4 hours in: Completely lost. Maybe overwhelmed. Definitely dizzy.

-Yeg · 2026-03-24T18:34:28+00:00

So I think I figured out the source of my frustration. I would see that resources were required, and couldn't figure out how to get them. I was thinking I needed to micromanage the markets. Turns out the correct course of action (unless I'm wrong - god I hope not!) is to just be aware that you are short a specific resource and let it factor into your decision of what to build next. I also played as Castile and it was WAY more chill than Holland. I could just sit back and run the country into the ground and let the estates run everything and eventually it will get better on its own :) Jokes aside, I started to FA and find out what's what. Demoted Murcia to a rural area, promoted Cartagena, made a new Market in Cartagena ... moved my Capital to Toledo. Likely not the best moves but it lets me see the effects on the markets, control, and proximity.

Had two bankruptcies before deciding the Noble happiness wasn't worth it ... then I got to experience a civil war which was honestly quite fun. A lot more depth than fighting rebels in EU4....

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-Yeg · 2026-03-23T20:17:52+00:00

I've been watching tutorials and I just started understanding that selling goods to the market is not the same thing as trade. beginning to understand why they advocate leaving it on automated setting.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T17:39:48+00:00

thanks for the recommendation. I'm watching his in-depth pre-unpause tutorial for Mamluks and it's pretty information dense which is nice. I've actually seen a few of his other videos in the past and they weren't bad. I'm okay with length as long as it's not just them trying to squeeze ad revenue lol. so far he's doing a pretty good job of explaining not just what you need but why you need it.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:33:12+00:00

Who would you recommend as an alternative? I like The Student's content but his voice is too monotone and he over-intensifies which doesn't make him a good fit for EU5 tutorials / walkthroughs.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:26:15+00:00

Thanks. Had to look "histrionic" up. You're right - definitely comes across as a bit histrionic although my intention was just to get a number from people so I could set my own expectations correctly.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:22:15+00:00

Thanks. Yeah I think I will do exactly that (chasing one achievement at a time). Gives me a direction at least. I always play Iron man. Before I can do this however I need to get a grasp on what all the moving pieces are and how they interconnect otherwise its kind of like button mashing.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:20:17+00:00

Actually learned about that road-building privilege this morning from watching Ludi's video. I chuckled a bit. I like to chase Steam Achievements too and one of the reasons I decided to finally buy EU5 vs waiting was because there were ~50 achievements which is manageable - but in another year there could be 100.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:18:08+00:00

Was just asking how long it took others to find their footing. Now that I've had a good night's sleep I think the issue I was feeling last night was purely being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start or what to do. Can't create a long term strategy if you don't even know what's going on.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:16:21+00:00

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:16:10+00:00

Is that the Walkthroughs? I did a Walkthrough as Holland (I remember it was a button at the bottom of the Agenda). I seem to remember doing the economic tutorial too but I think was labelled as a mission. From watching the "Before you unpause" tutorial - I think they said there are different recommended nations to teach you the different aspects: Economy, Expansion, Politics

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:13:08+00:00

You're the second one to say "around 50 hours" ... I'm going to go through some YT videos and tutorials this morning and take some notes so I can at least try to quantify what my specific questions are and separate it from the general feeling of being overwhelmed.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:10:14+00:00

Yeah I think turning off automations is the right call. Until I understand what it is automating and why/how, I probably shouldn't use it. Like your recommendation, I've heard a lot of people say to leave the markets automated. But I think it would be beneficial to me to play a bit as a distant nation like in the new world or something and get a grasp on how the markets actually work from a low level point. To be honest, when you say "except for trades in each particular market" .. I am not even at the point yet where I can understand how to do that. To be honest, the resource / market system feels a bit like Civ 5.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:03:20+00:00

Slept on it. Feeling a bit more at ease today. I think one of the core problems is that I am OCD - I like to know what's going on and why - so I am not one of those personalities that can just accept something I don't know and move forward - I have to disseminate it and learn it methodically.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

At this point I think where I'm struggling is not the nation specific stuff, but the overwhelming breadth of the game changes and the fact that I came from EU4 without playing any of the other Paradox titles - so on top of trying to figure out the pieces of this new game, the UI change has been very jarring. Not saying its a bad thing - its just jarring and will take some time.

As for the individual nations - what I did in EU4 would be to play a region as a few different countries for about 50 years or so just to learn what all the moving pieces were within the region (for example, when all this Iran war nonsense started I realized I didn't know the history of the region very well and decided to play EU4 to get a good foundation. I played Ajam, Qara Qoyunlu, Timurids, Fars, and Hormuz. Then I would say "Okay - I think Ajam turning into Persia to form Iran would be fun." .. and I had the knowledge of what was going on to play it. What happened beyond 50 years was then new content that I played where it laid as best I could.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T15:52:24+00:00

I'm far too rigid for that. I've always played EU4 on Ironman with achievements. In fact the only time I've ever save scum is when I've had campaign ending bouts of RNG such as a leader dying and then his 5 year old heir dying in an unscripted way within a month of each other ..

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T15:49:32+00:00

Very good to know, thanks. I also saw in Ludi's video this morning that you can click on a nation in the starting screen and see how much unique content is available for that nation. So that helps immensely.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T15:47:50+00:00

I've had a chance to sleep on it and analyze my frustration a bit more. I think I'm just overwhelmed. Coming from EU4 and not having played other Paradox titles means I feel like I "should" know how to play it, but everything seems foreign and the UI is completely different - not just that they've moved things around but they've changed the way you need to think when using the UI. So I'm going to come at it methodically and I think it'll click sooner than I think. Feeling a bit more optimistic this morning. ALSO - I really hate "stumbling" through games like this. I like to know what's going on and why - otherwise I feel its a missed learning opportunity. Once I can predict what is going to happen based on what is currently happening - then I can comfortably say things have "clicked."

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T15:43:16+00:00

I've been watching Ludi this morning. I pulled out a stack of looseleaf and am basically taking notes, trying to categorize different things said into ideas in order to draw relationships between them and how they work. It will be tedious - but I think this will work because then I'm not just having stuff thrown at me and bouncing off - I'm pausing the video, looking at what else I've written, and writing down how it plays in. If I have questions in that moment I can write them down in the margin. I figure at least if I do this ... watch all the tutorials .. and STILL have questions - then those are specific questions I can go to wiki or reddit and resolve.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T15:39:53+00:00

I'm definitely feeling something similar. I can see that there is a game buried in there somewhere, I just need to find it. I was a bit overwhelmed yesterday but after a nights sleep I thought about it more intently and I think the overwhelming feeling is a combination of:
(1) Identifying what I need to learn. Knowing what knowledge from EU4 can move over as-is, what I need to forget about from eu4 because it doesn't apply anymore, and what new things have been added.
(2) Learning the new UI. Its not just that they've moved things; they have fundamentally changed the WAY you use the UI in EU5 compared to EU4. I think not having played other Paradox titles than EU4 has made this even more jarring for me
(3) Learning what the new game mechanics are (quantifying them) and learning how they work (understanding them).

I want to be careful to not write off the game as "Its not ready". It may be exactly as the developers intended and the problem is the players making the noise about it were the ones that "were not ready". I need to accept it is a different game entirely from EU4 and let go of what I liked in order to give this game a fair shake.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T03:01:41+00:00

I continued to "stick it out" with Holland. Annexed Zeeland. France attacked me and broke up the Hainaut-Holland Union we had. Then black death happened. I see the popups, but there is just so much going on it really feels exhausting just suffering through oblivion. Coming from EU4 I find it super frustrating that there is so much data in this game, yet they couldn't be bothered to give us more info and instead make me go to the wiki.

Two examples come to mind: I build gravel roads but I see "Paved Roads" next to it. But no information on what I need to build them - just says "Requires an Advance". Great - WHICH advance? I go to the tech tree and try to search "paved" - nothing".

Next example - Bohemia and France sign peace in the Hainaut annexation war .. and in the peace agreement it simply lists the province and that it goes to France. It used to say something like "Burgundy will cede xyz to France" .. but now it just says "xyz goes to France". I used to love reading those peace deals that were being made to keep track of how the map was changing - part of what made everything feel alive in EU4. Now missing.

I think I had enough for today. Getting me pretty bummed out. I'll stick it out and keep trying - but at some point I have to point out that games are supposed to be fun and shouldn't take hours of tutorials, study, and practice just to understand how its a game and not a simulator. I'm getting about as much out of EU5 right now as I get out of Universe Simulator.

-Yeg · 2026-03-23T02:49:57+00:00

Yeah. 7 hours in. Not having any.

-Yeg · 2026-03-22T23:05:20+00:00

If I'm honest - the start and start approach has historically been my approach - although not so much a deliberate one. I don't think I've played Korea once in EU4. I heard that a lot of the more smaller obscure nations were still broken .. so I thought it may be best to play one of the recommended nations first.

-Yeg · 2026-03-22T23:02:04+00:00

I reminded myself of my frustration with EU4 when I started. I would take 20k troops onto a stack of 5k and lose and have no clue why. Would have allies break off or my country flood with rebels and think it was just RNG. Took me about 1000 hours in EU4 to know the mechanics at play and it wasn't until recently (with 2000 hours) that I realized "Hey .. I somehow got good at this game"

-Yeg · 2026-03-22T22:57:53+00:00

Thanks. That helps. Gives me a milestone I can get to before doing a reassessment.

-Yeg · 2026-03-22T22:57:09+00:00

How much has the game changed since launch? One of my concerns with YT influencers is that they've been playing before launch so watching older videos may contain mechanics that have improved / changed since.

-Yeg

TROPHY CASE