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In a follow-up post to this one, I'll copy my beginner guide, which will give you some pointers on how to start playing.
EU4 is a game that is both complex and deep. You won’t be able to master it quickly. It will take hundreds of hours of experience before you actually get good at it. And that’s fine! Make mistakes! Watch them wreck you! Lose! But learn from the process. It’s a fun experience.
Also, note that I strongly recommend you play the Ottomans for your first campaign. They aren’t the game’s most powerful nation, but they are the easiest to learn with. They have a simple start and are most forgiving of the mistakes a new player is going to make. They have no dangerous immediate neighbors, the ability to almost ignore religion, a strong ruler, a solid economy and military, and many options.
Before you even unpause the game, you should customize your message settings. Pretty much every message in the game is customizable, and many of them should be set to "Pop up and pause." Army reaches destination? Pop up and pause. Fleet reaches destination? Pop up and pause. Battle begins? Pop up and pause. Battle ends? Pop up and pause. Siege ends? Pop up and pause. War starts anywhere? Pop up and pause. Etc. etc. etc. Letting the game sail on while your military sits without orders will cost you wars, and being ignorant of what’s going on around you will cost you the game.
Another thing to do before you unpause is to decide on what your goal is for the campaign you’re about to start. Are you trying to get a specific ironman achievement? Do you want to learn about colonization? Unify the Holy Roman Empire? Show Europeans that Japan can beat them at their own game? Having a goal will provide focus to your game.
Your most important resource is your monarch points. You get these from your ruler’s stats, from your advisors, from estate privileges, and from power projection. These are complex topics that I won’t describe in detail here, but some high points are appropriate. First, note that monarch points come in three categories, Admin, Diplo, and Military. All three categories of points buy technological advancement and ideas, and all three also have additional uses. Admin is used to establish control of newly conquered land—to “core it” in game parlance. Diplo is used to peacefully integrate vassals and to hire naval leaders. And Military is used to hire army leaders. There are other functions, too, but those are most important. Getting as many monarch points as you can is crucial.
Advisors provide between +1 and +5 to their category every month. Small, poor nations can’t afford any. Strong starting nations like the Ottomans can hire +1’s immediately and soon grow to +3’s. And global powerhouses can afford +5 in all categories.
Estate privileges can provide an additional +1 to each category. Estates represent the great internal power blocs of your realm—the church, the nobles, the merchants, and so on. Estate privileges and crownland are also not a simple topic and I won’t go into great detail here. As a beginner, focus on keeping your crownland above 30% to avoid penalties, and increase that value by “seizing crownland” whenever you can. Be careful with the privileges you grant. In addition to the ones that boost monarch power, focus on those that increase estate loyalty at least as much as estate influence. The most important single privilege is probably “Supremacy over the Crown,” which is usually but not always a nobility privilege. It boosts all estates’ loyalty equilibrium by 10% at the cost of allowing them to call periodic diets (legislative sessions). These diets will force you to choose between three missions to keep your estates happy—but many of these missions are great and provide useful bonuses.
Speaking of missions, each nation has a mission tree that can guide your playthrough. You don’t have to follow it if you don’t want to, but the rewards for doing so are powerful. I recommend looking at it frequently as your game position changes to see if an available mission is near completion. Then you can focus your efforts on it.
The most important thing you can do on a strategic level is create a good alliance web. If you and your allies are stronger than your potential enemies, those enemies will be too afraid to attack you. If you’re weaker, you’re going to be a target. Pick your allies carefully, with an eye towards future expansion. Tunis makes a good ally for the Ottomans, for example. They have a powerful fleet, a decent army, and a helpful geographic position. They aren’t an early target of yours, but they’re close enough to help you against nations that you’ll fight soon (like the Mamluks). Also, note that alliances will shift during the course of the game. Today’s ally is tomorrow’s conquest target.
Speaking of conquest, warfare is a complex topic. But some general tips will be helpful. Battle results are determined by the following factors:
--Relative tech levels. Even a difference of one point can have a huge impact. Make sure you are the one in the lead. The key to this is to avoid early military idea groups. I never take one before 6th unless an achievement requires it and I often skip them altogether. Spend your military points on a tech lead + hiring many generals (some of which will be great) + the army professionalism hiring generals provides. That combo is stronger than any single military group.
--The terrain you fight on. Always try to attack in plains. Always try to defend in hills, mountains, or forests. Don't cross rivers to attack. Make your enemies cross one to attack you.
--Generals. But not just any general will do. Siege pips are wonderful against forts but do nothing in a battle. Fire pips are almost useless until infantry develop good fire values and cannons advance a few levels. Shock pips are critical in the early game. Etc.
--Combat width and army composition. You want a front row of infantry + cavalry equal to your combat width. For most nations, a small number of cavalry (2 to 6, depending on combat width) is optimal. Your rear row should be exclusively artillery. At tech 7, when artillery first unlocks, you only care about the siege bonus they provide, but by the time you reach military tech 13+, you want a complete row if you can afford it.
--Sending in a second army to reinforce the first in large battles after significant damage has been done to your side.
--Making sure your troops are fully funded in wartime and have time to reach max morale.
--Drilling. The AI loves to drill, and the bonuses it provides are powerful. Once you can afford it, drill your armies in peacetime.
--Advisor and ruler bonuses
--National and military idea groups--but note that you can do VERY well in combat without either of these.
Once you really learn how combat works, you will go entire campaigns without losing a single battle.
Finally, I want to mention idea groups. As you move through the tech tree, you will unlock a series of eight idea groups. The groups you pick will play a big role in defining your playthrough. As the Ottomans, I recommend Admin/Diplo/Influence as the first three that you choose. I call those groups “The Big Three” because they’re so useful. The reasons why won’t make much sense to you yet, but trust me, you can’t go wrong with them. Humanism makes a good 4th pick for the Ottomans. After that, it gets more complicated, but Expansion should be on your radar (if your game gets that far).
I hope this is of use. Feel free to ask specific questions on these forums as you learn the game. And remember the point I made at the beginning: EU4 is complex, and you’re going to be bad at it for a long time. Enjoy the learning process.
But you can cut on trial and error by slowing your pace and focusing on one thing at a time until you'll have a grasp what it does and what it affects.
For this I would suggest to take a nation far away from any conflict ridden areas, possibly an one-province-minor with a lot of other OPM's around you and just start getting a hang on your money front and how your provinces behave/develop.
The tool-tips in this game are nearly perfect for getting the information needed.
Just press some buttons here and there or adjust some sliders and look what it does over the course of some months. This combined with said tool-tips will lead to you understanding how you can manipulate your own nation.
Go from there one step at a time with the functions which interest you the most, watch the numbers, watch the tool-tips and soon enough you will be able to start an earnest game.
My advice for then (after getting the hang of the basic functions) would be: Castille.
The reason being: An easy war not long after game start, pretty good spot for learning how maritime trade, naval in general and colonization/converting works, combined with a strong economic and military base to give you enough leeway for possible f'ck-ups on your side.
And most importantly: Have fun.
To OP: dont listen to people who tell you that EU4 is deep and complex, it isnt. It is a fairly simple game even when playing on highest difficulty. Playing a couple of times as fairly powerful countries will teach you all the basic ropes you would need for success. Best starting nation to get a grip on all game mechanics is Portugal, after that you can try playing something else. Just dont try non europeans until you get a grip on how tech and institution work. As for specific obscure mechanics, i suggest you to just consult with official wiki or ask on here or plaza. Just ignore people who will give you advice for so called "optimal" way to play, this can kill all interest in the game.
Eh, I feel like this should be done later, when you've got some hang of the game. Most beginner mistakes would cost you the game as an OPM, while as a major you'd be able to keep going somewhat.
Ottomans or Portugal are indeed good for this, as well as Castile if you don't have the Domination DLC.
After that, yeah you can go to a smaller country (personal recommendations would be Brandenburg, Milan or Naples, and Oda or Jianzhou for extra-European picks).
Yup. Most important advice by far.
The OPM-part is just about getting the hang of what does what in the normal gameplay mechanics regarding your nation.
And in this instance any OPM in an OPM-environment has the added benefit of not being overwhelmed by many different and often times conflicting variables a bigger nation can encounter (and you won't get dragged into early wars which would wreck any understanding of the nation-specific mechanics due to having to juggle military spending/development and possible devastations/attrition/etc).
You have just one province and you will clearly see which changes lead to what and (most importantly) why without additional impacts by your other provinces which may or may not have bonus/malus-modifier going on.
It's like learning to walk: Focusing on one step at a time without having to think why people on bikes are faster.
Too much flavour with the larger countries.
Like Sad said, you can see what 1 troop does reduce income and what one trade ship does to increase income.
I would rather restart an OPM game than a large nation game Id bumbled through for an extra 20 years.
Single player gaming isnt about being good or bad, its about personal enjoyment.
Incorrect. The best starting nation to get a grip on all game mechanics is still the Ottomans despite all the nerfing. Portugal is probably the next best in terms of how limited the threats against you are (as long as you smoke Castilian pole the entire time) but they have rubbish starting rulers, less than great starting economy, and need significant help to fight any of their natural targets in the early game. For the colonial aspects of the game Portugal is great but for most other they are meh at best.
If that is actually the case why didn't you rebut the various points I made that support the argument that the Ottomans are a better starter nation than Portugal?
I can remember being a new player once, and the Ottomans were anything but overwhelming. The basics of playing as them were very intuitive, and my many egregious mistakes were smoothed over by the fact that I was big enough to survive them.
Which is exactly why Portugal is not so recommended, because a newbie mistake there gets you eaten by Castile. Portugal is really only better if you want to learn colonization specifically.