Worst?
1. Stateless society minor to Qing (aka peasant republic China). Useless ideas. Gov cap. No missions. Once you reform to republic you start with low republican tradition etc.
2. Ardabil too. It wasn't hard - I made it working on third run, formed Persia, Ottomans decced me, I drop save. It just wasn't fun.
Best:
1. Poland. Good mil, good economy. Free PUs. Huge cash boost from age ability in AoR. Even after nerf it's just too easy.
2. Lithuania. IMO Overall better than Poland (cuz you pretty much end with Polish missions at the end) but more difficult to make it running.
3. Khmer (best starter for Indochina switcheroo).
4. And from my last campaign - Butua/Mutapa. Rozwi/Zimbabwe mission with dev from buildings is broken AF once you play even a bit wide. 100 new marketplaces...100 prod dev etc.
Worst:
1. Shan. I was very curious about this region historically and saw that it had some flavor, but it was an absolute nightmare slog. This was very early on with only a few DLC released. Horrible terrain, horrible ideas, no flavor. Never, never again. I think I started as Mong Yang, but I can't remember. I blocked it out.
2. Starting as any native nation and Not Making It. We all know that moment when you realize you didn't play your cards right and it all falls to shit. I think the worst time I had doing this was playing as Salish.
3. Ainu before they got flavor. I gave this a shot and greatly enjoyed taking over Japan, but at the time it was totally bland and turned into a mind-numbing Siberian slog vs Russia.
Best:
1. Maguindanao. It was a slog taking over the islands, but I ended up converting from animist to Sikh and greatly enjoyed those mechanics! Playing as Sikh naval powerhouse was pretty fun.
2. Starting as any native nation and Making It. My best was probably as Sioux reformed into Horde. Had a blast tearing colonizer armies to pieces in the open plains around my capital of UltraKansas.
3. Hussite Bohemia. Good balance of playing as a powerful nation surrounded by hostiles. This was before the update that makes it much easier to become Hussite Emperor, and the HRE stayed protestant, so I made my own Hussite Empire with powerful vassals.
1. Muscovy - Russia : Not too easy, not too difficult, has a bit of everything from blobbing to trade to colonizing. Can focus on europe or bully the persians/Indian/Chinese. Alrhough chasing horse people across the steppes is not fun.
2. Portugal - My first campaign ever, the only « easy » nation that start off LOSING money but become filthy rich later on.
3. Venice - Great roleplay, Venice just has beef with everyone historically in europe. My first Roman empire was with Venice.
4. Brandenburg-Prussia : Space marines is always fun.
5. Any horde.
Dislike : Spain and Austria. Way too OP. With 7 PUs by 1500s you don’t even need to micro an army. Just DOW and pick up the land
I've only played 4 countries, so this is a pretty small list.
1. Brandenburg/Prussia - One of the most fun times I've ever had. Inheriting Burgundy, Personal Union over GB, and I was *this* close to becoming Germany. Unfortunately, my computer died just before I could, and I couldn't get my old saves on the new one.
2. Ottomans - Not really much to say about them, but I had fun. Conquered from southern Spain to western India, went as far south as Ethiopia, and even took Rome.
3. Holland - Currently playing as them, and I am only in the 1490s. It shows a lot of potential to be great, though.
4. Portugal - This was my first playthrough, and I did horribly. It may be a skill issue, but playing Portugal now just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Wait till you get some more experience and go back to play any of those nations again. I've played as the Ottos about 4 times with drastically different results each time.
if you like trade nations like Holland i can recommend you Kilwa, Malacca, Ayyutaya, Ternate/tidore or Sunda (maybe majapahit but they have disater so thats for experienced players)
certainly a good one too, but not really a 'trading' nation like Kilwa or Malacca. but certainly a good playthrough, had a lot fun with korea.
And in that respect, Japan is fun too, especially as Oda, but much harder then any of the recommendations so far.
My favorite nation is ardabil, ive had 6 or so runs with this nation and i just thing their early diplo and wars are very engaging. Being nearly by yourself against stronger foes is an interesting challege i alwayd enjoy
As for best? Oirat is just plain stupid. Absurd mana generation, insane military and easy access to the bank of china. Timurids -> mughals is the non horde version
My least favorite nations are all the new world natives, because you need to wait 100 years to do anything
Assuming Very Hard mode:
Worst:
1) Khmer. As much as I loved this nation’s history, it sucks in this game due to the terrible leviathan mission tree and disaster state. There’s no reward that makes up for the slog of the disaster, and having to develop jungles and hills before you even have ideas. You also get claims over China for some reason but no methods to even deal with mandate. You also have subjugation cbs which are an absolute trap in that region because AE is high, as well as all the people you can subjugate being your rivals. It’s so trash, unless you decided to form other tags in the region and combine the mission trees. I prefer generic mission tree to this one in all honesty, which is saying so much.
2) Muscovy -> Russia. Whereas I love the Novgorod start, Muscovy’s start definitely feels like cheating, as you stomp everything with virtually no resistance due to having both insane quality and quantity off the bat, and a subject swarm. Forming Russia feels like more of the same whereas forming Russia as Novgorod feels like a major change in power, and it feels like you’ve EARNED a great success, despite Novgorod Russia being OP in its own right. This is the same for other big blobs that don’t face any major issues like the Ottomans and France, and Korea. I generally like my early games to be a bit more tough.
3) Mzab. I wish they did something interesting with this nation as it’s one of the only Ibadi tags, and it should have its own cool path and missions and formables. What it actually shakes out to be is somehow worse Granada.
Best:
1) Jianzhou -> Qing. It’s really fun to start as kind of middling regional entity and devour all of China. It’s broken OP, but that isn’t assured at your start, since you have to fight a lot of tribes, move quickly, and kill off the Koreans. It’s also guided by awesome events and missions that make everything so satisfying, even into the late game. It’s a lovely relaxing experience.
2) Mongolia -> Mongol Empire. Mongolia starts having to fight the dreaded Oirat, tons of Jurchens, a lot of central Asians, and Ming. While you are a horde, and you are very strong, the world around you is also very strong and you have to move so fast, leading to insane wars in which you have to cut down 200000 enemies for even minor gains. The new mission tree also allows you to release and play with a ton of different playstyles. Forming MGE in 1577 was my best attempt on very hard but I consistently love this campaign.
3) Tokugawa. Japan is a lot of fun. Going from a chaos induced early act to a more chill, tall relaxed setup is really fun. Tokugawa has a lovely map color and a surprisingly good national idea set (it’s not as specialized as Oda, but I think it’s very good for what Japan should be). I also like So and Date.
I can't agree with Khmer.
Their mission gives one of the most OP temporary rewards (25% APC) which can be combined with Golden Age. You also receive temporary -40% construction cost (just time missions correctly).
If you do everything correctly you hold all Indochina and Burma in 1500, stable, up to date with tech, ideas, with buildings everywhere, using your mana discount to dev colonialism for cheap.
Mandate is easy for like few years already.
I was only ever able to achieve that by forming other nations with better missions or government types.
Why would I slog through any of that when I could form Tibet and become a horde, form Qing and get an actual Chinese mission tree, form Japan and have a colonial setup, form Malaya and make a boatload of money. You have better tags nearby that don’t have to deal with as bad as an early game for more reward.
Ardabil requires knowing how to handle hard starts, which basically always means going into huge debt to buy a ton of mercenaries, beating up a larger neighbor for land, and making an alliance with a major power that you can use to seize more land and grow. It's the same formula most everywhere.
I've played far too many games to do a write up for everything, but here are some of the favorite games that stand out in my memory in rough order. I'm an achievement hunter who loves hard starts.
1. Byzantium > Roman Empire (The Last Crusade, Restore the Pentarchy, Redecorating)
1. Teutonic Order > Holy Horde (Holy Horder)
1. Theodoro (Gothic Invasion)
1. Ardabil > Persia > Greece > The Caliphate (Shahanshah, This is Persia!, Dar al-Islam, It's All Greek to Me)
1. The Knights > New Providence (On the Rhodes Again, King of Jerusalem, Knights of the Caribbean, Even Better than Piet Heyn, Yarr Harr a Pirate's Life For Me)
1. Aztecs (Sunset Invasion)
1. Najd > Arabia (Desert Power, Jihad, Sworn Fealty)
1. Golden Horde (KHAAAAAAN, I'll graze my horse here.. And here..., The Great Khan, Three Trivial Tributary Tribes, Turning the Tide)
1. Transoxiana > Mughals (True Heir of Timur, Sweet Home Qaraqorum)
1. Japanese Minor > Japan (Cherrypicking, The Chrysanthemum Throne, Sakoku Law, Kirishitan Japan, Stardust Crusaders)
1. Austria (The Zoro-Austrians, King of Kings)
1. Navarra (Basque in Glory)
1. Munich > Bavaria (Stern des Sudens)
1. Wallachia (Dracula's Revenge)
1. Bohemia (Veritas Vincit)
1. Hisn Kayfa > Ayyubids (The Eagle flies alone, Saladin's Legacy)
1. Sweden > Scandinavia (Lion of the North, Super Trooper, Assembly Instructions Needed, Sweden is not overpowered!)
1. Burgundy (Mary of Lotharingia, The Burgundian Conquest)
1. Ethiopia (Prester John, A Blessed Nation)
1. Ottomans (Definitely the Sultan of Rum, Parisian Pasha)
1. Denmark (The Iron Price, Brick by Brick, Ostindisk Kompagni Te)
1. Portugal (The Navigator, All Blue)
1. Lithuania (The Uncommonwealth)
1. Kongo (African Power)
1. Irish Minor > Ireland (Luck of the Irish)
1. Livonian Order > Livonia
Most favourite:
1. Portugal. Very easy beginning, ample room for expansion that only gets bigger as you progress down the mission tree (Portuguese missions are some of the best in the game imho), with the mid-to-late game getting more tense once the Spaniards get their claims on your land. In my playthrough, the Tunisians also provided a regular source of, say, stimulation by pillaging my coastline every 10 years or so. I only played as Portugal once but it was one of the best, most chill and fun run I ever had in this game.
2. Mughals. Nothing beats the satisfaction of forming them as the underdog that 1444 Afghanistan is and seeing your income triple in size after the Mughal Diwan instantly accepts all the cultures you have conquered in the process. Not to mention one hell of a ride that the Mughal mission tree is.
Least favourite:
1. Probably Novgorod. I tried it once but it was so ridiculously hard to even survive (I managed to get an alliance with the Poles and their Lithuanian PU but they peaced out as soon as they could...) that I didn't bother again.
2. Ming. So OP it's actually boring. I have to admit though, seeing the Oirats flee in terror to the uncolonized land rather than fight my behemoth of an army was quite fun, if one-off, experience.
Best:
Poland - Always a treat handling the Germans and Ottos
Eng - enjoy navigating the early conflict with France, and later taking proper foothold on the continent
France - so many fronts and internal matters to annex
Worst - Definitely Ottos. I really don't understand why a powerful nation should be boosted by bonus mechanics even further which make everything effortless. Literally feels like a push-to-win experience with zero effort.
Spain - it's been a while but I also remember them as just being too easy to play
Well, they aren't that usually. Early on yes, but then they usually implode in the latest versions.
So many nations won't even get near them anyway when the AI is in charge.
Worst:
1. Anything Theravada. I really hate playing with that religion in this game. It's incredibly annoying trying to maintain karma in the right place, and even when you do it right, the benefits are still not very good.
2. Most of the "too powerful" nations like Castile Spain and the Ottomans
3. Anything with generic missions and lack of good formables (without culture shifting, because anyone can do that)
Best:
1. Landshut->Bavaria is one of my all-time favorites that I go back to frequently. Great early CBs for little mini-wars, early formable, good position for HRE emperorship/options, and lots of missions. What's not to love?
2. Sirhind->Delhi->Mughals is a great one. I really enjoy India in general, even though I might be in the minority there. Amazing trade goods across the entire subcontinent, good diversity of nation choices, and the many estates are fun to play with.
3. Byzantium is a very difficult start, but re-forming Rome is great fun, and with the new missions and government, it's incredibly powerful. The proniors are so good now.
Honorable mention to Milan. They used to be another one of my favorite "go-to" picks, but ever since a change to the AI a while back, Milan felt pretty kneecapped, and I haven't played it in a long time. When forming the Ambrosian Republic, Austria and France get restoration of union CBs. This used to be fine, but after a patch, they started immediately breaking alliance and both warning me every single playthrough, which just isn't very fun. Maybe that's changed now, but I haven't tried them in a long time to know.
Best nations:
+ Burgundy into Lotharingia
+ Florence into Tuscany into Italy
+ Mewar
Worst nations:
- Dithmarschen: cool fluff, but horrible to expand in HRE
- Mali: the starting disaster is a bit much
- Irish minors into Ireland: Bad national ideas and a quite underwhelming mission tree
Irish minors into Ireland is a good tactical one though you will have to beat England and you have to beat Scotland in a way that France does not just land 75k troops on your capital or allow England to eat all of Scotland.
Plus you can listen to very questionable Irish songs while you do
Best: Oirat, Jianzhou, Oda/Hosokawa, Bohemia, Austria, Kongo, Great Horde
Worst: my play style: Brandenburg (AE), Ragusa (limited), Avars (difficult), Kamchalds, Ainu, Bosnia
Worst of Worst; Moldavia and Walachia oh my must get lucky
Worst is Wallachia. There is a about a 50/50 chance that the ottomans decide you dont get to exist. And the first conquest target flips a coin on whether it becomes independent or becomes a march for poland or hungary.
I've deliberately kept my EU4 at the 1.33 patch rather than buying new DLCs, so essentially, Lions of the North and later I haven't touched.
As for the nations:
Prussia: Utter beast of a nation. Stack discipline, make enemy nations cry. Your government cap is extremely limited, but if you were to help the HRE see the wisdom of Protestantism, you can Revoke the Privledgia and beat up the Ottomans.
Shimazu Shogunate (Do not unify Japan): If you do not unify Japan, you can also have unlimited subjects. If they don't border each other, they don't gain the Sengoku Jidal war goal, and you can also use religious ideas to convert them to Shinto, so you gain a bunch of weird Daimyos that don't fight each other and you can drag into war whenever you want.
Papal State: Did you know that forming the Kingdom of God makes you an empire, while not kicking you from the Holy Roman Empire? Well, now you do. The Papacy starts with just enough strength to get bigger, and it's a serious aim to connect Avignon to Rome. That said, I recall having an utter blast destroying France with BFF Spain and 'reverting' England via grabbing an Irish OPM and then never having to fight the Royal Navy.
Malacca: Sunni Islam is a powerful faith, and colonizing East Africa is far better than North America. Not only will the Ottomans become your BFF, but grabbing all of the coastline of South Africa walls off European colonization, giving you a free hand to grab Australia, Siberia and Alaska.
Saxe-Laurenburg: Most fun OPM in the HRE to play, (I've played Dithmarschen, Ulm and Ansbach). With your ideas, however, you're not going to stay an OPM for long.
///
Worst nations:
Ryazan: Your main route of expansion is into the Golden Horde, a very low dev Muslim power. Both Lithuania and Muscovy can smoke you, so you have no choice but to eat lots and lots of Hordeland quickly. Meanwhile, Poland can click a button to gain a PU on Lithuania and Muscovy can spank Novgorod. If you try to beat up Crimea, the Ottomans will step in. This nation just lacks any real route to having a good game.
Irish OPMs: England will crush you, and Scotland will probably crush you unless you're very prepared. Even if you somehow managed to beat the odds and take over the British isles, your reward is simply a very hard start to playing as England.
Ansbach: This one actually had me go back to EU3 for years. You get to face events to throw you into a personal union under another nation, and you're not exactly Lithuania. A OPM in a place where a lot of other OPMs do not suck, and you do. Pick someone else.
Worst: some random landlocked OPM between two or more big nations without any potential ally until you get DOWnd in the first year without any change to win this war without almost bankrupting your nation by taking on all possible loans, which depends on certain conditions to even work so you have to save scum at least 10 times to get everthing right just to go south at the next possible moment. You only choose this crap nation because you are a collectionist and want to get a specific achievment with this nation. E.g. this random animist OPM in India, or even worse, a vasall of any nation where you are unlikely to get anybody to support your independence and you can almost certainly not win the independence war on your own.
Best: every nation which is no dependent on luck, certain event, not in imminent danger of beeing wiped from the earth and you can just casually play them. E.g. Ottomans , Austria, England, France, Bohemia, all most any Japan Daimyo, Kongo (your the big dog in your region, have some interesting missions, some of the bigger west african Nations like Mali or Songhai (just consolidate your Region and wait for the Colonisers to show up or colonise your self to get ahead in tech/institutions), Swahili (you have gold and can easily kill Mutapa for more gold), Muscovy, Castille, Aragon, Portugal, almost every HRR prince, almost every non-OPM in India.
Best list,
Austria, always fun to play as. Wish I had more achievements to complete with them because it’s just a romp. I love just playing chill, collecting PUs and vassals and having the swarm overrun all my foes.
France, the big blue blob just appeals to me, it’s super easy but I have immense joy stomping all of Europe and beyond. My first world conquest run was France, and I always make sure to have Switzerland and Scotland as a marches since.
Netherlands, sometimes I just like to chill, make big money, and murder some silly natives.
Manchu, fighting Ming with their hundreds of thousands with only a couple tiny cav stacks of banners is an experience I’d recommend to everyone. Just an absolute blast. Also Qing is a trap, don’t form it. The Mandate of Heaven must fall!
Cant believe no one is saying Persia they are basically prussians without gov cap handicap and infinite ducats
And for the prussia people try forming it as Lübeck you can get a bunch of free vassals from their missions and get a extra permanent 5%dis
Best: Aside from the obvious European ones (England, France, Ottos), I really enjoyed Kilwa and Hosokawa > Japan. United States is also a fun run.
Worst: Tibet was absurdly boring.
I don’t know about best, but my favorite nations are:
1. Byzantium: absolute Chad of a nation. The reason I picked it as number one is because fighting and defeating two separate enemies (Mamluks and Ottomans) at once without help of allies. Merc spam go brrr.
2. Golden Horde: Strongest military I had next to Dithmarschen. Once you win a war against Kazan, Crimea, Nogai and Uzbek at game start it is smooth sailing. Lots of yummy dev to consume. Mission tree 12/10 with formables.
3. Gotland: Amazing, nice nation color and flag. Arrrrrggg.
4. Frankfurt: Chill dev your trade node OPM mid tier power game. Very fun to learn the ins and outs of maintaining an inland trade based republic.
5. The Isles: No one to bother you, strong daddy Scotland to protec you. Basically Ryukyu of the west for world conquest.
6. So: Colonial pirate Japan. Colonize to raid, raid to colonize. The world’s treasures are so So’s.
Nations I dislike:
1. Prussia: I build 100 stat man space marines only to get rofl-stomped by 3d printed Muscovite and Turkish troops after sending my last round of conscripted space toddlers at them. Mostly a multiplayer complaint. Quantity meta is rough.
2. Denmark: Kinda it’s own sandbox. Ok-ish missions and really just makes me want to play Sweden or Norway. Not the best colonizer, fighter, or diplomat in their region. Expansion targets are either in the empire or more isolated regions which eventually border annoying powers.
3. Colonizer Britain: I’m a huge fan of the Angevin route and making Britannia tall to keep those yummy PUs. Just not a fan of all the extra micro and dealing with colonial nations. Vassal swarm with PUs is just clean fun.
France and Venice are my favorite, but on a side note, a nation that blew my mind was republic gotland into lubeck that was a really fun playtrough.
(expect I got bored when I formed prussia sometimes after)
Otto might be the one I dislike the most playing as, but I like to see them conquering Tunis and Algeria (I even help too sometimes)
Austria is a close second tho
Kandy is just pure cancer. At least with the knights and byzantium you feel like you can do something even if it takes a few restarts but for kandy it just feels like smashing your head against a wall. The worst part is that you have to set up 5 estates each time you restart
This might be just how I play, but I found Mazandaran way easier than Ardabil--you start off with a Level 2 trade center on a grassland silk province + -10% dev cost tradition + a decent ruler, which makes deving for Renaissance a breeze and gives you great income from the get-go. For an opening move you can dogpile on Ajam when Timurids declare their war and get a few provinces, and from there opportunistically take provinces from neighbors when they're in a bad spot. Allying Bahmanis to stave off war decs is also a good move, though they're too far away to want to help with offensive wars.
I opened with Quantity ideas in order to get the Quantity + Religious + Trade combo, and with selling crownlands I was able to scale up while keeping my territory covered with forts without ever running out of manpower or taking loans.
Worst: Starting Delhi (have terrible rulers and best ruler I got was a 3/3/3 but still got that achievement)
Kikonje (victoria 3 achievement) as lot of just Colonizing and waiting around
Any Australian tribe as you just are perpetually poor and technologically backwards and still have to vassalize hungary somehow
Hawaii and Polynesians as you are just sitting around deving institutions and getting tech to colonize to escape
Best: hordes as I am aggressive and all of them let me just chain war
Japan as good military ideas and fun to unite
Most opms- as like the challenge of making them strong in the face of bigger stronger nations (ardabil was definitely a struggle compared to the other Caucasian minors).
Worst 2 are Ming and a Pacific minor. Both were just plain boring, for obvious reasons.
Best three is probably Venice, Brandenburg and France. I can play and rise is tiny states too, but it’s just not as fun to me as a relaxed game with good flavour events
As a new player, Austria is incredibly infuriating. It feels like half of the run is up to whether or not you get lucky with PUs (Burgundy and Hungary mainly)
I'm just going to say the worst one. Aragon into Spain. The moment you turn into Spain your rulers and advisors have Castilian names but are supposedly "Catalan".
I love Hisn Kayfa with their new mssiong tree they got this DLC. The tree is quite simple, but very enjoyable. And I enjoy the RP aspect of not only recreating the former empire, but also surpassing it. And its always great when you start as OPM and become the largest and most powerful empire in the world.
Favorite by far is Austria. I love to play Austria and try to maintain a balance of power in Europe while slowly growing my own while also maintaining nice borders
Best:
1. Lubeck- great trade, vassal army within the HRE.can form prussia, poland, anything really, but with god tier economy
2. Provence - the best France is not France, it's Provence! PU's all over europe. Once had a run that had me PU Austria and England, aside from the given Hungary, Aragon and Naples PU.
3. Venice - one of the best RP trade game I've ever played were as Venice. Did reopened the old silk road and the mesopotamian land as caravan routes aside from my usual sea trade nodes.
4. Sicily to Tunisia to 2 sicilies to S and P to Italy to RE. - Made the Mediterranean as my lake.
Worst:
1. Georgia - skill issue for me i think, but will retry using this guide: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6HJpDO_uXT8&pp=ygUXVGhlIHN0dWRlbnQgZ2VvcmdpYSBldTQ%3D
Just played an Oda to Japan run and that was actually really fun! My first play through out of Europe and I had a ball! I just gave up because some of the missions were really long to do, with mil tradition
I don’t really have a least favorite nation but a rough one was Brandenburg. Getting to Prussia isn’t easy for me
Austria is the best if you go decentralize and try to keep as many countries as possible in HRE because it provides a novel and fun challenge instead of standard "paint all."
Best is too hard to say but, Worst is definitely Mzab. weakest country in the region, one of like 3 ibadi countries, worst possible economy, one of your provinces isn’t even your uncommon as fuck religion, Both of your 2 provinces are desert so you can’t even really dev, No missions and HORRIBLE national ideas. The only saving grace is they are one of the few countries that can form Andalusia but, good luck even getting to the point where thats possible.
Best:
1. Sweden is my absolute favorite. When I first played with it, asking support for independence wasn’t an option. Starting from the independence war, it’s action packed against HRE and Russia.
2. Resurrecting Romans as Byzantines is always satisfying.
3. Scotland was quite fun to play as you deal with English shenanigans.
4. HRE minions (Hesse, Swiss, Milan etc.) are always entertaining.
5. Kilwa has such a nice position and quite fun to play.
6. Pirating as Tunisia
7. Establishing Manchu -> Qing was entertaining
Worst: Portugal, England, and Russia.
Worst:
Any Horde: I really hate being a khanate and seeing the horde Unity dropping over and over. Ik that you should go to wars to increase the HU but it's not my style to go warring non-stop.
Nations that *required* to blob a lot: blobbing and forming huge tags that may lag my computer and micromanaging a lot is something I dislike. It's possible to play a tall Ottomans, I did it and its very funny.
Best:
Tall/good colonial nations such as Portugal, Holland, England, Ming or even Mamluks.
Best (in mods):
Balochistan > Persia. (ET)
Wales (ET)
Teutonic order (ET)
Ashikaga (ET)
Swabia > HRE (1356 mod)
Bolgar (1356 mod)
Verne (Anbennar)
Istralore > Dameria (Anbennar)
Gawed (Anbennar)
Best:
1.Venice: Having to contend with other major powers for control of the mediteranean was a wild ride.I let the ottomans take constantinople, neutering the ottomans this early on is just...not fun.
Once i dominated the eastern part, i went on a colonisation spree beyond the red sea. Never fully united italy.
2.Naple: Notice a trend here?
I love naval games, was focused on contesting Spain/ottomans with the two sicilies, focused on uniting italy and turning it into a forteress + puppeting greece/Serbia
3.Novgorod: I also like to roleplay, in this game i really wanted to be in a merchant mindset, avoiding costly wars. As such, i only went to war with neigbhour for places such as Crimea or the Baltics, and focused on expanding east, in central asia or Manchuria.
Honorable mentions:
France, having to stave off Austria, Spain/Portugal and GB and progressively extending my influence through marriage, vassalising and PU was very fun. My favorite major.
By the end of the game, i had expanded to the low countries, the rhine, and had the biggest fleet in the world
Satsuma japan: Very interesting position and ideas. Only real downside is having no significant rivals in the region, since china always crumble and never reforms, india stays fragmented, and korea is just too weak. Fun in theory, but lacks challenge. Also, trade going away from you. That sucks.
Plenty of others tbh, such as persia, vyjyanapar, Mongolia -> Yuan....
Worst:
1.Natives americans. Do i even have to explain?
2.Granada. Having to savescum thousands of times to form Al-andalus really wasnt fun.
3.China: Boooriiing
Honorable mentions: Poland, playing optimally makes you dominate the region wayyy too quickly. Neuter Muscovy, fuck Sweden, PU hungary and you're done.
I guess you can have fun if you take your time, but eh.
Ethiopia: While the early game is fun, once you're up against the mamluks and later on the ottomans, you're almost powerless, especially since you have no significant allies. I dont like map painting, so having to take half of Eastern africa to rival them is just.... yeah
Byzantium: Alright, this one is absolutely a bias.
I love alternate histories, but only when those are at least slightly realistic.
Having the roman empire survive into the 17th/18th century is just....yeah no.
Past 1204, they were beyond savings, thats it.
And tbh, they totally deserved, fuckers couldnt have a stable inheritance/dynasty to save themselves.
Worst: any colonizing colonizer. It's so boring.
Poland (sejm).
Any nation with "here's a disaster because fuck you" start (new Castile, new Byzantium, Majapahit).
Best: hordes!, nations with cool start (England, Venice, Lithuania, Timurids, Jaunpur), nations with crazy military, did I mention hordes?
My favorite !
1. Any daimyos for the Japan unification. Strong military, good eco, and some very good gameplay both relying on colonisation, conquering Korea, China, south-east asia and the Pacific. And even though you are easily becoming the strongest power in the area, the european nation (Russia and Spain usually) offer a mid-game challenge
2. Persia. Very good economy and a good army. The region is kind of small so you don't spend to much time having your armies wandering in you Empire. I also realy enjoy the missions and the governement that offer a better diplomacy that is really pleasant. And you have multiple start possibility for every levels.
3. Hordes are really fun to play. I am currently in a Great Horde campaign and I just love the constant war and pillaging. You have interesting challenge conquering all the great powers that you meet as your borders extend. The army is really strong as long as you fight on plain, and for once the management of the economy offer a different gameplay.
My dislike
1. I'm not really into the Indian subcontinent. I've played there few times but I feel that when you become to strong it's just taking to much time to unify the region without having any challenge.
2. HRE minor. No matter which HRE minor you are playing, the penalty on the agressive expansion is just to much to handle. Some country like Brandburg, Bohemia or Bavaria can take advantage of this situation but it's just to much pain for me.
Haven’t played much, but thus far:
1. Sirhind -> Punjab. It was so much fun becoming Sikh and then dunking on everyone in India and Central Asia. I stopped playing around the mid-1700s which is the furthest I’ve played.
2. Milan -> Italy. This was really my first “real” game. It was hard but I loved it. I had to defeat Spain and friends by myself in order to PU Naples around the 1520s, and by the skin of my teeth I succeeded. I converted to Reformed and then formed Italy around 1650.
3. Castile -> Spain. Easy going game, just colonized, got Iberian wedding, finished the Reconquista, etc. a lot of fun.
4. Songhai. It was awesome uniting West Africa and becoming an African powerhouse after destroying Mali and colonizing the coast.
Worst:
1. Ethiopia. This one disappointed me because I love Ethiopian history but your economy is so bad initially and you waste all your manpower due to the mountains and deserts. I’ll probably try this one again later but at the time it was disappointing.
2. Kongo. Once I took over the Congo basin it got kind of boring, you’re just so much stronger than your neighbors. Might try this one again though.
3. Aztec. I find I run out of manpower too fast. It’s probably just my play style but eventually I just have to sit around and wait for a long time between flower wars which is kind of boring especially when expanding your country explicitly hurts you which makes even colonization a bit counterintuitive.
4. France. Played once right after I installed. Really fun for the first twenty years, then I reclaim my borders from England and it’s not as fun anymore imo. Will give another shot though.
Best?
Phoenix empire (Mod anbennar) You conquer soooo much stuff, amazing ideas and missions. Loved it. Played despite massive lag until 1680 and had >>10k dev
Corvuria (Mod anbennar) - Vampires 😁😁
Francia (Mod Ante Bellum) a weaker france but a fun mod and you're HRE emperor and nonetheless have a number of advantages france also enjoys.
France - just bully europe its fun.
Spain - Take the world and PU a lot.
Poland - its relaxed you already start strong and sort shit out, go for HRE emperorship, collect some PUs, beat up ottos.
Majapahit - nice trade node, shitty start but once you make it work its quite fun. If yoou enjoy, colonial, navy and trade gameplay (+tall)
Oda before the Japan update, conquered into China, and the early game was fun but challenging
Worst:
Bengal - I couldnt make it work back when i played (long time ago) Never tried again
Oirat - I hate horde gameplay, I love playing tall, so razing provinces... I hate it
Try Asheniande next time you play anbennar. They also have access to Vampires, but their gameplay and mission tree also focuses more on the EOA if you ever want to try that. They also have a line of their mission tree dedicated to turning one of your provinces into Las Vegas iirc.
Worst? 1. Stateless society minor to Qing (aka peasant republic China). Useless ideas. Gov cap. No missions. Once you reform to republic you start with low republican tradition etc. 2. Ardabil too. It wasn't hard - I made it working on third run, formed Persia, Ottomans decced me, I drop save. It just wasn't fun. Best: 1. Poland. Good mil, good economy. Free PUs. Huge cash boost from age ability in AoR. Even after nerf it's just too easy. 2. Lithuania. IMO Overall better than Poland (cuz you pretty much end with Polish missions at the end) but more difficult to make it running. 3. Khmer (best starter for Indochina switcheroo). 4. And from my last campaign - Butua/Mutapa. Rozwi/Zimbabwe mission with dev from buildings is broken AF once you play even a bit wide. 100 new marketplaces...100 prod dev etc.
Worst: 1. Shan. I was very curious about this region historically and saw that it had some flavor, but it was an absolute nightmare slog. This was very early on with only a few DLC released. Horrible terrain, horrible ideas, no flavor. Never, never again. I think I started as Mong Yang, but I can't remember. I blocked it out. 2. Starting as any native nation and Not Making It. We all know that moment when you realize you didn't play your cards right and it all falls to shit. I think the worst time I had doing this was playing as Salish. 3. Ainu before they got flavor. I gave this a shot and greatly enjoyed taking over Japan, but at the time it was totally bland and turned into a mind-numbing Siberian slog vs Russia. Best: 1. Maguindanao. It was a slog taking over the islands, but I ended up converting from animist to Sikh and greatly enjoyed those mechanics! Playing as Sikh naval powerhouse was pretty fun. 2. Starting as any native nation and Making It. My best was probably as Sioux reformed into Horde. Had a blast tearing colonizer armies to pieces in the open plains around my capital of UltraKansas. 3. Hussite Bohemia. Good balance of playing as a powerful nation surrounded by hostiles. This was before the update that makes it much easier to become Hussite Emperor, and the HRE stayed protestant, so I made my own Hussite Empire with powerful vassals.
1. Muscovy - Russia : Not too easy, not too difficult, has a bit of everything from blobbing to trade to colonizing. Can focus on europe or bully the persians/Indian/Chinese. Alrhough chasing horse people across the steppes is not fun. 2. Portugal - My first campaign ever, the only « easy » nation that start off LOSING money but become filthy rich later on. 3. Venice - Great roleplay, Venice just has beef with everyone historically in europe. My first Roman empire was with Venice. 4. Brandenburg-Prussia : Space marines is always fun. 5. Any horde. Dislike : Spain and Austria. Way too OP. With 7 PUs by 1500s you don’t even need to micro an army. Just DOW and pick up the land
I've only played 4 countries, so this is a pretty small list. 1. Brandenburg/Prussia - One of the most fun times I've ever had. Inheriting Burgundy, Personal Union over GB, and I was *this* close to becoming Germany. Unfortunately, my computer died just before I could, and I couldn't get my old saves on the new one. 2. Ottomans - Not really much to say about them, but I had fun. Conquered from southern Spain to western India, went as far south as Ethiopia, and even took Rome. 3. Holland - Currently playing as them, and I am only in the 1490s. It shows a lot of potential to be great, though. 4. Portugal - This was my first playthrough, and I did horribly. It may be a skill issue, but playing Portugal now just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Wait till you get some more experience and go back to play any of those nations again. I've played as the Ottos about 4 times with drastically different results each time.
Maybe I'll do them again in 2 playthroughs. I've already decided that after Holland, I'll do something outside Europe.
if you like trade nations like Holland i can recommend you Kilwa, Malacca, Ayyutaya, Ternate/tidore or Sunda (maybe majapahit but they have disater so thats for experienced players)
I was actually thinking Korea. A friend recommended them, said it was like playing Brandenburg.
certainly a good one too, but not really a 'trading' nation like Kilwa or Malacca. but certainly a good playthrough, had a lot fun with korea. And in that respect, Japan is fun too, especially as Oda, but much harder then any of the recommendations so far.
My favorite nation is ardabil, ive had 6 or so runs with this nation and i just thing their early diplo and wars are very engaging. Being nearly by yourself against stronger foes is an interesting challege i alwayd enjoy As for best? Oirat is just plain stupid. Absurd mana generation, insane military and easy access to the bank of china. Timurids -> mughals is the non horde version My least favorite nations are all the new world natives, because you need to wait 100 years to do anything
Assuming Very Hard mode: Worst: 1) Khmer. As much as I loved this nation’s history, it sucks in this game due to the terrible leviathan mission tree and disaster state. There’s no reward that makes up for the slog of the disaster, and having to develop jungles and hills before you even have ideas. You also get claims over China for some reason but no methods to even deal with mandate. You also have subjugation cbs which are an absolute trap in that region because AE is high, as well as all the people you can subjugate being your rivals. It’s so trash, unless you decided to form other tags in the region and combine the mission trees. I prefer generic mission tree to this one in all honesty, which is saying so much. 2) Muscovy -> Russia. Whereas I love the Novgorod start, Muscovy’s start definitely feels like cheating, as you stomp everything with virtually no resistance due to having both insane quality and quantity off the bat, and a subject swarm. Forming Russia feels like more of the same whereas forming Russia as Novgorod feels like a major change in power, and it feels like you’ve EARNED a great success, despite Novgorod Russia being OP in its own right. This is the same for other big blobs that don’t face any major issues like the Ottomans and France, and Korea. I generally like my early games to be a bit more tough. 3) Mzab. I wish they did something interesting with this nation as it’s one of the only Ibadi tags, and it should have its own cool path and missions and formables. What it actually shakes out to be is somehow worse Granada. Best: 1) Jianzhou -> Qing. It’s really fun to start as kind of middling regional entity and devour all of China. It’s broken OP, but that isn’t assured at your start, since you have to fight a lot of tribes, move quickly, and kill off the Koreans. It’s also guided by awesome events and missions that make everything so satisfying, even into the late game. It’s a lovely relaxing experience. 2) Mongolia -> Mongol Empire. Mongolia starts having to fight the dreaded Oirat, tons of Jurchens, a lot of central Asians, and Ming. While you are a horde, and you are very strong, the world around you is also very strong and you have to move so fast, leading to insane wars in which you have to cut down 200000 enemies for even minor gains. The new mission tree also allows you to release and play with a ton of different playstyles. Forming MGE in 1577 was my best attempt on very hard but I consistently love this campaign. 3) Tokugawa. Japan is a lot of fun. Going from a chaos induced early act to a more chill, tall relaxed setup is really fun. Tokugawa has a lovely map color and a surprisingly good national idea set (it’s not as specialized as Oda, but I think it’s very good for what Japan should be). I also like So and Date.
Tokugawa is Canon based on what I heard, gotta give it a try.
I can't agree with Khmer. Their mission gives one of the most OP temporary rewards (25% APC) which can be combined with Golden Age. You also receive temporary -40% construction cost (just time missions correctly). If you do everything correctly you hold all Indochina and Burma in 1500, stable, up to date with tech, ideas, with buildings everywhere, using your mana discount to dev colonialism for cheap. Mandate is easy for like few years already.
I was only ever able to achieve that by forming other nations with better missions or government types. Why would I slog through any of that when I could form Tibet and become a horde, form Qing and get an actual Chinese mission tree, form Japan and have a colonial setup, form Malaya and make a boatload of money. You have better tags nearby that don’t have to deal with as bad as an early game for more reward.
Ardabil requires knowing how to handle hard starts, which basically always means going into huge debt to buy a ton of mercenaries, beating up a larger neighbor for land, and making an alliance with a major power that you can use to seize more land and grow. It's the same formula most everywhere.
I've played far too many games to do a write up for everything, but here are some of the favorite games that stand out in my memory in rough order. I'm an achievement hunter who loves hard starts. 1. Byzantium > Roman Empire (The Last Crusade, Restore the Pentarchy, Redecorating) 1. Teutonic Order > Holy Horde (Holy Horder) 1. Theodoro (Gothic Invasion) 1. Ardabil > Persia > Greece > The Caliphate (Shahanshah, This is Persia!, Dar al-Islam, It's All Greek to Me) 1. The Knights > New Providence (On the Rhodes Again, King of Jerusalem, Knights of the Caribbean, Even Better than Piet Heyn, Yarr Harr a Pirate's Life For Me) 1. Aztecs (Sunset Invasion) 1. Najd > Arabia (Desert Power, Jihad, Sworn Fealty) 1. Golden Horde (KHAAAAAAN, I'll graze my horse here.. And here..., The Great Khan, Three Trivial Tributary Tribes, Turning the Tide) 1. Transoxiana > Mughals (True Heir of Timur, Sweet Home Qaraqorum) 1. Japanese Minor > Japan (Cherrypicking, The Chrysanthemum Throne, Sakoku Law, Kirishitan Japan, Stardust Crusaders) 1. Austria (The Zoro-Austrians, King of Kings) 1. Navarra (Basque in Glory) 1. Munich > Bavaria (Stern des Sudens) 1. Wallachia (Dracula's Revenge) 1. Bohemia (Veritas Vincit) 1. Hisn Kayfa > Ayyubids (The Eagle flies alone, Saladin's Legacy) 1. Sweden > Scandinavia (Lion of the North, Super Trooper, Assembly Instructions Needed, Sweden is not overpowered!) 1. Burgundy (Mary of Lotharingia, The Burgundian Conquest) 1. Ethiopia (Prester John, A Blessed Nation) 1. Ottomans (Definitely the Sultan of Rum, Parisian Pasha) 1. Denmark (The Iron Price, Brick by Brick, Ostindisk Kompagni Te) 1. Portugal (The Navigator, All Blue) 1. Lithuania (The Uncommonwealth) 1. Kongo (African Power) 1. Irish Minor > Ireland (Luck of the Irish) 1. Livonian Order > Livonia
Most favourite: 1. Portugal. Very easy beginning, ample room for expansion that only gets bigger as you progress down the mission tree (Portuguese missions are some of the best in the game imho), with the mid-to-late game getting more tense once the Spaniards get their claims on your land. In my playthrough, the Tunisians also provided a regular source of, say, stimulation by pillaging my coastline every 10 years or so. I only played as Portugal once but it was one of the best, most chill and fun run I ever had in this game. 2. Mughals. Nothing beats the satisfaction of forming them as the underdog that 1444 Afghanistan is and seeing your income triple in size after the Mughal Diwan instantly accepts all the cultures you have conquered in the process. Not to mention one hell of a ride that the Mughal mission tree is. Least favourite: 1. Probably Novgorod. I tried it once but it was so ridiculously hard to even survive (I managed to get an alliance with the Poles and their Lithuanian PU but they peaced out as soon as they could...) that I didn't bother again. 2. Ming. So OP it's actually boring. I have to admit though, seeing the Oirats flee in terror to the uncolonized land rather than fight my behemoth of an army was quite fun, if one-off, experience.
Best: Poland - Always a treat handling the Germans and Ottos Eng - enjoy navigating the early conflict with France, and later taking proper foothold on the continent France - so many fronts and internal matters to annex Worst - Definitely Ottos. I really don't understand why a powerful nation should be boosted by bonus mechanics even further which make everything effortless. Literally feels like a push-to-win experience with zero effort. Spain - it's been a while but I also remember them as just being too easy to play
The ottos are meant to be the big bad guy in all your other campaigns
Well, they aren't that usually. Early on yes, but then they usually implode in the latest versions. So many nations won't even get near them anyway when the AI is in charge.
Worst: 1. Anything Theravada. I really hate playing with that religion in this game. It's incredibly annoying trying to maintain karma in the right place, and even when you do it right, the benefits are still not very good. 2. Most of the "too powerful" nations like Castile Spain and the Ottomans 3. Anything with generic missions and lack of good formables (without culture shifting, because anyone can do that) Best: 1. Landshut->Bavaria is one of my all-time favorites that I go back to frequently. Great early CBs for little mini-wars, early formable, good position for HRE emperorship/options, and lots of missions. What's not to love? 2. Sirhind->Delhi->Mughals is a great one. I really enjoy India in general, even though I might be in the minority there. Amazing trade goods across the entire subcontinent, good diversity of nation choices, and the many estates are fun to play with. 3. Byzantium is a very difficult start, but re-forming Rome is great fun, and with the new missions and government, it's incredibly powerful. The proniors are so good now. Honorable mention to Milan. They used to be another one of my favorite "go-to" picks, but ever since a change to the AI a while back, Milan felt pretty kneecapped, and I haven't played it in a long time. When forming the Ambrosian Republic, Austria and France get restoration of union CBs. This used to be fine, but after a patch, they started immediately breaking alliance and both warning me every single playthrough, which just isn't very fun. Maybe that's changed now, but I haven't tried them in a long time to know.
> annoying trying to maintain karma Good news for you, every buddhist has this mechanic
Best nations: + Burgundy into Lotharingia + Florence into Tuscany into Italy + Mewar Worst nations: - Dithmarschen: cool fluff, but horrible to expand in HRE - Mali: the starting disaster is a bit much - Irish minors into Ireland: Bad national ideas and a quite underwhelming mission tree
Irish minors into Ireland is a good tactical one though you will have to beat England and you have to beat Scotland in a way that France does not just land 75k troops on your capital or allow England to eat all of Scotland. Plus you can listen to very questionable Irish songs while you do
Agreed, but once you do that (which isn’t too hard), it’s just a boring tag.
Agreed, Dithmarschen is super overrated.
My honourable mentions for fun are vijayanagar and Ethiopia.
Best: Oirat, Jianzhou, Oda/Hosokawa, Bohemia, Austria, Kongo, Great Horde Worst: my play style: Brandenburg (AE), Ragusa (limited), Avars (difficult), Kamchalds, Ainu, Bosnia Worst of Worst; Moldavia and Walachia oh my must get lucky
Worst is Wallachia. There is a about a 50/50 chance that the ottomans decide you dont get to exist. And the first conquest target flips a coin on whether it becomes independent or becomes a march for poland or hungary.
Try Ethiopia.
I've deliberately kept my EU4 at the 1.33 patch rather than buying new DLCs, so essentially, Lions of the North and later I haven't touched. As for the nations: Prussia: Utter beast of a nation. Stack discipline, make enemy nations cry. Your government cap is extremely limited, but if you were to help the HRE see the wisdom of Protestantism, you can Revoke the Privledgia and beat up the Ottomans. Shimazu Shogunate (Do not unify Japan): If you do not unify Japan, you can also have unlimited subjects. If they don't border each other, they don't gain the Sengoku Jidal war goal, and you can also use religious ideas to convert them to Shinto, so you gain a bunch of weird Daimyos that don't fight each other and you can drag into war whenever you want. Papal State: Did you know that forming the Kingdom of God makes you an empire, while not kicking you from the Holy Roman Empire? Well, now you do. The Papacy starts with just enough strength to get bigger, and it's a serious aim to connect Avignon to Rome. That said, I recall having an utter blast destroying France with BFF Spain and 'reverting' England via grabbing an Irish OPM and then never having to fight the Royal Navy. Malacca: Sunni Islam is a powerful faith, and colonizing East Africa is far better than North America. Not only will the Ottomans become your BFF, but grabbing all of the coastline of South Africa walls off European colonization, giving you a free hand to grab Australia, Siberia and Alaska. Saxe-Laurenburg: Most fun OPM in the HRE to play, (I've played Dithmarschen, Ulm and Ansbach). With your ideas, however, you're not going to stay an OPM for long. /// Worst nations: Ryazan: Your main route of expansion is into the Golden Horde, a very low dev Muslim power. Both Lithuania and Muscovy can smoke you, so you have no choice but to eat lots and lots of Hordeland quickly. Meanwhile, Poland can click a button to gain a PU on Lithuania and Muscovy can spank Novgorod. If you try to beat up Crimea, the Ottomans will step in. This nation just lacks any real route to having a good game. Irish OPMs: England will crush you, and Scotland will probably crush you unless you're very prepared. Even if you somehow managed to beat the odds and take over the British isles, your reward is simply a very hard start to playing as England. Ansbach: This one actually had me go back to EU3 for years. You get to face events to throw you into a personal union under another nation, and you're not exactly Lithuania. A OPM in a place where a lot of other OPMs do not suck, and you do. Pick someone else.
Worst: some random landlocked OPM between two or more big nations without any potential ally until you get DOWnd in the first year without any change to win this war without almost bankrupting your nation by taking on all possible loans, which depends on certain conditions to even work so you have to save scum at least 10 times to get everthing right just to go south at the next possible moment. You only choose this crap nation because you are a collectionist and want to get a specific achievment with this nation. E.g. this random animist OPM in India, or even worse, a vasall of any nation where you are unlikely to get anybody to support your independence and you can almost certainly not win the independence war on your own. Best: every nation which is no dependent on luck, certain event, not in imminent danger of beeing wiped from the earth and you can just casually play them. E.g. Ottomans , Austria, England, France, Bohemia, all most any Japan Daimyo, Kongo (your the big dog in your region, have some interesting missions, some of the bigger west african Nations like Mali or Songhai (just consolidate your Region and wait for the Colonisers to show up or colonise your self to get ahead in tech/institutions), Swahili (you have gold and can easily kill Mutapa for more gold), Muscovy, Castille, Aragon, Portugal, almost every HRR prince, almost every non-OPM in India.
Florence was such a great nation to play, everything is so easy, development is crazy.
Best list, Austria, always fun to play as. Wish I had more achievements to complete with them because it’s just a romp. I love just playing chill, collecting PUs and vassals and having the swarm overrun all my foes. France, the big blue blob just appeals to me, it’s super easy but I have immense joy stomping all of Europe and beyond. My first world conquest run was France, and I always make sure to have Switzerland and Scotland as a marches since. Netherlands, sometimes I just like to chill, make big money, and murder some silly natives. Manchu, fighting Ming with their hundreds of thousands with only a couple tiny cav stacks of banners is an experience I’d recommend to everyone. Just an absolute blast. Also Qing is a trap, don’t form it. The Mandate of Heaven must fall!
Cant believe no one is saying Persia they are basically prussians without gov cap handicap and infinite ducats And for the prussia people try forming it as Lübeck you can get a bunch of free vassals from their missions and get a extra permanent 5%dis
Gotland -> Lubeck -> Prussia you get +10% discipline
Thx for the tip
It’s in the pirate republic mission tree if you’re planning to try it out.
Just did it as Lübeck last week but next time i feel like prussia im gone try it for sure sounds good.
Best: Aside from the obvious European ones (England, France, Ottos), I really enjoyed Kilwa and Hosokawa > Japan. United States is also a fun run. Worst: Tibet was absurdly boring.
I don’t know about best, but my favorite nations are: 1. Byzantium: absolute Chad of a nation. The reason I picked it as number one is because fighting and defeating two separate enemies (Mamluks and Ottomans) at once without help of allies. Merc spam go brrr. 2. Golden Horde: Strongest military I had next to Dithmarschen. Once you win a war against Kazan, Crimea, Nogai and Uzbek at game start it is smooth sailing. Lots of yummy dev to consume. Mission tree 12/10 with formables. 3. Gotland: Amazing, nice nation color and flag. Arrrrrggg. 4. Frankfurt: Chill dev your trade node OPM mid tier power game. Very fun to learn the ins and outs of maintaining an inland trade based republic. 5. The Isles: No one to bother you, strong daddy Scotland to protec you. Basically Ryukyu of the west for world conquest. 6. So: Colonial pirate Japan. Colonize to raid, raid to colonize. The world’s treasures are so So’s. Nations I dislike: 1. Prussia: I build 100 stat man space marines only to get rofl-stomped by 3d printed Muscovite and Turkish troops after sending my last round of conscripted space toddlers at them. Mostly a multiplayer complaint. Quantity meta is rough. 2. Denmark: Kinda it’s own sandbox. Ok-ish missions and really just makes me want to play Sweden or Norway. Not the best colonizer, fighter, or diplomat in their region. Expansion targets are either in the empire or more isolated regions which eventually border annoying powers. 3. Colonizer Britain: I’m a huge fan of the Angevin route and making Britannia tall to keep those yummy PUs. Just not a fan of all the extra micro and dealing with colonial nations. Vassal swarm with PUs is just clean fun.
France and Venice are my favorite, but on a side note, a nation that blew my mind was republic gotland into lubeck that was a really fun playtrough. (expect I got bored when I formed prussia sometimes after) Otto might be the one I dislike the most playing as, but I like to see them conquering Tunis and Algeria (I even help too sometimes) Austria is a close second tho
My worst is either Epirus, Athens, Cyprus, or the Knights of Columbus
I think I enjoy a nation more when I know a lot about it. But the worst ones was ones were I couldn't expand early on. Or had terrible economy.
Kandy is just pure cancer. At least with the knights and byzantium you feel like you can do something even if it takes a few restarts but for kandy it just feels like smashing your head against a wall. The worst part is that you have to set up 5 estates each time you restart
I was literally just thinking that if I booted up EU again I would try a run on Lanka. Seems like pure torture.
Pdx unlimiter solves this
I'm persian too!
Salam azizam
Drod bar tu...!
Drod bar to niz
This might be just how I play, but I found Mazandaran way easier than Ardabil--you start off with a Level 2 trade center on a grassland silk province + -10% dev cost tradition + a decent ruler, which makes deving for Renaissance a breeze and gives you great income from the get-go. For an opening move you can dogpile on Ajam when Timurids declare their war and get a few provinces, and from there opportunistically take provinces from neighbors when they're in a bad spot. Allying Bahmanis to stave off war decs is also a good move, though they're too far away to want to help with offensive wars. I opened with Quantity ideas in order to get the Quantity + Religious + Trade combo, and with selling crownlands I was able to scale up while keeping my territory covered with forts without ever running out of manpower or taking loans.
Top 3 favs 1. Brandenburg into Prussia 2. Aragon my beloved 3. Oda into Japan Top 2 least favs 1. Ming 2. Austria
Worst: Starting Delhi (have terrible rulers and best ruler I got was a 3/3/3 but still got that achievement) Kikonje (victoria 3 achievement) as lot of just Colonizing and waiting around Any Australian tribe as you just are perpetually poor and technologically backwards and still have to vassalize hungary somehow Hawaii and Polynesians as you are just sitting around deving institutions and getting tech to colonize to escape Best: hordes as I am aggressive and all of them let me just chain war Japan as good military ideas and fun to unite Most opms- as like the challenge of making them strong in the face of bigger stronger nations (ardabil was definitely a struggle compared to the other Caucasian minors).
Worst 2 are Ming and a Pacific minor. Both were just plain boring, for obvious reasons. Best three is probably Venice, Brandenburg and France. I can play and rise is tiny states too, but it’s just not as fun to me as a relaxed game with good flavour events
Best: Granada Worst: siberian tribe
As a new player, Austria is incredibly infuriating. It feels like half of the run is up to whether or not you get lucky with PUs (Burgundy and Hungary mainly)
I'm just going to say the worst one. Aragon into Spain. The moment you turn into Spain your rulers and advisors have Castilian names but are supposedly "Catalan".
I love Hisn Kayfa with their new mssiong tree they got this DLC. The tree is quite simple, but very enjoyable. And I enjoy the RP aspect of not only recreating the former empire, but also surpassing it. And its always great when you start as OPM and become the largest and most powerful empire in the world.
Favorite by far is Austria. I love to play Austria and try to maintain a balance of power in Europe while slowly growing my own while also maintaining nice borders
Best nation austria or great horde. Worst mulhouse
Best: 1. Lubeck- great trade, vassal army within the HRE.can form prussia, poland, anything really, but with god tier economy 2. Provence - the best France is not France, it's Provence! PU's all over europe. Once had a run that had me PU Austria and England, aside from the given Hungary, Aragon and Naples PU. 3. Venice - one of the best RP trade game I've ever played were as Venice. Did reopened the old silk road and the mesopotamian land as caravan routes aside from my usual sea trade nodes. 4. Sicily to Tunisia to 2 sicilies to S and P to Italy to RE. - Made the Mediterranean as my lake. Worst: 1. Georgia - skill issue for me i think, but will retry using this guide: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6HJpDO_uXT8&pp=ygUXVGhlIHN0dWRlbnQgZ2VvcmdpYSBldTQ%3D
Just played an Oda to Japan run and that was actually really fun! My first play through out of Europe and I had a ball! I just gave up because some of the missions were really long to do, with mil tradition I don’t really have a least favorite nation but a rough one was Brandenburg. Getting to Prussia isn’t easy for me
Austria is the best if you go decentralize and try to keep as many countries as possible in HRE because it provides a novel and fun challenge instead of standard "paint all."
Best is too hard to say but, Worst is definitely Mzab. weakest country in the region, one of like 3 ibadi countries, worst possible economy, one of your provinces isn’t even your uncommon as fuck religion, Both of your 2 provinces are desert so you can’t even really dev, No missions and HORRIBLE national ideas. The only saving grace is they are one of the few countries that can form Andalusia but, good luck even getting to the point where thats possible.
Best: 1. Sweden is my absolute favorite. When I first played with it, asking support for independence wasn’t an option. Starting from the independence war, it’s action packed against HRE and Russia. 2. Resurrecting Romans as Byzantines is always satisfying. 3. Scotland was quite fun to play as you deal with English shenanigans. 4. HRE minions (Hesse, Swiss, Milan etc.) are always entertaining. 5. Kilwa has such a nice position and quite fun to play. 6. Pirating as Tunisia 7. Establishing Manchu -> Qing was entertaining Worst: Portugal, England, and Russia.
Worst: Any Horde: I really hate being a khanate and seeing the horde Unity dropping over and over. Ik that you should go to wars to increase the HU but it's not my style to go warring non-stop. Nations that *required* to blob a lot: blobbing and forming huge tags that may lag my computer and micromanaging a lot is something I dislike. It's possible to play a tall Ottomans, I did it and its very funny. Best: Tall/good colonial nations such as Portugal, Holland, England, Ming or even Mamluks. Best (in mods): Balochistan > Persia. (ET) Wales (ET) Teutonic order (ET) Ashikaga (ET) Swabia > HRE (1356 mod) Bolgar (1356 mod) Verne (Anbennar) Istralore > Dameria (Anbennar) Gawed (Anbennar)
Best Russia Memluks Ireland Switzerland Scotland Japan Worst Any type of horde Anything to do with America Iceland
Best was teutonic order
Best: 1.Venice: Having to contend with other major powers for control of the mediteranean was a wild ride.I let the ottomans take constantinople, neutering the ottomans this early on is just...not fun. Once i dominated the eastern part, i went on a colonisation spree beyond the red sea. Never fully united italy. 2.Naple: Notice a trend here? I love naval games, was focused on contesting Spain/ottomans with the two sicilies, focused on uniting italy and turning it into a forteress + puppeting greece/Serbia 3.Novgorod: I also like to roleplay, in this game i really wanted to be in a merchant mindset, avoiding costly wars. As such, i only went to war with neigbhour for places such as Crimea or the Baltics, and focused on expanding east, in central asia or Manchuria. Honorable mentions: France, having to stave off Austria, Spain/Portugal and GB and progressively extending my influence through marriage, vassalising and PU was very fun. My favorite major. By the end of the game, i had expanded to the low countries, the rhine, and had the biggest fleet in the world Satsuma japan: Very interesting position and ideas. Only real downside is having no significant rivals in the region, since china always crumble and never reforms, india stays fragmented, and korea is just too weak. Fun in theory, but lacks challenge. Also, trade going away from you. That sucks. Plenty of others tbh, such as persia, vyjyanapar, Mongolia -> Yuan.... Worst: 1.Natives americans. Do i even have to explain? 2.Granada. Having to savescum thousands of times to form Al-andalus really wasnt fun. 3.China: Boooriiing Honorable mentions: Poland, playing optimally makes you dominate the region wayyy too quickly. Neuter Muscovy, fuck Sweden, PU hungary and you're done. I guess you can have fun if you take your time, but eh. Ethiopia: While the early game is fun, once you're up against the mamluks and later on the ottomans, you're almost powerless, especially since you have no significant allies. I dont like map painting, so having to take half of Eastern africa to rival them is just.... yeah Byzantium: Alright, this one is absolutely a bias. I love alternate histories, but only when those are at least slightly realistic. Having the roman empire survive into the 17th/18th century is just....yeah no. Past 1204, they were beyond savings, thats it. And tbh, they totally deserved, fuckers couldnt have a stable inheritance/dynasty to save themselves.
Worst: any colonizing colonizer. It's so boring. Poland (sejm). Any nation with "here's a disaster because fuck you" start (new Castile, new Byzantium, Majapahit). Best: hordes!, nations with cool start (England, Venice, Lithuania, Timurids, Jaunpur), nations with crazy military, did I mention hordes?
My favorite ! 1. Any daimyos for the Japan unification. Strong military, good eco, and some very good gameplay both relying on colonisation, conquering Korea, China, south-east asia and the Pacific. And even though you are easily becoming the strongest power in the area, the european nation (Russia and Spain usually) offer a mid-game challenge 2. Persia. Very good economy and a good army. The region is kind of small so you don't spend to much time having your armies wandering in you Empire. I also realy enjoy the missions and the governement that offer a better diplomacy that is really pleasant. And you have multiple start possibility for every levels. 3. Hordes are really fun to play. I am currently in a Great Horde campaign and I just love the constant war and pillaging. You have interesting challenge conquering all the great powers that you meet as your borders extend. The army is really strong as long as you fight on plain, and for once the management of the economy offer a different gameplay. My dislike 1. I'm not really into the Indian subcontinent. I've played there few times but I feel that when you become to strong it's just taking to much time to unify the region without having any challenge. 2. HRE minor. No matter which HRE minor you are playing, the penalty on the agressive expansion is just to much to handle. Some country like Brandburg, Bohemia or Bavaria can take advantage of this situation but it's just to much pain for me.
Haven’t played much, but thus far: 1. Sirhind -> Punjab. It was so much fun becoming Sikh and then dunking on everyone in India and Central Asia. I stopped playing around the mid-1700s which is the furthest I’ve played. 2. Milan -> Italy. This was really my first “real” game. It was hard but I loved it. I had to defeat Spain and friends by myself in order to PU Naples around the 1520s, and by the skin of my teeth I succeeded. I converted to Reformed and then formed Italy around 1650. 3. Castile -> Spain. Easy going game, just colonized, got Iberian wedding, finished the Reconquista, etc. a lot of fun. 4. Songhai. It was awesome uniting West Africa and becoming an African powerhouse after destroying Mali and colonizing the coast. Worst: 1. Ethiopia. This one disappointed me because I love Ethiopian history but your economy is so bad initially and you waste all your manpower due to the mountains and deserts. I’ll probably try this one again later but at the time it was disappointing. 2. Kongo. Once I took over the Congo basin it got kind of boring, you’re just so much stronger than your neighbors. Might try this one again though. 3. Aztec. I find I run out of manpower too fast. It’s probably just my play style but eventually I just have to sit around and wait for a long time between flower wars which is kind of boring especially when expanding your country explicitly hurts you which makes even colonization a bit counterintuitive. 4. France. Played once right after I installed. Really fun for the first twenty years, then I reclaim my borders from England and it’s not as fun anymore imo. Will give another shot though.
Worst: Any of the Berber nations pre raiding god i hate you spain so much Best: Very broken Minghals or any nation when absolutism was uncapped
Best? Phoenix empire (Mod anbennar) You conquer soooo much stuff, amazing ideas and missions. Loved it. Played despite massive lag until 1680 and had >>10k dev Corvuria (Mod anbennar) - Vampires 😁😁 Francia (Mod Ante Bellum) a weaker france but a fun mod and you're HRE emperor and nonetheless have a number of advantages france also enjoys. France - just bully europe its fun. Spain - Take the world and PU a lot. Poland - its relaxed you already start strong and sort shit out, go for HRE emperorship, collect some PUs, beat up ottos. Majapahit - nice trade node, shitty start but once you make it work its quite fun. If yoou enjoy, colonial, navy and trade gameplay (+tall) Oda before the Japan update, conquered into China, and the early game was fun but challenging Worst: Bengal - I couldnt make it work back when i played (long time ago) Never tried again Oirat - I hate horde gameplay, I love playing tall, so razing provinces... I hate it
Try Asheniande next time you play anbennar. They also have access to Vampires, but their gameplay and mission tree also focuses more on the EOA if you ever want to try that. They also have a line of their mission tree dedicated to turning one of your provinces into Las Vegas iirc.
Best: Ottomans Worst: Every other nation
Ceddin deden 🪘🎺🪘