Your list of the 10 easiest nations to play for domination
- Thread starter Artyom87
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That's....
Not impressive at all.
Sorry, but that's nothing.
100 years into the game Austria will have revoked Priviligia.
Poland/PLC will have PU'ed 3+ great powers. (and still have the option of becoming prussia)
Milan or Naples will own Iberia, Italy and Greece.
Brandenburg doesn't even get into top 20.
Prussia does, but that's because you can go commonwealth -> Prussia.
If you can´t stand dealing with mind boggling AI stupidity like myself (I already regreat having started a game as Austria and revoking) your best option are the Ottomans. If you don´t mind watching 30-40 brain-dead AI “perform” then Austria is the n1 candidate right now followed by France.
Can the people who call France on #1 explain to me why ?
I valued France as #1 nation aswell but after thinking about this I cant come up with reasons why it should be above Castille.
Reasons:
You can ally Burgundy + Austria and destroy France day 1.
You can annex Portugal way easier then other nations + can take English provinces and get a foothold there (England - Portugal alliance)
Most importantly however: The PU over Aragon and the related Form Spain decision is insanely powerful. You integrate them for 0 cost and 0 time. You can feed Aragon all of the Magrebhi nations (painful cause core cost), France and Italy. Integrating all those high BT provinces will cost you 0 points. Additionally you wont have to deal with the Reformation and get an additonal + 2 PI, resulting in 100 PI every 6 years (vassal Pope). Your NIs while not really powerful offer military power when it matters - early.
Intercetera means (if I get it right) I can fabricate on any coastal province - provided not in Europe - and with Religious Ideas will always have a 0 dip CB after the initial war.
With this setup you wont have to rush Exploration at all and can take better, more convenient ideas.
I mean If you get the PU and Burgundy King lives for one war, there is IMO no reason for France being over Castille.
Edit: Yes, the starting ruler is bad. But usually you need the monarch points to rush on the colonizers. However youre one of them and grabbing Portugal is well worth the delay. England is in the same position as you and France is an easy target with the triple alliance. The other colonizers are so minor they wont matter at all. If the Burgundian Inheritance happens Austria gets Burgundy. Austria is allied to you, so in the end there wont even be that much of a difference.
Maybe I completly forget about something here...
I valued France as #1 nation aswell but after thinking about this I cant come up with reasons why it should be above Castille.
Reasons:
You can ally Burgundy + Austria and destroy France day 1.
You can annex Portugal way easier then other nations + can take English provinces and get a foothold there (England - Portugal alliance)
Most importantly however: The PU over Aragon and the related Form Spain decision is insanely powerful. You integrate them for 0 cost and 0 time. You can feed Aragon all of the Magrebhi nations (painful cause core cost), France and Italy. Integrating all those high BT provinces will cost you 0 points. Additionally you wont have to deal with the Reformation and get an additonal + 2 PI, resulting in 100 PI every 6 years (vassal Pope). Your NIs while not really powerful offer military power when it matters - early.
Intercetera means (if I get it right) I can fabricate on any coastal province - provided not in Europe - and with Religious Ideas will always have a 0 dip CB after the initial war.
With this setup you wont have to rush Exploration at all and can take better, more convenient ideas.
I mean If you get the PU and Burgundy King lives for one war, there is IMO no reason for France being over Castille.
Edit: Yes, the starting ruler is bad. But usually you need the monarch points to rush on the colonizers. However youre one of them and grabbing Portugal is well worth the delay. England is in the same position as you and France is an easy target with the triple alliance. The other colonizers are so minor they wont matter at all. If the Burgundian Inheritance happens Austria gets Burgundy. Austria is allied to you, so in the end there wont even be that much of a difference.
Maybe I completly forget about something here...
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Ok ya, you can beat France, but only a actual player can unless the French AI gets screwed over by strange circumstances and cataclysmic events. French lands are stupid rich, they have spectacular ideas, western tech, and an amazing location that allows expansion into both the iberean and Germany. Who cares about german coalitions when you can drown them in doomstacks of 35 in the 1470s. Also, lets say that all of europs allies against you, you just go colonizing until the french revolution, then drown them in revolutionary soldiers, a strategy I had too much fun with.
Fun fact, a consolidated iberea is still weaker than a consolidated France. Not by much, but still weaker. Now if spain also get's naples, then things are a bit more even but not much.
But I wouldn't recommend France to a first timer, it is too faceroll and can make you overconfident.
My top 10:
1: England: AI's can't touch you in your fortress of solitude. Make a navy then this honeybadger dont care. Not the most fun, but easy.
2. Spain. Really hard to have a Spain playthrough go horrifically wrong. Worst comes to worst you dominate the new world.
3: Timirids. Providing you release persia as a vassal to prevent revolts. Super easy domination of india.
4: Ethiopia. Location location location. Great ideas and the mamluks never seem to really bother you. Worst comes to worse they die in the dessert.
5: Manchu (any jurchen tribe). Long live the qing baby. I love their ideas and they just roll over ming to get some spectacular provinces. Looting is op too.
6. Muscovy. Location location location. Worst comes to worst watch your enemies freeze in the winter.
7. Denmark. Similar to engand except muscovy can be an arse sometimes.
8. Austria. Isn't higher on the list because France is a butt.
9. Teutonic Order. Provided you get a start where poland does not pu lithuania. Has a pretty good chance of happening in 1.8.
10. Portugal. Exactly the same as england except with less land and you need to keep castile happy.
My list may seem like it's missing some people but I have yet to finish a game with many of the strongest nations, and I only list nations I have finished a game with. Finishing a game is about 300 years of gameplay to me.
Fun fact, a consolidated iberea is still weaker than a consolidated France. Not by much, but still weaker. Now if spain also get's naples, then things are a bit more even but not much.
But I wouldn't recommend France to a first timer, it is too faceroll and can make you overconfident.
My top 10:
1: England: AI's can't touch you in your fortress of solitude. Make a navy then this honeybadger dont care. Not the most fun, but easy.
2. Spain. Really hard to have a Spain playthrough go horrifically wrong. Worst comes to worst you dominate the new world.
3: Timirids. Providing you release persia as a vassal to prevent revolts. Super easy domination of india.
4: Ethiopia. Location location location. Great ideas and the mamluks never seem to really bother you. Worst comes to worse they die in the dessert.
5: Manchu (any jurchen tribe). Long live the qing baby. I love their ideas and they just roll over ming to get some spectacular provinces. Looting is op too.
6. Muscovy. Location location location. Worst comes to worst watch your enemies freeze in the winter.
7. Denmark. Similar to engand except muscovy can be an arse sometimes.
8. Austria. Isn't higher on the list because France is a butt.
9. Teutonic Order. Provided you get a start where poland does not pu lithuania. Has a pretty good chance of happening in 1.8.
10. Portugal. Exactly the same as england except with less land and you need to keep castile happy.
My list may seem like it's missing some people but I have yet to finish a game with many of the strongest nations, and I only list nations I have finished a game with. Finishing a game is about 300 years of gameplay to me.
How do you get 14? You have 4 base+Austrian idea+Expansion+Diplomatic+Influence+Archduchy+Emperor. How do you get 4 more?
Hmm, I couldn't find any on the wiki; there are policies for Diplomatic Reputation, though.
my mistake then. In that case I have no idea how to get 14 relation slots. Client states?
I've played only one game of EU. In it, I PUed France as England, formed Great Britain, and colonized the entire world. It was very goid fun 
Using Ming, I could have invaded Europe vis Siberia. problem is I would need to give up much of colonising which is not ideal.
my bad, it +14 dip rep Austria can get.
Diplomatic reputation: +14, as Austria, with diplomatic and influence ideas, being member of HRE (but not the emperor!) after the sixth reform and with 5 of these polices: innovative+diplomatic, aristocratic+exploartion, diplomatic+expansion, diplomatic+plutocratic, diplomatic+quality, humanist+influence, diplomatic+quantity or diplomatic+offensive trading with Ivory.
Its indeed 10 max
There had been one which was removed in 1.8.
That said, since that policy costs 1 dip point per month as well, I won't consider it actually increasing your dip relationship. Instead, I consider it something free (BROT?) when you are already over relationship limit.
1. Ottos. Stong traditions, good missions, best events.
2. Poland. When you become PLC nothing can stop you.
3. France. All-round good ideas. Good base tax. Somewhat good missions and events.
4. Austria. Great position to unite HRE. You can grab Hungary and Bohemia as PU partnesr. Also - Burgundian Succession.
5. Castille. Great position for colonisation. Bunch of good events.
6. England. You can go continent or colonies or even both! They have some good events.
7. Burgundy. Ally Castile and destroy BBB. Then you will have richest trade node in Europe and 2 end-nodes.
8. Brandenburg. Best military ideas. Nuff said.
9. Timurids -> Mughals. Good ideas, good position.
10. Bahmanis. You can conquer Vijayanagar and annex it in 1 war, then release it as vassal and give all south India to it.
Ofc, no Muscovy. When you face alliance of Ottos, GH (that conquered Kazan) and backstabing Poland (now it is Lucky Nation) with Lithunia, this is not easy game.
Sweden is too poor to be easy. Same about Denmark.
Ming is really weak, because of local autonomy.
2. Poland. When you become PLC nothing can stop you.
3. France. All-round good ideas. Good base tax. Somewhat good missions and events.
4. Austria. Great position to unite HRE. You can grab Hungary and Bohemia as PU partnesr. Also - Burgundian Succession.
5. Castille. Great position for colonisation. Bunch of good events.
6. England. You can go continent or colonies or even both! They have some good events.
7. Burgundy. Ally Castile and destroy BBB. Then you will have richest trade node in Europe and 2 end-nodes.
8. Brandenburg. Best military ideas. Nuff said.
9. Timurids -> Mughals. Good ideas, good position.
10. Bahmanis. You can conquer Vijayanagar and annex it in 1 war, then release it as vassal and give all south India to it.
Ofc, no Muscovy. When you face alliance of Ottos, GH (that conquered Kazan) and backstabing Poland (now it is Lucky Nation) with Lithunia, this is not easy game.
Sweden is too poor to be easy. Same about Denmark.
Ming is really weak, because of local autonomy.
When you become elective monarchy nothing can stop you.
My last Poland game i never even formed the PLC. I never got down to only 1 PU.
Austria, Lithuania, France, Sweden, England and Spain all under PU by 1575.
Elective monarchy is retardedly OP, if you know how to use it.
my bad, it +14 dip rep Austria can get.
Diplomatic reputation: +14, as Austria, with diplomatic and influence ideas, being member of HRE (but not the emperor!) after the sixth reform and with 5 of these polices: innovative+diplomatic, aristocratic+exploartion, diplomatic+expansion, diplomatic+plutocratic, diplomatic+quality, humanist+influence, diplomatic+quantity or diplomatic+offensive trading with Ivory.
Its indeed 10 max
It was 14 slots pre the 1.6 diplo slot nerfs
1) Glorious Ulm
2) Great Ulm
3) Mighty Ulm
4) Fine Ulm
5) Mediocre Ulm
In that order.
2) Great Ulm
3) Mighty Ulm
4) Fine Ulm
5) Mediocre Ulm
In that order.
It was 14 slots pre the 1.6 diplo slot nerfs
aaah i knew i was right.. back then.
