This guide aims to assist players in obtaining the “From Frankfurt to the Andes” achievement in Europa Universalis IV.
Introduction
In this guide, I will walk you through the early game to help you get the “From Frankfurt to the Andes” Achievement relatively fast. The achievement requires the following:
- Start as Frankfurt
- Form Jerusalem
- Form The Incan Empire after forming Jerusalem
- Own core province Mallorca (ID 333, located in the Baleares Islands off the Iberian Coast)
Things to note about this run: The sooner you get colonizing and take the Holy Land to form Jerusalem, the easier it will be. The longer you wait, the harder it will be. As such, I am going to be taking a far more aggressive approach to this walkthrough.
The first and most important thing to note is that you cannot form Jerusalem as a republic. You need to re-elect your ruler as often as possible to tank Republican Tradition until you become a Monarchy. If an event gives you a choice for loss of Republican Tradition, always take it.
The second thing to note: you are going to be relying heavily on loans and mercenaries. Don’t be afraid to have loans or mercs. Though you should make enough from taxes early on that you should really only be losing about 1 ducat/month, and later on, we’ll get a substantial war chest.
This guide will be broken into multiple sections. Section I will be the early game, about 20-30 years. It ends when you form Jerusalem. Section II is the mid game, where you form the Inca Empire, and take Mallorca. Section II is far easier than section I, so my main focus of this guide will be on Section I.
Extra notes: In brief times your at peace, trade your allies up. ideally you want to be allied to Castile for sure by the time you’re colonizing. Yes, rushing colonization is necessary. you don’t want to reach a situation where you’ve formed Jerusalem, but can’t move your capital to the new world without fighting a major. You can’t form Jerusalem as a republic, always reelect, and take whatever events reduce Republican tradition as much as possible. even with 2 no CB wars, and pumping back to 0 stability each time, I was still first nation to reach admin tech 5, and exploration ideas. Once your capital is in the new world though, being force converted to Inti by zealots, Culture converting to the local culture, and conquering the Andes before they’re colonized is a lot easier than having to fight colonial nations for it.
Phase I – Forming Jerusalem
In this section, I will walk through how you should start the game and ultimately be able to form Jerusalem. However, I will also go over some steps that are critical to Phase II, namely when and how fast you should be getting your capital in the New World.
To form Jerusalem, you need to have your capital in one of the Arabia, Mashriq, or Egypt regions, own Jaffa, Gaza, and Jerusalem as Full Cores, be Catholic, and NOT be a Republic.
Step 1) Set National Focus to Admin. You will need the Admin Points, as you’re going to be declaring at least 2 No CB wars and rushing Admin Tech 5 to take Exploration ideas ASAP.
Step 2) Give the Burghers Land of Commerce and Patronage of the Arts. These will give extra diplo points and prestige. Don’t Give any other privileges to the Burghers at this time.
Step 3) Give the Clergy Religious State, for the Admin Power, and give them Religious Diplomats to help with getting allies. Don’t give the Clergy any other Privileges at this time.
Step 4) Give the Nobility Primacy of the Nobility for the Mil Points. Don’t give the Nobility any other privileges at this time.
Step 5) Hire a level 1 admin advisor, ideally one who reduces stability cost but any will do, and a level 1 diplo advisor, ideally one who increases diplo reputation, but any will do. You need the points. Delete your fort in Frankfurt, it’s not needed.
Step 6) Look at mercenary companies. Find the 1-2 with the best combat general (ideally at least 4 shock or above) and best siege general (Ideally at least 2 siege or above). In my game, I got lucky with the Free Swiss Guard having a 5 shock and 3 siege general.
Step 7) get Allies up to relation limit within a couple days, whoever you can with preference to larger nations. Also start asking Ottomans, Hungary, Bohemia, and your neighbors that you can for military access, such that you have continuous access through the ottomans. Long term however, you will want to get alliances with Austria, Aragon, and later Castile.
Step 8) On December 11, make sure you have a diplomat available. Also make sure Eprius has no allies, and is not the Ottomans first target. If Eprius either has allies or is being invaded by Ottomans, reset your run. No CB Eprius, and send your whole army down through all the access you’ve gotten. Revoke your access with everyone you’re not allied with EXCEPT the Ottomans (This is important) once your army has passed through both to save diplo points and protect your capital later. DON’T increase stability at this time. During your war with Eprius they should get a claim on the Byzantines. If they don’t by the time you vassalize them, reset your run.
Step 9) As soon as you vassalize Eprius, Ally any larger nation you can, and then immediately invade Byzantines. You have to take at least 1 province from Byzantines for coring, and if you wait too long, they will be annexed by the Ottomans. You can choose to vassalize the Byzantines if you want, as long as you take at least 1 province for yourself, but make sure they are not at war with the Ottomans or Venice when you do so, you can’t afford a war with either of those nations, and you can’t call the Emperor of the HRE into a defesive war you assumed leadership of by vassalizing a nation. If you do vassalize the Byzantines, give your nobility estate Strong Duchies. Make sure you improve relations some with the Ottomans for now, you don’t want them to revoke the military access you get from them until you’re ready. Remember, don’t increase Stability yet, unless you get a random event that drops it to -3, then only increase it by 1.
Step 10) Once you’ve beaten the Byzantines, ally any larger nation you can, but you’re going to go straight into another No CB war. Look to the east with Dukaldir and Ramazan. If Ramazan has no allies, or only has minor landlocked allies, no CB them, they’re you’re ultimate target of this. If Ramazan has any allies who also have a navy, you can’t invade them, as they will beat your vassals navy(s), and blockade the Bosporus Straights. So Dukaldir is a secondary target, but make sure they only have minor or no allies, and certainly no naval allies. If they both have larger allies or strong enough naval allies to beat your vassal’s navies, you need to reset the run. This is why you had to keep military access through the Ottomans. You’re going to send all your armies across the Bosporus into Anatolia for this invasion. The ultimate goal of this is to get a border with the Mamluks, so that you can fabricate a claim on them. If you had to invade Dukaldir, you will then either need to invade Ramazan or Aq Qoyunlu with Dukaldir’s claims, or seize a province in Europe from them to core yourself. Dukaldir’s southeastern most province is considered to be part of Asia, not Europe, so make sure you don’t seize that one.
Notes: If you invade Ramazan, just take the province directly. If you invade Dukaldir, you will have to vassalize them. If you do so, give your nobility estate Strong Duchies.
Once you declare this No CB war, you can finally Boost your stability back up to 0. After you have gone back to 0 stability, give your clergy Clerical Advisory Council and your Burghers Commercial Advisory Board.
IMPORTANT NOTE!!!! This is your final chance to higher any mercenaries you want from Europe and be able to easily get them into Anatolia without having to send them all the way around the Black Sea (and have to secure military access around the Black Sea). You will be going to war with the Mamluks relatively soon, and you are to treat that war as a Death War. Bear In mind though, while you will get a large chunk of money after the Mamluk war, you have to make sure you don’t go bankrupt before then. Also, start taking loans to fire Military Advisors until you find either a Discipline or Morale Advisor. Once you have one of those advisors, hire it, and give your nobility Aristocratic Counselors.
Step 11) Fabricate a claim on the Mamluks, and wait for them to get into a larger war. Take this time to improve relations with larger nations that rival the Ottomans, and set your status towards the Ottomans as threatened. If you can ally any of them, do so, and dismiss your smaller allies. In my game, I actually didn’t get a time of peace here because the Mamluks tried to invade Qara Qoyunlu and Ajam, so I went in immediately.
Step 12) Invade the Mamluks. As mentioned above, this is to be treated as a Death War. You have to win this war or your run is dead. What you need to take from the Mamluks is Jerusalem, Gaza, Jaffa, and Benghazi, max amount of money, war Reparations, and have them annul alliances with their biggest ally to make the truce time as long as possible. While at war with the Mamluks, begin building a spy network in Tunis. Before you make peace, once you’ve won the war, move your army into Mamluk territory so that they get exiled from peace deal. March the army over to Benghazi after making peace. By the end of the Mamluk war, I was 600 ducats in debt, but had gotten 1100 Ducats from them straight up. Pay off your loans.
Step 13) If Tunis is not allied to the Ottomans, invade Tunis, and conquer their westernmost province that you can core, as well as take money. If they are allied with the Ottomans, No CB Tlemcen (if they’re still alive and have a coastal province) or Morocco instead, and take the furthest west coastal province you can core. Only take the one province. Make sure no provinces you take are in the same state as another province.
Step 13.5) If you did invade Tunis, fabricate a claim on Tlemcen (if still alive and have a coastal province) and then do the same for Morocco. The ultimate goal of this is to get a port as far west as possible for colonial exploration.
Step 14 Now that you have a coastal core on Northwest Africa, make sure you get some big allies. Castile and Austria are must haves for this point, especially if they got the Iberian Wedding and Hungary respectively. Also, make sure you have max improved relations with Austria, you don’t want them to hate you when you leave the HRE (Which you will be doing). And since you will be leaving the HRE, the Ottomans may suddenly be very interested in trying to take your territory.
Step 14.5) Once you have a core in Northwest Africa, and have colonial range to colonize either provinces off west African coast, or in South America, Leave the HRE and move your capital to Jerusalem, regardless of if you can actually form it yet. You have to have your capital in the Palestine Area to be able to reform Jerusalem, and you can’t colonize if your capital is landlocked despite having coastal cores. Begin colonizing, but don’t colonize enough to accidentally form a colonial nation.
Step 15) Form Jerusalem. As soon as you do, if you have a full core in the New World, return all provinces in Asia to owners, which should only be Gaza and Jaffa, and move your capital to the New World. If you don’t yet have a full core in the New World, wait until you do before returning the provinces. This is the end of Section I.
Phase II – Forming the Inca and taking Mallorca
As stated previously this part is significantly easier than Section I, so this won’t be in as much detail.
To form the Incan Empire, you need the following:
A) Have your primary Culture be from the Andean Culture Group or be either Caran or Chachapoyan
B) Be of a Pagan religion
C) Own the following provinces: Cuzco, Cajamarca, Huancavelica, Huanuco, either Puno or Tiahuanaco, and either Chanchan or Quito.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If at any point Castile gets the Iberian Wedding and forms Spain, make sure you complete the Crusader mission that gives you control of Malta, and then you can release Sicily as a Vassal and use favors to return cores. If no Iberian Wedding happens, and you ally Aragon, do the same with them.
Step 1) With your capital now in the New World, expand your colonization over to the Andes, colonizing as few provinces as possible, until you border the Andean nations. This is so that you are able to both culture convert more easily, as well as have Inti Zealots be able to convert you more easily.
Step 2) Once you border them, Hire a couple Conquistadors and fully map out the Andes before invading. Begin building spy networks and getting claims as well.
Step 3) Invade the Andes, feel free to use as many mercenaries and take as many loans as you need. The gold mines you will conquer here will eventually be able to pay off your loans.
Step 4) State up whatever culture you want to form the Inca as, and Culture Convert. Also, once you have more development in Inti provinces than Catholic provinces, turn missionary strength off, send a missionary to begin converting an Inti province, and once the Inti Zealots appear as a rebel faction, accept their demands.
Step 5) Now that you are of the correct religion and culture to form the Inca begin aggressively colonizing South America
NOTE: The following steps are for if the Iberian Wedding did NOT happen in your game. If the Iberian Wedding did happen, skip to step 6b.
Step 6a) If you are allied with Aragon, complete the Crusader mission that gives you control of Malta, then release Sicily as a vassal, and ask them to return as many cores as you have favors to get back.
Step 7a) Break your alliance with Aragon, fabricate a claim on them, and continue expanding in the new world. If you get enough territory go ahead and form Inca.
Step 8a) Invade Aragon and take Mallorca.
Step 9a) Form Inca whenever you can.
NOTE: The following steps are for if the Iberian Wedding DID happen in your game.
Step 6b) Continue aggressively expanding your colonies, and conquer the required territory to form the Inca. Form the Inca.
Step 7b) If Castile/Spain stays allied with you, continue aggressively expanding in the New World, and save up a massive amount of money in order to be able to eventually offer to buy Mallorca as a trade company. If they break the alliance, or did not ally with you, conquer the New World, and use the wealth of the New World to eventually conquer the province from Spain outright.
