Am I still in the mood to try a new dynasty? I just finished my Theodoro one after actually going womb to tomb from 11 No, 1444 – 3 Jan, 1821 – I’ve never finished an EU4 or EU3 Grand Campaign, I’ve only done it a few times with EU2, but I’ve been spending some time on what has been recent changes to the game since I had previously played in my Rise of the Pacific a few years ago in late 2020 where I played a nation I created in the Pacific in Micronesia on the island of Pohnpei ruled by the Saudeleur Dynasty. There have been tons of changes.
As you can see in my opening with Athens, there are a few that are generally considered the worst starting position – Athens, did on my 5th try got out since it always gets absorbed by Ottomans as a vassal of Byzantium, Sukhothai in SE Asia that’s a vassal of Ayutthaya that’s a tributary of Ming so they’ll protect them, so I timed my war of independence for when Ming was in a war, Pskov, a minor vassal of Muscovy where I allied with the Commonwealth and won a war of independence, and I am sure that my run with the minor tribe in the Indies and formed Inca and then reformed Maya in Central America with my minor one province holding or my run as Kamchatka’s Kamchadals and then colonized Siberia and North America and became a big boy was probably also a harder start. Also Theodoro is generally considered one of the hardest to run. I always figured I’d do Mzab next since many consider it just as hard as Athens or Theodoro.
Mzab- 2nd hardest on The Social Streamers; 6th hardest on AlzaboHD; 6th hardest on Darkfireslide; 10th hardest on Adrian Gaming.
It made all four Top Ten or Top Five Hardest nation YouTube channels, in this North African nation. Here are the reasons why:
1. It’s two inland provinces that have a total development of 6. There are one province nations better.
2. It’s next to Tunis and Tlemcen both of which can easily expand and pull off both of your holdings.
3. Berber new holdings take more ADM Power to core and that’s everything around you.
4. Here’s the worst – you are not Sunni but Ibadi. That means you start with a negative 10 neighbor heretic bonus, and cannot Royal Marry anyone nearby to build up relations or lead to an alliance. There are just three Ibadi nations Mzab, three province Oman in Arabia, and one province Pate in Africa. That’s it. That’s the only places you can go for a Royal Marriage. Nasty.
5. Your national Ideas and missions help develop navies and let you raid coasts, but you are landlocked and cannot do that.
Mzab has the same ideas and Missions as other Berber nations:
Those are the Missions that Mzab and the others have. It’s only five different from the generic Mission tree:
See how only the central five are different? Not that exiting. Missions are major things you try to do, and then you get either a 25 year boost or a permanent one.
There are a few ways you can make your nation your own in this game. We’ve just looked at Missions. The next are Ideas. You start with two, and then you unlock one Idea for each three Ideas you unlock in the game. Here are the Magreb Ideas:
And then we have the third way to make a nation unique – country specific Events. For example, Kilwa in real life was Sunni in South-east Africa and they were converted by merchants that were pretty Orthodox but the government and people interpreted the faith more liberally so there was a tension that can be seen on their country specific events. We might get some Berber events, not sure. There’s no event specific links on the Tunis or Tlemcen page to see.
Also, Mzab can form Algiers.
Is this me? Am I going down this path?
Who else attracts me?