Europa Universalis 4 - Tips for Beginners

So, you have decided to give Europa Universalis IV a shot, but you are confused about what's going on or find yourself getting destroyed by your enemies. That's why I have compiled a list of tips and strategies for beginner players seeking to improve their chances. I assume you already know the basics on how the game works, if not, play the tutorial first.

1) Play a large nation
It may be tempting to immediately play as a one province minor country and build it up from nothing, but doing so usually takes a lot of experience. If you want to jump in and have fun right away, then you're better off playing bigger nations like England, France, Castile, Ottomans and Muscovy. They start with a large army, plenty of income and they have lots of potential for expansion.

2) Idea groups matter
Choosing an idea group in Europa Universalis 4 is a long-term commitment and should be well thought out. You must look around your empire and consider everything before choosing an idea group, for example, if you're surrounded by provinces of different religion, you'll likely want Religious ideas pretty soon, to get expand more easily. Or if you're playing as Castile or Portugal and want to colonize, then you should get exploration first.
3) Know your force limits
Under the military tab you have 2 kinds of force limits: land and naval. For Land, you almost always want to stay within your force limits, unless you're swimming in ducats. This is because unit maintenance costs increase dramatically for each unit over the limit. Naval force limits are a bit more lenient, you could easily go over the limit by a few ships without losing too much money, but don't go too far.

4) Keep an eye on your aggressive expansion
Aggressive expansion is something that builds up when you take land, especially when you don't have a claim on that land. It also builds up when you get caught fabricating claims on provinces. You can check your current aggressive expansion with each country under relations, you get less of it with countries that are allied to you. If you constantly keep expanding in the same direction, you will build up a lot of it, which will cause coalitions to form against you.

Many people make this mistake when playing France or Ottomans, because they are so powerful, it is tempting to take as much as you can. But don't give in, it will make things so much more difficult in the long term. If you are playing the Ottomans for example, it would be wise to alternate wars in the west and in the east. If you take over a few provinces from the Mamluks in Syria, people in the west don't really care, then you can go declare on Serbia or something - you gain a lot of land like this but minimal aggressive expansion.

5) Have patience
You don't constantly have to be fighting wars to grow your nation, on the contrary, sometimes it's far more beneficial to bide your time and focus on diplomacy and colonization, while waiting for your aggressive expansion to go down.

Also, don't give up if you lose a war, sure it feels bad having to give up provinces, releasing vassals and annulling treaties with your best allies. But it is usually only a small setback, adding more challenge to your game. Over time, your manpower will recover, you will get new alliances and in 10-20 years you can retake everything you lost and even gain more than you had.


These are the most important Europa Universalis 4 beginner tips I can think of for now. Thanks for reading!