Between over-extension, AE, coring costs, national unrest, war score limitations and war exhaustion, is a WC even possible?
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World Conquest
- Thread starter Susan1972
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People do it in the mid-1500s, so evidentially yes. There are regular postings in the "Post your Empire" thread showing various forms of WC, from one-tag to vassals, to even monoculture and "true" one-tag (no Colonial Nations).
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AFAIK the fastest one took just over 50 years, wrapping up by May 1495. I think it was as Oirats.
EDIT:
AFAIK the fastest one took just over 50 years, wrapping up by May 1495. I think it was as Oirats.
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I'll check them out, but I can't help but suspect they were by the grace of the Console Gods.
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They weren't.
I haven't done anything that extreme, but I have done a few world conquests, and a one-faith. It might seem daunting at first, but with practice you gradually learn that you can do a lot of things a lot faster than you might think. (In-game time, that is. You quickly discover that the biggest obstacle to a world-conquest is how tedious it gets in real-life terms.)
Some of the really ridiculous stuff skirts the line on out-and-out bug-abuse (Such as reloading the game every 3 in-game months to stop overexstension events from occurring), but a simple WC by 1821 is entirely doable with any starting nation.
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As others have pointed out, great players can do a WC in all kinds of crazy ways. But to talk more specifically about what makes it doable for folks in the advanced but not expert crowd, it basically comes down to:
1) constantly being busy
2) knowing how to manage AE
3) knowing how to win wars cheaply
4) knowing which modifiers matter the most and stacking them.
1 is a mentality; it’s totally possible and fun to play EU4 reactively, but if you’re doing a WC you want to constantly be doing something and planning 3 more things. Past the early game you should often have multiple wars going, even if some of them are sitting at 100% war score waiting for cores to complete.
2 involves using diplomats, planning which culture and religious groups to get AE with and which to stay away from, using alliances to reduce AE and deter coalitions, and other things. It also involves modifiers since these are some of the most important.
3 is largely just practice. You learn how to outmaneuver the AI, minimize attrition and win sieges without getting surprise attacked, which battles are good battles (fewer than you think), and so on.
4 is mostly about idea groups and your national ideas. You can also chase modifiers from missions trees and tag shifting, but doing a lot of that is not good advice for an intermediate player IMO. You want CCR, war score cost reduction, improve relations and various forms of unrest reduction, roughly in that order (you can see how these directly address the issues you mentioned in the OP, which is not a coincidence). This means admin, diplo, and humanist generally, and getting a nation with CCR to stack it. Religious and influence can also be good. Military ideas are something to try and avoid if possible, though by group 5 or 6 usually there’s nothing left that matters much.
1) constantly being busy
2) knowing how to manage AE
3) knowing how to win wars cheaply
4) knowing which modifiers matter the most and stacking them.
1 is a mentality; it’s totally possible and fun to play EU4 reactively, but if you’re doing a WC you want to constantly be doing something and planning 3 more things. Past the early game you should often have multiple wars going, even if some of them are sitting at 100% war score waiting for cores to complete.
2 involves using diplomats, planning which culture and religious groups to get AE with and which to stay away from, using alliances to reduce AE and deter coalitions, and other things. It also involves modifiers since these are some of the most important.
3 is largely just practice. You learn how to outmaneuver the AI, minimize attrition and win sieges without getting surprise attacked, which battles are good battles (fewer than you think), and so on.
4 is mostly about idea groups and your national ideas. You can also chase modifiers from missions trees and tag shifting, but doing a lot of that is not good advice for an intermediate player IMO. You want CCR, war score cost reduction, improve relations and various forms of unrest reduction, roughly in that order (you can see how these directly address the issues you mentioned in the OP, which is not a coincidence). This means admin, diplo, and humanist generally, and getting a nation with CCR to stack it. Religious and influence can also be good. Military ideas are something to try and avoid if possible, though by group 5 or 6 usually there’s nothing left that matters much.
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I mean, if you really doubt it, I think there are quite a few YouTube series where you can actually watch WCs being achieved.
Thing is, when you start understanding the mechanics of the game, if you're playing a regular campaign you'll often get to the midgame with far more resources than places to throw them at.
At that point, you can increase the difficulty, which will likely delay that point, try to push it to your limit (which could eventually lead to a WC, but will at least leave you with a very big name on the map), use mods to make the game more interesting, or abandon your game and start a new one once your objective is reached.
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World Conquest in the 1500 is one thing.
But for us normal people, it's still possible. Don't underestimate just how much land you can take in the late game.
In the late 1700s you can probably take most of Russia in a single war.
But for us normal people, it's still possible. Don't underestimate just how much land you can take in the late game.
In the late 1700s you can probably take most of Russia in a single war.
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Hi EU4 Forum, I have done multiple WC without cheating. AMA!
In all seriousness, it is more than possible to do a WC without console or anything that would be considered cheating or 'cheese'. The fastest mentioned is indeed pre-1500, this is using many borderline mechanics. But a 1750+ WC is possible for many players. the difficulty also depends on the country you pick. A first wc is easiest as Ottomans (imo), if you are more experienced it is easier as a horde or Austria.
I would suggest giving it actually a try. Just try to get as big as possible and play till the end of the game, you will probably get closer than you expect. I quickly googled a guide, see below, it is slightly outdated, but will give you the general strategy for a WC.
Link
In all seriousness, it is more than possible to do a WC without console or anything that would be considered cheating or 'cheese'. The fastest mentioned is indeed pre-1500, this is using many borderline mechanics. But a 1750+ WC is possible for many players. the difficulty also depends on the country you pick. A first wc is easiest as Ottomans (imo), if you are more experienced it is easier as a horde or Austria.
I would suggest giving it actually a try. Just try to get as big as possible and play till the end of the game, you will probably get closer than you expect. I quickly googled a guide, see below, it is slightly outdated, but will give you the general strategy for a WC.
Link
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Thanks very much for taking the timeHi EU4 Forum, I have done multiple WC without cheating. AMA!
In all seriousness, it is more than possible to do a WC without console or anything that would be considered cheating or 'cheese'. The fastest mentioned is indeed pre-1500, this is using many borderline mechanics. But a 1750+ WC is possible for many players. the difficulty also depends on the country you pick. A first wc is easiest as Ottomans (imo), if you are more experienced it is easier as a horde or Austria.
I would suggest giving it actually a try. Just try to get as big as possible and play till the end of the game, you will probably get closer than you expect. I quickly googled a guide, see below, it is slightly outdated, but will give you the general strategy for a WC.
Wc are doable, i did mine on leviathan patch with oïrat => Yuan => Monghol empire. Finished in 1784 (one tag, i got the achievement around 1779).
You must allways be at war and allways try to get more land even doing two or three war at the same time. CCR, war score cost reduction, admin efficiency and unrest reduction are the tool you need the most.
Managing AE is also important but from my experiance it's not a real problem (Unless you start near of the HRE)
The other well know strategy to WC is with Mughal, but i never tryed it seriously.
You must allways be at war and allways try to get more land even doing two or three war at the same time. CCR, war score cost reduction, admin efficiency and unrest reduction are the tool you need the most.
Managing AE is also important but from my experiance it's not a real problem (Unless you start near of the HRE)
The other well know strategy to WC is with Mughal, but i never tryed it seriously.
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Apologies, didn't check it after posting, I made it a linkWhat's not to love in text walls
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It's very viable (See my reddit post... that doesn't actually demonstrate a full WC, but only because I didn't need to and couldn't be bothered ) . And great for one-faithing, Propogate Religion is equivalent to a significant number of missionaries, that can convert land you don't own, and I also had eight actual missionaries running around on top of that (9, when parliament co-operated)
Ah, I'm getting all nostalgic now. If this keeps up I might even boot up EU4 again some time.
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Yeah, all this talk about WC makes me want to do one again... I was a bit done with it after my Three Mountains, but I might do one again.
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I think what most people miss about doing a world conquest is that in order to have the most efficient, easy world conquest, you have to build your country right.
The early game is not about expanding in all directions (unless you're a horde), it's about building an economic base, getting the right ideas down and securing paths for expansion in the future. Don't take land that doesn't make you richer or doesn't have some other utility. Really be mindful of where your monarch points are going. Build the important buildings as soon as you can.
You could legitimately world conquest with just the French region conquered by 1600 with ease, even 1700 is doable but more painful. You just need to get your base sorted, ideas down right and secure paths for expansion in the future.
At that point it's just about micromanaging wars, dishing out land and rebeliions.
If you want to take this to another level, it's about ensuring you can stack as many modifiers (via tag switching) too.
If you want to do a world conquest and end the game as Spain for roleplay reasons fine, but the fact is as any European the benefits of tag switching through non-end game tags like Sardinia-Piedmont, Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, France, England and so on are immeasurable when you finish on a tag like Germany or Italy.
The early game is not about expanding in all directions (unless you're a horde), it's about building an economic base, getting the right ideas down and securing paths for expansion in the future. Don't take land that doesn't make you richer or doesn't have some other utility. Really be mindful of where your monarch points are going. Build the important buildings as soon as you can.
You could legitimately world conquest with just the French region conquered by 1600 with ease, even 1700 is doable but more painful. You just need to get your base sorted, ideas down right and secure paths for expansion in the future.
At that point it's just about micromanaging wars, dishing out land and rebeliions.
If you want to take this to another level, it's about ensuring you can stack as many modifiers (via tag switching) too.
If you want to do a world conquest and end the game as Spain for roleplay reasons fine, but the fact is as any European the benefits of tag switching through non-end game tags like Sardinia-Piedmont, Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, France, England and so on are immeasurable when you finish on a tag like Germany or Italy.
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lambdaxx recently did a 1472 WC on version 1.31 also starting as Oirat. Of course such a fast time uses several strong exploits and this run took savescumming to the extreme(e.g. redoing the same ingame day hundreds of times till a specific pulse event happend)
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Do people speak about the current setup when speaking about WCs, or Ironman in the last couple of versions of the game? I think the OP is not asking about what happened in 2015, or reloading a game 500 times until you get the right kind of events you want.
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That’s just crazy. How do you even win enough sieges in that time?
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Siege ability and savescumming when the siege mattered. Also with such a fast conquest you have 100 army tradition and as a horde, you get a lot of mil points which you can use for generals, so that you have a lot of generals with siege pips.
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