(EU4) Escaping Political Deadlock

Some thoughts on how to overcome difficult diplomatic situations and some strategies to employ.
Support me at: / darkfireslide
Contact me at:
Discord: / discord
Gmail: [e-mail]
or Reddit: reddit.com/DarkFireSlide

[@armageddon3315]

Can you do a "What the hell should I do if the Ottomans ally France and or Poland?" besides the usual "Whoops, my game 'crashed'."

[@Andy-wc5xw]

Russian Guy form Prussia

[@armageddon3315]

That not very easy to do as Albania, Serbia, Byzantium, Mamluks, etc.

[@kedrikeddlemon113]

Wont deny it fucking died of laughter

[@BoxStudioExecutive]

Ottomans allied France and Muscovy in my current playthrough with Mamluks

[@Konterfeit]

Get enough power and allies to beat one of them, attack one of their other allies, don't make them cobelligerent, then beat the Ottomans/French/Polish/Russians and peace them out with money only + force them to cancel treaties with the one you don't want them to be allied to. Make sure the peace timer is below 10 years so they cannot really before you get to attack them again.

[@kimberlycoughlan7418]

Too much AE? AE is a score to be beaten.

[@vinnie2356]

indeed, just get strong enough and coalitions are a way to get even more free clay!

[@digichu007]

Coalitions as Italy. The region is so defensive that merc spam for that battle superiority is a guaranteed defensive win with all that trade and that rich Italian development. Thank goodness for the Alps.

[@VynalDerp]

Kim Coughlan I've had over a thousand, but that was because of a coalition that may or may not have been half of the world... Well, the undeveloped half, South America and Africa because I conquered the rest. Coalitions are fun when you own the world; watch AE tick up and not give a fuqq.

[@mr.serperior7002]

@@vinnie2356 beating coalition is okay but that dosent resets ae it just gets bigger and the more ae the bigger the coalition will be after some point your big buddy great power allies will turn against you

[@DocsDota]

You know what's a better deadlock to look at? When you're a Manchu Tribe and Ming allies Korea and Oirat

[@meandmetoo8436]

Have fun colonizing I guess.

[@raikaria3090]

'Germany is wrong culture' Not if you're making GerMilany.

[@Hilja1suus]

this is how I stopped the Ottoman-aragonese Alliance, No CB Frankfurt

[@AlwaysRM_]

hahaha XD

[@jokertard2359]

The Belgian Horde why did I fucking laugh so much at this

[@And-lj5gb]

I once wanted to form Romania and started as Wallachia. I had only 3 neighbours: - Ottomans who allied France - Hungary who fell under PU with Austria who had strong allies - Moldova, a vassal of Poland with Lithuania under PU Poland was the only decent ally who would want to ally me. Waited 50 years to see if the situation would change but nothing sugested that any of the 3 big powers around me could be weakened by any foreseeable sequence of events so there was no other thing to do than to give up.

[@kaandurmuslar7144]

no cb circassia you are welcome 🙂

[@ratzgames2509]

Darkfireslide's Escaping Political Deadlock video but every time he says "Political Deadlock" It gets faster

[@jjohansen86]

Using a proxy war to attack the main power that's threatening you works, but I actually think there's something even more effective for the situation you're describing with Austria: with 3 or 4 nations allied to Austria, you're sure to find at least one that has another weak ally, and that weak ally has no big allies. Attack the small ally. You can either take land from one of the people allied with Austria, or just break their alliance with Austria in preparation for a second war. If it's a situation where Mantua is (for some reason) allied to Genoa and Austria, and Genoa is only allied to Mantua, attack Genoa, you can take all of Mantua in that war, NBD. If it's the Papal State, and for some reason... I dunno... Ferrara got an alliance with them, and nobody else, then attack Ferrara, and you'll be able to actually take land from the Papal State (instead of having to deal with the three or four big allies they always get). It's really still the proxy war dark is talking about, though instead of using it to get at the big guy (Austria, in his scenario), you're using it to get at a couple little guys and avoid fighting the big guy. Most of the time when I'm trying to break up alliance webs, I look for the guy I want to attack with the tiniest ally, rather than looking for the easiest way to attack the big guy (though dark is right, that is a reasonable way to go about it, too). One example of this: I had a similar situation where I wanted to attack Morocco, but they were allied to the Ottomans. I might have been able to get an ally that could fight the Ottomans, but I decided there was no need to do that because Morocco was allied to Tlemcen. I didn't have any provinces neighboring Tlemcen, but I did have a merchant and a ton of light ships, so I easily engineered a trade dispute CB. Terrible CB, you can't take land, but it does let you break alliances. So I used that war just to make Morocco break all their alliances. It meant a truce of (I believe) 8 years, but then I attacked them without having to worry about any major allies. So that made it slightly slower, but I had other places I could expand in the meantime, so the delay wasn't a huge problem. You could also do this without a CB, but I decided that waiting for the second war to take land was a smaller price to pay than 2 stability. Anyway, that is another point I want to make: don't hesitate to use a crappy CB if it lets you break up alliances.

[@caferustwat]

Jacob Johansen But dont peace out for more than 50 warscore, because then you will have a truce of longer than ten years and they just ally with eachother again

[@Jupiter__001_]

Never take land in Italy with a non-cobelligerent nation. The AE goes over 50 with only one province taken. Coalition Hell. I usually declare on a power's ally's minor ally and take war reparations and break treaties with said power on the power's ally.

[@dankmemes212]

holy shit the timing, in playing a Milan game and was in a deadlock, perfect timming

[@razhorryan3557]

'...take some couple of Switzerland and little bit of baden.' little bit? Come on admit it you annex it dude Haha

[@bears99]

Great videos dude, keep up the good work!

[@Caesar_Av_Nordland]

when are you doing desmond world conquest??

[@razhorryan3557]

Sir Kristian Af Nordland can he? 😂😂😂 Sorry just want to motivate you darkfireslide. I my self cant. Wkwk

[@PsychoLold]

It was in one of my first EU4 campaigns where I formed Italy. In the end, I was bordering three countries: Switzerland (my only ally), Revolutionary France (which was an absolutely unbeatable and aggressive powerhouse) and Russia (which annexed Austria via PU). Now THAT was a deadlock (more like 'deathlock').

[@dazeen9591]

Was playing as Switzerland. Surrounded by Milan, France, Austria. They were all allied with each other. Spain also hated me so I couldn't ally them. I tried allying England but when I was attacked they didn't join so the alliance broke. Had no way to expand for 50+ in game years so I just quit the campaign.

[@james11norma17]

A three province Ragusa is nothing. In one of my russia games the ottomans never expanded and at one point while the ottomans were down they snatched up the whole balkins. This was before they got a debuff for getting over 20 provences. That was a wierd game though.

[@armageddon3315]

Bitch please, I once saw AI Ragusa form Croatia.

[@digichu007]

Yeah, it's weird how good the AI could be sometimes. I saw AI Ragusa eat all of Serbia and Bosnia in 3 games, and I thought Ragusa was a formable nation between either Serbia and Bosnia until I found out it was a OPM.

[@ExecutiveSonda]

digichu007 AI cheats.

[@malnutritionboy]

JAmes STar rebels make the country weak and stronger ai states easily take over

[@digichu007]

Executive Sonda Yeah, the AI probably has some cheats. Yet, how does a cheating AI OPM beat a cheating AI Serbia and cheating AI Bosnia?

[@PrincepsComitatus]

Great stuff.

[@thearcheduck8746]

In the extended timeline mod i started in the barbarian invasion with francia and as you know, being a small nation neighboring multiple great powers can cause political deadlock. So i accepted the great migration mission which allowed me to take provinces just by occupying them for too long, due to this i loss my ally in saxony and the angles due to aggressive expansion so my next move was to improve, this took 10 years to do (hardest difficulty) this allowed me to improve my provinces so much that all my provinces were above 20 development (I had 30 provinces, saxony has 40 and the angles have denmark) so i took my chances and attacked saxony and i conquered every single province. That caused some aggressive expansion with the vandals and its allies and at this time the vandals occupied french territory (at this time i have north france -brittany due to overcoming rome) so i bit the coalition and attacked them and won and at this point no one could stop me so i just gave up.

[@sulphurous2656]

It seems i'm not the only one who is enjoying playing Milan. I had a similar situation to yours, but i'd say i had some luck when it comes to my expansion (since Austria lost emperor almost instantly) & as i'm only 3 provinces away from forming Italy and it's almost 1490. The only problem is the Papal State is allied with Austria & Aragon. I noticed Alliance webs tend to change in the Italian region so it's important to be careful about who you rival, in this case i managed to land an alliance with Hungary and Austria and they weren't allied to any of the Italian states (except Austria who was allied to the Papal State) so first i expanded into Mantua, while waiting for my AE to tick down i then conquered my cores back from Venice with the help of Austria, and Austria did ally Ferrara but they soon afterwards broke their alliance, i quickly annexed them afterwards. Next was taking a necessary province from Ferrara who had no allies, which was pretty easy. One of the biggest problems was France in my case, who allied Genoa and Savoy. They did manage to however ally Lucca and Venice, so i luckily managed to break their alliances with France in the peace deals. Becoming Papal Controller helped a HUGE deal as it not only reduces AE but advisor costs and tech costs. Took Influence as my first idea, i then declared war on Venice again just to take Venezia, Genoa and Milan joined but at this time i was already more than 200 development, i took Genoa too in the peace deal even though it gave me a lot of aggressive expansion, but not enough to warrant a coalition. Managed to restore my great power status and become #6. First idea group was Influence. Took several restarts to get appropriate rivals, and had to rival some of my former allies but it was well worth it. Only 2 development from upgrading my government rank to Kingdom, but the HRE won't allow me, grr. Gotta say, Milan is probably my most fun EU4 experience i had so far.

[@digichu007]

That's true. As Florence, I try not to rival nations at the start cause it really baffles the AI in alliance making decisions. The PP doesn't really do much (below 25), and eating OPM rivals doesn't give PP in the same way humiliate or eclipse does. Papal powers are strong. AI Papal State excommunicated me, and it brought coalition hell with that negative relations hit (all those gifts and improve relations wasted). As Florence, papal controller is almost impossible = 0 papal influence/year. Milan is quite friendly with the Pope most games.

[@sulphurous2656]

The Papal State loves to excommunicate Florence/Provence in most games, with occasionally Aragon too.

[@gekkenhuisje]

I'm actually in political deadlock myself at the moment....as Milan. The worst part of the campaign was when I thought I could take on any coalition, it probably wouldn't form, I had taken Pisa and Firenze from Florence, (really happy about that), and then a small coalition joins and suddenly declares war on me. The war would have been ok, but then both of my allies, Castile, and Burgundy both dishonored the call! I've mostly recovered from that, but now I'm stuck again.

[@MrSherhi]

I did "take that von habsburg" (goal is to core all austria lands) achievement recently. I vassalized surrounding nations (serbia, bosnia, wallachia, ate ragusa), took some provinces from venice... ottomans remained allied to france and russia for the whole game...austria allied PLC and spain (with iberian wedding firing), PLC also allied denmark with kalmar union...in order to just survive I allied spain, bohemia and england and waited...and waited and waited :D it was impossible to break these power blocks so I went for the end-game and picked ideas accordingly. Got the achievement around 1680 after very lucky religious war, which I led to victory with the help of otto-fra-russian "friends" and by enforcing protestant faith HRE dismantled (this still buffles me, lol)

[@karelspinka3031]

Thanks for the tip to no-CB attack other nations. I'm having a severe deadlock as Florence => Italy where I border Swiss, Naples (both allied to BBB), Ottomans (who defeated me in the last war and took Ragusa and Dalmatia) - they have >2x more army than me, Tunis (allied to the Ottomans) and Austria-Hungary PU (allied to them). I got more alliances to deter the Ottomans from attacking me again but I've got nowhere to expand... unless I use no-CB.

[@randydijkshoorn7141]

What if you are in the late game and everyone around you allied eachother? I had a playthrough with brandenburg forming germany. But Great Britain (with a pu over austria), russia (pu over scandinavia), France, Milan and Slain all allied eachother. How do you break away from that?

[@felixd.5876]

Randy Dijkshoorn ally the ottomans maybe or look out for a situation where you just fight against 2-3 of them :)

[@maxjacobs6188]

i was in a situation where i had smashed poland and lithuania as prussia and i wasn't able to expand anymore because austria, venice (who was really big in this campaign), and a massive russia with 250k troops were all allied to each other so i couldnt do anything for a long time. Luckily i was able to PU england which allowed me to 1v1 the ottomans and take a ton of land, but the deadlock cost me like 60 years where i couldn't do anything

[@keizervanenerc5180]

in my ironman game where i formed italy as florance, i got stuck in political deadlock for 50-75 years after forming italy, since literary everyone was allied with Spain, France, Austria or the Ottomans. the only way i got out of it after all those years was that Portugal embargoed me, so i coupd declare war on them even though i didn't have a border/claim

[@OblomSaratov]

Hi darkfireslide. Please make a video with tips on how to win wars in general. I've been playing EU4 for more than a year and I still can't wage war for shit. World conquest? I'm not capable of defeating a neighboring country if it's roughly the same size as mine. Or an alliance of 2-3 countries that are significantly smaller than mine. All I can do is conquering minor countries with no allies, backwards countries which are 3-5 military techs below me, and finishing off remnants of big empires right after somebody kicked their ass for me.

[@sventibaldo]

That's odd. The a.i. in this game is pretty bad and easy to exploit, so it is usually possible to win wars even when you're weaker. Army composition might be your problem, since the ratio of different unit type can make a huge difference. Then there are the obvious bonuses given by army tradition and national ideas, but i guess you know that already. Perhaps you forget to focus on war goals, which change according to the kind of cb you choose. Best thing you can do is google for some strategy guide, you'll find plenty on the Paradox forums, and once you learn the principles you'll be winning easily, i'm sure.

[@plzfixwolves955]

Political Deadlock is always a pain in the ass if you want to become Italy or Prussia. I however was lucky enough in my Prussia playthrough to ally Poland and take the required land to form Prussia.

[@TheYoGhurtE]

Formed Spain in my current Navarra game, Austria lost the 30 years war after turning protestant and now I have to deal with the blue blob that is at the same time holy roman emperor with all of France being imperial territory. Nice.

[@kotzpenner]

In my current Milan>Italy game I'm stuck in an insane gridlock. Poland is under a PU with Great Britain (my rival but not dangerous due to distance), Aragon (who swallowed Spain and half of Portugal, the other half of Iberia is Andalusia now, yeah it's insane) is under a PU with France (and halfway integrated, in 30 years it's complete), after a long rivalry I managed to ally them though but we are similar in terms of power, then there's the Otto who rivaled me too and is really hungry for my croatian lands, if they attack though I'm able to overpower them since I won the last war about 10 years ago with similar power. I could ally Russia and eat the kebab alive but they have a long rivalry with me for some reason. Austria, my old big ally got swallowed by the Otto and later by me too, Hungary is dead and Lithuania is being swallowed by Russia. I wouldn't attack the HRE straight away though because of the insane AE and because Austria is still strong enough and has nice allies. My only halfway good plan would be to attack the Otto and weaken him enough to seize some land but he's hyper aggressive and will attack any moment too. Apart from France and Bohemia my allies are nearly useless or too far away to help. I've already swallowed Savoy and Burgundy long ago and have the whole boot under my flag, unfortunately the islands belong to Aragon and by proxy to France, my ally. I can't attack any other weaker nation. Never had such a gridlock in my games as this, also the map looks super weird, Timmy is still alive and strong, Poland and Aragon under a PU, Spain non-existent and a big Andalusia which I can't attack because they're allied to the Ottos. Tunesia is quite big too. The only positive aspect of this is that I get insane amounts of Mana with my republican leaders (ambrosian Republic is insane), a shitload of cash from trade (50% of my income), I don't spend many points to core and I'm able to lose AE points by around 5 per year meaning I can have a huge conquest every 10 years. I'm in the best position ever, yet I can't do anything with this, it's just sad.

[@ptselios4275]

Maybe you can demand that Andalusia breaks alliance with ottomans so you can safely invade? If not you could go for Tunisia but I suspect they are also allied to ottomans

[@kotzpenner]

Yeah the entire south is allied with Otto, I only have the AoW and CS dlc. I analyzed the situation a bit and it seems attacking Otto and hoping for the best is the only way. France/Aragon can attack Andalusia and Bohemia and me go after the Otto, I don't have a big marine though.

[@kotzpenner]

Oh btw it's around the year 1630

[@kotzpenner]

Bohemia is quite strong since they seized Brandenburg early, BB is only a OPM btw, yeah I turned France into an ally too but it came more from them, dunno if it works with Russia too, they're pretty aggressive.

[@kotzpenner]

Weird, apparently when you load a save the game resets all rivalries and other diplo stuff so I'm not a rival to russia anymore, exactly what I need. Just have to derival Andalusia and it's kebab for dinner.

[@MaNU7908]

I got deadlocked in my Lubeck game. I was going for owning all the lubeck node and all the baltic coast. But then, France inherited Burgundy, anexed it and took some provinces of the lubeck node next to the netherlands. France also got a PU over Great Britain, converted it to catholic and had good relations all game with it, so I wasnt able to divide them. I started a coallition against them, and even with the support of all the HRE and Austria, I couldnt win and I ended up taking a white peace. Denmark integrated sweeden really fast and allied france. I was able to get the danish peninsula and a couple islands while france was participating in a different war. I broke their alliance with france. But it didnt mattered int he end because denmark stayed catholic and france was defender of the faith On the other side of the map, poland lituania formed the commonwealth and was guaranteed by the Ottomans (yes, this really happened) So I couldnt expand on that direction either. I allied russia but any of my other allies wanted to join, not even spending favours and preparing to war, so I had no chance either. In the end, I finished my campaig right there, unable to do anything. The most crazy game Ive ever had in terms of diplomatic bullshit. The amounf of PUs, guarantees, inacurated religions and defenders of the faith, I coudnt do a thing

[@Tlhague998]

I've got to ask: How the hell does Montferrat still exist? Did you force Savoy to release them?

[@darkfireslide]

Savoy hasn't annexed them yet for some reason.

[@mauriciocastro7124]

I once had an ottomans campaign where ragusa conquered all of serbia, Albania and Bosnia , in one war

[@mackycabangon8945]

Same thing in MY milan game. I wanted Genova from my ally,Savoy. But he was allied with France. Then he became defender of the Reformed faith. I No-CB'd Tyrone, who was allyless and was Reformed. Then I took Genova and formed Italy

[@dannew7734]

1st rule of the HRE is: Always ally the Emperor 2nd rule of the HRE is: Always attack countries that are outside the empire until you can dismantle it If you wanted to grow big you should had allied Austria and snaked yourself though Venice to the Balkans or the Papal state. And then attacked your Italian neighbors after the shadow kingdom event.

[@fanofshrimp]

May be a stupid question, but does AI become more aggressive to each other as set difficulty increases?

[@dominykassimonis2180]

why when i play eu4 for a long time,it stops saving?even autosaving?

[@bencoad8492]

I thinks its a bug, too many saves dele some of your old ones, or play iron-man(only 2 saves;0)

[@illican]

game corrupted, happens to me as well, occupation lines stop updating on the map and saves are disregarded, hopefully you can catch it early, so as to avoid losing much progress reverting to an autosave

[@ViridianVictoria]

So Lucca wasn't part of a trade league with Venice/Genoa? That's odd because they pretty much always join one in my games.

[@XerxesTheUndead]

ShariTraice I don't think dark owns mare nostrum so trade leagues aren't a thing in his games

[@ViridianVictoria]

I completely forgot that was an expansion feature.

[@josephstalin2829]

How did you get Genoa? They ally both France and Austria

[@michaelharris2178]

I'm trying to form the Roman Empire as Coptic Ottomans. I have everything needed but France, bits of Iberia, bit of England + Zeeland. I also have massive AE with just about everyone. A small coalition that includes some nations I need is stopping me from expanding further. But you can't improve relations/clear coalition when you have -300 AE with everyone...

[@Hilja1suus]

Michael Harris attack the coalition if you can, those truces Will stop them for some time

[@Andy-wc5xw]

either attack the coalition or dont get into any huge wars. expand somewhere else but dont loose many troops or the coalition will attack you when you are weak. probably not an issue since you're the ottomans and they're not

[@yonokhanman654]

You need to be at constant war or at least have a peacedeal with everyone, so that the coalition wont get bigger.

[@Munchausenification]

attack coalition and try to white peace, truce break one of them right after you beat them silly, since AE is just a number at this point

[@michaelharris2178]

Truce breaks are terrible if you aren't full diplomatic with the -5 stab. Anyway, wasn't as much trouble as I initially thought it might after crushing the coalition. I think the issue was that I didn't have as large an army as I could afford since it was already more than twice the size of anyone elses. Now that I created a few more stacks of Turkish Doom they all cower in my majesty.

[@Eurasian_]

I had that deadlock too but the Other way around as Austria Milan Allied Spain which is also my ally and thus soon i got out of it by a Proxy war I declared war on Baden so that Milan would be pulled in I put in the Peace treaty for Milan to Annul treaties with Spain GG ez And too bad i had to abolish Internal HRE wars

[@teleshar]

Ever played Norway? Sweden steals all your potential alliances except for Denmark and Denmark never joins wars if Sweden attacks you. Any idea how to deal with Norwegian alliance deadlock if you want to play the continental game for some reason?

[@teleshar]

David Gonzalez Lithuania - union Scotland - gets kicked by England England - gets kicked by France Gaining independence is not a problem, it's what comes after.

[@VynalDerp]

What should you do if you're Ottomans and Byzantium is the major parterner in a personal union with Muscovy?

[@doctortsm12-gamesvlogsandm73]

VynalDerp well if that somehow happens, get Crimea or Nogai or something on your side

[@JoViljarHaugstulen]

Darn Ragusa sure is good at diplomacy getting an alliance/protection from both Austria and the Ottomans

[@Ratlegion]

The only thing I don't understand is why you would attack without a cb rather than getting a claim. Was it just too dangerous to wait?

[@darkfireslide]

Douglas Ray III Sometimes you can't get a claim on someone's ally, but attacking that ally would result in an easy military victory over a large rival.

[@saoirsedeltufo7436]

I had a deadlock as Vijayanagar when Bahmanis, Jaunpur and another North Indian nation all allied, and I was a new player then. So I just pissed off south and colonised the Americas

[@PESHKIRAwee]

hay darkfire what do you do when you get to a superhard deadlock? for instance in my prussian IMM game i am rivaled with or enemy of russia ottomans superpoland(not yet commonwealth as i took lots of land to form prussia and the year is 1700) with lithuania and GB as PU's austria hating me pretty much everyone on the verge of coalitioning me if i take more than 3 provinces in a war,ottomans guaranteing poland and me being allied to spain wich is the defender of the faith so wtf am i to do? edit:france does not exist on the mainland it was partitioned between spain brittany and superpower burgundy wich is member of the HRE somehow and is guaranteing close to superpower status nassau west of me

[@balloonz]

By 1700+ you should have imperialism casus bellis and can go to somewhere away from the Continent for a war. You can also always look to Denmark etc. for land, or look at the allies of the OPMs still in the HRE and try and find a weak link to attack on. The other alternative is try to antagonise or wait for a super-war, and then attack a losing side. E.g. in my game when Muscovy attacks the PLC or Ottomans, I attack the PLC or Muscovy for their land and peace out before their massive stacks can deplete my manpower. I also attacked a weak OPM which had as its only ally Castile to steal some colonies and started taking over bits of Mexico.

[@PESHKIRAwee]

i did not paint the entire picture as clearly as i wanted it seems im second great power,after the ottomans that are encroaching in the indian peninsula and ethiopia.and having half of hungary.they are DREADFUL having twice my army wich is of about 150 units there are no more than 5 opm's and i cant reach anyone of them to declare war and pull austria in. so im left with the chance of -declaring war on austria wich is catholic(as is spain the defender) and allied with hungary and poland the overlord -declaring war on poland wich is allie with austria hungary having lithuania and GB as PU's and guaranteed by otto von kebabsmark the only uside is they are rival of spain -burgundy is hre catholic -nassau is hre member im half way into scandinavia and russian land isnt good enough for me

[@NetherPrime]

You shouldn't be in the position where all 3 of them are allied to eachother as early on you're capable of being allied to poland and they don't like russia, you can take half or most of teuton land if you personally siege danzig and declare the second war on them before poland, taking dazig(if poland never gave you) konisberg and memmel. Then take livonian order's land so you border russia, ally others who would go to war with russia then declare when capable. Russia isn't too strong 1550-1650 in comparison to poland/prussia.

[@PESHKIRAwee]

i started from 1444 i took all the coast from teutons and livonians formed prussia while being allied to poland and so on i just got into e very nasty deadlock as far as political scenery goes. i would be able to absolutely demolish them with 8 7/7 ideas but i was just starting my 7th idea group and as a final note i loaded the save just to find the dynasties being switched around and having ruler wth khmer as last name ruling prussia that just killed it for me so i deleted the save and the backup..... shame it would have been fun breaking the blockade if i may call it that way i hate this bug,it happened few weeks ago to me in my austria game,and i had my dynsaty on absolute monarchy commonwealth :(

[@Mankorra_Gomorrah]

it seems like for the time being colonizing or expanding into africa might be the best bet while the situation in eastern Europe cools down. proclaiming a guarantee over Ethiopia or an indian nation might help. depending on the powers in italy or north africa they might be a good distraction to buy your armies time in case of a large war.

[@danielhalachev4714]

That's how I got saved, too, as Bulgaria. I wanted to get Austria, but they are very problematic. But France so much hates them, so now we are allies!

[@paultato8485]

Austria is actually ridiculous with how many allies they have outside of the HRE and no one in the HRE fucks with them because they are emporer so its a pain to square off with them. It was a real set back in my Germany game even with mighty Prussian ideas.

[@Dazeencraft]

Political deadlock you say? Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Ragusa and Bavaria alliance VS me as France without any allies besides Poland who is constantly in war with Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Muscovy, Livonian Order and Prussia + Poland has 500 ducat dept and Lithuania is seeking independence. Fucking GG the only way for me to expand is either fighting the super alliance which owns like 1/3rd of Europe...or start colonizing North America as Portugal and England already control South and Central America. Good thing I took out Castille and Aragon early or I wouldn't have enough resources to think this as a second option.

[@slowmotiondude8377]

Once I was playing as Spain and wanted to expand into France but couldn’t because they were allied with Ottomans and their combined army and navy were too strong for me. So I attacked Tunis over trade conflict and pulled Ottomans into war. I had superior navy but weaker Army than Ottomans. I got 10% war-score and forced Ottomans to break Alliance with France. After that spain went through Europe like a hot knife through butter.

[@RedstoneRetribution]

Hey Darkfireslide I love all your videos they are super helpful and very Intelligent! :) I am a big fan of the Roman Empire, I am new to EU4 and was wondering if you have any advice about starting out. I am not very good at the game so I am avoiding Byzantium but I came across this thing and was wondering if you could help me figure out how to do it. Start as the Ottomans then convert to orthodox, then become Romania to become Byzantium! I would appreciate any advice or if you could make a guide I would be absolutely thrilled and think it would be a fascinating idea!!! Thanks so much!! :) - Ben

[@pabloramos1022]

That's doable. Orthomans are damn good. You lose your OP government type.... But lets you form Rome. Just expand into Egypt and North Africa first. Then try to pick on tiny Europeans to get nice clay. If you can grab one Itialian province at the time, while doing the Africa tour you should build enough strenght to kill Spain, France, England and all that fun stuff.

[@platoonmexx9278]

in my experience a deadlock is the best thing that can happen to you in the early game ( it only rlly applies in early game) cous it allways breaks itself, every1 around u allied every1 around you, but these alliances will allways break cous of the ai's will to expand, they will start a war even when they cant win it ( watch out out for the rulerdescription, castillians eg. are colonialist... some others are expanders, they will allways start wars) and this war involing all nations arround you, will not only break the alliances, but weaken all of them, so that when they r weak, they will set themselfs friendly towards you, in the end, you can take whoever you want as ally and attack whoever you want in return ~ ez pz game my best early games allways started with a deadlock :D

[@garrettnoid8681]

who would you recommend allying as japan

[@alexthred2179]

Im in almost the same exact situation as Milan but now I can't even advance south because of Austrias belt of allies and France is allied to the alps region and the Papal states so at this point all i can expand into is north Africa.

[@malnutritionboy]

AlexThRed217 ally with austria and then attack the other states

[@RuneR96]

I have a deadlock in a Florence game. Surrounded by Papal State and Ferrara, who control Siena and Lucca respectively. I am allied to France and The Palatinare, but they refuse to join in. Austria is allied to both The Pope, and Ferrara. I decided to go full colony mode, and I have 5 colonial nations, good income, and I am a great power (eclipsed most of my rival+circumnavigation). I would still like to form Tuscany at least, but I guess I have to wait forbthe religious wars to kick in, since religious leagues formed recently.

[@herdent1957]

RuneR96 I had similiar thing too in my game as Florence, but for some reason Papal State unallied Siena, Lucca and Ferrara and only allied to Austria :P

[@RuneR96]

Another Scout Apprentice Lucky bastard

[@Gomevic]

in case you have to declare no casus belli wars, the first religious idea really helps a lot if the target is not your religion ;)

[@DarkAncientZ]

I don't get it. You attacked Lucca... and Austria did not join?

[@arbikiuszelemelek3347]

I think that Austria's allies did not join so he was able to fight a mere Lucca and Austria with powerful alliances

[@HerodotusVon]

DarkAncientZ it's possible that Austria wasn't emperor at that time, so he only had to fight Austria and lucca

[@JoViljarHaugstulen]

For one the emperor is not called in during internal wars (two nations inside the HRE fighting each other) And usually Milan and Lucca is in the HRE or the shadow empire fires and usually both of the leave the HRE (when AI controlled anyways) And if Austria is allied to Lucca and you attack Lucca (and both Lucca and the attacker are members of the HRE) then Austria is like any other ally and you don't need to drag in Austrias allies (but you can if you want to and it makes taking their land easier)

I miss EU3 war leader changes and alliance chains. No such cheese back then.

[@michaelolsen2760]

I have done this so many times as Russia as Poland likes to ally Denmark.

[@dekuparadox5972]

I'm Muscovy and all the nomadic nations decided to ally each other, but Denmark or the Ottomans don't want to help despite being my allies and I can't expand anywhere.

[@abdallahelsharkawy3701]

listen I know this isn't ck2 but I can't find any vids about it for this idea now i am playing as the sultanate of africa and i am stuck between the ummayads(my kinda ussles but super strong allay ) and the taid ( abbasid successors) and all of Europe hates me as if i am Satan himself and I have no navy so no overseas expantion no expantion to the east not to the north currently I am trying to allay maly then try very despretly to improve my relations with the ummayads and cross my fingers hoping that they join the war to claim Egypt is there any thing else I can do bec. the taiads are bloody strong at this game

[@pylonbuffering8523]

does mulan come from milan?

[@axelandersson6314]

PylonBuffering Does Manga come from Japan?

[@Yallan]

PylonBuffering Do Arabic Numerals come from Arabia?

[@thewrongguy1]

no

[@pylonbuffering8523]

something tells me people took this comment seriously... it's just a play on words guys :\

[@sventibaldo]

Mulan was Chinese....and guess who bought the 2 football club of Milan? Exactly...the Chinese....just a coincidence? I don't think so.......

[@ChampenOnTour]

why do you play this game in 720p and not 1080`?

[@Pappyroys]

Hi, well if you don't want to expand to a different location than the one you "suppose to", for example Milan could form Italy and get cultural bonuses from Italian provinces, what i did to overcome the political deadlock as you call it, i found a way to attack an outsider that is allied to my neighbor, for example, if i play as Florence and Papal state is allied to France or Austria, to avoid a superpower choke me, i attack a German small state that is allied to Papal State and will most like drag them in this war. If that's not possible, keep an eye for a even complicated war, for example again, declare war on Holland who's allied to Bavaria that is allied to Papal State, and make Bavaria co-beligerant. Very complicated i know, but still, if you don't want to expand to a direction that doesn't fit your state for some reason, you can do that to avoid a Political Deadlock.

[@meandmetoo8436]

That or no CB some dudes around Alexandria.

[@ThePs3Gangster]

I'm Castille and trying to conquer Aragon but they're allied with France... I don't know how to attack them cause France will wipe me out quickly but I want to unite Spain! It's so frustrating

[@firstnamelastname489]

Foe anyone who has the same problem, just wait for the Iberian Wedding where you PU (That's Private Union, btw. It's when a king rules 2 countries.) Aragon.

[@alvarlindstrom2188]

No not private union🤣 it’s personal Union

[@puneetsingh9368]

If the year is between 1450 and 1530 then wait for aragon to have a regency council or have a queen then the Iberian wedding event will fire and choose the option to bind your dynasties then you will have aragon in a PU under you and after you get to admin tech 10 you can form Spain diplomaticaly

[@lassiora4683]

I played as france and castile, aragon and england made a triple alliance. my reaction : restart

[@meandmetoo8436]

I hade worse, played as Naples, and Aragon allied Poland (which made PLC in 1445), France and Austria during the first year...

[@milkmanlolzyo8658]

"what should you do in political deadlock?" idk just get good I guess.

[@mackycabangon8945]

I already formed Italy as milan

[@randomkanavajollaeiteemita4721]

In my naples campaign i managed to unify italy by 1610

[@madijeis4320]

In all of my games, Austria forms a long chain of allies. 90% of the time the weak point of the chain is Genoa.

[@yonokhanman654]

In most of my games Genoa is allied to Austria and Spain. So no weak point for me :/

[@hiimnotimportant.6203]

How many times does he say "deadlock" in this video?

[@mackycabangon8945]

It ruined my Malaya run. Ming was twice as strong and none of my allies would accept...

[@Iphlpapi]

DAARK, I NEED BYZANTIUM TO MY VEINS!!!!

[@liquidocelot64]

I find it easier to form Germany from Branderburg (or any other HRE nation), than to form Italy. It's just because the Italian region is so prone to political deadlock.

[@garth7825]

So basically like DDRJake always said. There is no CB like no CB.

[@perverse_ince]

Your flag would be perfect if you would be a german canadian xD

[@cortanax1407]

how to play austria

[@memebrowser_6249]

Lmao In one of my games Ragusa took over Bosnia completely 😂

[@Draco-kd7ti]

how is wallachia doing good for 1 time ?

[@damianmares5338]

Scumbag Joker I don't know, but I love that!!:))

[@Draco-kd7ti]

But no transilvania sadly

[@damianmares5338]

Maybe things will go well for wallachia this turn:))

[@Draco-kd7ti]

I hope so

[@erikthegodeatingpenguin2335]

There is an actual chance for an AI Romania.

[@InFiHax]

Luke-A or Lookha

[@vjorp5332]

When Otto ally France...

[@dubiouswatermelon159]

Vjorp It's over..

[@amirhanabishev8868]

Vjorp In my game Austria get union to PLC and after 100 years Spain get union to Austria. I like to play Granada

[@ptselios4275]

Flee to your colonies

[@SikkeOst]

Playing as prussia but im surrounded by poland, bohemia and a mega-alliance of north sea states like verden,friesland and hamburg (who owns brunswick and cologne)im dead lol

[@kings4845]

French and morrocan alliance while playing Castile

[@theshadowedking]

I always proxy war.

[@oldboy117]

random comment passing by

[@WilliamBlathras]

What about Byzantium Run?!

[@herdent1957]

I still think that Florence is easier for forming Italy

[@felixd.5876]

Another Scout Apprentice i think milan has stronger ideas(?) :)

[@victorvazquez9913]

i personally think savoy, milan or venice is easier since the neighbors of florance always ally astria, while the other have some fairly easy expansion points

[@digichu007]

Florence has pretty good ideas, but the start is pretty hard. Papal State usually rivals me for about 50ish years, and I usually have to start the Protestant Reformation. I don't understand how the starting OPMs always get an alliance with Austria even though I rival them and am allied to Austria... I think the hard part of Milan is getting to the Ambrosian Republic; my starting 1/1/2 infertile leader lived until 72 and his heirs (male and female) got the bad death events. Although expansion is a little easier, Mantua is usually locked out of alliances by rivals.

[@herdent1957]

victor vazquez I disagree only with Venice, because usually in my games Austria and Hungary rival Venice 90% of the time

[@victorvazquez9913]

in all four of my venice games, austria has always been friendly with me and once hungary was too, but i guess that just coincidence

[@JoeyfilmingTv]

It ain't Luck-ah, it's pronounced Loo-cha

[@MisoElEven]

xD i cant expand cuz i have 600 aggressive expansion xD

[@aow3834]

Master Killer now say that without playing ottomans

[@MisoElEven]

I created my own country (rome) just one province...

[@dankplays4377]

I came here because the Pope allied Spain and Austria.

[@microlobbies2378]

Dank Plays PLC got austria under PU and Allied my neighbours

[@christianbasa1513]

fucking ming removed me as tribute, how can i expand now?

[@christiancaporrimo147]

Trying to figure out how this video has so many thumbs up. Darkfireslide usually has good stuff, but this video is a total non-starter. There's no real advice here. More than half of the video is an anecdote that literally ends with Dark getting lucky with a France ally. So yeah, now you have France willing to attack Austria... that's great! How is this strategic advice? To break political deadlock, declare on a small nation "A" that is allied to the actual small nation "B" you wanted in the first place who is allied to the biggun "C". Separate piece "B" and force to break their alliance with "C" but only do that so your truce is short enough they can't re-ally "C". Then after truce is up, dow and have fun. This is the proper strategy to break up an annoying alliance. Only if there is no small nation "A" to pull this off should you bother "hoping" for a big ally that can help you attack the big enemy.

[@kylefrans9529]

why is he always puckering his lips

[@MichaelCorlew]

Stop zooming in and out like a maniac. 0.0

[@ChiefPaddy]

*opens EU4* *Chooses Switzerland, allies Milan and Palatinate* *Burgundian King dies* *Austria inherits the lowlands, allies Savoy and Baden, effectively deadlocking me* My reaction: „KZbin it is.”

[@darthmortus5702]

Darkfire, m8, WTF? Where is our Byzantium fix? It was too little before and now you are just starving us.

[@CutToTheCheese]

Man just get to the point......

[@gaearadan3379]

Please don't say "Lakah" again...

[@keizervanenerc5180]

in my ironman game where i formed italy as florance, i got stuck in political deadlock for 50-75 years after forming italy, since literary everyone was allied with Spain, France, Austria or the Ottomans. the only way i got out of it after all those years was that Portugal embargoed me, so i coupd declare war on them even though i didn't have a border/claim

[@Dazeencraft]

Political deadlock you say? Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Ragusa and Bavaria alliance VS me as France without any allies besides Poland who is constantly in war with Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Muscovy, Livonian Order and Prussia + Poland has 500 ducat dept and Lithuania is seeking independence. Fucking GG the only way for me to expand is either fighting the super alliance which owns like 1/3rd of Europe...or start colonizing North America as Portugal and England already control South and Central America. Good thing I took out Castille and Aragon early or I wouldn't have enough resources to think this as a second option.