Top 15 Things I wish I knew when I first Played EU5

Summary

This guide dives into top tips and strategies for mastering EU5, perfect for both beginners and more experienced players. It covers essential game mechanics like managing cabinet members, utilizing the outliner for efficient task management, optimizing maritime presence for trade and expansion, and making the most of army objectives. Key insights include understanding the importance of laws and policies, navigating war score costs, and improving diplomatic relations to reduce antagonism. The video also highlights hidden features such as culture conversion, building management, and the nuances of managing estate power and crown influence, offering players practical tips to enhance their gameplay experience.

Takeaways

• 😀 Use the outliner for quicker game management: Right-click on a character to change them, and left-click to change current actions or access diplomacy panels.
• 😀 Manage maritime presence to control sea proximity: A navy or trade ships will help spread maritime presence, which impacts trade and expansion.
• 😀 Leverage map markers: Disable certain building constructions on the map to reduce game slowdown and focus on essential details.
• 😀 Laws and policies can be adjusted through parliament: With 50% support, you can change laws without spending stability, saving manual effort.
• 😀 Early game army micromanagement is key: Understand morale and battle mechanics by controlling army movements directly. Later, use army objectives like carpet siege for efficiency.
• 😀 Use the world map to explore different country content: Countries have unique bonuses, culture, and events that can affect your strategy and playthrough.
• 😀 War score costs are influenced by control and government rank: Locations with higher control cost more to take in war. Lower-ranked governments cost more to conquer.
• 😀 Antagonism impacts peace deals: Diplomatic reputation, legislative efficiency, and the distance between nations reduce antagonism, making peace deals smoother.
• 😀 Maximize cabinet member utility for stability: Keep legitimacy and stability high to reduce maintenance costs, boosting overall country power.
• 😀 Culture conversion requires careful planning: Increase cultural influence through libraries and universities, and prioritize smaller, weaker cultures for faster assimilation.

Q & A

What is the most efficient way to manage cabinet members in the game?

Using the outliner is a highly efficient way to manage cabinet members. By right-clicking on a character, you can quickly change to another character, and by left-clicking on the current action, you can change the action. This saves time and multiple clicks when managing your cabinet.

How can maritime presence impact gameplay in the game?

Maritime presence affects proximity costs for sea-based travel, trade advantage, and spread of control. To improve maritime presence, you need to station a navy on sea tiles. Trade ships are more effective than galleys in spreading presence. The more maritime presence you have, the lower your costs for sea-based movement and trade will be.

What role do laws and policies play in the game, and how can they be changed?

Laws and policies have a significant impact on your country’s stability, power balance, and modifiers. To change laws, you can either manually change them at the cost of stability or use the Parliament to ask for a law change if you have 50% support. This process is faster and more efficient than doing it manually.

Why is it important to micromanage armies in the early game?

In the early game, micromanaging your armies helps you understand key mechanics like movement, morale, and battle strategies. This provides a solid foundation for your military decisions later in the game. However, as the game progresses, you can automate some army management with objectives to save time and resources.

What is the purpose of the 'carpet siege' army objective, and how does it work?

The 'carpet siege' objective splits your army into smaller stacks to siege multiple locations quickly. This is especially useful once you've defeated the enemy's main army. You can adjust the area to siege by holding control or shift, depending on whether you want to target specific locations or whole provinces.

How can players use the 'escape' feature to learn about other nations in the game?

The 'escape' feature allows players to leave the world map, enabling them to check the content and advantages of other nations. This feature shows the unique bonuses and historical events associated with different countries, helping players plan their strategies based on these insights.

What factors impact the cost of taking land in peace deals, and how can they be managed?

The cost of taking land in peace deals is affected by factors like control, government rank differences, and base tax of locations. High control increases the cost, while lower government ranks (like taking land from kingdoms or counties) also raises the price. Managing control and targeting weaker, low-control locations can reduce war score costs.

How does antagonism work in peace deals, and what can players do to reduce it?

Antagonism reflects how other nations feel about your expansion. Higher antagonism can lead to coalitions against you. Players can reduce antagonism by improving relations with other nations, stacking modifiers like diplomatic reputation, or increasing legislative efficiency.

What should players do when facing rebels or separatists in the game?

When rebels or separatists declare war, it’s important to understand that the war score may exceed 100%, making it difficult to recover the rebellious regions. Players can use army objectives, like carpet sieging, to win the war and then annex the revolting nation without paying a war score cost.

How can players manage estate satisfaction and use it to their advantage?

Estate satisfaction influences the buildings that estates construct. If estate satisfaction is above 50%, they will build positive buildings, while below 50% leads to negative buildings. Players can manipulate satisfaction to encourage estates to build beneficial structures like temples, bridges, or breweries.