Anbennar Nation Guide

A growing list of nation guides for the Anbennar total overhaul mod to EU4. New nations will be added as I play them. I will also be highlighting good co-op nations as I find them.

Guide(s) Overview

These nation guides will be built off of my experiences with that nation in particular. I will make comments about whether my advice/strategies in a section are good for more nations than the one I am covering, but overall these guides will be for one nation at a time.

At the start of each guide I will list the major elements that the nation has. This is both to help people with deciding what nations they would like to play, and with knowing what ideas they'll want to be familiar with to play the nation well. I will post gameplay guides at some point of nations that are good for learning particular ideas, and when done I will try and link those to guides that need that knowledge (so if you aren't comfortable with magic, you can easily know to go to the Magisterium Guide).

Below I have also listed a brief summation of each kind of gameplay idea that I reference.

Gameplay Concepts/Guide Topics

Unique National Mechanics- A very vague category, this just means that the nation has mechanics completely unique to it that don't fit in any other category (for e.g. being able to craft magical weapons and tools out of ice).

Razing- This nation can (and should) raze. Razing is a base game mechanic whereby a newly conquered (not yet cored) province can be razed. This full loots the province, and causes it to lose development in exchange for monarch points. Nations that raze are near universally extremely aggressive.

Magic- This nation either starts with or can easily access a powerful mage ruler. Beyond the fairly weak (if sometimes useful) magic practiced by your mage estate, a powerful mage ruler can significantly empower your nation and your military if you know how best to use them, in particular which schools (out of 6) that the mage ruler has starting proficiency in. Starting magic rulers usually mean that your nation will be very aggressive to start, then slow down after the initial ruler dies.
Mild Magic- This nation does not have certain access to a powerful mage ruler, but through reforms and other empire building decisions, it has a much easier time getting them.

High Necromancy- This nation either starts with, or is guaranteed to acquire, a powerful mage ruler who goes heavily into necromancy, becoming a lich. This means that you will likely be using an undead army (which are powerful but slow), have to do the mad sprint to achieve lichdom before your ruler dies, and then possess an immortal ruler.

Rapid Conquest- This nation engages in extremely rapid conquest. It spends little to no time at peace, especially in the early game, and its gameplay largely consists of balancing truces, coring, and actually winning wars to ensure a constant expansion of its territory.

Luck- This nation has an undeniable/unavoidable element of luck to its strategy. Reloading may be necessary in order to follow the guide/have success with the nation. I will attempt to account for different ways that luck can pan out, but it varies between nations.
Mild luck- This nation's element of luck is not severe. There are certain outcomes (usually your starting ruler dying in the first 5 years or extremely bad combat rolls) that can severely mess with your nation, or matters of luck that can make things much easier or much harder, but by and large you only need to work around the luck, not depend on it.
Medium luck- This nation's element of luck is bad. In order to have success, you *need* a certain element of luck. Most commonly this either means that you need your starting ruler to be a general and survive for longer than 5 years, or that you depend upon the ai making certain networks of alliances/war declarations in order to have a reasonable chance. However, your failure scenarios are not likely, just severe. You will probably need to reload, but it is possible to make it through without.
Severe Luck- This nation's element of luck is horrible. In order to even survive you usually need the dice to fall a certain way, and success will rely upon things that are not statistically likely to happen. Savescumming will probably be mandatory to get anywhere with this nation, and the guide will probably be mostly focused on a route that requires minimal reloading.

Harpy Military- This nation has a harpy military (and likely a harpy government as well). This means that this nation has to deal with the 3 signature features of the Harpy Military Doctrine; low fort defense outside of their nest province(s), high movement speed, and inability to recruit cavalry.

Harpy Succession- This nation has a Harpy government (and likely a Harpy military as well). This means that they have the unique succession/harem mechanic of Harpies, and typically employ subject based gameplay.

Coalition Threat- This nation expands at a rate (relative to its neighbors), that it has to seriously worry about coalitions. Managing aggressive expansion and truces is important, as is figuring out how to grow your nation efficiently, without incurring coalition wars you cannot win.

Subjects- This nation accumulates subjects, either many subjects, powerful subjects, or both. They must manage their subject's liberty desire, the subjects' participation in wars, and their own income/military being built around subject contributions. This does not include nations with vassals that are disproportionately weak compared to their overlord (such that the vassal doesn't matter), it also does not include nations with many colonies, unless those nations somehow rely upon their colonial subjects for military support.

Stack Wipes- A stack wipe is when, after a combat, one side has been defeated so utterly or so quickly that they do not retreat, and the entire army (aka "stack") stands down/is destroyed. All nations are capable of doing this in certain circumstances, but the nations that this tag is attached to are different. Not only are they generally capable of doing stack wipes much more easily than other nations (usually due to extremely high quality troops, but there are other factors), but this nation also relies upon stack wipes in order to defend itself/conquer, as it does not have the raw force to fight all of its enemies at once. Some nations start with a powerful mage ruler and can stack wipe, but do not need to. These nations are not included in this tag.

Gemradcurt Nation Guide- Winter is Coming (I Promise)

This nation includes: Unique National Mechanics, magic, High Necromancy, starting ruler Lichdom, rapid conquest, luck (medium), subjects.
Scope of this guide: Complete the first part of the mission tree (the mission tree that is visible when you start the game), survive the disaster that follows, and get you off to a good start surviving the eternal winter.

What to do Before you unpause:
1. Ally with Gelcolle or Reotcrab (the minor states that also follow the Winter Court. They are located to your west). Ally both if neither rivaled you. If both rivaled you, restart (this is rare, but drains too much manpower when you have to siege them both). If either of them rivaled you, rival them back. Rival both Jhorgasshir and Strutmar (Jhorgasshir if you have to pick).
2. Mothball your fort. Recruit an additional 2 infantry. Hire an admiral for your navy and send it to protect trade in your trade node.
3. Send your second merchant to transfer trade power at the Eordand trade node (downstream from the one you collect trade in).
4. Begin studying necromancy, use effort (50 diplo points) and not gold to start.
5. Seize land from estates. We will not be giving any privileges (other than 1 we do later), nor will we be summoning the diet until our first string of conquests is done (when playing as a small nation, conquering disproportionately changes your land share. We want that change in our favor)
6. Put national focus on admin power.

This is a hard nation, so the first parts are going to be very detailed on instructions.
Within the next month you will want to send a diplomat to whoever you were able to ally, and raise your stability. I would advise aiming for 2 stability at first, and either wait on an event to raise it or do so when your expansion is on hold. When asked for an heir, pick a talented theologian.
Tip for the advanced Since you will likely have a spare diplomat, you can try and pick a nation that your mission tree does not ask you to conquer and improve relations in the hope of an alliance. This is longshot, so do it at your own pace.
When you have your troops together, un-mothball forts and position your fleet to blockade the country that wouldn't befriend you. Then send a scornful insult to the enemy nation. Once your morale is up and you can take the first mission, take it and declare war upon the country that refused your vassalization. This war is pretty easy, as your vassal will help with it, but you have a choice to make first (see below). I would also use war magic and earthquake from Immarel's magic selection, but that is optional for this fight. What is most important is that so long as the enemy does not have troops that can immediately threaten one of your forts, keep them mothballed, including the fort you take from the enemy. After you win, take their gold and vassalize them.

The Choice- When you start this nation, you have a powerful ruler, Immarel. As a powerful mage a decision can be taken to turn her into a mage general. She will give incredible power in both winning battles and sieging down forts, but this will put her in great danger, and if she dies too early then a restart is needed. I will go forward with the guide under the assumption that you have made her a general, but (TODO) will try and create one for keeping her out of combat.

Now that we have our vassals, you'll notice that both are rebellious. By and large, that is going to stay permanently. However in 10 years we will receive an event allowing us to annex them, so don't worry about them and don't bother defending them in wars outside of keeping your own warscore high.
Now we aim for the next target. Rival Eighhard, take the second mission, and position your troops on the border with Eighhard. Recruit another unit of infantry if you like. Give your Klar (clergy) estate expansionist zealotry, and your Aslaud (nobles) strong duchies
Our two targets are Eighard and Jhorgashirr. 9/10 times they will ally each other. Declare war on Jhorgashirr, and call the other nation in as a co-belligerent, since we want to take territory from both of them in this one war. If you get lucky, they will only be allied to each other. If they are not allied, attack Eighard. If the two of them bring in more than one other nation, then don't bother making Eighard co-belligerent.
You will want to bring down Eighard as quickly as possible while Jhorgasshir is stuck sieging your fort. If they manage to take it before you can push them off of it, you may wish to reload (simply put, most of your casualties and time wasting is going to be on sieging forts (they do have a war mage of their own, so be careful when engaging). If you are making good enough time, you can afford to siege back your own fort. Jhorg tends to waste several months before sieging, so the odds are in your favor. To this end you should use your navy to blockade, so long as you think you can win the naval combat. The one assistance your vassals will (accidentally) give you is their trade ships bumping into your naval battles, allowing you to win even against superior navies. Use your own judgement, but be sure not to lose your fleet. Make sure you use war magic and earthquake to assist in this war and others. After you have dealt with Eighard, mothball their fort and turn on Jhorgasshir. Once they are driven off your fort, you should go and fight and occupy land of other allies in the war until you can remove them. Peace out with Eighard once you have the admin power to core their land (you can put off stability 2 if you want to do so early). Be sure to take all 3 provinces that one of your next missions want, as well as the province of Minnorac (for a future mission). If you want you can finish them off, or humiliate them and grab war reps. Don't core Darblath until you can complete the mission (recruit some extra infantry to do it), since the destruction will make it cheaper to core. Once Jhogasshir is occupied, full annex it.
Do not destroy forts, when we reach the disaster we will need almost all of them. If you have anyone you can rival, do so. It is nearly impossible for you to have more than 3 options for rivals, I usually have 0. Our next target is Slegcal. If they have allies, then wait and finish coring/dealing with rebels. If they do not have allies, then attack ASAP. If you anticipate a period of peace longer than a year (at any point in the next 30ish years of the campaign) lower army maintenance, and always have forts that aren't threatened by enemy armies mothballed. We need to scrimp for every penny.
Slegcal should be simple. If they have allies, they are most like small, random countries. Get them out of the war and then full annex slegcal. You should now be able to do another mission for some conversions.

We are now out of the worst of it. From here on out advice will be more vague, since the campaign is less punishing and things will be more different from different games.
You will likely have your first study event (and other ones) pop up at this point. These generally demand that you burn resources in order to help/avoid a penalty to your research. Keep a reserve of at least 50 gold, more if you cannot roughly break even when army maintenance and relevant fort maintenance is up, but beyond that make sure to fulfill as many research events as you can. It is extremely important that you hit legendary necromancy in about 20-30 years. When you complete renowned necromancy, immediately start on legendary necromancy. You may also be able to get one of your vassals to be loyal. Up to you, but it isn't a waste of prestige to placate them.
From here on out following the mission tree will give you a good order to do things in. Strutmar is first. Of their allies try and peace out Iadth separately and with a low amount of demands (we are conquering them later, so we want a short truce). The rest is contained in the next section, Winter is Coming (For Good).

Gemradcurt Nation Guide Pt.2- Winter is Coming (For Good)

Now that we have retaken all of the winter court lands, we finally get around to privileges. This is up to your own discretion, but I would now advise giving your estates every privilege available that does not cost crown land or reduce the loyalty of another estate. The only exceptions are that you should not give control over monetary policy (we want all of our monarch points), you should not do the advisor discounts until you actually hire advisors, and you should give your Amhasg (adventurers) generous quest rewards/your Taigan Order (mages) patronage of the magical arts. Keeping either of them in line without these privileges is tricky. If you come up short on gold then you have enough to sell crown land, but in general we want to avoid that, as we will now be losing crown land with every conquest, as well as for an upcoming mission.

Your force limit has grown quite large, but now that we pacify our adventurers, it is worth hiring some mercenaries. Specifically, we want to hire the novice adventurers. They have lower morale and reinforce speed, and struggle to fight on their own, but despite getting the benefits of a mercenary manpower pool they are actually cheaper than our state troops, even when maintenance is reduced. Afterwards, wait until the event triggers to annex your subjects (it will occur 10 years after you subjugated them, and will spawn rebels/reduce stability).

Afterwards you probably still won't have the force limit for getting the mission that will give you the claims you need for a winter crusade. So we get tricky. The mission needs a military advisor (don't go above level 1), which if you can afford it is worth hanging onto after the mission (especially if you get a commandant, army reformer, or army organizer). If you get an army organizer, then you hit the jackpot. If not, then recruit past your force limit, do the mission (it needs you to cast war magic), then disband excess troops.
Afterwards, start attacking. Make sure you only need 1 war to take the provinces you need. There are many nations you need to conquer, and they can make all kinds of alliances. You should be able to overpower them, and don't worry about Aggressive Expansion. Just make sure you take all the provinces you need, while minimizing involvement of the rest of the continent (separate peaces usually necessary). Einnsag is the trickiest one to take, since they have an island. This is what we've been building our fleet for. Try and sneak some troops onto it so you can take it, usually their capital will be on the mainland. You will also need to take a province for Arakeprun, despite them not being Autumn Court. Try and make that war as short as possible, but hopefully in future this will be changed.
Note: You should have renowned necromancy around this point. If you are truly desperate for gold and for manpower, then you can use undead army. This will use some monarch points to summon troops, but more importantly switch you to an undead army, instead of a ruinborn one. In general, undead armies are superior in every way to living ones, and they almost never have manpower issues. However, they have a move speed 40% lower than living troops, which is painful. It is also almost impossible to switch back. Don't pick up an undead army until you are desperate.
Now complete your missions. If you do not get legendary necromancy by approximately 1470, you will likely need to reload, restart, or use console commands, as Immarel cannot be allowed to die. While you are waiting, make sure to set up your new home trade node in Eordand, and have your old trade node transfer trade to it. This will make you much more money. Make sure you take out loans from the Malartak (merchant guilds), we will need the money, and our credit will get worse very soon. If you already took out those loans, sell some crown land. With all that done, congrats! Immarel is now an Immortal Lich, you have brought perpetual winter, and your country despises you. Wait...

Now here come the big guns. The Red Winter. It is utterly unavoidable, so we will just have to survive it.
First off, be very glad you kept your forts. You are going to need them. Make sure you raise maintenance on your troops and forts. We will not be mothballing any of our forts for a very long time, since they help fend off the devastation of perpetual winter. Also, if you weren't before, you are now a witch king (or a lich queen, as I like to call female witch kings who are liches). Enjoy the bonuses, and make sure to use that stability discount. Also, as a lich, we no longer need to worry about Immarel dying. Make sure she's leading an army, since we can use her power without worry for her safety now (liches can still be killed, but it takes some doing, so don't worry about it right now), and either way old age has no claim anymore.
The Red Winter operates in two main parts. It lowers your income, which together with the perpetual winter we create will obliterate most of our money. Fire all advisors, as they will turn traitor. The other part is rebels. Gather all your troops together to deal with the first rebels, led by our old friend Ishera. Ending the Red Winter will involve dealing with 4 waves of rebels, which will spawn in several armies (one of which needing your full force to put down and auto-occupying a fort). After each is dealt with, the income penalty will decrease and you will have a break of about 0.5-3 years before the next one pops up. Make sure you use war magic to keep on top of things. You will receive events that mess with the country, but they are survivable if you keep your forts up. Should you look like you will run out of money or manpower, don't forget about the undead army, now is very much the time to use it.
During the war you will be offered choices on how to treat the various rebels. These will change your future missions and how your nation will be run, but either can be chosen. You will also receive a special, all cavalry national mercenary group(with a unique ability to not need infantry). These are an extremely powerful group, with another 75% discount. That said, they are still mercenary cav, so that discount cannot do more than blunt their cost. But if you have any money to spare at this point, use them (do not combine them in battles with other troops. That will cause those troops to suffer a penalty, since the unique ability to be all cav only applies to the mercenaries).

When you've beaten the last one, congratulations! You are through the next hardest part of this nation. However, you'll notice all parts of your nation not covered by forts are devastated. This is a result of the eternal winter, which will be the next challenge to overcome. This is a much longer project than the other two, so I will give only the most general advice.
If you want a province to make you money, it needs to have a fort there or adjacent. Keep your forts up to date with tech, out of date forts don't reduce devastation as well.
Do the colonization mission, and disband any of your normal troops that are left. Your unique mercenaries are still cheap, and they can defend your nation all by themselves for a long time.
Disband all transports but 2 or 3. You don't need the fleet for much beyond trade for a while.
Your first two idea groups should be infrastructure and defensive. Fort maintenance is your biggest cost.
Once your capitol is prosperous, develop any of your missing institutions there, or in Arakaperun (when taken).
Get advisors when you can afford them, and not before.
Make sure you keep researching magic. All the stuff you know is for fighting, but transmutation and divination are excellent peacetime magic.
Your first expansion priority is Arakeprun. They have a powerful trade city in your new home trade node. After that, go at your own pace.

Now you should be all set. Build a hearth for your people, and bury your enemies in snow.

Tluukt Nation Guide- All Hail The Xhazobine-In progress

This nation includes: Razing, fancy religion (Xhaz), magic, rapid conquest, luck (medium), coalition threat, subjects, and stack wipes.
Scope of this guide: Keep Tluukt or a quality successor alive and have them become Xhazobine.

Mulen Nation Guide-On Mulo's Wings

This nation includes: Fancy religion (The Hunt), rapid conquest, luck (medium), coalition threat, subjects, stack wipes, magic.
Scope of this guide: Conquer the majority of the Salahad, rendering any remnants there a complete non-threat and begin rebuilding the Golden Highway, thereby putting you in a strong position for the rest of the mission tree.

What to do Before you unpause:
0. Don't turn on great conquerors. This nation is more vulnerable than most to being death warred by an early great/mythic conqueror.
1. Recruit up to your force limit.
2. Give your horde estate neighbor raid, share of the spoils, and larger tribal hosts. We are about to conquer a whole lot, so we want their influence low. Additionally, seize their land but do not grant them a diet.
3. Go to decisions and policies and use the decision for making your leader a war wizard. Do Not use the built in button on the army screen to make your ruler a general.
4. Begin improving relations with Alkayivad. Any of the Ghankedhen nations will do, but they are my favorite.
5. Put national focus on admin power.
6. Set your rivals (you only have 2 possible)

This is a pretty hard nation, with some extreme luck in the first decade, so instructions will be fairly detailed.
First off, declare war on Verkal Gulan with monstrous conquest. This can wait until either the first month no-war period ends, or you recruit to your force limit. If you go with the former, do not fight their army until you are at your force limit. As an added tip you can occupy hero's gate then withdraw until the dwarves move to try and retake it. Afterwards swoop in with your Harpy speed and stackwipe, saving you from having to fight with a -2 penalty from a dwarf hold.
Whenever you fight in the early stages of this nation, always make sure that you have the modifier from casting Charm: Military. On that same note, if you have generated any meaningful amount of aggressive expansion in Rahen or Bulwar (Salahad is fine, they won't live long enough for it to matter) then cast charm: diplomats. Finally, the most powerful spell at your disposal is Dominate to Surrender. This spell has a 75% chance to flat out skip the siege and occupy the fort. In general I would suggest using it to occupy forts in order to save manpower from attrition, and if used enough it will trigger you becoming a witch queen, which is astoundingly powerful, especially this early in the game. Alternatively you can try and take poorly defended forts the long way when a war is decided, saving you admin power but losing manpower. Additionally, if the spell fails, do not bother spending extra military on it. The difference is negligible, you are better off casting it again next month.
Our spectacular ruler is our greatest (arguably only) strength at the start. If she dies before the first 10 years of the game, I would advise reloading/restarting.

After we have taken Verkal Gulan, fully annex it and take all their money. After you have done that, embrace feudalism. Only after doing this release Verkal Gulan as a vassal. It is worth placating local rulers once or twice to get them obedient. You set them for scutage if you'd rather their money than their troops (either is good for you, I pick scutage, since they get many rebels/uprisings).

Now wait for either Jaddari or Zokka to win their war. If Zokka wins, restart. While you wait, build to force limit (build to force limit every chance you get for the first 10+ years of this nation).
I have tried many different strats, but I have not found a way to make progress if Zokka survives. If anyone finds such a strategy please tell me.
When Jaddari wins, attack Siaden (do not attack Siaden before this happens, or you will be stuck in a war with Zokka's vassals even after Zokka dies). Make sure to lure them into a desert or your capitol, and don't attack into a mountain. Ideally use spells to siege them down as fast as possible. Then full annex and take their gold.
Afterwards finish the first mission, but do not do the dwarf mission yet. You want their fort for the coming war, but you don't want to pay for it. Take that mission after this next war.

Now for the big one. Recruit to force limit, get your troops together, and then declare monstrous war on Jaddari ASAP. Be sure Elayanna is co-Belligerent, we want their land too. Ideally try and keep your doomstack in non-capitol mountains. They and Elayanna will split their forces, with some trying to carpet siege you, and some trying to siege your capitol. Stackwipe the ones on your capitol. With your ruler and magic enhancing your morale, you should be able to. Once the enemy stops marching straight into your cap, hunt them down and stack wipe anything on your territory or adjacent to it. Early Jadd are very bad at re-recruiting.
With that in mind, use your mind control to siege down elayanna and separate peace/full annex them.
Now you can relax. Be sure to occupy/take the Jadd capitol and the provinces you need for the Capture The Highway mission. I also like to occupy two provinces to give me a border with Azka Sur. I would advise taking humiliation and gold/war reps to fill out your war score, but you can take your time with looting their provinces to let your admin points catch up to all this new land.
Immediately afterwards, declare war on Davharral with a claim on their province. It gives you more AE, but it caues them to be willing to give up faster. After you take their province they will likely just sit in a blockade until the ticking warscore is high enough.
After that: consolidate, core, kill rebels, pick up an admin advisor, do the dwarf mission and delete the fort on hero's gate, and build relations with Verkal Gulan.
Bonus: Your next war will be against Jaddari or Azka Sur. Either way the land you gain will likely put you beyond what the Jaddari can effectively fight. As a result, this is the last war we need our mage leader for. If you are fighting the Jaddari, it will largely be a repeat of before, though I would advise building a fort on ebuttsu.
If you are fighting Azka Sur and they have only allied Segdihr, then the war will be easy. Simply full annex Azka Sur and take Segdihr for every penny they have.
If Azka Sur has allied Sareyand, then ensure you have at least 8k manpower and mil tech 4. Even monstrous as you are, Sareyand should still be at mil tech 3. Immediately in the war stack wipe anyone running around next to your borders, then go to mind control Segdihr's cap. After they are out of the war mind control Azka Sur's cap, then stack wipe anyone trying to occupy your land. Afterward begin sieging/mind controlling Sareyands forts. I would not advise taking Hasr in this war, simply fight until you can take all their money and break any alliances they have with the Jaddari in a separate peace. Then eat Azka Sur.
Either way, you should now be in a strong position going forward, but there are a few further tips.

• Send the expedition to find goblins, but do not take the subjugation mission for the first 20-30 years. They are dirt poor dwarovar claimers, which are pretty worthless subjects. Wait until they take some land and lose that military buff. The exception is if the dwarves in the mountain start conquering your future slaves, then you need to step in.
  
• Build a fort in the mountain pass between you and the centaurs. You can conquer them if you want, but make sure you have that fallback.
  
• Target Tluukt for expansion. The rest of Bulwar won't care.
  
• Control your AE in Bulwar and Rahen. Only risk a coalition if you are declaring war so constantly that only half of its members can be in the coalition at a time with truces. Either subcontinent uniting will end you.
  
• Unless the Raj collapses, fight like a kobold. Fortify your border and use defensive edict. They will take crazy attrition, and your flock can outmove them easily to pick them off.