Hi all of you,

after mostly having played EU4 with this awesome mod, I thought it might be interesting for some of you (especially new players) what I considered the major pitfalls.

I'll start with what I did and what I learned from my mistakes while doing so - or reference you to a conclusion that is later to follow.

Situation:
First off, I started as the Suebi (Suevi?) - a small, germanic tribe in the middle of nowhere. Right north to Rome, at 58 BC.

Problem: Rome really stalls you play. They, most of the time, tell you not to attack any nations that share borders with Rome. And well, you don't want to mess with Rome that early.

Lesson learned: If you want to wage war hard this is propably not for you. But, read the tooltip properly :-) You can - and should - attack the tribes that are north of you and do not share a border with Rome.

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Situation: So after I recongnized the opportunity, I evaluated the situation. Nearly all the tribes around me were allied. Bad call to attack anyone. Looks like I wasn't popular. Also, i stripped my army to zero, to bunker money.

Problem: Being surrounded is bad. Your army will be chased, cornered and beaten.

Lession learned: BUT there is a way out. Use it to your advantage! I built up alliances with the nations surrounding the tribes that surrounded me. This really payed off well. My enemies had to fight a two front war now. So I could conquer and annex what i wanted! Try to keep a good balance with the strength of your allies. Don't let them get too strong, change them if needed. This strategy payed off for about 200 years or so, until I was the big blob in the middle :)

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Situation: Out of boredom, I spent alot of my power points (ADM, DIP, MIL) for upgrading my provinces.

Problem: You don't have them when you need them. And you gain them slooooooooowwwwwlyyyyyy....

Lession learned: DON'T! Just bunker them up and use them to get technologies. Upgrades are barely worth it. At least that's what i realised. Later on maybe. Also do NOT use military power to lower the rebels power percentage. Use your army to slay them. Keep your army well maintained (there is a ledger in the finance tab of your empire where you can lower the maintenance cost to 50% - useful at peace!).

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Situation: Finally, I was the big blob. Rome splintered, I took what was rightfuly mine (or so I thought :) ) and had other tribes eradicated. Then, chalcedonism hit me. And the "Large Empire" modifiert. I wasn't aware of the latter but knew about the first. So far, I was able to kill all attempts of this monotheistic foolishness...

Problem: Monotheistic religions spread by themselves. Politheistic don't seem to. Also, monotheistic religions give you a bonus where you can get technology about 2, others 4 levels earlier. If i remember correctly. And i was SO damn hughe (about 120 provinces) that it would take ages to reform the empire.

Lession Learned: First off, as an empire with ANY religion other than muslim, chaledonism, jewish and so on (monotheistic) change to one of them. ASAP! It will spare you pain. When chalcedonism hits you and the peseants get "religious zeal" you cannot under normal cirumstances convert them back in time (100% bonus for them that lasts 30 years). Until you get rid of them, religion will have spread granting the bonus to yet another region - and so on.

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Situation: So, there i was. The big blob, everybody hating me, my alliances falling apart. Because the stupid AI wants to go to wars I cannot afford. Only one ally left, surrounded by enemies and rivals.

Problem: Well, i had to fight on all fronts. Religious uprising everywhere, invasions, money draining away. Awful.

Lessions learned: First off, in those cases INCREASE AUTONOMY. This will lower unrest by 10% in the regarding province. If you have a 10-20% unrest in 120 provinces, you might wanna do this - everywhere.

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Situation: Well, I was close to being doomed. Two enemies declared war. Rebels spawned too. Awesome - three front war :)

Problem: Like I said, the AI will chose you as a rival. And if you seem weak, they WILL attack. But - like always - you can use this to your advantage too!

Lession Learned: First off, keep a NICE stack of money. I had 4000 Ducats and i wasn't nearly enough. The game really likes to f*ck you in the arse after it punshes you right in the face. So you will need to hire mercenaries. Also, spend military monarch power mainly on research. Keep about 800 as a reserve for tech and about 200 if you need to suppress a revolt in na emergency.
Seriously, I think the AI may cheat on the monarch power. It's insane how fast they research. Or they don't do ANYTHING else. Then it might be possible.

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Conclusion:
- Save up money (for emergencies in war)
- Save up MP (for research and coring)
- Keep your allies happy. You will need them.

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Hope that helped. A bit. I am really serious about that "saving up". I think i had to memory edit MP Points to research because I mismanaged (didn't get the system at first glance) or would have gotten my arse kicked.
I think there should be SOME benefit in regards of research when it comes to the size of a realm. I know this is to keep large empires at check and make smaller ones a danger to larger ones. But well, three or four germanic tribes can already kick Rome straight ahead out of Gallia or northern Italy, and - don't know really - two more MPs each would'nt have helped them.

But like I said, playing this mod is awesome :D