Is TREBIZOND the HARDEST start in EU4?

Trebizond is one of the hardest starts in EU4 - mainly due to the Ottomans. The Komnenoi Empire achievement where you try to reclaim Rome and eclipse the EU4 byzantines or Byzantium is one of the most difficult, but most interesting eu4 achievements! Watch as I am constantly on the verge of bankruptcy whilst constantly at war! Not since EU4 athens and Eu4 Theodoro have I returned to this region!
Live on Twitch! - / thesocialstreamers
Join our Discord! - / discord
Help us out on Patreon: / thesocialstreamers
Follow us on Twitter: / thesstreamers
Shoutout to our Patreon Supporters!
God Ruler Tier:
Henriki
Cultcow
Jakeeey
Flyerton99
Emperor Tier:
Aeris
Cutaline
Of the Dragon
RedGuard76
King Tier:
MrShalltz
Kronik
Ignacio
Akemies
Brandon
Zrekz
Red Star
Family187
#eu4 #europauniversalis4

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Here's the Twitter for memes and more - twitter.com/theSStreamers

[@mrlkf315]

Wait the comment is posted before the video howww?

[@theevilmoppet]

Hey btw there's a trick you missed in the early bit, all it really does is increase your loan cap in a way. When your loans get larger, you can't take as many, so because you had like 20 loans already it put you really near bankruptcy. But the loans you could take were larger, so you can take one loan and repay like 4-5 with it, and narrow your debt down to 5 loans, even if the actual amount of debt in them is larger because of the interest on the loans you took.

[@Americano1175]

"While im constantly on the verge of bankruptcy" Ah, peak EU4 experience

[@BoraCM]

In my Trebizond game, I basically took a bunch of Georgia’s cores, and sold a province back to them for a lot of money. Apart from that, I used war to sustain my ever-increasing army size, which was necessary to get an alliance with Poland.

[@radec5437]

Which Is quite realistic lol

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Peak Laith experience too

[@125discipline2]

ottoman neighbor experience

[@jman1276]

I love a new series of Laith getting cyberbullied by the AI

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Uhhh, thanks?

[@Jarmint]

@@TheSocialStreamers u good lad

[@custos9209]

Just accept that you attracted a bunch of sadists as audience ^^

[@bankotsu2a]

@@TheSocialStreamers do you ever take the 1% burger lones? I can't see if you do take them/have the option to

[@elvastan]

Literal _cyber_ bullying

[@more17]

I love how Trebizond was an empire (a really small one, but still) but Paradox won't give them their proper government rank. Talk about disrespect. 😂

[@more17]

Also re "should I go Zoroastrian?" form Persia too for maximum cursedness. 😉

[@civi4ever460]

Well actually Ismail I's mom (first safavid shah) had familial roots in trebizond so, not that far off

[@danshakuimo]

Didn't they basically renounce the empire title when they renounced their claims on being the Roman Empire (which happened before game start)? And then again having the title is also based on other countries' recognition so it makes sense to have a achievement where you have to prove you are a truly an empire not in name only. Also to mention in Ireland there are duchy tier nations with "kingdom" as their cosmetic name.

[@justadult3493]

Trebizond was an Empire in name, but it wasn’t even 100% sovereign, because Empire was established by the Georgian King Tamar. She used instability of 4th crusade and conquered Trebizond, gave it to her family member and called it an empire. For quite some time, Trebizond was just highly autonomous vassal state of Georgia

[@ricardodiaz524]

İm from trebizond (Trabzon). Trebizond Empire was part of roman Empire. Trebizond ♥️💙

[@ranch2781]

"That weird little nation that claimed to be the Roman Empire." Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?

[@homoe7976]

I'm currently filling out the paperwork to declare my shed and garden the true heir of Rome.

[@wizstorm172]

But Trebizond where actually an off shoot of the Roman Empire.

[@damianmares5338]

@@wizstorm172 yeah, and so were like 4-5 other pieces of land , plus quite a few more that had literally 0 connections

[@wizstorm172]

@@damianmares5338 erm no not really Trebizond was a direct successor with a displaced dynasty that ruled over the Roman Empire so Trebizond did have connections.

[@philip8498]

"The people of trebizont only know war, bloodshed and financial hardship" Well, they are related to the greeks so thats unsurprising

[@afk6888]

As a Trapezuntine, I agree.

[@someonethatlikesyou7713]

@@afk6888 are you greek? or you just a turk that live there

[@BoraCM]

After all this time, you’ve finally made a Trebizond video, and for that, I am grateful. I was very interested in Trebizond, so I started a non-Ironman Playthrough yesterday. I expanded westwards, initially annexing all of Candar, before allying Lithuania (the PU with Poland did not happen in my game, so I was very lucky). I then declared war on Imereti, and realised that I could sell Georgia’s cores to it in exchange for some money to pay off the burghers’ loans, which I did. I sold Odishi, and cored Abkhazia and Guria for myself. My relations with Georgia didn’t sour enough for them to break the alliance, which was nice. I thought about decreasing my army size to deal with the monthly deficit, or deleting the forts in Sinop and Trebizond, but the easiest way to ally Poland (Lithuania was in debt at the time, losing a war, and had fewer troops, so I needed Poland as well to help in an offensive war against the Ottomans) was to build up my army size. If Poland did not rival the Ottomans, then I would not be able to hope for an alliance with them. I also waited for the Ottomans to go to war with Hungary or some other Balkan country (Byzantium was gone by then, and I didn’t ally them before because of lore-related reasons), and, when it did, with Albania, I increased my relations with it enough to ally it, pushing its opinion of me over +100, giving me the ability to unsuccessfully enforce peace on the Ottomans, and join the war on Albania’s side. I basically had to siege down whatever I could in Anatolia, and hope I got over 10 warscore, before the Ottomans turned around and came to my area, and I was able to get a province out of it, Canik, and 120 ducats. I tried to win a few naval battles with Venice helping, but I eventually lost most of my ships, and accepted that I could not force the Ottomans to stay in the Balkans. When I get Poland allied to me, I will feel more confident about declaring an offensive war against the Ottomans, including their allies, Tunis, Ramazan, and Tlemcen. By the way, it’s 1459 in my game, and I’m completely debt-free. I’ve seen a Trebizond Playthrough on KZbin, and they took out normal loans, which was painful to see, because loans from the burghers have a much lower interest rate, and increase their loyalty equilibrium, meaning that it’s easier to seize land from the estates, and pay back loans.

[@bioemiliano]

Selling provinces and then reconquering later, peak map gaming

[@beaub152]

Based grindset

[@BoraCM]

I also got really lucky with an event, and gained a general with these pips: 3/6/3/3 (fire/shock/manoeuvre/siege). He also had 3 stars, when assigned to my army, although I don’t know what that means. My other two generals weren’t so good, and had no siege pips. If I didn’t have this good general, I probably would not have been able to get away with a province and a bunch of money in the peace deal with the Ottomans, while they were still occupied with Hungary, Venice, and Albania.

[@empireofitalypsstimfromano5025]

@@BoraCM The Amount Of Luck

[@whiteoctober4582]

Long live the Komnenoi!

[@danshakuimo]

He literally changed dynasties when he accepted the pretender rebels

[@rush4in]

@@danshakuimo Nah, nah, it's a Shogunate-type situation that one. The imperial family is still there, just on a vacation or something

[@josephcola9662]

Honestly, after those orders to the AI, I fully expected something ridiculous like AI Lubeck restoring the Hanseatic League, the Pope going ham, or AI Ethiopia restoring Aksum. Edit: Apparently since it's cursed, another crazy thing that could happen is AI Ruthenia but Catholic... which is exactly what happened in my Mulhouse into Swabia campaign (fully decentralized the HRE for the achievement, which required wiping Austria off the map because even with only 4 provinces, all 7 electors were still voting for them).

[@Strawberry-be8id]

Galcia-Volyhenia Gains its indepdence and forms Ruthenia

[@josephcola9662]

@@Strawberry-be8id I actually had the AI Gallicia Volyhenia form Ruthenia in my Mulhouse run, lol. Unfortunately they were Catholic, so no Tsardom.

[@TheSocialStreamers]

I began to regret it when the Teutons started winning

[@Strawberry-be8id]

Catholic ruthenia is somehow more cursed

[@haekarlos1156]

In one of my italy games someone actually formed aksum idk how they did it i didnt know who formed it but it is most likely ethiopia

[@CoffeeSuccubus]

I once escaped to the new world with Theodoro as Trebizond It was glorious.

[@reirespecter]

How’d you go about it? When I tried this I easily no cb’d an Irish minor and was able to deter the ottos but could never work up the eco to make colonialism viable for me

[@thevpnloverusedtobearandom7324]

@@reirespecter when i tried it i expanded asap till i had a coastline, expanded along the coast, reaching the horn of africa and oman and giving the ottomans what they wanted. eventually i could colonise the indian ocean, and eventually, get to australia before the europeand could.

[@soren633]

I got the Komnenos Empire achievement after like 15 tries and god was it satisfying. Ended up expanding into Persia and lower Russia instead of reclaiming the Byzantine Empire. Became a very interesting campaign.

[@dimitrijepenjaskovic9374]

So basically you became the Seleucids

[@MyTomServo]

Can we have knock off Rome? No we have knock off Rome at home. Knock off Rome at home:

[@rush4in]

*Angry Komnenoi noises*

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Colour me OFFENDED, good sir!

[@MyTomServo]

@@TheSocialStreamers If this were Theodoro it'd be even more offensive. Can we have bargain basement knock off Rome? No we have bargain basement knock off Rome at home. Bargain basement Knock off Rome at home:

[@Arwilus]

Willingly allowing the Komnenoi to die out?! Disgusting...

[@TheSocialStreamers]

It was either they die or Trebizond dies

[@randyyy2609]

I love this series of "weird countries that usually get eaten quickly"! Please continue :)

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Glad you’re enjoying it!

[@sarmaticus9155]

What a coincidence I was trying out Trebizont too recently. However you already lost as you lost the Komnenos-Dynastie which would have been the rightful heir to the Eastern Roman throne.

[@asmrimperium]

Trebizond is my favourite country in the game, I hope you continue this series!

[@wizstorm172]

Same I’ve played them so many times but never successfully finished a campaign

[@Cheater5445]

"Now the worst thing that can happen is..." Self fulfilling last words

[@TheSocialStreamers]

I regretted them the second I spoke them.

[@GrafSchocola]

Ulm is actually a quite nice place to visit! If you ever make it over there, I'd recommend trying some "Maultaschen" or some "Spätzle" (both traditional Swabian cuisine) and washing it down with a glass of "Williams" fruit brandy.

[@griff5194]

Got lucky as Trebizond and defeated the Ottomans, got the achievement, restored Byzantium, and never played them since

[@zrader1]

To do this campaign I used a lesser known strategy called panic and hire as many mercenaries as possible to ally big nations so ottomans won't attack me

[@oyuncugucu250]

Finally The Eu4 video about my homeland. Thanks TheSocialStreamers

[@elmirelmiroglu7224]

2:57 Tom when IRS asks about taxes

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Trebizond will forever be my proudest playthrough

[@poeb2153]

Once again, an eye catching title and probably a good video. keep it up!

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Thanks! Hopefully you enjoyed it!

[@x2ernal357]

Hey guys, X2erNaL here, back with another Laith drip review: Today we have a pretty spicy yellow, black and white striped T-Shirt. This shirt definately cooks with some paprika, some hot chilli shirt, this shirt puts the "lifting spirits" into "shoplifting spirits". This is a pretty good shirt, on the dripometer about a 7/10, on the dripter scale about a 7.1, about 7 or 8 drips will be dropped when you wear this shirt, its not quite the absolute lake making, ice spiking drip machine that's the Christmas jumper but this shirt in all honesty possesses an above average amount of d r i p. Although it isn't quite the other 2 shirts, its not quite as dead as Casper Lee's youtube channel, so a calm and collected B tier S- Christmas Jumper A - Victoria 3 Shirt B - Yellow and white striped shirt C - Dark Grey Shirt D E F

[@TheSocialStreamers]

I actually live for these - the only reason I do facecam

[@rbereee]

i have never in my life played eu4 i just enjoy watching the colours change

[@melon_man_dan6888]

Idk, but I found this video funnier than the Athens one. I liked the facecam

[@TheSocialStreamers]

High praise! Thanks!

[@wizstorm172]

You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this.

[@realhawaii5o]

Inb4 a massive Aksum comes and conquers the Mamelukes, Tunis conquers Naples and Ireland unites.

[@leander4303]

You: one the verge of bankrupcy the game: you can take the high income mission

[@GastropodGaming2006]

finally, someone does a video on my main nation...

[@idontlikerome2744]

7:00 Little me starting my obsessive love for Rome back in the early 2000s

[@roedagardet]

You guys are honestly my favourite content creators

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Thanks! Really appreciate it!

[@IronWolf123]

Imagine being the Ottomans and some mountain state conquers all of the Caucasus in a few years. Oh, and did you select "Claiming provinces bordering provinces" as your age bonus?

[@TheSocialStreamers]

They’ve noticed. Nope!

[@Tiftz]

Most attractive map gamer

[@vicenteabalosdominguez5257]

I once tried a Trebizond campaign and I gotta say, my economic experience was just like yours. Also I managed to get an alliance with ottomans

[@lorenzorosi5555]

Trebizond is actually much easier than Byzantium itself in ironman.. in my game I ended up having about 100 years of bankruptcy and maybe 200 yrs of consecutive wars with a huge Austria.. but so funny to have komnenos relatives in France, Austria, Russia, England and Castile, that really made the game worth it

[@Christian_Sannino]

Great video!

[@rubenvanbelzen1217]

Yess please more of Trebizond! I once tried them, did ok(not financially) and took like 3 provinces from the ottomans one day. Only after the ottomans allied a strong France, I stopped playing because I was really boxed in. It is always nice to see people preform hard nations pretty well

[@beaversforlife1298]

the start was amazing with the orders to the ai xd

[@TheSocialStreamers]

The bastards still TRIED!

[@beaversforlife1298]

@@TheSocialStreamers they never stop

[@Vaelar2007]

video: About Trebizond Guy in thumbnail: Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos of The Eastern Roman Empire

[@kabobawsome]

Continue this campaign, please. You stopped right before a bankruptcy-disaster 1-2 punch.

[@captainfatfoot2176]

I tried this yesterday and managed to conquer all those little orthodox countries, vassal feed astrakhan, and conquer the north half of QQ. Also ate shirvan. It all ended when I got a peasant war followed by internal struggles while at 0 manpower and bankrupt.

[@grimm42]

Looks like you could do with a refresher on florrynomics. The crazy dutch mans way of handling debt and bankruptcy.

[@empireofitalypsstimfromano5025]

Last Time You Said "The Hardest Start" You Dominated And The Game Went As Strange As It Ever Got Before That Thing Between You And Burgundy

[@Goggez]

My Pontic ancestry approves of this!!!

[@latinbrotherhood495]

Pontus stronk

[@irontamgha8276]

Greetings from Trabzon brother

[@trevorking7083]

Ottomans join coalition. "Right then that looks like a good place to end the video!"

[@HighAdmiral]

Very fun video, you had my attention, it was such a shame when it ended.

[@sarauli7]

The Trebizond Empire was founded by King Tamar and used as a springboard against the Ottoman Empire.

[@castertroy2411]

Now i live there and we call there Trabzon

[@philip8498]

Laith is playing a small nation? I guess the Ai of every nation just got replaced by skynet

[@imperatorgub6681]

The real tragedy here is giving up the Komnenos dynasty (it was Alexios Komnenos that started the Crusades). That’s the main reason to play Trebizond. Love playing them. Usually get to where you are now before the whole world (Ottomans) turn on you and decide they’ve let you live a bit too long.

[@finnsstories5256]

To anyone seeing this,you are awesome.

[@shinyaltaria1388]

Thanks! You're also awesome for calling everyone awesome! Helps distract from exerstentialism!

[@finnsstories5256]

@@shinyaltaria1388 thanks

[@gaja9092]

@@shinyaltaria1388 gay

[@shinyaltaria1388]

@@gaja9092 I mean, you probably mean it in the childish insult that's homophobic, but in gay's original meaning of happy, yeah, I am feeling that way right now.

[@shinyaltaria1388]

@@finnsstories5256 you're welcome!

[@trapaap6862]

Hi laith! Know you won’t respond,but just wanted to say your my favorite EU4 content creator! Hope you have a good day 😄

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Thanks mate! Means a lot!

[@trapaap6862]

@@TheSocialStreamers no way you responded-so cool! : D

[@gangstaspongebob2995]

trebizond was essentially an army with a state

[@geodim3904]

Byzantium 2: Pontic Boogaloo

[@powersell8589]

one of the last roman rump states

[@joelkipp7698]

Please go for the Trebizond empires achievment.

[@jasongonsalves2704]

You ever get that feeling of Deja-vu.

[@deuce2293]

when playing in the caucasus it's terribly annoying that you don't have persia discovered from the start, so much diplomacy is missed out on from that

[@ThatsNotEnglish]

super down to see you go to Ulm lol

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Should be wild!

[@Southern_Gospel_Archives]

My family was from Trapezounta :D

[@minimart11723]

The easy win caucasian strategy is basically get to 8 provinces or so and ally muscovy within 10 years. Orthodox is the best religion in the game for that before the op manpower buff

[@matheusGMN]

Damn, let's hope those mountain forts can eventually save you when the ottomans start knocing at the door!

[@vampireknight5821]

ALL HAIL THE TRUE ROMAN EMPIRE!

[@irontamgha8276]

Greetings from Trabzon

[@sondrefrlich9307]

Inspired by this video I did the The Komnenoi Empire-achievment. So much pain. You're always piss poor with disloyal vassals and shit allies. Quantomans to the west, Qunturids to the east. Got the achievement by 1615, but boy was it a miserable experience

[@markothegamer441]

The empire that could good job with the whole conquering everything youre a real profesh player

[@overlord3083]

Watch scotland become next lotharingia

[@TheSocialStreamers]

No please

[@overlord3083]

@@TheSocialStreamers why not, would you not want to see scottish great britain? 😈

[@nikxsda]

a little sidenote if you guys are really going to ulm be sure you're in the right ulm bc we have ulm und new ulm right next to ulm

[@stevenstevenson6516]

Pls announce when both are in Ulm I will single-handedly drive there and introduce u to proper beer

[@lennart6111]

i am actually from ulm so yeah would be very proud if you'd actually go there

[@fiendish9474]

In russian playthroughs I like to vassalize Trebizond to make a pretty good buffer state in the Caucases. Playing independently as Trebizond though requires a love for pain

[@DummyFace123]

It actually had the most legitimate claim to the Roman Empire at the time

[@theodoroball]

It was basically a Roman successor state, but the dynasty was not the same i think

[@RevolutionaryCaptain]

i got their achievement by doing the old escape to italy trick when you no cb pope right off the bat.

[@harrylion6689]

Komnenoi empire is my proudest eu4 achievement

[@lightfallonthehead3842]

becoming strong in caucasia is pretty historically accurate, you get good economy relatively good millitary a... oh wait its the ottomans!

[@e_the_mans9853]

We need part2

[@kuziziy4262]

Fun fact, trebizond is trabzon in turkish

[@Dean00001]

*Making 999999999 Alts to make Him go to ULM*

[@pete2389]

Trebizond needs a mission tree

[@latinbrotherhood495]

Pontus stronk

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Indeed!

[@casssaph2287]

"anarchic state" you're killin me bro why that is not what words mean please

[@luculucu6520]

Holy shit, when are you gonna be in Ulm? I don't live far away from there and I really wanna go see you if you decide to go

[@joelmalec9904]

You know that you can get just a tad less AE by peacing out at the end of the year as AE ticks down in December and then there's less of s chance for a coalition

[@gamgamesplayer4506]

do a video in any nation but in your wars you can only accept the enemy peace treaty, and you can't make your own

[@memeteam2692]

Trebizond at least has weak neighbors they can attack early with some help

[@sketchye5943]

“Trapezuntine Circassia ”

[@ricardodiaz524]

Trabzon ♥️💙

[@alric8940]

Play Theodoro next

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Oh boy do I have good news for you if you type in “EU4 Theodoro”

[@alric8940]

@@TheSocialStreamers oh yeah I forgot you already did that My bad

[@borjanmladenovic8882]

Trebizond has the best flag ever

[@aram9167]

*Trebizond is the hardest start* Karabakh: am I a joke to you?

[@alender6200]

is there one video where laith doesnt sound like hes out of breath the entire time

[@TheSocialStreamers]

Welcome to the world of a microphone I haven’t figured out fully

[@sergeantmajor_gross]

I want more.

[@anubarak9184]

yeah let's go time to bully Laith into forming rome for real

[@guillermoc9957]

dude...that coallition is gonna destroy you D:

[@TheStickCollector]

Neat If I was more skilled I would do it

[@Bascan.999]

Trebizond is such an easy country after i played Avar Ardabil Saruhan and Candar i can say that trebizond has the easiest start

[@kopperbottom2803]

Me when I hear mountain general music