Is Ireland fun to play?

[Sam]

I'm a newbie to the EU universe, but once I play through as a major nation, I think it would be exciting to play Ireland.

What would be a good starting year and province?

[xjcliu]

It's quite difficult. Unless you play very well, England will almost certainly eat you as soon as they want to. The best way to avoid this is to colonize early and move your capital over the Atlantic, which is gamey at best. It is certainly possible to defend successfully against England, but this becomes increasingly difficult once they pull themselves from the Continent and engulf Scotland.

Forming Ireland itself is also a challenge as you need to get Meath, which is held by England. However, this is very doable if you choose a moment when England's armies are being destroyed by France in the 100 year's war before jumping. You will have to keep an eye out on attempted amphibious invasions by England though, and get armies to the provinces they are trying to land on before they land. This gives a sizable defensive advantage.

[Tj1602]

Also since England gets the War of the Roses that would be another time to strike at England.

[Rommel]

Even if you manage to form Ireland, England will still get strong very quickly, soon they'll be able to take you out even in an amphibious battle vs your whole army. One AAR I read the author managed to conquer Brittany and ally france, and then took little bites out of england until he conquered it....not easy to do I'm sure, but I'd say keep an eye out for small countries anywhere you can use to get a little more power, for instance taking iceland from norway if you see them in serious trouble.

Whatever you do I'd suggest being a rival of England ASAP, this will give you much higher relation with countries that also rival england (scotland, france, spain, maybe denmark, burgundy) try to get these countries to like you and use them as allies. England won't be so quick to attack you if spain and france are your allies, buying you valueable time.

[HappyThoughts]

My 1st game in this has been with Ireland and it's been quite fun. I can't really remember how I dealt with England at the start, just that it included France. Rushing for the colonies is a good idea.
Honestly I've had more trouble just dealing with Castile later on in the game. Now I'm mid 18th century and I'm ranked 32nd ish, through diplomacy and administration.
If you focus on trade, ships and colonies then you should do grand, as long as you maintain an military alliance with france or another great power and constantly improve your situation with England.

[Korburss]

France, Scotland, Portugal, and Castiel will be your best friends. Scotland to take a beating and distract them, Portugal and Castiel to beat their navy, and France to beat them.

You'll probably have to wait for a defensive war but it will happen soon or later.

[Asane]

your fun as ireland is entirely dependant on taking advantage of England when they screw up.

[Twatsmagee]

Ireland is amazingly easy to play.. first time playing as one of them I took over the british isles and north america....you just have to ally both scotland and france, then unite ireland, play scotland against england and attack england when they are warring scotland...then just keep expanding. You will have to fight scotland at one point to keep yourself with the upperhand on the islands...after that its pretty much the same game as england.

[Meresin68]

I've attempted an irish start a few times to get my hands on the Luck of the Irish achievement. So far no luck for me. What struck me most is that while playing as any other nation England gets the War of the Roses event, but while I'm playing Connacht, the WotR doesn't happen. Without the event, it's almost impossible to beat England (for me at least). So am I just unlucky that the WotR event didn't happen?

As for colonizing in North America. Works fine, just can't move my capital. The Reformation is killing me however. Having a few troops overseas and fighting of zealot rebels on home soil is wrecking my economy into bankruptcy three times in a row now. Thinking about not building any buildings, just saving up cash, until the Counter-Reformation hits me.

But to answer the OP's question. Yeah, it's fun to play, but definately a challenge.
:D

[Narf]

I've seen others manage getting Luck of the Irish by abusing a flaw in the AI's behaviour. It is necessary to gain naval dominance for that, though, so you need allies with lots of heavy ships and your first idea should be the naval one. They lured the English army on the Western Isles (so you either need Scotland in the war or that part conquered by England) and then blockaded the water crossing with ships. The English army was stuck and the AI is not smart enough to disband that army and train new forces on the mainland. This left the entire country open to be sieged at will.

[Onion]

I nearly have luck of irish achievement i just need london but i didnt find it fun. But thats just my opinion.

[Butz]

It's actually sort of easy to play as a small nation surrounded by other small nations since its easy to take over the others.

[Narf]

Originally posted by Seymour Butz:

It's actually sort of easy to play as a small nation surrounded by other small nations since its easy to take over the others.

The problem as Ireland are not the other two smallfries, but England, who will inevitably send greedy looks your way.

[Finkledinkle]

I'd just start in 1444 as Connaught. I haven't had much luck with the other Irish nations and annexing them isn't hard. Meath can usually be taken whilst England is busy dealing with France. Problem is, actually landing in England and sustaining a campain against them is quite difficult even if they're still at war with France. You might do well just sailing away to the new world and coming back to free your brothers and sister from English tyranny someday. I haven't been able to take them down and Scotland will inevetiably get eaten up. Those as you can see in arumba playtrhough and as narf has already mentioned, you can just trap their troops up north :P