Europa Universalis 3 is unique in more than one way.It will give you a feel that no other strategy game can.
First of all, you can play any nation within game`s period (1453-1789 in game without expansions, 1453-1822 with Napaleon`s ambition ,1399-1822 with In Nomine). This means you can be Inca or Bihar as well as England or France.
Secondly, you can choose any date within period of the game.This means you can start during any event you want.Want to lead Washington`s armies and win the American revolution?Or maybe you`d like to follow footsteps of William the Silent and form the Netherlands?With this game, you can do both of these
things and more.
Furthermore, countries are ruled by historical rulers. This does not mean that William II and Henry VI will manage country equally well. All leaders have specific traits and manage country their way. Some are great warriors, while others are skilled statesmen or master diplomats. You can hire historic advisors too. Ever wanted to have Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Sir Isaac Newton in your court? With EU3, you can.
Lastly, this game has the best colonisation system i`ve ever seen. To take a colony, you just have to send colonists and make conditions for them to survive. You can choose between slaughtering the natives or incorporating them to your glorious empire. You can try to control all sugar producing provinces and create a monopoly. You can establish biggest trading center not only in the new, but entire world. Your possibilities are almost limitless.

Choose a strong country for your first game(France, for example)
Don`t be afraid of little inflation. When your economy grows stronger, you`ll be able to reduce it. How to reduce it? Reduce minting (Money making), take National Bank idea and Master of Mint advisor if you are playing In Nomine.
The larger you grow, the longer it takes to increase stability, so try to keep it if you`re playing big country like Ming.
Pause when you see that another country got annexed. You`ll be able to hire their advisors.
Don`t rely on monthly income to buy something.Use yearly income.
Go to military screen and change your outdated unit/ship to stronger one after you research new military/naval technology.
AI tends to surrender if you capture their capital, therefore it should be one of primary targets when you`re at war.
You can annex country only if they have only one province. So sometimes it`s better to make them vassal and diplo-annex them(You get that option only if another country has been your vassal for 10 years and have 190+ relations with them, so few gifts for you vassal won`t hurt). But annexing pagans is easier.You can annex them no matter how many territories they have.
Watch your reputation AKA badboy score.It increases after you take territory or annex country. Try to keep it low.If it gets too high, most countries will instantly declare war on you, no matter how strong you are.
Don`t build military units in city with <2000 population, or it will become a colony. It especially goes for colonies that recently became cities.

Most successful strategies involves war. It can be frustrating when your army outnumbers enemy 2 to 1 but they capture more provinces. This guide should help you avoid such situations.
Common mistake is building infantry in early game. In later stages of game they are useful but early your army should consist only of cavalary, especially if your manpower is small. They cost more, but they eat infantry alive and they are much faster. Remember that if you want to use their speed you must have army composed only of cavalary, infantry will slow them down.
Outnumber the enemy. You won`t win with smaller army, consider yourself lucky if you manage too get white peace when enemy outnumbers you.
Have more than one army. It may look attractive to create one superstack, but that will allow enemy to capture provinces quicker, what can and probably will make you lose the war, so divide your troops wisely. Too small stacks will allow enemy to easily defeat them, so try to find balance.
Maintaining big army costs a lot of ducats. During peace time, lower maintenance to as low as possible. Before declaring war increase maintenance to max and wait 2 months. Only then declare war, otherwise your troop morale will be very low and enemy will easily defeat your armies even if they have less troops.
Avoid provinces with big attriction. You don`t want to lose half of your army without facing enemy, so don`t.
Use mercenaries. They don`t cost any manpower so they`re especially useful for small countries. Also, if your military tech level is low, they tend to be more advanced than rest of your army.

Question:Why can`t I annex another country? How to do that?
Answer:Check article below. It should answer all you questions.
Question:What does reputation AKA badboy actually do?
Answer:It reduces your diplomatic capability, reduces merchant compete chances by 1%, adds 1% to stability cost, decreases chance of bribing Cardinals by 1% and arguably most importantly, it increases other nation`s aggressiveness towards you which means that if you cross your BB limit, most nations will declare war on you without any reason.
Question:How to reduce your BB points?
Answer:First way, used by almost all is waiting. Each year your badboy gets reduced by 0.1*ruler`s diplomatic skill+ diplomat`s skill*0.05+ 0.25 if you are Papal controller. Second way is releasing vassals. Every province you release as vassal reduces your badboy by 2. This means if you newly released vassal has 1 province, your reputation gets reduces by 1, but if release vassal with 5 provinces, you lose 5 reputation.
Question:How to westernize?
Answer:Check our article about westernization below. It will help you to westernize.
Question:What does prestige do?
Answer:If it`s >0 it increases diplomat success chance, chance of inheriting realm upon their rulers death if you have royal marriage with them, automatic monthly change in relations, colonist and merchant chances, diplomat surplus, morale and decreases salary of advisors. Having negative prestige does the opposite.
Question:How to increase my income?
Answer:Try Precious Ducats guide below to guide you.
Question:How to get Casus Belli?
Answer:You get it against another country if they own province that you consider your core, warned by you country goes to war with it`s neighbour, if country insults you, when country attacks your ally, if they owe you money and refuse to return it and if you have Deus Vult and target country is not of your religion. There are other, rarely used ways but these are most often used.
More questions and answers coming soon.
Question: How to increase province`s base tax value?
Answer: The only way to increase it is through events/decisions .
Question:How to increase my manpower?
Answer:You just need more population to do that. Either wait till you population increases or get more high-population provinces.
Question:How to form country X?
Answer:Check our Country unifications guide for information.
Question:How to merge my regiments?
Answer:Select them all and click button in top right corner of troop window.
Question:How to get out of personal union?
Answer:Just wait till your current monarch dies.
Question: What is megacampaign?
Answer: Megacampaign is a game using more than one Paradox Interactive game. As you can export your Crusader Kings game to Europa Universalis game, Europa Universalis game to Victoria game, Victoria game to Hearts of Iron game.
Got any questions left? Ask away at our guestbook!(Your Opinion section)

Important question for all new EU3 players is how to annex. Actually, there are 3 ways to do this.
First, the most simple type of annexation is force-annexing. You can annex only one-province or pagan country using it. To make it happen, simply capture all their provinces (1 if non-pagan), open peace negotiating screen and demand annexation. Now all their provinces belong to you. Be careful tho, this way will raise your BB score (2-6 points,depending on if it was a pagan and if you had a core on their capital).
Second way is diplo-annexing. This way gives you less BB score than simply taking a province, so most experienced players uses this type a lot. If you want to diplo-annex country, you must vassalize it (You can do that with sword or diplomacy), keep them your vassal for 10 years, raise relations to 190+ and then you can try to do it. It does not always work, so if it fails, try again (Remember that you`ll have to raise relations again). To raise chance for them to accept, your ruler must have high diplomacy skill, their ruler must have high diplomacy skill, high prestige helps it, low BB score helps it, length of vassalization helps (With cap of 30 years).
Third, the most complicated way is to turbo-annex them. For it to happen, you must occupy provinces you want to gain and make your opponent break. It will automatically give you all provinces (except their capital) that you have occupied and end war. But now you are asking how to break a nation? Well it`s not easy. To make it happen, rebels must control more than half their provinces (Or one if you leave them only their capital). This means you have to increase revolt chance by as much as possible. Best way to do this is to leave them only their capital and if you want, second province that is neighboring their capital, but has diffirent religion/culture. First, make sure that you have spies (You can try this without them but it will be much harder to pull off). Surround their province(s) with your armies so mercenaries they hire wont cause you much trouble. Then start using your spies. To increase your chances, do spy ring infiltration first. Then, sow discontent until they are at -3 stability. Then use support revolt and wait for rebels to capture their capital. After they do that, their nation breaks and you get all provinces that you had occupied. As you see this way is probably the hardest and the most expensive. Use it only if you have positive spy income, lots of money and enough army to capture wanted provinces.

Usually small or heavy colonising need to find sources of extra cash to accomplish their goals. I will write about commonly used strategies to increase your income.
If you are playing one province country, try to conquer other nearby 1 province countries (If there is one nearby). Cut off budget for naval, land and production techs and mint more (For a while). Buy a couple mercenary regiments and attack.
Try to dominate markets. Move your slider to free trade (In IN, move to merchantilism if you want to dominate your own markets), take Shrewd Commerce Practice and National Trade Policy national ideas, and invest everything on trade and government. Take a loan if you don`t have enough money to send your merchants to markets. If you have a New World province and enough money, establish a trading center in it. Then send in your merchants and watch your coffers overflow.
Improve right infrastructure. For example for poor countries, workshop and constable will give you much more profit than temple or naval academy. Build workshops and constables first, even if your income is high. Due to constables your rich provinces will skyrocket their income.
If you have a big army, invade China or India. Take provinces with valuable chinaware, tea and spices. Then take Smithian Economics national idea to increase your production income.
Get a hold of gold. You can attack Aztecs or Incans and take their gold producing provinces. This way is harder but it will increase your income by a lot. Also you can colonise various provinces with gold (In Southern Africa, Southern Australia or Southern Brazil). This way is expensive and requires at least few years to become profitable.
If you already have some money, and by some I mean lots of it, then you can industrialize. Build manufactories and watch your income grow. But remember to build manufactories that you need the most (Each one adds research points to one sphere) and build them on resource that doubles income (Like copper or iron for Weapons Manufactory). Also, kkep in mind that each built manufactory of it`s type adds 20% more ducats to it`s cost,so for pure income it`s best to build few of each type than lots of one type.
Use the way that suits you most and watch your income grow.

Increasing your income in Europa Universalis III is hard without effective trade and production. This guide should help you increase it.
Production efficiency Each production level from 1 to 10 increase production efficiency by 2%, later on by 1%. These sliders increase your trade efficiency: Aristocracy (1% each move), Centralisation (1% each move), Naval (1% each move), Free Subjects (1% each move). These types of government increase your production: Administrative Monarchy by 10%, Constitutional Republic by 20%. Smithian Economics idea increase production efficiency by 10%. Best way to start improving production is taking Smithian Economics idea, change government if you can, increase Centralisation and Free Subjects and invest in production tech.
Trade efficiency Each trade level from 1 to 10 increase trade efficiency by 2%, later on by 1%. These sliders increase your trade efficiency: Plutocracy (1% each) and Naval (1% each). Administrative Republic increases trade efficiency by 10%. National Trade Policy also increases trade efficiency by 10%. best way to make your trade more efficient is to take National Trade Policy idea, move slider towards Plutocracy (Naval is bad for most countries), change government to Administrative Republic and invest in trade.

People sometimes does not understand what do certain building do in Europe Universalis 3. This guide will be able to help them.
Workshop-First building you get to build, first one that is worth building. What it does? It increases your yearly income by 2 so it takes 25 years to pay for itself (26 if you include build time), which is not so bad. In other words, when you get a chance to build it, do so.
Temple-Each one reduces your stability cost by 5. This means if stability now costs 100 research points, with temple it would cost 95. So is it worth it you ask? Not really. Your money are better spent elsewhere.
Fort- Forts are defensive structures. The better it is, the longer it takes to take city and better chance for missionaries to succeed. I build it in border provinces and CoTs, but if war is well planned you should not do much fighting on your soil, so they are only good for unexpected wars. But remember that your enemies can use your own forts against you.
Courthouse-This building is nearly useless in EU3 and NA, get`s some worth in IN, due to more dangerous rebels. Don`t build it when you can, it`s better to spend money to increase income.
Manufactories- Good source of research and income. They increase your population growth by 1%, 6 or 12 ducats according on what resource province it was built and 5 ducats to one research investment. Aim to build them on their resource (Like Textile Manufactory on wool or cloth) to maximise profits.
Regimental camp-Works well if you need to be able to raise military quickly. If you are not warring nation you don`t need it.
Constable- King of improvements, probably the most useful building. It should be built in all your provinces. It will skyrocket your income. But be careful - it adds 2 to revolt risk. It can be partially countered by courthouse.
Marketplace- Lots of people don`t understand what marketplace does. It`s rather simple really - it increases local resource value (In IN markets have global effect too) and population growth. So what profit does it bring? It increases CoT`s value, so if you have merchants there, yours earning will increase and it increases your production by 2*efficiency/100. This means if you hours production efficiency is 33%, it will bring you 0.66 income. If it`s 120%, you get 2.4 ducats. So build it if your production efficiency is high.
Shipyard- It simply makes your ships build faster. Use it only if you need faster ship production really REALLY badly.
Customs House- Increases local tax by 5%. Useful in centers of trade or provinces with huge tax income, not useful anywhere else, unless of course you can`t live without extra 0.2 ducats.
Admirality- Produces navy tradition. Not very useful, you money are better spent elsewhere. And if you build it, you won`t be able to build War College in that province.
Tax assessor- Another very useful building. If it`s built in all your provinces, it reduces inflation by 0.5%, which will allow you to mint MUCH more. Build it in all provinces when you get the chance.
War College- Land counterpart of Admirality. It`s more useful, so if you decide to build it, don`t build Admiralities. But you`d better build something useful like Tax Assessor.

Sometimes it`s frustrating when you need to change government buy you don`t know how. This guide should help you avoid those situations.
Tribal despotism- Available from start of Europa Universalis 3 game, but you can choose it only if you already have tribal government. Like all tribal governments it slows down your research by 50% and allows you to move sliders only every 25 years. It increases your manpower by 20%. If you must use tribal government, try to avoid this one. This one is good only if you have low manpower, but most tribal countries have enough of it.
Tribal democracy- Available from start of Europa Universalis 3 game, but you can choose it only if you already have tribal government. Like all tribal governments it slows down your research by 50% and allows you to move sliders only every 25 years. It also reduces your stability costs by 25%, so take this one if you are tribal, big and don`t want to trade.
Tribal federation- Available from start of Europa Universalis 3 game, but you can choose it only if you already have tribal government. Like all tribal governments it slows down your research by 50% and allows you to move sliders only every 25 years. It also increases trade efficiency by 10%, so it`s best tribal government for small nations that rely on trading.
Despotic monarchy- Available from start of Europa Universalis 3 game, it`s good for warring nations because it increases reputation capacity by 10. You can switch from despotic monarchy to administrative monarchy for one stability (in my opinion, the best option for bigger countries), to absolute monarchy for one stability, constitutional monarchy for two stability, enlightened despotism for two stability, to feudal monarchy for four stability (Bad option), to noble republic for four stability, to theocracy for four stability. Historically used by most eastern nations like Mongolia.
Feudal monarchy- Available from level one government tech. It increases manpower and land forcelimit modifier by 15%. Most countries start with it so you`ll have to use it at the beginning, but later you`ll get better choices. You can switch from feudal monarchy to despotic monarchy for one stability, administrative monarchy for two stability (Probably the best option), to absolute monarchy for two stability, to merchant republic for four stability. Historically used by most European kingdoms, like France or Castille.
Noble republicAvailable from level two government tech level, it increases your tolerance levels by 1 and probably more importantly, your ruler get`s elected but you still can do royal marriages. You can switch from, noble republic to administrative republic for one stability (Great choice if you income relies on trade), to republican dictatorship for two stability, to despotic monarchy for four stability. Historically this form of government was used by Lithuanian- Polish commonwealth and it was thing that ruined it.
Merchant republic- You can switch to it from government tech level three. It decreases cost of placing merchants in centers of trade by 25%. Bonus is not big, so it`s better to wait for administrative republic. You can switch from merchant republic to administrative republic for one stability (Great choice), bureaucratic despotism for two stability, to feudal monarchy for four stability (Avoid this option).
Theocracy- Available from government tech level number four.
Papacy
Administrative monarchy
Administrative republic
Absolute monarchy
Republican dictatorship
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional republic
Enlightened despotism
Bureaucratic despotism
Revolutionary republic
Revolutionary empire

Playing a small country can be hard. This guide should help you manage a small country.
Firstly, look around you for other small countries. There is a lot of them if you are in Italy or Germany. It should be easy to achieve military supremacy. If they don`t ally any dangerous foes, try to annex them (As always your best bet is diplo-annex, turbo-annex can be better if enemy has more provinces than you).
Mercenaries are your friend. They may cost more money, but they don`t consume manpower. If you have enough money, use them.
It`s hard to make money with few provinces. So your only bet for becoming rich is trading. Take Shrewd Commerce Practice and National Trade Policy and getting your merchants in will be a breeze. Just don`t get your reputation high, or you won`t be able to trade.
If warring is hard, try to get a stronger and bigger ally. That will make your wars much easier.
Try and become Holy Roman Emperor. You will get one of most needed resources for small nation- manpower.
Keeping your stability at +3 is very easy if you have one or two provinces. Use your advantage to dominate the markets and even battlefield, because you`ll be able to take on more war exhaustion and make you enemy cities rebel.
Get some colonies if you have a naval province (If you don`t you should get one).
Try to have high government (Easy if you are an Italian minor) and trade levels. Government will allow better types of governments and building like constable, while trade will increase your primary source of income.

This section contains strategy for specific countries, useful for both newbies and veterans.
France-Playing France is easy and I recommend to try it for all new players. When Europa Universalis 3 starts,France probably is the most powerful country. Becoming a dominating country is easy. First, consolidate all France. Diplo-annex your vassals (Check How to annex? part if you don`t know how), conquer Brittany and English territories in north, vassalize and diplo-annex Burgundy. Once you done all those things and have unified France and Netherlands (Part that were owned by Burgundy), make sure that you have good income. I suggest to send merchants to your trading centers Vlaanderen and Ile-de-France .Then you can conquer Italy with it`s precious universities and build a colonial empire. Conquering Italy is easy- it is divided by weak minors that are no match for vast armies of France. Universities will add much income so it`s worth the fuss. After Italy, you can conquer British isles, Germany , rest of Netherlands and/or Spain. They aren`t as rich as Italy but still worth it. With you as ruler of France, you can easily succeed where Napoleon failed. While conquering others, try to establish colonial empire. Caribbean islands and Brazil are both good places to colonise due to sugar and gold in case of Brazil, you also can conquer Central American or Incan natives, they both have lots of gold. After that try unifying entire South America under your rule. It is rich and worth conquering, because it`s full of sugar and coffee. But be careful, in late game if your revolt risk is big those South Americans can declare independence. After Central and Southern America is under your control, colonise south Africa with it`s gold and sugar and Indonesia with spices and Australia with gold and other goodies or you can conquer rich India and China. If you done all those things, then entire world is your playground. Now you will easily conquer the rest of the world.
Ming-If you have some experience and want to play another giant capable of global domination, try Ming. But unlike European countries, they have awful research rate. Your armies will be outdated, but endless. You have biggest manpower in Europa Universalis 3 and lots of ducats to use it. First thing you do should be either vassalizing and diplo-annexing Manchu, or doing the same thing with south-east Asia. But with Ming`s endless armies,why fight on a single front? Attack them both at same time if you can micromanage your armies. So, you done both these things. What now? You can try to colonise, but you have negative colonist income and moving sliders is tricky, because recovering a stability point takes at least a decade with Ming. If you manage gain colonist, colonise Taiwan, Indonesia and Australia. If you failed, conquer India and Korea. If your navy is big enough, take Japan. But remember, instead of just conquering use vassalize and diplo-annex strategy. If you succeeded, your endless armies can get anything you want. Try conquering Middle East and Europe, or anything else that you want.
Lithuania-Youngest christian country in the old continent, perfect for bashing heathens. If you want to crusade through unholy lands, Lithuania is a country for you. First few years or even decades will be years of waiting. You are minor partner in personal union with Poland. They will drag you in at least one war with Moldavia, so you may even consider breaking alliance when you get a chance. Another pain in early game is Muscovy. If you don`t have an army near their border, they will attack. If you raise an army, you may try to crush that pest, but remember to bring at least 3 armies. Using them smartly will give you an edge and eventually Muscovy will be defeated. Now just wait. Improve your economy by building workshops but without using merchants(usually they are competed away in few days) and slowly build up army. After death of king you will be free again and probably get great ruler with couple of eights. Now you can choose- if you have Casus Belli on weak Poland, you can crush them. Or you can start bashing heathens. So now you are wondering if you should take Deus Vult national idea or not. Another alternative is Patron of Arts. It`s prestige bonus is almost nothing, but it triggers few nice events that can help you becoming Latin tech group. If you take Patron, you`ll have to wait till your government level reaches 5, but that will take quite a long time. So I think Deus Vult should go first. If it does you can start waging holy wars. Crimea`s position is begging for punishment. Novgorod has money and you really need it. Other russian minors are begging for spanking too. Later take on Kazan with gold deposit in Samara, Golden Horde that has gold, money, trading center and no forts build. Then there`s always Persia, Ottoman empire and Timurids that are threatening entire Christian world. Now go forth to convert heathens to the true faith and defend all that`s holy!
Mecklenburg- Mecklenburg is country with huge potential. You start as a rich 2-province minor, but you can form Germany and become strongest country in the world. You first step before unpausing the game should be buying of a mercenary regiment or two , merging your armies, making your leader general and attaching him to your 2k-3k army and declaring war on Hamburg or any other neighbouring one-province minor and moving slider towards free trade. If you have enough money left, send one merchant to Lubeck. It`s in top-3 of richest CoT`s in the world, so you should have 5 merchants there. All remaining merchants should go to Venice or Vlaanderen. Also, stop financing naval research. Later in game, you should also cut off production research, but you need at least level 6. Due to many neighbours, your research will be quick. Now, unpause game and send your army to Hamburg or whatever you declared war on. Once you won you should vassalize and diplo-annex them, if you are lazy just force-annex them but it will have consequences later. After you win, you will get quite a few alliance offers. Try becoming allies with Pomerania and Saxony, and after that offer them royal marriages. You will get elector`s support (Saxony) for becoming emperor and this alliance will protect you from Brandenburg. After that, try getting Casus Belli on your neighbours (Ones you want to attack) and continue sending merchants to Lubeck/Vlaanderen/Venice. Once you can take National Idea, take National Trade Policy or Shrewd Commerce Practice. Then just wait. Don`t wage war on stronger foes, annex Luneburg and Bremen once you can, improve relations with HRE electors and hope to be elected. Then continue unifying Germany using vassalizing and diplo-annexing, if you want, colonise, become Emperor and have fun. Increase your trading powers even further, form Germany once it`s possible and conquer the rest of Europe.
Vijayanagar-Pearl of India, the production giant and an interesting country to try. You start with high tax and production, what more could you want? Westernization, that`s what. You may be rich but you research is slow. So thing to do is moving your slider for higher production (Aristocracy or Free Subjects should be your first moves). Now generate army and when it`s big enough (20K+ should do) attack Deccan. You can ally with Orrisa before that so their armies don`t have to concentrate on you. Take as much of their provinces as you can, so they won`t pose any threat later on. In next years you should annex your vassals (you have 2) and improve your tech level. Your all research should go to production. Also you`ll need some government and land techs, but production is your primary issue. Your first national idea should be Smithian economics, later take Deus Vult and punish Muslim heathens in north. Then try to unify India, form Mughal empire if you want and make your income skyrocket using production and westernize to become advances country. Then you`ll have strong army, excellent economy and good strategical position. Use it to your liking- conquer Indochina, China, Middle East, colonise Indonesia or Australia, or do anything else that you want to do.
Aztec empire-Aztecs are hard buy fun country to play. With more than half of you starting provinces producing gold and most other provinces around producing sugar, what more would you want? But Aztecs belong to Native American tech group, so they are really, really backward, even more backward than Africans. But with some effort that can be changed. Your first step should be conquering Zapotec. Don`t declare war them at the start of the game. You need to build up army first. Your manpower may be low, but remember that Zapotec`s have it just as low. Conquering them should not be hard. Mayans should be next and even easier with your expanded armies. Europeans should make contact by then. Have good relations and big army, because they are waiting for opportunity to kill you. Now you should start thinking about westernizing(You can`t do that if you have vannila EU3). Get a province that is near European province, raise relations with it`s owner by 100 and check your ruler`s stats. If it`s administration is 5 or more, you should get offer to westernize in ~15 years. It will make research 10 times faster so it`s worth every penny spent on it. With central America united and you westernized, why not to colonize and conquer both Americas? It may be hard but after all, Quetzalcoatl is at your side.

Playing with non-European countries can be pain in the neck due to slow research rates. But there is a solution- westernization. This guide will explain how to do it.
Eastern to Latin- To westernize you must have your slider moved 3 towards innovative, must have statesman advisor level 5 or 6 and have ruler with 7 administrative skill. If you are playing NA or EU3 vannila, these things speed up the process: slider further towards innovative, higher statesman level, higher administration value of your leader, having high centralization, having someone from Latin tech group as your neighbour, having naval and army reformer advisors.
Muslim to Eastern- To become Eastern you must have high innovative(3 leftmost) and ruler with at least level 6 military AND administrative skill. If you are playing pre-NA, you can do these thing to speed up the process- have as high as possible innovative, having statesman and army reformer advisors at least level 5 and having someone in Latin or Eastern tech group as your neighbour.
New World, African or Asian to Latin- To convert you must a Latin neighbor and have at least +100 relations with them, also you need a ruler with at least level 5 administration. Also these thing speeds the event: high ruler`s administrative or/and military skill, statesman advisor and high innovative value.

Forming country is fun, but sometimes you don`t know how to do it. This guide will help you.
Germany- One of harder events. First make sure that your culture is either Hannoverian, Pommeranian, Hessian, Saxon, Bavarian or Rheinlaender. Then you have to get these provinces: Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Altmark, Lüneburg, Hannover, Anhalt, Dresden, Leipzig, Erfurt and Franken. Then event should fire if you have EU3 or NA, or you may trigger decision if you have IN. Event will fire much quicker if you have other german provinces (Any province with cultures mentioned above). This unification can be hard because Germany is full of minors. Which one to choose? I recommend Mecklenburg (Look at guide above for strategy) or Brandenburg. Both are in good position and Brandenburg is historical. Another interesting pick include Hamburg, Saxony and Austria.
Netherlands- To form Netherlands you must own Zeeland, Holland, Utrecht and Friesland and have either Dutch or Flemish as primary culture. Seems easy? It isn`t because at start of game only minors can unite it and you will have to fight Burgundy for two provinces. I recommend Gelre or Friesland because there aren`t much choice.
Italy- One of funner unifications. It requires you to have Lombard culture as you main one (No other will do) and four provinces: Firenze, Siena, Roma and Ancona. Seems easy? Well Italy is full of minors, so it isn`t very easy, but it still is one of easier unifications. Provinces in Italy are really good. There are lots of universities and base tax value is quite big, therefor conquering Italy is almost always worth it. I recommend Tuscany or Venice for this job. Other decent picks include Genoa, Milan and Savoy.
Great Britain- To form Great Britain you must be in British culture group and own these provinces: London, Oxfordshire, Wessex, Lothian, Aberdeen. One of more obvious unifications, you must conquer Great Britain island. England is obviously country of choice here, although you can try it with Scotland, if USA exists and Great Britain doesn`t, you can form it with them. Even Canada and Louisiana can do it as long as their culture is in British culture group (USA can be in other group too).
Ireland- Another obvious unification. Your culture must be Irish and you must own Ulster, Meath, Leinster, Munster and Connaught. Nothing special, but Ireland can be hard to form. Any Irish minor can do it. It`s easy to conquer other minors, but conquering province/s owned by England is the tricky part. Good luck on that.
Spain- To form Spain your culture must be in Iberian culture groups or have Basque culture. You must own Barcelona, Aragón, Castilla La Vieja, Salamanca, Andalucia and Toledo. Spain is quite rich region, so if you chose country in it, aim for unification. Castille is most obvious candidate for this job, although Aragon can do it as well. If you are feeling lucky, you might even try do that with Portugal or New World country that has one of requires cultures as their main.
Persia- To form Persia you must have Persian culture as your main and own Luristan, Hamadan, Azerbaijan, Mazandaran, Ajam and Fars. One starting country has already done these thing and can form Persia quick- Qara Koyunlu.
Mughal Empire- To form Mughal Empire your main culture must be in Eastern aryan culture group, Hindusthani culture group, Western aryan culture group or Dravidian culture group or just have Mongol as your primary culture and you must own Jaipur, Panipat, Delhi, Lucknow and Agra. As you see broad range of countries can form Mughal Empire, but not all can do it as well as others, but it`s worth trying as India has rich provinces. Timurids can form it quickly, as well as Delhi. If you want challange, try Bihar or Vijayanagar.