Most Fun Nation to Play in Europa Universalis? EU4 Fun Tier List

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

Join my discord at: discord.com/invite/aDfwx9r !!

[@hh8575]

two headed white eagle is SERBIA,you mf!

[@ominousflames14]

Pretty sure Desmond isn't an Italian minor ;)

[@bleedingrevenge12]

Eh, potato/tomato

[@norcofreerider604]

@@bleedingrevenge12 I see what you did there.

[@riccardoiani]

No Desmond Is in Italy i m italian and i know where Desmond Is

[@zrnocap9101]

@@riccardoiani there is also a city called Desmond in irland lol

[@riccardoiani]

@@zrnocap9101 i was ironic

[@glewstick6655]

i recently played as the teutonic order to get the “baltic crusader” achievement and i was shocked by the lack of flavour. it was pretty easy to avoid the Danzig event, and there’s no missions or events for them, so it was pretty boring to get the achievement

[@windwind3170]

Agreed. They should get mission trees that give them claims on Russia as well as conversion specific bonuses

[@toreq1127]

Yeah their historical importance is terribly forgotten

[@noreturn2231]

To be fair, the Teutonic Orders importance in historical context predates the Eu4 timeframe. They aren't really a major player anyway so I think the Danzig event is fine when it just comes to historical flavour. But I agree that they should've gotten a mission tree in the free polish update back then. Crusading the East, taking the holy land, smashing the Hansa.. Theres Lots of historical content to take ideas from, even if their missions would all be alternate history

[@anonvideo738]

at 1444 they were already seriously damaged by the Battle of Grunwald. Their two most relevant events are the danzig event and turning into prussia and getting PUed by brandenburg.

[@toreq1127]

@pioco56 they are absolutely not, right now they either die in the first 10 years or somehow survive and start killing poland

[@defenestrationwindow7827]

FYI if you form spain with catalan/aragonese culture you keep aragonese missions

[@defenestrationwindow7827]

It isnt a bad thing considering they give you claims to mare nostrum

[@Jayako12]

@@defenestrationwindow7827 yeah but you can just easily culture shift to Andalusian and have both trees

[@scorpionfiresome3834]

I realized i have no life after recognizing almost all the nations shown.

[@jeweledmacaw7747]

Nah we are just cultured

[@harrypjotr4075]

You sir, have the best life one could ask for! The life of someone interested in geography and history, living in the age of gaming, what could be better?

[@m_uz1244]

@@harrypjotr4075 A girlfriend. Also just friends

[@FifinatorKlon]

​@@m_uz1244 As someone with a girlfriend and a somewhat functioning social life I can guarantee, you don't miss much. The flag thing is cooler.

[@m_uz1244]

@@FifinatorKlon as someone with also both of those, yeah you do. It really depends tbh and obviously it's better to have both but if I had to choose I'd take the social life.

[@agreatmanlookingtotheright]

I have no favorite I just do achievenments and then never play the nation again due to the trauma from the run.

[@karolyvasvari3230]

Sadly i can relate :/

[@furkanunsal1131]

we are directly opposite type of players. i have 800 hours now and have no achivemants. i generally pick a nation and play it over an over again until i perfect it and feel i have completely experianced everything about it. nowdays i play germany.

[@furkanunsal1131]

loved your profile name btw

[@zrnocap9101]

Lol

[@Lagiachamp23]

Punjab is such a guilty pleasure pick. I desperately wish Sikhism was strong enough for mp but as far as a single-player play through goes the flavour events around the gurus and their buffs, the independence war in the beginning and your rise as Sirhind until you convert to Sikh are super fun. But then by the 1600s I'm bored again and India is already almost conquered. Might as well have just played Mewar n formed Rajputana.

[@SebHaarfagre]

I played as Gujarat once, to meme being one of the strongest trade nations in the game, and also went republic and focused building tall. It was quite a lot of fun and a decent challenge. However, I couldn''t resist expanding and eventually went away from being a republic :p Pirate Malay is the by far funniest in this regard. Otherwise I haven't played in the India Superregion (before there weren't much diversity there, and after it got added I did other things). There's a few North Indian minors that get some cool ideas I might want to try once. White Elephant was a lot of fun.

[@Lagiachamp23]

@@SebHaarfagre South East Asia updates gonna add a lot more flavour

[@SebHaarfagre]

@@Lagiachamp23 Yeah I've been paying attention to that, seems quite good to be honest Done playing most countries/cultures in that region but let's see what new achievements they add and I need to check the mission trees for good vassal material ;)

[@pinklasagna8328]

They are gonna update Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and totemism I think

[@decrexendo]

This is a great idea for a video! I only really disagree with the placement of Lithuania, as you can culture convert easily into Ruthenia and get tons of modifiers that last until the end of game between both mission trees. Also the uncommonwealth achievement can be interesting for a shorter playthrough.

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

Good point!

[@KKsKrissvs121]

I would have put France in S tier, but i blob like crazy with them, along with Ottomans. These nations are so strong that you can do big meme stuff with them. As France you can Form any nation in europe, a fun one is Russia, by 1530. As Otto you can pick any religion, swap to it and live the meme. Aragon is similar to France but slightly weaker start. Also You can do Castile-->England for PU on France. Then form Spain or GB. Makes England as good as GB for me since its not Endgame and gives PU on France.

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

Good take !

[@kevinboros7427]

Yeah, I guess for players like you they would be S tier. But personally for me, I don't like doing atypical stuff, like cultural shifts or forming Russia as France/blobbing out of control. I like to keep a sense of historical accuracy, and I mostly play to create a story. So much so that when the AI makes a peace deal with shitty borders I tag switch to them and make the borders look better.

[@Midnight_Metro]

@@kevinboros7427 I still don't understand why he didn't give Ottomans S tier for the same reasons as Austria. You can expand in any direction you want with the Ottomans and you have an extensive mission tree, it's the Austria of Asia Minor.

[@kevinboros7427]

@@Midnight_Metro Maybe he thinks they are too easy and simplistic? I don't really know. I do like them, but more like a challenge when I play a nation in the vicinity. My first EU4 run was the Ottomans, ah good times, I ran into the Mamluks with a 100k stack... Most of it died due to attrition.

[@Shayrin2]

Good tier list, I think I totally agree. No barbary coast nations tho, I think Tunis and Maroco are quite fun, but it's been a while since I played them so I can't remember the flavor they had. I guess I'd place them as B or C tier, probably C thinking about it. Nice video, keep it going !

[@FatheredPuma81]

I'd say D00 is easily by far the most fun country to play as.

[@idkwhatishouldmake]

C00 is more fun tbh

[@agustinherrera9415]

Forming Tuscany does not remove republic anymore. I played it for rpg with the Medici, kept a republic but always selected Medicis as rulers. One of my best campaigns. Formed Italy reslly late and had a 4000 development Polishlithuanian Commonwealth as a rival. I played tall so I didn't have a very large army and lost the discipline for Florence ideas so there were like difficult wars every five years till I defeated them (there were coalitions of all germany involved, so it was a hars but reslly fun late game)

[@maras3naraz]

w8 what??

[@THEJustinOfAllTime]

"For casual EU4 players" EU4 has casual players?

[@2ndGenBen]

Eu4 has bob ross map painters

[@2ndGenBen]

@hello some people are shit at eu4 lol

[@skeptic781]

@hello I always play at normal because I don't like the ai cheating

[@skeptic781]

@hello Thanks for the tip, I usually get quite bored when I dominate. I will try this out and then decide what I think.

[@sonwig5186]

@hello I only play on normal because I suck and also because I really don't enjoy fighting constant wars vs 2 million coalition forces post 1600.

[@mibikchellaimibikchellous2238]

Being a Chinese person proud of their history, it really pains me to say that, yes, Ming is boring for most players due to limited playstyle, so i really just wish for them to improve the mandate of heaven to be less restrictive, since historically the mandate of heaven was a great thing! i really wish they add a feature where you can select a specific button on teh mandate that could allow you to play differently, like "Cosmopolitan", and "Legalist" and "Isolation". Cosmopolitan being more focused on trade, and tributaries and have things like higher prestige, higher trade steering and effeciency, but not neccessarily limited by expansion, by giving fast mandate increases for expanding your empire and having lots of trade nodes either dirrectly or through vassals and tributaries, and the high mandate giving your different buffs, selecting this would also have debuffs, like higher liberty desires, or lowering how fast devastation decreases. Legalist is the classic blob playstyle, where it is more focused on military expansion, it again gives mandate increases with how many provinces conquered, but since its based on provinces it'll be much faster, and has more bonuses, like infantry combat ability, it'll also allow you to make buildings faster, cus historically more legalist and expanisionist chinese empires like the Qin were great an conscripting men to build stuff. I dunno what the debuffs would be, higher unrest? or lower mandate increase in general Isolation would be the state that Ming is in at start of 1444. isolationist chinese dynasties were more or less cultural powerhouses, so idk, it makes institutions spread faster, higher prestige, more Monarch points, and shorter building times and cheaper buildings and faster mandate generation passively, basically how you play in normal eu4 rn, where you build up tribs and just wait for mandate. This however gives the worst buffs, as you institutions are slower, lower force limits, and worst trade, and it's more expensive for ideas. so the main purpose for Ming players would be to build mandate, get out of isolationism, fight noble rebels, and disloyal subjects, then choose either blob, or trade. It would also be more interesting for countries like Qing, which could choose the more legalist, or cosmopolitan options

[@aidanwerner7759]

the main problem is that in the hands of a player, a less restrictive ming would be insanely op

[@christophercyr1460]

China banned eu4 so paradox doesnt care. Same thing happened with hoi4

[@houseking9211]

at least manchu to qing is fun

[@techelitesareadisease8816]

I really wish the Ming played like a far more centralized Japan. Where, as long as mandate is high, your vassals (those being regional governors) would be totally subservient and give a ton of bonuses. But if mandate starts to tick down, they get more and more uppity, until eventually you have to start putting down full blown rebellions, and if things get bad enough you implode and all vassals are de facto independent or waging war for the mandate. That way you could start off as non-Ming Chinese nations and your gameplay would revolve around trying to lower the mandate so you can usurp the throne or do a clean breakaway. Probably not historically accurate for the Ming era at all, I legit know nothing about that dynasty, and have no clue how centralized the state was at the time. But I think they have to stretch the historical accuracy a bit if Ming/China is going to be any fun in EUV, whenever that comes out however many years down the line.

[@KingOfTheHollows]

why did they ban eu4 lmao wtf@@christophercyr1460

[@Stickmanlolz]

It's pretty weird how you didn't include Morocco or Tunis, there are many ways that they can be played which makes them very fun.

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

ya you are right, I just played as both recently too lol

[@2009worstyearever]

I'd say Bohemia is mostly A tier because by 1520 or so you will have completed all your missions and with your PU over Poland and Hungary you cant be touched. and then there isnt much to do except a WC. Even if you want to paint Europe into Hussite its done so quick it becomes boring.

[@maxmclain7781]

You know you have too many hours in eu4 when you know all those flags

[@brianvieane3907]

I'm actually surprised with Commonwealth. They are pretty powerful but agree that you mostly get stuck in Europe before blobageddon stage of the game and it's end game tag. I'd give it a c+. Since the winged hussars are crazy fun.

[@blafoon93]

I really liked your tier list, I think you did an excellent job. A few choices would be different for me but that's just because I value different things in my campaigns. In general I feel that single player will always get boring quickly because even starting as an OPM you nearly always can be #1 on the great powers list within 100 years, maybe 150 years if you had a rough start. So for me the best starts are those that put me in life or death struggles very early in the game. I want a nation that has to fight a superior enemy, but while being disadvantaged still has some agency to actually make plays. So starts like Wallachia, Albania or Byzantium where you fight the Ottomans while being significantly weaker, England 1vs1 against France, their vassal swarm and their allies while you get to enjoy a disaster, Teutonic Order because fighting Poland-Lithuania in 1444 is possible thanks to your forts and amazing traditions, these things require skill but do not depend on restarts and your ability to play the first 5 years will decide your entire campaign. Other fun starts are any nation in Ireland, Japan or Mexico just because it's literally battle royal in those regions. Even though Ireland is too easy if you have a bit of experience it is still fun to see your nation growing so fast and figuring out a way to defeat the English is interesting, especially when your campaign is as cursed as my Offaly campaign where they allied the Scots after winning the 100 years war and took a few provinces in France. For all the above reasons I hate playing in India, the nations are either super strong right from the start or boxed in by powerhouses that are so strong that you actually just cannot fight them early on. Mughals is still fun of course.

[@MichaelCGames]

First video I see and I immediately see a separate tear for Ming got my sub.

[@Kishlander]

Kilwa has to be my personal favourite for campaigns outside Europe .

[@blackpaint9093]

Bengal for me

[@JohnSmith-bs9ym]

What’s good about Kilwa?

[@Kishlander]

@@JohnSmith-bs9ym gold everywhere, you can get 5 gold mines pretty quick. It really helps kick off a campaign. And the false end node you can make out of zanzibar. If you can control most of the Cape node you can basically lock the Europeans out of the indian and Pacific oceans and steer all the trade to zanzibar. If no one else controls the cape node nothing can be steered out.

[@butatensei]

USA actually has a ton of unique events, permanent modifiers from those events and two unique governments it can get through those events. All from the American Dream DLC. The only issue is that none of them can trigger until like the last fifty years of the game...

[@mihajey260]

The one with the eagle you didn’t know is serbia

[@tulip5658]

Florence:tuscany is the best Italian nation just because of their ideas.

[@grindelz]

I've played Florence countless times

[@alpaca9994]

I would say it's Genoa cause of the directions in the world u can go: Anatolia, Italy, Iberia , Arabia and hordes

[@blackpaint9093]

@@alpaca9994 and the steppes. In a genoa campaign i litterally reached china through central asia and russia lol

[@jordinagel1184]

Important thing to note: you do NOT get the Spanish mission tree when you form Spain as Aragon

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

You have to cultivate shift to Castillian culture first then you will

[@jordinagel1184]

@@AbsoluteHabibi oooooh, okay. Not sure why they felt the need to do that (the Aragonese are just as Spanish as the Castilians, Andalusians, or Cantabrians), but thanks for the heads-up

[@adriangalisteo1645]

Not need to be castilian, just not aragonese or catalan culture and you get Spanish mission tree. The easyest is to change to occitan or napolitan

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

adrian galisteo or Portuguese

[@anonvideo738]

I would put Oda in S tier. Super fun to play. Constant warfare, constantly having to take tricky wars without getting yourself killed, having to constantly adjust your situation as alliances change, have to deal with the bigger daimyo's, feels like a challenge to where good EU4 skills are rewarded. And once you manage to become japan you can carry over your god idea set as a reward.

[@Cecilia-ky3uw]

Now thst i look back at oda, those ideas are damn powerful, land fire is insane

[@edim108]

My TOP 3 are Poland, Russia and Milan. Poland offers a lot of ways to play: you can go for diplomacy and become HRE Emperor, you can go east and replace Russia, you can go Crusading south, you can go North and even Colonize. Russia is great for those days when you just want to Blob and throw manpower at problems untill they cease. Milan is potentially very powerful, it has unique govt. and its starting position is very interesting having to balance between powers much greater than you (France, HRE, Ottomans, Spain). Milan -> Italy is challenging but really fun.

[@MaNU7908]

I missed Venecia in this post, one of the most fun runs Ive ever done, and I learnt a lot about trade, subjects and clientelar states. Also Cebu is an awesome OPM to play. Specially for the tiger of the phillippins achievement, very very fun and I learnt a lot about tech and navy management

[@damianmares5338]

Years ago when EU4 was released I watched tons and tons of campaigns on YT for this game and I was absolutely into what the community was doing with this game. About 3 years ago I got myself a pc that could actually run the game without problems I got the game and since I've been playing tons of campaigns , but because of that the YT campaigns of this game became too frustrating for me to watch . I know that you like very much your nomadic France of manchu culture and Inti religion, but god damn these things bug me so much. I like the creativeness that this game inspire to people tho, even if it makes me mad sometimes at the abominations they create, and it is interesting to see that many of the nations that I like playing are much liked by others, tho for completely different reasons. I don't think that any of you EU4 players would ever enjoy playing EU4 the way I play it , but I do like to now and then plunge into YT and see what else the EU4 community found about how they can abuse it's mechanics and do some stupid shit and having fun with it edit: PL Commonwealth got a low grade in this video "*sad winged hussar noises*"

[@yourusualtryhard3223]

I love developing my country. Like country building is absolutely my fav thing to do. Especially when you have a professional army

[@zarlay255]

I m from burma (taungoo in eu4) And i attempted taungu achievement and i got it. I just wanna say, to get the achievement, u dnt need to loan abuse (hey, there were plenty of loans tho) and after u get the achievement u can still play the campaign. My inflation was like 15 and i just bought it down, taungu has core creation cost reduction, so u might have spare admin to buy down inflation (Dnt forget to consolidate ur loans)

[@raresechimenco6993]

Since 1.29 you don't lose mandate from non tributaries, soo qing ming and yuan can just conquer everyone

[@AugustSchroif]

The most fun I've ever had with EU is when I was playing as Austria with an intent not to just blob and eat everything around me asap. but to try to stuff HRE with as many tags as possible. That was a very unique and refreshing change, because you have to always plan your expansion so as not to consume OPMs and constantly wage wars for liberation of tags so as not to let them disappear.

[@clashiii3852]

You should get a music on that intro, nice video tho

[@LallanTheThird]

The Commonwealth can be incredibly rich with the Baltic sea trade, and polish ideas are really strong for cavarely armies. I believe, for me, poland-commonwealth is a really fun nation to play especially since u have much to do. You fight russia ottomans and you are in a really good position going for emperorship and with the Elective monarchy you are the master of PUs.

[@TheSharpboy]

You can also expand to constantinopole node. Easily in 50 years you can be the most dominant power there and Ottomans are very easy to beat as Poland, just ally Austria, Venice and Hungary if it didnt rival you.

[@Cecilia-ky3uw]

How do elective monarchies interact with PUs

[@BullyHunter501]

7:34 ok i got a little hurt there because i belive poland (and polish-lithuanian commonwealth) have one of if not the most unique gameplay in eu4, not only their they have one and only kind of government in eu4 but they also get free claims on everything and everyone around them realizing which gonna take decades, they also get interesting events and CAN get good(ish) trade node early which is baltic sea trade node and later lubeck. that might be subjective (because i am polish and i kinda know history so it might just be more interesting for me) but still poland (and polish-lithuanian commonwealth) shouldn't be lower then B tier :/

[@Hussar88]

my favorite way to play poland is to take the 6/6/6 ruler, go orthodox and form ruthenia but keep the polish ideas

[@alperisler5353]

Bohemia has access to gold mines and their new mission tree grants pu over poland lithuania hungary and austria so if you know what you are doing bohemia is actually GOD tier you dont need trade to have fun you can exploit gold mines you can fight ottomans and steal their money you can fight russia and steal their money and you can expand into lubeck later in the game which is one of the richest trade nodes so they definitely deserve being S tier in this guide

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

Check out my identity crisis campaign. You finish the Bohemia tree in 100 years then you most likely will tag switch, I don’t think a nation that you most likely will tag switch out of deserves a S

[@hashimbokhamseen7877]

yes. Desmond my favorite Italian tag.

[@klaasvaak2575]

have to update your list with horde byzantium with SS tier?

[@nnon_existantt]

theres a prussia joke in the ss teir somewhere

[@AR0ACE]

@@nnon_existantt oof, good one

[@KofteG61]

I think the Balkans, Anatolia and the Levant could use an update. Especially Greece and Rum. And ottomans need new missions. It would also be nice if you go revolutionary as ottomans that you change into Turkey.

[@zekemiller548]

The biggest meme in this video is your chrome tabs/bookmarks

[@AwesomeJanis]

Kurland has a colonial range idea, challenging a player to do a Baltic coloniser game. Worth a mention.

[@SebHaarfagre]

I always remember wanting a reason to form Kurland, did they change their ideas? Might be fun to try out - also in retrospect, their position cobined with the ideas is quite interesting (if it's still somewhat trade related)

[@flimpeenflarmpoon1353]

Ottomans are boring? They have the most options at the start, you're in a position to do anything you want, can go Orthodox, Catholic, Coptic, Shia, can play in the HRE, can colonize if you're a weirdo, can rush to India etc

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

This is an opinion video bro, ottomans haven’t gotten a single update in three years. Three years ago I’d say they were the most fun but rn it’s boring for me

[@maxterhex]

Ditmarshen is another honorable mention. It's have uniq goverment and uniq CB, also some fun uniq missions with tasty permanent modifiers. And also when u complete ditmarshen missions, u can form some Germany (or/before it, I believe, Prussia, if u culture shift, but not sure).

[@Dragonnoodle1]

This video gave me some good inspiration for new campaigns to play! Could you do a hardest nations to start as tier list?

[@SebHaarfagre]

My favourite March ever is Astrakhan. Not only do they have a lovely colour, but the Tatar mission tree is absolutely bonkers insane. The amount of permaclaims is ridicolous, and not only that, you will get Ilkhanate as yet another vassal if you complete their missions. (It's their vassal but will get instantly transferred to you) My second favourite March (vassal) is Novogorod and I think Novogorod would be S tier for multiplayer because of mission tree (and being republic)! All those options for what to do, and the amount of diplomacy you can do... Never played Astrakhan, tried Golden Horde once but that was sooooooooooooo many patches ago and Muscovy and Ottomans did an unholy alliance and roflstomped me, with Poland-Lithuania coming in for seconds so I paused that one. Did a Crimea one but the save got corrupted. So I haven't touched Tatars until I had Astrakhan in a Rev. France WC lol. I almost finished their mission tree, they lacked China and a few provinces in North China in the mission before that, but I took the provinces and needed to finish WC instead of memeing. Palatinate and Thüringia should be TONS of fun due to mission trees! Check em out :D Also fantastic vassals (if playing west of HRE) to have. Ingolstadt and Hesse should be other great choices either for vassals or having SP fun. Franconia, Bavaria and Saxony minors all get cool trees. As well as other German minors. Edit: And can later form Franconia, for instance (with a few new missions I think, focusing on France) Austria is quite boring IMO. Way too strong, not fun. And the gameplay is the same every single time. OH and Dalmatia/Croatia can be quite fun too :) (maybe a bit harder at least if Dalmatia - though they get a bit better ideas I think) Or Two Sicilies with their new tree

[@tigrecito48]

Most of the FUN nations I've played are custom nations where I start with one province and then roleplay in my head... usually an ancient nation that no longer exists in the game... I did: Sparta, Vikings, Khazar Empire (Jewish), I'm playing as the Hun now (Attila's Capital near Poland/Hungary), Tibetan Warrior Monks, Golden Horde Mongols starting around Samarkand, USA starting in Manhattan, Inca (with free colonist so I can quickly spread around South America before the Europeans get there), Babylon where I turned Syria into a HUGE March

[@Tyro555]

I think you really underrated Lithuania here. They have a great starting position and you have a few options- PLC, obviously, but you can form super Prussia by culture shifting or a west leaning Russia. Personally, I've tested the Russia route and aside from tech disadvantage I have so many more options for expansion. Definitely a good intermediate player choice, especially to experience culture shifts

[@Noschool100]

Burgundy has always been my favorite, it's a weird underdog between France and hre but it was the first nation I really played after understanding most of the mechanics years ago. It has only gotten more interesting over time.

[@escocyan]

I still gotta figure out how to survive as burgundy

[@MYPSYAI]

Norway is probably my favorite single player. You get the HRE, with a supercharged navy and free exploration. Use all that to rush the Caribbean and steer trade all the way to Lubeck, while chewing on Denmark and Sweden for hardly any ae.

[@S4ltyTar0]

I've checked through the comments, no one has corrected you on Smolensk so far. You called Smolensk as Polotsk, but still got their ideas right.

[@oFalKs]

Bahmanis->Deccan is really strong, with Deccani ideas and shia(alongside the ability to convert provinces using your trade node for being sunni), and later own forming Hindustan for their missions (but keeping Deccani ideas) --- solid B tier for me

[@eqaruss]

It's really good The only problem is you have to wait for admin 20 to form deccan

[@Zakhath]

Nepal was the Prussia of India for a long time. This changed with the big India patch and DLC. That is why it still has that reputation.

[@timamora868]

Id bump France up u can do so much because of the great mission tree. Also an interesting part of France is that some mission makes you gain what makes the nations u defeat strong. For example professionalism from switzerland or again moral of navies for england. Lets not forget the indian route the polish/russian one and the pus casus belli either.

[@tobiasladdarn1959]

Your pronounciations and english is on point man. Really cool. Great video as well

[@blafoon93]

Playing England and 1vs1 fighting France at the start while going through war of the Roses is actually really a nailbiter now even on normal difficulty. It's so intense and so much fun, the fact that I won the last time because I dropped 12k onto Narbonne, barraged it with the navy and assaulted while the French were sieging back Paris and the rest of northern France just to carpet the south and barely scrape together the warscore to get the PU... it took me two hours and 3 tries until I fought a literally picture perfect war to make it work and it felt like a real achievement. For a similar feeling of achievement in EU4 I usually play campaigns that last 2 weeks. Afterwards the game got boring fast though, stealing Norways PUs and cleaning up Britain was more of an afterthought and from that point onwards I was simply unstoppable, so it will probably end up another campaign I'm not going to finish because it's not that much fun to finish the GB mission tree and develop everything to 25 dev or whatever.

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

There are a lot of flavor events throughout the world with Great Britain like the Opium events if you hold land in India and start fighting Ming/Qing. I get what you mean tho, many players don't find administrating a big empire with no external challenges a fun experience.

[@blafoon93]

@@AbsoluteHabibi I found playing Mughals after starting as Oirat and getting Pax Mongolia mission passed really fun. -15 base unrest actually makes for a really relaxed experience even as a huge empire. 300% OE is not a problem, barely an inconvenience.

[@RsgNoise]

Ottomans not being in s tier ? Strong ideas, start, govt, trade node, culture, missions, religion (even orthomans) and they're the definition of going in any geographical direction

[@swi7chback]

Lithuania is actually pretty decent imo. You can get PUs on Poland and Russia, through the mission tree, then after you form the PLC and switch to the Polish missions, you also get PUs on Hungary and Bohemia too. Seems pretty fun to me.

[@brianvieane3907]

As Novgorod you do need to test it and and try a few times. One of the easier ways to get going fast is doing the trade war with Russia or if you get lucky you can get a Lithuania alliance then wait for favors or promise of land. The issue with Novgorod is that they need to buff merchant republic's, it's terrible after early/mid game. I haven't played it since emperor I don't think they changed it though. But to get the achievement you can get it earlyish before English channel or Sevilla node gets too strong. I got it by conquering all of central Asia and normal Russian stuff. Then built a workshop and manufactury literally everywhere even in non state lands. Then used a light ship mega stack to privateer. English node then slightly got it. Also if you form Russia England gets an event to get a decent amount of trade powder that you can't get rid of in the white sea.

[@SebHaarfagre]

Novgorod gets some really interesting missions :) It's their own "Veche Republic" is it not? Only had them as vassals, and of course they were released (one province) so started as a duchy iirc. By the way, with the new trade company restrictions (or ease of), you should be able to form some trade companies upstream to help boost your home node (remember the +trade value building instead of the other 1000g ones - or steering if desperate)

[@brianvieane3907]

@@SebHaarfagre I tested it out, they made merchant republics way better now and actually fun to play the achievement is a lot easier now. However they need to redo the factions since the estates got Uber buffed.

[@SebHaarfagre]

@@brianvieane3907 Oh yeah that's right, haven't played any non-estate countries since that Austria patch. You're right.

[@brianvieane3907]

@@SebHaarfagre they actually changed merchant republic's it's way better now they took out state limit but replaced with increase core cost over limit or something. Novgorod is also way easier due to mercenaries being a lot cheaper early in the game . It's not hard to get a game going first try as them now. However merchant republic's do fall off mid game since estates are so strong.

[@SebHaarfagre]

@@brianvieane3907 Right right, I actually forgot to put into context the state limit of republics VS the new gov. cost mechanics. Nice nice. Yeah I usually tend to start revoking all state land when/a bit before Age of Absolution because of admin effeciency. Also you get some decent perma-bonuses, and the Diets are just great for improving your country with things you'd do either way. Might just try Novgorod next time or some other republic not in Europe (just did Mary and Voltaire so I'm "done" with EU for a while), thanks for the heads up.

[@maxminer9157]

I played a really fun Teutonic order game recently, my nation turned into the republic of Danzig, I was able to join the empire, then I formed Prussia with the really cool Prussian Republic, truly becoming an army with a state

[@buddy4768]

I love how w33haa is playing dota while Habibi is taking

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

Lmao

[@javierperalta7648]

IMO Russia is the funniest country in the game because you can expand in every direction, and form a huge empire that is so vast that cannot get invaded unless a huge coalition forms against you. Colonizer nations like Spain and Great Britain are also very fun. And outside of Europe, my favorite is Viyanagar and Manchu. Manchu has a very rough start but once you form them you can blob into China or unite the steppes and then conquer the rest of Eurasia.

[@rcredred88888]

Lithuania actually has a solid mission tree, you get mission to pu Muscovy and Poland, can tag switch to both and finally into Russia.

[@someinsignificantguy4433]

Lol, I hadn't any problems as Ming, only a few rebel, that I crushed with my giant army

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

did you find your campaign fun?

[@someinsignificantguy4433]

@@AbsoluteHabibi it was ok, I hadn't many wars and started colonising the area around me pretty early, so I got some tributuries from the spiceislands and even Afrika. But I stopped playing after less than 200 years, because I was pretty mighty and had no goal after passing all the mandate stuff. So I see no point to continue the campaign.

[@toreq1127]

@@someinsignificantguy4433 tldr: Ming isn't fun

[@SebHaarfagre]

In my first ever WC, Ming _NEVER_ collapsed, even when bankrupt, besieged on all fronts, AND discontent sowed AND devastated provinces lol. *TWICE.* They had taken humanism and god knows what. I think they had more than -10 revolt risk modifier. Ironically, it helped me finish (had some issues with turning revolutionary... heh heh....😅 *cough* CB) since there was less development to annex. Edit: AND the "hordes on the border" event!!!

[@L3FT2BURN]

Ming used to be pretty fun for me back when you could form the Mughals as Ming. Then they made changes to formable nations and added Ming as an endgame tag and that just killed it for me.

[@oepic7776]

It's a good list but I gotta disagree with India in general (not vijanagar it's very annoying) cause Delhi and jaunpaur are fun in my opinion but I wish you included Bengal or orrisa which you can just conquer the trade nodes and roll in money :D Edit: Bahmanis too

[@okto_0]

> no RNG for Ulm tier > puts Byzantium at the top hmm Pretty good and entertaining video regardess. I partially get why Ming is bottom tier, but I personally find it entertaining when rp-ing and colonising the New World.

[@harz632]

To be fair, there is little RNG in Byzantium if you go for Mercs vs Ottomans, you should be able to win 4/5 times doing so

[@bjornaert6754]

A tactic for getting the union with France as England is alliance with Aragon and Burgundy, and take the war option and manually call to arms with promise of territory(if they are rivaled) and just not give anything. In my experience the French went for Aragon . I kept The alliance with burgundy and they went with the French and I got stupidly strong sooo quickly. Only negative is the war of the roses when I had either a 1/2/0 or a 1/0/0 I believe. Had a GB boner for a while after that when I realized how strong they an be if you are lucky.

[@sonwig5186]

I like playing Manipur and Ardabil. Those are my two favourite starts.

[@enKageKagen]

Because as Aragon you can form Spain France Italy with so many cultures available as well as joining HRE, Aragon goes straight to the top. No doubts.

[@hurnn1543]

Sikh is a real good religion in the game the big hassle I Found with it was converting so many provinces, and that you cant get it for like the 1st hundred years of your play through.

[@SpadeRZA]

What is your problem with Teutonic Order? I played them many times, and I got 2K hours in EU4. But then again, my ancestors are from Königsberg. TO to Prussia is more challenging than Brandenburg and also they have an achievement to convert Russia to catholic, instead of becoming protestant and forming Prussia. Also having to defend against PLC, DK and RUS all the time and expending into the HRE is quite challenging. It's actually a lot of fun. In my last TO campaign Poland did not stand a chance.

[@saladbruh2625]

The double headed eagle flag is Serbia, the other one i don't know

[@pseudoproak]

Aragon doesn't get Spanish Missions if they don't culture shift away from Aragonese or Catalan first

[@georgem3194]

Serbia has been one of my favourite campains so far, forming the 3rd rome once you have beaten the ottomans from the balkans for the lazarus achievement. I imagine much the same as byzantium tho

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

Hmm I did not know that, thanks for the info!

[@SebHaarfagre]

You need to recheck France's mission tree :) I chose to do my first WC recently and doing it while getting Rev. France (not recommended to go rev. lol) was TONS of fun. The mission tree is what makes it, and it doubles well with nearby nations you can vassalize and utilize their trees too. For multiplayer though, I'd surely rate it Ming tier :p Edit: The "vassalize Poland" mission is _very_ weird though. I can't see how anyone would utilize that to an advantage at any time, would normally make no sense to get it once you get to the point where you can. But I got PU over Spain, Milan and some else I forgot I think (Bohemia?), and vassalized Portugal manually. Sorry I can't remember more

[@DreamMorpheus42]

France gets the coolest revolution mechanics and special events that others don't get. Revolutionary France is a fucking blast.

[@Jayako12]

Habibi, you are wrong. Aragon does not get the Spanish mission tree naturally, because by code it is designed to be given to those within Iberian culture group, but Catalan and Aragonese. You can get it if you culture shift to Andalusian, Navarran or Portuguese. That being said, Aragon is definitely SS/Ulm tier. It is extremely fun because it is extremely versatile, you can play the way you want. You can try to go for the HRE, follow the Mission tree that allows you to expand through the Mediterranean, then Culture shift to get Spanish or French trees... It is without any doubt the easiest nation to Mare Nostrum with, all while Castile and Portugal (your PUs), colonise for you. In fact, a perfect Run could be starting as Aragon to get "Consulate of the seas", and culture shift to Andalusian by conquering Granada to get the Spanish tree and possibly inherit Burgundy. Then you can aim for "Spain is The Emperor" and all the other Spanish achievements, while expanding everywhere, passing reforms, building a massive trade empire and setting for a perfectly achievable WC, One Faith, or One culture! You can start with the old Byzantium trick to kill the kebab and much more. Overall one of the best nations to play, and without any doubt the most versatile, you can start as many times you want with as Aragon and play a totally different campaign!

[@gabeghiby6935]

Interesting rating... I've enjoyed - so far - the Byzantium and especially the mission Restoring the Pentarchy and as such ending the schism of Christianity...then yet again I'm Greek Orthodox by heritage...

[@mrnoobmonkey1342]

I personally loved my danish run. It was fun restoring danelaw to england. But I agree that it just eventually becomes linear and boring

[@glowner7878]

spain gets the aragonese mission tree if formed with aragonese or catalan culture, you have to culture switch to castillian in order to get the castillian version

[@aeronaut8088]

Curious on how you would rate the Aztecs? The Aztec campaign was on of the most enjoyable I ever played.

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

Aztecs in single player is top tier.

[@SebHaarfagre]

I can highly recommend Iroquois and No Trail of Tears, I remember having tons of fun with that too :) Or Sun God (? the Inca one). The perspective can be a breath of fresh air sometimes too ("brace for impact") Edit: When I see myself write it, I begin to doubt myself... but I KNOW I had lots of fun lol I guess I just love colonizing without losing provinces to a colonial nation, and trying to prevent colonists from landing, and all that

[@corygibson2678]

@@SebHaarfagre Personally I can't stand non aztec/inca/mayan new world starts, just too much taking a nap of 5 speed and becoming horrendously op by investing all your useless monarch points into development while you wait for europeans to give you free tech. Then it's just bully weak colonial nations while the euros aren't allowed to defend them. Really wish they would give north american natives another look, and colonialism in general.

[@SebHaarfagre]

@@corygibson2678 _"Personally I can't stand non aztec/inca/mayan new world starts"_ Whoops, did you mean to add the "non" in there? Also, that's fair. I love painting maps with colonization and I love ahistorical stuff happening, but I mean I've mostly played non-new world nations.

[@pluto6383]

Winnin the Hundred Year’s War isn’t that hard if RNG is on your side and you avoid war of the roses. What I do is restart until both Castile and Aragon have France as a rival, ally both, build to my force limit with standing men and hire a large mercenary company (I keep the 16 stack to deal with Scotland and the rest in France) and siege down France while France wastes their time with Castile and Aragon. In fact, in my last England game where I did this I didn’t fight any battles in France. I just got like 9 loans from the mercenaries. Then I usually dump Castile and Aragon for Austria and take the Iberian coast so I can monopolize the New World.

[@RoboticsBay]

I'm relieved to know that Bohemia isn't actually that OP. Many of my friends told me so, but even with Emperor missions I was struggling to get money in the 1650s, despite having annexed Poland and expanded a bit in HRE. Should have went Trade I guess but holy shit, their military is quite trashy despite Hussite bonuses.

[@conordoonan8669]

To get Spanish mission trees as Aragon you have to culture shift to Castilian. To be fair the Aragon missions are far better for what most people do with Aragon which is Form Rome.

[@clash3450]

Since 1.30 as Poland you can simply choose to not become an elective monarchy, so no further disasters. The goods produced in the age of reformation and the orthodox switch make a strong country, but yes boring in single player.

[@gunn-brittslagochetik2863]

They should really make a baltic dlc, so many important nations that were just forgotten

[@artyomarty391]

i think i play the game way differently from other players. The most fun nations should be played with corresponding settings. All of the below should be played on very hard difficulty with aggressive AI. This is both challenging and fun since the major powers are very fun actually and can be really challenging given appropriate settings Russia: No allies after 1550 Ottomans: No allies ever France: No allies after 1575 England: No allies after 1675 These above nations are completely pointless to play on on regular settings because theres no challenge. But with the above settings, all of them can be quiete a challenge even for very experienced players (it somewhat depends on RNG)

[@christian9125abd]

from all this nations austria is still number 1 when it comes to fun as you can do nearly evrything with them

[@SleetGamesPC]

Great video!

[@philipsallkvist4860]

How about Incas? doing that right now and having pretty fun :)

[@爱国者-f3d]

Ming is actually pretty fun, me and some friends co-opped and managed different parts of the country, one of us managed the army, another the events and economy, and another managed the navy and all the stuff in between. I was the emperor, and I would decree my will, i.e. what I wanted the other players to prepare for/work towards and sometimes I would give deadlines for conquest etc.

[@joseph_soseph9611]

This is probably an unpopular opinion but In my opinion russia is not fun at all. The first few steps are fun, like the first wars against novgorod, lithuania and so on but for some reason I always lose intetest in playing them at the beginning of the 1600s. I think for me it's mostly the lack of any good trade nodes that ruin my fun. I think kongo also should have been higher on the list as you have a lot of different options in terms of religion and government. You can easily switch to either islam or catholicism or stay fetishist and you could also become a horde if you want to. They are also a good canditate to get the horder achievement and I liked playing them very much.

[@Rakettivuori]

I tried forming Spain as Aragon diplomatically but did not get Spanish missions

[@AbsoluteHabibi]

you have to culture shift out of catalonian culture

[@Captivesnowy]

Rating TO as E tier is dumb TO is best nation in northern Europe several different playstyles are open to play through whether you join HRE or not and whether you form Prussia or not.

[@БојанБјелић]

The bottom one with double-headed eagles is Serbia.

[@aleksanderdedaj3498]

I made 3 Campains with my hometown Ulm, is a great challenge to survive but with a good diplomacy you can become e huge nation, ground Swabia and the SRI emperor :-P

[@andrewmiller407]

You give Germany an A, but what nations do you consider good choices to form Germany? It's probably easiest with Prussia, but that's kind of a downgrade unless you want to just blob as much as possible late game. Bavaria might be the best choice, since it is very easy to stack development cost reduction and play tall in trans-Alpine southern Germany. Also, unlike most of the other German stem duchies, Bavaria's mission tree is entirely based around conquest and personal unions within North and South Germany, instead of expanding into France like Franconia, Italy like Swabia, or Poland like Saxony.

[@Barthijzz]

Do one with less known or less obvious countries for new players like Karaman, Ternate, Madyas, Butua, Khorasan, Carib...

[@vernond3515]

Can you do an update to this video with 1.32 Origins the way you did an update to the Formable's list ??

[@ivatio]

Wtf Teutonic Order is S tier, the most fun I had in EU4 to this day.