I'm a stupid newbie ...

[DrGerry]

Yes, I have acquired recently EU2 but I can't understand how to play it

I know: the manual, the tutorial, it's OK. But I feel like the one who learns chess: this piece moves that way, this other moves that way... but... What can I do with theese moves?!

It is: can anybody give a few tips to start with EU2?

Thanks in advance

[Jagdtiger]

Best thing you can do is join the EU2 paradox forums. (www.europa-universalis.com). They'll have any questions you have answered withing minutes. You can also read some newbie advice others have posted in this forum.

[pg]

ok here are a few basics for newbies -

keep inflation down and put most of your money into infra/trade or land/naval. try to live off your yearly taxes/trade bonus money. don't worry about stability too much especially if you are a bigger country. generally i don't invest in stability unless it takes less than a year to move it up one level.

keep your navy/army at half maintance especially if you aren't fighting(you can even get away with it sometimes when fighting especially if all you are doing is waiting for sieges to finish). only attack when you are sure you can win. war is expensive especially if you don't know what you are doing so it's generally best to avoid it until you are visibly stronger than your enemy. concentrate on taking provinces the same culture/religion as you are. try to get provinces with trade centers as they make tons of money even if different religion/culture. upgrade fortresses in key provinces(rich, high manpower, or ones you know another country wants). don't siege in winter(white) provinces if you can help it(and if you have to retreat your cavalry and use men).

[DrGerry]

Thanks, but my problems are more "primitives" (¿is the correct word?). I open the game, select an scenary, but I don't know what I must do , it is, a good start

[Micha]

Ok, once you´ve selected a scenario (grand campaign as default), a row of country flags / Shields appear at the top of the screen. Now you can select a country to play from there. If you like to try one that isn´t listed, just right-click on one of the flags/shields and there will be the complete list of countries appearing

Then you should make sure you selected AUTOSAVE under options BEFORE you start the game, for AFAIK you cannot change that setting anymore

When the game starts, select a trade center and check the box "autosend merchants". That helps a lot in the beginning.
Next visit your budget menue (the one with the sliders determining where to spend your money) and make sure the last slider (treasury) is at zero.

Clicking on your country´s shield in the upper left of the standard screen opens the religion menue; if you are playing a country with mostly homogenous religion, you should maximize the slider representing your state religion. I don´t know why it isn´t maximized at default, maybe the programmers wanted to screw newbie games

In order to understand the game, just play it for some hours. I´m sure you´ll understand the basics soon. Paradox is known for their incompetency in tutorials and manuals, so you shouldn´t rely on those . Learning by doing!!!

[Nikolai]

EU2 has a steep learning curve, so you must not expect to manage all the things in the game before you have played it some time, possibly not fully even then.

First, check that you have the latest patch, that'l' be 1.08.
Then, select a campaing as Micha tells you.
Aside from the obvious autosave(once a year is right IMHO), to set the difficulity at very easy or something casn be smart till you know how good/bad you are.
After it has gone one month, your finances shows up correct, and you can do the changes you want.

But most importantly, read the FAQs, the strategy threads and ask about everything you are wondering in the official forum, people are very good and patient mostly.

Good luck!

[jasev]

Gerard, go to Chema-Cagi's website. There's a lot of good information including a starting guide for newbies
(and the info is both in english and spanish)

https://www.chema-cagi.com