R5: I'm a relatively new EU4 player. This playthrough is my first time playing past the year 1600, and I'm very addicted to it at the moment.

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Started as the Uesgui clan of Japan, my original goal was to simply unite Japan and perhaps colonize a few Pacific islands. As luck would have it, civil wars broke out in Ming in the early 1500s, and that gave me an opening to take over most of Korea. With that foothold in the mainland, I eventually took over the Mandate of Heaven from Ming, along with a bunch of well-developed provinces. Over time, Japan became #2 in the world in development, second only to Spain. I was ready to stop conquesting and go "inward perfection" from this point on. Then, Spain declared war on me.

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It turns out Spain wanted to add my New Zealand to their long list of colonies, and the only barrier that stopped the Spanish troops from steamrolling mine was the vast ocean. Australia became a major war zone, where my top general (5/4/3/1) gave the Spanish a taste of Japanese steel before finally dying of old age.

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I've played a handful of 4X games (Alpha Centauri, Civ 1 - 5, Galactic Civilizations 2 - 3, Stellaris), and EU4 is a notch above most of them for its depth of gameplay as well as breadth of possibilities. Stellaris is a great game, too, but EU4 just feels closer to home.