Actually, they are fixing the Tributary independence war bug in the next patch, so declaring war for independence won't call Ming in.

Do you enjoy starting off without feudalism, and surrounded by neighbours who hate you? Do you prefer your provinces to be destitute and poorer than sand? YAS!

There should be an achievement for conquering the whole world as Yas while having a queen.

Ironically today the most rich arab country UAE is ruled by a family from YAS. So yeah they did survived

I should hope the Ottomans are the hardest. I don’t think anyone’s taken them past like 1450. If Byzantium doesn’t kill you in the first year, certainly Trebizond or Theodoro will. Honestly the Ottomans are a bit unbalanced, but at least it’s historically accurate.

The best part about Perm is that they don't even own Perm at the start.

"there's no reason to be an animist" Egyptian animist monarchies have "pharaoh" leaders.

I've seen Yas doing extremely well in some of my play through, especially that one time I was playing a minor in Ireland and was caught off guard when I saw them owning half of Arabia, it was impressive.

So next: Top ten toothpaste blueish-white purple nations.

And if you want a spicy insanely impossible challenge, make a formable nation, stick it into the worst landlocked province inside of Ming, and make the worst set of ideas, have your religion Jewish/Zoroastrian, and of course have a 0/0/0 leader. Tried this a couple of times, you'd get to be a Ming vassal no matter what. Still has some fun

Now I expect let's plays on all these nations.I

Primary culture: horde Capital province: somewhere bad Government: Horde State religion: Buddhism Technology group: Horde yep, makes sense.

10:02 I once played as Navarra, I got subsides from both Aragon and castille, I eventually fled to the new world. I felt like a spoiled brat with parents trying to get my approval by spoiling me. That eventually fled his house.

Proud The Animal Kingdom achievement owner

ryukyu does at least have some good national ideas going for it, trade efficiency and lower national unrest are always good to have, tech cost and diplo rep depends on who you ask (I personally like them), but the one that stands out is that aggressive expansion, it's the only -25% modifier I know of, followed only by the 20% from influence ideas and the catholic curia controller, I'm pretty sure it's possible to get all the way to -100% (don't know if there's a cap though, but no/less coalitions is obviously good if your goal is a world conquest)

In my campaign as Livonia, Odoyev vassalized Muscovy. (I realized this when I tried to ally Muscovy and it said "-1000: Muscovy is a vassal under Odoyev")

News on Sukhotai:In the upcoming 1.31 update, they will get more provinces, a unique, albeit small mission tree, and, most importantly, an incredibly OP event, the Ascension of Trailok. This event has three options:staying a vassal of Ayutthaya, vassalizing Ayutthaya, or vassaling Ayutthaya and taking land of of them with no additional liberty desire. Plus, I believe they can form the new formable of Siam, which gives you Ayutthaya mission tree. Combine that with the rework to the Siam, which now has both Canton and Burma flowing into it, and you've gotten an incredibly OP nation.

What? Navarra is super easy. You have Castille, Aragon and France showering you with gold in order to vassalize you, so as long as you maintain balanced relationships with all three, you can start colonizing with a massive bank and quickly become a great power without having to wage a single war. I'd say it's the easiest one province country in the game.

LOL HAVE U HEARD OF TANNU TUVA *DABS UNIRONICALLY*

BTW Navarra is really easy cause you can just escape to the new world.

Neat list. Looks like I've done half of these starts already. Mzab was by far the hardes for me personally due to RNG. But a weakened Tunis on my... probably tenth attempt, allowed me to conquer them, then immediately change to Tunis, gaining free cores on the land I conquered and some "easy" reconquests. Ibadi + the government form allowed me to very easily keep up with institutions though. Then went for Andalusia and managed to convert the last Shia province in the world to Ibadi by 1812... Close one. I did Manipur with no restarts though. On my first animal kingdom run I went for a quick strike against my neighbours in the west, vassalised them, then was attacked by the nation in the east, merced up (endless debts... But oh well), and struck back before they could take my fort. The new maps in India compared to when this video was made do make it a lot easier to get the tactical advantage in that area.

Great list, some fun alternatives here. Only nations i think i might pick up is Kharabakh or Ryuku(who in all honesty don't belong on this list). I've found that south western irish states are quite hard.

Alodia is a really fun pick to get all the Coptic holy sites back. You're in quite a challenging position to begin with, bordering Ethiopia, but you can get some easy alliances to expand and you're in easy range of the first 2 holy sites. The only problem is your low forcelimit and income but you can easily get both by developing/conquering provinces. Just watch out for Ottos though as they can ruin your run if you're not prepared.

Mzab are also in CK2 conversion games at the 1444 start date a real challenge would be to convert a CK2 save and play as Mzab

Ahh Manipur my old friend. That achievement eluded me after several attempts!!

I actually find Mzab quite easy and fun, all you have to do is conquer your eastern neighbor using the claims from the government ability which gives you claims on all neighboring heretic or heathen lands. Then wait until Tlemcen gets jumped on by either Tunis or Morocco, (or both) and join in and take some land with basically no losses. Past then it is basically just waiting for Tunis or Morocco to be at war and play very opportunistically. Very fun playthrough and I would certainly recommend it!

you mean ten most fun nations amirite?

There is a reason to stay animist as Ryukyu, after conquering Europe You can create The Roman Empire, cause Your pagan :D At least that's how I got the Roman achievements.

Perm has the best flag though. That bear is always so optimistic.

Yas... YAAAAAASSSSS

wat. East Siberian tribes are a honourable mention? I played as Chavchuveny once and it was the most fun I've had in EU4. North Korea couldn't defend against me :p But I guess that's because it was before Mandate of Heaven or Third Rome

YoU MiSpRoNoUnCeD AlL ThE ThInGs wRoNg

man i wish there were achievements for siberian tribes

One time while playing someone else unrelated yas had formed an alliance with a big regional power and stayed as it was the whole game, and legit the province has 8 tax development from just events alone

You called this top 10 most difficult nations when i think you meant top 10 most unplayable nation.

Excuse me AlzaboHD, do you have any tips on how to win the independence war as Jaffna, I’ve been trying really hard but nothing’s working. Could you perhaps elaborate on what to do?

Me, a simpleton: Lilac Purple AlzaboHD, and intellectual: "One of the coolest shades of Light-Bluish Purple"

I'm actually running a succesful Perm game atm without doing any restarts. My strategy was to continuously develop my land and colonize to increase my development. This kept pushing the cost for Muscovy annexing me up, allowing me to stay alive and eventually my development was so high that my LD went over 50% so Muscovy could not continue the annexation. After this, I looked for nations to support my independence and won it.

Corfu and Naxos are pretty tough too, aren't they? Not only are you a vassal to a fairly strong overlord, but even if you break free, you then have to deal with Ottomans.

Perm isnt that bad id say. You just need patience at the start, then colonize Siberia and hope for PLC be stronk enough to beat Muscovy. With both great Leader and Heir you can develope your land quite much, for getting the Renaissance fast and becoming stronger. Moving the capital to one of the non arctic provinces might be worth it.

Manipur is actually a very fun nation to play, I somehow first try did an Animal Kingdom run, and would massively recommend them

Love the video, hate the pronunciations of most of the nations names. Keep up the good work?

Hey, I played Mzab before, reformed Tunis and did a rereconcista.

Pretty good list. For more hard nations, I'd Pick the Beylik Minors, Candar, Nevers, Mazovia/Moldavia, Wallachia... Basically anyone who's next to the Ottomans.

Now do one for every single start, day by day

I am surprised you didn't mention naxos!

Ülm

I've found The Isles just off the coast of Scotland to be particularly challenging as well

Had a game where I had a 5 province Odoyev as a vassal for like half the game. Real troopers.

And I can't even win as Granada

This video made me laugh so hard. What map mod is this? Looks awesome.

Oh no kharabah... Tried to play him 5 Times. Qq just anex me and mameluks be line: *yur mum gay*

Mzab is actually quite easy. All you have to do is vassalize Fezzan at the start of the game, they will be guaranteed by Tunis, but they almost always ally another Maghrebian minor (most likely Djerid), so you declare war on their ally, win the war and vassalize Fezzan. Then you wait 10 years and integrate them, which gives you access to a corridor through the Sahara. Pick up exploration, colonize the two provinces in that corridor, and voila! You can now expand into Africa, and you should be ahead of them technologically, making your expansion easy.

can we also get the just strongest nations overall (formable or start) ? or did I just miss that video? :P

what a diplomatic menu? I didn't seen it before your video

"Do you like difficult starts?" "Yas"

No Byzantium honorable mention? :(

I tried to play Yas, mostly for the name, when it was first released. It was a *terrible* decision. Playing Yas after an Austria -> HRE campaign changes a man

Number Fifteen, Hamburger Fox Leinster,

I find Ainu frustratingly difficult, but that's cause I am terrible at the game. Also it's a hard and slow start, only way to expand is to hope other countries weaken Yeren so you can take Sakhalin :D

Queen: Which one was #8? Subject: Yas Queen: No, I asked what was #8. Subject: YAS Queen: Are you mocking me? What's #8?!? Subject: YAS, QUEEN! YAAAASSS!

To be fair though Ryukyu can fabricate on Satsuma in Japan, given you can fight off Ashikaga and its Daimyos. Doesn't make it any easier, should be said though. Also becoming a tributary to Ming is a no brainer if you're in the vicinity. Meaning Manipur shouldn't have Ming as a hassle if one immediately becomes their tributary. Vijyanigar usually gets flattened by Bahmanis, making Jaffna a way easier nation than it looks. Odoyev has the expansion option in Ryazan, making it also easier. Sukhothai is truly difficult, so is Perm. Rightfully no. 1 and 3. I would've mentioned Granada and Byzantium though in the honorable mentions at least (with super nations breathing down their neck and almost no other expansion opportunity), since you've mentioned easier options like Novgorod (the Muscovite war should be manageable, and with expansion options into Livonia) and Theodoro (a few but sufficient alliances available with Trebizond and Circassia, Muscovy can also work sometimes, Crimea is also manageable and could get flattened by PLC compared to a far stronger Spain and Ottomans).

Im currently playing Malaya and Sukhothai are having a game of lifetime as they control half of southeast asia.

It took me about 5 restarts to get Sukhothai independent and dominating. I'm surprised you didn't mention Karaman or the other guy East of him I'm not remembering (Ramazan ?). I restarted 10 times with Mamluk as an ally to try to defeat the Ottomans and failed everytime. Even after restarting without the Ottomans allying Tunis, the Mamluks still send their divided troops up towards Crimea and get destroyed by Otto death stacks. Unlike Byzantium you can't just block the strait with ships. I almost quit the game entirely from frustration.

I dont know if Mzab fits this list tbh. I only did one restart as them and managed to take all of Northern Africa, Granada and Rome in about 100 years. Granted some of the wars required more than one save scum I still think playing as Athens or even one of the other minors south of Tunis is a worse start. Mzab starts with feudalism and a powerful gov type so thats pretty neat even tho you wont have any allies until you get big.

5:41 The Relentless Push East as Odoyev? * shudders *

I've seen yas explode and conquer all of Hormuz before, but I never can figure out how they do it.

if you are able to do the "relentless push east" as Odeyev, you have to be the best player alive, you pretty much HAVE to be able to form Russia when it becomes available to do it within the time-frame, or waste an entire idea group on colonial

Sukhothai as I expect, I try this nation first when I got the game and then. Integrated all the way, I give up and play Lan na, Ayuthaya instead.

Its pronounced YASSSSSS GURRRRL SLAY

Mzab in my campaing (i am playing with ottomans) conquer 13 provinces! I really dont know how, but they did until i took everything

I haven't played Albania in awhile but I am surprised they didn't even make the honorable mentions. What has changed with them?

Tlemcen is pronounced as "Tlemsen" the C is not a K sound

2:07 *Drew Flashbacks*

"If you awnsered yas to any of these questions"

I've played as Vijayanagar, and the vassal Jaffna always sieges better than me.

Perm was literally the First Nation I played no wonder it was so hard

somehow everytime I play outside of Perm (so everytime I play) they manage to play incredibly tall, get a buttload of tech and declare indipendence with a very long indipendence war (that most of the time they win)

INB4 "what about Byzantium"

In most of my games the Odoyev don't past the 1450, since it always get eaten by Muscovy

I dont play this game but ya know still watched it all

Surprised trebizond didn't make the list

do a full list of religions ranking in the game

Who else searched for Sukhothai world conquest after watching this? And yes, someone did it, or at least claimed he did. Idk how legitimate it was but he detailed it pretty believably

Why are were the Mandschu hordes considered so hard at that time. If you are used to playing hordes they are quite good with banner troops and all now.

Animist is not that bad, you only need one province of another(better) faith to leave it for 4 stab

I once Conquered the World as Jaffna...

In my play through as Japan, Yas became the great power in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East 😂

YAS QUEEN SLAY

The Maldives, Corfu, The Isles, Naxos, and Wallacia should be in your HMs tbh

The way you pronounce Ryazan is wrong. It's not "Ríazan", the "Ry" is pronounced the same way as in "Ryukyu" And the accent Ryazán (Рязань)

This must have been before the Ryukyu strategy

A bit weird to put all country difficulty under a metric for early stabilisation, but then put Ryukyu on the list for WC difficulty. And in neither metric if applied to every country, Ryukyu should be even close to a top 10 list.

what about Livonian order they're surrounded by people who hate them and whilst yeah its not that hard to swing muscovy or Poland to your side where would you expand?

I would give Odoyev a lot more slack, they can easily take on Kazan and take advantage of a failing Muscovy

The AI didn't have any issues with Yas in my one game. They conquered Oman.

8:05 +25% looting speed hell yeah these are some broken traditions.

I feel this list changed each new version released

I would add the Venetian Vassal of Naxos at least in honorable mentions, and take off Athens and Novgorod from honorable mentions.

Rostov is much harder than Perm Manipuri ideas make up for their poor starting position, and they can become a ming trib which helps against many foreign threats Sarig Yogir isnt that bad because you can expand into Kham by becoming a ming trib Ligor is slightly harder than Sukhothai because of their religion, despite their easier to defend starting location