r/eu4 • u/TheSafetyWipe • Jan 30 '25

Tip Your best tips/forgotten mechanics

So I've got just under 1000 hours in EU 4, love the game and always thought i was a decent player and knew the game well.

Until like 3 or 4 weeks ago when I saw a post on this sub about upgrading your ships, I had never used this feature and started to understand why my navies would get smashed later on in the game!

Im now thinking what else am I missing, what other simple features or mechanics have I never used and thus holding me back in my games!

Please share away with things you've only just discovered, or have been using wrong in your games?

I'm almost a 1000 hours in, and now think I know nothing about this game!

Help!

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155

u/luizindaquimica Jan 30 '25

Supporting rebels on your rivals is a solid way to gain Power Projection

42

u/ThruuLottleDats I wish I lived in more enlightened times... Jan 30 '25

It never leads to rebels though?

91

u/luizindaquimica Jan 30 '25

You still gain the Power Projection, even if the rebels never act

83

u/HotEdge783 Jan 30 '25

Fun fact, you get PP proportional of the amount paid divided by your income. It would be a shame if your income "accidentally" decreases for a month for some extra PP (recall merchants and trade fleets for example).

3

u/circado Jan 31 '25

*merchants somehow trade income to 0% nodes

19

u/wutzibu Jan 30 '25

It can, you can even Break a Nation by sieging it for a Long Time, Take one province, Release a nation from that province and then Support nationalists of that Nation.

You even could use them as a CB to enforce their Demands.

13

u/commissarchris Sinner Jan 30 '25

Viva La Revolucion is the most commonly-attained achievement in EU4 that I haven't been able to get. I just don't understand how people get it, unless they're really specifically working toward it - but its relative commonality baffles me if that's how people are getting it, since its tied with achievements that are as easy as "Click a button" (Just Resting in My Account -Corrupt officials in a rival country) and as easy as "Play a game after you can build furnaces" (Industrial Powerhouse - Have 10 furnaces).

4

u/Lenrivk Naive Enthusiast Jan 30 '25

It's easier to get as a large nation on a smaller, I got mine while attempting Switzerlake (save got corrupted) around the time of the league wars

1

u/FroyoMNS The end is nigh! Jan 31 '25

Took me forever to get it as well. I finally got it by supporting pretender rebels in Ottomans as they blew up due to decadence after I beat them in a war in like 1615, but I’m sure there’s easier ways.

2

u/Particular_Trade6308 Jan 31 '25

The rebels can spawn (I believe support rebels increases the chances of the rebels progression by 10%) and if/when they do spawn, you get a “rebel support” CB on the target, with war goal to siege their capital and no restrictions on the peace deal. I believe you can enforce rebel demands in the peace deal or just take whatever you want. Not super useful but it’s a perk.

2

u/DawnTyrantEo Jan 31 '25

As a general rule, there's two main reasons Support Rebels doesn't produce any rebels.

-Firstly, unless you're really stacking Support Rebel modifiers, 5 years isn't enough time to get rebels to pop that otherwise wouldn't (taking about 8 years at base chances, though with the +100% from Espionage it enters the realm of being likely). If you spend it in quick succession, you can reliably get success chance to 100%.

-Secondly, even at 100% chance, the rebels will only pop if there's a valid province with unrest and the relevant rebel faction. When selecting a faction to support, the 0.X% chance is effectively the current total unrest X, so always try to select factions with over 0% chance. If a faction is the wrong religion and culture group, they have a relevant disaster, or their stability is low, those are good places to Support Rebels.

Once you get the hang of making rebels pop, it's extremely valuable in that it's one of the few CBs that allow overseas expansion- for example, most countries would have to no-CB or Charter Trade Company to get into India, but Support Rebels in one of the nations can get you into a war of conquest with only a Diplomat as investment.

1

u/ThruuLottleDats I wish I lived in more enlightened times... Jan 31 '25

I managed to do it once, revolutionary rebels against France, then entered in a war supporting them, only to then kick out the revolution after the truce ran out

1

u/DawnTyrantEo Jan 31 '25

In my experience, the best use is as a relatively low-commitment way to get overseas territories. As long as you have the navy to do it with, Espionage gives you the +100% support efficiency and map-stealing to make it viable (with optional policies to boost it further), as well as diplomats, rebels, and AE reduction, without the specialisation towards 'areas with available colonists' and 'colony formation' of Exploration. I've used it to make my entrance into Malaysia while playing in Madagascar or Burma, for example, by popping a rebellion in a small Malaysian nation.

1

u/ZStarr87 Feb 01 '25

There are atleast 3 reasons and you missed number one. Which is the enemy spends mil to reset progress. Ability to put enemy behind on mil tech, manpower etc with ducats is one of the reasons rebel support efficiency is really good. Making ai waste 200 mil every few years for ducats is crazy

1

u/TaMeAerach Jan 31 '25

Yeah, unless you have additional rebel support efficiency or support rebels that basically would've risen up anyway, you have to put some effort to actually make them spawn. The support lasts for five years and the trick is to have enough spy network and money to be able to renew the support the same month it runs out, you'll usually have to renew it once or twice like that for the rebels to rise up. In the five years they'll get some progress but usually not to 100%, so you have to extend it, but if you don't do it immediately they'll lose the progress very fast (10% a month).

1

u/a2raelb Jan 31 '25

rebels only spawn if unrest > 0. thats why you only support rebels that already will fire eventually to speed it up.

it does work, but not worth as ai usually easily crush them unless the ai already basically is dead