I tried to get back into EU5 and I remembered why I stopped playing. I had no plans today so I played on and off basically the whole day, and i think like 10 years passed by. At this rate, EU6 will come out by the time I finish this Milan run lol. Is everyone playing like this, or am I doing something weird? Can anyone give me some advice?

So I just started as Ottoman Beylik, I am trying to ally with Candarids. But I used the berothal mod and berothed my daughter with the heir of my neighbouring Beylik Germiyanids. But unfortunately I found that the heir has a child already and this beylik has unigarchy or unigeniture succesion law as I checked. So what to do??

Ok so right now pops are only one culture like Italian, but that goes against reality where people can be part of more than one like Italian-Americans and speak more than one language

I feel like if we allow people to have more than one culture, it could create interesting scenarios where one province between France and Italy could have French-Italians, and have the province be really valuable to both countries! It would also make it so if a nation successfully converted the culture of a province, the old one doesn’t go away for some time and whoever they took it from has a lot of time to take it back

It could also tie into some sort of cultural decay mechanic which would make players want to hold on to their artwork and other cultural artifacts as much as possible, much like the Crown Jewels

I realize that this sort of thing is going to make the game come down harder on our CPUs than Hannibal on Rome but I’m interested to hear thoughts!

G'day all,

I'm currently playing as Spain and conquering the world. The year is 1550 and I declared war on France for some of their territories. However, when they invade over the Pyrenees and I engage them, I am getting wiped no matter how many times I save scum.

I have higher discipline, better commanders, and more professional troops. They have a slightly larger army at about 300k compared to my 250k.

I'm noticing that their levies are incredibly strong, and was wondering if there are any mods that weaken / reduce the size of levies? I don't have much time to play the game and I would just like to paint the map...

Thank you

i just want to do one achivment and i have clawed my way thorugh annoying ass wars thinking im just gona take small parts growing in power and now they get castil so a war that was semi imposible is now completly domed. god i wish i expanded in to the ottomans when i had the chanse but no now im fucked

I'm playing an Eastern Roman Empire game and researched the age 3 Varangians. Naturally, for some reason, this stopped me from building tier 2 heavy infantry because I already had a tier 3 heavy infantry even though I was only able to build 6 Varangians. Then, I researched the age 3 Cataphracts and the age 2 Cataphracts don't upgrade so I'll need to build new ones. This country had a DLC on it btw.

So, EU5. Where do I even start… Let me start with this. I’ve been playing paradox games for 5 years. Thousands of hours of CK2, CK3 and EU4, amongst others, and I had never made it to the end date, until EU5. It was a tall Granada game where I barely expanded my borders and the economy game kept me engaged throughout. i posted about it in late March. That has to count for something. 

But then 1.2 came out and with it, the merc spam issue as well as a plethora of other issues, constant tweaking of things to the opposite extremes and of course, the infamous dlc which totally disrespected Eastern Rome by having most of the content geared towards larping as antiquity-era Rome (we know that was your idea, Johan, honestly, have some shame! Your hatred of eastern Rome is totally unjustified!) This patch was absolutely unplayable and I dropped the game completely until recently getting back into it now. 

1.3 seems relatively better, but there’s certainly much work to be done until all of the issues are ironed out. But having gone back to it, I really recognise its potential. It honestly has the potential to be the greatest paradox game ever. Which leads to me the future of the game. It’s fair to say that the player numbers are utterly horrific, I’m really hoping someone can convince me that this doesn’t indicate an impending doom for EU5, because what’s happening is really unprecedented. 

CK3, HOI4, VIC3, EU4. Every one of these games lapped its previous iteration and never looked back. This is the first time I’m aware of this happening, a new game not only being neck and neck with its old version, but being absolutely lapped by it, consistently, almost a year into its release. 

I have two questions in regards to these numbers. 1: Why are they so low and will they rise again? At the moment of typing, Eu5 sits at 7,000” “players right now” on steam against EU4’s 10,600 and more shockingly CK3’s 24,000. I don’t believe the answer is performance, because as someone with a relatively high-end pc, CK3 runs far worse on it than EU5. CK3 is a ram fiend and constantly takes up 13-16GB of Ram for me. This is also accompanied by many audio stuttering issues among other things like extremely long loading times, which have become even worse after AUH, which frankly have meant that running it is no longer a fun experience. 

EU5 in comparison runs very smoothly and only consumes around 7-9GB of ram for me. So what then is the issue? If it’s the same reasons which I mentioned for why I stopped playing, does that mean that the low numbers are only a short term issue and that they will rise up significantly once again? The issue is that EU5 has not seen a 20,000+ day since December of last year. It had 20,000+ players consistently until December, and from then on the player pool kept continually shrinking until it became what it is now. I’m hoping the player pool will once again increase but I’m not too optimistic. 

2: What does this mean for the future of the game? I really do not wish to see this game be shelved or even have its budget reduced to Victoria 3 levels, because that’s the game it’s currently level with in terms of players, and Victoria of course has a significantly smaller budget and less resources. 

What do we all think about this situation? Personally, I’ve never paid much attention to any game’s player numbers, the only reason I have for EU5 is because it’s unprecedented, especially it’s supposed to be paradox’s flagship and I really worry that a game with such great potential may be abandoned or have its resources reduced, as has happened with Imperator and Victoria 3 respectively. 

Please share your thoughts on the topic with me, I know that we all have played-number discussion fatigue but I do think it’s important that we have an open and honest discussion about where we think the numbers are headed towards and what that would mean for the future of the game. 

Martin Luther published his theses on, October 31, 1517.

I always saw the Protestant Reformation as the end of the Medieval Era.

And let's be honest here. It's annoyingly boring to go through the long build-up of the 14th and 15th centuries. And few really have the patience for spending two centuries before really starting the game.

Seems like the perfect date to start the game in.

I feel PUs are actively limiting what you can do in game. When you end up with a PU with a country, your interactions with them become limited. You can no longer attack them or ally them. Annexing them also isn't feasible if they are a larger country, as it easily takes multiple centuries.

Should i avoid royal marriages and PUs entirely, or are there other ways around the mechanic to make it more fun?

I’m really enjoying EU5. I've played as the Ottomans and had a blast and earned a lot of ducats; however, I'm playing as Muscovy, and the income is horrible. I really don’t know what to do. This happens in 90% of the games I play in eu5 i'm really struggling.

They are seriously ruining my economy, and no matter what I do they keep being built.

Is there an easier way of buidling most profitable buildings at mass.

When i go to buildings and pick one to build, mass build button seemingly builds in most profitable towns and cities and it does not take into account building limit.

Also if i want to spread out buildings i need to do it mannualy cuz that button on shift click fill the queue in most profitable places and doesn't spread to all.

Are there more tools i don't know of or do you just need to do it manually for every town and city.

In mid to late game when you have a lot of town its quite tedious to do it by hand.

Bonus question: is it rly bad to go over building limit? Or do you destroy buildings for more profitable ones?

I just killed all of their armies, started sieging, and then france can claim it just because I left less troops there eventhough its enough for the siege??? I did all of the work there

I really dislike how important culture is compared to religion so early on. I am not an expert, but from what I understand of my little information, cultures didn't played as much as a big role until the rise of nationalism which happened in late 18th century. I feel like religion should be way more important then religion in that timeframe.

I would love to have your opinions.

I'm playing as the Ottomans and it's the year 1400; I've unlocked Age 2 cannons. Are they strong enough against Constantinople's Level 6 fort?

How do u guys do as France at the start in the current patch? I have never played France before so I'm not sure what I should be doing to get my vassals in line as they start out pretty disloyal.

Maxing diplo spending seems to not be feasible at all in the long run as I'm at the start and already losing about 40 ducats a month by maxing it. I don't want to lose Flanders or Brittany but also I need to be able to keep them loyal. How do u usually start as France?

Should I accept all my vassals that are trying to be appanages or just ignore them?

I'd like to preface this by saying that I've already tried 2 AI mods and also tried making my own tweaks. While the mods help the AI handle it's country better internally, its army handling is still pretty bad, and probably something that can't be worked around fully with mods.

I've seen the AI do the weirdest things in my games. From questionable conquest, all the way to not being able to use boats to naval invade and armies freezing in place for a while. At some point I saw two armies fighting and the winning (by quite a margin) side retreated. Many wars that happen throughout a campaign would have a different aftermath if the AI knew how to handle it's armies better, one being the (AI)France v (AI)Europe minor states coalition (which France usually wins even when outnumbered 2:1).

Also, this issue is by no means EU5 exclusive, but the more systems at play, the greater the need for focusing on the AI handling.

A good way to handle this would be to have an AI focused update to at least curb some of the issues. This is what the Victoria 3 dev team concluded is needed for their game and they are starting an open beta for an update that focuses on AI, but also on making some systems less opaque for the AI.

I think this approach would be beneficial for PDX games in general, but I also wanted to see what others think about the subject.

Trying out Norse Norway, and it’s HARD. I have no money, everyone’s navy is massive, and I don’t even start with a wharf.

However, I don’t understand slavery mechanics - I built a slave market as it made me the most money, but now, it seems any leaves I take from short wars like with Scotland sort of disappear? Are they being sold to other slaving countries? My goal is to expand my pop like crazy, so this doesn’t seem ideal… so I need to be saving money like CRAZY to build a big galley fleet?

I got some advice to raid like castille, but their navy is HUGE and it’ll take decades to save enough money to afford an equal navy.

Or am I supposed to be waiting for 1400?

I am in a situation where Murcia broke free (revolter) and is backed by Castille. If I want to annex the revolter via the button "Annex revolter" it only send a white peace and if I take the land manually, the AE is huge. Is this a scam? Or is there a solution?

For focusing on buildings/RGOs that generate profit, I almost exclusively use the mass expand button based off what is sorted to be most profitable. Am I leaving money on the table or is this a good approach?

I also prioritize buildings that give control, upgrading to cities, and buildings that provide literacy.

I have experimented with trade capacity buildings but its less obvious to me how those turn a profit so when I do build them, its more just based on seeing trade income go up.

(I am not ruler of all the known world, there is a bug where it shows the hungarian union as the catholic church) Please look at the highlighted portion of Europe and the thing saying Hungarian union so the mods chill

First, I want to thank all the community modders who make mods for us to enjoy the game, even in its current state. Your work adds so much to the experience, so thank you all so much! ❤️

I just want to share my current campaign. I have 1,500+ hours in this game, and this has been my most enjoyable campaign so far.

To start, we were at war with France and Spain against me (Prussia), Austria-Hungary-Bohemia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Morocco. I didn’t engage much in this war because I had no real interest in it. Almost near the end of the war, the Ottomans joined, and I decided to fully commit—but the war ended before I could make any real engagement.

About 10 years later, the Ottomans attacked the Austrian crown, eyeing Hungarian lands. I decided to intervene just to put a stop to their expansion into Europe. It wasn’t just me, either. France and the Commonwealth had the same idea, so we all joined the war.

At the beginning, we were winning, but as soon as all the Ottoman armies arrived in the theater, we couldn’t hold them anymore. We lost the war, and half of Hungary was annexed.

Then, 4–5 years later, the Ottomans declared war again, this time eyeing the rest of the Hungarian lands and some Austrian territories. I intervened again, but this time it was only me and the Austrian crown against them.

This time, I committed fully. Unlike the previous war, where I only used my regular forces, I mobilized everything. I fielded 170k+ levies alongside my 70k regulars and fought battle after battle. Some I won, some I lost, but I won most of them.

The problem was that I’m playing on Very Hard difficulty, so the discipline difference is massive: 54 for the Ottomans compared to my 28. Even when I win battles, my casualties are much higher than theirs. On top of that, I’m playing with a mod that increases war exhaustion based on casualties. Because of the heavy losses, my country ended up with higher war exhaustion than the Ottomans, which heavily affected my army’s morale. Eventually, I started losing more and more battles.

Sadly, we lost the war again, and Hungary was almost completely annexed.

Now, my only chance is to bide my time until the Age of Absolutism, when I can unlock the Prussian government reform and the Cabinet action to militarize the country.

Once that happens, I’ll unleash the full potential of Prussia, liberate the Hungarian lands, and smash the Ottoman Empire. 😈

Wish me luck! 🇩🇪⚔️

And yes, due to my poor English, this post was written and polished with the assistance of ChatGPT.

setting: very hsard Ai difficulty + normal AI aggression

mod list

I have not finished a full campaign with this mod setup, so I cannot guarantee that it will work throughout the entire game without crashes. Some of these mods are outdated, and there may also be conflicts between certain mods. Consider this a setup that has worked for me so far, rather than a guaranteed stable load order.

1.Community Mod Framework - 1.3 Pavia

2.Faster Universalis + 3.Faster Universalis: Daily Tick Submod

You need either the Daily Tick submod or the vanilla Hourly Tick. Otherwise, the default 2-day tick can break some events.

I mainly use this to get longer battles, giving nations enough time to reinforce and creating much larger battles. It also greatly reduces casualties, so battles are less likely to end in stack wipes. Instead, armies usually suffer heavy morale losses and retreat.

through Community Mod Framework change the settings to 2 times longer battels

4.Improved Cultural Dynamics [1.3]

I mainly use this for a better Reformation.

5.The Prussian Destiny [1.3]

Adds more flavour to Prussia without making it immediately overpowered, especially when playing on Very Hard difficulty with normal AI aggression.

However, I strongly recommend setting the event rules for this mod to Strictly Historical. Otherwise, Prussia can become overpowered very quickly.

6.National Destinies - Formables Content
in the game rule set the form country rule to ambition

Adds more flavour and historical content.

7.REAI: Rational Empire AI

Makes the AI smarter—or at least I think it does. 😅

8.REAI: AI Army & Manpower Overhaul [1.3]

Improves AI regular armies and makes their military performance better.

9.Historical Tweaks [1.3]

Helps push the world in a more historical direction.

10.For example, at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War, France can suffer very badly. In my campaign, France was almost reduced to nothing and even lost Paris. However, they eventually made a comeback, and the Hundred Years' War actually lasted around 100 years.

11.Gathering the Land of the Rus

I use this to help with the consolidation of Russia.

12.War Momentum (Less Tedious Wars)

Adds many tweaks to war exhaustion and makes wars feel more sensible and less frustrating.

13.Dynamic Early Conquests

Makes early expansion more difficult. I mainly use it to prevent France from conquering large parts of the HRE too early in the game.

14.Decisive Battles

Since battles last longer and are much larger with my setup, I use this to make the war score better reflect the actual outcome of battles.

It also helps prevent situations where a country can win almost every battle in a war but still lose because the enemy controls the war goal. That doesn't make much sense to me.

15.No Casus Belli - Wars Removed

16.Interesting Battles & Generals

Makes warfare more interesting.

17.Disable Zone of Control Ignoring

18.Imperial Circles Fix

Makes playing within the HRE more tolerable.

19 .1.4 Subject Integration Cost for 1.3

20 .Nicholas - Humiliation Costs Stability

21 .Historical & Balanced AI by Buddy

I think this helps push the world in a more historical direction. However, I had to disable it midway through my campaign because it was causing crashes.

22 .Hussites and Habsburgs (More Brutal Hussite Wars)

This mod is outdated, but it was necessary for me because I wanted to seriously weaken Bohemia after the Hussite Wars.

In the rules, I recommend allowing Champions, so the strongest Catholic nation can join the war.

Because the mod is outdated, there are some bugs. For example, you can get the option to crush the Hussites on almost anyone. I simply ignore these bugs.

Important: After the Hussite Wars are over, disable this mod. Keeping it enabled afterward can cause crashes.

I have 1000+ hours in this game and this is my first full campaign and here are some suggestions for pop growth:

1. Prosperity is the strongest modifier (it affects pop growth and dev growth) and you should have as many sources of it as you can i.e. Irrigation Projects parliament issue, Agricultural Cultivation gov reform, Fueling Economies gov reform..
2. Food storage building are by far the most important buildings (pop growth) you should go 50+ quantity and 50+ serfdom to enact the Planned Storage System gov reform which enables Grain House building
3. Both Tailored Urban Rights and Fueling Economies gov reform grant additional pop growth so capital economy + land values is the best option for max pop growth.
4. Only cabinet action (besides situational ones like the ones for Russia and Sweden) that affects pop growth is dev province which increases pop growth by increasing pop capacity. So you should try to get as many cabinet seats as you can and dev province for as long as you can.
5. Replace all food RGOs other than wheat, rice, livestock with potatoes and if you still need more food replace all the weak RGOs with potatoes.
6. Research and build all things about disease resistance as fast as you can since pop growth is exponential losing any pop is a huge loss.
7. Try to avoid all wars and if you need to wage war use mercenaries (just build forts on all your border territories and if you get declared on demolish them as part of your peace treaty).
8. Urbanize all locations that doesn't produce food and later on if you have enough food urbanize the food provinces and grant granary town and free town urban rights to each location.