If you don't have any dlc Exploring is extremely painful since you need to move yor fleet manually if you want to do it

I’ve never played with any DLC so this is my normal💀

Biggest difference when I first got the game with no DLC and tried to play Castile was the exploration and colonization stuff. That is a real pain compared to the game with El Dorado.

Fun fact: Increase development was a dlc feature in Common Sense But later they made it a free feature

25:55 "not a lot of interesting things on the map" mouses over blue Scotland

I feel like that DLC's shouldn't add universal mechanics like upgrade his centers of trades or every quality of life feature option like for army etc... I feel like they must be here only to add content about specific country and mechanic about theses countries but not universal mechanics like that... They must be part of the base game... Idk if I'm the only one thinking that. I don't event know if what I said make sense to you x) But yeah, I don't like this DLC politic. I really don't mind features for countrys being part of DLC but it shouldn't be the case for universal mechanics...

Despite how painful this was without the DLCs, it was actually quite fun to see you play a sorta normal campaign once in a while. I hope we see more of this in the future once Domination drops. You haven't streamed in a while, but I really liked seeing the VODs. The PAIN moment is playing 1.1

Not being able to disinherit heirs is ultra pain that you missed out on.

The difference is bigger when you play a small nation when you really need a feature. For example you want to use favours to break a relationship. Another deal is, if you want to blob hard, you can't upgrade your advisors, you only get level 3, and that's it. Means you miss out a lot of mana points. And on top of that you can't dismiss heirs at all, so if you get a bad one, you got to live with it. All this stuff adds up when you are a less powerful nations. Or when you are a mid size nation, getting war reps from the Ottos or France will carry your economy for the next 10 years. What bothers me the most, those things are barly content, but Pdx does it deliberatly, so you can't follow many guides and you feel somewhat forced to get the DLCs or the Sub at some point.

"Soyface Red Hawk isn't real, he can't hurt you" This video's thumbnail:

I've been playing with no dlcs for around 900 hours since I got the game for free on epic and can't afford dlcs nor do I wanna get the subscription. Can say that it isn't that bad if you just never had the dlcs to compare to, you learn to play with the mechanics present in the base game and that's still very expansive and fun to learn. I've recently did a WC without dlcs and it wasn't too tedious. But ofc the dlcs would be massive game changers.

It’s kind of crazy what is considered part of the free updates and what isn’t. Was surprised to see full mission trees, but not the quality of life stuff that isn’t actual mechanical changes.

I once tried to play Landshut into Bavaria, while following your guide. However without DLCs, you get coalitioned immediately after PUing the other two minors

Deving was a dlc only thing but it became so integral to future updates that it was pushed to the vanilla game. You still can't dev in subjects without the dlc though (forgot which one adds it)

Very much dislike that so many simple QOL features like the macrobuilder and production buttons are missing without DLCs. Should be mechanics only...

So the farthest you can go back without a DVD is 1.9.2, which is the last patch for Art of War. I would be interested to see you play that one, if only because I think that was both the old rebel system, and before the current fort system. Forts in every province? Pain. You need a code to access it in the BETAs which is EU4R2JvakDKTJ8Cn

I played without dlcs for a very long time, so you can imagine the problems I would face when watching your guides! Luckily it wasnt that big of a difference for nations like austria and the old ottoman guide, first time I faces problems was with manchus, and you wanted me to play with the tribute-system and raise those special troops. Honestly, it kinda sucks that so much of the game is locked behind a massive paywall On an unrelated but funny note, in my first eu4 campaign as ottomans I got the 8:52 message, about crusade. I came into eu4 from ck2 where crusades are kinda a big deal, so for a long time I didnt declare war on any european countries and played super passively💀

in total war Warhammer its a common challenge to play skaven with no dlcs, as basically all their good units are in the dlcs I was wondering if there are other strategy games where playing with no dlcs is a challenge at least skaven have their basic mechanics for free

My first campaign was vanilla eu4 as the ottomans. Increased autonomy everywhere to keep rebels away and had no idea why i didn't have reconquest cb to vassal feed like everyone said

Dude, I just got DLCs the other day and it’s a completely different experience for me now. I can actually make an empire now. Now I know why the game was completely ridiculous and impossible for me before.

I'd like to see you play some nations aggressively like you just did in this run. Expand quickly and manage resources optimally. Maybe a 150 year challenge or something. Which nations? Maybe picked at random (excluding native nations). This type of game should have a name, like Domination. Or maybe the succession game, like Zlewikk did, changing nations on the same game every 50 years.

Now try a Horde without razing provinces. ;)

I love your reactions when you realize just how many buttons are missing sometimes. I feel you, I have never played without DLC and everything just feels off

The docked to be admiral makes sense, idk why whatever dlc that does it allows us to send an admiral on a rowboat to wherever our fleet is on superspeed lol

I've waited half of this video to see your reaction on the lack of subject's reconquest CB :)

theres no way, literally last night i went back and rewatches isp's no dlc vids. its always great to look back at how i used to play pdx games lol

"That's a dangerous level of noble influence ...strengthen noble privileges!" bruh

I'd love to see a longer, a bit more serious campaign from you at least once, split over a couple of episodes of course. We've all seen and played 1444-1600 a million times, but many don't realize they're missing out on half the game. Maybe encountering some new struggles along the way, optimizing your idea groups which leads to things you never do etc (quantity and trade are illegal ;)) and it's always fun to see people outside their comfort zone. Doesn't need to be a WC since that's a boring grind, but perhaps as an OPM or some more challenging start, become military hegemon or conquer some key cities around the world, reach 10k dev, conquer all of Europe and Asia, reach the end date of the game - something like that

You should play it without DLCs and in one of the earliest versions: ni development, no institutions (fortunately), the mercenaries were just more expensive troops, and every single province is a fort. I remember also when the states had a certain amount of land and you give it to them. It was pretty fun.

Got all the DLC's from humble bundle for £20🗿 (Thanks Red Hawk)

Fascinating; thanks Red Hawk. I enjoyed that at around the 15:00 mark, you learn that Art of War (1.7, iirc) is absolutely ESSENTIAL to the game and really should just be in the base game. (Maybe it is now for people who buy the basic game?). Art of War, Common Sense, I would add the two DLCs for colonial. The rest? Not quite so essential. I've been on a 1.30 rollback, feeling that Emperor was a really cool DLC that, despite some initial problems, has proven necessary for HRE and Catholic campaigns. I do NOT like Leviathan with its "world wonders" (or monuments or whatever) and the general trend to pay-to-win-easy, though I did enjoy the African DLC a couple back. (And after I played what I wanted to there, rolled back to 1.30.) I will probably have to keep Domination on - it looks VERY game-changing - and thus will be caught up slightly against my will, but I guess I can just ignore the World Wonders and the Easy-Peasy missions that make the game too simple with power-creep rewards. Sorry for the long post; great vid.

For the first month I had the game, I played exactly like this before I gave up and got the subscription.

Hey, love your vids. Do you think that you will ever become an npc like you did as that one Arabian minor? Like, a side character who has to have the big guys dunk it out while helplessy being stackwiped, occupied and generally just useless?

I love how he didn't even react to AI France owning the whole of Scotland while England remained untouched

The thing here is, you played the strongest nation in the game. You should try the same thing on an different country, thats not start with 40k troops and just role all over the way they want to go. There will be a huge difference what decisions you can take and have to take. Its not like Im not playing with any dlc's, but I miss some of them tho and and when I compare this now with your videos, I always notice that for example, whether I can activate Ecourage Development in my provinces or not, because I don't have the DLC for it. So youre might seeing the pattern here. But thats what you already said in the video. I would like to see the same type of video, but with an other country, thats way smaller then the ottomans.

I started playing in 2021 and just now started buying dlc since I haven't had money to spare up until now. Nowadays I buy one or two DLC every once in a while when I got some euros over at the end of the month. DLCs improve the game massively in my opinion. They add so much flavor especially in the diplomatic game.

The many differences between the base game and the game with dlcs are the reason why I would like to see some no-dlc guides. the reality is that no one is doing base game guides althought many only play the game this way

Why not ask Mr. Paradox for his blessing to play the first version?

This is the biggest problem I have with paradox. The DLC's should not include quality of life features, just extra flavor and missions. QOL should be free in updates. The functionality of ships is a prime example.

13:20 That's not a DLC thing, it's because the province isn't on the same "continent" as your capital. (quotation marks because some of EU4's continent boundaries are a bit strange, at least between Europe and Asia)

i play eu4 using the dlc subscription and sometimes when it expires i have to play without DLC until it renews, it was definitely a huge shock to see so many missing features and basically every country being flavorless. i wonder if people in the future will view the current VIC3 like this

Once I was playing no dlc ottomans inspired by your guides and like stuck at the start when raising janissaries. That took me a while before I understood why i can't. At one point I thought your guide is a prank with all those fake state edicts and army recruitment on just pushing plus

Well, the Painful things without DLC to me are: -No Vassal Interactions and in late game: Building up your 400 ship fleet every time manually and then selecting the provinces every time so combine the fleet as doing big square selection selects the army. And most Importantly: Taking 4 years of sieging down a max level star fortress and getting that call for piece defuff after having captured a full 3 provinces so late game wars end at like 20%.

Lol, transferring troops with boats is buggy even *with* DLC. It's kind of crazy how some of these features we take for granted are all locked behind a paywall, though. A lot of QOL improvements for sure.

YES! YES! HE DID IT! HE ACTUALLY DID IT! No more requesting it for A to Z, I'm so happy! Thank you Red!

i actually got el dorado due to the nation designer and didn't know 'automated' exploring wasn't part of the base game

I remember playing like this way back at launch, without all the updates lol

7:31 thats a dangerous level of influence. 7:35 lets go strengthen noble privilege. Nice :D

I haven't yet gotten the 3 main DLCs that came out since I stopped playing EUIV for awhile (had computer problems). Game working ok without them, and the reviews for a couple of them make it sound like I shouldn't bother getting them.

When I came back to EU4 after a while, a lot of shit had changed and I admit I felt a little turned off by that. So first thing I did was roll back to the oldest version. Now THAT was a mistake. Scuffed as shit.

EU4 campaigns: * are going great for Hawk * Hawk: * turns off all DLCs because he's missing the PAIN! *

I saw that you had problems with transports - it's because you have to manually attach army to ship in army menu

oh wow didnt expect this type of vid 😶

You can't play 1.0 easily, but 1.4 (no ironman) is available in the steam beta list. That's when colonial nations were first introduced. I'm honestly glad nothing older than that is available.

@TheRedHawk Developing a province was a DLC thing when i started playing. I've bought my Eu4 copy arround patch 1.18 (Prussia/Rigth's of Men) and was disapointed while playing as Poland and unable to develop any institution at all... Common Sense was required to develop anything... Not sure, when it was changed, but you could imagine me slowly waiting for instututions to spawn... so in order to spawn them quicker -> i've decided to march west and that game ended pretty weird with PLC guaranting ottomans, france and russia, dismantling HRE, who at that time was ruled by... France, which was an OPM somewhere in Westphalia... Allied with Great Britain, who controlled half of new world, with other half being controlled by Spain...who were under PU with PLC...and got integrated after 150+ years of integrating... so... realy weird game... to bad timeline was only a DLC thing back then, because it would be fun to watch it...

Red hawk doesn't know about the community demand to add development and transfer occupation getting added to the base game

16:38 You could have said: "Lights out, the Knights out!"

loved this!

Dhimmi missing is weird because you used to assign provinces manually to estates to deal with that.

Testing updates must be so difficult. Who knows what combinations of dlc's people are using.

I know you don’t like playing full games, but would you consider doing a shorter game play with a later start date to show some of the later age gameplay? I’d love to see how you would deal with the revolutionary aspects, and how that might change your goals or play style.

It's a completely different game. I started the game like 3 Months ago, no dlc. Wanted to watch guides, more than half of them don't work cause of mechanics, features, missions and that Dont exist in the Bae game. I bought the dlc bundle and there was and still is just so much to learn.

Zlewikk played not that long time ago eu 1.0... Pirate Republic is forming!

I'm a bit curious, do republics have states and factions in vanilla or do you need LotN to have both?

Wool can get 3.13 or so in price, Cattle 3.50 and Wine all the way to 4.50 iirc. Naval supplies can go to 3.50, generally I only build barracks in grain provinces (depending on local production of course) and fish (unless I it's coastal)... stacks so well with Soldier Households (or Impressment Offices in the coastal case) Also yeah without the Reconquest CB, it'll be cheaper to click on the map/demand territory instead of returning provinces :( Oh yeah and doesn't Wine trade bonus give -1 global revolt risk or something?

Playing EU4 with NO DLCs Was a MISTAKE Me, a mistake itself: 🗿🍷

There's something you can do in Steam to roll back to older versions of games. No need to have a CD.

You had to truce break Mamluks at the end for that name placement

You should do an ottoman twitch into red hawk vods run

IF you do this again, play as natives in the Americas or in Japan, they have actual mission trees (not that good but playable)

there is nothing more painful than doing a beta of the first versions of the game, I still remembered when dlcs like common sense and art of war brought some life and flavour to the game

Be cool if you slowly add some of the more notable DLCs and see how the game evolved. Another short campaign like this was good for the format. Play one of the nations featured

I just remember getting happy we got proper text placement on maps and getting sad at the new trade system from Divine Wind to EU4, those were simpler times. Nowadays people wont even look at the face of a country if doesnt have a 10 page MT. Not complaining mind you its great! Screw simpler times give me more granular simular more finicking more flavor more missions more more more, thats why we play Grand Strategy babyyyyyyyyy

i remember times whitout a missiontree, estates, forts, goverment and and and

Yeah I used to play without DLC, it's painful and very difficult

i’d love to see you try to colonize with no dlc as castile

I play with the first seven DLC packs. I'm missing the last ten bc I don't have $150 to spend on a game I don't play nearly as much as I did back in the day when I was always up to date with DLC or even one or two behind. Watching your channel, I see I am missing out on so much when I play, but compared to this, I'd much rather have 5-10 of the DLCs (mix and match as you please) than none at all. Funny that only two are positively reviewed (El Dorado and Rule Britannia) and El Dorado is mostly positive bc of custom nations. The whole Treaty of Tordesillas mechanic in El Dorado doesn't even exist anymore (plus the fact they completely overhauled the mechanics it added). Nearly $300 for a ten-year-old game is ridiculous. Especially when so many of the mechanics of the older DLCs are obsolete due to the fine tuning of the game. I have a fine time playing with the $150 game I play but wish I could play the $300 version every time I boot it up. What Paradox really needs to do if EU5 isn't going to be released in the next three to five years is release EU4 Deluxe edition and EU4 Master edition (name them whatever). Deluxe would have all the major DLC included (basically the Empire Bundle) and updated graphics with a discount of $4 per DLC currently owned (if they could somehow do that) as to not piss off current users who bought all the DLCs. That would mean someone with all 17 main DLC would buy it for $12 just for the updated graphics and maybe an additional last update. And the Master Edition would be the same but with all the minor DLCs (basically the Ultimate Bundle) and updated graphics for $120, with the same discount for major DLCs, but a $2.50 discount for minor DLCs, meaning someone with everything would pay $14.50 for the updated graphics, a possible extra last update, and maybe some extra cosmetics/content packs limited only to people who buy the Master Edition. I honestly think it's a genius strategy to get people who have already sunken so much money into this game (but not as much as they could) to put even more money in. Paradox needs to hire me. The graphics update need not even be that intense. Just change the unit skins and take some notes from mods to make borders cleaner and change the look of a few of the map modes, specifically terrain, trade goods, and coalition.

i mean the ottomans maybe do not change much, but when u play nations like portugal or castille you notice, also in east asia. There are not many things that just makes the game more fun and playble

25:40 fun fact, Thessaloniki used to have a plurality of its population be Jewish for centuries right through until WW1, and they were a majority until the beginning of the 20th Century

I only have like 3 dlc so this is what's I'm used to, but I still have 2000 hours. It is painful.

I swear every "Paradox game with no dlc" is just the best advertisement for Piracy there is.

I played hundreds of hour without dlc. Was fine but now that I have a few I don't know how I did it

honey, hawkjak just dropped!

This is basically the "rich mf is being humbled by simple ways" trope

Ottomans is one of the few nations with a mission tree without dlc. Like olmost every other nation is a pain in the ass to play as.

witout dlc aztec is rly nice 20years 4k gold in reserve:) and almost got mexico area mid lvl playd

At the old times you cant transfer occupations without art of war dlc

Does anyone know what to do if your cursor is missing in game? Mine disappears ingame and I thought everyone had this issue but apparently not. I've tried tons of stuff but I don't know how to fix it. Can anyone help?

Dude, thanks for the video. Yeah, that's ok playing EU4 as Ottomans without DLCs, but try colonising as Portugal.. That's a HUUUGE pain. Colonisation mechanic is unplayable

Could you do a guide for non dlc users cause I got the game not too long ago and getting to understand it is dreadful.all the guides say do this do thatbut when I look there,there's just missing buttons😢.I'm like just great,guess this is gonna be interesting doing it my way😅.

Dlc's really Shine for Colonial nations, very weak and small nations, the hre, and East Asia. Try playing an OPM in the Middle East or the hre without DLC. THAT is hell.

I actually used to play this game without DLC for a long time, and devving provinces were actually a DLC thing; JUST LIKE ESTATES! I'm actually really annoyed that they just added that to the game later, means the reason I bought their DLC was useless in the end.

The worst part about this video is that I learned that you use the macro builder for ships. Love having 4 heavies building in the same province xd

23:53 Base game doesn't have the League War, so there's no restriction for what christian faith can become HRE Emperor

Please make a lets'play or some kind of regular game with many series with some interesting mod like Annadar or any else

Video 22 of asking for an Ireland guide (also turn no DLC into a series, I want to see you suffer through colonization)

I remember, I played maybe 200 hours of EUIV with no DLCs. Then I got a couple, then I got everything. The game is so so cursed with no DLC.

Having no DLC also used to be a much worse experience because it used to be that developing provinces and all the government mechanics were DLC locked... So honestly the basic game experience is a lot better now than it was say 2 years ago.

You should play on the patch when every single province was a fort

Some countries are borderline unplayable without the DLC. Ming just implodes bc you can't get rid of bad heirs and Hordes can't raise provinces- the one mechanic that makes them so good...