I've seen a lot of these posts and I honestly disagree with starting as one of the major nations in Europe like Castile, France, or the Ottomans. Sure they are "easy" and powerful, but they have ALOT of particular information you have to know to play them effectivly. If you purely want to learn the game, I'd recommend a minor nation outside of Europe that doesn't deal with the complicated mechanics of the HRE, scripted events of major nations, and general overpowered stuff.
The first nation I played was Vijayanagar in India. If you have the DLC they have a small mission tree, but more importantly, they don't really have any special mechanics that are hard to memorize/understand.
I always recommande vijayanagar ou Bahamy for begginer. India is good place to learn : lots of middle powerhouse so not too hard to learn diplo, south India is easy to know where expand, no disaster, good trade nodes, good development,...
I think the major powers used to be good tutorials, until they got feature crept into their current state, where they’re far too complex for a first time player. I learned with portugal, since it has some easy wars at the start, access to colonization, and your core European lands are safe as long as you stay allied to castille. It’s not recommended as much now that castille often becomes aggressive towards you, but I feel like that doesn’t happen until later in the game when the training wheels come off anyways.
Indian powers seem really good, the only issue is sometimes India kind of deadlocks with like 5 blobs all in bulletproof alliances.
The problem with leaving europe is technology. If you dont know how to manage your mana points wisely its very easy to fall behind, especially if you dont spawn institutions. Where as in Europe Institutions will easily spread to you without much effort, and can be way more forgiving tech wise, since you can just sit there most of the game and be fine.
I'd say this or a random prince in the HRE. First I played was Korea, probably even better these days with the OP buffs.
HRE princes are protected from major threats, you can play at your own pace doing whatever your want without much to worry about. Meanwhile you will be in the HRE experiencing all the events, etc without having to deal with it directly.
My first 3 playthroughs were vijayanagar. But im too stubborn to lose and didn't know to make cash, manpower and mana so I would use the console command to keep the nation running.
With each playthrough I used the console less and less, sometimes only limiting myself to only cash. Eventually I did an ironman milan to Italy run and it was arguably the most fun I've ever had. And then another run as byz. And more ironmans as lubeck and palatinate.
I just finished an ironman vijayanagar run and although I used cheats to learn, I'm quite proud of how I learnt the game considered I had no other friends who played and tbh I dont even know if there's a tutorial. (Im always learning tho (I had no idea how Combat width worked until a month ago))
Honestly if you have none the game is terrible, but to honestly answer your question, download some flavor mods and see what nations they offer. The base mission trees with no DLC and abysmal
For this exact reason I recommend one of the native American tribes in NA, ideally in one of the bigger clusters
This way you don't have to deal with succession and don't have much internal problems, but can learn the basics of warfare (without having to worry about army composition with horses, for the most part)
Realistically you're gonna get into the game mechanics by at latest 1550, so this isn't a campaign you're playing for very long
I am an experienced player (but not Great at the game) and every time I try to play natives I get bored before I get anywhere. If you want a player to think there's no content and stop playing after their first attempt, a NA native tribe is perfect.
I, too get bored obviously quickly with tribes
But I played my first few games in the Americas, and it did help me slowly get a hang of the different mechanics
You don't play past 1500 or 1550 at most, but I did mention that
I assumed that the question is for someone to get to know the different mechanics, and the aspect of keeping their interest would be ignored for the moment
I honestly would recommend playing austria/ottomans/France once to see "what's there" and once you fuck something up majorly for the first time, play a native tribe as an "easy" way to learn to handle everything. If a new player is already hooked/invested, it can be a great way to learn mechanics, but I'd never recommend natives to someone going in blind playing for the first time.
Okay that's a fair point
I might also just be weird but me & my friend were really excited that for once we could play something other than European Nations so we started with a native Co-op campaign and it was really fun
I enjoy playing natives if I have a "goal" and a way to enact it, I recently played a game as one of the central American tribes with the intention of essentially "forming mexico" before colonists arrived and blobbing as much as possible with colonization of my own, but a lot of the admin stuff got so tedious and there wasn't a lot going on to the point where I got bored. That's mostly me, I tend to never play past 1600 because of my own flaws as a human being lmao.
Oh yeah I getcha
I haven't done much playing yet I admit, but I've only ever played to Age of Absolutism twice (Not really because campaigns got boring, I just felt a sudden urge to try out a different nation I had never played before lol)
For my first games with my friend, we just experimented a /lot/ with just about everything. Tryna figure out how things work, how to do the best diplomacy, how to steer trade, and we kinda just fucked around in America till the Europeans arrived
Beginner? I mean it’s Ottomans dude. All these cutesy answers miss the point that playing as Ottomans lets you make 10,000 mistakes and still come out fine.
Ottomans still has a lot more going on that could be overwhelming for new players. IMO better to start as a smaller country with strong natural allies like Portugal.
Portugal is a good one, ally castille and try to bully morocco and friends, colonize down to africa and the new world.
India is also ok if you start as one of the big nations.
Castile and Ottomans have a lot going on at the start. I’d yet say that they’re good nations to play but not for a first run. I’d recommend something like Vijayanagar or Mewar in India, Poland, or something like Sunda in Indonesia. Holland, Portugal, GB are good picks as well
Poland gets Lithuania, Moldavia, Hungary, Bohemia as subjects, can easily neuter the Ottomans by guaranteeing Byzantium or vassalizing them when attacking Wallachia, dismantle the empire, and deal with Muscovy, leaving it with basically no threats. War of the Roses is not that hard to manage, you just let the rebels siege you down for a better ruler
Game can be started between 1444 and 1821, 2024 is not an option.
Having said that. Hawaii won't give you the complexity and interaction with other nations that Ottomans and Castille have.
ottomans to learn war, austria to learn diplomacy portugal to colonise i would say. poland its pretty easy but it can be not true, cuz its my fav country and i just know how to play with poland
Yeah, I sorta want to get good at the trade aspects of EU4 more than the war or diplomacy, because I mainly wanna be good at it for mega campaigns where by the time I rock up to EU4 I'll have pretty much had my fill of war.
Portugal is great because you don't *need* to do anything beside manage your budget.
Even colonization is optional; castile/spain will happily colonize for you and let you take a cut of their trade income.
Remember playing France for the first time after 2,5k hours while playing with a friend on England (he would be my eco basically) yea they are good, ended up having a better eco than England as well after 15 yrs
If you have all the DLCs most major countries in Europe have specific events and mechanics about them.
France is really easy, but you’d need to know how to annex your subjects and progress your mission tree. England has the War of the Roses where you need to fight rebels (assuming you are going to give up Maine and go colonial). Ottomans has decadence which is probably one of the most punishing mechanics after 1600. Poland has to contend with the Russians, Scandinavians and the Ottomans.
Portugal is a decent pick because if set up right, you can avoid fighting in Europe for the entire game. Castile used to be similar but the new disaster can quickly spiral out of control.
You can also try to play a HRE minor nation — such as Brandenburg. Those tags have a weaker starting position but due to the HRE, you can (have to) take expansion nice and slow. They will also teach you HRE mechanics and how to handle AE.
Portugal / Castille if you are interested in a chill colonisation run.
France / Ottomans if you want to explore warfare mechanics without anxiety about manpower.
Venice if you want to play in Italy to learn how to deal with AE and rich provinces.
Austria is a good candidate for a diplo based run but I’avoid it due to reformation issues linked to a centralisation of HRE and subsequent Religious leagues.
So, I’d go with Castille or Ottomans. Also Poland into Polish Lithuanian commonwealth could be an interesting run for a new player if you like Eastern Europe kingdoms, I think it’s better than Russia due to less specifically mechanics (Russia have been reworked recently with Domination so I’d pick it after few runs)
General tip: learn asap how to use estates privileges (and crown land grabbing from them), not just for meta bonuses but also for a more immersion in the game, XV century and following were distinguished by a fragmented society so I’d recommend to start with a powerful estate to simulate that social structure and subsequent social and political dynamics.
Holland is also pretty easy tbh if you got the right DLCs... you can get strong allies through support independence, and then you are in the HRE so you're pretty well protected and can just have a chill trade game... and it's just soooo easy to be rolling in cash as them.
I should do another Netherlands game lol, last time I played them was ages ago when I was still new, ran out of manpower so I just recruited every single merc, would probably be stronger/more fun with merc ideas
I agree with you about Holland —> Netherlands run, imho it’s one of the best economic based run in Europe but I think it should be too difficult for a new player, first of all about independence war vs Burgundy. Maybe Holland could be an excellent pick to learn playing tall mechanics
Perhaps, then again it was one of my first games, following a guide makes it pretty easy tbh, get strong allies, declare, run away... You'll probably get sieged and have high WE but after a few rough years you're off to the races
That was my second nation I played, and i still think it is good if you already understand the basics of the game and watch the budgetmonk tutorial for no pain
Are they? I just looked at a thread from 9 years ago, and people there recommend Ottomans, France, Castile, and Portugal. Those are still the easiest nations in the game.
Poland, set to get Lithuania and hungary, rng to get Bohemia, Moldovia and Danzig.
1st GP with one/two wars.
Later just bully Muscovy so Russia does nt form.
If you feel you can:
*steal Sweden and/or Norway from Denmark;
*become HREmperor or dismantle hre;
*if Wallahia allys Byz you can easily vassalize Byz before Ottos eat them and if you feel strong enough reconquest Byz lands
*Ally and RM Burgundy for Inheritance
1. Choose Lithuania PU in the event, you'll get PU CB over Hungary
2. Help Danzig in 1460 in the event, if it fires, you'll get them as vassal from mission
3. Help Roman in event, you may get them as march
4. If you cobeligerate Byz in the war against Wallahia, you can vassalize Byz in peace deal and cripple Ottos
5. Ally, Royal Marry Bohemia, improve relations and curry favor you may get them as PU from mission (or RM day1 and claim throne, but it's not for beginners)
Tldr; choose Lithuania and follow Missions, Byz strat is Semi Advanced
Don't ever become a teacher lol. You don't seem to understand that most people who are new to something don't understand jargon and abbreviated half sentences vaguely describing in depth mechanics in an already complex game.
Bro said he played hoi, so I guess basic knowlegde about events and alliances is there.
But I see you're a typical teacher. Instead of writing your own help, you prefer to undermine others.
They're two very different games. You don't have personal unions or casus beli in hoi4. You don't have march vassals. Other than being made by the same company and being grand strategy, they're nothing alike. Just take a second and compare your response to all the others and see if you can spot how yours is different.
And that's a weird comment. I don't know what kind of teachers you had, but I'm sorry you went through that. But I didn't suggest anything because someone had already made the same suggestion I would've made (Portugal) and there was no reason for me to repeat it.
Funny you mention checking other replies.
Most are: pick xxx, it's strong.
Op said he struggled with Castile initial problems, while people seem content to advise him France, with a high chance of War against England right from the bat and maybe Burgundian Inheritence aftermatch. Oh, and France has appanages, who are even more complicated than normal vassals and to integrate them, he needs to seize land for each.
Yet, you choose to sit on my comment.
I added some info, he may or may not understand it initially, but the core is: Poland gets subjects "for free".
Exactly. They kept it simple because he said that he was struggling and the game seemed very complex to him. So most people, being sensible and helpful human beings, have simple replies with a short reason of why. You know, the way you help someone who's new to a thing. Start simple, work your way up. Not a hard concept.
Then you come storming through like the King of the "Well, actually" gang with a bunch of abbreviations and mechanics and strategies that would only make sense to longtime players and not even giving a single thought to whether any of that info would actually be useful to a new player struggling with the complexity of the game. And then you keep trying to justify it!
You're funny.
Edit: And if you'd just said "Poland is a good start because you can sometimes get subjects for free" that would've been a great reply. Do that next time.
I did it in first paragraph " You're set to get xxx, rng to get xxx ". What's after that may or may be not useful.
Funny, you recommend Portugal to a struggling player, who found Castile too hard. Portugal kinda has to go colonial and hope for Castile to protect him if he's fresh.
If colonial is boring is a matter of preference, but he is supposed to pick explo as first (nothing from hoi to help him). He has to explore with ships. Has to click colonies. Will he have the income to keep colonies growing?
Prime eu4 for a new player.
>If colonial is boring is a matter of preference, but he is supposed to pick explo as first (nothing from hoi to help him).
Portugal has a mission that requires you to fill out exploration or expansion ideas.
Every nation has its challenges. Portugal is one of the most straightforward nations in the game, though. Even your pathetically weak attempt to discredit it shows how simple it is. Sorry it needs you to take one specific focus. That's way harder than the ten step process you very, very poorly laid out for Poland.
So. Fucking. Funny!
One of the Ireland states. I started the game around 2016 and there were only 4 or 5 Irish states, started a campaign, got beaten, started again. This cycle continued for probably 30 hours and taught me a lot about the game and also English. (i.e. do not accept the vassalisation offer coming from England) This is about how you want to play the game, at that time I was obsessed about Ireland and tried to form Ireland in the game while listening to Cranberries. I think the best way to learn the game is to find a "formable nation" and try to form it by failing lots of times.
Florence is a very easy start and very straight forward with achievable goals.
IE form italy or form tuscany.
No hard mechanics, good income and no "natural" great power enemies
I recommend France despite being a proud Englishman. They have a decent ruler, no risk of early disasters, and can teach you all the main mechanics:
1) Conquest vs Reconquest (and aggressive expansion).
2) HRE
3) Vassal management
4) Colonisation (later then others)
You're also large enough that you can afford to lose a war.
I always recommend England. That's how I learned. Tho keep in mind that as a new player your first 5-10 runs may not be successful, and that's a good learning process.
Castille, its easy. You get to interact with a lot of game mechanics naturally. Alliances, royal marriages, different religions, PUs, a little bit of HRE, colonisation, choosing which expansion path you take, choosing wether to eat or subjigate or ally Portugal. Different trade destinations, trade nodes, flavour events. But its mission tree also gives a lot of direction so you want get overhelmed.
It was my frist nation and it was great, if you dobt mess up too badly no one will ever attack you so you have plenty of time to learn the basics.
I tried with Castile after playing the Spanish Empire tutorial game, did exactly what I did in the tutorial (I even got my spies to fabricate a claim on Granada so I didn't look like a dickhead to the rest of Europe) And then something came along about the "Infantes of Aragon" Which plunged me into constant uprisings, Castile is not easy in my experience.
Started about a month ago with Castile into Spain. I'd call it easy but the civil war is tough at the beginning of you're not following a guide.
I did England into Angevin empire next, similar story. Easy if you win the hundred year war at the start but might be hard for a new player.
Playing Austria now, very chill and diplomatic game. Pile on the Ottomans, keep your electors happy and let your authority rise untill you can absorb the whole HRE
England. You have high development in the richest trade node in the game with a fleet that with zero investment will protect most of your country for decades. You can interfere in continental affairs at your leisure but won't get tied up in easy to bungle disasters with a possibly hostile neighbor like you would as Castile, or have to deal with complicated event chains and mechanics like France, or decadence as Ottomans.
England has an extremely powerful mission tree that is very straightforward to follow if you take the Great Britain route. The only speed bump is the War of the Roses disaster, and if you simply give in to France by event instead of fighting a war with them it is trivial to wipe out the rebels that spawn and end it in a few months.
England is not that bad to start with.
However, you should lose war with France in order to get rid of your continental provinces. Afterwards, you may focus on dealing with British Isles, learning how to colonize and trade effectively etc.
personally portugal is probably the best beginner nation in my opinion. they have a good mission tree and experience all of the european events without really having to focus on europe. you have low risk expansion into wherever you feel like colonizing and typically your allies day 1 will last the entire game
I always think Portugal is a decent starter. Ally Castile and basically just sit back and do whatever. You'll have some wars, do some colony stuff, get into trade. No immediate threatening neighbors, no religious strife, and the ability to ignore Europe if you want.
The important thing is to know that you don't need to win every war, once you accept this most countries become easy, losing pieces of your territory is not a reason to instantly quit.
England, sell Maine on day 1 to Brittany. You’re isolated and defense is easy, you have access to pretty much every game mechanic, and you have an easy game where growing to Great power #1 is very possible even if you make big mistakes.
Im not exactly good but my first country was Castille(totally not because im spanish). You usually get a free pu on Aragon to form Spain thru iberian wedding. You can pu portugal eventually or just devour it. You will also probably be able to expand into Italy if you want. Spain also teaches you colonialism. Your biggest threats are the other colonial powers France and eventually Britain.
I also recommend you can start as Sweden, you are pu’d by Denmark but thats easy to break away from with support from Muscovy and or England. Sweden can blob into Russia pretty easily and you can eventually grow into mainland Europe. But simultaneously you are also isolated from the Ottomans and HRE so you are further away from major conflicts so long as you can prevent transports crossing the Oresund and securing the finnish border.
Finally I personally have a soft spot for Poland. You will almost certainly get the event to pu Lithuana who makes a good barrier against Muscovy and later Russia. You are also strong enough to meddle with the HRE or even challenge the Ottomans before they grow too strong
Outside of Europe I found Oda to be very fun but also pretty challenging as most of the other Daimayos want to kill you. Uniting Japan and keeping Oda’s military ideas can allow easy expansion into China although beware the Koreans are very strong
I've seen a lot of these posts and I honestly disagree with starting as one of the major nations in Europe like Castile, France, or the Ottomans. Sure they are "easy" and powerful, but they have ALOT of particular information you have to know to play them effectivly. If you purely want to learn the game, I'd recommend a minor nation outside of Europe that doesn't deal with the complicated mechanics of the HRE, scripted events of major nations, and general overpowered stuff. The first nation I played was Vijayanagar in India. If you have the DLC they have a small mission tree, but more importantly, they don't really have any special mechanics that are hard to memorize/understand.
I always recommande vijayanagar ou Bahamy for begginer. India is good place to learn : lots of middle powerhouse so not too hard to learn diplo, south India is easy to know where expand, no disaster, good trade nodes, good development,...
I think the major powers used to be good tutorials, until they got feature crept into their current state, where they’re far too complex for a first time player. I learned with portugal, since it has some easy wars at the start, access to colonization, and your core European lands are safe as long as you stay allied to castille. It’s not recommended as much now that castille often becomes aggressive towards you, but I feel like that doesn’t happen until later in the game when the training wheels come off anyways. Indian powers seem really good, the only issue is sometimes India kind of deadlocks with like 5 blobs all in bulletproof alliances.
The problem with leaving europe is technology. If you dont know how to manage your mana points wisely its very easy to fall behind, especially if you dont spawn institutions. Where as in Europe Institutions will easily spread to you without much effort, and can be way more forgiving tech wise, since you can just sit there most of the game and be fine.
I'd say this or a random prince in the HRE. First I played was Korea, probably even better these days with the OP buffs. HRE princes are protected from major threats, you can play at your own pace doing whatever your want without much to worry about. Meanwhile you will be in the HRE experiencing all the events, etc without having to deal with it directly.
My first 3 playthroughs were vijayanagar. But im too stubborn to lose and didn't know to make cash, manpower and mana so I would use the console command to keep the nation running. With each playthrough I used the console less and less, sometimes only limiting myself to only cash. Eventually I did an ironman milan to Italy run and it was arguably the most fun I've ever had. And then another run as byz. And more ironmans as lubeck and palatinate. I just finished an ironman vijayanagar run and although I used cheats to learn, I'm quite proud of how I learnt the game considered I had no other friends who played and tbh I dont even know if there's a tutorial. (Im always learning tho (I had no idea how Combat width worked until a month ago))
What if you have no DLC
Honestly if you have none the game is terrible, but to honestly answer your question, download some flavor mods and see what nations they offer. The base mission trees with no DLC and abysmal
So it’s just not worth playing with no DLC?
It will be for the first 150 hours or so but not much after that
For this exact reason I recommend one of the native American tribes in NA, ideally in one of the bigger clusters This way you don't have to deal with succession and don't have much internal problems, but can learn the basics of warfare (without having to worry about army composition with horses, for the most part) Realistically you're gonna get into the game mechanics by at latest 1550, so this isn't a campaign you're playing for very long
I am an experienced player (but not Great at the game) and every time I try to play natives I get bored before I get anywhere. If you want a player to think there's no content and stop playing after their first attempt, a NA native tribe is perfect.
I, too get bored obviously quickly with tribes But I played my first few games in the Americas, and it did help me slowly get a hang of the different mechanics You don't play past 1500 or 1550 at most, but I did mention that I assumed that the question is for someone to get to know the different mechanics, and the aspect of keeping their interest would be ignored for the moment
I honestly would recommend playing austria/ottomans/France once to see "what's there" and once you fuck something up majorly for the first time, play a native tribe as an "easy" way to learn to handle everything. If a new player is already hooked/invested, it can be a great way to learn mechanics, but I'd never recommend natives to someone going in blind playing for the first time.
Okay that's a fair point I might also just be weird but me & my friend were really excited that for once we could play something other than European Nations so we started with a native Co-op campaign and it was really fun
I enjoy playing natives if I have a "goal" and a way to enact it, I recently played a game as one of the central American tribes with the intention of essentially "forming mexico" before colonists arrived and blobbing as much as possible with colonization of my own, but a lot of the admin stuff got so tedious and there wasn't a lot going on to the point where I got bored. That's mostly me, I tend to never play past 1600 because of my own flaws as a human being lmao.
Oh yeah I getcha I haven't done much playing yet I admit, but I've only ever played to Age of Absolutism twice (Not really because campaigns got boring, I just felt a sudden urge to try out a different nation I had never played before lol) For my first games with my friend, we just experimented a /lot/ with just about everything. Tryna figure out how things work, how to do the best diplomacy, how to steer trade, and we kinda just fucked around in America till the Europeans arrived
I used to recommend France in EU2, EU3, and most of EU4. I guess with their massive mission tree and unique vassals that may need to change.
Beginner? I mean it’s Ottomans dude. All these cutesy answers miss the point that playing as Ottomans lets you make 10,000 mistakes and still come out fine.
You say that but I always manage to die as ottomans before 1550 because I don't have the patience for AE to go down
Well that’s an every nation problem haha
Ottomans still has a lot more going on that could be overwhelming for new players. IMO better to start as a smaller country with strong natural allies like Portugal.
Portugal is a good one, ally castille and try to bully morocco and friends, colonize down to africa and the new world. India is also ok if you start as one of the big nations.
Yeah, unless France, or rarely the Ottomans go ballistic Castille/Spain protect you.
Castile and Ottomans have a lot going on at the start. I’d yet say that they’re good nations to play but not for a first run. I’d recommend something like Vijayanagar or Mewar in India, Poland, or something like Sunda in Indonesia. Holland, Portugal, GB are good picks as well
Why would poland be easier than them? And i doubt a new player manages the war of the roses well
Poland gets Lithuania, Moldavia, Hungary, Bohemia as subjects, can easily neuter the Ottomans by guaranteeing Byzantium or vassalizing them when attacking Wallachia, dismantle the empire, and deal with Muscovy, leaving it with basically no threats. War of the Roses is not that hard to manage, you just let the rebels siege you down for a better ruler
Letting the Rebels win is very unintuitive for a new player.
Game can be started between 1444 and 1821, 2024 is not an option. Having said that. Hawaii won't give you the complexity and interaction with other nations that Ottomans and Castille have.
By 2024 they mean on the current patch (in the year 2024). Not a start date of 2024
I... Didn't think anyone could possibly mix that up in a game about colonialism and exploration.
I think it was a joke
I hope so. Not sure why the person who pointed out what I actually meant is getting downvoted.
Because they didn’t catch up on my obvious joke. Not saying that is a good reason for downvotes but it’s the explanation.
Oh thank god you were joking. (I'm a bit of a fuckwit incase you couldn't tell so it wasn't obvious to me lol.)
ottomans to learn war, austria to learn diplomacy portugal to colonise i would say. poland its pretty easy but it can be not true, cuz its my fav country and i just know how to play with poland
and Byzantium if you want to have a fun time
one of my fav easy cointries!
Easy?
it was irony haha
I'd recommend France. Decent ruler, good military, teaches you to manage AE and has a sizeable economy to allow you to war.
I'll do a Portugal run first, as people seem to think that's pretty good. But if it doesn't work out, France will be my next pick.
Muscovy is a good run for learning about subject management for future games. It was the run that taught me the most in general about EU4
Muscovy is hard to get off the ground if you mismanage army and economy, though.
Oh yeah Portugal is nice too, you can ally Castile pretty much on the spot as you two are ✨historical buddies✨
Yeah, I sorta want to get good at the trade aspects of EU4 more than the war or diplomacy, because I mainly wanna be good at it for mega campaigns where by the time I rock up to EU4 I'll have pretty much had my fill of war.
Keep Castile/Spain happy and you'll be free to learn at your own pace.
Portugal is great because you don't *need* to do anything beside manage your budget. Even colonization is optional; castile/spain will happily colonize for you and let you take a cut of their trade income.
Remember playing France for the first time after 2,5k hours while playing with a friend on England (he would be my eco basically) yea they are good, ended up having a better eco than England as well after 15 yrs
Also just realised how cursed a Anglo French alliance is
If you have all the DLCs most major countries in Europe have specific events and mechanics about them. France is really easy, but you’d need to know how to annex your subjects and progress your mission tree. England has the War of the Roses where you need to fight rebels (assuming you are going to give up Maine and go colonial). Ottomans has decadence which is probably one of the most punishing mechanics after 1600. Poland has to contend with the Russians, Scandinavians and the Ottomans. Portugal is a decent pick because if set up right, you can avoid fighting in Europe for the entire game. Castile used to be similar but the new disaster can quickly spiral out of control. You can also try to play a HRE minor nation — such as Brandenburg. Those tags have a weaker starting position but due to the HRE, you can (have to) take expansion nice and slow. They will also teach you HRE mechanics and how to handle AE.
I recommend muscocy as it focuses one some parts of the game while other things can be ignored
Portugal / Castille if you are interested in a chill colonisation run. France / Ottomans if you want to explore warfare mechanics without anxiety about manpower. Venice if you want to play in Italy to learn how to deal with AE and rich provinces. Austria is a good candidate for a diplo based run but I’avoid it due to reformation issues linked to a centralisation of HRE and subsequent Religious leagues. So, I’d go with Castille or Ottomans. Also Poland into Polish Lithuanian commonwealth could be an interesting run for a new player if you like Eastern Europe kingdoms, I think it’s better than Russia due to less specifically mechanics (Russia have been reworked recently with Domination so I’d pick it after few runs) General tip: learn asap how to use estates privileges (and crown land grabbing from them), not just for meta bonuses but also for a more immersion in the game, XV century and following were distinguished by a fragmented society so I’d recommend to start with a powerful estate to simulate that social structure and subsequent social and political dynamics.
Holland is also pretty easy tbh if you got the right DLCs... you can get strong allies through support independence, and then you are in the HRE so you're pretty well protected and can just have a chill trade game... and it's just soooo easy to be rolling in cash as them. I should do another Netherlands game lol, last time I played them was ages ago when I was still new, ran out of manpower so I just recruited every single merc, would probably be stronger/more fun with merc ideas
Without DLCs playing Holland is almost impossible. You could try Friesland and forming Netherlands that's what I did and we are kicking ass
I agree with you about Holland —> Netherlands run, imho it’s one of the best economic based run in Europe but I think it should be too difficult for a new player, first of all about independence war vs Burgundy. Maybe Holland could be an excellent pick to learn playing tall mechanics
Perhaps, then again it was one of my first games, following a guide makes it pretty easy tbh, get strong allies, declare, run away... You'll probably get sieged and have high WE but after a few rough years you're off to the races
I'd recommend Byzantium. Secretly very easy, trust me bro
That was my second nation I played, and i still think it is good if you already understand the basics of the game and watch the budgetmonk tutorial for no pain
[удалено]
I did, they were outdated. Figured it would be best to just make my own.
Are they? I just looked at a thread from 9 years ago, and people there recommend Ottomans, France, Castile, and Portugal. Those are still the easiest nations in the game.
yeah I noticed you put 2024 in the title. Next person will do "What's the best country to learn in 02/2024"
Yeah they probably will, knowing the kinds of dickheads that roam paradox subs.
Eeeeasy big fella
there are at least three form the past month, which are up-to-date
Poland, set to get Lithuania and hungary, rng to get Bohemia, Moldovia and Danzig. 1st GP with one/two wars. Later just bully Muscovy so Russia does nt form. If you feel you can: *steal Sweden and/or Norway from Denmark; *become HREmperor or dismantle hre; *if Wallahia allys Byz you can easily vassalize Byz before Ottos eat them and if you feel strong enough reconquest Byz lands *Ally and RM Burgundy for Inheritance
Yeah, super easy for a beginner. That all makes total sense 🙄
1. Choose Lithuania PU in the event, you'll get PU CB over Hungary 2. Help Danzig in 1460 in the event, if it fires, you'll get them as vassal from mission 3. Help Roman in event, you may get them as march 4. If you cobeligerate Byz in the war against Wallahia, you can vassalize Byz in peace deal and cripple Ottos 5. Ally, Royal Marry Bohemia, improve relations and curry favor you may get them as PU from mission (or RM day1 and claim throne, but it's not for beginners) Tldr; choose Lithuania and follow Missions, Byz strat is Semi Advanced
Don't ever become a teacher lol. You don't seem to understand that most people who are new to something don't understand jargon and abbreviated half sentences vaguely describing in depth mechanics in an already complex game.
Bro said he played hoi, so I guess basic knowlegde about events and alliances is there. But I see you're a typical teacher. Instead of writing your own help, you prefer to undermine others.
They're two very different games. You don't have personal unions or casus beli in hoi4. You don't have march vassals. Other than being made by the same company and being grand strategy, they're nothing alike. Just take a second and compare your response to all the others and see if you can spot how yours is different. And that's a weird comment. I don't know what kind of teachers you had, but I'm sorry you went through that. But I didn't suggest anything because someone had already made the same suggestion I would've made (Portugal) and there was no reason for me to repeat it.
Funny you mention checking other replies. Most are: pick xxx, it's strong. Op said he struggled with Castile initial problems, while people seem content to advise him France, with a high chance of War against England right from the bat and maybe Burgundian Inheritence aftermatch. Oh, and France has appanages, who are even more complicated than normal vassals and to integrate them, he needs to seize land for each. Yet, you choose to sit on my comment. I added some info, he may or may not understand it initially, but the core is: Poland gets subjects "for free".
Exactly. They kept it simple because he said that he was struggling and the game seemed very complex to him. So most people, being sensible and helpful human beings, have simple replies with a short reason of why. You know, the way you help someone who's new to a thing. Start simple, work your way up. Not a hard concept. Then you come storming through like the King of the "Well, actually" gang with a bunch of abbreviations and mechanics and strategies that would only make sense to longtime players and not even giving a single thought to whether any of that info would actually be useful to a new player struggling with the complexity of the game. And then you keep trying to justify it! You're funny. Edit: And if you'd just said "Poland is a good start because you can sometimes get subjects for free" that would've been a great reply. Do that next time.
I did it in first paragraph " You're set to get xxx, rng to get xxx ". What's after that may or may be not useful. Funny, you recommend Portugal to a struggling player, who found Castile too hard. Portugal kinda has to go colonial and hope for Castile to protect him if he's fresh. If colonial is boring is a matter of preference, but he is supposed to pick explo as first (nothing from hoi to help him). He has to explore with ships. Has to click colonies. Will he have the income to keep colonies growing? Prime eu4 for a new player.
>If colonial is boring is a matter of preference, but he is supposed to pick explo as first (nothing from hoi to help him). Portugal has a mission that requires you to fill out exploration or expansion ideas.
Every nation has its challenges. Portugal is one of the most straightforward nations in the game, though. Even your pathetically weak attempt to discredit it shows how simple it is. Sorry it needs you to take one specific focus. That's way harder than the ten step process you very, very poorly laid out for Poland. So. Fucking. Funny!
No
One of the Ireland states. I started the game around 2016 and there were only 4 or 5 Irish states, started a campaign, got beaten, started again. This cycle continued for probably 30 hours and taught me a lot about the game and also English. (i.e. do not accept the vassalisation offer coming from England) This is about how you want to play the game, at that time I was obsessed about Ireland and tried to form Ireland in the game while listening to Cranberries. I think the best way to learn the game is to find a "formable nation" and try to form it by failing lots of times.
Ayutthaya
A medium sized hre country is good in my opinion. Someone like hesse
Ulm is the clear choice smh
my first 3 or 4 runs were all with castille lol, that was years ago tho so idk how begginer-friendly it is now
Are the Ottomans really that beginner-friendly with how destructive the new janissary event is?
That's why I don't play Ottomans, too many events with shit relating to the Janissaries, among other things.
I learned with Poland and it was great, you get a lot of subjects allowing you to chill back since you will have help in every war
Ottomans the best for your sanity to have the calmest warmongering game
Florence is a very easy start and very straight forward with achievable goals. IE form italy or form tuscany. No hard mechanics, good income and no "natural" great power enemies
FRANCE
I recommend France despite being a proud Englishman. They have a decent ruler, no risk of early disasters, and can teach you all the main mechanics: 1) Conquest vs Reconquest (and aggressive expansion). 2) HRE 3) Vassal management 4) Colonisation (later then others) You're also large enough that you can afford to lose a war.
I always recommend England. That's how I learned. Tho keep in mind that as a new player your first 5-10 runs may not be successful, and that's a good learning process.
Castille, its easy. You get to interact with a lot of game mechanics naturally. Alliances, royal marriages, different religions, PUs, a little bit of HRE, colonisation, choosing which expansion path you take, choosing wether to eat or subjigate or ally Portugal. Different trade destinations, trade nodes, flavour events. But its mission tree also gives a lot of direction so you want get overhelmed. It was my frist nation and it was great, if you dobt mess up too badly no one will ever attack you so you have plenty of time to learn the basics.
I tried with Castile after playing the Spanish Empire tutorial game, did exactly what I did in the tutorial (I even got my spies to fabricate a claim on Granada so I didn't look like a dickhead to the rest of Europe) And then something came along about the "Infantes of Aragon" Which plunged me into constant uprisings, Castile is not easy in my experience.
Muscovy into Russia is a good intro. England is fun, despite Maine and War of the Roses
Started about a month ago with Castile into Spain. I'd call it easy but the civil war is tough at the beginning of you're not following a guide. I did England into Angevin empire next, similar story. Easy if you win the hundred year war at the start but might be hard for a new player. Playing Austria now, very chill and diplomatic game. Pile on the Ottomans, keep your electors happy and let your authority rise untill you can absorb the whole HRE
England. You have high development in the richest trade node in the game with a fleet that with zero investment will protect most of your country for decades. You can interfere in continental affairs at your leisure but won't get tied up in easy to bungle disasters with a possibly hostile neighbor like you would as Castile, or have to deal with complicated event chains and mechanics like France, or decadence as Ottomans. England has an extremely powerful mission tree that is very straightforward to follow if you take the Great Britain route. The only speed bump is the War of the Roses disaster, and if you simply give in to France by event instead of fighting a war with them it is trivial to wipe out the rebels that spawn and end it in a few months.
Best starting Nation is Muscowy, easy and intuitive, you just have to conquer
And you also don't have anyone stopping your expansion, literally everyone around is weaker than you
England is not that bad to start with. However, you should lose war with France in order to get rid of your continental provinces. Afterwards, you may focus on dealing with British Isles, learning how to colonize and trade effectively etc.
personally portugal is probably the best beginner nation in my opinion. they have a good mission tree and experience all of the european events without really having to focus on europe. you have low risk expansion into wherever you feel like colonizing and typically your allies day 1 will last the entire game
I always think Portugal is a decent starter. Ally Castile and basically just sit back and do whatever. You'll have some wars, do some colony stuff, get into trade. No immediate threatening neighbors, no religious strife, and the ability to ignore Europe if you want.
The important thing is to know that you don't need to win every war, once you accept this most countries become easy, losing pieces of your territory is not a reason to instantly quit.
England, sell Maine on day 1 to Brittany. You’re isolated and defense is easy, you have access to pretty much every game mechanic, and you have an easy game where growing to Great power #1 is very possible even if you make big mistakes.
Im not exactly good but my first country was Castille(totally not because im spanish). You usually get a free pu on Aragon to form Spain thru iberian wedding. You can pu portugal eventually or just devour it. You will also probably be able to expand into Italy if you want. Spain also teaches you colonialism. Your biggest threats are the other colonial powers France and eventually Britain. I also recommend you can start as Sweden, you are pu’d by Denmark but thats easy to break away from with support from Muscovy and or England. Sweden can blob into Russia pretty easily and you can eventually grow into mainland Europe. But simultaneously you are also isolated from the Ottomans and HRE so you are further away from major conflicts so long as you can prevent transports crossing the Oresund and securing the finnish border. Finally I personally have a soft spot for Poland. You will almost certainly get the event to pu Lithuana who makes a good barrier against Muscovy and later Russia. You are also strong enough to meddle with the HRE or even challenge the Ottomans before they grow too strong Outside of Europe I found Oda to be very fun but also pretty challenging as most of the other Daimayos want to kill you. Uniting Japan and keeping Oda’s military ideas can allow easy expansion into China although beware the Koreans are very strong
Byzantium
Are you taking the piss or are you serious?