England "guide" question

[Wehr Wulf]

So, Im very new to EU4 and ive simply accepted the fact I will never understand this game. Ive been playing Castille campaigns but just decided to switch it up - why not? So I Googled some general tips/guide for playing as England and I found one which says the following:

""Things at start to avoid. Reroll until none of the following are true. Rerolling isn't required, but will make life a good deal easier

You get a queen consort from your royal marriages. Might want to consider avoiding royal marriages""

My question is why am I wanting to avoid a queen consort? From what I understand, they dont do much anyway right? Only if you have an underage heir after your king dies, she runs the country until he becomes of age...

Is this because the heir England starts with is so objectively terrible they actually are hoping the War of Roses replaces them? And the queen consort would ensure the objectively useless heir gets into power?

Thank you!!!

[Medicles]

1. The game is complex. You will have to spend a lot of time to understand it. We all had to. Its fair to say that one is still considered a newcomer even with 500-1000 hours. So dont worry, you will eventually get the hang of it.

2. This sounds like a very specific guide. None of that is needed for a proper England run. What you want to search for is how to beat France in the Main war so you get the Personal Union.

I would suggest a detailed guide, but roughly said: You just ally Frances rivals (most likely Aragon or Castille, maybe even both if you are really lucky), station your armies in Normandy, get yourself some Mercs and siege down northern France when they are occupied with besieging your iberian ally.

3. Even though you most likely still have to deal with the War of the Roses, you can just accept a new king before peacing out France. Dealing with the rebels should never be a problem, because you are England and every problem can be fixed with money.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

As far as I recall, England doesn't actually start with an heir. It's their starting ruler who's an insanely terrible 0/0/0, which you want to get rid of as soon as possible. The fastest way to do that is to just let the War of the Roses fire, which won't happen if you manage to get an heir in the first few years. Royal Marriages increase your chances of getting an heir, so it's generally better to avoid them until the disaster fires. I'm not aware of Consorts having any effect on it.

It's entirely possible to both deal with the disaster and simultaneously beat up France in the war over Maine, but if you're not confident in your army management abilities, the safe option is to just surrender Maine to France when the event pops up, then attack them on your own terms a few years later once you've stabilized your country and your truce with them expires.

[Usaball]

England is one of the major and common powers with the roughest start imo, as well as Castile. (France, England, Castile, Portugal, Ottomans, Ming, Austria, Muscovy, etc) You will struggle with manpower the first 20-40 years and while you have naval supremacy over your rivals at the start, your army is average and a little weaker than France. There are typically two common starting paths for an England player, keep your French cores and take on the French, or cede the cores, focus on the mainland/Scotland/Irish minors. If you decide to take on the French, you will need strong allies, preferably their rivals. Austria is the best candidate and sometimes Aragon/Castile like to rival France, so they are also prime allies. As for not going that route, you will need to cede your provinces to France (ceding Maine during the event) and having war declared on you without giving any ducats if you can. England might have a rough start as well as Castile, but mid/late game you really have a lot of potential.

[Kapika96]

I'd say just ignore the guide. EU4 guides are typically set up for a successful, potential world conquest even, run. If you're pretty new to the game you're unlikely to be able to do that regardless of whether you follow a guide or not. Better to just do your own thing and learn as you go instead. You'll avoid disappointment when things don't work out as they did for the guide writer that way too.

England are a very good example of that too. Most, if not all, guides will focus on beating France. If you do beat France early then you'll be the strongest country in the world very quickly, it's difficult though, especially if you're new. Just giving up any land on the continent and letting France take it gives you a much easier game. England can still end up as the strongest country, it'll just take you a few centuries as you build up to it instead, rather than instantly becoming massively powerful (and massively hated).

[bri]

It's entirely possible to both deal with the disaster and simultaneously beat up France in the war over Maine, but if you're not confident in your army management abilities, the safe option is to just surrender Maine to France when the event pops up, then attack them on your own terms a few years later once you've stabilized your country and your truce with them expires.

It's actually to sell Maine to Provence on day 1 and avoid the event altogether. This will usually result in the France-Provence alliance being broken leaving both as easier targets for you. Releasing and puttng under scutage Normandy and Gascony (give Alencon to Normandy as well) will generally leave you safe from any French attack while you nom your islands.

[Wehr Wulf]

Originally posted by Medicles:

What you want to search for is how to beat France in the Main war so you get the Personal Union.

You just ally Frances rivals (most likely Aragon or Castille, maybe even both if you are really lucky), station your armies in Normandy, get yourself some Mercs and siege down northern France when they are occupied with besieging your iberian ally.

3. Even though you most likely still have to deal with the War of the Roses, you can just accept a new king before peacing out France. Dealing with the rebels should never be a problem, because you are England and every problem can be fixed with money.

Okay, I restarted... so France only has 2 rivals - me & Aragon. I allied Aragon. France's enemies are Burgundy, Austria, Aragon & me. I am allied to Portugal, Burgundy, Austria & Aragon. From what I can tell, Aragon & Burgundy are interested in land.
So, I think I could get Burgundy and Aragon into the war after I refuse to surrender Maine... but Austria and Portugal probably wont.


Yeah money was a big issue last time. The was dragged on SO long, rebels kept popping up, France wouldnt stop fighting and every 2 months I was taking out another F-ing loan hahaha. Freaked me out.....

[Wehr Wulf]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

It's entirely possible to both deal with the disaster and simultaneously beat up France in the war over Maine, but if you're not confident in your army management abilities, the safe option is to just surrender Maine to France when the event pops up, then attack them on your own terms a few years later once you've stabilized your country and your truce with them expires.

I restarted my game.... I am tempted to surrender Maine & fight my Conflict of Daisies but im worried that will only give France more time to get super strong. They have way more manpower than I do... And my manpower repleneshis so damned slow....

[Wehr Wulf]

Originally posted by Usaball:

There are typically two common starting paths for an England player, keep your French cores and take on the French, or cede the cores, focus on the mainland/Scotland/Irish minors. If you decide to take on the French, you will need strong allies, preferably their rivals. Austria is the best candidate and sometimes Aragon/Castile like to rival France, so they are also prime allies.

In my new campaign France has 2 rivals - me and Aragon. Austria, Aragon and Burgundy are France's enemies.
Im allied to Austria, but they dont want any land from France, and I dont think I can build up the favors/relations fast enough to get them into war with France.
Aragon wants land, so does Burgundy... so I know I can get them in the war.
Thats something I guess....

[Wehr Wulf]

Originally posted by bri:

It's actually to sell Maine to Provence on day 1 and avoid the event altogether. This will usually result in the France-Provence alliance being broken leaving both as easier targets for you. Releasing and puttng under scutage Normandy and Gascony (give Alencon to Normandy as well) will generally leave you safe from any French attack while you nom your islands.

That is what I think im going to try.... thats clever!!! I didnt know the game was that flexible.
Before I sell/ release any provinces, should I try and exploit them for some quick manpower early on?

[ashem2]

You can try playing ottomans first. They are easiest nation for new player in game by far. Moscow, Castille/Aragon and France are already quite a lot harder while portugal, england, poland, austria, timurids, mamluks require quite some knowledge already.

[Medicles]

Originally posted by Uranium235:

Okay, I restarted... so France only has 2 rivals - me & Aragon. I allied Aragon. France's enemies are Burgundy, Austria, Aragon & me. I am allied to Portugal, Burgundy, Austria & Aragon. From what I can tell, Aragon & Burgundy are interested in land.
So, I think I could get Burgundy and Aragon into the war after I refuse to surrender Maine... but Austria and Portugal probably wont.


Yeah money was a big issue last time. The was dragged on SO long, rebels kept popping up, France wouldnt stop fighting and every 2 months I was taking out another F-ing loan hahaha. Freaked me out.....

Yep, when Burgundy and Aragon are both have France as rival and want vital provinces from them, you should be able to call both into the war, which should make it far easier. Its one of the lucky starts i reckon, usually you only have one ally to do this.

The war is indeed not an easy one. You will damage your economy, but the price is more than worth it. I am not sure how many loans England can take, but it should be around 50 i believe, so more than enough to get you going. I also strongly suggest you take the Burgher Estate Loan privilege. I take it with every nation immediately.

You will manage the war eventually. Dont be afraid to restart if you think the war cost too much for your liking. The more you wage this war, the better you get at it.

[Arne]

Originally posted by Uranium235:

I restarted my game.... I am tempted to surrender Maine & fight my Conflict of Daisies but im worried that will only give France more time to get super strong. They have way more manpower than I do... And my manpower repleneshis so damned slow....

It is totally fine to let France take over the provinces on mainland Europe - This way, you can focus entirely on GB and colonization - and as long as you have the superior navy, you don't need to worry about the other European powers, since they won't be able to reach GB

Honestly, I think it is even more fun this way, because if manage to put France und da PU, you will be the strongest power in the world, which kind of makes the game pretty dull (in my opinion).

[EmpressMelanie]

If you want to play England you have to make the "main land" call. If you want to stay on that mainland its tough going. France has permanent claims on all of it and will attack you every chance they get. France by the way is one of the biggest threats in almost every game, commonly called the big blue blob. They have strong military ideas and tons of manpower, they can be a nightmare to deal with and taking them out is usually a multi war decades long affair. For added fun Burgundy has claims and missions on some of your territory too so your have two great powers gunning for you right off the bat. To make things worse England has a rough early game from its scripted disasters.

A simple strategy is to just abandon the mainland. Sell all of those provinces you can and just release the rest. Get the heck out of there. Then spend the next few decades conquering Scotland and Ireland. This will give you a lot more power, especially financially, and let you form Great Britain. From there you can decide where to go and what to do next with a healthier power base.

[Aven Oul]

step 1 insult the french, step 2 beat the french, step 3 profit

[bri]

Then spend the next few decades conquering Scotland and Ireland

If this takes you a few decades you're doing something wrong. The longest part of the process is waiting the almost 5 years for your 100% occupation of Scotland to give you the win in that war. For the Irish it's just spank army, start sieges, declare next war, rinse and repeat...