Oh, Europa Universalis IV, you saucy minx you. This is the most confusing game I have played recently, but I still have fun with it. Watch as I stumble through the post-turial Spanish campaign.
Have any Hott EUIV Tipz? Well leave them below!
Europa Universalis IV Post Spanish Tutorial Map – Episode 1
By Tim Lanning on
You want tips, I’ve got a tip for you! I spent ages trying to get a good start as Byzantium. I never tried prior to patch 1.2, when it was apparently much easier with the old EU3 tactic of blocking the Bosphorus. That’s not much of an option in EU4 1.2, as the Ottomans just get military access and walk around the Black Sea to crush you. So, here’s how I managed to actually survive (and thrive) as Byzantium (on Ironman, of course):
On Day 1: DOW Albania. Begin improving relations with Hungary. Split your Navy into two parts, one with all 5 combat ships and the other with all 4 cogs. Send the combat ships to the coast of Albania. Send the cogs to sit off the ocean to transport your army. Split your army into a group of 4 and a group of 2. Make your Emperor and Heir into leaders, put the best one in charge of the 4 size army. Begin recruiting 2 more army units (one cavalry, one infantry). Unpause game.
When your navy arrives off Albania, immediately make peace with them. Take all their money, and make them convert to Orthodox for a couple extra prestige points. When your 4-size army has boarded your cogs, begin transporting them to the coast with Serbia. As soon as possible (one month to the day of your DOW on Albania), DOW Serbia. The Ottomans will not have warned you yet, so you can fight Serbia one on one without their interference. You will take a stability hit, but don’t worry about it. Immediately land your army and siege the coastal province. Take your cogs back to pick up your 2-size army and your 2 newly recruited units, which combine into a second 4-size army, led by your second leader. Transport that army back to Serbia and begin sieging a second province. Pay close attention to the movements of the Serbian army and move reinforcements if they attempt to attack one of your sieging armies. Regardless of whether you finish the first two sieges first or not, only fight the Serbian army with your combined 8 units. Defeat them, follow them if they retreat and make the army evaporate. Once the army is dead, capture all of Serbia and annex it. By this point, the Ottomans will have warned you.
Once you’ve annexed Serbia, fabricate a claim on Bosnia. When that claim is granted, DOW Bosnia and annex them as well (Ottomans will not join as Bosnia is not adjacent to them). Sometimes you can grab Wallachia this way as well, as they tend to ally with Bosnia. Between Serbia, Bosnia, and your starting provinces, you will now be up to about 10 provinces plus vasselized Athens. This is large enough to make the nearby major powers pay attention to you and consider an alliance. Hungary should be easy to get (particularly since you started improving relations with them on Day 1), and other easy options are Poland and Austria. Having a few of those guys as allies seems to prevent the Ottomans from going after you, even when they have a mission to do so. Then just wait for your opportunity to pounce and take back your Balkan territories. A lot of the Byz island cores seem to have a tendency to revolt to you at various points during wars. I got Naxos, Rhodes, and Cyprus without having to lift a finger for them.
The right time to take on the Ottomans is when they are involved in a war in the east, their army strength has been reduced somewhat (particularly their manpower), and your allies are willing to join the war. Sometimes this situation happens quickly, sometimes it take 10+ years. Just be patient and watch the Ottoman army strength during their various wars, until you see an opportunity that looks good. In the meantime, bring your army up to the Force Limit. For your navy, disband everything except Galleys and your starting cogs. Build more cogs, going over the Force Limit, aiming for superiority over the Ottomans, usually achieved with around 20 galleys. You’ll use your naval superiority to defeat the Ottomans and blockade to help your sieges along, as well as to force them to take the long route back for their armies, hopefully forcing them into contact with your allies.
It can take many starts to get this strategy to work, but I guarantee you it does work. Nothing else I tried allowed me to survive as Byzantium without completely abandoning Constantinople and moving elsewhere (which is no fun).
This is amazing. I only understand some of it. What does “DOW” mean? Thanks for the hott hott tipz!
LOL, sorry. The EU series is so complex that people use a lot of acronyms to convey what’s going on without writing a dissertation. In this case, DOW = Declaration of War.
I’ll admit, I wrote all of that not quite realizing how new you were to the game. Byzantium is not a nation that is ideal for a new player; it’s very difficult early on. After watching both of your EU4 vids, I do have a few general comments to help you out.
1) Use the Nation map as default. It’s the second one from the left (I think) with the flag icon. It displays nations with colors and it’s a lot easier to see what’s going on with that kind of view. When other info is needed, I’ll switch map modes temporarily, but I always go back to the nation map after I’m done.
2) Pay attention to your actual income, not just your bank balance. It’s very, very easy to start running a deficit in EU4 if you don’t pay attention. Debt in general should be avoided except in emergencies, so running a positive balance should be a priority. Advisors in particular are much more expensive than you may realize. You’re not just paying the one-time hiring cost, you also pay them a monthly fee for as long as they are around. For a rank 1 guy, that fee isn’t much (1-2), but ranks 2 and 3 can be very expensive and usually shouldn’t be hired until the mid to late game. To help save yourself money, it’s a decent idea to reduce your army and navy maintenance modifiers when you’re not at war and not expecting to go to war. The money you save during peacetime you can then use to construct buildings to improve your economy over the long run, and also to stockpile extra cash during times of war.
3) When you’re besieging enemy provinces, your armies will suffer attrition at varying rates. As Spain/Castile, your manpower pool was large enough to absorb those losses, but if you play a smaller nation attrition itself can make the difference between winning and losing a war. To keep attrition down, try and besiege with the smallest army possible. The fewer men conducting the siege, the less attrition they will suffer. You can automatically do this by clicking the ‘detach siege’ button on the top right of your army page when your army is besieging a province. That will split the army into two armies, one which is the minimum size necessary to conduct a successful siege, and whatever else is left. Then just move the remainder of the army back into a friendly province so that it doesn’t take attrition (or at least not as much). Just be careful when you’re doing this that larger enemy armies don’t come along and obliterate your small siege armies.
Hope that helps. If you’ve got any questions about EU4 or want help understanding something, don’t hesitate to ask. It can be a really difficult game to get into, but it’s very rewarding once you get a hang of it.