I was new (EU2 era) was to attempt to keep my stability at +3 constantly. Since I learned better, I've still noticed a lot of new players do this.

 

[MrParadux]

Overextension killed me pretty hard in my first games. Going over 100% not knowing what it actually meant caused me to explode to rebels several times

 

[LemonMonk]

Thinking I had a chance against France...

 

[Khaine ashbring]

I thought units were destroyed when they didn't have any manpower anymore and since I wasn't getting any extra manpower I kept hiring mercs, that's how I ended up with 95 units eith Muscovy.

 

[Sir Pellew]

Underestimated agressive expansion Once vasalled three states in the HRE at once. Didn't end well

 

[Lajinn]

I played Ottomans and immediately declared war on one of my cores, at which point I was like 'wat, why did my stability just drop to -3'

 

[Loha4]

Royal marriages for everybody!!

 

[Montiaci]

Constantly raising war taxes

 

[Necurok]

starting eu 4 for the first time choosing france and asking myself (100 year war was still a thing) how i can annex a occupied province.

I should not have skipped the tutorial

 

[Lord_Arda]

Started a game with Milan/savoy. "Hey let's attack the french, they never won a war, did they?"

 

[HolyPire]

Wondering why I lost every battle.... Who needs an army leader?

 

[Chaingun]

My first EU4 MP game was live streamed (developer MP), I got rekt by AI as Tunis. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TUNIS???"

 

[Necurok]

My first EU4 MP game was live streamed (developer MP), I got rekt by AI as Tunis. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TUNIS???"

"Creating bugs in EU4"

the sentence under your name made me giggle

 

[Aed]

As France I took all of England's continental provinces at the end of the HYW, after having already annexed the whole of Britianny in a separate one province claim war. Cue a massive coalition war against me by all the Iberian powers, Castile, pretty much the entire HRE, Burgundy, Denmark and vassals and Poland-Lithuania. I had only Hungary in my corner who got promptly stomped and peaced out within in a year, somehow managed to gain a white peace from it all, but it's still the most scrappy war I've ever been in with eu4.

 

[steveh11]

Declaring war without checking to see if I was still in a truce... "Wait? Why has my stability gone down to that?" - - -

 

[Necurok]

Declaring war without checking to see if I was still in a truce... "Wait? Why has my stability gone down to that?" - - -

not to forget while playing an ironmode game

 

[Baron Tanks]

Military access. It's always military access.

 

[jorishilhorst]

Actually from launch to up to last week I was under the impression that manpower recovery speed governed how quick troops from your manpower pool went into your units, rather than how quickly your manpower recovers after it being depleted. So every time I had a choice between manpower recovery and maximum manpower, I always went for max manpower thinking I was choosing to get more manpower/month. SO i guess I only just now learned the basics

The second part I learned last month (also way too late) is how big a difference discipline makes in fighting. Ignoring discipline upgrades/ideas/policies must've made my life a lot harder,
honestly i'm kindof curious how I could've won any wars at all.

Being weighed down by too many diplo relations and a running annexation and then choosing every peacedeal of a big war 'transfer tradepower'. Ofcourse I had ignored the warning about too many relations for a while until I wondered why I was at 0 diplo and my annexation was not progressing.

I really am terrible at this game.