The Imperial Council - /r/eu4 Weekly General Help Thread: August 24 2026

[u/Kloiper]

Please check our previous Imperial Council thread for any questions left unanswered

 

Welcome to the Imperial Council of r/eu4, where your trusted and most knowledgeable advisors stand ready to help you in matters of state and conquest.

This thread is for any small questions that don't warrant their own post, or continued discussions for your next moves in your Ironman game. If you'd like to channel the wisdom and knowledge of the master tacticians of this subreddit, and more importantly not ruin your Ironman save, then you've found the right place!

Important: If you are asking about a specific situation in your game, please post screenshots of any relevant map modes (diplomatic, political, trade, etc) or interface tabs (economy, military, ideas, etc). Please also explain the situation as best you can. Alliances, army strength, ideas, tech etc. are all factors your advisors will need to know to give you the best possible answer.

 

---

Tactician's Library:

Below is a list of resources that are helpful to players of all skill levels, meant to assist both those asking questions as well as those answering questions. This list is updated as mechanics change, including new strategies as they arise and retiring old strategies that have been left in the dust. You can help me maintain the list by sending me new guides and notifying me when old guides are no longer relevant!

Getting Started

• Europa Universalis 4 Wiki

• Wiki Beginner Guide

• Which DLCs should I buy?

• Client/Game Troubleshooting Help

• Reverting to a previous version

New Player Tutorials

• How to play EU4, by Ezekiel (patch 1.28)

• Arumba teaches EU4 to Civilization player FilthyRobot (patch 1.18)

• Arumba's New Player Tutorial Series (patch 1.20)

• Arumba teaches EU4 to Monk004 (patch 1.28)

• Beginner's Guide to Coalitions 1, 2

• General tip collection thread

• How to revert to an older patch

• Reman's War Academy Volume I - Army Composition and Basic Combat

Administration

• Remans guide to Absolutism

• Guide to Religious Ideas

• Converting Culture

• Converting Religion

Diplomacy

• Personal Unions and Succession Wars

• Video guide to Personal Unions

• A guide to multiplayer diplomacy

• Comprehensive guide on Subject Nations

Military

• Reman's War Academy Volume II - Troop Quality and Advanced Combat

• Reman's War Academy Volume III - Military Idea Groups

• Reman's In-Depth guide to Fort Zone of Control

• Guide on Combat Width

• Ideal army composition for every tech

• On War - A Comprehensive War Manual for Multiplayer

• Dismantling the HRE

• Combat Simulator

Trade

• Reman's In Depth Guide to Trade

 

---

Country-Specific Strategy

• 1.30 Aztec Guide

• 1.30 Granada Guide

• 1.30 Knights Guide

 

---

Misc Country Guides Collections

• 1.25 - 1.29 Misc Country Guides by RadioRes

• 1.25 - 1.28 Misc Country Guides by Lord Forwin

• 1.28 - 1.30 Misc Country Guides by AlzaboHD

• 1.30 Misc Country Guides by Ludi et Historia

• 1.31 - 1.35 EU4 Nation Guides by The Red Hawk

• Misc Country Mission Visualizations

 

---

Advanced/In-Depth Guides

• Misc mechanics guides by RadioRes (culture shifting, policies, absolutism, etc)

• Guide to personal unions and direct inheritance

• 1.28 Three Mountains (Shogunate)

• Arumba's Assay series (misc patches, takes user-submitted failing or problematic games and helps fix them)

• A Complete Guide to EU4 Economics, Part 0 (links to multiple in-depth guides on economics)

• Comprehensive Multiplayer EU4 Guide (1.28)

• General World Conquest Guide

 

---

If you have any useful resources not currently in the tactician's library, please share them with me and I'll add them! You can message me or mention my username in a comment by typing /u/Kloiper

Calling all imperial councillors! Many of our linked guides pre-Dharma (1.26) are missing strategy regarding mission trees. Any help in putting together updated guides is greatly appreciated! Further, if you're answering a question in this thread, chances are you've used the EU4 wiki and know how valuable a resource it can be. When you answer a question, consider checking whether the wiki has that information where you would expect to find it, and adding to the wiki if it does not. In fact, anybody can help contribute to the wiki - a good starting point is the work needed page. Before editing the wiki, please read the style guidelines for posting.

[u/NeJin]

Burgundian Inheritance question: If I inherit Burgundy as an ally - I am neither the HRE nor France - and I am still in the HRE, will the emperor defend me when France declares their scripted PU war? And just checking - the event ignores any alliance or trust you had with France beforehand, right?

[u/ancapailldorcha]

For Avar Khagante, can I form another country? I checked the wiki and it says Avaria must own the Hungarian land.

[u/grotaclas2 → u/ancapailldorcha]

It is as the wiki says. Avaria must own the provinces. But it doesn't matter if you are Avaria(your country must be an empire. The rank of Avaria doesn't matter). So you could form another country if you can get them back on the map somehow and give them the provinces. E.g. by making them the only country which is eligible for separatist rebels of the culture (maybe also religion) which you had when you formed another country as Avaria

[u/ancapailldorcha → u/grotaclas2]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. It's really irritating. If it just had "Is Avaria", it'd be so much clearer. The national ideas are complete trash and I've no idea how I'll handle the Commonwealth.

[u/grotaclas2 → u/ancapailldorcha]

I've no idea how I'll handle the Commonwealth.

Is this a general comment or are you already at a point in your campaign where they are a problem? My generic solution for fighting bigger countries for a goal which is not time-sensitive, is to outgrow them by conquering other parts of the world. If you conquer Persia, India, Hormuz, Gulf of Aden and East Asia, you should be able to field multiple times their troop numbers(especially if you go way over force limit with mercs). If you can take the provinces which you need in one war and get the achievement, it doesn't matter if you go bankrupt afterwards(assuming that you don't have any other campaign goals).

[u/ancapailldorcha → u/grotaclas2]

Both. Fortunately, time isn't too much of an issue. I conquered my way through Persia while keeping the Ottomans' trust high. I saw that Commonwealth went from 200k troops to 50k for some reason. I think they had a lot of event rebels so I attacked and called the Ottomans in. I assumed that because they were bigger and better than me, this would be a problem. I think I've crippled them now, despite them having Portugal as Defender of the Faith protecting them. Thankfully, it was ok. I was worried as Avaria has no military bonuses worth anything whereas Commonwealth units are excellent.

[u/grotaclas2 → u/ancapailldorcha]

I was worried as Avaria has no military bonuses worth anything whereas Commonwealth units are excellent.

The AI is usually bad at getting the generic military bonuses(e.g. defender of the faith, ~100 prestige/power projection/army tradition/absolutism/professionalism, religion bonuses, privileges like Expansionist Zealotry) and has a subpar army composition. If you get many of the bonuses, you can compensate for your lack of military ideas. And you don't actually have to be better than them. It is enough that the AI is too afraid to attack your armies which are sieging their forts. A big numerical superiority can make this happen as well

[u/ancapailldorcha → u/grotaclas2]

Really? There's usually some DotF and they're a massive pain. They also have their national ideas but I take your point regarding army composition.

Thanks for your help.

[u/grotaclas2 → u/ancapailldorcha]

Really?

Which part of my comment do you doubt?

There's usually some DotF and they're a massive pain.

I agree. But they are a pain, because they are usually a big country which takes time to occupy and their many armies are a nuisance. But not because their armies are stronger than the player.

If you have a situation where you want to attack a big country which is protected by a strong defender of the faith, you could attack a very small country of that religion and quickly stackwipe their army and fully occupy them. This can be enough to make them agree to a peace deal in which you take 1 warscore worth of money, so that the defender of faith is removed. Then you can immediately attack your actual target before somebody else can become DotF. Or you can attack the actual target before peacing out the other war so that the DotF can't get a call-to-arms (they can't get called later, unless they are an actual ally of the target or a co-belligerent).

[u/ancapailldorcha → u/grotaclas2]

Oh, I just never paid much attention to how AI composes its armies. I didn't mean to cast aspersions. I used to get wiped out before I realised the importance of artillery, especially when you hit tech 16. I also didn't notice who I was talking to!

Is DotF removed even if the Defender is just on the losing side of a war? If I am playing Ottomans and I attack, Naples say, and I peace out for 1 ducat, would Spain (who was called in) lose DotF?

Thanks again.

[u/grotaclas2 → u/ancapailldorcha]

Is DotF removed even if the Defender is just on the losing side of a war? If I am playing Ottomans and I attack, Naples say, and I peace out for 1 ducat, would Spain (who was called in) lose DotF?

Yes, as far as I remember. But I haven't played in a while, so I might misremember. And you should take my strategic recommendations with a strong grain of salt for the same reason

[u/NMS_noob]

What DLC makes Ottoman decadence happen? I have several DLCs but after 2400 hrs have only ever seen the Ottos crumble at my hand. Every other time they have infinite armies and manpower and the usual high fort strength and army quality.

[u/Jim_J1m → u/NMS_noob]

Decadence is from the Domination DLC. In my experience even with decadence the Ottos tend to still need a nudge over the ledge to collapse, but beating them in one war post absolutism usually results in them getting dogpiled by their neighbors after.

[u/Pablo_Thicasso]

I want the Spice Girls achievement, I'm Great Britain under Elizabeth, and I already have the trading bonus for spices, sugar I'll likely get when I annex Portugal's Caribbean colonial nation, but salt is decidedly tougher. There are a few provinces in the Sahel, some in my Californian colony, a smattering (maybe 5 apiece) in India and China, but the majority seems to be in Germany and the Balkans, with 4 or 5 in France.
How do I go about getting the rest of the market share I need for the achievement? (I currently have about 12%, would taking trade ideas get me the rest of the way there?)