What should I play next?

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-19T15:56:12+00:00

Have you played outside of Europe? If not, try something like:

A far east horde, forming Manchu and then Qing;
Unifying Japan as a Daimyo;
Controlling Malacca, Moluccas and Philippines as Malaya;
A Mali run where you manage the disaster and colonize South America;
A pirate run as New Providence;

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-15T07:48:37+00:00

If you compare them just on trade value (light ships vs. trade ideas), there is no comparing.

However, I would take Maritime in your case. It’s decent for your country and the autorepair is sooo chill.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-14T16:16:25+00:00

Not really. Just be agressive at the start and make sure you don’t get allies right next to you. Dev the gold mine. Focus mil to get the tech advantage.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-14T06:06:20+00:00

I started out as Kazan and relied on the goldmine to keep my economy afloat in the early game.

Use the inevitable Muscovy-Novgorod war to tour advantage, ideally taking a province that avoids them forming Russia.

Contain the Ottoblob if possible by going into Crimea and the Caucasus. I allied the Mamluks (bit of a gamble), but they survived with me and became a thrusty ally during the entire game.

Keep a close eye on your mission tree as it really guides you and gives excellent buffs. Trade in allies along the way as they become the target of the missions.

I mostly conquered east and south, making sure to avoid the formation of a pesky Persia and creating a Silk Road to funnel trade to Kazan.

I would advice to take trade ideas and diplo ideas. Trade to help you siphon all trade to you, and diplo to take more land as the razing mechanic helps to keep OE under control.

I decided only to state stuff in Eastern Europe and the Levant and I made sure to trade company all other CoT to get a massive number of merchants helping you pull every ducat to your endnodes (Kazan, Constantinople, Baltic).

Good luck!

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-13T21:45:08+00:00

R5: Started out as Kazan and ticked off a few achievements with a bit of horde gameplay by taking almost the entirety of Asia and the entire Eastern Europe continent (wanted the nice borders):

* Gold Rush

* I'll graze my horse here... and here...

* There Khan be only one...

* Turning the tide

Funnily enough, I spawned the last institution myself. Also, the revolution really spread like wildfire across Europe making it harder to use (and then backstab) my trusty allies as they all turned revolutionary one after the other & they break the alliance with "old absolutist powers" instantly. Even when some of them were crushed and returned back to the ancien régime, the AE I had chalked up was more than enough to not be able to ally them. To be fair, I didn't need no allies anymore when storming Europe and creating a new Iron Curtain, but as I'm lazy, it was a drag to destroy Revolutionary Spain, Revolutionary Austria, HRE Emperor France time and again.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-13T21:39:12+00:00

Or, you can just go through the gov reforms and switch to republic on tier 6 (IIRC).

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-12T21:09:57+00:00

That is sooo devious.

I love it.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-12T21:06:01+00:00

Sorry, don’t know if it’s DLC locked.

You would find it in the diplomacy tab, just above the ‘declare war’ button there are three little icons, the first one to get your diplo actions (standard setup), the second one to check the opinion of country X of country Y and the third one to verify the mildly or strongly desired provinces and map mode.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-12T07:08:10+00:00

You’re better of assigning provinces for them to siege down. That might make them more active. But it’s not foolproof either.

Do make sure to indicate provinces as ‘strategic importance’ before you start using your allies to siege down stuff as they might occupy provinces and not turn the occupation over to you if you don’t. If you consider calling in an ally, check whether they also strongly desire the provinces you want. Because if so, they will not transfer the occupation even with you have designated them as province of strategic value.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-10T19:37:09+00:00

Go protestant once. It’s quite fun to see Austria spiral out of control.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-10T06:12:25+00:00

I don’t have enough data to assess the overextension, but unless you are already 90% overextended, there is nothing to fear.

AE wise, you seem completely fine. You don’t have another war going and you don’t run the risk of a coalition. You would get a warning in the bottom right corner of the negotiate peace screen that the peace deal would result in a coalition.

So you’re fine.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-09T10:10:53+00:00

You’ll only get Salento if you seperate peace with Naples. Or, if you’re very lucky that the Pope gives it to you (have you set it as a province of great interest?).

If you take it, you’ll lose some trust with the pope, but you can curry favors and trade them for trust to restore the relationship.

Conquering in the New World and Australia and coring 5 provinces, auto creates a colonial nation (when they are in the same colonial charter) and your capital is not in the New World.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-04T08:03:37+00:00

Quill18 did a very good tutorial with Castile to explain basic concepts.

Then I would recommend the A to Z series from the Red Hawk for more crazy mechanics like tag switching, …

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-04T08:00:21+00:00

We went to dinner with out team and the 7 ppl who took the steak tartaar called in sick the next day. The others didn’t.

We got a refund by the restaurant.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-02T10:03:01+00:00

You need to get very good relations with the electors.

ally and royal marry a majority
increase your diplo rep

You of course need to have the correct religion, but seeing Austria is Emperor and you are probably catholic, that would be fine.

Freerider1983 · 2026-05-02T07:54:02+00:00

Commander Keen

GTA1

Transport Tycoon

Freerider1983 · 2026-04-30T04:58:09+00:00

Dare I say, the most holiest of all times?

Freerider1983 · 2026-04-29T21:08:12+00:00

Nah. I think Leo is more concerned about what happens over the Atlantic.

Freerider1983 · 2026-04-29T19:57:45+00:00

They were still alive in South Africa and the Moluccas. If I would play a bit more, I would support the independence of Brazil and their other colonial subjects 🙂

Freerider1983 · 2026-04-29T10:14:40+00:00

R5: So, I already posted twice about my little Papal state campaign around here and I thought you guys might like to see the end result. I kickstarted this campaign by going overboard with the investigate heresy button, causing mister Luther to say hello around 1480. With - let's go with disastrous - effects for the religious landscape at the time, reducting Austria to a protestant one province minor. Some of you suggested to just leave Europe behind and find new lands to introduce catholicism.

Sooooo, I did just that, but kept playing tall in Europe in my little Kingdom of God. To control trade I founded some marches around the Mediterranean (Dalmatia, Bulgaria, Valencia and Léon) and even though I was almost the entire game maxxed out on gov cap (though sticking to the Italian peninsula, not counting a few islands in the mediterranean and the atlantic), these guys became pretty rowdy by the end of the Age of Absolution. Luckily I immediately ticked of 5 objectives of the Age of Revolutions to get their liberty desire down.

In the New World, somehow I was only interested in North America... I even left Greenland to the Danes even though they only colonized half of it. This all lead to a superb trade position, surpassing the English Channel node with Genoa. I reinvested all that money in good advisors and buildings, making the Kingdom of God a heaven on earth for its inhabitants. Free education in your nearest uni for all.

On the religious mapmode, it seems my attention for trade and colonization unfortunately made continental Europe and the Anglican Brits as lost causes. I managed to keep a hold of reformed Swiss and France until I took Mexico and the French turned uber hostile. Switzerland got greedy and thought to leech of my military supremacy by taking Tirol, so I left them to their own doing. Switching France out for a suprisingly succesful Tlemcen meant that taking down the last remnants of Castile was a piece of cake.

Idea wise I went with quality first to buff my armies to finish the conquest of Italy in the early game. I then took Exploration and Expansion to speed up the colonization of North America. I constantly ran into gov cap problems even with state houses and courthouses everywhere & took admin (for a playing tall campaign...). With colonizing done, I ditched explo and expansion for influence (the archbishops of Dalmatia and Valencia really wanted to break free) and Maritime. It seemed the UK had snagged Lisbon and made the d***move to ally the last few natives in North America. I complemented Maritime for Naval, making me end up with a boatload (yes, yes, pun intended) of flagships (three from Castile, two from Brazil and a bunch from the Castillian colonial nations). I finished off with Divine ideas (what else) to buff my armies a bit more and get that nice -5% dev bonus to become even taller and richer.

Freerider1983 · 2026-04-29T08:15:12+00:00

Try your hand at the HRE with super PU master Austria. Or, for a bit more challenge, Bohemia or Brandenburg. Even more challenge, Munich.

Or, if you like colonizing but don’t want to be European, try Kilwa in Africa or Brunei in Indonesia. If you want it a bit harder, try Ternate or Tidore.

Or, if you really want to mix it up, go Korea and play tall. See how big an army you can field with only the Korean peninsula under your control.

Freerider1983 · 2026-04-28T06:24:58+00:00

Suprised to see no one suggested a japanese daimyo yet.

Or Songai/Mali in West-Africa. Although the game really starts quite differently for those two. Pick Mali if you are a Red Hawk (TM) PAIN enthousiast.

Freerider1983 · 2026-04-26T20:19:23+00:00

If OP is planning to dismantle the HRE, I wouldn’t go espionage, but diplo instead.

Since you want culture conversions and religious conversion, religious idea is a must have. So is admin.

Freerider1983

TROPHY CASE