Beginners tips Europa universalis 4 Holland (2024)

Get a start that suits you. Nations that border Burgundy are the best rivals Burgundy can pick up. England, France, Austria would be the perfect 3.

don't demand too much in the independence war and I'd give something to at least 1 ally to prevent the loss of trust which will make you lose the alliance. So, get a start where these 3 support your independence, win the war as these 3 will wipe the floor with Burgundy, become independent, get Antwerpen for the trade and use the remaining warscore to give something to either France or Austria. I'd say France would be the best out of the 3; England the worst by far.

After that, it might be easier to expand into the HRE while remaining allied to Austria as you can then eat provinces in the HRE without Austria automatically demanding unlawful territory. Maybe you want to become emperor, maybe you don't. If so, ally electors and replace Austria. Don't break Burgundy's unions; if you can get a royal marriage with them after and/or become emperor after, you might just inherit his remaining lands in the HRE.

First, sorry for bad english.

It seem it´s your first game. I won´t recommend starting as Holland because it´s not "easy". It´s not hard either but you need a first game to get the game concepts. I would recommend Ottomans as they are the mayor power in the game, at least at start. You will understand concepts like expanding, religion, trade, economy, coalitions... You can try Muscovy if you hate Ottomans for some reason. Next game i would play an HRE mid size nation like Brandeburg for diplomacy, importance of alliances, expansion inside the HRE(coalitions can end you game very soon if you expand too much). Finally i would play some colonial power like Portugal, Castile or England. Then, you can try Holland.

It´s just my opinion of course, if you really want to play Holland as your first game...Restart until France and Austria rivals Burgundy, improve relations with them. Build to force limit, ask to support independence. Declare war and run to the other side of HRE to avoid fighting until you join your allies forces. France and Austria together will stomp Burgundy and you can ask wathever you like in peace deal. Some land or free subjects if you want to keep as a 2 provinces minor. That way, when an elector got wiped and you have good relations with Austria, you can be a new elector. Just requires some luck.

Begginer tips? Secure alliances, watch for your aggresive expansion in peace deals, you don´t want a coalition forming. Mothball your forts in peace time to make money, maybe lower army maintenance. When you want to declare war, wait for your enemy to be weak or when their allies won´t help him.

And remember to shower from time to time. EUIV can be a demanding lover.

I would not recommend playing a subject when learning the game.
Many mechanics are not really an option, and breaking free (to stop being integrated => dead) is not the easiest task a player of this game can encounter.

For the first few test games i would highly recommend medium big, quiet isolated countries.
The learning curve is deeeeeep as hell in EU4, so you might want to lower the potential frustration level, instead of restarting your first game a dozen times to get the right start up, just to restart again some minutes later because you did a major mistake.

And, believe me, you will make a ton of mistakes, usually each followed by an "Ah ha!"-moment, like everyone else does.

Just wanna say that you should consider this, before you waste a day on Holland, get frustrated and don't touch this game ever again ^^

get England, france, spain, aragon or Austria to support independence. You'll want two. Declare on dec 11. Put defensive edict on ur home turf; as soon as they take your capital you get crushing war exhaustion. Stay in the war till they almost take your home turf; but peace out when you start getting to 23% chance of it falling.
1. independence
2. antwerpen
3. release flanders

give something in provence to france so they aren't mad if you take antwerpen.

a "good" revolt will result in you taking antwerpen, not ever having your capital fall, and giving enough junk outside of thelowlands to france so they aren't pissy. Antwerpen will revolt with more troops than your force limit; go above temporarily to put it down, then merge units back to get under fl. Keep one giant beast of an ally (usually france), replace the others with dinky allies whose favors fill up faster.

take exploration ideas 2nd. I actually like religious ideas first; they are more powerful than they look on paper. AE management is king in the HRE.

As subject you are not treated as a "full" country by others. You have limited (nearly zero) diplomatic options and are automatically called in to overlord wars.
Your only options to gain independence is either fight a war vs your overlord yourself (and potential supporters), or get released in a peace deal when your overlord loses a war. Lesser is AI decision, so you can not plan for that.

For example, you cannot make alliances, royal marriages, support the independence of others...
You really should get a grasp on the ("full") game first, before you put yourself in a threatened and limited position

EU4 relies a lot more on diplomatic than civ. If you don't have enough alliances and you border a large country and he doesn't like you, he will attack you.

Besides that, as Holland you need help to fight your independence war, since you'll be hopeless out numbered and alliances aren't very luck related. The only luck that is your overlord's rivals

rb120134 said:

But still, would an experienced player who plays Holland be able to break free en win wars without relying on luck? I know that it is completely different game but I played civilization 5 alot where diplomatic relations are not really important. Does EU4 rely very heavy on diplomatic relationships management? Because I havent spend alot of time on EU4 just yet. And is the diplomatic thing luck or is there also strategic thinking involved? I kinda hate it when things are totally random and you have 0 influence on it. Yesterday I played Holland. I declared war on my overlord and one of my provinces got attacked and sieged by Brabant. I think I went to war too early but I am not really sure.

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Diplomacy is key to everything you will do. Powerful allies will make or break you; you will NOT become independent without at least one great power's support. Aggressive expansion resulting in coalitions will be the single biggest hindrance once you get going.

The only big luck factor is who chooses to rival Burgundy. Beyond that, they will support you based on clear numerically-displayed opinion modifiers. You can also open up the diplomacy tab (may take you a bit to find) and it will list who is willing to support you, and can be sorted by modifier to let you see who is close - send your diplomat to improve relations and you may get them.

This game is 10x more complicated than civilization.

yerm said:

Diplomacy is key to everything you will do. Powerful allies will make or break you; you will NOT become independent without at least one great power's support. Aggressive expansion resulting in coalitions will be the single biggest hindrance once you get going.

The only big luck factor is who chooses to rival Burgundy. Beyond that, they will support you based on clear numerically-displayed opinion modifiers. You can also open up the diplomacy tab (may take you a bit to find) and it will list who is willing to support you, and can be sorted by modifier to let you see who is close - send your diplomat to improve relations and you may get them.

This game is 10x more complicated than civilization.

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And can you influence those numerically opinion modifiers? And so the only luck factor is the rivals of burgundy?

rb120134 said:

And can you influence those numerically opinion modifiers? And so the only luck factor is the rivals of burgundy?

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Yes and yes