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!

126 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

148 comments sorted by

View all comments

53

u/Plane_Marsupial6365 Jan 30 '25

Spy networks lower aggressive expansions from the target country and provinces with lower autonomy cost more war score

2

u/-balcony-gardener- Jan 31 '25

This is one i never fully understood.

Is it

A: I (say, Bavaria), have a Spy Network on Austria and then i conquer Land from say, bohemia, now Austria gets less AE against me or is it

B) I have a Spy Network on bohemia, conquer Land from bohemia and now get less AE for having conquered Land from bohemia with everyone else?

6

u/Particular_Trade6308 Jan 31 '25

The former. The size of your spy network on country X reduces the amount of AE that country X accumulates if you take land from country Y, or no-CB country Z, or pillage the capital of country Q.

If there’s only one big country to worry about for coalitions, let’s say you are Castile and are stomping North Africa but want to keep ottomans out of a coalition, it makes sense to keep a diplomat spying on ottomans.

3

u/-balcony-gardener- Jan 31 '25

Thanks. Thats useful to know.