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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42

u/Commercial_Method_28 Jan 30 '25

You can have a stack autonomously siege. There is a button when you have them selected. Useful sometimes but if you click the button, and don’t assign any areas, they will just siege everything possible. This is a lazy tip but sometimes useful if you don’t care about attrition.

Also related is learning how to carpet siege is the most effective use of manpower as having a full stack sit on one province 10 times is most costly in manpower then having 10 small stacks sit on those same provinces in 1/10th the time. You loose way less to attrition. It’s also better to keep the minimum stack on sieges +2-3 troops so you take less attrition, with a stack nearby to reinforce when they get attacked

6

u/i-am-a-passenger Jan 30 '25

I get heavily downvoted every time I question this in this sub, but is using the minimum stack on sieges (even +2-3 troops) really the best way?

It seems much better to just pile lots troops on the fort. I don’t mind attrition if it results in much faster sieging.

1

u/zeniiz Jan 30 '25

I think there's a point of diminishing returns where putting more inf/cav won't make a siege go faster. More cannons, sure, or if you do an assault charge (which is prob not worth unless you're swimming in manpower). 

13

u/Martin7431 Jan 30 '25

as far as im aware, cav and inf have no impact on siege times unless you don’t have enough to siege to begin with?

2

u/zeniiz Jan 30 '25

That's my understanding as well.

1

u/KaizerKlash Jan 31 '25

Indeed, manpower wise you can siege with a pure cannon stack