Jargon

EU4, and communities surrounding it, has its own jargon, including slang terms and acronyms.

Acronyms

Here are some of the common acronyms in the game and in discussions surrounding it:

AAR

After action report - a player's recounting of their EU4 game. For more detail, see the AAR section

AE

Aggressive Expansion, the current amount of hatred towards your nation for expanding, this number varies per nation

AI

Artificial intelligence - What controls all nations that are not being played by humans

BBB

Big blue blob - France due to its tendency to grow to immense size in EU4

BROT

Better relations over time (obsolete since Patch 1.19)

BT

Base tax - one of the three components of development; before Patch 1.12 introduced the development system, it was the primary measure of a province's value

BWB

Big white blob - Austria due to its tendency to grow to immense size in EU4

BZE

Byzantine Empire - also referred to as the ERE (Eastern Roman Empire). Played mainly for a challenge.

CB

Casus belli - Latin for "case for war", these justify war demands, reducing the cost or consequences of declaring war and making demands in a peace treaty.

CCR

Core Cost Reduction - Adjustment to the cost of creating a core. Affected by a range of modifiers.

CoT

Center of Trade - Province with important center of trade modifier. Rarely CCoT and ICoT for coastal and inland respectively

CTD

Crash To Desktop - Frequently used in patch notes

DHE

Dynamic Historical Events (the events tied to specific tags).

DLC

Downloadable content - A package made available by Paradox that adds more game mechanics, music, and other features to the game. Compare with mod.

DOTF

Defender of the Faith - a nation that is the defender of other countries sharing its national religion

DOW

Declaration of war; can be used as a verb ("I'm going to DOW you, Otto!")

EoC

Emperor of China

EU4

Europa Universalis 4 - The game this wiki is about

FOW

Fog of War - Prevents nations from seeing parts of the map they do not either border, or have an army or navy adjacent to

GB

Great Britain - A formable nation in the British Isles

GH

Golden Horde or Great Horde - A steppe horde

GM

Game-master - A leader or organizer of a multiplayer game.

HRE

Holy Roman Empire - A heavily decentralized state in Central Europe

IA

Imperial Authority - The power the Holy Roman Emperor has to make reforms and perform various emperor actions

MP

Monarch points, military power, manpower, or multiplayer

MTTH

Mean time to happen, the metric used to measure how long, on average, it takes for an event to trigger.

NI

National ideas - Sets of ideas that is unlocked as a nation starts filling out idea groups

OE

Overextension or (less commonly) the Ottoman Empire

OOS

Out of Sync - A notorious desynchronisation error that occurs in multiplayer, requires the game to be loaded again. Occurs frequently in patch notes

OP

Overpowered or, on the forums, the original poster of a thread

OPM

One province minor - The smallest countries in the game, consisting of only a single province

PC

Personal computer, or, more specific to EU4, papal controller

PLC

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

PP

Power projection - A reward for being aggressive towards rivals.

PTI

Permanent terra incognita; also called Wasteland; areas that cannot be explored or colonized. e.g., deserts, dense jungles, tundra, mountains and glacial expanses

PU

Personal union - A union between two nations due to having the same monarch on both thrones; can be used as a verb ("Don't know how I did it, but I PU'd Ming!")

QFTNW

Quest for the New World - A national idea that unlocks explorers and conquistadors

RM

Royal marriage

RNG

Random number generator - a mathematical subsystem that generates a random number. Used to determine chances for events, battle results, and other game features that use randomization of results to any degree.

RNW

Random New World - With Conquest of Paradise DLC it is possible to replace the Americas with a random landmass created by a map generator.

ROTW

Rest of the world. Generally refers to all areas outside Europe

S-P

Sardinia-Piedmont - a formable nation in Italy

SW

Succession War

TI

Terra incognita - Parts of the world that a nation has no knowledge of. An example would be the New World prior to Western exploration

TO

Teutonic Order

TPM

Two/three province minor - Small countries in the game, consisting of only two or three provinces

WAD

Works/working as designed; this acronym means that the thing in question is wrongly considered a bug and is actually intentional

WC

World conquest - Taking over every inhabitable province on the map; often a goal for players; for others, an ahistorical outcome

WE

War exhaustion - How tired your nation is of its recent conflicts

WETN

Western Europe Trade Node. (No longer exists)

Slang

Here are some of the common slang terms in the game and in discussions surrounding it:

ADM

Administrative points, power or skill

Arty

Artillery

Badboy

The accumulation of aggressive expansion. In EU3 it referred to infamy, a concept that has been replaced entirely with aggressive expansion in EU4

Bird

Force-closing the game. If done in Ironman mode this closes the game without saving it, allowing the player to savescum anything since the last auto save. From jokingly pretending to distract the game into not noticing that you're cheating ("Look, a bird!").

Blob

A large nation that tends to get larger over time unless checked. Named after how such large nations' expansions can leave them with irregular borders, resembling blobs of paint.

Carpet siege

Detaching small armies from the main army to occupy a huge number of enemy provinces and end wars faster.

Cav

Cavalry

Core

Used as a verb, to make a province a core province. ("How did France core Venice?")

(Country) Can Into Space

to make a country succeed far beyond expectations. Applied to the AI when it turns OPM countries into blobs. One of the achievements, "Poland Can Into Space", is earned by completing all the tech levels as Poland. (A takeoff on the Polandball meme.)

Clay

One's rightful land. Also a takeoff from Polandball.

DIP

Diplomatic points, power or skill

Dip Rep

Diplomatic reputation

Diplo-banking

The technique of starting a culture conversion, cancelling it before progress reaches 10%, then restarting. Effectively 'banks' diplomatic monarch points in excess of the cap.

Daycare

Refers to the Holy Roman Empire before the reform "Ewiger Landfriede" has been enacted. Usually from the emperor's perspective, it refers to constantly having to look after the small Germanic states in the empire and trying to keep them in order.

Diplo-annex

Diplomatic annexation – A way to peacefully incorporate a vassal state

Doomstack/Deathstack

An extremely large enemy force; EU4's AI has been improved compared to EU3's by adding "Hunter-Killer" behavior, reserving large mobile stacks to seek out and engage enemy forces.

Feeding

Short for vassal feeding.

God King/Sultan/Emperor etc.

A monarch with very good stats. (6/6/5 for example) This is considering that people do not get such high numbers too often.

Greyskin/grayskin

The Holy Roman Empire. Comes from its gray color. Occasionally used in the context 'remove greyskin' (by dismantling the HRE)

Hugbox

Large or unbreaking multiplayer alliances that tend to stagnate games.

Inf

Infantry

Mana

Slang for monarch power and other points.

Paper mana

Administrative power, named after the paper icon.

Bird mana

Diplomatic power, named after the bird icon.

Sword mana

Military Power, named after the sword icon.

Pope mana

Papal influence, also called Key Mana for the double-key papal regalia.

Crown/Hat mana

Legitimacy/Republican Tradition, depending on the government form, named after the crown and hat icons.

Eagle mana

Imperial authority, named after the eagle icon for the Holy Roman Empire interface.

MIL

Military points, power or skill

Mingsplosion

Ming releasing a lot of countries through rebels, more common without the Mandate of Heaven DLC

Mod

A software package that modifies the game, written by the player community. Compare with DLC.

Nuke

The use of an exploit. ("My nuke for this playthrough is the mission exploit.")

Otto

The Ottoman Empire

Pip

Counters that describe the properties of units in warfare, and military leaders' skills. See also: Land warfare#Pips

Savescumming

Reloading earlier saves when something goes wrong in order to set things right. Often considered a negative trait; impossible to do if Ironman is activated (except by birding, q.v.).

Shell

Short for vassal shelling, which involves surrounding a nation with an outer shell of vassals.

Snake

An elongated and sinuously shaped nation, usually only one province wide

Stab

Short for stability

Stab hit

A drop in stability.

Stack

An army, a group of regiments

Timmy

The Timurids

Ulm gone wild

Refers to the event of Ulm being way bigger than one would expect.

Vassal swarm

A large number of subjects of one country that must be fought through in addition to their overlord. Often refers to the massive amount of troops produced by the members of the HRE after the imperial reform "Revoke The Privilegia" has been passed

Vulture

Another word for scavenging

Wardec

The act of declaring war / being declared war upon.

Warmonger

Describes players (rarely AI-controlled countries) that constantly declare wars, sometimes even several at once, for the sole purpose of conquering even more land. These countries are rarely at peace.

Whack-a-mole

Dealing with constant rebellions.

AAR

Example of an AAR illustration, created by Shiranui using Svip's Flagland characters

After Action Reports (AARs) are threads posted to the EU4 forums or a personal web site or blog written by players about their ongoing games. They can be written from the game player's personal point of view, or can be written from a fictitious narrative perspective, like a serialized novel. Some writers also blend the two elements, going from a metagame discussion to a fictitious narrative set in their game's alternate history world.

• Player Point of View: "I had a rough time as Austria this last session. It started when Ulm, that darned OPM, suddenly brought in half the HRE against me when I declared war on it. In all my playthroughs, this was the first time I ever was faced with such a nasty coalition. Before I knew it, not only was I facing the coalition, but the Ottoman Empire decided to make a DOW on me while I was in the thick of it!"

• Fictitious Narrative: "The Emperor sniffed offendedly at the ambassador of Ulm, who stood resolutely defiant regardless of the withering glance directed at him, 'What do you mean that the Archbishop refuses to accede to my demands? You realize that I shall have to invoke my powers to have him removed as an Elector!' Yet the ambassador shocked the court with his retort, 'If that is the sort of tyranny Your Imperial Majesty wishes to promulgate upon his vassals, then perhaps it is time for another Prince to rule in his stead!' He further shocked the court with this revelation, 'Know this: that Bohemia stands with us. As does Saxony, and Bavaria, and Brandenburg and more! If you dare so much as move against our borders, the entire continent shall rise against you!' And yet, it was too late. For the regiments had already crossed the Ulm frontier. War, a great war indeed, was now inevitable."

Players can include screen shots from their games, maps, period art, and other elements to add depth to their reports.