You’ll find a wealth of helpful hints for new players of Europa Universalis 4 in our comprehensive strategy guide. When initially starting off in EU 4, there may be a period of confusion. Check out these EU 4 starting suggestions to get your nation out on the right foot. A compelling empire-building strategy game, Europa Universalis 4 is available for Windows.
From 1444 to 1821, players may take control of any one of hundreds of different nations and alter the course of history as they see fit. There is a slight learning curve associated with EU 4. EU4 is a challenging grand strategy game that calls for a lot of time and dedication to master, whether you’re playing for the military or the economy. We hope these pointers will help you get started in your leadership role. Feature: Spain in Europa Universalis IV: Beginner Tips Europa Universalis 4 is not a game for newcomers.
The seamless and secure operation of a country involves a vast number of factors, each of which must be considered, monitored, and perhaps feared. Then there’s the question of whether you want to play tall and build your country peacefully or broad and become a totalitarian aggressor. While the game does provide a tutorial, it is far from comprehensive, particularly without the several add-ons that have been produced for Europa Universalis 4. Those unfamiliar with Europa Universalis 4 might benefit from the following beginner’s advice.
Check Out The Game Manual
This piece of advice may seem to be really simplistic. However, the whereabouts of the Europa Universalis 4 handbook is less clear. Within the game itself or in the game’s folder, there is no way to get the manual for EU 4. Search Google for “Europa Universalis 4 handbook” to discover the guide for the game. Google “Europa Universalis 4 handbook” to find it.
To get the EU 4 handbook in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox, just type “Manual – Our games” into Google and select the first result. This guidebook may be helpful to certain novice players. A copy of the Europa Universalis 4 instruction book Paradox Grand Strategy has released a video series for newcomers to Europa Universalis 4 on YouTube in addition to the handbook. These videos are hosted on the official Paradox Grand Strategy channel on YouTube.
Turn Off The Forts To Save Money
Keeping up a fort in Europa Universalis 4 may be rather pricey. Money may be saved by mothballing or otherwise deactivating forts during times of peace to reduce maintenance expenditures by half. To turn off fort upkeep, click the “Province” tab, as shown below. Then you may invest more money into construction and hiring. The potential to lessen the burden of upkeep on the fort.
Find A Reason To Go To War and Use It
It is necessary to have a justifiable cause to go to war, or casus belli. The penalties for declaring war on a nation without a casus belli are substantial (+20 base aggressive and -2 stability). If this becomes a pattern, other nations may band together to wage an expensive war against your country. Don’t start a war until you really have to.
If no preexisting reason for war exists, spies planted in neighboring nations may be used to fabricate one. If you plant enough spies, you may use the “fabricate claim” option to make up a pretext for going to war without facing any repercussions.
Examine Your Scoring Records Often
In Europa Universalis 4, nations are ranked based on their historical performance. For your nation to earn historical score points, it must rank in the top 10 in at least one of the following categories: diplomacy, military, or administration. Some of the most crucial aspects that go into your final grade are as follows:
- Administrative: Admin technology level, admin ideas, income total, stability level, prestige rating, and legitimacy
- Diplomatic: Diplomatic technology level, diplomatic ideas, navy size, navy morale, number of merchants, number of admirals, strong allies, and trade efficiency
- Military: Military technology level, military ideas, army size, army morale, number of generals, and fort level
The game’s ledger index allows you to track your points and other statistics. To see the score table for this index, click on Country > Score Comparison on the menu bar. That gives you an idea of where your nation stands in terms of the three categories and how it is currently doing. Your nation will not get any points unless it ranks in the top 10 in at least one of the applicable categories.
Watch Out For High Inflation
When you click on the Economy menu item, you’ll see a percentage that represents inflation, which is the rate at which prices have been rising over time. Inflation that is too high might drastically cut into your county’s tax take.
Prepare yourself to give up some administrative monarch points if you want to maintain a manageable rate of inflation. Inflation may be lowered by selecting the link shown in the Economy section of the window that opens immediately below this one.
Connect With Nation States That Have Sizeable Militaries
Unions are crucial to victory in Europa Universalis IV. Almost every nation in the game will have a friend or ally somewhere else. Therefore, you will want reliable partners if you intend to establish a powerful empire.
Make an effort to form an alliance with at least one powerful military state inside your country’s immediate area of influence. Some of the best early allies are the French, the Ottomans, the Austrians, the English, the Russians, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Chinese, and the Ming. Those nations’ support may be crucial in times of conflict.
Less Provicincial Independence, Please
An independent province is one that runs its own government. The more freedom your provinces have to make their own decisions, the less money they’ll send to the federal government. The economy of your nation will collapse if the provinces have a lot of say over how they are run. Therefore, it is essential for a thriving economy to maintain levels of autonomy low. Among the many options for limiting provincial authority are the following:
- Reduce corruption levels
- Establish states
- Increase Absolutism
- Select the Decrease autonomy option (can generate unrest)
- Build courthouses and town halls
- Increase crown estate land (autonomy rises when your crown land share is less than 20 percent)
Do Not Strive To Control Revolutions With Military Monarchy
In Europa Universalis 4, players will have to cope with revolts. Some rebel uprisings are commonplace after a wartime conquest of a country’s territories. When an uprising occurs, you’ll have to face a rebel force head-on. The Harsh Treatment option is not worth the trouble it would cause to attempt to suppress rebellions. There will still be a rebellion if you choose with that option; it will just start later. If you consistently use Harsh Treatment, you will drain your monarch’s military points.
The deployment of soldiers to areas with signs of impending revolt is another strategy for quelling uprisings. The level of dissatisfaction in the afflicted province will decrease over time, and it’s possible that this may put an end to the revolt if action is taken. If it isn’t enough, an insurrection should be allowed to occur, but you should be ready for it. Then deploy your army and smash the insurgents.
Before Declaring War, Verify The Forces Of Each Country
Don’t just charge into battle without first sizing it up. It’s important to research the size and technology of the target country’s armed forces. In the Diplomacy section of a country’s profile, you may learn about its military’s size and technology.
You may also use the ledger index to see how large a possible enemy’s army and fleet are. When considering whether or not to go to war with a country, it’s important to take into consideration the support each side receives from other nations. Pick your battles wisely by going after smaller, weaker nations that you can easily beat in low-stakes conflicts. When your own country lacks a minor nation as a boundary, you may still have control over their territory by establishing colonies there. Risky conflicts with larger nations should be put off until later in the game.
Southern African Provinces Are Up for Grabs
Peaceful expansion is easiest to achieve via colonization in Europa Universalis 4. EU 4 opens up the Americas, Africa, and perhaps portions of the Far East to exploration. The southernmost point of Africa is a vast, unpopulated region ideal for the peaceful establishment of a large number of new provinces. If you can beat the competition to it, you’ll find a vast region suitable for up to 19 new provinces without the need for any new colonial countries. As soon as possible, enable Exploration Ideas to build provinces outside of the continent.
Therefore, construct some ships, load them with troops, find yourself an explorer and conquistador, and set off for the New World! If you are trying to expand your region, southern Africa is a great place to start.
Find the Best Advisors You Can Pay For
It’s tempting to rush about at the start of the game and respond to every warning that pops up, such as the one that tells you that you’re lacking an adviser. Some of these characters have passive skills that may help you generate more “mana” for a monthly price.
Hiring all three of the potential advisers is very costly, particularly early in the game when most countries won’t have the money to do so. Getting a head start in all three areas of technology is less critical than starting to accumulate money to pay for troops and acquire structures that give more passive revenue.
Use The Ledger to Gauge the Strength of Your Rivals
The Ledger is a sometimes ignored yet very helpful tool in Europa Universalis 4. Click the graph button in the bottom right corner of the screen to get access. Invaluable data about every country in the game may be found in the Ledger.
This includes the size and composition of their armies, so it’s simple to determine whether you have what it takes to defeat a certain country in battle. In addition, the menu includes handy toggles that filter the Ledger to display just Rivals or War Enemies, respectively. In other words, make good use of it!
It’s Important That You Avoid Forming a Coalition
When initiating a war in Europa Universalis 4, be wary of aggressive expansion and alliances. When you start winning battles and developing your nation, it’s all too easy to get carried away. However, the game’s Aggressive Expansion function is designed to counteract this. With this value, starting wars and acquiring provinces in peace deals incur a negative public opinion cost.
Fearful or enraged nations may suffer varied opinion penalties as a result of your acts, but once they hit the critical threshold of -50, they will be free to form a coalition against you. Any country with a negative Aggressive Expansion opinion penalty of at least -50 is free to join a coalition and perhaps wage war against you in an attempt to reclaim the territory you’ve taken. Space out your fights and proclaim them in different places to prevent coalitions and significant opinion penalties. As time goes by, the fine will go down; please be patient. Or, if your military is strong enough, you may disregard the mechanism completely.
Learn the Nodes of Exchange
Mastering the game’s trading system is crucial if you want to become a trade guru and put your Trade Ideas to good use to amass a fortune. Multiple merchants may be assigned to nodes to either collect funds or transmit trading power. Your home trade node (you can tell which trade node is your home trade node by the icon above the trade node box) will always generate money, therefore there’s no need to station a merchant there. Locate the nodes that have arrows pointing back to your home node and move your trade goods there to maximize your profits.
If you want to unlock achievements, you need to activate Ironman
The clever choice by Paradox to disable achievements until Ironman mode is enabled is indicative of their attention to detail. After all, it serves no use to save your way to success. When playing on Ironman difficulty, your progress is permanently stored to a single file, eliminating the option to restart and try again in the event of a misstep or poor streak.
While there are workarounds around this restriction (Alt + F4 springs to mind), the developers would rather see you gain your accomplishments via legitimate play and mastery of the game.
Take Command of Your Troops
Maintaining a regular army not only costs a lot of money but also sends a message to the other countries in the game about how strong you are. One way to conserve money during peacetime is to temporarily cut the army’s upkeep, which will reduce morale but will not affect their ability to fight.
Turning your forts “off” momentarily to conserve money is another option, but it leaves your army vulnerable to surprise attacks and lowers your Army Tradition rating, both of which are crucial to victory. How you handle your army and forts at the beginning of the game will have a significant impact on the rest of the game.
Crucial Role of Coring
Most new provinces you gain (through war, naturally) will begin as uncored provinces. This suggests they are not important to your nation’s identity and may even be harmful.
When central provinces are given greater authority, they in turn become more involved in the economic and military life of the country. This is due to the fact that ultimately all of a cored province’s value will be contributed, despite the fact that a cored province has a lower autonomy level than an uncored province.
Probing and Settling
You may colonize the Americas as a means of expanding your empire in this game. To do this, you need adopt the attitude of an explorer, assemble an exploration fleet, and set out to survey the uncharted parts of the earth.
As long as the land you’re visiting is within Colonists’ range, you may claim it as your own. Colonization presents several difficulties, not the least of which is having to compete for territory with Portugal, Castile, France, and England. It’s a neat addition that changes the game in fundamental ways.
Taking Command of an Army Is a Dangerous But Necessary Duty
There is frequently not much that can be done if a terrible ruler or successor is inherited. Is there any option besides abdicating or disinheriting, both of which carry high risks and are only playable with the Rights of Man downloadable content?
You could get lucky here. Involve the ruler or successor in military command by making them a general. Each year, your general has a probability of death that adds to the risk of losing your ruler or heir in any given year, and if they lead soldiers into war, that risk increases exponentially. This might come in helpful if you’re looking for a stronger leader when fishing.
Pay Attention To Your Specific Requirements
The National Focus is a feature that is sometimes overlooked. This option determines whether your country’s technical might will be used for administrative, diplomatic, or military purposes. You’ll find these three buttons on the Court screen, just next to where your advisors are listed. If you choose to concentrate on only one of your powers, you’ll see a monthly increase of +2 to that power and a decrease of -1 to the other two. Alternatively, if you decide to forego a National Focus, the result will be more even.
Keeping tabs on this may help you stay ahead of the curve or catch up with a certain technological development, or head off a significant increase in your Power bills in the future. Once you learn the ropes, Europa Universalis 4 is a compelling experience. The aforementioned recommendations for new players of Europa Universalis 4 will assist you in expanding and improving your empire. Proceed to EU 4 and make new history!
Lead developer at Lost Rabbit Digital. Writer for Good2Games. Boden began freelancing for Good2Game in 2021. He got his start making games and is still interested in the inner workings of games via the modding and speedrunning communities. He is addicted to co-op crafting games, lengthy novels, and multiplayer cryptid hunts.