Free to Play, No Grinding Path to Victory

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Comment by Nobunaga Oda.
This is a most daring and rewarding guide for playing EW4 if you do not prefer the "traditional" route of "endlessly" grinding medals to build your dream team.
Whichever means you prefer, remember to have fun!

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This guide is for people playing the free version of EW4 with only 4 general slots. There are many excellent guides that teach you how to grind for more medals, but they are in fact not needed. You're ultimate goal is to have the best 4 generals in the game with the best items.

Skill is needed but your most valuable asset is patience. By following this guide you will be able to beat the game without spending unnecessary time or money.

First, a brief overview.

You win the game by completing all campaign scenarios with 5 stars, perfect victories. Generals are the key to winning the game. There are 2 ways to get generals, either by buying them with medals or winning them in the conquest mode. Medals can also be used to buy items that give skills or otherwise improve generals.

Conquest generals are princesses. They do not begin as the strongest generals but with some work, they can become the best. There are 3 princesses that have the most potential:
Isabella (best artillery general)
Lan (best cavalry general)
Sophia ( best city/ fort destroyer, best cavalry/ artillery hybrid)

Your 4th slot can be filled by either Victoria ( best infantry/ naval hybrid) or Sakuroko ( best hybrid/ jack of all trades)

You make your princesses stronger by using training generals. Trainers can increase the stars of another general when they are regrouped. Since you will build a team of all princesses, the only generals you should ever buy are the cheapest trainers. Even the best tier 1 and tier 2 generals will eventually be a waste of your medals. By using those medals on items or cheap trainers, you would have had a better, stronger princess.

Princesses are acquired through a complex formula that depends on the round you finish your conquest, total resources, the rank and nobility of your generals, and campaign progress. The last 3 princesses can be difficult to unlock. For simplicity, I recommend waiting until the end of a particular campaign. You are encouraged to read the specific threads for more information.


Our Final Target is:
Lan 5 stars on cavalry and trading
Isabella 5 stars on artillery
Sophia 5 stars on artillery, 3 on both cavalry and navy

Now that you know where you want to end up, here's how to get there:

1. After you download the game you get 350 free medals. Your first mission should be 1798 conquest as France. France begins the game with many excellent generals but more importantly, the French path to victory runs through all of the taverns. Taverns are cities with a beer mug. For 6 or more medals you can hire a general for the rest of the conquest. Make sure to save the game after you purchase a general, as they only exist in that file. Take some time before you actually start to examine where and in which turn the tavern generals become available, then plan your strategy on taking those cities a round or two before the generals become available. If the city is occupied, at, least make sure that you have begun attacking. It seems like the AI only puts generals on max health units. Tavern generals help you in three ways. Firstly, they are stronger, second you can save resources by not having to build unnecessary units, and third if the AI uses them instead, it will cost you time and resources to destroy them.

The target is to win as France before round 45 with max money, food, and lots of iron. If you do, you can win the first 3 princesses, Sophia, Fatima, and Maria. Make sure you save right before you kill the last enemy unit as you can only win one princess each victory, even if you are just save and loading the same game.


If played correctly, you should spend about 60 medals on 10 or so tavern generals and win the first 3 princesses.

2. Sophia will be the only general you keep to the end, so don't fall in love with the other two.
* I ended up regrouping Sophia, as explained on page 4.
Princesses start extremely weak (5 hit points) so spend 40 or so medals on each to get them up to 40 hp or so.

You will need to train Sophia so check your academy to see if the cheapest cavalry or artillery trainers (Kutaisov/ Agha/ Quosdonvih) are available. If they are get them. You can begin the campaigns to get more medals. Do not buy any items or use campaign stars at this stage because you will be wasting medals. Campaign stars sell for 3 medals but with a 5 star trading general you can get 4. Since you will eventually win 420 stars, it makes a big difference.



There is one other princess available in the beginning, Kate. You can win her by playing USA in 1776 quite easily. Kate is the best naval general and also good on artillery. There are many naval scenarios in both the French and Coalition campaigns, so she is extremely useful. Once Kate is in the 4th slot, you will want to keep her until you win Isabella. Kate is better than the cheapest trainers. So basically as soon as there aren't cheap trainers available, you don't have enough medals, or you are stuck in a campaign scenario, you should go play USA 1776 and win Kate.


3. Now you have your first team of 4 generals. It is important to recognize the key special skills of Fatima and Maria. Fatima can be used to boost your economy but her most valuable skill is War Master, she gets much more experience from fighting than other generals so it's recommended that you put her on the best cavalry unit in the campaign scenarios and use her to finish off enemy units and especially generals. She has 2 stars in cavalry as opposed to one in every other area except forts. Forts are almost never in a position to kill enemies, so putting Fatima on cavalry is the way to go.

Likewise, Maria has the Nobility skill, meaning she gets an extra boost to her Nobility level by capturing enemy facilities and farms. As you complete campaign messages try to put her into spots where she can capture key cities once your other units have cleared them. Maria has 3 infantry stars and good movement so you can put her on either the strongest infantry unit or light infantry if you value speed.

Sophia also builds quickly as long as she concentrates on attacking cities and forts. It is recommended to put her on the strongest artillery unit.

If it's a naval scenario, put Kate on your best ship. If not, put her on artillery.

Coalition and French campaigns get progressively more difficult, so rather than trying to compete one, you should go back and forth between them. This allows you to gradually build up your princesses rank and Nobility. Since you have no slots available for trainers and will not be buying items yet, improving rank and Nobility by playing is the only way available to make your princesses stronger.

4. With your team of 4 Princess Generals you can start to win campaign scenarios. With a 5 star win, you get 50 bonus medals, plus 5 stars that can be traded for 15 medals or 20 with a 5 star trading general. You also will win between 10 and 20 stars awarded during the scenarios. So a 5 star victory will produce between 75 and 90 medals.

As your bank of medals build, you will be tempted to spend them. The question is, how many medals do you need to buy all the items and trainers you need to complete your team.

Let's first look at items.

Tier 1

General Items:
Snare drum 630
War Horse 815
Total: 1445

Cavalry Items:
Cavalry Pistol 670
Gilded Cuirass 465
Saddle 505
Total: 1640

Artillery Items:
Potent Gunpowder 695
Helmet 445
Horse Artillery 705
Total: 1845

Tier 1 Total: 4930

Tier 2:

General Items:
* Armored Carrier 305

Naval Items:
Bow Chaser 335
Propeller 250
Figurehead 220
Tier 2 Total: 1155


**Tier 3
Military Tent 625
Infantry Items:
Fergusson Rifle 565
Combat Uniform 400
Tall Boots 370
Tier 3 Total: 1960
Tier 1 and 2 Total: 6085 (4865 using a 5 star trading general)
Tier 1,2,3 Total 8045
With 5 star trading general(20% discount):

6400

* Armored Carrier is relatively cheap and adds a 100% bonus for fighting at sea. Since we only have 4 slots we cannot have a full naval general. The Carrier means that we won't need to train Isabella and Lan in Naval Stars

** Tier 3 Items depend on your style of play. Some players rarely put generals on infantry units. Instead of Military tent you can also get health packs. Health Packs are more effective but once used the medals are gone.


5. Next, let's look at how many medals you will need to spend on trainers to assemble your final team. Since you only have 4 spots, you can only train 3 princess generals. Isabella will specialize in Artillery, Lan in cavalry and trading, Sophia in Cavalry, Artillery, and Navy. For maximum effect and minimum cost we won't train in any non essential skills or movement. For movement we will rely on items only because they are cheaper and can be used by different generals.

Each Princess General needs the following amount of trainers:
Sophia:
Cavalry 1
Artillery 3
Navy 2

Isabella:
Artillery 2

Lan:
Cavalry 2
Trading 1

Total × Medals for Cheapest Trainer, total medals
Cavalry 3 × 375, 1875
Artillery 5 × 430, 2150
Navy 2 × 310, 1240
Training 1 × 335, 335

Total amount of medals for trainers: 3895

6. Adding the total cost of Tier 1 and 2 items and trainers gives us:
4865+3895= 8760


There are a total of 84 campaign scenarios (420÷5).
If you can get 90 medals per scenario you will get 7560 medals. You will also need to complete at least 5 conquests to get the Princesses. On some conquests you can receive multiple Princesses:

France 1798- Sophia, Fatima, Maria ( without generals)
USA 1776- Kate
France 1798-Isabella (with generals)
Great Britain 1812- Lan and Sakurako
Holy Roman Empire 1798- Victoria

Conquests do not give you bonus medals, the Princess is your reward. In general by not skipping the AI's turn you will get 2 medals each round, or about 60 medals per conquest.

5×60 + 7560 = 7860



The biggest take away is that if you follow the correct path you never have to grind.

7. Finally, the proper order of play. Since we only have 4 slots, we must carefully choose when we regroup our Princesses and train them.

Notice that Sophia is the first Princess you get, the only one you use from beginning to end, and requires the most training.

When I say train, it means wait until the trainers you need are available in your academy and you have 3 refreshes, then use up all of your accumulated medals on trainers before adding the next Princess. Train at the beginning of Campaigns as you will need your best team on the second half. Only get the cheapest trainers.Use the training generals in your campaigns until another is available. That way you will always have 4 generals.

You shouldn't buy any items until you have upgraded Lan to 5 trading stars, the only exceptions being the warhorse and snare drum which are the two best items. If you get stuck on the conquests before you get Lan, you can consider paying extra to get those items. Isabella is a 3 star trader so at least wait until you have her.



Your basic teams should be:
Iron Eagle/ Coalition- Sophia, Fatima, Maria, Kate
Holy Roman Empire- Isabella, Sophia, Fatima, Maria
Eastern Overlord- Lan, Isabella, Sophia, Fatima
America- Sakuroko, Lan, Isabella, Sophia
Britain- Victoria, Lan, Isabella, Sophia

Steps:
1. 1798 France- get Sophia, Maria, Fatima
2. 1776 USA- get Kate
3. Complete Imperial Eagle and Coalition Campaigns with Sophia, Maria, Fatima, and Kate.
4. Regroup Kate into Sophia, train Sophia
5. Begin Holy Roman Empire Campaign with Sophia, Maria, Kate while training Sophia. When it gets difficult, play 1798 France with those 3 to add Isabella.
6. Use the 5 star trader in the HRE Austerlitz Scenario to trade stars for 4 medals each. Use Isabella to get Snare Drum and War Horse. You can also get some cheaper items(+2 attack) with Isabella and then resell them once you get Lan for the better items.
7. After you complete HRE, Regroup Maria into Isabella, train Sophia and Isabella.
8. Play 1812 GB with Fatima, Sophia, and Isabella for Lan and Sakuroko.
*9. Add Lan first!
10. Regroup Fatima into Lan
11. Finish training Sophia, Lan, and Isabella during the Eastern Overlord Campaigns.
12. Once Lan has 5 trading stars, go back and get the other Tier 1 items.
13. Once those 3 are fully trained, add Sakuroko.Complete American Campaign.
14. Once you have all move items, complete 1798 HRE with Sakuroko, Isabella, and Lan to win Victoria.
15. Regroup Sakuroko onto your weakest general, add Victoria.
16. Complete the final campaign while getting Tier 2 items.
**17. Complete each conquest with a 5, 4, 3, 2 star country. You are now a worthy successor to Napolean!


*Lan is more difficult to get than Sakuroka but requires some training to become the best general in the game. Sakuroko has a unique skill set that makes her good but not the best on all unit types without training.
**This is not an actual requirement but more of an extra credit assignment. Completing conquests can help your princesses get stronger, get you more medals, and improve your battle skills. It's also great fun to think about Portugal conquering Europe!