Any mod, that makes the game more beginner friendly?

[Anioda]

Even as an experienced HoI 4 player (almost 300 hours), EU4 surely is something else!

There are SO many things to mess around with. So many things to do.
I actually wanna play EU4, cause I got bored of HoI4.

Don't get me wrong, this is certainly NOT a flaw!! HoI 4 could use a bit more of this.

I plan to take the "real" experience once I get the hang of it, but there's just a bit too much stuff to mess around with right away, making me unable to actually get moving.

Guides? Great. But... doesn't cut it x)

Thank you:)

[tinisiyo]

The less dlc you use and the earlier patch play - the easier the game is ^_^

[Anioda]

Originally posted by tinisiyo:

The less dlc you use and the earlier patch play - the easier the game is ^_^

Got as content; Star and Crescent & Women in History
Unit Pack; Horsemen of the Crescent

So, that's not exactly big time DLC.
Regarding earlier patch, can you actually go back to a different patch?

[Lantantan]

There are a lot of thing you can min-max, but that doesn't mean you have to! Set vague goals for yourself and only interact with systems when you get a popup warnings about them. Oh and of course ask about things you find yourself struggeling with, we'll get you through them!

Uncomplicated starts are early starting dates with larger nations. I find India very suitable for this. It's a level playing field without quirky mechanics like PU's, religous wars or the HRE.

[Anioda]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

There are a lot of thing you can min-max, but that doesn't mean you have to! Set vague goals for yourself and only interact with systems when you get a popup warnings about them.

That's the problem with such a humongous game as EU4. Like, what are even vague goals, when the basics could be so many things?:p

What I fear (cause that's what burned me out in HoI4), is reload/restarts so far back, to make THAT change or did that, you know?:p Def a HoI4 experience! Usually doesn't realize it, until quite some time have passed & you have to do it over x)
Ofc it's gonna happen. That is part of it too. But got the stomach feeling, that... I need to stay kinda ahead much of the time, once I reach a certain experience point.

But.. Time will tell! Def worth a long short:)

[nekoman]

Just start as the Ottomans, they are very beginner friendly.

[Lantantan]

Hey I completely understand your paralysis, everything has to be planned perfectly while there are like 10 tabs with 20 buttons each. Thats why I enjoy Ironman modes myself, so I'm not tempted to fix every inefficiency I made. Fortunately, EU4 is rather forgiving because of the 400 year long timespan, there's plenty of time to achieve whatever it is you want to do. Dont sweat the small stuff?

[juvens]

With over 400 hours in EU4, what rly helped me in the beginning was playing as a single province norwegian nation in the year 700 and try to form Norway. You need the mod "Extended Timeline" to start at this year. I don't understand why ppl are suggesting huge empires.
Why is this beginning so good?

That way you're not thrown into conflicts right in the beginning. You don't have a lot of options and you have to work with what you got rather than everything an empire has to offer (which paralysed me so much I almost gave up on this game). You're pretty isolated from the rest of the world and you only need to worry about your small neighbours. You have few troops so you get a good grasp on how combat works. You also learn how to use your allies and how important they can be. Technology and ideas goes rly slow to develop so you don't have to worry too much about that. And when you get the hang of it you will grow more naturally and discover more and more what a bigger nation/kingdom/empire has to offer.

When it comes to dlcs I would recommend:
1) "Art of War". This is a must because waging war without it can be pretty frustrating and annoying to the point you will pull your hear out.
2) "Common Sense" and "Wealth of Nations". Simply because they add more options and make the game a lot better :)
But if you start with Art of War you'll have a good experience, and when you feel rdy for it you can start adding more.

You should also lock EU4 to an earlier or the current version. When EU4 gets an update (the game will update automaticly) and you load your game, your save will either become corrupted or funny stuff starts happening in game.. I learned this the hard way :(

I haven't tried HoI yet so can't relate to that but this game took me some time and research to "master" (I still learn new stuff). I completely failed my first 5-6 games because there were stuff I didn't know about or neglected. BUT after I got the hang of it I was so glad I was patient and invested those hours into it. I only play on ironman myself but I wouldn't recommend it on the first games as you will restart a few times. Besides, save and load is a very good way for beginners to figure out what works and not (and hopefully why). You will learn a lot from the EU4 wiki and youtube videos and ofc steam community :)

I was a huge fan of many different strategy games for 20 years, but after I tried EU4 and CK2 about 1-2 years ago I have deleted all my old favourites from my disk. They are simply not as complex and bore me now. Hope you will enjoy this game as much as I have!

[juvens]

And also "Graphical Map Improvements" makes the game way more beautiful, I can't play without it ;)

[Nocturnalx36]

My recommendation is to simply sit down and try to learn the diplomacy system and how to manipulate it. Once you understand that, you'll find things a bit easier. Also, keep in mind there's a lot less micro than even Hoi4 in terms of battles, so you need to make sure you'rre fighting wars that you KNOW you can win.

I personally think Italy is a great place to learn the game. Pick one of the factions there (like Florence or the Papal States, maybe venice.) You'll learn about aggressive expansion rather quickly as well as diplomacy.

Last suggestion, get someone to play with you and explain mechanics as they come up and guide you through early steps. That's how I learned, and it's really hard to get into the game on your own.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

EU4 has a lot of moving parts so it's best to just take it slow and learn them all. And then work your way up in terms of plan complexity and goals.

A good goal is beat the guy next to me and take at least 1 province. Then slowly expand out from there until you feel you've gotten the hang of it and then go for some of the easier achievements if you have trouble setting your own goals. (the EU4 wiki has the achievements catagorized by relative difficulty).


unlike some other games, bigger = better, Western European = Easier.

You can completely dominate with anything (and with no dlc to boot), but doing so can vary wildly in skill requirement to do so based on starting size, location, and other factors. Having more power to start with means mistakes don't hurt you as much. And Europe has an easier time managing tech and good starting economy, so you can focus on other areas of the game first and then gradually work your way to smaller nations or other regions.

The further you get from europe the more refined your play needs to be as small mistakes can end up costing you a lot in the long run (and especially really far away nations like Asia or Native Americans can get really chaotic if you aren't well versed enough in the mechanics to handle culture shock when it occurs).


Learning battle mechanics being one of the most important since it can be the difference between utterly stomping your enemy and getting utterly stomped yourself if you don't know how to truly gauge your strength and your enemies (more troops does NOT equal better, and in some cases is actually a disadvantage).

Economys are pretty straight forward in the base game, but can get a lot more complex if you throw a bunch of dlcs at it, so just take it slow and only add dlcs that change things you like once you've gotten the hang of the basics.

Diplomacy is another often underestimated weapon in your tool kit but also one of the most confusing as while the easy version is pretty straight forward, just check the numbers, there's some hidden things that affect how the ai choses how to play that can screw you over.

[Drakulas]

Originally posted by Raeyn:

Even as an experienced HoI 4 player (almost 300 hours), EU4 surely is something else

That's funny because I'm the complete opposite. I have hundreds of hours in EU4 and find it rather simple but even after trying hours to get into HoI4 I just can't figure out the battle system in that game.

[Rabob]

What countries are you playing? start with something easy like Portugal. England and Castille I would not recommend for a beginner.

[Poliut]

Watch a few YouTubes. They've helped me at least get an idea of how to get started and where to go.

[Sneaky_Koala]

Originally posted by Raeyn:

Even as an experienced HoI 4 player (almost 300 hours), EU4 surely is something else!

There are SO many things to mess around with. <snip>

Just wait until you have some hours under your belt in this game, then it will be "I am an experienced EU4 player, but CK2 is surely something else. There are SO many things to mess around with".

Just a heads up :) This game is pretty straightforward.

[firestar587]

Originally posted by Sneaky_Koala:

Originally posted by Raeyn:

Even as an experienced HoI 4 player (almost 300 hours), EU4 surely is something else!

There are SO many things to mess around with. <snip>

Just wait until you have some hours under your belt in this game, then it will be "I am an experienced EU4 player, but CK2 is surely something else. There are SO many things to mess around with".

Just a heads up :) This game is pretty straightforward.

"straightforward" other then the 100s of hours to learn stuff