The Top Ten Impossible Starts! (EU4)

[@inestrix7377]

Playing as an Irish minor wasn't that hard, however it was definitely a lot of fun, which was partly due to the fact that one of the countries is called Tyrone and it is the darkest colored country of the group, which cracked me up more than it should.

[@aglassofmilk5779]

InestriX hahaha

[@boyneboxreviews]

It's also known as "black" amongst the locals because there are lot of Unionists living there.

[@the_username_is_taken]

I played as Imereti... My ruler was 69 and i didn't have heir...

[@aqgpandemic5406]

"Navarra's culture is just weird" well it's Basque so that's pretty accurate.

[@kingoftheshill347]

Currently trying to do a CK2 playthrough as the only playable basque character at the 769 start. Had to kill my own grandson in the first year just so I’d have an heir in my dynasty.

[@Giganfan2k1]

KingOfTheShill wait what? O.o

[@HVLLOW99]

Indo European and your pregedise, pff.

[@abaip9449]

I'm surprised Granada didn't get an honorable mention

[@Vincrand]

Or Kara Del for that matter.

[@thewinterlord1518]

Don't underestimate Theodoro.

[@nietvoorjoubeschikbaar714]

yeah she's a sassy one, that's for sure

[@grammarcommunist588]

Dont estimate the Sultan.

[@mateuszpiekarski650]

In my recent game AI Theodoro conquered Hungary... Bohemia conquered half of the HRE. France got destroyed in the first 20 years. Incredible.

[@_senshi1_]

>whole country dead sue for peace>theodoro>send demand Theodoro has denied our generous peace offer!

[@aramissanchez8933]

TheWinterLord15 theodoro somehow annexes Crimea and the genoese crimean parts in almosy every game

[@eskon12345]

You know whats the funniest thing...Start as albania You obviously have the mighty Skanderberg as you're leader + general Got a good start where Ottomans did not attack me and i managed to beat Bosnia + Serbia (all thanks to Skanderberg) Leave serbia with just 1 province Managed to secure alliance with both Poland and Austria so LIFE is good Then at 1454 heir decided to die in a hunting accident o_O and about year later the mighty Skanderberg had enough aswell...No heir so i get event that somebody with weak claim gets the throne and his stats are: 0 1 0 At that point i just gave up :D

[@Masterdeath16]

100%. Skanderbeg is genuinely so fun as a general

[@feckusmaximus3234]

6:40-7:30 why didn`t he point out that Albania`s leader is almost the best you can get aka the 6-5-6

[@nikolaangelov3583]

yeah

[@Roland.Deschain]

Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu

[@armendiiibrahimii4761]

Cameron Ricketts well that general was not good enough when you used to start at war with the ottoblob

[@ethanwmonster9075]

the game cannot replicate the fact that he keeps winning extermly outmatch battles Agiasnt the ottomans over and over again until he died.

[@malnutritionboy]

Donald J Pepe yep they got defeated by the serbs after which i annex serbia so...

[@callmate9102]

Please make top 10 nations that start weak but can easily become a strong power

[@gamesfornobs]

Teutons are one of them.

[@ivanmakrov3323]

Serbia or Bosnia, both are small but have good armies. Serbia can take Albania and Bosnia and possibly get an Allie with Hungry or Austria.

[@CrapeCraft]

Holland, Brandenburg and Portugal.

[@ryangann665]

+CaptainCrape How do you get independence as Holland?

[@CrapeCraft]

Ryan Gann Easy, you should be able to get support independence from practically all nearby powers. (France, Austria, England and Castile)

[@catwise682]

the first campaign I ever played, was with navarra I thought France would help me: allied france allied castille for good measure Aragon claims navarroa -no Biggie, new this would happen England declares war Wait what, did u even have claim Aragon declares war, France crumbles castille does not protect castille finishes reconquista castille declares war on Aragon (stalemate) castille offers vassalisation I accept, try gaining independence thru Aragon (-2000 relation​=nope) France helps, castille was allied with brittany Brittany becomes BBB (big Brittany blob) I quit, and start as Novgorod, RQ that after 10min of Muscovites :O

[@r.m2192]

CatWise I tried playing Navarra couple of times today I used brute strength rather than independence strategy I managed to get a max development of 127 from northern Spain labourd and a Irish province I got a couple other successful games but France always ate me so me next strategy is to definitely not go into France until I have at least 300 development and go for Spain and Ireland

[@harrisonshone7769]

I wonder how hard Sealand would be to work with.

[@pabloolsiewich1150]

Jason Jeschonnek Yeah i am tired of their 120k seals with 150% discipline and high morale doomstacks

[@chainsaw5302]

Not hard if you have the precious ~ on your keyboard

[@stratum7634]

27 navies 0infantry😂

[@KaitoGillscale]

Playing an Irish nation or Scotland is really fun because it's a waiting game. Finding the best time to pick away at England while they're fighting europe is extremely satisfying.

[@withche07]

allying france is good way to screw england

[@DJSbros]

That's why whenever I play as England I deal with Ireland and Scotland first.

[@Emir-ou4ws]

I waited for Granada. Byzantium could get lot of good allies againts Ottomans but Granada could only take some african countries which not enough againts castile.

[@darkfireslide]

I mean, the entire Berber region is fairly difficult to thrive in. Still, I've heard of some crazy Granada stuff where somehow the player allied with Aragon against Castile and shenanigans ensued. That's basically the only reason I chose the smaller Mzab and company instead.

[@Emir-ou4ws]

darkfireslide well I mean when you choose good allies no country will be hard. But I think the video is about their power alone. Both economy and military. Thanks for the video. Good luck on youtube. I hope your channel grow up fast.

[@darkfireslide]

Thank you! Words of encouragement always help motivate me to make more videos :)

[@RealZulutaart]

i had this one game were france and castile were fighting a personal union war over navarra but the weird thing was that aragon did a conquest before this all started and they succeded after all this pu nonsense so navarra was gone so france got a pu over castile in 1450 :o

[@michaeldog123ful]

I think they deserved a honorable mention at most. Cant put them above anyone else in this list though, its liek byzantium where there are so many known ways to do well as them

[@LoydAvenheart]

2:55 Also you know like, the golden horde right above you.

[@sielana]

There is a guy named DDRJake who did Ryukyu world conquest 2 years ago. Now he is working for Paradox (makers of EU4).

[@darkfireslide]

The youtuber/streamer Florryworry is famous for doing ridiculous runs like this. Both he and DDRJake usually use exploits, though. Which, I can't blame them, considering how hard these achievements are to get.

[@Kurtownia]

Well I do have a let's play as Albania on my channel, which I finished stretching from the Netherlands into Persia, but it's in Polish. It was fun indeed. I don't know about any exploits, so it was only fair play. Albania was difficult when it was at war with the Ottomans from the start, but now it's rather easy in comparison.

[@truecursaderallhailscander7962]

Hehe, in reality the greatest hero of Albanians, Scanderbeg manage to wipe out an army of 250 000 and 300 000 with his 8500 soliders. Looks impossible but Scanderbeg was smart like a god.

[@truecursaderallhailscander7962]

Ottomans*

[@Nick-ld3zq]

+TRUE CURSADER, ALL HAIL SCANDERBEG skanderbeg* I'm Albanian lol

[@truecursaderallhailscander7962]

Nick Coku nice

[@withche07]

iskender bey Kappa

[@L2Xenta]

Im Romanian so I try-harded Wallachia, failed every time in the latest patches, youre just stuck, betwen 1 strong ally and rest very powerfull enemies. Moldova under Polish controll, Tranyslvania under Hungarian , Ottomans .... , no border with Serbia yet. You ally Hungary or Poland and hope you somehow get some piece of land soon, but what you do most of the time is watch the game play itself. :S Im not the best player but...

[@TimyRoby123]

Stiu prea bine ce zici... am incercat cu toate tarile romane :))) . Inafara de Transilvania...Fara cheat-uri , nu poti :))),cel putin pt. mine ,si eu nu-s cine stie ce expert :))

[@withche07]

you should stop ottomans white peace out try to conquer moldavia serbia fastly. you will definitely need quantity idea

[@L2Xenta]

withche07 cant attack Moldova because its March/Vasal of Poland. Cant attack Serbia because I have no border with them in these later versions. To attack Serbia I have to take 1 -2 regions of Hungary... Hungary starts way too powerfull, not only that they get expert general early. The only good thing is ottomans usualy dont attack Wallachia before you can get some good ally. (and after you have strong allies Ottomans prefere to attack others not me). Yesterday I tried something new, allied Poland and didnt try to conquer anything just developed my existing 3 regions, I was getting rich, and out of the blue Poland removed alliance without any message from game and in same second Ottomans declared war... I was like :O What ... the ... fukc . (Or maybe Poland simply didnt join the war and was removed from allies, either way sux).

[@hujake5406]

try to keep your independence and convert save game to vic 2 and hoi4 ^^

[@tantarudragos]

they fucked wallachia when they removed the serbian border, havent tried playing as it since tho.

[@PickleOfWonder]

I'd play as these countries but since quitting to the main menu restarts the whole game it's not worth it. Literally if you fail you have to load the entire game up again. Not sure why the main menu button exists at this point.

[@darkfireslide]

The game used to crash due to a memory leak if you played for a few hours and tried to go back to the main menu, so I think a small restart is preferable to crashing altogether lol

[@42ouncesofPAIN]

Quitting to the Main Menu never restarts the whole game. Just go to "Saved Games" and they should all be there.

[@PickleOfWonder]

42Ounces No, I mean clicking the main menu button closes the game and reopens it. so you have to go through the loading process EVERY time you fail.

[@42ouncesofPAIN]

PickleOfWonder I have only actually "failed" a game once before 0_0 and I have 310 hours in EU 4. You should not be getting taken over that much, maybe you should try playing as a bigger country since it is a lot easier, that way you can get used to things and get a better handle on what you are doing. Otherwise whenever I usually go the Menu I usually just save the game and Exit since I am usually done playing.

[@PickleOfWonder]

I'm talking about when I'm playing countries like the ones in the video. Albania, Byzantium etc. You're trying to tell me you have 310 hours in EU4 and you can play Byzantium or Albania and succeed on your first try? It's highly unlikely that you can succeed on your first try since you often need certain circumstances. (Such as Hungary rivalling the Ottomans in a Byz playthrough.) Also, the AI of your allies is bloody dreadful. You could be in a war with the Ottomans and your alliance would have 3 times the numbers but still lose since they always split their armies up and never help out with battles. (I have 620 Hours, I can play bigger countries no problem. I have formed the Roman Empire as Venice.)

[@bigbenfica9-campeaoeuropeu673]

Albania and Byzantium I did it, (Byzantium after tons of restarts, Albania got lucky on Try 1) I recommend those 2, tons of fun tbf

[@Mrminibagel]

Manipur. Hard to get allies because you're animist surrounded by Buddhists and Hindus. 5 total development.

[@Povest1389]

[@emirkaya2483]

I think surviving the ottomans as one the beyliks is a lot harder than half of this list

[@darkfireslide]

While I don't disagree entirely, those nations do at least have /some/ development to work with, but I could make an entire top ten list devoted to hard starts near the Ottomans alone. I wanted to get the whole world in this list. Haha

[@darkfireslide]

I actually did a test run as Trebizond and yeah it's pretty rough. However, if you can snipe the war when QQ declares on Georgia, you can get to the capital and begin sieging it (taking out tons of loans because there's a capital fort x.x) and thus stop QQ from taking any land.

[@joshuafreyman7287]

Do top 10 national ideas

[@aethelberht4938]

We all know Prussian is going to be number 1 on that list.

[@SuperCompany007]

French?

[@darkfireslide]

+Company007 Well, in a military contest Prussia would be uncontested. There are some pretty wild idea groups out there you wouldn't expect, though.

[@mkd2839]

+darkfireslide Poland and Nepal ideas are much better than Prussia

[@darkfireslide]

Yeah Polish ideas are brutal.

[@fotakatos]

I came here from the Simpsons' Number 8 burp song. I had no idea why, I just clicked at a random point in the clip and it was incidentally 1:50 where you say "number 8". I lost my fucking shit.

[@SebHaarfagre]

I see a lot of suggestions in the comments, but I think this list is good. Circassia? Try just playing as Georgia, that's hard enough. I reckon you have all DLC enabled and aren't cheesing. Ryuku? Easy? Give me a break. Tidore/Ternate is hard enough. The moment you hit "colonization" button, you know you're doomed 1600 onwards. Unless you have extreme luck. So what about doing conquest then? Sure. But it should preferably be mainland Asia, to avoid roadblocks mid game. Which again leaves you reliant on opportunism and luck. Indian minor? Yup.. etc etc And yes Byzantium actually have a fair amount of options. It can get several huge allies that can actually beat the strongest nation in the game, or ally someone with a good fleet and you can outsmart the Ottomans. Also you have the opportunity to restart from day 1 to decide your future if you so desire. Albania is harder. That starting leader is only good if you can get enough manpower behind him. And forget strait blocking. Though I think either of Kongo's vassals should be on the list. Ceylon I haven't tried yet but should be hard. Oh and final note, when he says "hardest starts" I'm pretty sure he means in regards to have a fun game or a game where you can do something of value and feel accomplished. He elaborated in the start of the video that "some is an achievement just to survive"; it's not a criteria for this list to be on the verge of oblivion, I think.. just starts where its hard to become great/do your achievements where relevant.

[@skrutu77]

Navarra is super simple though, just wait untill either france/castille/aragon/england offer you to become a vassal, then get their enemies to help you in an independence war where you're free to grab as much land from your overlord as you can manage

[@donyonthemic1572]

albania has the best komander in the game

[@nikolaangelov3583]

The knights is pretty hard too

[@infinitospecia6428]

Nikola Angelov no because no une want your province the Only problem are the rebel

[@infinitospecia6428]

one *

[@nikolaangelov3583]

yeah but you have to wait a lot and that's hard to bear

[@Darkdramon55]

I just started a circassia campain not knowing i would be hard. I have no large allies, and i'm pretty sure a golden horde, crimea, uzbek aliance is about to come down on me like old testiment gods.

[@TerrorBlades]

Irland one of the best nations to pick for new players of ck2. A nation with nothing to develop on as a new player in EUIV. i remember conquering the whole of ireland other then dublin and then looking att england. i started a war with brittany instead.

[@kampferparasyte4204]

Good video mate ! You deserve more subs

[@darkfireslide]

Thank you!

[@SyamuNekoSan]

In South America, besides the nomads, the worst nations are Wanka and Colla, both are the closest Cuzco's neighbors and are surrounded by enemies that, by the way, are Cuzco's allies

[@andrewmiller407]

Getting the "The Three Mountains" achievement as Ryukyu is near impossible. "Doing well" as Ryukyu is actually very easy, since they're near some very juicy colonization targets with the same religion.

[@Alexus666PL]

idk but playing as riga was super fun after you defeated livonian order, because you can often swallow muscovy and horde nations :)

[@stupidmonkey1015]

I love playing as Byzantium :D And after 5 restarts successfully got a foothold as Theodoro but I'll probably not get the Gothic Invasion achievement.

[@darkfireslide]

Last night I started a campaign as Trebizond and it took me a similar number of restarts to get lucky. Haha

[@stupidmonkey1015]

Nice man! Good luck though. Should add me on steam ;)

[@Godl1keNL]

Because I study Ancient History, and really like the Romans, I wanted to conquer the world as the Byzantine Empire. Had to settle for the Balkans, Italy, Hungary, Ottomans and Mamlukes. I basically managed to full on restore the east, with a bit of Justinian's conquests. Byzantines are really fun to play, but even after a 100 years, and you make one mistake, you can still die... XD

[@stupidmonkey1015]

+Erumelthir I love studying classical history and I am a byzantine fanatic just my account says it all haha

[@LoftySkinner]

Bought this game because you can play as Norway. Found out it was basically just watching the game play itself and lose. Can't imagine there's supposed to be antything harder.

[@yurigagarin9765]

As Norway you have to find a strong ally that helps you get freed from Denmark, then conquer Scandinavia. A hard scenario, though there are much worse ones.

[@LoftySkinner]

Yuri Gagarin Just saying, with Norway as my first experience in EU4 I guess I didn't "get" EU4. Because so many options are locked away and all the other ones are buried in the impenetrable UI.

[@MrYesman43]

If you're starting out with EU4, playing as Norway is not a good choice. It is far from impossible, but hard for the beginner who is still learning the game. I would recommend an easier nation, such as the Ottomans to first learn.

[@dammitthatguy3107]

Well yeah.Norway was basically the bitch of Denmark and Sweden.Hell even in real life they were look it up.

[@Seafarer64]

Woot! Honorable mention - YES!! Now I don't feel so bad for my repeated restarts.

[@1293ST]

Recently played as Assam. Conquered Ming, India, Thailand and colonised Indonesia, Australia and California

[@RysingShadow]

I found Navarra pretty easy.. If you can manage to keep yourself allied to France or Castile and remain independent long enough to get the exploration ideas, you can move your capital to the Americas and become a huge world power. (since there's only one province in Europe). If you somehow find it hard to get started once you move your capital, you can always sell your old capital for a few hundred ducats.

[@jelleslagter6924]

sounds pretty boring tbh.....

[@Boiling_Seas]

I've recently begun playing a game as Karaman. Not quite as difficult as some of those in this list, but still quite challenging thanks to the Ottomans.

[@jaskamakynen7766]

Navarra is a blast to play (been there done that). I suggest to go to ireland without CB, and allying the biggest neighbor all the time. when someone dissolves alliance, ally immediately the other guys

[@darkr.o.b.2179]

Where's East Frisia? It's almost completely surrounded by the HRE, which it isn't a part of, and its neighbor to the sea is Denmark.

[@undolf4097]

The honorable mention of the Irish makes me proud to have not only united the island but take over Iceland and Greenland before creating a large colonial empire in the Americas in Approx. Newfoundland, New England, and all of Louisiana. Does this mean I have some mastery of the game?

[@yoloswaggins1579]

The homie starts with extra manpower... But stays always behind. That's my homie!

[@МартинГеоргиев-н4к]

Circassia is easy. The hordes end up in a war with one another and by the time someone looks your way you have about 80 dev and a huge cav given by the estates.

[@MrMarinus18]

It's somewhat difficult to follow. When calling nations you should put in arrows to make it more clear.

[@jaskamattila4481]

Just noticed your profile picture is the desmond flag. Funny, cause i'm just doing a playthrough with it!

[@Enric.]

Urbino is quite hard too. You're a Papal vassal and the Pope will try to annex you. And if you break the vassalage you'll be annexed anyway xD

[@stephenchurch1784]

Ryukyu is actually pretty easy. First off tech groups have been replaced with institutions meaning you can "westernize" a lot easier right off the bat. All you have to do is wait till the renaissance pops then develop the island until you get it. Once you've done that, rush colonization and grab all the high value ones around South East Asia. This also conveniently gives you neighbors you can vassalize to feed you'r gains on the mainland to but really you want to be heading to Alaska to build your war machine in private.

[@SuspiciousEntityYT]

That was actually a really good review, you my good sir just got a new sub :)

[@tobym3808]

I know this is off topic but you have that Pilot voice lmao... I can picture you telling your passengers the weather conditions and please fasten your seatbelts hahaha

[@fristi61]

You do not need to own and core every province to get the Three Mountains. You only need to ensure that no other independent nation exists. This means that 1: you do not need to colonize every province in the world, 2: you do not need to core every province and 3: you do not need to annex your vassals. A monumental task still, of course.

[@TheSGtob]

Byzantium is not so impossible

[@tylerkane5603]

it's hard luck has to be on your side I ran and invade Rome right off the bat won and lost Byzantium to the ottomons

[@StylesisTNA]

+Company007 exactly. In my game I got super lucky, literally on the day I allied Poland the ottomans declared war those poor sons of bitches.

[@saiien2]

I agree. If you have powerfull allies like Hungary and Poland you're ok. Primary quest is to secure greece and "reconnect" your 3 provinces in Peloponnese and Thrace (Constantinople)

[@serhatdemir1500]

i dont know if i am professional but i defeat ottomans with serbia, wallachia lmao. but i was only managed to get yanya then i got bankrupt and shit then deleted the save

[@ademhavva1535]

Its possible with allying albania too,

[@randomcommenter395]

I was playing as Poland and watched as the Theodoro AI occupied all the lands of the Crimea AI and won the war.

[@josephcanny9733]

Ryukyu World Conquest? Challenge accepted.

[@zachsabel5466]

its impossible i think now

[@josephcanny9733]

Zach Sabel That wont stop me xD

[@zachsabel5466]

Guess its good to be determined xD

[@deletedchannel1264]

Did it work out?

[@josephcanny9733]

Wills Hacker Corner Not so well. But I have a real cheesy Strategy that might just work.

[@UTO7]

I actually had a game where AI Circassia blobbed and took over a good portion of the Crimea area. I think Muscovy helped them though.

[@Brynyar]

Now this video will finally get off my reccomended.

[@odenat3701]

You didn't see a difficult start until you played as Granada

[@self-taughtalcoholic3504]

I've somehow managed to form The Roman Empire as Morea in my latest campaign even though I don't consider myself good at this game. So, if you like challenges, you can try it as well.

[@nikolajevremovic-martinovi5800]

morea ne postoji na startu. ili moze da se napravi pomocu athens?

[@self-taughtalcoholic3504]

Johny Martin Ne, već može da se odvoji od Vizantije čiji je deo na startu :) Još veći izazov bi bila Achaea, jer ima samo jednu provinciju, dok Morea ima dve.

[@nikolajevremovic-martinovi5800]

Ich Bin Ich Und Nicht Du a da bre, tacno :D jel si probao sa nekom drzavom da napravis mughal empire? :D

[@self-taughtalcoholic3504]

Johny Martin Nisam, slabo sam igrao Persiju i indijski potkontinent, ali to će verovatno biti sledeća avantura. Trenutno mi traje kampanja sa Mamlucima sa kojima sam formirao Arabiju i borim se da osvojim kompletnu Evropu, sa čim sam na pola puta :)

[@nikolajevremovic-martinovi5800]

Ich Bin Ich Und Nicht Du probaj da formiras mugale. ja uradio sa uzbek. jedino je malo zajebano kada igras sa hordom, imaju neka svoja pravila ali kada formiras mugale....brate jak si kao zemlja. ja osvojio celu aziju i smorio se koliko sam mocan haha :D

[@exitmusic123]

it s funny , it s feels like you are naming all DDRjake's late campaign , good vid though

[@BlackEydPanda]

In my game version, Albania is surrounded by Venice Serbia and the Ottomans. All of them have a CB on Alb, because they seek Alb territory (which in that game consists of a single province.) If thats not enough, albania is indeed a Catholic state, BUT the people are all orthodox thus pressuring you to convert 😂 fun

[@MFRUW4LIFE]

I've never played circassia but for some reason they always seem to stay alive

[@levishelm426]

Selly Kronosova I am circassian too 😀, you have any instagram account? It is hard to find circassian people these days :/

[@levishelm426]

Selly Kronosova yep, I am in turkey too...

[@levishelm426]

Selly Kronosova ok :)

[@sik3xploit]

All of this seems to remind me of the super OP rebels you get when reforming in Inca. Your reforming won't survive those rebels unless you take some drastic measures!

[@enKageKagen]

Forgot about 2 vassals of Ayutthaya? All their land is their overlord core, so can be annexed with no cost also in terms of time. This is literally impossible to survive

[@Yogscastjt]

"Impossible is a word in the dictionary of idiots"-Napoleon Bonaparte

[@levonclark9604]

I've not played as them, but surely as Athens u gain independence, conquer Naxos and Rhodes before the Ottomans, then get Cyprus, and then conquer one of the small Anatolian nations, at which point you can expand into Aq and Qara Qoyunlu and eventually the Mamluks

[@lennongrad13]

I don't know if you counted them as an Indian Minor but The Maldives seems like a truly impossible start being that it's Muslim in Southern India and the only possible expansion involves amphibious landings on possible Vijaynagar vassals or allies

[@goksir5845]

Have you tried Takeda? (Little orange dude in Japan) I'm quite new to the game and I love playing as Japan, but every time I try to start as Takeda I get declared war on and get completely decimated by the two major powers around me before I can get any sort of footing. I almost wholeheartedly believe that Takeda is impossible without insane luck.

[@Koasterking212]

Let's not forget you get cool achievements with Byzantium if you reunite the Roman Empire

[@incendiarybullet3516]

I once saw Albania last all the way up to 1750, and when they died it was because of Naples, not the Ottomans.

[@mateo386]

The difficulty or impossibility of Ryukyu lies on the WC achievement, but it's not a difficult country if you want to do a casual game.

[@max45l]

You've forgot The Maldives =P

[@haydarelensari5722]

looool I played with maldives yesterday I took half of india

Teutonic Order 15 starts No good alliances, My cheesy join the HRE strategy stopped working because Poland declared 10 opinion (including a 25 opinion gift to austria and funding)

[@ishhanian]

Karabakh is pretty challenging as well.

[@Poffean]

for navvarra, I counted 4 neighbors (france,castile,england,aragon)

[@tristanmarienhagen511]

Ryukyu: Own at 1500 Japan and Manchuria, 1501: Don't be motivated for playing further 😂

[@NotChicoAndPico]

the irish ones are actually quite easy to play as tbh. Ryuku was such a pain when I played in asia though, since they were a triburatory state of ming :(

[@TheLastRoman]

No Trebizond? THAT'S REALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

[@lostinnepal7897]

I only found of Riyuku when I was colonizing lands and conquering tiny nations with Portugal in late game xD

[@CoL_Drake]

albania was so much harder when u started in the war vs ottomans :)

[@pulsare6199]

One can also add the Mamluks because you have to deal with the probably most successful nation in the game: The Ottomans If you dont attack them during the first few years the game will already be lost and even if you attack the Ottomans you will probably fail because of their generals, their good economy (mercenaries all the time) and probably some other military advantages like army tradition, higher tech, discipline and so on. Another annoying thing is that most of the time only byzantium will help you against the Ottomans because most of your neighbours are too small, dont like you (The Timurids because of the historical rival modifier, QQ, Venice) or like the Ottomans. If you manage to succeed one or two times though your nations will most likely be the strongest.

[@darkfireslide]

I've actually got another top ten idea where I include nations like the Mamluks that have a challenge to overcome at the start but after that are pretty solid to play. I agree that the Mamluks are hard, but if you restart until you get an alliance with Poland/Lithuania that has rivaled the Ottogirls, then you're usually fairly set. Just beware of those early Ottoman unit pips.

[@pulsare6199]

Good idea. I fought them without poland because I didnt think that an alliance is possible. Its still makeable without poland though :D

[@darkfireslide]

It is, but only if 1. You expand enough into QQ and other lands- Any alliance is possible if the AI nation thinks you're strong enough- and 2. Poland rivals the Ottomans.

[@Munchausenification]

I find dealing with the Ottomans pretty easy as the Mamluks. 1. Build up your navy to atleast match the Ottomans. 2. fabricate claim on Tekke. 3. wait for the Ottomans to declare on Albania or other nation in the Balkans. 4. declare war when about to engage some of his navy, after the battle quickly block the straits of Constantinoble and Edirne. 5. win war by killing the mercs he will train in Anatolia and sieging his provinces over there. Mostlikely you will have to fight Tunis as well so keep an eye out for navies in the Mediterranean. Best thing to take in the war is provinces that blocks him from crossing the strait and otherwise coastal provinces. Soon you will have navy superiority and should be able to get fairly good alliances.

[@darkfireslide]

Thanks for the good strategy!

[@Povest1389]

I just play with Circassia.. it's ultimate endless survival game. :D

[@Solicarako]

A little tip for Ryukyu? I mean, can you do claims so far away? because attacking japan is not an early option... So what do you do, eat stability stuff and declare wars on Indonesia or south-east asia?

[@darkfireslide]

Essentially, yes. I believe the youtuber/streamer by the name of Florryworry has successfully done the Three Mountains achievement on camera. If not, he is currently doing a run of it on Twitch on Very Hard. The man is quite possibly insane, or at the very least, very Dutch. But yeah, you need to do a no-CB war. I've read that Ceylon is a good target, but I imagine some of those isolated Indonesian states are pretty good as well.

[@Solicarako]

Hmmmm I guess I'm gonna look for that Florryworry dude, and I'll do a first try soon. Guess that's gonna be tough, but it can also be funny... Anyway, good job with those tops, you gained a subscriber. Keep it high!

[@nocookies2014]

+darkfireslide florry is the greatest XD

[@sup6916]

+noCookiiezzForYou he should get the achievment to convert the entite world to the nation religion xD

[@straight_edgespartan8094]

I'd probably start with no CB'ing Ternate, and Tidore. Both are Animist and have decent development.

[@TheWorldInsider]

Never even expected most of them on this list are in the game lmao

[@Meander_]

Zazzau, even if you have Mossi as ally (bec you can beat'em), the nation of Songhai, or Mali (don't even think about europe colonists) could still beat you, especialy allied. But at least you have mrs "Skanderberg", and easy early expansion, that often isn't just enough for major powers there. :(

[@goostickygames]

Riga? Even as an honorable mention I think that is an understatement.

[@darkfireslide]

What's strange is on multiple occasions i have seen Riga swallow the Baltic, Sweden, and large parts of Muscovy. It's terrifying and wonderful at the same time.

[@sebking7902]

The beauty of EU. Scariest thing I've seen was as Uzbek, Denmark completely blobbing all of Novgorod and Muscovy, before sitting on my doorstep.

[@darkfireslide]

+Seb King Yeah sometimes the AI really steps it up.

[@goostickygames]

darkfireslide I wouldn't say it's that strange, If you know what you are doing you can fully annex Livonian Order, take the provinces to form prussia and join the Empire all before 1460.

[@darkfireslide]

Well, it's strange seeing the AI do it, when somehow AI France seems to get itself killed with alarming regularity these days. Must be that historical rivalry with Austria that Paradox added recently. I have a theory about that...

[@pauljeff622]

with odoyez you can make allies with muscovy because they the same religion, and with the help of muscovy you can take over golden horde and ryzan very easily

[@kianbedo2833]

Wikipedia: 5,000 Albanians vs 32,000 Turks (After battle) 22,000 Turks dead and 10,000 wounded, 1,000 Albanians wounded 500 dead. *Idk if it's accurate but it's something like that*

[@stefdasca]

I played as Sarig Yogir and managed to conquer Tibet,Central Asia,most of Mongolia and northern India before Ming and Russia ganged up

[@niallowens6312]

What's so difficult about starting with an Irish province? I've played Leinster three times (once in Ironman) and never had any trouble with England, they always seem to make suicidal attacks on France. In fact France was always a bigger problem for me in those games.

[@starsantasta4351]

Surviving with Aq Qoyunlu is also painfull. Their economy is very bad throughout the game and that makes you not able to create enough regiments.

[@saoirsedeltufo7436]

Just playing a Savoy -> Sardinia-Piedmont -> Italy game. AI Saxe-Lauenburg had grown itself to about 10 provinces, not the worst of nations!

[@JustSomeone8288]

I would say that kafka should be in the top 5, as they are surrounded by ethiopia and have trouble getting alliances being coptic with your only expansion route being one of the few coptic countries,

[@emilya8580]

the "civilized world" must be the most offensive thing ive heard today

[@OnurT]

Can not be hard as any Ottoman release with few provinces. Played Mentese, struggled in independence wars, and allies with higher liberty desire can't help.

[@Fevercrumb]

missed out Corfu, start out a OPM Vassal Island of Venice, with the Ottomans ready to gobble you up if you do get free.

[@winmaciek]

I'm not sure if Navarra is really that hard. I've once tried it and instead of focusing on colonization or fighting with surrounding powers I decided to jump north. I allied France, waited till Burgundy declares war on it, signed separate peace and got 1 province north of France. Maybe that's the way to play this country?

[@Ulkomaalainen]

Ryukyu got beefed up compared to EU III though. Sure, getting the achievement is hard, probably more difficult than in EU III, but surviving is a breeze. Comparatively.

[@mackycabangon8945]

Saxe-Lauenburg ALMOST became Emperor in my Netherlands run And Djerid, oh they took Tunisia.. and became Tunisia....

[@NeoMicy]

Saxe-Lauenberg has new ideas pretty strong ones if you ask me.

[@TheRealXartaX]

There are no nations in eu4 that are really that difficult to merely survive with.

[@darkfireslide]

I would argue that most of the nations in the immediate vicinity of the Ottomans take a little bit of skill and luck to survive as. Most nations after you hit about 300+ development are fairly easy to play, but getting there is the hard part.

[@TheRealXartaX]

darkfireslide It's not hard to get there. Eu4 is only hard if you go for things like WC (as a weak nation).

[@darkfireslide]

It also depends on what metric you measure yourself as "doing well." Ending a game as Brittany with 1200 development, for example, felt like an accomplishment to me. But to other people, I feel like some aren't satisfied unless they go for WC. To each their own- I'm glad we can all enjoy this game in our own way.

[@lord6617]

If you were going to call out an entire area like ireland, I would call out all of the caucuses (?) (shirvan, circassia, gazimukh, georgia) instead. You have expansion options of against the 1) ottomans 2) russia 3) Lithuania/commonwealth 4) horde lands /uzbek. You start with low development and terrible rulers, with religion that does you no favors for allies, and in an awkward and fairly poor trade region. Any of the irish nations can chain war to easily conquer 2/3 of ireland to start off the game, and then choose to ally scotland or england to grab more land on the larger landmass before eventually turning on your ally to take a huge chunk of one of the best trade end nodes in the game.

[@carljones982]

Saxe-Laurenburg is actually kinda easy? Lubeck doesn't really turn her attention towards you, and Hamburg is a Free City so she doesn't really expand. Holstein is a subject, and Denmark won't attack into you. You only have one nation to really worry about, and some simple alliance building can make her work. Circassia is pretty simple too? You have a fair bit of time to expand before a serious threat in the Ottomans becomes an issue, and you can always change your faith to fit what is around you. Not easy, but not really impossible. Byzantium is super easy and is not really worth an honourable mention? They have one hard war and then they kinda just coast towards victory afterwards. They have a lot of cores up for the taking, and just so many events and missions that reward them with monarch points with Purple Phoenix. Of the harder starts, Byz is probably the most overstated and most blessed of them all due to them having a DLC just about them. Once you get off the ropes, you are soaring. Also, your qualifications for impossible start for many seem to be survival, and Ryukyu is super easy to survive as. Expanding is hard, but you are literally never at threat from foreign powers. This allows to to turtle as much as you please, develop your terrible province up and at least take a good shot at expanding well. Three Mountains is hard (as is any world conquest), but simply playing Ryukyu is not. Really, a big issue with some of your list here in general is that some of them face very little risk compared to some of the other starts out there, like nations which start as a subject. Here are some nations I would say are harder than some on your list: Loango: They are usually annexed far before you even know they exist. The Central African expansion made them a bit easier now, due to being able to possibly get allies to prevent the integration, but it didn't really change much. Salzburg: They may have more dev than Saxe-Laurenburg, but they have a bigger issue. An Austrian shaped issue. And Austria gets a very early mission on them too. Their paths of expansion include fighting the Emperor, or fighting Bavaria, who is the third biggest dog in the HRE. Tabarestan and Ardalan: They are tiny, Shia surrounded by Sunni's, have low dev and not a lot of choice for allies. Their direct neighbours are the Timurids and Qara, both being hostile. Good luck. Holstein: If you can get past the first problems of Holstein, then it is probably smooth sailing for you. It is just getting there in the first place that is the issue. You are a subject of Denmark, who has 2 other subjects who are very loyal to him. You have two rubbish provinces, 22 dev total. If you break free from the Danish oppressor, then you have another issue - your other border is the HRE. Your only real option is to join, if you even can. Naxos: How do you feel about being a 6 dev island province bordering the Ottomans? Not good? Alright, what if you were a subject too under Venice, will that make you feel any better? Didn't think so. Madurai, Venad and Kochin: These all border each other, and all share the same issue. They also border Vijaynagar, who will send you a warning in month 1 or 2. Your only effective way to expand at all means you have to fight the big yellow blob of India. You may think you have it bad, but poor old Jaffna has it even worse. They are a vassal of Vijaynagar, so expect to be integrated shortly, while you pay Vijaynagar some of your monthly income in the mean time.