Europa Universalis

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A medieval wargame played on your computer. It is very popular and several titles have spun off from it. Original has a Grand Campaign starting in 1483. Preceded by Crusader Kings, followed by Victoria and then Hearts of Iron. Build armies, trade, massacre natives, kill peasants, become Emperor. There's even space marines!(Look up Prussian Space Marines.)

Europa Universalis 4 is the latest game of the series. Earliest possible start is in 1444 and the game ends in 1821 (or if you get conquered, try to avoid that). There are many historical start options but the most popular one is of course, "Rise of the Ottomans" (Rise of Kebab). Where you can start as Ottomans and try to conquer Europe, Middle East and North Africa. It is also the strongest nation in the game, officially declared by Paradox as a tip on loading screen bitch no that's Ming as of 1.30, it's Austria. Or you can start as Austria, with whom you spam Personal Unions (making another nation your bitch through diplomatic marriage) and try to unify the Holy Roman Empire. Or you can start as Prussia, where you try to stay low, hope for best that Mama Austria does not realize that you are trying to steal her Reich. Later seize the moment and with the legitimacy of annexed German city-states, establish Germany. You can be Poland and with your mighty bitch Lithuania, try to expand into Eastern Europe or crusade onto Kebab, or be Tengriist Poland separated from Oirat and trample the entire fucking planet. You can be Russia and build a Eurasian Empire straight from Putin's most fervent wet dreams, drowning any enemy in hordes of musket armed peasants as you go. You can be Portugal or Castile who establish the largest overseas colonies. You can be France, after reconquering France cores and have fun with that sweet +%20 morale. Or be England, establish a trade Empire. Be Burgundy because fuck Austria, England and France at the same time.

Every uncultured plebeian can learn a lot of history from this game if they read the writings on the screen while playing. For those that want the most extensive history lesson, AGCEEP Mod for EU2 or DAO (Devlet-Ül-Ali Osmaniyye) "Grand Ottoman Empire" is chock full of history events.

Or be Ulm, because Ulm has the biggest advantage. Now there are lots of achievments to achieve, and they are fun. It is one of the aspects that makes EU4 not boring over time because simple, there is so much to do. I mean you have to conquer all of the world with a tiny Japanese island to get an achievement, which I think is impossible (at least in current patch). Even with mighty Kebab, it is not certain. Anyway Ulm is the greatest even though it is a tiny one province, free-city. You know why? Because aim of the game is to write your country's name biggest on the world map. And Ulm is only 3 letters long therefore Ulm has the greatest font size. Whose name is greater do you think if France or Ulm were to conquer Europe, ofc Ulm.

Also this. And this.

Basic concepts

This will cover the basic concepts and mechanics of EU4.

Picking your State

So have booted up your game and are overwhelmed by the world map with its myriad of nations. The game reflects the political situation of the world in the closing days of the year 1444 AD. From here you can choose any one of the nations that are on the map, doesn't matter if it is a fiefdom in the Holy Roman Empire roughly the size of a stamp or the (at the start at least) gigantic Chinese Empire of the Ming Dynasty. Every Nation has a primary culture, state religion and technology group assigned to it. The first two can be changed (although it is usually not the best of ideas for beginners), the third cannot. Your technology group determines what technology level you start at and if you get penalties for institutions (more on those later). The "beginner-friendly" nations that you get presented with when you look at the world map is deceptive; only Castile, Portugal and France would reasonably qualify for that label. What you really look for when starting a new game is not that important, as your starting monarch will likely be already be pretty old and the game itself tends to favor very heavy snowbally gamestyles anyway. More on recommended nations later.

Monarch Points

These things are what drive your game. Your income of these basically determines if you will become a global empire or remain a swampy, insignificant backwater. There are three kinds of Monarch Points: Administration, Diplomacy and Miliary. Administration serves as a representative of your Nations bureaucratic efficiency, mainly how good your pencil pushers are at collecting taxes and expanding the administration of newly, erm aquired territory. Diplomacy is a representation of your nations diplomatic and mercantile esteem and is involved in everything related to Naval, Colonial and matters of trade and of course, Diplomacy. Diplomacy also is a vital resource in warfare, as you need to spend points to force your opponent to sign the conditions of peace. Military is not as straightforward as you might think, as it mainly serves as a representation of the ability of the state to wage war, rather than strengthening your military directly. You generally spend military points to increase the amount of Manpower you have available, raise war taxes and subdue rebellions before they become a problem.

The basic rate of income of Monarch Points is determined by the abilites of your current ruler, be it a monarchy, a theocracy or a republic. By opening the "court" ledger, you can see your ruler, his spouse and your heir and their stats. The game tends to give smaller nations better rulers and vice versa. So for example, your King, let's call him Friedrich, King of Saxony has a statline of 4/2/3, that means he will generate 4 administrative, 2 diplomatic and 3 military points per months. The income from your monarch merely determines your baseline income that can be modified in a number of ways, mainly by employing advisors to the court that will basically turn money into additional monarch points.

So what are the specific usecases of monarch points then? This article will only go into the most common things you will be using them for, as listing them all would take up too much space.

• Development: You can spend monarch points to develop one of your provinces, to increase its wealth and value for your nation. This basically represents the level of population density and industry that is accumulating in that province. Provinces that are highly developed have multiple benefits; they are harder to conquer because they demand a higher diplomatic cost from any attacker to annex them, they produce more goods that can be sold to the world market and they provide more manpower for your armies. Development however generally tends to be on the low end of priorities you should get sorted, as spending too many MP on development tends you leave you broke for other things that need your attention.
• Technology: Your #1 priority is to stay up-to-date with the technological development of your neighbors. For that, you need to spend monarch points of the kind of technology you want to invest in. Administrative Technology provides new idea groups, diplomatic technology ship types, factories and colonial range and military everything you would want for your army.
• Ideas: Ideas are unlocked via administrative technology and represents general cultural ideals your nations strives towards. Ideas are also what determines your playstyle much more than your general location or the nation you play as. They are, just like technology, sorted into the three kinds of monarch points. Ideas provide general, usually pretty powerful bonuses for your nation (not to mention that you need Exploration to even unlock Colonialism as a mechanic).
• Events: It's in the name. The game triggers certain events in your nation when the prerequisites are met; some are positive, many are negative and add a certain amount of randomness to your playthrough. Most of the negative events can be circumvented by paying a price in Monarch points; avoid this if the consequences aren't too severe (i.e. spending 100 Dip to prevent your ships costing 50% more money for 12 months is a bad choice when you only have a small navy).

Money

Where monarch points are abstract to the max, money is very simple. You get money through taxes, trade, looting and industry, you lose money by spending it on buildings or soldiers, to maintain the upkeep of your state or being forced to pay reparations. Money only represents the general state of your treasury, not the actual treasury in itself and as such, is very superflous. Taking on loans is a common way to fight wars (and in turn, use the money you pressed out of your opponent to pay back said loans) and only becomes a problem when you have too much of it, although its of course always better to avoid loans. There is also the possibility of devaluing your currency, which gives you a lot of money instantly, but increases your nations corruption, which is to be avoided at all costs (Corruption inceases MP costs across the board and is ridiculously costly to get rid of). Finally, if your nation is so broke either option is not available, you can declare your bankruptcy, which clears all your loans but gives nations you have lent money from a casus belli, fucks your nation sideways in every respect and should therefore be even harder avoided than corruption.

Provinces

What your nation is made of. Provinces are your territory and as such provide the basis for your nation. The most important factors of a province are the level of its development, buildings and if its a core province or not. When you annex new provinces from an opposing nation, usually through a war, they start out as territories, meaning that they are merely de jure part of your Nation and your administration doesn't actually cover it yet. You spend administration points to core provinces you aquired in a war; if you gain provinces through colonization, annexing vassals, junior partners or inheriting them, this isn't necessesary. Every province has a trade good assigned to it, representing its primary export, and trade goods have a value assigned to them that changes over the course of a game.

Trade goods

Trade goods are a representation of the primary export of any one province. How much of the trade good is produced is determined by production, increased by developing a province with Diplomatic points, Prduction efficiency, which is increased through diplomatic technology and if a Manufactory is present or not. The trade value of these goods is vital to securing a strong economy, so there are better and worse goods whose values change at historical dates when certain triggers are met, although some goods remain good exports throughout the entirety of a campaign. Generally speaking, exotic trade goods like spices and silk are highly valueable and remain so until the end of the game and agricultural products like Grain, Livestock and Fish are pretty terrible. There are two trade goods that have their own unique mechanics: Gold and coal. Gold by itself doesn't generate any trade value and will not be traded on the world market like the other goods, a gold producing province will instead directly generate money in your treasury. This comes at a price though: Overreliance on gold for income causes inflation to rise, which makes everything in your nation more expensive and developing your Gold producing provinces risks the gold mines running dry, which HALVES the income of the province affected by this, cumulatively. The second is coal. Coal will start spawning in the late game (1700s onwards) once you crossed techological thresholds and then become the single most valueable trade good in the game. Coal is also special in that it is the only trade good tied to a building, the Blast Furnace which will crank up the production rates of all goods in your nation by 5% per Furnace built.

Recommended Nations to play

For Beginners

Castile: Castile is tied with Portugal and the Ottomans for being in the best position in the beginning of the game, it holds a large amount of well-developed territory that is easy to defend with no immediate enemies around it and has a lot of harbours, making achvieving a dominant position in your trade nodes a rather easy task. Additionally, you can get Aragon into a Personal Union very quickly and then start playing the colonial game and become filthy rich in the process.

Portugal: Even easier then Castile and remains strong and rich throughout a playthrough. With absolutely no enemies anywhere in sight, starting with an Alliance with England and a generally friendly Castile to the east, you can 100% focus on a colonial game and expand your territories gradually and afford the luxury of choosing your wars against other competing powers. Being the westernmost nation of Europe also means that you have the easiest access to the americas and will start colonizing very quickly.

France: France starts with a shitton of Vassals at the beginning of the game that you will gradually absorb into your state and English encroaching on your territory, it is however not hard to push them out since France has a ludicrously strong starting military that will only increase in strength as time goes on. France is for people who want to play a more land-centric nation but still don't want to miss out on colonial adventures. Kick the English out of the mainland, build up your army and fuck up the HRE all on your own, like Napoleon did. Vive la France!

Ottoman Empire: So ludicrously overpowered that it has been meme'd to death, the Ottomans are what you play when you don't quite understand the basic concepts of the game yet. They start in a strong position with a sizeable military and developed provinces and only continue to grow from there. You can go east, you can go west (although west is generally more desirable) you can completely choose your own adventure here.

Poland: Kurwa! Poland is what you play when you really want to learn about warfare and want a strong basis with lots of potential. The Polish start with Lithuania as their junior Partner very early on and your primary goal is not really to expand, but to consolidate your lands and defend them from aggressions from the German, Ottoman and later Russian side. Poland is notable for having a raging garbage fire as an economy at the start, since the majority of your lands are vastly underdeveloped with only a few centers of industry and commerce.

England: England is very tricky to start out as and really nails the point home that the rise of the British Empire as a globally domineering superpower was anything but a given. At the start you will struggle a lot with internal instability and defending the remainders of the Angevinian Empire in France. If you rise to the challenge however, your massive Navy and colonial capabilities will see you rise to the top in no time. Smash the Irish, exploit the diplomatic connections of Scotland to keep them out of Alliances with France (which might be tricky sometimes) and eventually form the British Empire. Spot of tea?

Munich: If you want a general taste of the jist of playing one of the countless minor nations in the Holy Roman Empire, Munich might be your best choice. Starting out with a Vessal and the strongest military out of the three Bavarias, you are in prime position to at first reunite Bavaria proper and then to slowly start expanding to build a German power to rival Austria and Prussia. Diplomacy needs special attention, as does Aggressive Expansion. Being in the HRE also brings the boon of being virtually unassailable from Non-HRE threats.

For experienced players

Austria: 
Brandenburg: 
Brunswick: 
Burgundy: 
Saxony: 
Venice: 
The Papal State:  
Denmark: 
Sweden: 
Moscovy:
Etheopia:
Japan: 
Korea:

For Professionals

Holland/Brabant/Flanders: Ming: Mamelukes: Georgia: Hamburg/Bremen/Lübeck: United States: Savoy: Naples: Novgorod: Scotland:

For Masochists

Byzantine Empire: Theodosia: Genoa: Teutonic Order: Livonian Order: Ireland:

Notable Mods

• Anbennar - A D&D world as it's going from the end of the High Middle Ages to beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Wiki is here.