EU4 Idea Group Builds

For building nothing but military. :D
The builds, in text form:
THE NAPOLEON:
45% MORALE, 30% INF COMBAT, 105% DISCIPLINE
(Quality, Innovative, Religious, Quantity, Defensive, Diplomatic, Morale
Adviser)
Morale will be higher thanks to two sources of yearly army tradition from
Defensive+Quality.
Tech available: 22; Policies needed: 4
The Muscovite:
25% MORALE, 115% DISCIPLINE, +0% COMBAT ABILITY, +1 GENERAL DICE ROLL
(Defensive, Religious, Quantity, Offensive, Discipline Adviser,
Diplomatic, Economic)
Policies needed: 3
Tech available: 22
The Swede:
30% INF COMBAT ABILITY, 120% DISCIPLINE, MORALE BASE, +1 GENERAL DICE
ROLLS.
(Offensive, Quality, Quantity, Economic, Innovative, Diplomatic, Disc
Adviser)
Note: Morale will still be somewhat available thanks to Quality, but
otherwise it's not there. Consider taking Morale adviser instead.
Policies Needed: 4.
Tech available: 22.
The Prussian:
30% COMBAT ABILITY, 120% DISCIPLINE, +25% MORALE, +1 GENERAL DICE ROLL.
(Quality, Offensive, Defensive, Economic, Innovative, Diplomatic, +Disc
Adviser).
Morale will be higher thanks to army tradition from Quality+Defenisve.
Policies Needed: 3.
Tech available: 22.

[@McGliga]

130% discipline as Prussia/Germany FeelsGoodMan

[@yonokhanman654]

130% discipline as Ottomans FeelsBetterMan (5% National Ideas + 5% Janissaries + 5% Offensive + 5% Quality + 5% Eco/Quali + 5% Advisor)

[@nielsotte1296]

Yono khanman i got 140% prussian 10% discipline event ftw

[@andrewcurcillo]

I've gotten 155%

[@GamerproNL]

I GOT 160%!!!!

[@MK004200]

I got over 9000!

[@krisplovdivski5101]

OMG YES! I was waiting for this video since you announced it on your 10k subscribers video.

[@IlTerry89]

good job!you have gained a new Italian subscriber! keep up the good work!

[@Zatsando]

Great video! Those combos are mostly military oriented. Can you make something about colonize, make more money or maybe development cost? It would be fun for nations like ternate or Dutch or even primitive ones!

[@cainlolsson97]

I just realized when playing England that your profile pic here on youtube is the flag of Desmond... :P

[@Hilja1suus]

Cain Lolsson channel memes ftw

[@Drachnon]

Will you be making similar videos for trade and tall nations? This one seems to be focused on map painting which admittedly is very fun :P but sometimes you just want to do something different.

[@Terwano]

Trade/Tall If Merchant republic; i.e genoa, lubeck, venice, etc (Plutocratic, economic, exploration, offensive, maritime, defensive) - +25% morale, +25% force limit, 105% discipline, +1 leader rolls, +2 merchants (after confirm thallocracy) +x merchants from colonising, -20% Dev cost, Increased base Naval tradition (easy to maintain >70 with this) and policies to increase trade effeciency, privateering, ship cost, and ship quality. If you want to focus on trade then you'll do well with tons and tons of light ships to protect trade.

[@HabboRulezProducts]

Could you share that document? :D

[@_Shak]

Thanks man! :) Any chance you could link the text file that you have open in the video? (saves writing) :P

[@ogulcansandikci1716]

You could've included the merc cost reductions in the Swede build, special for Sweden as they have the traditions idea.

[@Ragarnoy0]

Do you have a guide for The Knights ? Could you make a video about them ?

[@Semislavia]

Dark! You should take a look at QUALITY ideas. They have been revamped and improved in the Denmark patch.

[@rollover101]

Could you do a video on protectorates, colonial nations and trade charters?

[@PhysicistGamer]

Should I take Innovative ideas as my third idea group playing as France ? I also have Diplomatic and Quality ideas

[@dimakapeev3156]

No! You lack influence`s AE reduction (you need it for Central Europe and Italy), also you may profit alot by taking exploration and getting some of the Americas, Economic is also a better idea group(reduced inflation and more income), also you need offensive/defensive( defensive will give more morale to stack with Elan and reduced army costs, while offensive will give you better leaders and more shock)

[@mkd2839]

You didn't account for plus 15 morale from the second defensive idea

[@AdvancedNoob40]

i did a simulation between these tactics. Every army is western, at tech 22 and has 30 infantries, 6 horses and 20 canons. Swede is by far the weekest because of lack of extra morals, muscovite is at 3rd spot. for the first spot i did 2 diffrent simulations. one is THE NAPOLEON has 1/1 general and The Prussian has 2/2 and the chances of The Prussian's winnings are around %65 but on the second test i put 6/6 general on each army and THE NAPOLEON had winning chance of %55. in sort :) THE NAPOLEON = The Prussian > The Muscovite >> The Swede

[@RedBull34xxxxx]

AdvancedNoob40 When a big part of the build is Forcelimit, it seems unfair to compare them like that.

[@kiwi4998]

It isn't because the Napoleon is just as loving to big armies, it seems fair to pit them with equal numbers

[@esbendit]

What about builds for things other than combat, such as for trading and/or colonise.

[@phlopsi3586]

Can you upload the document to dropbox/mediafire/google docs or anything and link it in the description?

[@BlitzNexus]

Could you rank discipline, combat ability and morale from best to worst (or most important to least important)? Thanks! Great video!

[@moardoor9772]

Discipline, then Morale, then Combat ability.

[@armageddon3315]

I recall Dark saying Morale>Discipline>Combat ability in this one video I can't remember the name of.

[@illican]

Equal percentages, Discipline>Morale>Combat Ability. Morale is worth ~0.75 discipline, and combat ability is just flat out the least important of the three.

[@krisplovdivski5101]

Should you improve your weakness or your strength? (Bulgaria gets -10% infantry cost/maintenance, +10% moral and +15% Infantry combat ability) I hesitate between The Napoleon (strength) and The Prussian (weakness).

[@sk8erboi876]

I would say The Prussian

[@krisplovdivski5101]

Thank you. :)

[@Bonczaable]

Can you make one about maximum possible cav. combat ability ?

[@BlazingMagpie]

t. Poland

[@TheKrankiss]

any advice ideas for japan?

[@ypsilondaone]

Could you Update this for the New dlcs plus patches?

[@Fairman25]

the first one would be amazing on the papal state... you would even have 115% discipline (extra 5% from military vatican library)

[@oilbucket]

great! was waiting for another episode! gj dark for answering my prayers

[@vuxigeck5281]

God DAMN IT.... 1-1 Oil Bucket..... The score is even.....

[@oilbucket]

2-1 for me right?

[@vuxigeck5281]

Oh yeah...I forgot.....Crap

[@oilbucket]

"forgot" sure m8

[@darkfireslide]

I suppose I'll always love both of you equally, though.

[@Riael]

You should make a video like this for custom nations.

[@moardoor9772]

the Idea groups, and Policies are still applicable to custom nations.

[@kalyanarc4467]

He thought WHAT TRADITIONS AND NATIONAL IDEAS TO TAKE AS A CUSTOM NATION in order to get different kinds of strong armies...

[@oldboy117]

Good

[@limon16025]

Wich are the best ideas for Holland/Netherlands if you don't want to colonize? I started with quality because everyone hates me, but wich ones do you recommend

[@kowo7795]

Lapland Mapping get france as an ally, take first defencive then offensive ideas, as well as trade ideas and influence ideas, influence ideas maybe first since your AE in this area (HRE, high developement provinces) is incredibly high. france is your shield, now get 3 more allies to fight the wars for you (like cologne and braunschweig at the beginning, later on maybe bohemia. instead of france you can take austria as an ally so if you take provinces from the HRE its unlikely they will return it. administrative and quantity ideas would be the next.

[@limon16025]

Ko Wo I already got Quality first, so influence will probably be the next one I managed to get an alliance with Denmark, Austria and France

[@doctorothon]

Lapland Mapping trade...

[@Tobeydude20]

yeeeesss

[@infintittie]

What would be a good build for Byzantium

[@frnkr-ze2db]

you cant go multiple ways i gennerally go for high morale cause byzantium has a lot of manpower and cheap mercs so doesnt really care about losing a battle

[@minertfl]

It's also fun to take diplomatic, aristocratic, economic and plutocratic as Hamburg into the Netherlands. You start out as a republic but then have to switch to a monarchy to get the aristocratic idea group but if you form the Netherlands you can switch to an administrative republic in the Dutch republic event for free. If you kept your Hamburger ideas when you switched to the Netherlands then with your national idea and the policies from these idea groups (and a very small amount of power projection less than 50, the righteous trait or simply taking republican tradition options in events) you can get more republican tradition over your ruler's term in power than you lose for reelecting them. This means 6/6/6 rulers pretty much all game!

[@kingdom99hearts]

Make Idea Group for Hessian Mercs.

[@CyanDreamSeller]

idea group setup for vassal feed? plus nation that will be best at it?

[@oldboy117]

CyanDreamSeller Austria

[@CyanDreamSeller]

i do not think so, austria is best for PU and vassal integration, lacks other than extra dip rep ways to keep vassals loyal

[@Micha-vi5yw]

Japan

[@CyanDreamSeller]

shogunate is great for many vassals but unfortunatly sucka at getting claims on targets as you do not get cb from your vassals.

[@CyanDreamSeller]

force limit increases, vassal income, force limit from vassals, relations, dip rep, dip annex cost reduction. anything more to add? if you play japan you need tk take all stab hits and just no CB everything (if you stay as shogunate)

[@phlopsi3586]

No thumbnail?

[@phlopsi3586]

I guess, I came too soon.

[@xxZitroxx]

I just finfished a tall prussia game (24 provinces most of the game, 25 later on to construct the kiel canal) and your "prussian build" is almost exactly what I used and let me tell you that you wreck with that. Yes technically I was a little short on manpower, but from the early mid game onwards I had so much money from the Lübeck (i took sjaelland from denmark mwahaha) node that I ran all merc infantry without any money issues. most of the late mid to late game I had around 90-100k troops that just wrecked everyone. Arties as many as combat width allowed, cav depending on flanking range up to a max of 8 (10 just before the end but who cares at that point) and all merc infantry for the rest (around 50k). No probs. Yea France had more than three times my army size, but who cares, when they cant stack that due to attrition. I could stack my 100k before battles because the attrition mostly affected my mercs, which I had more than enough money to reinforce. other than that i had two stacks close to each other. In one war in the early 1700s I stack wiped so many French stacks between 30 and 70k that they lost around 320k troops just from battles. That was fun. The only thing I struggled with was maintaining great power status in the very late game, when many people blobbed (7th place great power Shirvan ???) with the imperialism cb and once the institutions had spread everywhere. It was partly my own doing as I wanted to develop Berlin to 100 development just for shits and giggles, when developing more provinces to medium high development (40-60) would have been a way more efficient use of my monarch points. I still managed to take all techs and fill up all ideas though, so no probs on that part.

[@xxZitroxx]

oh provinces were the starting provinces + Neumark, Stolp, danzig, marienburg, ermland, königsberg, memel, stettin, wismar, lübeck, holstein, Schleswig, Hamburg, Stade, bremen, kolding, fyn and sjaelland. I took dithmarchen later for the canal.

[@sergiwhite9323]

Also, you can get a 5% bonus discipline if you are an absolute monarchy.

[@almightyful1]

Legit

[@seiban8455]

I see them when I close my eyes... the horrors... unspeakable horrors from the north! They fell on us with a ferocity the likes of which never seen by civilized eyes! Fear the Prussian armies...

[@thegreatwalrus6574]

Why is the script in on the screen?

[@darkfireslide]

The Great Walrus so that people can actually see the builds instead of me just spewing out numbers for 11 minutes

[@thegreatwalrus6574]

Why not just put them in the desc?

[@darkfireslide]

I mean I realize how unprofessional a notepad file probably looks but I figured people would want to see it as I talked about it. Like subtitles almost

[@redrabbit6533]

asking the real questions

[@platoonmexx9278]

i just made a game with marocco.... vassalized tlemcen, feeded them aragon, + all the other berber nations, and everytime i gave them land, they got illoyal!?!? even doe i had +200 relations ( +250, but it only can show +200) so i d like to know, why my vassal gets illoyal when i give him land, that he even claimed? 0.o its dumb that i allways had 2 use 20 prstige or more to make them loyal again, cous my rivals supported independence, and my vassal on its own had 25k troops + france + great britain + russia that was too much

[@_Belisarios_]

your vasal is most likely to big and wants to break free because he feels stronger than you

[@platoonmexx9278]

Martin Haller he had about 900 development while i had 2400

[@Zbigniew_czy_Zbyszek]

platoon mexx never feed vassals so much, 300 developement is usually max. Then u can annex them and make another vassal. After lastes patch its even harder to keep vassals loyal

[@nadimo500]

why did you even make vassals you should be the only country in north africa ally the ottomans and try to take back al andalus

[@Zbigniew_czy_Zbyszek]

i make vassals when i take provinces and have like 200% overextension, my record is over 550% when i got over half Ming in 1 war (as revolutionary France with dip and infuence ideas)

[@CyanDreamSeller]

Cav build?

[@CyNiiCaL_nR7Gaming]

poland aristocratic, quality ideas for best cav CA

[@CyanDreamSeller]

get Muslim tech group nation, kill poland, culture switch. see? and there is thing with cav flanking bonus, it's possible that cav flanking bomus is better than cav combat ability.

[@Badbentham]

I must say: I am not, after a few hundred hrs of play, the greatest fan of stacking up on morale. Compared to discipline and combat strength, it only allows the army to stall a battle for a longer amount of time, while under circumstances still suffering heavy losses. Also, mind you, for most battles +20% morale does exactly the same as +50% or even + 100% - where it falls not even into the category "win more" . I would rather have e.g. a few 100k more standing army around, that do mostly nothing, but at least CAN potentially do anything. It has some relevance at the beginning of the game, in preventing stack wipes. What could be achieved by fielding a larger army as well, I guess. Or, otherwise, if you pick quantity/ have tons of mercs, have a huge income, and do not care at ALL about casualties, in true Verdun style. It is no wonder that Defensive gives that morale boost, as it allows to better protect your own country. (Fending off the attacker) In offense, morale is definitely worse than combat strength/discipline/pips , however. Given the alternative of sustaining more beats, or hitting harder (discipline preserves troups, and at the same time reduces morale damage per round, to hit harder in future rounds ;) ) , in EU IV the decision, especially for later game, should most often not be too difficult. ( in comparison, I played TW Napoleon, where things might look a bit different) Alas, if I do the math correctly, +20% discipline >>> +40% morale. Overall, I even rather prefer the lackluster with some utility (and tech cost reduction = cheap) called Aristocratic (although it is close) over these shiny, but really only situational (e.g. many big neighbors who want to eat you) Defensive ideas that offer in a nutshell only tradition, reinforcement speed, and, yes! , morale. As a true battlefield tactician, you might fall into love with movement speed, for better positioning, however. At the moment, my rating of Military ideas would look like: 1) Offensive 2-4) (pick your preferred order, all 3 can be good) Quality/Quantity/Plutocratic 5) Aristocratic 6) Morale (err, Defensive) 7) Everybody`s darling, last and least, Naval Of course, this is just my personal opinion- if someone likes to crunch numbers, I would like to listen. However, so far, I do not see the sheer awesomeness (compared to other factors) of having tons of morale.

[@darkfireslide]

Badbentham in my current Byzantium game, thanks to stacked morale and a tech advantage I stackwiped about 40k enemy troops while only losing about 2-4k of my own. Was glorious.

[@darkfireslide]

Badbentham Also, the problem with not having any morale bonuses means you are likely to lose battles even if you inflict more casualties. Which can lose you warscore and even get you stackwiped