What to get ?

[Atomcreator]

Would love to get into this game. But the amount and cost of the dlc is alarming.
If you were a new player what would you consider essentials to get started ? Is the base game good enough alone ?
I'm not bothered about sprites and portraits etc.
thanks

 

[CMDR_HERNE]

There's hundreds of hours of playtime in the base game alone. Best to buy it when it's on sale. Steam Lunar sale in a couple of weeks

Non of the dlc is essential but Art of War and Common Sense are the most important ones the rest being situational

 

[Sfan]

As a starter, the base game with a country in Europe offers a very rich experience and can keep you busy for a lot of time. Avoid playing outside Europe without DLCs however, you might find it lackluster or unbalanced.

 

[Atomcreator]

Thanks, always been a fan of Paradox games, just not the dlc lately. Never got round to EU4 for some reason, but had lots of good fun with EU3.

 

[Atomcreator]

In addition, are there any mods that you simply cant play without ?

 

[Piotrzeci]

In addition, are there any mods that you simply cant play without ?

No, EU4 is great even without mods.

When it comes to DLCs you should probably start with Common Sense, Art of War and maybe Cossacks.
Then after some time you can buy some more. Mandate of Heaven and Rights of Man are good. El Dorado has a changed system of exploration that is nice instead of a great fun for masochists and Conquest of Paradise unlocks supporting independence so it also needs to be picked sooner or later.
Basically you can play with Art of War alone, but it is worth picking more DLCs as you go... just avoid Mare Nostrum.

 

[atwix]

Would love to get into this game. But the amount and cost of the dlc is alarming.
If you were a new player what would you consider essentials to get started ? Is the base game good enough alone ?
I'm not bothered about sprites and portraits etc.
thanks

No, EU4 is great even without mods.

When it comes to DLCs you should probably start with Common Sense, Art of War and maybe Cossacks.
Then after some time you can buy some more. Mandate of Heaven and Rights of Man are good. El Dorado has a changed system of exploration that is nice instead of a great fun for masochists and Conquest of Paradise unlocks supporting independence so it also needs to be picked sooner or later.
Basically you can play with Art of War alone, but it is worth picking more DLCs as you go... just avoid Mare Nostrum.

se above spot on. If you learn game in wester Europe, I would ONLY get art of war. Common Sense and Cossacks once you move to eastern Europe or beyond Europe, to develop for institutions etc.

 

[TenshiN]

Generally, Art of War and Common Sense are considered to be essential. Perhaps also Rights of Man. Perfectly enough if you want a greatly expanded Westerm Europe experience.
That said, the game is fine even without any DLC.

If you like Eastern Europe, also get Cossacks

If you like China/East Asia, then get Mandate of Heaven

If you like colonising/american natives, get El Dorado or Conquest of Paradise (perhaps both)

If you like republics, such as Venice - get Mare Nostrum and Res Publica

If you really, really want to get an expanded Russia-region experience - get Third Rome

If you want to play Muslim countries alot, then get Cradle of Civilisation.

 

[Badesumofu]

Wealth of Nations becomes pretty important once you want to start building a powerful global empire. It unlocks Trade Companies which are absurdly powerful currently.

 

[Atomcreator]

Generally, Art of War and Common Sense are considered to be essential. Perhaps also Rights of Man. Perfectly enough if you want a greatly expanded Westerm Europe experience.
That said, the game is fine even without any DLC.

If you like Eastern Europe, also get Cossacks

If you like China/East Asia, then get Mandate of Heaven

If you like colonising/american natives, get El Dorado or Conquest of Paradise (perhaps both)

If you like republics, such as Venice - get Mare Nostrum and Res Publica

If you really, really want to get an expanded Russia-region experience - get Third Rome

If you want to play Muslim countries alot, then get Cradle of Civilisation.

Thanks for the info. This sort of stuff really helps a newbie.
As I like europe and in particular, England, I'll stick to EU, AoW, CS, El Dorado, CoP and Rights of man then !
When Its not costing close on to £100 anyway.

 

[Dakka]

I skimmed through, so I may have just missed someone else mentioning it, but I would like to add that if you play multiplayer you get access to all the DLCs that the host owns. This will let you try out features and see what you actually want.

With that said, some DLCs that you can’t go wrong with are Art of War and Rights of Man. Both are solid additions with good, universal mechanics that apply worldwide. Common Sense is good for playing tall (ie if you want to be a small but powerful country) or for playing outside of Europe, as it allows you to develop technology faster in the rest of the world. Cossacks is also a good choice and is relatively universal, as it allows you to interact with internal interest groups and get some bonuses from them.

So my advice to you is grab the base game, learn it, then try a multiplayer game with someone that owns the DLCs to see what you like and would like to use in Single Player

 

[pizzapicante27]

I always just link this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/5et9si/which_dlcs_should_i_get_a_help_for_people_new_to/

 

[Llyw olaf]

The Empire Founder Pack includes the base game with AOW, CS and ROM, good place to start.

 

[cuendillar]

To be honest, it's not wrong to go with "just" the base game. Through major (as in adding new mechanics and provinces) free patches the base game is still massively improved since release. They continue to release more patches alongside every expansion, typically related to DLC content, so it's not like the game won't improve just because you don't pay for more stuff.

Expansions really are exactly that, more mechanics and quality of life stuff. Some of it is really nice to have, but nothing is anywhere close to mandatory. In fact, it might be better to start with the already big base game before adding even more buttons and issues. Might be a wee bit overwhelming - my first game was specifically with a small and landlocked nation (Ansbach) so that I wouldn't have to bother about naval/colonial stuff until really deep into the campaign if at all.

 

[Badesumofu]

Waiting for a sale really is a good idea, too. You'll get 75% off the base game and 50% of any DLC that is more than about a year old (which is all the most important ones).

 

[Shatter12]

Waiting for a sale really is a good idea, too. You'll get 75% off the base game and 50% of any DLC that is more than about a year old (which is all the most important ones).

When do these sales come out?

 

[Dakka]

When do these sales come out?

Usually whenever a new expansion is released. They also go on sale randomly and during the big sales

 

[Badesumofu]

When do these sales come out?

Held off answering this because I had a suspicion which has proven correct: right now on the PDS store.Base game is 75% off, non-recent DLCs are 50% off.