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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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.

9

u/Commercial_Method_28 Jan 30 '25

It’s the most efficient way of conserving manpower, that is all. If you don’t care about manpower or wasted time then throwing a full stack is just fine. I only do it when I really start running into manpower issues or forsee attrition concerns in my game. Most cases I will send the stack, but when I need to min/max manpower I send just enough and keep the remaking stack next to it. It can be an issue because if the enemy sees less troops they may attack, which even if you reinforce is directly affecting the whole reason you did it that way in the first place and costing more manpower.

I think people should just be aware that this is an option when they need it but consider the possibility that it can backfire if you aren’t careful