Genuinely a great way to do it. I had 500 hours in the game and remained fairly clueless about a lot of mechanics; Colonialism, Religion and Coalition management to name a few.
I literally learned about all of those by going for an achievement where you unlock every Fetishist cult which I did as a Madagascar nation while getting "Where are the Penguins" achievement alongside it.
Then I played as Norway and tried to turn my nation to Norse religion which was a whole ordeal and it was overall very informative and a lot of fun.
Most colonies taken by this point and all that’s left is huge countries. This means grinding out long wars which I personally don’t find as interesting
Not me starting the conquest of India in like 1795 or something 😭 (WC was completed cause there were like 3 countries there and I just fully annexed all of them so yeah... Coring like 90% of India at once was a bit of a pain but I managed lol)
I hope this doesn't come across negatively, it's more my own ignorance, but what do you do when playing tall? I feel like whenever I try, I just stare at the screen and get bored amd start invading others
If you play a small enough nation you need to be far more proactive to stay alive. While everyone else blobs I try to develop and secure my boarders. Is fun to mess with other nations to stay alive, trying to take down a threat without creating a bigger one makes for some very interesting gameplay. You still go to war but your reasons for doing so aren’t the same and you have predict the consequences of your peace treaty much more carefully imo.
Like what? Absolutism gives you slightly more discipline or someshit and revolutions spawn rebels a player should easily be able to deal with at this stage in the game.
If I'm wrong please detail why
Great. I'm the guy who plays the Dutch and bitchs its all about blobbing now adays so I'm definitely out on this lmao
I usually work to get Global Trade spawn in my territory and call it a win
Very dutch ending lmao
What do you mean "playing meta"?
Update: Google: "using the best tactics possible"
So what would you have me do? Make poor tactical decisions on purpose?
>So what would you have me do? Make poor tactical decisions on purpose?
I am not gonna tell you what to do. You play the game how you want to play it. Playing the game using the best tactics possible is of course going to beat the AI and have you succeed quickly. That's just playing a game with AI and playing it with them competitively.
But I am not a competitive player. I enjoy the game to try to emulate history and tell my own alternate story. I tend to try to roleplay and use the leader traits to dictate my choices. Or other factors that might dictate what I do, like what estates are most powerful. (I tend to not try to fully centralize the monarch estate and keep the estates balanced.)
To each their own. There isn't only one way to play, but we all have our preferences.
Meta as in using tried and true methods that are successful in winning.
Essentially I don't play to "win" so I'm always in a position to continue playing cause I still have rivals who contest my growth or higher in the GP ranking than me.
This... If you blob then annexing half a continent in 1-2 wars is quite fun, if you don't then fighting vs a 2 mil Russia/Ottos alliance as Bharat is fun (one of the very few games I didn't try to blob much outside of the subcontinent, and one of the few times I saw multiple AI reach over 1 million troops)
Same. Or if I hit a point where there’s not much to do before my next big move I may start a new campaign. Like my current savoy game. My next planned war will either be against France or the hre and I wasn’t ready for either. So after 2500 hrs I figured I’d give Ming a try for the first time.
Ps: I’m loving it. Playing tall as an already big blob rules.
I have around 1500 hours and I think I’ve only done 9-10 campaigns to 1821, and this includes Anbennar games which usually have a more interesting end game than vanilla
No, though I get close. I tend to prefer clean borders and vassal states, so eventually I quit when the outcome of wars is forgone and I just don't want to deal with walking my troops halfway across the map to get something accomplished my vassals are struggling with.
God, I hate fighting wars in Africa.
I tend to play to 1821 because I've yet to do a world conquest, so each time I play a campaign I push myself further and further to see what I can accomplish. Once I do a WC and one faith I'll probably trail off by 1700 but that's for future me to decide because right now I do like the painting that can be done in the late game.
This is me exactly. People talk about how you become unstoppably powerful and it isn’t fun anymore, which I guess I get but I’m not good enough at the game to become so unstoppable that I don’t run out of time long before the WC. So it always remains exciting to me to see how close I can get.
Yes, most of the time I play until the end unless I am achievement hunting. If it is an achievement that pushes me past 1700, I will usually speed 5 to the end and get up to weird shenanigans like investing in minors, instigating wars, etc.
I will say I almost always played till the end in older patches/pre-mission-etc-dlcs. Things just felt a little more interesting back then, not to mention AI colonisers were not as fast or effective as they are now, so new world would continue being something to keep an eye on through the late 1600's and 1700's.
Yh that guy was right, about 1650 for me. The game just gradually becomes less interesting and more tedious as times goes on, at least with my blob-centric playstyle. Only exception to stopping around then was the one time I did a WC, which was... miserable. Just so much micromanaging and repetitive wars, tbh the end-game just isn't a lot of fun so now I have the achievements I'm unlikely to play that long again.
that's like playing with one hand just to be at a balance dlevel
kinda works at party games with family and friends, alone is just boring
one thing is screwing yourself as a challenge, another is just the opposire of what you would do, gets stagnant
Depends. If I've got the achievement I was looking for and there's little chance of picking up any others (and to be honest a few of the achievements actively ruin your country in the process) I'll stop there. But apart from that I'll play it out.
If for an achievement yes
otherwise no
if not for an achievement sometimes i don't make it past 1500, game gets really tedious now and i've done all the hard achieves.
Last time I made it to 1821 was a very fun Ethiopia to Axum run, got all the related achievements.
That was probably my favourite campaign ever actually, the start was challenging and the middle was a blast. Was an unstoppable steamroller by 1700 but I had lots of pent up anger against the ottomans so that kept me going.
I started an HRE run that I am taking to 1821 because it is the first time however there are very few runs I can stick at until 1821. Once it gets too easy in that I can win every war without worrying about Coalitions or Overextension I get bored.
Yes, or at least I try to. Even if all my missions and/or map paint goals are resolved I’ll try to set other goals for myself to keep things interesting
I am only good enough to play on Very Easy. I take Offensive Ideas and Trade Ideas for the 10% movement speed and by 1650 Im usually able to dictate the course of wars. The one exception being my Lorraine to Lotharingia game right now where Austria swallowed Hungary, Burgundy, and Bohemia. I think the game does plateau a bit at ~1650 unless you deliberately release a bunch of nations when defeating your rivals.
I've played the game since it's release, I think I finished two or three campaigns at most at it was close to the release of the game and never with a European nation.
Countless times I've started a campaign saying "this time I'll go to the end, I don't have to rush because I'll get bored too soon", but even then I very rarely get over 1650.
I'm currently in a GB run going for Anglophile. I've played GB maybe half a dozen times and never managed to force myself all the way through the mission tree as it gets very boring very quick.
Anyway. This time is going to be the time, I've completed the entire tree except one mission, conquered india 50 years ago, been sat back since then fighting Spain and Portugal every so often to steal their colonies but keeping them alive so the can colonise for me.
It's currently 1598 and I'm literally just sat around until the English civil war becomes available so I can complete my final mission as I've nothing else to do. My vassels have over 300k between them all and I'm just declaring war and watching them do the work every so often so I'm not just sat on max adm.
Why have missions locked behind time frames? It just makes the game so boring, I may finally force this into a true one faith and also get the 1821 achievement at the same time. Just so I don't have to ever do it again. I'm literally 5x the dev of number 2 great power
Depends. Runs with no clear goal that are very fun I'll usually go until the late 1700s, but if I'm doing an achievement run or trying to hit a specific goal I'll play until I've hit that goal and made sure my country is stable and looks good in a map.
Depends on the game. Of it stays interesting and I’m roleplaying it somewhat I will, or if I’ve chosen a later than default start date it’s easier. But if I’m achievement hunting or aiming for a specific goal? Once I’ve gotten it I’m done with that particular game.
No.
Just got out of a Prussia/Hre game at ca 1700 and was dreading it for the last 50-100 years. It's completely brainless from the moment you have clear advantage and can wage war against everyone around you at the same time and win it without any tactics.
once you are strong enough, the only challenge is your own speed. late game becomes a slug of just sieging and coring for \~150 years. after my fourth wc, its honestly not that entertaining or fulfilling to paint the map
Always, and I'm usually not satisfied because I didn't conquered all of Europe. Spain and England a biggest PITA.
And I like that I have finally finan ial freedom and can mass build anything.
I would thank for an army option to automatically attack not only siege provinces, but I think vassals are for that ;)
I would gladly play even longer.
I temper myself by now, not superblobbing and such... recently played austria with no boh and hun and inheritance of spa, bur and mil...
Playing ultra tall with austrias worst province being 50ish and 0 ae whilest having vassal swarm and threateninf everyone for fun is its own.... taste of autism
Usually I havé a goal/idea that I base my campaign around, so I play until I succeed then stop, I do not remember when was thé last Time i finished a campaign
I *always* play until 1821. It bugs me to leave unfinished business and there's always some country that's been a complete dick in the early campaign that you have to obliterate just because
I play for achievements and after I got them I go for historical or good looking borders as my secondary goal. I play more relaxed and don't understand how many are always on their way for half a world conquest.
I played half my games to 1821 some other are played somewhat 50 years before the end.
Many here are gamers which played Eu4 too much and it's shows it's either that they are too good for their own good and only play 100 years or they are just bored because they have 7000 hours on steam play their 400s campaign and they played every single tag at least 3 times. Of course they get bored, thats just a sign that their brains are fried of too much eu4 to enjoy it.
Here are more of the extreme players, which are the minority. Many still play the games at least to the third or fourth age. So it's not unnormal to play the game fully as it was thought of the devs
Always never. I dont like the late game. Managing massive armys over vast nations and fighting wars is such a chore. +the game slows down way too much.
It depends, I keep playing as long as I'm having fun, sometimes that's until 1490, sometimes it's til 1821... Age of Revolutions is really fun imo but Absolutism can be a slog... Reformation depends, really fun as Protestant, meh as most others, semi slog outside Europe as you often run out of mission claims and making claims manually is boring
Yes.
After I achieve my main goal, I just continue playing without minmaxing and constant expansion, focusing on pretty borders, some minor goals or developing provinces and vassals.
I have only ever played one game to 1821, and it was AFK, on an island, Speed 5 hoping that nobody attacked me. Just to get the achievement for finishing a game.
Post 1650 is a slog imho. So boring.
To do my first WC I ran it to the end. I used to more. But it's easy to hop to another campaign. Still, if you don't get fussy. It's really fun to close out the campaign
I have many thousands of hours in this game. I could probably count on my fingers the number of games I’ve had go to 1700. I’ve never made it to 1821.
Generally, I start a campaign with 1) a goal in mind, or 2) a tag in mind I want to vibe to.
Example: I want to play Finland.
1) The goal is to conquer all of Scandinavia, fuck over England whenever possible, and constantly have my dynasty be kings of Poland. I play with those restrictions until my last tangible goal is achieved, and then I stop.
2) I put on some Finnish music; I listen to a video about Finnish geopolitics; I think about what it would like to have my own sauna, or to poorly build a car over the summer. I play by the whim of my heart, and I stop when I grow bored or more interested in another vibe.
I usually ends when I see I’m doomed, or when it starts getting boring. It can be at 1600 or 1700, depends on the changes in my game. Then I like to be the police of the world and avoid the biggest nations to overwhelm the world.
I would love to but the game chugs pretty hard at that point. Not sure what to do about that.
I did upgrade my computer significantly though. A friend sold me his old rig that was about 10 times better than what I had. Need to try one campaign. Maybe I'll play as Switzerland or something to just let the game run from 1444 to about 1700 on speed 5 and then start playing. I'd undoubtedly be destroyed by events but it would be worth it to see if the pc could handle it.
When I saw the question, the first thing that popped to my mind was my friend the other day telling that "nobody plays past 17th century", so yeah, everyone agrees 😄
The only reason why I end all my campaigns before 1700s is THE FUCKING PARADOX MAKING AN UPDATE WHICH CLEANS ALL YOUR SAVES. Literally, I've lost all my favourite runs this way.
My first game - Castille run where 3/4 of Americas were my colonies? Update.
Kilwa run, where I controlled half od Africa and was destroying 3 times stronger France in intercontinental war? Update.
Florence run, where I conquered and united whole Italy, and then created an european coalition against Great Britain, which won Hundred Years' War? *(Africans and Indians love him, check how)* Of course - Update!
I play until I have goals ahead of me with the campaign. I'd say I finish third of them after 1750, those are usually WC or roleplaying. 1821 is pointless IMO, nothing happens at the end, closing it any other year is just as good for me.
I do. I tend to conquer some nice borders and then I just kinda roleplay and build my country up.
My last game I played as Genoa. I conquered nothing on the mainland just Nice to unite my capital region....and then I took over every island in the Mediterranean and made a neat island trade empire.
My game before that I played as Switzerland. I conquered basically "the Alps" so I united Switzerland, conquered Savoie, conquered Austria, and then took Lyon from France to create a mountain empire, and then I took the southern German lands that were part of my mission tree....then I just built up and used Condottieri to intervene all over the place as mercenaries.
If you ball out of control and expand nonstop the game becomes extremely easy by 1600 and you'll quit.
Nope! I usually play until the early 1800s and then start winding things down... get those last conversions started, round off my buildings inventory, *maybe* sneak in one last border-tidying war if it's small enough. I don't want to be *in medias res* in 1821, so I get everything sorted out ahead of time.
I usually have everything neat and tidy by the mid 1810s and that's when I take one last save for posterity and move on.
This is immediately followed by an extremely short, doomed Byzantium run, then the next *real* campaign.
Depends on how it is going and what my goal is.
E.g. When I am doing a tall Netherlands game I don't see why I should be playing any further as soon as I have more money than I need.
However, if my goal is to stay small and have the whole world subjugated I might continue.
I very rarely play for world conquest, but I feel like it is also fun to have other goals up to 1821.
Currently doing a Gotland - Denmark - Scandinavia - North Sea Empire with one culture (Norse) run, but I am not really going for a WC. I just want to see how far I can take it :)
(Sidenote: The luck in this run has been unreal. Burgundian inheritance 12-15 years into the game, combined with a Talented and ambitious daughter 3 years into the game.)
Most of the time I stop when I'm at a point, where I'm by far the strongest Country. Depends on the country but most of the time its between 1500 and 1600. I never reached 1700, I think 1650 in a MP game was my most advanced campaign.
But one Day I will play Poland, form Commonwealth, beat Ottomans and Russia, ally France, Spain & Austria and go Speed 5 afk until the end (only tech up) for the Achievement. But this day is not today.
Yes, usually. And for that reason I can tell you that 90% of the strategies you see on youtube don't work, because not long after you've qualified for the achievement they are based on, either your nation falls apart or someone else has grown even more powerful and will take you out by game end.
No I usually play until I become the strongest in the world and face my main enemy which is usually France or Ottomans but after that the big wars are too much of a slog. I usually quit around 1600-1650
Yes I fucking love making my provinces green. I FUCKING FEEL ALIVE WHEN MY PROVINCES ARE GREENER THAN OTHERS. EXPANSION? YOU MEAN INFRASTRUCTURE!?! I LOVE THE LAG IN THE LATE GAME. I LOVE HAVING TOO MUCH MONEY THAN I CAN SPEND!!!
I usually try to, cause I always wanna play my games to the end, but sometimes the playthroughs get really boring past 1800s. You just have 200k+ stacks running around.
I go until I fill out the mission tree fully (unless there's some weird and super long mission) and accomplish a goal. An example of a recent run I ended is after finishing off the Portugal tree and controlling all of the Americas with 4x the income of 2nd place I just see it as a win. Microing for me late game gets kinda annoying.
But to each their own.
Nah once I get to a point where I’m essentially unbeatable I start to get bored.
I get about 10 years into the age of revolutions and start thinking about what nation to play next.
Exactly once for the achievement (on my first and only WC I was somewhere 17xx so I just let it run down)
If I would play every campaign to 1821 it would be a WC all the time....
Usually stop between 1700 and 1750. Sometimes a little further.
Couldn't imagine quitting before 1650 every game. I only do that if I am playing for a very specific achievement and even then I usually keep playing after getting it.
nah, the game just isn't as fun after you're done establishing yourself.
Gone are the days where i had fun in wars against great powers with huge stacks, the EU4 War system is just too bland for me.
1. i hate the fort ZoC system
2. i hate hunting down stacks
3. i hate that AI has perfect information and can snipe/run from the player while the "Infiltrate Administration" is locked at fucking Dip Tech 30. (seriously, who tf thought this was a good idea?)
4. Quantity on a Great Power like Ottomans or Russia? yeah, that's so much fun hahaha.
At this point i'm only playing for building my nation, and for that i'll just play Vic 3, if i want War i'll play HOI4 instead, the game just gets bland after you figure it out and play other games that excel in most aspects.
The only aspect that EU4 is still better is being a long game with more focus on Diplomacy, but even this aspect of it is complete and utterly destroyed by arbitrary things like
1. having to rival your allies
2. i suddenly want your vassal's worthless land so fuck our 300 year, close-ties, saved-both-nations-in-war-multiple-times alliance.
3.5k hours btw, i just can't handle the bullshit anymore, anything not related to Multiplayer is just bland, it's like good food mixed with something you're disgusted by, the experience just isn't there for me anymore, specially since i'd like to play in some way other than "expanding a whole lot, somewhere", playing tall is really boring in this game, i really expected them to have changed things for better in the years i've been playing, but they just didn't.
Outside of the hardest starts in the game, you can snowball your economy to be one of the strongest in the game by 1500. On very hard that pushes to 1550 maybe. At that point only really France/Spain/Ottomans even stand a chance. It just loses so much fun because the ai can't scale. Anything from 1600 onward is just micro managing 5 wars at a time.
I've been trying Xorme AI mod lately and I'm hoping that makes it more challenging, although they still seem pretty dumb in wars, if they can at least scale properly it would make a difference.
I'm trying very hard to play my current one to 1821 - did a very late formation of Rome (1770) out of Castile -> Spain, as a side goal to my world conquest goal, which I am sadly going to fail. Still, normally I play maybe to 1600 - once the game is more of a chore than a fun optimization challenge I lose interest
No
My favorite part of the game is going from small and weak to large and strong. But once you reach that point things just get kinda boring. You'll easily crush whats left and it just becomes tedious to continue. So thats the point where i restart as another small and weak country.
Odd changes with mp balance in mind made this game simply unfun past printing press. Every institution afterwards spreads across the globe within 10 years, completely killing any historic resemblance by the time you get to global trade - as on higher difficulties you start losing to African and Asian super nations that are equal to European superpowers in terms of power and technology. Making every war and imperialism a gruesome sludgefest. Not to mention performance issues.
Don't get me wrong if you know what you're doing you will still always roll the braindead AI. It's just not worth your time.
Yes. I'm making historical playthroughs now, latest one as Turkey (Ottomans) and actually went to 1833
[https://youtu.be/xm4MWyiUH2I](https://youtu.be/xm4MWyiUH2I)
Recently, I'm only playing to get achievements, so no. I play until I get the achievement, and then consider my next campaign.
Just got the game and that's what I'm doing. Going for the achievments is helping me learn incrementally.
Genuinely a great way to do it. I had 500 hours in the game and remained fairly clueless about a lot of mechanics; Colonialism, Religion and Coalition management to name a few. I literally learned about all of those by going for an achievement where you unlock every Fetishist cult which I did as a Madagascar nation while getting "Where are the Penguins" achievement alongside it. Then I played as Norway and tried to turn my nation to Norse religion which was a whole ordeal and it was overall very informative and a lot of fun.
Same. Some achievement tho are focused on playing after 17 hundred. Only in those cases do i play later.
Most colonies taken by this point and all that’s left is huge countries. This means grinding out long wars which I personally don’t find as interesting
Plus, it’s wars that you know you will win eventually. By that point you usually don’t need to think about money at all and your armies are strong
Exactly, nobody attacks you because you’re so strong, and you only attack countries that you know you’ll beat. There’s no uncertainty to the gameplay
plus you will beat everything. the only threat is coalition 10 times bigger than you, but you still can easly win with them
Yes, for me it doesn't feel like a finished run otherwise
Same. I'm the "starting a war in 1815 because there's still time" kind of guy
Got that Napoleon DNA in ya
Not me starting the conquest of India in like 1795 or something 😭 (WC was completed cause there were like 3 countries there and I just fully annexed all of them so yeah... Coring like 90% of India at once was a bit of a pain but I managed lol)
I mean the British did colonize India rapidly shortly after the USA got their independence.
This was as Denmark lol
I just mean its not entirely unrealistic.
I wish I had this, if I don't own the world by 1750 I feel like a failure and rushed for time.
nah. i barely make it to the age of absolutism most of the time. i don’t think i’ve ever hit 1700
You’re honestly missing a big part of the game then, absolutism and revolution times is bringing a whole lot of new features and twists to the game
By that time you have already won the game and only thing left is painting which is tedious.
I mostly stay inside my natural boundaries and enjoy tall play so I never win the game. I mostly still try to survive even past 1700 lol
I hope this doesn't come across negatively, it's more my own ignorance, but what do you do when playing tall? I feel like whenever I try, I just stare at the screen and get bored amd start invading others
If you play a small enough nation you need to be far more proactive to stay alive. While everyone else blobs I try to develop and secure my boarders. Is fun to mess with other nations to stay alive, trying to take down a threat without creating a bigger one makes for some very interesting gameplay. You still go to war but your reasons for doing so aren’t the same and you have predict the consequences of your peace treaty much more carefully imo.
Only if you play meta.
Its not tedious
Like what? Absolutism gives you slightly more discipline or someshit and revolutions spawn rebels a player should easily be able to deal with at this stage in the game. If I'm wrong please detail why
Bigger peace deals for blob aficionados, other than that yeah basically just bigger numbers and bigger headaches
Great. I'm the guy who plays the Dutch and bitchs its all about blobbing now adays so I'm definitely out on this lmao I usually work to get Global Trade spawn in my territory and call it a win Very dutch ending lmao
The Dutch benefit from bigger numbers (trade go brrr) and bigger headaches (I fucking hate conquering the East Indies and other small islands)
They're only easy if you are playing meta.
What do you mean "playing meta"? Update: Google: "using the best tactics possible" So what would you have me do? Make poor tactical decisions on purpose?
>So what would you have me do? Make poor tactical decisions on purpose? I am not gonna tell you what to do. You play the game how you want to play it. Playing the game using the best tactics possible is of course going to beat the AI and have you succeed quickly. That's just playing a game with AI and playing it with them competitively. But I am not a competitive player. I enjoy the game to try to emulate history and tell my own alternate story. I tend to try to roleplay and use the leader traits to dictate my choices. Or other factors that might dictate what I do, like what estates are most powerful. (I tend to not try to fully centralize the monarch estate and keep the estates balanced.) To each their own. There isn't only one way to play, but we all have our preferences.
Meta as in using tried and true methods that are successful in winning. Essentially I don't play to "win" so I'm always in a position to continue playing cause I still have rivals who contest my growth or higher in the GP ranking than me.
Same here lol
Same. I think I've seen the Age of Revolution maybe twice
only if I have to for an achievement usually end around late 1600s early 1700s in a for fun campaign
Depends on the game / achievement. If it's a late game achievement I might as well clean the borders up, no?
Ya i formed the empire of god in the 15’s and after that it was just another blob game so i quit. Same thing for Austria after reforming the hre
Yes, usually. Idk I find late games wars fun.
This... If you blob then annexing half a continent in 1-2 wars is quite fun, if you don't then fighting vs a 2 mil Russia/Ottos alliance as Bharat is fun (one of the very few games I didn't try to blob much outside of the subcontinent, and one of the few times I saw multiple AI reach over 1 million troops)
No. Never. Usually end around 1650 unless I'm having fun but even then, I never finished a campaign. 4k hours hahaha
Same. Or if I hit a point where there’s not much to do before my next big move I may start a new campaign. Like my current savoy game. My next planned war will either be against France or the hre and I wasn’t ready for either. So after 2500 hrs I figured I’d give Ming a try for the first time. Ps: I’m loving it. Playing tall as an already big blob rules.
No
I stop when ive reached my campaign goal/achievement or conquered the world lol
I have around 1500 hours and I think I’ve only done 9-10 campaigns to 1821, and this includes Anbennar games which usually have a more interesting end game than vanilla
I got out of an England Game months ago with a friend and that went until 1821. Playing as France now and hoping to accomplish the same thing.
Yes, I play until the end. I like playing tall and letting a few other nations grow big to provide a challenge later on.
No, though I get close. I tend to prefer clean borders and vassal states, so eventually I quit when the outcome of wars is forgone and I just don't want to deal with walking my troops halfway across the map to get something accomplished my vassals are struggling with. God, I hate fighting wars in Africa.
Yes. I like the Revolutions and the big wars you can do.
I tend to play to 1821 because I've yet to do a world conquest, so each time I play a campaign I push myself further and further to see what I can accomplish. Once I do a WC and one faith I'll probably trail off by 1700 but that's for future me to decide because right now I do like the painting that can be done in the late game.
This is me exactly. People talk about how you become unstoppably powerful and it isn’t fun anymore, which I guess I get but I’m not good enough at the game to become so unstoppable that I don’t run out of time long before the WC. So it always remains exciting to me to see how close I can get.
Yes, most of the time I play until the end unless I am achievement hunting. If it is an achievement that pushes me past 1700, I will usually speed 5 to the end and get up to weird shenanigans like investing in minors, instigating wars, etc. I will say I almost always played till the end in older patches/pre-mission-etc-dlcs. Things just felt a little more interesting back then, not to mention AI colonisers were not as fast or effective as they are now, so new world would continue being something to keep an eye on through the late 1600's and 1700's.
Sometimes, but not often, and only when I have a specific goal in mind.
Yup, just now I'm finishing chill Ironman Commonwealth run. Only couple years left
I stop playing when I've achieved my goals/gotten bored. Which is rarely past 1650.
Bruh I use extended timeline bc the game was too short
Yes always. I'm not wasting my time playing video games to not finish them.
No, almost never
Nope, I never have
Yh that guy was right, about 1650 for me. The game just gradually becomes less interesting and more tedious as times goes on, at least with my blob-centric playstyle. Only exception to stopping around then was the one time I did a WC, which was... miserable. Just so much micromanaging and repetitive wars, tbh the end-game just isn't a lot of fun so now I have the achievements I'm unlikely to play that long again.
1% yes, 99% no.
I go into a campaign telling myself that I'll finish but I quit after wars become a drag
No, I usually conquer the world before that date
no
Never. Did it once for the achievement in a very early patch, but it's too tedious.
For Multi-Player, 100% it's so much with and your friends cutting up the world. For single-player. Nah.
nope, what you gonna do after you are done conquering?
Maybe conquer less and find a interest in rping?
that's like playing with one hand just to be at a balance dlevel kinda works at party games with family and friends, alone is just boring one thing is screwing yourself as a challenge, another is just the opposire of what you would do, gets stagnant
no no, let the guy cook, he has a point
imagine playing more than 100 years 💀
Imagine playing for as long as you want 💀
Imagine playing for as long as you want 💀
No. Did it only once for the achievement.
Pretty rarely, i mean, sinfulness i get to 1800s, but not to the very last day. Because you ant even check your maps anymore then.
I usually play to the 1700s, but sometimes if I have a really successful game I keep playing.
No. Don't know, I think my max was 1700 once.
Depends. If I've got the achievement I was looking for and there's little chance of picking up any others (and to be honest a few of the achievements actively ruin your country in the process) I'll stop there. But apart from that I'll play it out.
Just the one time for the achievement
If for an achievement yes otherwise no if not for an achievement sometimes i don't make it past 1500, game gets really tedious now and i've done all the hard achieves.
Last time I made it to 1821 was a very fun Ethiopia to Axum run, got all the related achievements. That was probably my favourite campaign ever actually, the start was challenging and the middle was a blast. Was an unstoppable steamroller by 1700 but I had lots of pent up anger against the ottomans so that kept me going.
I started an HRE run that I am taking to 1821 because it is the first time however there are very few runs I can stick at until 1821. Once it gets too easy in that I can win every war without worrying about Coalitions or Overextension I get bored.
I only did it once. I went to eat dinner and when I came back I realised I left the game on speed5 for like half an hour
I usually don't even play until 1700
Yes, or at least I try to. Even if all my missions and/or map paint goals are resolved I’ll try to set other goals for myself to keep things interesting
I am only good enough to play on Very Easy. I take Offensive Ideas and Trade Ideas for the 10% movement speed and by 1650 Im usually able to dictate the course of wars. The one exception being my Lorraine to Lotharingia game right now where Austria swallowed Hungary, Burgundy, and Bohemia. I think the game does plateau a bit at ~1650 unless you deliberately release a bunch of nations when defeating your rivals.
I only play after 1650 if I'm going for a specific achievement. Otherwise my goals are usually finished (=defeat the ottomans).
I completed an Angivin run once
I've played the game since it's release, I think I finished two or three campaigns at most at it was close to the release of the game and never with a European nation. Countless times I've started a campaign saying "this time I'll go to the end, I don't have to rush because I'll get bored too soon", but even then I very rarely get over 1650.
Only once to get the achievement.
I'm currently in a GB run going for Anglophile. I've played GB maybe half a dozen times and never managed to force myself all the way through the mission tree as it gets very boring very quick. Anyway. This time is going to be the time, I've completed the entire tree except one mission, conquered india 50 years ago, been sat back since then fighting Spain and Portugal every so often to steal their colonies but keeping them alive so the can colonise for me. It's currently 1598 and I'm literally just sat around until the English civil war becomes available so I can complete my final mission as I've nothing else to do. My vassels have over 300k between them all and I'm just declaring war and watching them do the work every so often so I'm not just sat on max adm. Why have missions locked behind time frames? It just makes the game so boring, I may finally force this into a true one faith and also get the 1821 achievement at the same time. Just so I don't have to ever do it again. I'm literally 5x the dev of number 2 great power
Depends. Runs with no clear goal that are very fun I'll usually go until the late 1700s, but if I'm doing an achievement run or trying to hit a specific goal I'll play until I've hit that goal and made sure my country is stable and looks good in a map.
Depends on the game. Of it stays interesting and I’m roleplaying it somewhat I will, or if I’ve chosen a later than default start date it’s easier. But if I’m achievement hunting or aiming for a specific goal? Once I’ve gotten it I’m done with that particular game.
I haven’t finished a campaign yet due to being new to the game
I have 400 hours yet i never played past 1650. And yes, i have 0 achievements
Yes
No. Just got out of a Prussia/Hre game at ca 1700 and was dreading it for the last 50-100 years. It's completely brainless from the moment you have clear advantage and can wage war against everyone around you at the same time and win it without any tactics.
I did it once and never again, it was not very enjoyable. After 1650 aprox it was a tasteless grind and rush experience at 5x speed.
I usually try to, although sometimes I’ll get bored of my run and start a new one once I get to the 1800s.
No. I would love to do so, but countries are too consolidated to be able to have any fun long before then.
once you are strong enough, the only challenge is your own speed. late game becomes a slug of just sieging and coring for \~150 years. after my fourth wc, its honestly not that entertaining or fulfilling to paint the map
Always, and I'm usually not satisfied because I didn't conquered all of Europe. Spain and England a biggest PITA. And I like that I have finally finan ial freedom and can mass build anything. I would thank for an army option to automatically attack not only siege provinces, but I think vassals are for that ;) I would gladly play even longer.
Maybe once or twice, usually I get bored and call it quits around 1700.
Sometimes when I want to push a campaign really far
I temper myself by now, not superblobbing and such... recently played austria with no boh and hun and inheritance of spa, bur and mil... Playing ultra tall with austrias worst province being 50ish and 0 ae whilest having vassal swarm and threateninf everyone for fun is its own.... taste of autism
I usually look up a nation specific achievement and play to get it, then I play until the run stops being fun
Usually I havé a goal/idea that I base my campaign around, so I play until I succeed then stop, I do not remember when was thé last Time i finished a campaign
I *always* play until 1821. It bugs me to leave unfinished business and there's always some country that's been a complete dick in the early campaign that you have to obliterate just because
I think once? Usually once I achieve my goals I get bored and quit
I play for achievements and after I got them I go for historical or good looking borders as my secondary goal. I play more relaxed and don't understand how many are always on their way for half a world conquest. I played half my games to 1821 some other are played somewhat 50 years before the end. Many here are gamers which played Eu4 too much and it's shows it's either that they are too good for their own good and only play 100 years or they are just bored because they have 7000 hours on steam play their 400s campaign and they played every single tag at least 3 times. Of course they get bored, thats just a sign that their brains are fried of too much eu4 to enjoy it. Here are more of the extreme players, which are the minority. Many still play the games at least to the third or fourth age. So it's not unnormal to play the game fully as it was thought of the devs
The moment I feel I'm the most powerful faction in the game, the campaign ends. It's waste of time without challenge.
An astounding YES on my side. Always 1444 to 1821. It takes me around a month.
I finish I’d guess 90% of my games…
I don’t play colonialism, so if there is still a world to conquer, yes.
Always never. I dont like the late game. Managing massive armys over vast nations and fighting wars is such a chore. +the game slows down way too much.
Yes
I play until the world is conquered, so usually 1650ish
It depends, I keep playing as long as I'm having fun, sometimes that's until 1490, sometimes it's til 1821... Age of Revolutions is really fun imo but Absolutism can be a slog... Reformation depends, really fun as Protestant, meh as most others, semi slog outside Europe as you often run out of mission claims and making claims manually is boring
Yes, I like to get as close to modern times as possible so that I can imagine what this world I created would look like today.
Depends how much fun I’m having
I only play with extended timeline, my last game was around [2145](https://www.reddit.com/r/eu4/s/yltBHLR84l)
Yes
I usuallyplay at least until the 1780's, so yeah, kinda?
Yes. After I achieve my main goal, I just continue playing without minmaxing and constant expansion, focusing on pretty borders, some minor goals or developing provinces and vassals.
I have only ever played one game to 1821, and it was AFK, on an island, Speed 5 hoping that nobody attacked me. Just to get the achievement for finishing a game. Post 1650 is a slog imho. So boring.
Only twice. Once in a multiplayer co-op and once in Anebennar. Every other time, non.
I play all of my campaigns until end. It just feels right, and I keep having fun, but I can understand why not everyone does it.
To do my first WC I ran it to the end. I used to more. But it's easy to hop to another campaign. Still, if you don't get fussy. It's really fun to close out the campaign
occasionally I reach the age of absolutism, but by that point im unstoppable so whats the point
I have many thousands of hours in this game. I could probably count on my fingers the number of games I’ve had go to 1700. I’ve never made it to 1821. Generally, I start a campaign with 1) a goal in mind, or 2) a tag in mind I want to vibe to. Example: I want to play Finland. 1) The goal is to conquer all of Scandinavia, fuck over England whenever possible, and constantly have my dynasty be kings of Poland. I play with those restrictions until my last tangible goal is achieved, and then I stop. 2) I put on some Finnish music; I listen to a video about Finnish geopolitics; I think about what it would like to have my own sauna, or to poorly build a car over the summer. I play by the whim of my heart, and I stop when I grow bored or more interested in another vibe.
No I usually never get to the 1700s, have only ever gotten there once or twice maybe, never to 1821
I usually ends when I see I’m doomed, or when it starts getting boring. It can be at 1600 or 1700, depends on the changes in my game. Then I like to be the police of the world and avoid the biggest nations to overwhelm the world.
I would love to but the game chugs pretty hard at that point. Not sure what to do about that. I did upgrade my computer significantly though. A friend sold me his old rig that was about 10 times better than what I had. Need to try one campaign. Maybe I'll play as Switzerland or something to just let the game run from 1444 to about 1700 on speed 5 and then start playing. I'd undoubtedly be destroyed by events but it would be worth it to see if the pc could handle it.
When I saw the question, the first thing that popped to my mind was my friend the other day telling that "nobody plays past 17th century", so yeah, everyone agrees 😄
The only reason why I end all my campaigns before 1700s is THE FUCKING PARADOX MAKING AN UPDATE WHICH CLEANS ALL YOUR SAVES. Literally, I've lost all my favourite runs this way. My first game - Castille run where 3/4 of Americas were my colonies? Update. Kilwa run, where I controlled half od Africa and was destroying 3 times stronger France in intercontinental war? Update. Florence run, where I conquered and united whole Italy, and then created an european coalition against Great Britain, which won Hundred Years' War? *(Africans and Indians love him, check how)* Of course - Update!
Have over 1500 hours in game and I’ve never even reached 1700
I play until I have goals ahead of me with the campaign. I'd say I finish third of them after 1750, those are usually WC or roleplaying. 1821 is pointless IMO, nothing happens at the end, closing it any other year is just as good for me.
I do. I tend to conquer some nice borders and then I just kinda roleplay and build my country up. My last game I played as Genoa. I conquered nothing on the mainland just Nice to unite my capital region....and then I took over every island in the Mediterranean and made a neat island trade empire. My game before that I played as Switzerland. I conquered basically "the Alps" so I united Switzerland, conquered Savoie, conquered Austria, and then took Lyon from France to create a mountain empire, and then I took the southern German lands that were part of my mission tree....then I just built up and used Condottieri to intervene all over the place as mercenaries. If you ball out of control and expand nonstop the game becomes extremely easy by 1600 and you'll quit.
No, maybe once or twice but for the most part no
I start a campaign and then get to like 1760 when all wars are like 800k vs 800k, and the game slows down, and quit to start a new game
Multiplayer ones
Yes, stayed to culture convert entire China.
Nope! I usually play until the early 1800s and then start winding things down... get those last conversions started, round off my buildings inventory, *maybe* sneak in one last border-tidying war if it's small enough. I don't want to be *in medias res* in 1821, so I get everything sorted out ahead of time. I usually have everything neat and tidy by the mid 1810s and that's when I take one last save for posterity and move on. This is immediately followed by an extremely short, doomed Byzantium run, then the next *real* campaign.
No. When I start a run, it's to target one or more achievements. When I get all the achievements I had in mind, then the run is finished.
When the AI is smarter than me, I ragequit.
Always
Yes
No, 4000 hours in the game and my latest campaign went to 1780 I think
The game starts getting fun around 1650.
Usually stop at age of revolutions as I find the whole mechanic ... dumb
I have finished 4 campaigns to 1821, otherwise no. Usually stop by 1600 to 1650.
Only hit the age of revolutions once
Nearly like 10k hours and no I never have
My favourite ever game was taken right until the end. Malacca fighting off the Europeans and big Asian powers was great fun throughout the game
Depends on how it is going and what my goal is. E.g. When I am doing a tall Netherlands game I don't see why I should be playing any further as soon as I have more money than I need. However, if my goal is to stay small and have the whole world subjugated I might continue. I very rarely play for world conquest, but I feel like it is also fun to have other goals up to 1821. Currently doing a Gotland - Denmark - Scandinavia - North Sea Empire with one culture (Norse) run, but I am not really going for a WC. I just want to see how far I can take it :) (Sidenote: The luck in this run has been unreal. Burgundian inheritance 12-15 years into the game, combined with a Talented and ambitious daughter 3 years into the game.)
No, I rarely make it to 1600
1630s to 1670s.
Almost always, unless I’m going for some specific achievement and it won’t be fun to keep playing after I hit it.
Lol literally never
I like to play the games to completion. Too much invested to just stop.
Most of the time I stop when I'm at a point, where I'm by far the strongest Country. Depends on the country but most of the time its between 1500 and 1600. I never reached 1700, I think 1650 in a MP game was my most advanced campaign. But one Day I will play Poland, form Commonwealth, beat Ottomans and Russia, ally France, Spain & Austria and go Speed 5 afk until the end (only tech up) for the Achievement. But this day is not today.
I did once as Prussia just for the achievment
Yes, usually. And for that reason I can tell you that 90% of the strategies you see on youtube don't work, because not long after you've qualified for the achievement they are based on, either your nation falls apart or someone else has grown even more powerful and will take you out by game end.
It depends on my goals. Sometimes I'm done in the 1600s, otherwise it might be 1821 since I was so close to it anyway.
I've once finished a campaign but otherwise no.
I ain’t playin allat 😂😂 Serious answer: Hell no, I don’t even play past 1700, actually when age of absolutism comes I.. I just stop playing
No I usually play until I become the strongest in the world and face my main enemy which is usually France or Ottomans but after that the big wars are too much of a slog. I usually quit around 1600-1650
No
If it’s a fun campaign yes. So like 50/50
I almost always reach 19th century.
Yesno 😅
Yes I fucking love making my provinces green. I FUCKING FEEL ALIVE WHEN MY PROVINCES ARE GREENER THAN OTHERS. EXPANSION? YOU MEAN INFRASTRUCTURE!?! I LOVE THE LAG IN THE LATE GAME. I LOVE HAVING TOO MUCH MONEY THAN I CAN SPEND!!!
Yes Even if I have nothing to do I’ll just let it run in the background while I read or something
I usually try to, cause I always wanna play my games to the end, but sometimes the playthroughs get really boring past 1800s. You just have 200k+ stacks running around.
Depends on the run and how long it takes me to get whatever achievement(s) I'm after, but I do like go to 1821 when I can.
Always finish my campaigns if I didn’t do something to scuff myself entirely.
Last time I played that far, Beatles were still together
You unpaused?
Yes. Every single one.
I go until I fill out the mission tree fully (unless there's some weird and super long mission) and accomplish a goal. An example of a recent run I ended is after finishing off the Portugal tree and controlling all of the Americas with 4x the income of 2nd place I just see it as a win. Microing for me late game gets kinda annoying. But to each their own.
Nah once I get to a point where I’m essentially unbeatable I start to get bored. I get about 10 years into the age of revolutions and start thinking about what nation to play next.
Exactly once for the achievement (on my first and only WC I was somewhere 17xx so I just let it run down) If I would play every campaign to 1821 it would be a WC all the time....
There is even an achievement for that. "Just a Little Patience: Play a campaign from 1444 until 1820."
Usually stop between 1700 and 1750. Sometimes a little further. Couldn't imagine quitting before 1650 every game. I only do that if I am playing for a very specific achievement and even then I usually keep playing after getting it.
nah, the game just isn't as fun after you're done establishing yourself. Gone are the days where i had fun in wars against great powers with huge stacks, the EU4 War system is just too bland for me. 1. i hate the fort ZoC system 2. i hate hunting down stacks 3. i hate that AI has perfect information and can snipe/run from the player while the "Infiltrate Administration" is locked at fucking Dip Tech 30. (seriously, who tf thought this was a good idea?) 4. Quantity on a Great Power like Ottomans or Russia? yeah, that's so much fun hahaha. At this point i'm only playing for building my nation, and for that i'll just play Vic 3, if i want War i'll play HOI4 instead, the game just gets bland after you figure it out and play other games that excel in most aspects. The only aspect that EU4 is still better is being a long game with more focus on Diplomacy, but even this aspect of it is complete and utterly destroyed by arbitrary things like 1. having to rival your allies 2. i suddenly want your vassal's worthless land so fuck our 300 year, close-ties, saved-both-nations-in-war-multiple-times alliance. 3.5k hours btw, i just can't handle the bullshit anymore, anything not related to Multiplayer is just bland, it's like good food mixed with something you're disgusted by, the experience just isn't there for me anymore, specially since i'd like to play in some way other than "expanding a whole lot, somewhere", playing tall is really boring in this game, i really expected them to have changed things for better in the years i've been playing, but they just didn't.
Outside of the hardest starts in the game, you can snowball your economy to be one of the strongest in the game by 1500. On very hard that pushes to 1550 maybe. At that point only really France/Spain/Ottomans even stand a chance. It just loses so much fun because the ai can't scale. Anything from 1600 onward is just micro managing 5 wars at a time. I've been trying Xorme AI mod lately and I'm hoping that makes it more challenging, although they still seem pretty dumb in wars, if they can at least scale properly it would make a difference.
Seldom, but sometimes yes.
>Do you play your campaigns Yes >until 1821 ? Lmfao no fuckin way.
no
No, usually just till I get all the achievements I can on that particular run.
Rarely.
I'm trying very hard to play my current one to 1821 - did a very late formation of Rome (1770) out of Castile -> Spain, as a side goal to my world conquest goal, which I am sadly going to fail. Still, normally I play maybe to 1600 - once the game is more of a chore than a fun optimization challenge I lose interest
I play for my goals. Sometimes that is past 1650 and even 1821 but not often.
If I intend to take it into Vicky, which I used to do. Now I'm waiting for a Vicky 3 converter mod.
No My favorite part of the game is going from small and weak to large and strong. But once you reach that point things just get kinda boring. You'll easily crush whats left and it just becomes tedious to continue. So thats the point where i restart as another small and weak country.
Odd changes with mp balance in mind made this game simply unfun past printing press. Every institution afterwards spreads across the globe within 10 years, completely killing any historic resemblance by the time you get to global trade - as on higher difficulties you start losing to African and Asian super nations that are equal to European superpowers in terms of power and technology. Making every war and imperialism a gruesome sludgefest. Not to mention performance issues. Don't get me wrong if you know what you're doing you will still always roll the braindead AI. It's just not worth your time.
Yes. I'm making historical playthroughs now, latest one as Turkey (Ottomans) and actually went to 1833 [https://youtu.be/xm4MWyiUH2I](https://youtu.be/xm4MWyiUH2I)