Just bought Europa Universalis IV in the steam sale and have been playing it for a few days now. I've completed all the tutorials and am watching endless videos of the game online.
It's my first 'real' Grand Strat game and I'm feeling totally overwhelmed. Maybe it's just me but the learning curve on this game seems pretty fucking steep.
What should I be doing in the first few hours of a new game? I'm playing as England because rule Britannia.
>EU thread I guess
The tutorials are worthless they don't teach you a thing.
Do you have the DLC? If so, play a game first with them all disabled.
>>343640918
Didn't bother with the DLC, I thought Vanilla would be more than enough to fuck with me.
>>343640765
i've got nearly a thousand hours in eu4 so I can answer some questions for you, also england is boring as fuck to play
Also, why is France so OP? 38000 starting troops and allies coming out of their ass.
>>343640765
you fucked up,should of gotten CK2 instead
>>343642184
>England
>Boring
Frenchie detected.
>>343642286
>lots of troops
>good
Enjoy your shit money growth. Enjoy not getting max barques for trade.
Start 1444 and play as a small german country in the HRE.
Austria as your daddy is a good defense against france / poland and you only have enemies in your size and strenght arround you. HRE is the perfect tutorial.
Realize that the fort patches ruined the game
Realize that losing stability when you reject a peace deal is the worst idea in the history of ideas
Realize that routing troops is retarded
Realize that updates made byzantine unplayable
Realize that there's literally no reason to play the game without cheats because it just isn't fun anymore
Buy CK2
>>343642337
all the large european nations are boring as shit to play
after 30 or so years you've consolidated enough power you can't be beaten
>>343640765
I watched zero videos and did zero tutorials and just jumped in and learned.
Choose a small nation to start with and conquer your neighbors with casus bellis.
Maybe an Ireland province? Or the Ottoman Empire?
>>343642563
>Realize that losing stability when you reject a peace deal is the worst idea in the history of ideas
this one is historically plausible and prevents people from hoping for a miracle
>Realize that updates made byzantine unplayable
its still possible its just very very hard and requires luck, because realistically there was no god damn way the byzantines were coming back at that point
>>343642564
You underestimate my shitness at games, anon.
>>343642563
>because it isn't fun anymore
Overthrowing and dismantling the HRE as East Frisia is the most fun I ever had in a videogame.
>>343642563
>get Byzantine
>invade small Eastern European countries
>capture them
>Ally with friends around them
>Royal Marriage
>Annex them through diplomacy
Or just cheat. It's fun to cheat Byzantine back to the glorious Roman Empire.
>>343642880
Best I've ever done was form Germany as the Ottomans in EU III
>>343642563
>Realize that losing stability when you reject a peace deal is the worst idea in the history of ideas
You only lose stability if they have a lot of warscore on you.
>>343640765
Just watch first 2-3 videos of someone's playthrough of the country of your choice, try to analyze what they've did and what results they achieved with that and everything will come after that easily.
Also play Muscovy for EZ time
>>343640765
Install Extended Timeline mod and play as the Roman Empire at the height of its power. The rest will follow.
>>343642792
...just wondering how exactly are you managing to fuck up playing as france or england?
I'm actually curious because honestly, that seems impossible
especially england, with the new changes to navies you can just patrol your coast and intercept any army france or anyone else is trying to land with your objectively superior fleet
>>343643141
>Also play Muscovy for EZ time
new players can get fucked if poland allies novgorod
>play as Poland pre-DLC
>go full military
>go full military traits
>end up with like +90% Cavalry combat ability
>rape with glorious charges
Was fun as fuck. Poland is also a pretty easy game as 3 countries can be annexed (though this got changed in DLC with the Black Sea country, forgot it's name, becomes a March and it takes 50 years of sucking their dick to get back into a position to annex them through marriage) and then you can ally with Lithuania which is a huge country and help you in wars, then you can merge to form the Commonwealth which makes you incredibly powerful.
of course, you end up fighting Muscovy eventually and all the shitty meme countries that it can be difficult.
>>343643340
Well, then he would have to restart, oh my.
OP, just watch one of theDDRJakeplaythrough and realize how easy this game is
>>343640765
Fiddle with the game, click on all buttons, see what affects what, click on everything, learn by experience
>>343643247
Probably cause I've not played England since the changes and I suck at the game in general. Dunno what build orders to do or what should be the first thing to do. I just play until I get bored, don't really have a plan.
I just suck in general, anon. Same with Hearts of Iron 4, can never do well.
Different guy, but I picked up CKII and I'm in the same boat.
>>343643645
the new build mode shows you exactly how much extra money, manpower, trade power etc you get off buildings making it hilariously easy
Hover of text and read what effects what. You might learn a thing or two.
>>343643852
Fair enough, might load it up, but I don't have all the DLC.
>>343644490
/gsg/ has all the dlc for easy download
its the only thing that thread is good for anyways
>>343643679
CKII became really easy to understand for me once I realised that baron<count<duke<king<emperor. Every menu page should be fairly self explanatory.
Also for battles, they seem really complicated, and under the hood they are, but all you need to worry about is having a bigger army, not attacking over rivers and such and having good commanders.
>>343644590
Don't do this!
>>343645174
Fuck off johan. You killed east vs. west just so you can make a shitty hoi4 cold war dlc down the line.
>>343640765
It shouldn't be too steep, just pick France and roll with that.
>>343643679
Watch a Let's Play for a while, that's how I figured out what the fuck I was doing and some of the fun things you can do. Now I fire it up all the time.
Doesn't he think he needs Casus Belli?
Oh how impolite indeed, no Casus Belli!
>>343642442
The only real way to do with a small principal of HRE and increase yourself in the HRE is to ally with either Poland or France since daddy Austria will be angry at you at one point. Also be prepared to be dragged into endless austro-francian wars or be attacked by austria and the rest of HRE cunts supporting austria at that moment.
>>343641184
Get all the expansions. They have added free features to the core game but they're often useless/broken without the actual expansion pack.
>>343640765
>in the first few hours
Warring like a madman, mostly. The first few hours are mostly composed of swallowing/vassalizing whatever easy pickings are around you to consolidate your position and make you capable of standing up to your stronger foes. As England, who's in a very safe position, that usually means pacifying Scotland and Ireland.
To be honest though England is not that good a start, since you already begin the game with a major war looming on the horizon and a host of bad events to come really quick. Portugal would be a better choice, Spain is usually very agreeable to your existence unless you get too greedy in North Africa, which gives you plenty of leave to focus on understanding the management aspects of the game and colonization before you grow in power and inevitably backstab them.
>>343648240
Portugal's main game is colonization though so you really got to like doing that stuff.
>got CK2 and all its DLCs on the sale because I heard so much good things about it
>have no idea what the fuck I am doing
>>343650226
I learned by picking an Ireland county and by conquering my neighbors, which led to vassal management.
>>343650226
Ireland in 1066 start or a viking in 769 start are the best tutorials.
>>343648240
play some vicky2 lad
>>343653018
Too linear.
