So the new patch is here and I thought I would do another top 20 most powerful nations. The list IMHO has changed quite a bit due to the new DLC. This list assumes you have Common Sense. Put simply several nations has received buffs other nations have got weaker all things being relative. This assume the game is single player. Criteria for the ratings include how easy the nation is to play, sheer brute power, expansion opportunities and geographical position.
Number 1. Ottomans.
Well some nation has tobe the most powerful nation in the game an I believe it is the Ottoderps. Free cores and missions that gives you claims on a good chunk of the middle east and Africa along with a great ruler and heir tend to accelerate the Ottomans out of the gate.
Number 2. Poland.
France more or less took a tumble and I would argue Poland is now more powerful than the nerfed BBB. The amopunt of development in Poland and Lithuania seems out of whack and getting around 40-50k men at game star more or less allows you to plow through anyone. In addition they get a decision for free westernization. To make things even better they can still feed Lithuania and get a free annexation with their decision to form the PLC. Poland can really into space and maybe even hit the moon.
Number 3. England.
England picks up some additional lands in this patch and starts the game with a truce with France allowing them to ally Austria and Castille at game start. And then France gets wrecked. It is now easier than ever to have a land based England and still have the best navy in the world and.or play the colonial and trade game. Throw in the new parliament thing and England has received some massive buffs in this patch.
Number 4. Castile.
This patch makes coring costs stupidly high. Castile of course can get around this by going colonial and using that income from the colonies to get better advisers to get more monarch points to offset the coring coasts. Gold fleets also have reduced inflation costs as well which can give Castile an absurd amount of ducats. With recent buffs to Castiles national ideas they can still do the wreck France thing, take over the Iberian peninsula, PU Aragon easier than before and invade England and expand in Italy.
Number 5 France.
A former number 1 and as of last week I would have rated them number 2. You may have noticed a theme of nations I rated above France in single player can now destroy France easier than before? France is by no means bad at all just not the absurd BBB it has been in previous patches.
Number 6. Austria.
Austria has had the hell buffed out of it in recent DLCs. It is still good at things like diplomacy and is not to bad militarily either. With development I kind of shudder to think what some people will be doing to gold production in Tirol. Hell move your capitol to Tirol and eat up Italy and keep the small states in the HRE small and eventually you can form the HRE and get around that inconvenient coring cost thing people like to complain about.
Number 7. Ming.
A huge jump for Ming as I would have rated Ming in the 10-15 range a week ago. The removal of inward perfection is a massive buff to this nation. What makes it so good? IN the 1444 game start you have an income of 30 odd ducats profit per month and this means you can afford level 3 advisers. This means you income at game start is 3-4 times higher than the rich European nations such as France, Venice, Austria etc. You also get missions to take out Dai Vet and no one else around can stop you that easily and you can afford a lot of mercenaries. After that one can take exploration sale to Mexico across the pacific, westernize easily and then your manpower poor will jump up to over 100k and income roughly doubles.
Number 7. Burgandy.
Burgandy can almost solo France these days and although it looks like they are weaker they kind of gt buffed. This is because the Burgundian vassals give you more manpower than the old Burgandy had. The real downside of Burgandy is going to be the monarch points required to expand anywhere but most nations are on that boat.
Number 8. Portugal
Portugal retains its ability to go colonial or even relocate to the new world or west Africa and blob it up over there. Or you can just eat Castile and England and go colonial. You are a mni Castile with worse military ideas and better economic ideas. Use that economy to offset coring costs and/or develop your stuff or build the biggest navy in the World.
Number 9. Muscovy
Muscovy can do what it has always done and aim for China while getting very cheap expansion in Siberia. Muscovy has received an indirect nerf this patch mostly due to the buffs for the other nations and buffs to the Protestant religion.
Number 10. Teutonic Order.
The TO can join the HRE and the TO is rich and can ally Austria and Hungary and eat Poland. Their ideas let you convert to Protestant and you can expand outside the HRE due to geographical location. Theocracies also got massively buffed in this patch and you tend to get a lot of 3/3/4 type leaders or better as the TO. As I found out the hard way you have to watch your AE as per usual for an HRE state. Switching to protestant seems to be a no brainer and you can easily change faith due to national ideas as you can wreck your nation these days if you are not care switching to Protestant/Reformed. Then become Prussia and get the best military ideas in the game.
Number 11. Sweden.
I would have rated these guys higher but the development changes have in effect nerfed Sweden. Their provinces are expensive to develop now due to location and in the older patch the idea with Sweden was to develop it by spamming buildings such as level 2 admin building and level 3 trade buildings everywhere. They are still good just not as good as the nations I rate higher IMHO. Still some of the best military ideas in the game, expansion is now harder for them.
Number 12 Lithuania.
The other half of the PLC. By itself it is one of the most powerful nations in the game but ruling Lithuania is a little bit tricky due to wrong culture/religion. In the hands of a player though one can get around those things. Once you get the country up and running one has a lot of options in terms of expansion.
Number 13. Mamluks.
Well the Mamluks are still rich and can easily take down the Ottomans and westernization is not that hard. They also have some very nice provinces in the nile delta region and it is not hard to get the farmland in Iraq either. Westernization can be achieved by taking over a western OPM in the Mediterranean or beating a province out of Venice. One can blob towards India, do the Asian trade thing or see how many gold mines one can collect in Mutapa and West Africa and develop them to see how high your income can go.
Number 14. Aragon
Aragon offers some expansion opportunities outside the HRE and you can go colonial as well. Its not that hard to eat France and/or Castille as Aragon it is just really expensive now to do so.
Number 15. The Papal States
Well theocracies got a massive buff in this patch and it seems the Pope got buffed more on top of that. The Vatican gets a 20% tax buff off national ideas (highest in the game) a 20% tax buff off devotion and a 5% discipline buff via event on top of the 5% buff they get from national ideas. Throw in the changes to Italy which is the most developed and richest part of the EUIV world and God really does love the Pope, Insert generic Latin phrase here.
Number 16. Venice.
Venice received indirect nerfs in this patch although geographical proximity to northern Italy is nice. It is now harder and more expensive to expand in this patch and Venice has less ways to get around that unlike the colonial nations. Venice also got directly nerfed with the changes to naval force limits.
Number 17 The Hansa
Most of the things that apply to Venice also apply to The Hansa and they lost the imperial integrity bonus. The Hansa are still one of the more versatile nations around with the option to go naval, land based, colonial or whatever and they can expand into the HRE, Scandinavia or even Russia and Form Germany/Prussia (via culture shift). Still fun, still a merchant republic still got nerfed.
Number 18. Bahmanis
Bahmanis is the most powerful Indian state IMHO and it has around 5 free cores to reconquer and expansion is not that hard due to its starting traditions. In addition is is Shia which is one of the best religions in the game. India is also rich, has decent manpower, and has a lot of farmland available for development and offers easy expansion west, north and east. Changing your 1st idea from admin tech 4 to 5 does hurt a bit but it also effects the Europeans and buys you more time to expand. You can almost keep up in military tech as well and you get great cavalry units at mil tech 6.
Number 19. The Timurids
Hordes got buffed in this patch and the Timurids are the biggest horde who can get into India and westernize via Goa and form the Murghals which have some great national idea. Horde plunder mechanics combined with 1 month sieges in non fort province= fun. Would be rated higher but the Timurids of one is not careful still has a tendency to self destruct if you sneeze at them sideways.
Number 20. Brandenburg.
Probably going to take a lot of flak for this on be for rating them so low. You have the best military ideas in the game but the Teutonic order can also easily get them and start the game roughly twice as powerful as you. Expanding in the HRE has always been slower and now you are looking at 160 odd coring costs for base tax 5 and 6 provinces. The manpower nerfs also make things interesting when combined with the new forts as manpower is now at a premium. One wrong foot and you will likely have half the HRE in a coalition against your as as well so expansion will be slow. Greta ideas partly let down by geographical location and other nations seem better now.
