Europa Universalis IV is a grand strategy game that features historical events and people. Its developer, Paradox Interactive, is doing their best to simulate global history from 1444 to 1821. Within these 377 years, there were many great rulers and generals from different parts of the world who rose to power. In game, Paradox gave historical rulers stats with 0 being the lowest to 6 being the highest based on their administrative, diplomatic and military performance. If a ruler has 6 monarch points in all three skills, it means the ruler is perfect in all perspectives. Technology research will be faster if rulers have higher monarch points.
People just love to discuss EU4 idea groups, and to be honest almost everything they say is completely wrong.
I have no intention of joining this making stuff up contest, so instead here's a ranking that's as close to correct as it's possible to get. The algorithm not only gives meaningful relative rankings, it gives meaningful absolute values - expressed in monarch points. I've written it a while ago, but I'm posting it now, as next patch will mess with the values. The Algorithm and its limitationsValue of +1 monarch point per month is 1, and that's the unit everything is expressed in. As dip/adm are far more valuable than mil, they're both worth 1.1 and mil is just 0.8, so they average to correct value.The game has huge number of bonuses, and they're reduced to other bonuses based on some sensible assumptions. Algorithm has simple models of income, spending, military power, envoy use, monarch point budget and so on, and given such assumptions vast number of bonuses can be reduced to just a few. The ranking has serious limitations, which are completely unavoidable:
There are also limitations which could be improved upon:
Fortunately it turns out that numbers algorithm returns are not even close - some ideas are drastically better than some others, which makes worries about precision less important.
The whole algorithm is on github. Here I'll just present some examples of the kind of reasoning it uses.
Algorithm estimates that typical country spends 40% of its budget on land forces, and 50% of its army budget on infantry, so -10% infantry cost is equal to -4% army cost, or +2% extra money.
Algorithm estimates that you'll be hitting +1 stability button once every 15 years, and its base cost is 100 (actual cost is irrelevant due to how bonuses stack). So -X% stability cost bonus is worth +X adm points every 180 months. In other words -10% stability cost is estimated as +0.055 monthly admin or +0.061 average monarch point (as adm mp is worth 1.1 mp).
Algorithm calculates that throughout the game you'll spend 4 points a month for base cost of techs - this is surprisingly robust, as we know how many years there are in game, how many techs start to end, and what it's base cost (600/tech). It doesn't need to know how much you're paying for actual techs, bonuses are applied to base cost. So -10% tech cost is worth as much as +0.4 bonus to each monarch point, or +1.2 points/month total.
Algorithm estimates that diplomats spend 25% of their time travelling, colonist 10%, and merchants 1% (missionaries just teleport), and average country has 2 diplomats, 2 merchants, and 1 colonist, so -X% envoy travel time is comparable to +2 * 25% * X% diplomat, +2 * 1% * X% merchant, and +1 * 10% * X% colonists.
Algorithm estimates that usually stability is what you'll be using papal points for, so 100 papal points is about as good as 100 adm. Then it converts +1 yearly papal points to +1/12 montly adm points, and takes 50% as good guestimates how likely you are to be able to take advantage of that. That 50% is somewhat dubious, as much fewer than 50% of countries are Catholic, but typically European countries get this kind of bonuses.
Algorithm estimates that for a typical country, 25% of infidel provinces are heretics, and 75% are heathens, so +1% missionary strength against heretics is worth as much as +0.25% against everyone.
Algorithm estimates that extra siege pip speeds up sieges by 17% (that's based on some spreadsheet simulations), and 30% of sieges have leaders (that's just a guess), so +1 leader siege is worth 5.1% siege ability.
If you're interested in such calculations, script explains its choices in comments pretty well.
The last step is most arbitrary, covering all things that have no good conversions:
Eu4 Ottomans World Conquest
A lot of bonuses like prestige, IA, fervor, heir chance, trade range, interest, ship recruitment speed, enemy core creation, spy offence etc. are ignored completely as either far too situational to be of use to a typical country, or basically pointless.
To help with those numbers I took decisions and policies like '+1 missionary strength +1 unrest' (maybe yes, maybe no - so these bonuses are worth about the same), '+1 colonist for -1 dip' (so ridiculously good so they removed it in patch), which is not terribly scientific, but it's a good starting point.
And here's the ranking of idea groups:
As you can see every single military idea is total crap, and naval/maritime are just ridiculously bad. I don't expect anybody to possibly be surprised by top 5.
And here's the ranking. Personally I'd value Russian, Spanish and American ideas above Najdi - Najdi ideas are very good, but its +5% missionary strength is perhaps not worth 5x as much as +1% missionary strength bonus would be, so algorithm's linear character arguably overestimates it.
Only one country has ideas which algorithm estimates as (within margin of error) worse than default ideas, and I totally agree with this assessment.
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There are seven 'perfect rulers' throughout the whole game. As all of them are 'perfect rulers', I ranked them on their availability in game and their fixed military stat for firing, shocking, maneuver and siege, which are rated by their performance in historical battles. I will refer to them as the 'four military stats' in the list below.
7. Mori Takachika
Takachika is the Daimyo of the Mori Clan in1837. In that period, the Tokogawa Shogunate were facing imperialist threats from the Western world. At first, he was loyal to the emperor and tried to expel foreign imperialists and let Japan stay in isolation. However, it resulted in defeat at Shimonoseki. Afterward, he proposed to westernize and became a major player in the Meiji Restoration.
Takachika is only playable if players modified the timeline in game. Even though he is playable, it isn't until the very end of the game and he can hardly be used, hence the reason I put him in last place.
Mori Takachika statue in Yamaguchi, Japan
6. Noriaki Uesugi
Noriaki is the Daimyo of the Uesugi Clan. He is the shogunate who united Japan from the Nanboku-Cho, a period of time when there were two imperial courts rivaling each other and claimed to be emperor of Japan. They were the Northern Imperial Court of Ashikaga Takauji in Kyoto, and a Southern Imperial Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in Yoshino. In 1392, the southern court declined being united by Noriaki. Later, he started a centralization reform and eventually held more power than the Takauji.
Unlike Takachika, Noriaki's timeline is placed before the game starts. If players modified the timeline, they still can use Noriaki until his death. At the same time, neither of them are playable without modification.
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Statue of Nariaki Uesugi in the Golden Pavilion at Kyoto, Japan
5. Pyotr I Veliky
Known as Peter the Great, Peter is the Russian Tsar who studied shipbuilding in the Netherlands at a young age and initiated a revolution against the traditionalist and westernization of Russia. Also, he won the Great Northern War, which resulted in the rise of the Russian Empire and the decline of Sweden and Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth after claiming Baltic ports from Sweden.
Peter is actually a playable 'perfect ruler' in 1682. Because he lacks a fixed military stat, he is ranked after the following Top 4.
Portrait of Peter the Great
4. Henry VI
Known as 'Henry the Great' and 'Good King Henry', Henry VI rebuilt France after destruction from the French War of Religion. In the administration, he promoted education, agriculture, and expeditions to Canada. Nevertheless, he is known for his benevolence and love for his subjects. He is one of the few kings loved by the people during the French Revolution.
Henry VI is a playable French king in 1589 and has a 4,4,2,0 in the four military stats. With such stats, he definitely is able to 'make France great again' after the French War of Religion.
Portrait of Henry IV
3. Akbar I
Similar to Good King Henry, Akbar the Great is Known for his expansion of the Mughal Empire, religious tolerance and a centralized taxing system on military and subjects. Akbar also rewarded his officials based on merit instead of ethnic and religion background. He conquered most of neighboring powers during his military campaigns.
Akbar has a military stat of 4,4,2,2. He is evenly matched as Henry IV, but as he conquered other neighboring factions, a 2 in siege is given by Paradox.
Drawing of Akbar the Great
2. Gustav II Adolf
Gustav is one of the best generals in the list as he innovated new formations and weapons for the Swedish army. In the Thirty Year War, the Protestant League usually referred to him as 'Lion of the North' since he defeated Catholic armies multiple times. One of the notable examples would be the Battle of Breitenfeld in which he defeated a much larger Catholic army. As a result of the battle, German Protestant states ensured their freedom of religion not being prosecuted by the Catholic Church. In the same time, Sweden became a strong and influential power in Europe.
Gustav's excellent performance in the the Thirty Year War led Paradox to give him a 6,5,6,1 in military stats.
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Gustav II Adolf being presented in EU4 loading screen 1. Frederick the Great
Frederick's reign is an example of Enlightened Absolutism. As a monarch, he modernized the Prussian bureaucracy, civil service and encouraged religious tolerance. Similar to Gustav, his achievements in the military are more famous than administration. Frederick led Prussia to win the Seven Year War, which historian argue is the first world war as European colonies and natives were fighting as well. In North America, it is known as the French-Indian War. Although he did not make Prussia as strong as great powers like Great Britain and France after the Seven Year War, Prussia was able to maintain their state of existence before entering the war.
Paradox rated Frederick 6,6,6,1. It means he is the most prominent general in the battlefield within this list.
Frederick the Great and his generals during the Seven Years War
Almost made it to the list
There are more great leaders in this period of time other than the seven I listed above. Perhaps they had some 'flaws' in their political life, so Paradox did not rate them with 6s across the board. However, they are indeed great leaders in history. Here is list of 'Almost Perfect Historical Leaders Based on EU4 Standard' and their major achievements:
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