[insert typical "first ever guide" statement] This is my first ever guide. So naturally, if there is any stupid mistakes/typos/grammarfails/"dis intire paragraph makes zero sense r u r-tarted" I apologise in advance.
I also often use silly little names for things. So just jumping from point A to F might be a little confusing. There'll be a glossary at the end for this, in case you've forgotten one and don't want to find it again.

I don't believe any guide can fully walk you through an entire game from 1444-1821 so this guide is much more focused on the early game and setting you up for the rest of the game.
This guide currently* basically ends at around 1500AD, but you should be in the position to be able to continue the game just fine on your own accord without having to worry about "dying" or anything like that.

*I'm publishing this a little earlier than I had planned, basically due to me shifting my attention over to other games as I often do (but I always come back to Europa ilybae). I believe the guide is in a sufficient state to be published, if you disagree then please let me know.

Any feedback is very welcome!

There are a handful of starting "prerequisites" that you should really tick off before starting almost any EU4 game. Restarts will be practically manditory for an ideal start.
These prerequisites can range from stuff that you can instantly check, like certain advisors or rivalries, to early game life-or-death wars/alliances.
Thankfully in this case it is mostly just mere rivalries, except in rare occasions - which we'll go over later.

First off the bat is the most important; Poland and Austria. As a lot of you may have noticed, in the most recent patch, BB cannot simply insta-ally Austria anymore. So instead, we need a new ally for the initial phase of the game - Poland.
You should be able to instantly ally Poland, but you want it so that you can still ally Austria a little while down the track. If Poland has rivaled them, then you may lose Poland when you ally Austria.
But if Austria has rivaled Poland, there is slight chance of you getting an alliance with them until you sever ties with your current ally, which quite frankly shouldn't happen for quite some time.

Second, is Saxony. Despite there not being an actual rivalry in play in most starts, Saxony will be either hostile to you or friendly, making an alliance impossible if it's the former. So simply just check their diplomacy screen to ensure that they're friendly and you should be good to go.

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Third is up to you, as to whether you want to keep restarting or not, although an ideal setup can be very helpful early on. Anhalt(Anny) and/or Saxe-Lauenberg(Saxey). Both of these can be diplo-vassalised straight after the first war, but if they're hostile like Anny is regularly then obviously that's a no-go (You can always just force-vassalise).

Fourth is optional, despite being something to consider in every game that you play in Western Europe, as it will make your life that much easier in the long run; France.
At bare minimum, whether they're the rivalee or rivaler (are those even words?), you want them rivaled to Castile. Austria and Burgundy as well are very nice, Aragon is a bonus.
If they ever ally Castile, there's a good chance that they'll remain allied for the entire game. With Austria however - assuming Austria stays emperor until the 30 years war - France will normally bash heads with them eventually over some useless Holy Roman Empire(HRE) one-province minor(OPM) or awkward alliance*.
*May not always happen.


Regardless, as BB your National Ideas(NI) put France's Military to shame when mid-game rolls around, so unless France blobs out hard they'll be manageable.

+++++++Before Unpausing+++++++

A few things to do before you even unpause;

- Send off alliance offers to both Poland and Saxony.
- Start training one unit of infantry in three of your provinces (you want them all at once)
- Select your mission; pick and choose whatever you want, but "Improve Our Prestige!" is quite good as is "Reclaim Neumark!" as you're doing exactly that anyway.
- Make your heir then king into generals, use either the better one or forcefully use the heir as quite frankly he's crap and your king should have many years left in him.
- Move your army to Uckermark (North of Berlin)
- Rivals.

For your rivals, you'll be wanting to go with the Teutonic Order(TO) and Pomerania. Hold the third until just before your first war. Speaking of ..

Your first war is against TO. There are three goals to this war, first off is to simply retake what they took; Neumark.
Second, depending on who they've allied, is to give yourself a vassal. In most cases that vassal will be Mecklenburg(Meckle-wreckle-freckleburg). Meckle will often rival you, which makes them a prime ally for TO and they're small enough to not cause you too much hassle with Aggressive Expansion(AE)
Third and this is the big one; you need to hold the war for as long as it takes for Poland to get a king of their own who is not Kazimierz Jagiellon. In most games Poland will form a union over Lithuania with their very-easy-to-get decision. All they need - last I checked - is 100 DiploPoints, +1 Stability, to be at peace and for Old Mate who I just mentioned to be sitting on the throne of Lithuania. Normally Poland will get a new king within the timeframe of your first war, otherwise they are all but guaranteed to get the union in most games. I've seen old mate die once before they got the union. Normally I'd be happy, but I was playing Byzantium at the time :(

Now, unpause at say 3 speed if you're not comfortable. Once your first diplomat is back, form a Royal Marriage(RM) with Austria then keep time flowing until the end of the month to see who [the] TO ally. Hopefully it'll just be the Livonian Order(Livo) and Wreckle.



If they ally Hungary (this happens sometimes), you should probably just restart as it's unlikely Poland can handle them as well as carry the rest of the war.
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+++++++1st December, 1444+++++++

If they've allied the same people as mine, set Freckle as your last rival then declare war on TO. Sometimes Saxony won't be willing to join the war(attitude towards enemies), which is unfortunate but they can be done without.



First up, crush Meckle's army in Rostock. They won't have full moral and might not even have a leader. Remember called in allies enter the war one day after the Declaration of War (WarDec), so put your speed to low so you can start your march the second Wreckle enters the war.



Perfect result. Yours may differ due to leaders (I switched to my king as he was 2/1/1 to my heirs 3/0/1 as their leader was a 1/2/1), chase them down before the TO can reinforce them if possible. Otherwise either siege them down or group up with both your new troops* once they're done and then the Polish armies and then .. well you know, make war and stuff.
Send a diplomat off to Austria to improve relations when you're able. If Anny is friendly towards you, you can most likely diplo-vassalise them or will be able to after this war. If this is the case in your game, send your other diplomat to improve relations there also. And/or same kind of deal with Saxey, as they should be vassalisable once you have Wreckle.
Otherwise, send him to Poland.

*Important note, while you wait for your new troops to finish, care that TO may send it's army over to you. Your best spot to defend is probably Berlin as it has both woods and rivers connecting both Sternburg and Neumark which are TO's likely routes. Or, you can try to sneak past them all sneaky-beaky like and regroup with Poland's troops, as such;



This is a great tactic to use, as both Sternburg and Neumark have woods and a river between them. So even if TO did turn its troops around to hit you from Neumark, they'd still have to push through a -2 to rolls as well as you being closer for Poland to reinforce.
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+++++++Sieging+++++++

Chances are Poland has the mission to "Conquer Western Prussia" which means they have claims on a lot of TO's territory. To try and make sure that they can't get rather angry at you for not giving them claimed territory in the peace deal, siege yourself both Tuchel and Kulm so Poland doesn't get a hold of them. Split your army if need-be, but be weary of TO's army (really don't need your army getting stack-wiped). If they beat you to one*, don't be too fussed, just take the other then straight onto Marienburg if Poland isn't there already.
*Try to get to Kulm first if possible, as it is somewhat more developed than Tuchel. Always try to give Poland the crappier territories.


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Vassalise Freckle. Do NOT take a province, as Austria will demand it back regardless of their opinion of you. You have to be ALLIES for Austria to look the other way.


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Gotta be watchful for this crap.



If this happens, unless you're lucky enough for it to be retaken by TO's troops, you're better off restarting as even humiliating isn't enough to get 50+ Power Projection(PP) in this case.
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VVVVV
Warning; you need to have made sure that Poland has gotten their own king BEFORE you peace out. Check the next section for details (it would've gone here, but Steam has some annoyingly small character limit per section).
^^^^^^
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+++++++Victory!+++++++



Take Neumark, give Poland one (one is not sufficient for them to not get all angrypants if they've taken more than just the one claim, but along with already good relations should stop them from turning hostile) as crappy as territory/not in the way of you as possible if they managed to grab one, humiliate if possible and of course take money. Don't be fussed about cutting ties with Livo, as it helps to keep others from wardec'ing them before you can again.

+++++++Post-War+++++++

- Fix up your rivals. Best choice is probably The Hansa (The Ferengi) as they are your next big target behind Pomerania - situational, however.
- Select a new mission. "Pomeranian Succession" is a must unless you want to risk more AE making claims yourself.
- Vassalise anyone you're able to (Anny/Saxey).



- Fill your force limit for as long as you have the income and/or Manpower(MP) for it. BB is fairly poor right now, so you've gotta watch that purse otherwise you'll end up in the dumps.

No More Poland/Lithuanian Commonwealth

This needs to happen BEFORE you end the war with TO. If you held the war long enough (really isn't that long at all, normally just a couple of years) Poland's diplomacy screen should look something like this;



If that's the case, then bam! Poland is no longer twice as strong and there's less chance of them turning hostile as they won't directly have the army to openly challenge you and/or Austria.
They will most likely still be allied with Lithuania however, so you will definitely need to keep that in mind still. You'll just have to be on the lookout for whenever Poland allies someone minor who you can use to attack Poland indirectly.

+++++++Randomness+++++++

From this point on-wards, the game truly becomes a random experience and this guide obviously cannot tell exactly what is going to happen in your game, so you're probably gonna to have to wing-it somewhat.

For instance, strange things like this can happen;


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This certainly puts a spork in the gear for using that "Pomeranian Succession" mission, which will slow down expansion.
This does make Pomerania small enough to be vassalised by war, however this can also happen;


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Which the former can also all be undone by this crazy thing;


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Now normally you won't see this sorta stuff, but I do hope that this has proven my point about the randomness of this game and that eventually this guide will become less and less useful for your current game.

+++++++Consolidation and Strength+++++++

Before you can expand in the traditional sense, you've gotta ally everybody's big brother, Austria. Chances are you still can't ally them, despite full relations. If you check the alliance requisites for them, you'll notice a couple little things called "Brandenburgian Army/Navy Strength".



Obviously, a great power like Austria isn't going to want to ally with some two-bit no-body with no army to smash things with, so we've gotta build up our forces.

You can't build a navy at the moment due to a distinct lack of coastal provinces, so we're forced to buff our army. This probably isn't the easiest thing to do right now, as the war with TO probably took a lot of your MP (especially if you lost a battle or two) and with BB being poor on the income side of things, but we've got to do it regardless.
Stick to training infantry as cavalry is naturally expensive (in both initial cost and upkeep) and do not go over your force limit.
Depending on whether you got War Reparations(WarReps) from the war, you might be getting a half-decent income. If so, I'd suggest grabbing a Military Advisor (I'd strongly suggest either +Moral/Discipline or +MP) to speed up your progress towards the next tech (the next few are some of the most important), but you can fire him after a while if you need that money to continue building your army if you still can't ally Austria.

Soon enough, you should be able to ally them as such;


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+++++++Initial Expansion+++++++

Once you've maxed your army, allied Austria and just generally recovered from the first war, you can start the process of expansion. Extra Military Tech will help here - if you target has it but you don't, consider waiting.
Force-vassalising OPMs is your best bet. Try to find an OPM that might be allied with a slightly larger mutual neighbour who you could also take territory from in the same war.

This is the perfect choice in my case;



As you could see in a screenshot before, Pomerania is allied to my much-larger-than-me ally, Poland. By going through Anhalt, I can indirectly attack Pomerania without drawing in Poland.
In this case I'm definitely going to need an ally and thankfully Saxony wants to help this time around (again, might not want to. Depends on random AI friendships/how they damn-well feel at the time/might just be on cooldown) where as Poland doesn't.


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Gains from that war*, though without Austria being there I could have easily taken Kolberg;


*Ignore the fleet in the second image, took the screenshot late.

With your next war or two after TO, you need to have successfully carved a route to Danzig as it will be your next target if truces allow. Assuming you go to war with Pomerania, aim to take Stettin as it has a fairly high trade power and will increase the money you make from the Lubeck trade node by quite a bit.

Building yourself up
Once you've gained some coastal provinces, start to build a merchant navy (this means basically nothing but light ships) as you've got little chance of fighting most of the more established naval powers in the Baltic. Have them protect trade in the Lubeck node.
You'll gain some ships from Meckle once you annex them which you can use as the ground-work for your battlefleet, but it's unlikely you'll be able to use it to much effect at this time. You can disband/sell any transport ships as you won't be able to use them yet.

Your income should be relatively decent at maybe 1-3 ducats/month by this stage including WarReps as well as however much money you've forced from your victims, so you should look into creating some buildings in your key provinces (central or long-held provinces that have no autonomy) to help bolster your income. At this moment, BB is making most of it's money from tax income, so naturally you should build some temples in your provinces with the highest base tax. Berlin, Potsdam and Uckermark are your best at this stage, so build them there.
Remember to build marketplaces in any high trade power provinces you have or get, such as Stettin, Danzig and Lubeck.
You can probably judge for yourself if you can manage hiring any advisors.

If either Austria or Poland call you into any wars, for the most part you can let them handle it themselves but just make sure to watch your own borders/fleet. In regards to Saxony, there's a good chance that any war they're involved in will be right on your front step so you will probably have to get your hands dirty. Fight, but try not to use up too much MP as all of these allies are future enemies so don't help feed them too much.

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+++++++More Annoying Randomness+++++++

Rarely Austria can be an absolute sod and do crap like this;



There really is nothing you can do about it at this point, you can restart if it really bothers you otherwise you'll eventually be able to take it from them. Though if it's an important province like Danzig, restart. Seriously do not know why they're able to core stuff on the other side of the Empire, hopefully it gets "fixed" sometime before I die but I won't hold my breath.

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First off, you're not required to follow these if you personally believe that something else will be more useful for you. These groups are simply what I've found to be best for when I play.

Now, as what's effectively an expansionist state within the HRE, your first idea should be something that helps along those lines. Since you've got a smorgasbord of OPMs and other small states around, you should be diplo-vassalising any that you can. So naturally the Influence idea group is perfect for this, as it gives you;

• Extra Income from Vassals
  - Do I really need to explain this one?
  
• Reduced time to Claim
  - For when you're fabricating claims against another state, this drops it from 12 months down to around 9.
  
• Reduced Diplo-Annexation cost
  - Since you're going to be doing a lot of vassalising, diplomatically or otherwise, this makes it noticeably cheaper for when you go to annex them later on. Especially helpful for when you're getting larger vassals costing upto 1000 Diplomatic Monarch Points(DiploPoints) to annex.
  
• Reduced AE impact
  - People become slightly less annoyed when you conquer stuff.
  
• Extra Diplomatic Reputation(DipRep)
  - People like you more and allows you to diplo-annex a little bit faster.
  
• +1 Diplomatic Relations
  - Allows you to field one more alliance or vassal.
  
• +100% Vassal Force Limit Contribution
  - Vassals increase their master's land force limit by 25% of their own force limit. This increases that so the master gains even more of a force limit from having vassals.
  
• -50% Unjustified Demands
  - So basically anything you try to take in a peace treaty that is not the wargoal costs you more DiploPoints to take it. This reduces that cost.

I usually take a military idea group second in almost every game due to most nations in Europe doing the same, though you can easily swap it out for the third (admin) group instead depending on your current ruler/heir/tech.
Due to your NIs, I don't see much point in grabbing Defensive. You've already got something for military tradition and extra moral. Offensive on the other hand, makes your leaders naturally better as well as better and more troops.

For your third idea group, Administrative. While you might not be the richest to make full use of the mercenaries, the both the reduced Admin tech cost and reduced coring cost will save you huge amounts of Administrative Monarch Points(AdminPoints) in the long run. Combining the reduced coring cost with your already large AE reduction means that you'll be able to straight-out annex large amounts of land in a short period of time.

+++++++Future Allies+++++++

As I've mentioned before, none of your current allies will be allies for the entire game so you've got to start building relations with some other people whenever you've got a spare diplomat.

Your best option I've found is Muscovy>Russia, assuming they don't get destroyed and get to blob out of course. They tend to be fairly isolated up there so they're often looking for allies. If you can keep decent relations with them for quite some time before you lose your alliance with Poland, you should be able to ally them almost straight away after this other alliance ends.

However if Muscovy do get buggered, you can then look to the North, Sweden. Assuming they've broken free of the Kalmar Union and have gobbled up the other two, they are quite the force to be reckoned with assuming they have a land connection. It's possible to ally both Sweden and Muscovy, but they do often rival each other so don't keep your hopes up for it.
If they haven't broken free, if you can manage to support their independance (if they're even disloyal at this point) they'll love you like their own grandma for at least half a century.
- Don't be afraid to help them in their independence war once you've grown a fair amount. As long as the war counts as a win despite not gaining their independence, Denmark will still be losing Prestige. In my test game, Sweden fought and won two wars, but never gained enough for independence. Lithuania and I helped in the second war, but Poland was against us. Sweden barely won, but Denmark was left with a 71yo King with -27 Prestige, all but securing their independence regardless.

Third option is of course, the dirty French. While in most games you probably won't push that far west to actually go to war with them, you should always be aware of their current strength as they will be one of the few who can stand against you 1vs1.
They are an excellent ally for when Austria turns on you, or if Austria ceases to be emperor early on. Unless you're able to rush-start the 30 years war against a weak Catholic League, you'll need France's help big time especially if a fed Ottoman Empire(Otto) supports the emperor - this is likely as the Ottos can set you as a rival before you've even connected to their territory.

Fourth is Great Britain(English). While they're still quite terrible at transporting their marines all over the world in any decent fashion, they can often drop 40+ thousand troops in Europe. One problem is that their army can be easily stack-wiped if they're stuck in enemy territory as they'll have no where to go. Many times have I destroyed 40-60 thousand English troops in a matter of months as they kept retreating to the next province over.
Pretty much only pick the English as an ally if you're looking to fill your Diplomatic Relations or really need their navy.

+++++++Initial Expansion cont.+++++++

Once you're finished doing some minor expansion, look to Danzig. Depending on who owns it, what their alliances are, if you have a truce with them etc, decides if you're striking them now or going elsewhere.



In this case, Austria released them in their HRE Intervention War so I'm free to attack them whenever. Make a claim, then attack.
Assuming they have no allies, just attack as long as you have enough of a standing force to do so.
Annex them outright as they're not a part of the Empire and no one will care.

Danzig will help you move more money from the Baltic into Lubeck, where you can actually collect it. You next target is Lubeck.

---Or if you can't attack Danzig for whatever reason, read on to take Lubeck. There is a further third option which you can do either before or after Lubeck if there is opportunity; another war against TO.

For Lubeck, annex Meckle-wreckle-freckleburg (shouldn't be too long off at this point) then stake a claim on the so-named province.
Depending on who the cursed Ferengi (The Hansa, keep up) are allied with, you should be able to beat them with Poland's help easily enough(assuming they're willing. If not, perhaps WarDec one of their allies of which Poland IS willing/get Saxony's help instead). Take and core Lubeck and watch the money flow in. Release Hamburg as a sovereign state if you have enough warscore left.

For TO, at this point your truce with them should have ran out or is about to. Depending on alliances, their army strength and military technology(always remember to check this!), you should be able to at least take some territory if not fully vassalise them by yourself or with one ally.
Be careful if that ally is Poland, as again the same with the first war be aware that they may want territory from the war.



Not only was Livo busy in a war against Novgorod, but I was able to call in Austria shortly after the start of the war as well. We were previously in a war with Burgundy where I did absolutely nothing for the cause :)
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The province that I had to give to Poland in the first war was given back to TO after Poland's less-than-average war with Hungary/Venice/Castile, but if that had held I'm pretty sure I would've been able to vassalise TO in one hit (probably..). Instead, I had to take territory.
Now in an attempt to stop Poland from attacking them 5 seconds after I peace out, I decided to go a bit crazy and take everything of TO's that borders Poland.



This is a double-edged sword, in that Poland won't be able to WarDec TO, but chances are they will hate your guts. But now that you're allied with Austria and since they don't hold Lithuania, you can show them the door. If you've been doing what I suggested at the start of this section, improving relations with the likes of Muscovy/Sweden, you should be able to ally at least one of them by this point. Do so to counter the loss of Poland.

One goal of mid-game is effectively copying World War II and "sharing" Polish/Lithuanian territory with Russia - there's even a mission for it!
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At this point you will need to at least keep an eye on your AE, though in this current version the AE limit for coalitions has been increased to a massive -50 modifier. With BB's NIs, I doubt you'll reach it anytime soon but still be careful. My highest after taking both Hamburg and Lubeck was Munster at -34, but all of my conquests had been stretched out quite a bit due to other wars and a 8 year regency.


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Assuming you weren't held up with any drawn out wars, or annoying regencies, your little duchy should look something like this by the year 1500 if not even bigger;



That's a screen of mine from 1510, as I was held up pretty hard for some time. I'm currently sitting on 250 development*, so not too far away from being able to form the Kingdom Government rank, giving me extra goodies.

*With the two vassals I have, Verden and Bremen, I'd be more around 270~ development.

From this point on wards, you can do pretty much whatever you want. You can attack the Vikings, you can try to push Poland with your allies, continue expanding into the HRE or sit around looking so, so pretty.
One goal of mine at this point is to make a land connection via Estonia(Livo) to Russia, so if you manage an alliance with them and they aren't already dead or dying, you can go to each other's aid ezpz.

Just for ease of use, I'll be including every acnonym I use including standard ones that most people who frequent the forums would know/that most people would probably have come up with on their own anyway.

There are a number of specific and difficult general achievements that you can get from a BB run, however this guide does not get that far at this moment in time.

The achievements you can get are;


The next two groups are mutually exclusive. You can either get;


Or you can get this;