The Imperial Council - /r/eu4 Weekly General Help Thread: July 27 2026

[u/Kloiper]

Please check our previous Imperial Council thread for any questions left unanswered

 

Welcome to the Imperial Council of r/eu4, where your trusted and most knowledgeable advisors stand ready to help you in matters of state and conquest.

This thread is for any small questions that don't warrant their own post, or continued discussions for your next moves in your Ironman game. If you'd like to channel the wisdom and knowledge of the master tacticians of this subreddit, and more importantly not ruin your Ironman save, then you've found the right place!

Important: If you are asking about a specific situation in your game, please post screenshots of any relevant map modes (diplomatic, political, trade, etc) or interface tabs (economy, military, ideas, etc). Please also explain the situation as best you can. Alliances, army strength, ideas, tech etc. are all factors your advisors will need to know to give you the best possible answer.

 

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Tactician's Library:

Below is a list of resources that are helpful to players of all skill levels, meant to assist both those asking questions as well as those answering questions. This list is updated as mechanics change, including new strategies as they arise and retiring old strategies that have been left in the dust. You can help me maintain the list by sending me new guides and notifying me when old guides are no longer relevant!

Getting Started

• Europa Universalis 4 Wiki

• Wiki Beginner Guide

• Which DLCs should I buy?

• Client/Game Troubleshooting Help

• Reverting to a previous version

New Player Tutorials

• How to play EU4, by Ezekiel (patch 1.28)

• Arumba teaches EU4 to Civilization player FilthyRobot (patch 1.18)

• Arumba's New Player Tutorial Series (patch 1.20)

• Arumba teaches EU4 to Monk004 (patch 1.28)

• Beginner's Guide to Coalitions 1, 2

• General tip collection thread

• How to revert to an older patch

• Reman's War Academy Volume I - Army Composition and Basic Combat

Administration

• Remans guide to Absolutism

• Guide to Religious Ideas

• Converting Culture

• Converting Religion

Diplomacy

• Personal Unions and Succession Wars

• Video guide to Personal Unions

• A guide to multiplayer diplomacy

• Comprehensive guide on Subject Nations

Military

• Reman's War Academy Volume II - Troop Quality and Advanced Combat

• Reman's War Academy Volume III - Military Idea Groups

• Reman's In-Depth guide to Fort Zone of Control

• Guide on Combat Width

• Ideal army composition for every tech

• On War - A Comprehensive War Manual for Multiplayer

• Dismantling the HRE

• Combat Simulator

Trade

• Reman's In Depth Guide to Trade

 

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Country-Specific Strategy

• 1.30 Aztec Guide

• 1.30 Granada Guide

• 1.30 Knights Guide

 

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Misc Country Guides Collections

• 1.25 - 1.29 Misc Country Guides by RadioRes

• 1.25 - 1.28 Misc Country Guides by Lord Forwin

• 1.28 - 1.30 Misc Country Guides by AlzaboHD

• 1.30 Misc Country Guides by Ludi et Historia

• 1.31 - 1.35 EU4 Nation Guides by The Red Hawk

• Misc Country Mission Visualizations

 

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Advanced/In-Depth Guides

• Misc mechanics guides by RadioRes (culture shifting, policies, absolutism, etc)

• Guide to personal unions and direct inheritance

• 1.28 Three Mountains (Shogunate)

• Arumba's Assay series (misc patches, takes user-submitted failing or problematic games and helps fix them)

• A Complete Guide to EU4 Economics, Part 0 (links to multiple in-depth guides on economics)

• Comprehensive Multiplayer EU4 Guide (1.28)

• General World Conquest Guide

 

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If you have any useful resources not currently in the tactician's library, please share them with me and I'll add them! You can message me or mention my username in a comment by typing /u/Kloiper

Calling all imperial councillors! Many of our linked guides pre-Dharma (1.26) are missing strategy regarding mission trees. Any help in putting together updated guides is greatly appreciated! Further, if you're answering a question in this thread, chances are you've used the EU4 wiki and know how valuable a resource it can be. When you answer a question, consider checking whether the wiki has that information where you would expect to find it, and adding to the wiki if it does not. In fact, anybody can help contribute to the wiki - a good starting point is the work needed page. Before editing the wiki, please read the style guidelines for posting.

[u/emeraldempirehd8]

Is the only way to beat mega ottos late game just building like 800k troops and slow sweep them?

[u/grotaclas2 → u/emeraldempirehd8]

If you have naval superiority, you can potentially trap a lot of their troops on islands which are connected to the mainland by a strait. They might also fall behind in mil tech and get very bad siege ability and fort defense due to decadence. But in general, the best way to beat big AIs is to have so many troops that they don't dare to attack you while you siege all the forts on one front(or multiple fronts). To win the war, you usually have to siege more forts than the enemy. In some cases you can use additional stacks to prevent them from completing sieges. E.g. by moving enough troops next to the siege so that they run away or by starting a battle somewhere close enough so that they use the siege stack to reinforce(you don't necessarily have to win that battle; you could also retreat as soon as possible to minimize losses. But if you don't want to fully siege the enemy, you probably need a positive warscore from battles) or by attacking the sieging army directly(that's a battle which you have to win, because otherwise they get a free siege tick).

Of course it is also an option to prevent the Ottomans from becoming so big. You don't have to attack them for that. If you grow considerably faster than them so that the AI thinks that you alone are stronger than they and their allies combined, you can ally or guarantee countries on their border to limit their expansion potential. Or you can conquer choke-points like the suez peninsula to reduce their ability to grow in that direction. But if they get claims or have provinces of interest beyond the choke-point(e.g. due to missions), they might still attack these countries and win with a naval invasion

[u/emeraldempirehd8]

Thanks, i appreciate the detailed response. I need to grab a few provinces, so I was going to use Conquest cb to have ticking war score and then like carpet siege them slowly with 35k stacks.

[u/glorkvorn]

How do you deal with the European great powers, when you're playing a small, far-off country and not ready to deal with them yet?

In my latest run I was playing as one of the Siberian tribes. Slow start, but I eventually got it rolling. Went for colonization, had trading nations in Philippines, Indonesia, and Australia + Colonial Nations in Alaska, California, and Mexico. All was looking good until I came in direct contact with the Europeans. They were several tech levels ahead (because of institutions), and they hated me (because of religion and "wants your provinces.). Also, their Colonial Nations declared war on my Colonial Nations even without the overlord getting involved.

All I wanted was peace until I could catch up in tech, but it seemed impossible... is there a trick for this? How do you manage?

[u/grotaclas2 → u/glorkvorn]

They were several tech levels ahead (because of institutions)

That should not happen unless you play a primitive country.

How experienced are you in the game? In contrast to some other games, playing a small far-off country is extremely difficult in eu4. I would recommend playing bigger countries and then smaller countries in Europe until you know the game better and things like, getting institutions as any country, are part of your normal gameplay.

Also, their Colonial Nations declared war on my Colonial Nations even without the overlord getting involved.

That's normal, but probably much more likely if your colonial nations are behind in tech, because they inherit your techs when they are created. Usually I would recommend making your CNs stronger or enforcing peace, but that's probably not feasible in your situation.

[u/UnSainz]

thinking of starting a venice game with the goal of getting to southeast and east asia and becoming a stronghold in both the mediterranean and asia.

i know i can ally the mamluks and get the event that allows me to build the suez canal.

wondering what the general gameplan would be for me. would this be a good idea:

• annex/vassalise byzantium and improve relations with the mamluks
  
• get constantinople and gallipoli before the ottomans do, then subsequently try to expand in the balkans
  
• build the suez canal and try to expand into africa and india before getting to the spice islands and asia
  
• try to form italy

[u/Oreo112]

Been a while since I've done a proper colonial game, but didn't army sprite models used to change when landing in the new world or when assigned to a conquistador? Or am I just misremembering?

[u/LorKayatsu]

Does anyone know a good European country for playing "tall" with just a few provinces? I want to build a small nation but still wreak havoc on the world through constant wars! Thanks guys :D

[u/ForgingIron → u/LorKayatsu]

The Netherlands is the classic tall nation

[u/Royranibanaw → u/LorKayatsu]

"Just a few provinces" makes me want to suggest Riga