Meanwhile, in 1620 a truce in the Dutch wars expired, and the Huguenot minority population in France would rebel, bringing in a new theater of war. For his short reign, he would be thereafter known as 'the Winter King.' Frederick V was removed from power and exiled. Thirdly was the umbrage against involvement of the Turks.Bohemia was crushed. Once Emperor, Ferdinand set about gathering allies, including his Habsburg nephew (who happened to be the king of Spain). Secondly, the Holy Roman Emperor Matthias promptly died in March 1619, and left his realm to none other than the ousted Ferdinand. An army was even sent to siege Vienna itself. The war might have remained a localized Bohemian rebellion except for some major conflating factors: other member states of the Protestant Union took it as a sign for a general rebellion, and began to occupy parts of Austria. The revolution seemed to have succeeded marvelously. The Protestant Elector of the Palatinate, Frederick V was installed as the new monarch. Bohemia was taken by Protestants, and the zealous Catholic King Ferdinand was sent packing. The scenario opens on the Bohemian Revolt, which got off to a spectacular start by throwing a few Catholic representatives of the the Emperor out of a window. Often considered one of the most destructive wars in history, the Thirty Years' War was both a Protestant-versus-Catholic religious war, as well as a Bourbon-versus-Habsburg war between the great dynasties of Europe. This left the Albanian armies under the capable general Skanderbeg to fend off the Ottoman armies alone, which they would do for the next 24 years.

The day after the crushing defeat of the Poles and Hungarians by the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Varna, and the death of King Władysław III of Poland, ending the Crusade of Varna. Their shields glow green to differentiate them from other interesting nations. A handful of those are marked as beginner-friendly, recommended for new players to play. Several nations are designated as interesting, these are represented by large shields in the bottom part of the screen. There are 15 different Historical Start bookmarks in the game, four of which are set during the same date and are simply meant to add flavour to certain areas of the world.

Eu4 extended timeline map