Your list of the 10 easiest nations to play for domination

[Artyom87]

My list from experience on hard/ai bonus/ ironman

1-Ottomans. These guys are by far the best
2. Poland. Not much needed to be said
3-France. Not very easy like the ottos because you have threats but if you take one thing at a time..
4-Austria. Like france, you take one thing at a time. Also ally france. they may be easier than france not sure
5. Castille. Low monarch points for what you need to do at start such as killing portugal/colonising but everything else is great
6. muscovy. THese guys are quiete risky as the hordes arent always easy to take and sometimes DOW you when you are in war with novgorod. And the PLC can be a huge threat
7. England. You cant expand into europe but you can take everything else. A bit tedious to play with all the micromanagement with sailing troops and stuff
8. Brandenburg. Best military ideas, just dont do anything stupid in the first 100 years and youre set
9. Venice. Easier than you think. You can support a bunch of merc armies because your econ is great. Has a bunch of potential expansions
10. Denmark. I used to think these guys had alot of places to expand to but they dont. and theyre not really rich

countries not listed and why:
-portugal. Sure you can dominate the colonial world but it'll be alot of time before you could gain the manpower+limit, to go into europe
-sweden. You can gain independence quickly, but its easy to screw up afterwards. I dont know, its not my thing to play as sweden and expand into russian lands
-timurids. These guys probably deserve a mention in the top 10, or even top 5. But whatever
-burgundy. although I beat france when I played these guys on first try, they were really hard. Constant peasant revolts and everyone around you hating you and making coalitions all the time. After that (like in the 1520's) it was super easy ofcourse but its anti-historical, and you are still limited to expansion, unlike france
-savoy. Great diplomacy and I once PU'd france with them, but next time didnt. Easy nation since you can ally france, maybe deserves to be top 10
-milan or tuscany. same as savoy basically

 

[slv]

My list

1.Ottomans
2.France
3.Austria (unite HRE, even without abuse it's quite fast)
4.England (win HYW, PU France)
5.Burgundy (Peasant revolts? Which Peasant revolts? Are you not using mercs at all?)
6. Castile
7.Poland (Eastern tech . Though you can vassalise people instead of protectorating them. Bad for WC, ok for World "domination")
8.Hansa (may look weird, but basically Hansa is just a better Brandenburgh. It is richer, rather easy to form Prussia/Netherlands to get better ideas. If you areg ood in PU game, Brandenburgh may be better, it's an elector after all).
9.Venice (lots of cash like Hansa have, but no military ideas).
10. Muscovy (I hate dealing with PLC because of local nobility).

I actually like Sweden more than Denmark, their ideas seem much better , they have an easier time dealing with Russia. Though playing Denmark is easier in a short term.
Milan/Tuscany/Savoy are quite fun (always fun to be tech leader), but I found it hard to grow in that area. Sure, PUing works, but I've never been able to mass PU. Still need to learn that piece of EU4 strategy.

I don't list a lot of eastern nations because it's quite hard to conquer Europe with them. But Bahmanis, Malaya(Brunei/Malacca/Pasai) are quite easy and strong too.

 

[atwix]

austria. you can have 14 diplomatic slots and you can have a lot of integration +(diplo rep) bonuses. Feed 14 vassals, sell them a core of yours spread across continents, and feed 14 vassals/subjects at once once they cored your given province. Don't integrate anyone. Obviously you need the right idea groups and policies for this. Coring cost is only useful late game now, since overextending your empire means ridiculous lot of rebels if you blob.

Rest of list? The usual. But hey, austria is a 'usual' also, but 1.8 made them ridiculously easy, if you use the discussed "revoke early" strat.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

For 1.8:

1. Austria - This is indisputable. It is going to be patched, but right now Austria can revoke before other nations can typically even take emperor. There isn't a challenge left after you do so.
2. France - Easier and fast time taking HRE than Ottomans with enormous power.
3. England - HYW is your only difficult war most likely.
4. Castile - Not too different from France actually but a little weaker/little bit worse starting ruler
5. Poland - Nasty NIs on its own and Prussia switch abuse potential to duck its bad events
6. Ottomans - Hard to argue with a great start position, rich node, crazy missions, and amazing military potential that allows it to overcome the otherwise disadvantage of being Sunni at the start. Easily the best non-Christian WC candidate.
7. Muscovy - Good starting general, good NIs, limited competition after early game
8. Burgundy - Trade node change hurt them but they're still basically a weaker France
9. Ming - If you rush westernization and grab a few diplovassals, you have the kind of land other nations only dream of at the start.
10. Venice - Easy time spamming galleys and flattening Ottomans if you do it early, force religion on BYZ and vassal feed them.

Honorable mentions:

Mamluks - Same thing as Venice but Muslim tech. Very easy nation in player hands.
Crimea, GH & Kazan - Fast crush of Muscovy and now you're basically Russia with a worse tech group.
Denmark - Fast war to hold the union together long enough and you're set.
Portugal & Aragon - Can kill Castile early as a combo but not as strong initially.
Oirat - Shock 5 general early with strong MIL ruler and no trouble trashing Ming. Manchu candidates here too.
Bahmanis - Good allies and unlike earlier patches you've a god tier ruler. Malwa is very similar with a god king.
Timurids - Would have been on the list in earlier patches, but they don't have Mughal ideas now and have a tougher opening, still strong though.
Songhai - Probably the strongest position in sub-Saharan West Africa with solid military NIs.
Tunis - Better starting ruler than Morocco and less dependent on events, also can ally Ottomans more reliably and less instant pressure from Iberia, but still not a super fast opening so not top 10.
Ethiopia - God king in the Muslim tech group surrounded by much less impressive opposition.
Korea - Basically a Manchu candidate in terms of difficulty.
Ayuthaya - There's not a lot in the region that can take you on directly.

 

[pgroves]

I'm surprised Sweden is not in the lists so far, once it has become Scandanavia, and all the baltic coastal areas (including all Prussian and Pomerania culture provinces, which it can get accepted with some juggling and Humanism), it's a monster. This can be done quite easily my the mid 16th century, whilst also having your vassals expanding into Russia

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm surprised Sweden is not in the lists so far, once it has become Scandanavia, and all the baltic coastal areas (including all Prussian and Pomerania culture provinces, which it can get accepted with some juggling and Humanism), it's a monster. This can be done quite easily my the mid 16th century, whilst also having your vassals expanding into Russia

By the mid 16th century, most nations can have BT in Ming's league. The top 10 nations are listed as such because they have potential for even more. For example, Denmark can cover that land much earlier, using Sweden's troops in addition to Norway's and its own, and yet its barely on the list because other nations start larger and stronger with easier inroads to HRE, super PUs, or gobs of money + -core cost.

 

[atwix]

any nation can do world domination. You can list any nation as candidate.
Top ten, is top 10

 

[ChildeR]

First the top 5:

1. Austria
2. France
3. Castille
4. England
5. Burgundy

I don't think anyone can dispute the above are in the top 10, if not top 5. Didn't put that much thought into ordering 2-5. Next:

6. Ottomans
7. Poland
8. Muscovy
9. Portugal
10. Denmark

Here it's less clear. Ottomans, Poland and Muscovy are fairly close to my top 5 in ease of early expansion. Portugal is just so safe and rich that I think it edges out larger or more expanding options like Timurids or Ming. Denmark is large and easy, but not that rich, still, I can't put anyone from Asia above them when they also have the position to try for emperor.

My opinion of the order has definitely changed since 1.7 and even earlier on with 1.8.

 

[ChildeR]

7.Poland (Eastern tech . Though you can vassalise people instead of protectorating them. Bad for WC, ok for World "domination")

A bit off topic, but Poland is barely eastern. They get an almost automatic -10% from western arms trade, -5% from starting with a university and potentially another -10% if they (rather gameyly) join the HRE. All in all the tech group is almost a benefit, since they have another ~200 points they can store before they hit the cap, meaning – among other things – that they can actually hit a given military tech a couple of years ahead of anyone else, if they so wish.

 

[Santoes]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Timurids/Mughals.

 

[ChildeR]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Timurids/Mughals.

Plenty of people mentioned them.

 

[Santoes]

Plenty of people mentioned them.

In the top 10 or whatever... eh who cares opm baby! opm!

 

[unmerged(394861)]

1. BBB
2. Habsbrugland
3. Poland/Commenwealth ( Eastern tech is'nt so bad, also winged hussars of doom).
4. Burgundy (eat france and become emperor!)
5. England
6. Castile
7. Putinville
8. Timurids
9. Ottomaniacs
10. Crusader Mings

 

[hauptman]

#1 Prussia, however you form it. Once you have the troops, the world is your oyster. Nobody can stop you.

100 years into the game.

#2 Austria, Revoking the privilage is just too powerful, even if you cant fight.

100 years into the game.

Everyone else has some major flaw or obstacle to overcome that makes them more of a challenge.


From this point I can easily dominate the rest of the world as either nation... Austrian wars take "longer" as you need to wait on the ai's sieges. Brandenburg only has to wait on ADM points to core. I could even go colonial at this point on either one if I so desired. But once you hold Germany, the rest of the world will seem simple in comparison.

 

[DicRoNero]

#1 Prussia, however you form it. Once you have the troops, the world is your oyster. Nobody can stop you.

100 years into the game.

What's so great about this particular screenshot?

 

[hauptman]

What's so great about this particular screenshot?

The date.

Having unbeatable troops allowed me to conquer the hardest land to conquer. Coalitions be damned.

The HRE is the hardest place to placate in a WC or domination type game. So I was just showing you basically, going fully military I can be nearly as powerful as Austria (in landmass) in an equal amount of time. At 1550 I have a lot of options left open in how I want to run the rest of the game.

 

[Artyom87]

The date.

Having unbeatable troops allowed me to conquer the hardest land to conquer. Coalitions be damned.

The HRE is the hardest place to placate in a WC or domination type game. So I was just showing you basically, going fully military I can be nearly as powerful as Austria (in landmass) in an equal amount of time. At 1550 I have a lot of options left open in how I want to run the rest of the game.

your joking right? pretty much any OPM in HRE can achieve the same in 100 years.

Coalitions for many german states are no threat at all. The strategy is you ally some big boys so they dont get much AE impact, and then you just go to town completely disregarding whether or not small countries get into coalitions.

Bandenburg is actually in the best geopolitical, not military, situation at start to do exactly that

 

[Path]

Are people seriously suggesting that Austria is not the strongest WC tag in 1.8? I'm struggling to understand how one could possibly argue that any other tag can rival Austria given how broken the HRE is at present. The only way any tag could compete with that is to get extremely lucky early on, but luck isn't something you factor in when determining which tags have the best position to achieve a WC.

As for the rest, France is France and the Ottomans still have the combination of fantastic starting location, income and absolutely godlike NIs. England (just win the HYW quickly and you're set), Castile (strong starting position but whatever they can do France still do better), Burgundy (France lite), Muscovy (excellent starting position and one of the easiest tags for quick vassalization and abuse of a horde tag), Poland (requires some shenanigans to be truly powerful, but then most WCs consist of cheesing mechanics) and Ming (no other tag has a comparable starting tax base--how quickly and efficiently you can westernize determines the potential here, though) are other strong tags. Not sure how I'd rank them, but these should all be top 10.

In general it's clear that people overrate miltary ideas (what's with the fascination with Brandenburg? They're not close to being one of the top tags for WC). You'll be drowning in manpower, soldiers and ships during a WC, so better soldiers is of limited use compared to cheaper coring, more vassals, and anything else that helps you expand.

 

[Artyom87]

well when I made the thread I wasnt thinking about WC, but rather simple domination.

I have never did a WC, and I doubt I would ever have the patience

And I kind of meant hard ai/bonus AI/ ironman. Since all of these nations would bore me and many others to death unless you play maximum difficulty. Military ideas on these settings do make a huge difference on SP... Matter of fact you cant really go without them on these settings especially since you need to dump alot of military points during certain times

just to give a comparison, AI bonus makes Prussian army weaker or on par with any other country same size even with all the ideas (country same size would have 1.5 the forcelimit, and about the same total army quality)

 

[DicRoNero]

The date.

Having unbeatable troops allowed me to conquer the hardest land to conquer. Coalitions be damned.

Sorry, I'm not buying it. During my WC run for this date I had this:

Granted, this is a 1.7.3. screenshot, but I doubt in 1.8 it got any more harder. If anything, just the reverse. The less HRE conquered is not that important given how much else I got, inlcuding pesky PLC (*local nobility*). Also, PUs.

The point is, my idea groups didn't include any military ones by then. I got influence, innovative and religious. My troops were pretty standard.