Jak's Game Guide: An EU4 Tutorial

[HistoryDude]

Brittany's new cardinal is good news...

England's warning is annoying. Clearly, their rulers have figured out your plan. Who would be open to an alliance against England (besides France, Scotland, and the other Irish states)?

 

[Rensslaer]

How bad are your relations with England? Would a better choice be to go ahead and ally with them? They might go to war with Scotland, or the Irish minors, and you could be Johnny on the Spot! Suddenly you didn't declare on them but you're at war with them, "Only because the KING OF ENGLAND ASKED ME!!!" And maybe you could grab some territory that way, getting around the "warning".

Rensslaer

 

[jak7139]

The English are being a hateful bully while you are trying to preserve Celtic heritage. Thanks for updating

Exactly ! Why can't the Irish see that we're trying to help?

Not as clean a victory in Ireland as planned, but sufficient, I think. This may (?) double the size of your holdings? How does the development compare between Brittany proper and Ireland?

Our Development has grown from 74 last chapter to 88 currently. Keep in mind this is after we also decreased development by exploiting our provinces. Brittany itself is better developed and has better terrain for developing (farmlands and plains), but Ireland is good land too (mainly for its position in the North Sea node).

Poor Frisia! At least they can live out their dreams elsewhere!

They can indeed!

I was unaware that 10 Development assisted with the spreading of Institutions. Good to know.

On the screen where you embrace an Institution, there's a little icon of a book with many arrows pointing away from it. Hovering over the book gives a breakdown of ways to make the current Institution spread (and switching between the different institutions will let you know what future ones might need to grow, letting you plan ahead).

Oh, clever, clever, SNEAKY England! That was EXACTLY the diplomatic note you didn't want to see from them. But it sounds like you still have options, which is good. And who knows -- it may come in handy someday to put you at war with them when they're already suffering from Scottish predations or something.

We do still have options with this, thankfully. That's coming next chapter.

Question - how long does the "Warn" diplo action last?

Twenty years.

Great update!

Thanks!

Cheers for the additional info mate.

Appreciate the nod!

You're both welcome!

Still, a significant expansion of Brittanic influence.

Yes. Vassals are a great way to expand as long as you keep them loyal. And, in some ways, they might even be better than holding the land yourself.

This will complicate things a bit, but seems quite reasonable code behaviour under the circu.

It's a good move from England. But, as you'll see in the next update, it's not as well thought out as it could've been.

Brittany's new cardinal is good news...

It always helps to have more influence in the Church.

England's warning is annoying. Clearly, their rulers have figured out your plan. Who would be open to an alliance against England (besides France, Scotland, and the other Irish states)?

Scotland wouldn't ally us because they also want Ireland. Some of the other HRE nations and minor Italian states would also be willing to become our friends. Noody major like France, Catille, or Austria yet.

How bad are your relations with England? Would a better choice be to go ahead and ally with them? They might go to war with Scotland, or the Irish minors, and you could be Johnny on the Spot! Suddenly you didn't declare on them but you're at war with them, "Only because the KING OF ENGLAND ASKED ME!!!" And maybe you could grab some territory that way, getting around the "warning".

I think by this point England has fully rivaled us, but even if they hadn't, the AI's desire for Ireland is too strong to overcome. Scotland unfortunately wouldn't ally us either even though I would like to (my priorities being, take Scotland to prevent England from having it > ally Scotland to prevent England from growing).

 

[jak7139]

CHAPTER NINE: The Renaissance & Combat Discussion
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(October 1455-July 1459)​

Kildare’s first benefit as a vassal comes into play here (and one of the many bonuses vassals give you. Vassals are great! And I will continue to shout their praises throughout this AAR). I don’t have a claim on Leinster, but Kildare does. So we can declare using their wargoal. We can do the same to Meath (though I also have a claim), and I notice that England won’t even defend Dublin. What luck!

​

I only have 4,000 infantry in Ireland. The other part of our army is sieging Anjou (we need 6 full regiments to take a level 2 fort). I quickly head to page 21 of the ledger, “Army Quality,” and search for Meath. Their army maintenance is low, our discipline is higher, and their ally Ormond is busy against Leinster. A plan forms.

​

More luck for us! Anjou falls in April. By May, our whole army is on Meath’s border, ready to strike! The battle is quick. So quick, I even forget to take a screenshot. I set our vassal to siege focus and tell them to specifically siege Dublin. They’re reluctant at first due to the supply limit. But after I take some troops away, they move in. Our other forces start to siege Ormond.

In September, Leinster is annexed. I check the ledger again, this time sorting by “war enemies”. The Prince attacks Ormond in Leinster with a small army. One more regiment is brought over from Dublin as Kildare sends more troops to our siege. We win, chase the survivors down to Cork, and end them there. A nice, quick operation.

​

We exchange 12 gold and 10 prestige for 25 admin points from an event. And I choose to take the next admin tech since we’ll have enough points by the time our war finishes to core everything.

I decide to lower army maintenance to help our budget (at full we’re losing 6.90). I contemplate the Corruption button, but don’t press it. More loans is the better play.

​

The Renaissance appears in Arvor. And we can embrace the Institution (it would cost 95.22 gold). We don’t embrace it yet. We are also forced to take out a normal loan to preserve our budget.

In March, Meath falls and I direct Kildare to Ormond (go on boy, fetch the stick!). That castle is taken in July. Both Irish nations are conquered and their gold is seized. I give Ormond’s 2 provinces to Kildare so they can core them instead. We do need the next admin tech if we want to go colonial (which is now our only viable expansion route), so we want to save our points. We keep Meath in order to have a border with Mann, Scotland, and Ulster, just in case England leaves us some scraps.

​

England would not defend Ulster. And neither would Scotland. In we go.

In February some sad news, not necessarily bad news, hits our nation. Isabel of Scotland has died. Francois and Pierre mourn her loss.

The alert pops up again telling us it is time to sell our Crownland. This also reminds me of something I should have done long ago (and perhaps you remember me mentioning it in the first chapter). We finally take each of the Estate privileges for cheaper advisors. I don’t even want to think about how much money we could’ve been saving (each advisor costs 1 gold a month, the privileges make advisors 15% cheaper, you do the math.

​

Spoiler: I did the math

• January 1445- January 1458 (13 years) + Dec. 1444, Feb. 1458 month-ticks (2 months)
• 13 years x 12 months = 156
• 156 + 2 = 158 months
• 1.00 gold/month -15% = 0.85 gold/month
• 0.85 gold x 158 months = 134.30 gold
• 134.30 gold x 3 advisors = 402.90 gold

We take this opportunity to also attack the lonely Isle of Mann. They have no allies and no navy. So this should be a breeze.

Sligo is conquered in June. England also takes many chunks out of Scotland but doesn’t cut us off. I take a look at Scotland. They’re guaranteed by France and allied with Burgundy, making it difficult for us to attack them. But those same difficulties apply to the English, so I take that as a win. England did not take the 2 Scottish provinces (Lothian and Aberdeen) they need to form Great Britain at admin tech 10. Hopefully, we continue to grow as England stagnates.

​

I enact the Dev-cost edict in Brittany for a moment. It’s finally time for us to Develop Bro Wened and complete that Estate agenda from the Diet (we go from 8 Development to 10). I also sell some more Crownland, since our treasury is about empty. Most of the money goes towards embracing the Renaissance Institution (81.24 gold). We will need this Institution to stay concurrent with tech, so even if spending that money is a pain, we have to do it. We take mil tech 5 (a very key tech as it provides us with new units). The next one, tech 6, will be even better as it’s a tactics tech. I’ll explain about the different military bonuses later. But a good rule-of-thumb is to never fall behind in military tech, ESPECIALLY if that tech gives you more tactics.

Now it’s time for some discussion. We have 3 new infantry units we can pick from to replace our current unit. Which should we choose? The 3 different categories of pips for units are Fire, Shock, and Morale. The yellow pips near the top of each unit card are offensive pips. The green pips near the bottom are defensive pips.

​

Offensive pips represent the amount of damage our units will do in combat. Defensive pips represent the amount of damage they will mitigate. All 3 pips (Fire, Shock, and Morale) will be used to damage the enemy’s morale and unit strength, with the Fire and Shock pips being applied to each of their respective battle phases (the two phases alternate. Each phase lasts 3 days. The Fire phase always comes first).

The effectiveness of your pips is determined by your tech level and ideas. When taking tech 5, we gained 0.15 Infantry Shock and 0.20 Cavalry Shock.

So, each unit would give us 1 Shock pip (a defensive pip from Men-at-Arms. An offensive pip from either the Longbow or Galloglaigh Infantry). The Galloglaigh Infantry would give us 2 offensive morale pips. While the other 2 units would spread these pips evenly between offense and defense.

What do you think I chose? Did I go for damage with the Galloglaigh, staying power with the Men-at-Arms, or did I choose a mix with the Longbow?

What would you choose, based on the info I gave?

I’ll bring the info about pips up again when we get some Artillery since it changes the way combat works a bit. But, for now, this is enough.

Spoiler: What I chose

I choose the Galloglaigh. Dealing more damage and beating the enemy that way seems like a better bet than negating the risk of taking less. Our rivals have more men than us anyway, meaning we will be overwhelmed regardless of our defensive bonuses. But if we wear them down, we can weaken them. The only way to do that is by inflicting damage.

After that’s done, we start Stating some of our Irish land to increase our income, but keep the land half-stated for now. I’m saving for admin tech 5.

​

In October, Cork revolts and Provence is too weak to remain our rival. I’d kept the fort in Desmond maintained to hinder the rebels. When a rebellion occupies a province, they usually have an effect on it. In the case of Separatist rebels, they increase the Separatism modifier in the province, making it more likely to rebel in the future (you can see the amount of Separatism by hovering over a province’s Unrest). But, if a fort is adjacent to the occupied province, that effect doesn’t occur.

I decide to finish Ulster’s siege first (+49%) before tackling the rebels. In the meantime, we take diplo tech 5. It doesn’t do anything major for us, but there’s nothing better to spend our points on. I don’t want to use those points to decrease our war exhaustion, because it will go down fairly quickly on its own after our wars are done.

​

In February Ulster falls. And the same with Mann 2 days later. Erwan moves the army from Ulster to attack our rebels and we peace out sometime in March, annexing both Ulster and Mann.

With peace finally here, and with our army having nothing better to do, I decide to decrease the Autonomy of our provinces. This will cause revolts, but it will help our economy. And, like I said, the army has nothing else to do. We’ll just lower our maintenance until then and deal with whatever revolts pop up.

Our economy is losing 3.28 ducats. But once our cores are done and as our Autonomy decreases, we should be alright. We can still take loans, reshuffle our economy, and sell Crownland to keep us afloat.

​

Burgundy starts supporting Sweden’s independence from the Danish-led Kalmar Union. Sweden is also supported by Lithuania, England, and Muscovy. If they ever declare (something the AI is very skittish about), they should easily win. Denmark’s allies are nothing special: Münster, East Frisia, the Teutonic Order, and their union over Norway.

We’ve now played 15 years. Europe looks much the same, but we have grown a lot. And that’s the end of my first play session. See you all next time!

 

[Chac1]

Thanks, Jak, for the very educational post.

Sweden breaking away from Denmark is inevitable. And so it goes....

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thank you for the great breakdown of your decisions. England was being very helpful. Is there any more growth possibilities in Francia or the Isles?

I would have took same type but just because it sounds most Celtic.

 

[Rensslaer]

Faced with the same choice on infantry I chose Men at Arms because I figured they had more staying power. But in your case especially you were right to choose as you did. Do you figure there's a case for choosing longbowmen? As I recall the unit choices and pips were the same for EU3 and I think I recommended longbowmen sometimes but I don't recall why. It may have been due to playtesting results.

So you skipped past England's power play, calling their bluff. I suppose Warn is really just a way to provide CB, not an obligation, and since they're busy with other stuff...

Great work @jak7139! You have most of Ireland! You do surely anticipate a war with France at some time yes? How will you play it? How do you forestall it as long as you can, or do you have a short term plan for such a war?

Rensslaer

 

[Hootieleece]

I choose the Galloglaigh

That is a very RP and natural choice considering you had a Scottish Queen and all the Irish conquest. Even though your reasons are quite common sense really.

 

[Bullfilter]

Vassals are great! And I will continue to shout their praises throughout this AAR

Noted. I’ll see if I can eventually get some in my Frisia game, maybe in Germany.

I quickly head to page 21 of the ledger, “Army Quality,”

Another useful hint.

the Fire and Shock pips being applied to each of their respective battle phases (the two phases alternate. Each phase lasts 3 days. The Fire phase always comes first)

Oh, so that’s how it works. I’d assumed it was just random.

What would you choose, based on the info I gave?

I ummed and ahed between the Galloglaigh and longbowmen, wondering what you might be using them for in the medium term. I went for the longbow, in part to have a bet each way, but also partly RP: in case you have to fight the French, the longbow may have that X factor against them

Denmark’s allies are nothing special: Münster, East Frisia, the Teutonic Order, and their union over Norway.

Splitters!

 

[HistoryDude]

England was surprisingly cooperative with Brittany's goals here. Hopefully that comes back to bite them. If they don't care about Ireland, they should let fellow Celts rule the island!

The collapse of the Kalmar Union was inevitable.

 

[jak7139]

Thanks, Jak, for the very educational post.

Thank you for the great breakdown of your decisions. England was being very helpful. Is there any more growth possibilities in Francia or the Isles?

You're both welcome!

Sweden breaking away from Denmark is inevitable. And so it goes....

The AI has lots of trouble keeping unions, not because of the independence wars, but because of the random rebellions that will happen. The AI won't be quick enough and the union will break.

I would have took same type but just because it sounds most Celtic.

That is a very RP and natural choice considering you had a Scottish Queen and all the Irish conquest. Even though your reasons are quite common sense really.

That was something I hadn't considered, but it does make sense.

Faced with the same choice on infantry I chose Men at Arms because I figured they had more staying power. But in your case especially you were right to choose as you did. Do you figure there's a case for choosing longbowmen? As I recall the unit choices and pips were the same for EU3 and I think I recommended longbowmen sometimes but I don't recall why. It may have been due to playtesting results.

Before I knew what the pips did, I would choose the longbowman to not overcommit. But now, I always choose the Galloglaigh (or the equivalent option for non-Europeans). It seems better to focus on an area and to not spread your pips out.

I ummed and ahed between the Galloglaigh and longbowmen, wondering what you might be using them for in the medium term. I went for the longbow, in part to have a bet each way, but also partly RP: in case you have to fight the French, the longbow may have that X factor against them

The French have probably learned to counter the longbow by this point! England has lost in Europe.

So you skipped past England's power play, calling their bluff. I suppose Warn is really just a way to provide CB, not an obligation, and since they're busy with other stuff...

A warning is basically another way to issue a guarantee. It does issue a CtAs, but can be ignored if the country is too busy. This was the case with England and their Scottish war.

Great work @jak7139! You have most of Ireland! You do surely anticipate a war with France at some time yes? How will you play it? How do you forestall it as long as you can, or do you have a short term plan for such a war?

War with France is inevitable (and has already happened up to where I've played). When fighting bigger powers as a small nation, the macro-level things you need are strong allies, a good economy, and forts to hold the enemy in place. The micro-level things you need are to stall as much as you can, pick your battles carefully, and bleed the enemy until they accept peace. We have two of the big-picture things now (allies and forts), we just need an economy to support more armies and a longer war. I will spoil that in the next chapter we delete all our forts (leaving us with just our capital fort) to save money.

Noted. I’ll see if I can eventually get some in my Frisia game, maybe in Germany.

Friesland might be powerful enough that you could peacefully vassalize somebody. You can check the AI's acceptance in the macrobuilder. If they're a few reasons away, you can get more acceptance-score through an alliance and trust.

Oh, so that’s how it works. I’d assumed it was just random.

I had the same thoughts initially. But there is a method to the madness!

Splitters!

Wasn't EF allied to Denmark in your game as well?

 

[jak7139]

CHAPTER TEN: Peace! Prosperity! Power Projection!
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(July 1459-February 1461)​

With our nation now at peace, I decide to take a look at our war exhaustion (8.34 yikes!). Our current level gives us various penalties, but the 3 biggest are:

• National Unrest: affects the unrest across all of our provinces, making them more likely to rebel.
• Core Creation Cost: increases the cost of coring any provinces.
• Goods Produced Modifier: goods produced affects both our production and trade income. It is perhaps the strongest economic modifier in the game.

​

To help our economy a bit, I do something I probably should’ve done earlier. But we had a lot going on near the end of the last play session, so it slipped my mind. We can Share Knowledge with other nations, giving them progress towards an Institution. They’ll pay us for doing this, the amount varying on their income. Of the 4 nations who would accept right now, Switzerland would give us the most at 0.52 gold per month.

I turn off the Edict in Brittany to save us some cash as well. Our economy is recovering from the past decade of conflict.

In September, we get the opportunity to reform our government. Throughout the game, we’ll accumulate Reform Progress. This rate is modified by our Autonomy (higher levels mean less growth). Reforms let us shape our government to get bonuses from it. We started the game with the Feudal Nobility Reform unlocked. Now, I choose to strengthen the Nobility’s power to help with our manpower. Incidentally, this brings our Nobility's influence to 83%.

Our military advisor dies in October. I could hire a new one, but our economy is still pretty terrible. We’re already 7 years ahead-of-time before the next mil tech, so we leave that slot blank for now.

In miscellaneous diplomacy news, I forgot to mention at some point after all our wars that I picked 3 rivals. We’re only strong enough to rival 3 countries, so there’s not much deliberation. Our picks are England, Scotland, and Savoy. All of them already hate us anyway. England obviously craves our Irish land, Scotland has a core on Mann, and Savoy has already rivaled Burgundy. We at least get some positive opinion with Burgundy for standing together against Savoy.

Having 3 rivals (and embargoing each of them) also gives us a nice amount of Power Projection. We’re currently at 40 out of 100 and only need 10 more to reach the magical number 50. Having 50 PP earns us +1 extra monarch point in each category. A very nice bonus! And conveniently, there’s an interaction we can do to earn us 10 more points.

There are 2 types of insults you can send a country when doing diplomacy with them: regular insults and scornful insults. Insults, regardless of type, lower the opinion of the insulted nation towards the sender. But a scornful insult does a few other things.

For one, it gives an opinion boost with every country rivaling that nation. Two, it costs the sender 5 prestige. Three, most importantly, it gives the sender 10 PP when done against a rival. And four, it sends out a random flavor message to the nation. I choose England as our target to help solidify our alliance with Burgundy.

​

By this point, France has annexed most of their starting vassals. Only Orleans and Alencon remain. France’s unique vassals (called appanages) get increased Liberty Desire whenever one of them is subsumed. With most of the other subjects gone, Orleans sees what’s happening and calls on Castille to support their independence. France will need to make Orleans loyal again to incorporate them, so France will remain disunited for some time.

​

As December ends and 1460 begins, I remember to Divert Trade from Kildare. This toggle gives us 100% of our vassal’s trade income, at the cost of 30% Liberty Desire. Kildare is super loyal, so this is a no-brainer to help with our income.

I also click another toggle, Embargo Rivals, to have Kildare join us in not allowing English, Scottish, or Savoyard merchants, hurting those nations’ economies. This costs another 5% LD.

Now that we have Ireland under our control and are receiving our vassal’s Trade Power, we move our merchant from the English Channel to the North Sea. The value may be significantly less, but our control over the North Sea node is higher. Our trade income goes from 1.74 to 2.09 over the March month-tick. We’re losing 1.15 a month.

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Also in March, Austria and most of the other HRE Princes decide to abandon Italy to its fate.

Although our 3 forts are all mothballed (located in Anjou, Desmond, and Penn-ar-Bed), we are losing 1.53 ducats (0.51 apiece) from each of them. We could turn our economy from red to black if we delete our castles. Which is better, defense or money? After a long time of deliberation, I choose money. We now have a positive balance for the first time in 14 years (0.39 a month). And I lower our army maintenance too, bringing us to 0.90.

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Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the Munster separatists ticking up. In August our army is rudely awakened in their camps. We’re flung into a desperate fight! Although we outnumber the rebels, our low morale causes us to retreat. And we take a loan as well, since our army now has to reinforce. The rebels occupy the now fort-less Munster, giving the province some Separatism.

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Some within our government see this as a cause for concern. They suggest we withhold the promised tithes to the Clergy. Naturally, we refuse, increasing our standing within the Church.

​

In December, our army recovers and prepares to engage the rebels. We win easily. But before the battle begins we get one of the regular events of EU4. We can choose to let our serfs move to the big city or force them to stay home. I always choose to let them move because the Development will move to a larger province, and the morale debuff we would get for 20 years by not doing so isn’t worth it.

​

After the battle, more news reaches us of a rebellion by the burghers of Prussia against the Teutonic Knights. The Danzigers (?) and Poland will easily win against the theocracy.

​

Our core in Dublin (renamed to Dulenn) finishes, allowing us to add it to a State. Our income keeps growing. We also marry Kildare, giving us a new consort named Neassa.

 

[Hootieleece]

I am glad I am reading this as I start playing EUIV again. Learning things I did not know before or never realized. Like the serfs moving event bonuses and debuffs.

I am playing Austria and not doing well....surrounded by an Franco-Ottoman Alliance.......and they say Austria is easy!

 

[Rensslaer]

@Hootieleece yeah Austria starts powerful, but surrounded by a bunch of mid-to-strong countries, and I would think it to be quite difficult since you're so near the Ottomans. Good luck to you!

@jak7139 I was unaware of any benefit to doing the Scornful Insult, so thank you for clarifying! The interface explained the Prestige loss, but not the increase of benefit. I figured there must be some reason why I would choose to intentionally lose 5 Prestige, but I didn't know what it was. Good to know!

I have never seen that interface where you're asking your vassal to Divert Trade. How do you get there? I may find it on my own if I get into the game before you answer. But it seems like there are a lot of hidden interfaces you kind of have to know to search for, or else they might as well not be there. Like Splendor, I found only because folks helped me find it. And various others. The Institutions button isn't very obvious.

Thanks! Good luck as you move forward. Interesting times.

Rensslaer

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thank you for the teaching session, professor. Can you only share knowledge with one or all four? Can you only do one insult or all rivals and how long does it last?

I have went to EU4 three times recently and never unpaused. My random rolls were a OPM in Alabama, a two province in India and a OPM in Siberia.

 

[HistoryDude]

I found the Scornful Insult's flavor text here amusing...

How long can Brittany and England remain at peace?

If Orleans does revolt with Castilian aid, do you have any plans to take advantage of their temporary weakness?

 

[Bullfilter]

Having 50 PP earns us +1 extra monarch point in each category.

Ok, new knowledge for me there and I also liked the scornful insult used to get there.

The great blue blob is clearly an existential long term problem for you. What will the general strategy be for dealing with it in coming years? Can they be undermined enough to cut them down - a bit, anyway?

 

[Lord Durham]

You continue to produce and uncover great nuggets of information. Well done!

 

[coz1]

At some point, I may have to go ahead and add the other DLCs. Some of the features are quite interesting and now I know how to use them thanks to this work. Well done in Ireland.

 

[jak7139]

I am glad I am reading this as I start playing EUIV again. Learning things I did not know before or never realized. Like the serfs moving event bonuses and debuffs.

I'm glad this AAR is helpful!

I am playing Austria and not doing well....surrounded by an Franco-Ottoman Alliance.......and they say Austria is easy!

@Hootieleece yeah Austria starts powerful, but surrounded by a bunch of mid-to-strong countries, and I would think it to be quite difficult since you're so near the Ottomans. Good luck to you!

I wouldn't call Austria easy. They are strong because of their position within the HRE, but France, the Ottomans, or the PLC are stronger than you. Plus, being Emperor requires lots of management as you try to pass the different HRE Reforms and such. So Austria can be strong but it isn't a beginner-friendly nation.

@jak7139 I was unaware of any benefit to doing the Scornful Insult, so thank you for clarifying! The interface explained the Prestige loss, but not the increase of benefit. I figured there must be some reason why I would choose to intentionally lose 5 Prestige, but I didn't know what it was. Good to know!

I've always found it strange the interface doesn't explain that. It's a strange oversight. Scornful Insults were added a few years after the PP system was introduced, so it must've just slipped through.

I have never seen that interface where you're asking your vassal to Divert Trade. How do you get there? I may find it on my own if I get into the game before you answer. But it seems like there are a lot of hidden interfaces you kind of have to know to search for, or else they might as well not be there. Like Splendor, I found only because folks helped me find it. And various others. The Institutions button isn't very obvious.

If you go to the Subjects screen and click on whatever row your subject is in, there are different interactions listed. It's the same place where you tell your vassal to be siege-focused, supportive, etc.

Thank you for the teaching session, professor. Can you only share knowledge with one or all four? Can you only do one insult or all rivals and how long does it last?

You can only share with one nation at a time, which is why you want to share with the highest-paying nations first. You can only have one insult "active" at a time and the insult lasts until the PP from it expires (you can see in the screenshot, that our insult is decaying by -1/year). You also don't get any PP from rivals that you have a truce with (something I forget constantly).

I have went to EU4 three times recently and never unpaused. My random rolls were a OPM in Alabama, a two province in India and a OPM in Siberia.

Siberia might actually be fun. You're so isolated that you can take out the other two tribes next to you and have no other threats. Then explore the west coast of North America before the Europeans get there (you might also want to move your capital there so no colonial nations spawn).

I found the Scornful Insult's flavor text here amusing...

It's always fun to see what random message is generated.

How long can Brittany and England remain at peace?

With Ireland under us, we are on roughly equal footing with England. They are still slightly stronger, but the real threats are their Portuguese and Austrian allies. I'd like to attack them eventually, but there've been no good opportunities yet.

If Orleans does revolt with Castilian aid, do you have any plans to take advantage of their temporary weakness?

If it happens, definitely! Unfortunately, the AI tends to be very skittish about trying for independence. But we'll see how this goes.

Ok, new knowledge for me there and I also liked the scornful insult used to get there.

The great blue blob is clearly an existential long term problem for you. What will the general strategy be for dealing with it in coming years? Can they be undermined enough to cut them down - a bit, anyway?

Our colonies will be our main power base. Although France does colonize, they take the idea group later than the Iberians (and us). If we get enough of an economy going, we'll be able to challenge France (or that's the hope anyway).

Strategy:

1. Build a colonial empire to grow our economy
2. Use our new wealth and power to find allies to challenge France/England
3. Attack one or both of them at some date in the future once we're strong enough.

You continue to produce and uncover great nuggets of information. Well done!

Thank! That's the hope with this tutorial!

At some point, I may have to go ahead and add the other DLCs. Some of the features are quite interesting and now I know how to use them thanks to this work. Well done in Ireland.

My advice is to wait for a sale before buying any of the DLC. EU4 is an old game, and for every good DLC, there are as many bad ones. And some of the mechanics from the good DLC were so necessary that they've been since ported to the base game. Trying a month of the subscription service to test out which features you like could also be helpful.

If you have any questions about the DLC or their features, ask away!