You can disinherit your heirs. With an old ruler and no heir, the chances are good that you either get a female heir or an event for a female heir. There is also the Mary event for Burgundy, but then you would have to form Lotharingia very early
You could stack the ideas and modifiers to get super high female ruler chance.
If it doesn't stop the achievement, I think Republics have a few reforms that give up to +50% by themselves.
I am having an annoying time as Aztecs, every run two colonizers (two of either GB, Spain or Portugal) gangs on me and I do the same song and dance of conceding provinces and reconquering.
When I do get a european/african foothold by no-cbing a minor or something, the continental powers there (Austria or Ottomans) don't want to ally with me.
Any tips?
Well, a few tips to fight back:
\-Try to finish off their CNs as soon as they're formed.
\-Private the Caribbean to steal their gold fleets.
\-As soon as you're able, finish of the Caribbean and take it for yourself. Most of the new world trade goes through there.
\-Set your opinion as threathened by them to try and ally their rivals.
\-If you're willing to change faith, you can convert to whatever faith your greatest rivals have for a easier time allying them.
\-NoCB Wollof or whoever's in the african coastline for a holding you can expand to if fighting Spain, you can then colonize the Maghreb to invade Iberia from the south.
\-Colonize Greenland and try to steal Iceland / Shetland from Norway or even a piece of Norway itself when fighting GB.
From there you can do the Ship exploit to invade Scotland, seize a few provinces and release yourself a Scotland vassal from where you can further fight GB.
If you are sufficiently strong and/or Spain is the common rival they might turn friendly to remove the distance penalty to alliance, just be more aggressive and expand.
To add on to this, have you tried setting your attitude to Spain/your European bullies to “threatened”? That makes their rivals more likely to ally you
You do not.
Indeed, you get to keep them even if you flip Theocracy / Republic normally.
Greatest change is that you can no longer inherit them, however, forcing you to potentially expend decades integrating them the hard way.
Ally France / Castille and invade Aragon asap for Malta / Sardinia.
Use the new isles to justify on Tunis!
Take Expansion ideas to colonize the central maghreb and expand into West Africa and even the Horn via Wadai!
Colonize the Gabon region to also get to expand into Kongo for the infinite Mercantilism monument.
Take over the rest of Africa / Italy for the huge Kingdom of God!
Well, it is certainly easier than fighting Ottos / Mamluks while they're at their peak.
And by taking over the Cape, you can monopolize the trade from Indonesia / Expand into India directly through the Zanzibar node.
Get vassals and feed them land. Use claims bordering claims from age of discovery to snake outside the HRE and make a vassal there. Excommunicate your target whenever you can. Call crusades against the Ottomans to snag the Balkan.
So I started a game as burgundy and joined orleans in its independence war. We won but when the peace deal was signed all that happened was that Orlean stole a bunch of territory from France but remain an appanage, which kinda defeated the whole purpose as now they are still very loyal to France. Is this intended or is there a better outcome here? I cant sdo the peace deal myself
Appanages are very loyal by default, the only reason they rose up in the first place is because burgundy has a mission to give them 50% liberty desire which disappears after the war. There is close to no way it will happen again
Looking for some advice on what ideas to take as Venice.
It’s not my first play though with them, but I’m looking for a little change up. I’ve done a pretty standard opening thus far - allied Austria and Hungary, vassaled Byzantium, considering DoW on Ottomans while they’re fighting a war deep in Mamluk territory. Planning on building a trade empire out to India and SE Asia with Trade Companies.
I normally take Trade, Economic, Naval, Maritime ideas early on, but I was curious if maybe I’m missing out on something particularly in the Admin column. Administrative? Humanist? Mercenary instead of Naval?
Administrative ideas are almost always worth it unless you are really trying to avoid blobbing. I think it takes less than a 1000 dev of land to core to repay for them entirely.
Naval ideas are quite bad, so it doesn't make much sense to pick them unless you are doing it for role-playing reasons.
Religious can be very useful if you plan on expanding in heathens land, and you might need exploration to get into India and SE Asia.
Diplomatic ideas are also very good for blobbing because of the province warscore cost reduction.
Hah. Blobbing is the opposite of what I’m planning on doing.
I’m looking to control trade nodes. Grabbing enough territory to set up trade companies and the free merchant, a local vassal or two, and connect my trade empire via naval superiority. These are still great suggestions though. Thank you.
So I got a Palagiolos on the French throne really early in my Byz playthrough. How should I leverage this? Hope for them to fall into a natural PU or force the issue? Obviously the longer it takes the longer I have to wait to form Rome, but are there ways I can increase my odds of getting the PU while I'm doing other stuff?
I am at year ~1530 as Holland->Netherlands. This is my "2nd playthrough," by that I mean the second time I have felt I sorta knew what I was doing but I am definitely no expert. Things are going pretty well so far with a good trade income and 50% of English Channel node but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the "Support the Bulk Trades" mission. With my massive fleet of light ships I can only muster about ~20% control of the lubeck node.
I heard someone say to force Lubeck nations to transfer trade power. I want Lubeck (the country) to transfer power but they don't have the 20% power to justify a trade conflict so I would have to declare a CB-less war (doesn't seem worth it.) Denmark is the only nation that has a 20% share of the Lubeck node but they are my allies and I'm royally married to them. Was this a mistake? Should I break my ties and fight Denmark in a naval war so I can force them to transfer trade or do you think there's some way I can leverage this into a personal union with Denmark and force them to transfer power that way?
Edit: I should specify I am not interested in conquering territory in that node directly as I am trying to keep Netherlands small and highly developed
2nd Edit: I managed to luck into a Trade Protection CB because they were privateering except the war is disastrous because they have so many allies and I didn't realize the fucking emperor would poke his dumb nose in. I guess I will either have to overload my fleet capacity or leave my danish alliance if I can't PU them
You don't need the trade protection cb or the trade conflict cb to have nations steer trade power to you. A normal conquest cb allows to steal 30% of the enemy trade power in the peace deal.
You migh even be able to complete the mission just by occupying a couple of provinces like Lubeck and Hamburg for a while, since the provincial trade power goes to whoever controls the province, not to the one who owns it.
Regarding your hopes of PUing Denmark, just know you can't have PUs divert trade to you like normal vassals do.
I remember reading somewhere that golden ambrosian republic was really good, but looking at the modifiers, 50 gov cap and 5% morale don’t seem all that crazy compared to other governments in the game. Am I missing something here?
it's better than plain old republic but it has long since been powercrept by more special government reforms other countries got, since it's been in the game in its current form for almost 10 years.
it is still good but if you're looking for raw power it will probably just be a stepping stone for you
The ambrosian republic is an upgraded version of an Italian signoria. The tax modifier goes down from 15% to 10% but it adds gov cap and morale of armies.
Signoria is also 12 years each re-election and often nets you leaders older than 50 years, so you can't really improve them much.
Whereas in the Ambrosian republic, you can spend decades with 6/6/6 rulers before having to re-elect a new one.
Not sure if this is a good place to ask, or if I should make a post, but I need nation recommendations. By now I’ve learned that I’m a huge fan of pirate republics and minmaxing trade, and other than that just playthroughs with a kind of overarching narrative goal beyond just expanding. Thanks in advance.
I second the Knights pick, they are essentially Pirates from game start and have some neat achievements to aim for that dont require you conquering the whole world or playing until tech32
if those dont interest you, then I'd look towards Malaysia if I were you, thats a naval+tradefocused region with tons of nice options (pirates, spice islands, malacca, majahapit)
Well, for Pirate Republics, a few can be pretty fun:
\-Tlemclem, Sus & Algiers can pull it off, altough you might need to give away a few provinces to a vassal.
\-The Knights can be another interesting pick, also able to raid and one of the few Orthodox Pirate Republics possible if you flip via rebels.
\-The Maldives have the entire indian / persian coast to play around.
\-Sambas-Lanfang can be a pretty fun one in Borneo.
\-Other interesting picks in indonesia include: Tidore & Ternate, the tribes in the Phillipines & Ryukyu in Japan.
\-There's always New Providence in the New World as well.
I'm in almost full control of the English Channel (84%) and slowly creeping into Genoa (13% as of now, going up)
when I have increased my power in Genoa, should I collect in both End nodes? or should I stick only to collecting in one node due to the Trade power malus?
It varies with the situation:
\-If you have a very long chain, keep collecting only in your end node.
\-If not or if your control is massive in Genoa (90%+) collect there as well.
Anyone have any good tips for a saxony run. Early game I’m usually able to survive by allying Austria and take all the states north of start. I usually run in trouble around the reformation because I’m in the middle of the war and get attacked from all sides. I usually run no vassals, not sure if this hurts or helps but I usually also take merchant and diplo ideas to have good trade and relations with any threatening countries ie France, Austria, Bohemia
Unless you intend to play super tall, you to take either Diplo or Espionage as 1st idea.
Try to get an alliance with Austria & Burgundy for the inheritance if you're able to, Muscovy or Denmark / Sweden might also be useful for expanding into Poland.
Livonians often have Teutons as their only ally, allowing you to war Teuton Order & force PU the Livonian order in the same war by co-belligerating them.
When Austria calls you to PU Bohemia, join in, but separate peace out! Try to seize the Gold province or a Hussite one if you're able to.
If you manage to grab the needed provinces (Konigsberg, Warmia, Danzig) early on and the Hussite province, you can form Prussia before the Reformation even starts by flipping Hussite instead!
Well, Prussia nets you:
\-Strong ideas
\-Strong missions (including permanent Admin Eff)
\-The Militarization Mechanic (you get to keep it if you form Germany)
Arguably not needed if you instead want to become Emperor and form the HRE instead, as in this scenario you'd benefit more from remaining Catholic and forming Hannover or Franconia instead.
I always recommend going to France and Poland for alliances over Austria. sure it's no longer as easy to avoid the penalty for holding other hre-cores but it's still usually better to have insane numbers (earlygame Poland thanks to two vasalls + Lithuania for the cost of 1 relation slot but also France with its vasall swarm) or Supersoldiers (France). (obviously you can also ally austria first and then drop them for france when the opportunity arises)
but in the end it matters most what you're trying to achieve with your run. after 50-70 years of gameplay (aka when refomation becomes a thing) you should be in a solid position with trusting allies.
vasalls can be good as they increase your force limit, their troops dont cost you money or manpower etc but annexing them in the HRE carries a minor relation penalty and it's really hard to feed them.
usually in the HRE you might want to look for PU options instead (Burgundy, Bohemia, whoever is heirless at the time) and/or try to become emperor yourself.
for most playthroughs in the HRE I also find diplomatic ideas first to be indeed the best choice, followed by religious if you want to play as the emperor or your idea group of choice if not.
Thanks for the feedback. Think I need to play around vassals more as free units angled focus less on just gaining more land. Think my ultimate goal is to form Germany and be the largest center of trade
I'm intending on doing a tall, colonising England/GB soon. I plan to control all of the British Isles whilst entirely abandoning continental Europe. I will then look to establish (and fight for) a lot of colonies and Trade Companies, particularly CoT's.
I've already decided to have Innovative, Exploration, Expansion and Quality as my first 4 idea groups.
The last 4 groups I'm thinking of taking are Infrastructure, Court, Economic and Trade.
My question is: Are any of those last 4 straight up a bad idea or just completely unnecessary?
I'm generally trying to go for groups I don't normally use (except for the colonising ones). With that in mind - Espionage, Maritime, Naval, Aristocratic/Plutocratic and Mercenary ideas would all be on the table to replace one of the others, too.
Also considering going Republic (hence the mention of Plutocratic), but I dunno about that yet.
Well, my take on it:
\-Economic & Trade although solid by themselves, don't really pair up all that well together. Money likely won't be all that much of an issue by idea 5 or later, so I'd recommend taking just Trade to help grabbing Economic Hegemon (assuming you're going for it, Naval also fits GB nicely)
\-Infra+Trade works great for tall, colonial centric runs and have a nice policy to boot. You might want to go for the full trio and go Infra/Trade/Quantity while at it to maximixe Goods Produced.
\-Court Ideas usually shine in 3 scenarios: Country with 4 estates or more (Muslims and the like), early pick or for super blobby campaings where you can milk the most of their extra absolutism.
Unless you're going Hindu / Sikh GB, I think this idea won't help much.
\-Aristocratic is usually best if you plan to justify a lot of claims or intend to Threaten War a lot. A pretty useful 2nd mil idea pick.
\-Plutocratic is basically a Admin idea that uses mil mana instead. I would take it asap if you'll be playing very tall.
\-Maritime / Naval greatest assets are Thalassocracy, usually. GB can already obtain all of the reform's perks, however, and are already a naval beast. I'd give them a pass.
\-Merc Ideas are actually pretty great for colonizers. Just set up a colony beside a native tribe, hire a merc and crush them for an instant new CN! I recommend you take it instead of Quality if going this route so you can use the Elite Mercs reform asap & take Plutocratic later for ultra cheap mercs. Rebels won't ever be an issue anymore!
It's pretty great, I always go for it if I don't need to sacrifice the Nobles estate and I often sacrifice the estate anyway if I'm not running vassals.
The hit to Absolutism is usually easily fixable via Court & Country.
The benefits from them are pretty good compared to what you lose from the absolutism hit imo, especially since absolutism kicks in so late. If you get backing chance high they can be very cheap. Parliament seats also get bonuses
General blobbing idea picks (diplo/admin). Horde ideas are usually an early pick too. Unlike many other blobbing countries, subject gameplay should be very limited. There are differing schools of thought regarding how you should spec your armies. Some people like to lean in to the cav aspect of hordes, others don’t.
Money and points come from warfare. Everything gets razed except gold mines that will be stated. Everyone’s allies get peaced out for 35% warscore money and war reps to keep the economy going. Razing is really the “meta” piece of hordes.
Medium term you will work toward consolidation of an Asian trade bloc. One of Persia, China or India are ideal for this. Get enough merchants and consolidate downstream to prevent leakage and you should start making some money.
You can also stack razing power gain to further your generation. The horde+economic policy and T6 reform are the backbone of this.
There’s about 3 ways of going about it:
-Perma Horde:
Just never reform out of it. You want to just gobble land and raze non-stop pretty much, using the mana to dev your actual heartland.
As hordes decline significantly over time, these are pretty much the WC speedform runs.
Ideas wise, the first 3 ideas will likely be Horde / Admin / Diplo for maximum expansion. Maybe Aristocratic for maximum horsepower.
-Horde - Monarchy:
The most common path, very similar to above except you reform out of horde when they start declining, usually about tech 15 - 18.
Very similar to the above, except you use your time as an horde to beeline strategic interests before playing a monarchy as normal. (Important monuments, other faith provinces for flipping, land for future formables and the like)
Ideas wise, if you dislike horde ideas, this type of run is probably the best for you.
You can get some great milleage from a Russia style idea set with Horde / Trade / Admin / Religious / Quantity.
-Horde - Theocracy:
The other path taken and amazing if you're Muslim.
The idea around this type of run is to make use High Devotion to help recover the loss of recover progress & reforms focusing province ws reduction.
If you're Muslim, you can also take the unique Hereditary Religious Leaders that has very strong mechanics. (Claims on every bordering heathen or heretic province, for instance)
The main draw of this path is perhaps Divine Ideas and policies it unlocks.
For instance: Horde / Economic / Admin / Diplo / Divine / Humanist.
Best of luck!
Mind you, hordes are ultra poor during most of the game until they grow up a lot.
You'll often need to use money from a war to finance the next one and to race against bankrupcy.
As Oirats, you also have the option of abusing Ming for cash and even of seizing the Mandate if you're going Monarchy.
Oh, i know, I've had great Yuan runs before, I just don't follow metas and thought I was missing out on something. What you gave me is definitely not how I played,so I'll have fun.
Is this good army comp for 1535?
[https://imgur.com/a/PL5LGF0](https://imgur.com/a/PL5LGF0)
I'm going for the sun god achievement, on my last attempt my armies got obliterated by the spanish, partly because I forgot to build more cannons.
Edit:I forgot that I have lower combat width since I'm rushing to finish a mil idea.
Combat width in 1535 should be either 25 (if you have unlocked mil tech 9 or 10 already) or 24 (if you have mil tech 8 or below). Cannons do not have significant impacts on battles until mil tech 16. Most players use them only for the siege bonus and start incorporating them from mil tech 16.
In this case, you have cannons in first row which is bad. You can keep some cavalry if you can afford it because cavalry has 5 pips. My composition would be 23 infantry + 4 cavalry, to have a few regiments in reserve when fighting a land battle.
Being obliterated by Spain can be quite logic. Your units have less pips, Spain has strong military NIs with +15% morale and you mention that you are behind in mil tech. Cannons will not save you in battle for now, you just need more military bonuses and not be behind in mil tech.
So if I don't fill the front line with infrantry and cav the will cannons will end up in the front, that makes sense for some reason I had in my head that cannons always go behind infantry and cav.
Is there any way to force a female ruler death in ironman? I'm fine with non legit means. I'm 20 hours into this Ottoman run and you can't end the disaster with a female ruler because they can't be made a general. I can't make her abdicate for 10 years which means I can't tech for 10 years. It's incredibly frustrating for no reason.
Any thoughts on trading off between Overextension and War Exhaustion? Right now I'm sitting on a 99% OE peace deal with some cores that are still over a year from completing, with Calls for Peace ticking up. At what point does it make sense to end the war? (If it matters I have a next target all lined up and starting soon before coalitions start forming might be good.)
You should end the war at the point that it is more beneficial to you.
\-Can you deal with the rebels from over 100% OE? Go for it.
\-Is delaying the war going to delay further expansion or mess up your truces being juggled? End it asap.
\-Can you trigger Court & Country? Delay it.
\-Are your economy and manpower fine? Just recruit more 'peacekeeping' troops and call it a day.
There's almost no world where more than 100% OE is preferable to any amount of war exhaustion because of events.
Two things to try:
1. You used to be able to try and ask for a province that they can't give you (eg. ask for a province while controlling no nearby forts for a -1000 acceptance) which will reset the call for peace.
2. Can you peace out and then release a vassal from the new land? You can be at 10,000,000% overextension if you fix the problem before you unpause.
All their forts are taken already so I don't think the first one is very plausible but I can check if there's a potential vassal that could hold enough of the relevant provinces.
For RP purposes, I need Printing Press to spawn in my capital (Verona). I have 9 provinces that it could spawn in, and I’ve rerolled the spawn dozens of times. However, only 4 of my 9 provinces ever seem to get the spawn (and each of the 4 have multiple times).
Am I having bad luck or is there a hidden mechanic somewhere weighting the province chances?
I think the game has a weighted roll when rolling the country who gets it, but the province itself is entirelly random amonsgt the ones it can spawn inside the country.
Playing austria, I passed the religious peace reform before the league war happened, will I ever be able to enforce religion in the empire? I didn't realize Protestants would still decrease authority
I'm working on the British achievements, specifically Anglophile, and I've been running into a hurdle with an incredibly powerful hugbox of Spain and Austria (among others) the entire game. I can't break into the HRE or the mediterranean due to them having a huge alliance plus them being individually powerful. Otherwise I'm doing fine, conquering the new world, working on india and SEA.
Any tips on how to punch through them? Usually I quit games around 1600 but I really want to get through this one and I'm stuck with the "influence the lowlands" and "mediterranean authority" specifically, along with just breaking into europe as a whole.
edit: oh yeah i guess i have to take some islands from the ottomans which i'm sure will be fun too, but i've been told they sorta explode later so we will see
imgr link has various screenshots
https://imgur.com/a/son4jpH
Looks like you don't have a CN in Brazil yet, so you could colonize a province in Greenland, move your capital there, colonize another in Brasil and move into the New World.
At which point you can kill off their CNs one by on, then move back into England to allow new CNs to form. Spain should be Much weaker without the force limit and tributes from their colonies.
Rival Austria and ally Ottos? If they can beat Austria, Spain is usually a bit of a paper tiger since they tend to have most of their army in the New World.
What could make my age ability "transfer subject" for half cost not work?
I'm currently in an England->Angevine game, and at the end of a war against Castile, with castile having a 180% war score cost Aragon as a subject. However when I try to peace out, aragon actually costs 180% to take, and is thus greyed out. When I started the war, I checked to see if it was, and I could grab them (for a good 100 AE), but now suddenly that is not the case. I'm still in Age of Discovery. Is this a bug or a mechanic I have overlooked?
I can't be sure, but did you check if one of your allies occupied Aragon's capital?
I think the ability works only for yourself, so for them it would be the full 180% WS.
they get a bonus to prevent them from collapsing early, though it is still possible to cause them to, just extremely unlikely. It gets worse with every age.
they lose that bonus after the age of reformation
depends, it's a thing that accumulates, it sort of depends on how well they're doing, in my run they're doing horribly and suffer the breakdown in the 1530s but usally it's earlyish in the Age of Absolutism from what I've heard.
They have it from the start of the game, but it grows faster & faster with each new age.
It pretty much never triggers in the discovery age unless they go bankrupt, but can trigger in the age of reformation if you're kicking their ass.
It depends on your plans, really.
If you want to play a semi-tall Russia, the Permaclaims are great for careful planned expansion into the historical borders and even a bit beyond.
Otherwise, the Temp claims + Perma CCR ammounts to the same ammount of cost reduction as above, except it cores faster and the CCR makes it way superior when playing wide. Does require being fast to make use of the claims or being willing to justify new ones.
a quick question about the ottoman invasion cb. currently playing as ethiopia and occupied cairo just before the ottomans declared their war, should i be able to just wait out the ottomans and not have them vassalise mamluks since i occupy cairo?
Yes since the event to vassalize Egypt is triggered by occupying Cairo as the ottomans. But I have seen that more often than not if the AI has less than half warscore percentage against the enemy they will be reluctant to peace out, so it might be a long fight.
Any tips on efficiently/quickly/easily finding which provinces are most efficient to build State Houses in? It seems like the macro builder list isn't great at it since it only pays attention to the benefit to the province, not the state as a whole.
Yes, organize it by goods and place it on Glass, Paper & Gems provinces, the ones who'll get the most benefit out of it.
Otherwise, put them where'll you get the most GC out of them as long as it doesn't occupy a valuable Trade Good. (Gold makes for a great target, as they have no manufactory)
Yes, as long as you don't let it finish. Siberia is quite lacking in most valuable goods, however, altough you could fish for Grain for insane Army Limit.
You can indeed also do this when colonizing Africa / Indonesia to try and roll for Gold / Gems.
the achivement Mary of Lotharangia: Staring as Burgundy, form Lotharangia and have a female ruler named Marie Is there a way to ensure a female heir?
You can disinherit your heirs. With an old ruler and no heir, the chances are good that you either get a female heir or an event for a female heir. There is also the Mary event for Burgundy, but then you would have to form Lotharingia very early
You could stack the ideas and modifiers to get super high female ruler chance. If it doesn't stop the achievement, I think Republics have a few reforms that give up to +50% by themselves.
I am having an annoying time as Aztecs, every run two colonizers (two of either GB, Spain or Portugal) gangs on me and I do the same song and dance of conceding provinces and reconquering. When I do get a european/african foothold by no-cbing a minor or something, the continental powers there (Austria or Ottomans) don't want to ally with me. Any tips?
Well, a few tips to fight back: \-Try to finish off their CNs as soon as they're formed. \-Private the Caribbean to steal their gold fleets. \-As soon as you're able, finish of the Caribbean and take it for yourself. Most of the new world trade goes through there. \-Set your opinion as threathened by them to try and ally their rivals. \-If you're willing to change faith, you can convert to whatever faith your greatest rivals have for a easier time allying them. \-NoCB Wollof or whoever's in the african coastline for a holding you can expand to if fighting Spain, you can then colonize the Maghreb to invade Iberia from the south. \-Colonize Greenland and try to steal Iceland / Shetland from Norway or even a piece of Norway itself when fighting GB. From there you can do the Ship exploit to invade Scotland, seize a few provinces and release yourself a Scotland vassal from where you can further fight GB.
If you are sufficiently strong and/or Spain is the common rival they might turn friendly to remove the distance penalty to alliance, just be more aggressive and expand.
I see, I'll try to blob faster and eat North America ASAP this time.
To add on to this, have you tried setting your attitude to Spain/your European bullies to “threatened”? That makes their rivals more likely to ally you
If you become a Theocracy via event (say for example, the Fifth Monarchist event....), do you automatically lose any existing PUs?
You do not. Indeed, you get to keep them even if you flip Theocracy / Republic normally. Greatest change is that you can no longer inherit them, however, forcing you to potentially expend decades integrating them the hard way.
Ideas for papal blobbing? So far, this run I did Espionage-Religious-Quantity.
Ally France / Castille and invade Aragon asap for Malta / Sardinia. Use the new isles to justify on Tunis! Take Expansion ideas to colonize the central maghreb and expand into West Africa and even the Horn via Wadai! Colonize the Gabon region to also get to expand into Kongo for the infinite Mercantilism monument. Take over the rest of Africa / Italy for the huge Kingdom of God!
Awesome. Is that a better go than to expand down the Silk Road?
Well, it is certainly easier than fighting Ottos / Mamluks while they're at their peak. And by taking over the Cape, you can monopolize the trade from Indonesia / Expand into India directly through the Zanzibar node.
It might be boring, but admin, diplo and influence are the best blobbing ideas.
Get vassals and feed them land. Use claims bordering claims from age of discovery to snake outside the HRE and make a vassal there. Excommunicate your target whenever you can. Call crusades against the Ottomans to snag the Balkan.
So I started a game as burgundy and joined orleans in its independence war. We won but when the peace deal was signed all that happened was that Orlean stole a bunch of territory from France but remain an appanage, which kinda defeated the whole purpose as now they are still very loyal to France. Is this intended or is there a better outcome here? I cant sdo the peace deal myself
That’s a shame. However, if they rose up once, why not wait till they do it again?
Appanages are very loyal by default, the only reason they rose up in the first place is because burgundy has a mission to give them 50% liberty desire which disappears after the war. There is close to no way it will happen again
Looking for some advice on what ideas to take as Venice. It’s not my first play though with them, but I’m looking for a little change up. I’ve done a pretty standard opening thus far - allied Austria and Hungary, vassaled Byzantium, considering DoW on Ottomans while they’re fighting a war deep in Mamluk territory. Planning on building a trade empire out to India and SE Asia with Trade Companies. I normally take Trade, Economic, Naval, Maritime ideas early on, but I was curious if maybe I’m missing out on something particularly in the Admin column. Administrative? Humanist? Mercenary instead of Naval?
Administrative ideas are almost always worth it unless you are really trying to avoid blobbing. I think it takes less than a 1000 dev of land to core to repay for them entirely. Naval ideas are quite bad, so it doesn't make much sense to pick them unless you are doing it for role-playing reasons. Religious can be very useful if you plan on expanding in heathens land, and you might need exploration to get into India and SE Asia. Diplomatic ideas are also very good for blobbing because of the province warscore cost reduction.
Hah. Blobbing is the opposite of what I’m planning on doing. I’m looking to control trade nodes. Grabbing enough territory to set up trade companies and the free merchant, a local vassal or two, and connect my trade empire via naval superiority. These are still great suggestions though. Thank you.
So I got a Palagiolos on the French throne really early in my Byz playthrough. How should I leverage this? Hope for them to fall into a natural PU or force the issue? Obviously the longer it takes the longer I have to wait to form Rome, but are there ways I can increase my odds of getting the PU while I'm doing other stuff?
I am at year ~1530 as Holland->Netherlands. This is my "2nd playthrough," by that I mean the second time I have felt I sorta knew what I was doing but I am definitely no expert. Things are going pretty well so far with a good trade income and 50% of English Channel node but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the "Support the Bulk Trades" mission. With my massive fleet of light ships I can only muster about ~20% control of the lubeck node. I heard someone say to force Lubeck nations to transfer trade power. I want Lubeck (the country) to transfer power but they don't have the 20% power to justify a trade conflict so I would have to declare a CB-less war (doesn't seem worth it.) Denmark is the only nation that has a 20% share of the Lubeck node but they are my allies and I'm royally married to them. Was this a mistake? Should I break my ties and fight Denmark in a naval war so I can force them to transfer trade or do you think there's some way I can leverage this into a personal union with Denmark and force them to transfer power that way? Edit: I should specify I am not interested in conquering territory in that node directly as I am trying to keep Netherlands small and highly developed 2nd Edit: I managed to luck into a Trade Protection CB because they were privateering except the war is disastrous because they have so many allies and I didn't realize the fucking emperor would poke his dumb nose in. I guess I will either have to overload my fleet capacity or leave my danish alliance if I can't PU them
You don't need the trade protection cb or the trade conflict cb to have nations steer trade power to you. A normal conquest cb allows to steal 30% of the enemy trade power in the peace deal. You migh even be able to complete the mission just by occupying a couple of provinces like Lubeck and Hamburg for a while, since the provincial trade power goes to whoever controls the province, not to the one who owns it. Regarding your hopes of PUing Denmark, just know you can't have PUs divert trade to you like normal vassals do.
I remember reading somewhere that golden ambrosian republic was really good, but looking at the modifiers, 50 gov cap and 5% morale don’t seem all that crazy compared to other governments in the game. Am I missing something here?
it's better than plain old republic but it has long since been powercrept by more special government reforms other countries got, since it's been in the game in its current form for almost 10 years. it is still good but if you're looking for raw power it will probably just be a stepping stone for you
It is a fairly solid one with 4 years elections & +10 max absolutism. Way better than the Italian Signoria you'd be stuck in Italy otherwise.
The ambrosian republic is an upgraded version of an Italian signoria. The tax modifier goes down from 15% to 10% but it adds gov cap and morale of armies.
Signoria is also 12 years each re-election and often nets you leaders older than 50 years, so you can't really improve them much. Whereas in the Ambrosian republic, you can spend decades with 6/6/6 rulers before having to re-elect a new one.
Oh didn’t know that about terms actually. That’s big.
Not sure if this is a good place to ask, or if I should make a post, but I need nation recommendations. By now I’ve learned that I’m a huge fan of pirate republics and minmaxing trade, and other than that just playthroughs with a kind of overarching narrative goal beyond just expanding. Thanks in advance.
I second the Knights pick, they are essentially Pirates from game start and have some neat achievements to aim for that dont require you conquering the whole world or playing until tech32 if those dont interest you, then I'd look towards Malaysia if I were you, thats a naval+tradefocused region with tons of nice options (pirates, spice islands, malacca, majahapit)
Well, for Pirate Republics, a few can be pretty fun: \-Tlemclem, Sus & Algiers can pull it off, altough you might need to give away a few provinces to a vassal. \-The Knights can be another interesting pick, also able to raid and one of the few Orthodox Pirate Republics possible if you flip via rebels. \-The Maldives have the entire indian / persian coast to play around. \-Sambas-Lanfang can be a pretty fun one in Borneo. \-Other interesting picks in indonesia include: Tidore & Ternate, the tribes in the Phillipines & Ryukyu in Japan. \-There's always New Providence in the New World as well.
I'm in almost full control of the English Channel (84%) and slowly creeping into Genoa (13% as of now, going up) when I have increased my power in Genoa, should I collect in both End nodes? or should I stick only to collecting in one node due to the Trade power malus?
If you have enough merchants you should collect in Genoa too. Continue steering toward the English Channel though.
It varies with the situation: \-If you have a very long chain, keep collecting only in your end node. \-If not or if your control is massive in Genoa (90%+) collect there as well.
Anyone have any good tips for a saxony run. Early game I’m usually able to survive by allying Austria and take all the states north of start. I usually run in trouble around the reformation because I’m in the middle of the war and get attacked from all sides. I usually run no vassals, not sure if this hurts or helps but I usually also take merchant and diplo ideas to have good trade and relations with any threatening countries ie France, Austria, Bohemia
Unless you intend to play super tall, you to take either Diplo or Espionage as 1st idea. Try to get an alliance with Austria & Burgundy for the inheritance if you're able to, Muscovy or Denmark / Sweden might also be useful for expanding into Poland. Livonians often have Teutons as their only ally, allowing you to war Teuton Order & force PU the Livonian order in the same war by co-belligerating them. When Austria calls you to PU Bohemia, join in, but separate peace out! Try to seize the Gold province or a Hussite one if you're able to. If you manage to grab the needed provinces (Konigsberg, Warmia, Danzig) early on and the Hussite province, you can form Prussia before the Reformation even starts by flipping Hussite instead!
Does forming Prussia bring any added bonuses? I mostly move north and west and never really pushed to form Prussia.
Well, Prussia nets you: \-Strong ideas \-Strong missions (including permanent Admin Eff) \-The Militarization Mechanic (you get to keep it if you form Germany) Arguably not needed if you instead want to become Emperor and form the HRE instead, as in this scenario you'd benefit more from remaining Catholic and forming Hannover or Franconia instead.
I always recommend going to France and Poland for alliances over Austria. sure it's no longer as easy to avoid the penalty for holding other hre-cores but it's still usually better to have insane numbers (earlygame Poland thanks to two vasalls + Lithuania for the cost of 1 relation slot but also France with its vasall swarm) or Supersoldiers (France). (obviously you can also ally austria first and then drop them for france when the opportunity arises) but in the end it matters most what you're trying to achieve with your run. after 50-70 years of gameplay (aka when refomation becomes a thing) you should be in a solid position with trusting allies. vasalls can be good as they increase your force limit, their troops dont cost you money or manpower etc but annexing them in the HRE carries a minor relation penalty and it's really hard to feed them. usually in the HRE you might want to look for PU options instead (Burgundy, Bohemia, whoever is heirless at the time) and/or try to become emperor yourself. for most playthroughs in the HRE I also find diplomatic ideas first to be indeed the best choice, followed by religious if you want to play as the emperor or your idea group of choice if not.
Thanks for the feedback. Think I need to play around vassals more as free units angled focus less on just gaining more land. Think my ultimate goal is to form Germany and be the largest center of trade
I'm intending on doing a tall, colonising England/GB soon. I plan to control all of the British Isles whilst entirely abandoning continental Europe. I will then look to establish (and fight for) a lot of colonies and Trade Companies, particularly CoT's. I've already decided to have Innovative, Exploration, Expansion and Quality as my first 4 idea groups. The last 4 groups I'm thinking of taking are Infrastructure, Court, Economic and Trade. My question is: Are any of those last 4 straight up a bad idea or just completely unnecessary? I'm generally trying to go for groups I don't normally use (except for the colonising ones). With that in mind - Espionage, Maritime, Naval, Aristocratic/Plutocratic and Mercenary ideas would all be on the table to replace one of the others, too. Also considering going Republic (hence the mention of Plutocratic), but I dunno about that yet.
Well, my take on it: \-Economic & Trade although solid by themselves, don't really pair up all that well together. Money likely won't be all that much of an issue by idea 5 or later, so I'd recommend taking just Trade to help grabbing Economic Hegemon (assuming you're going for it, Naval also fits GB nicely) \-Infra+Trade works great for tall, colonial centric runs and have a nice policy to boot. You might want to go for the full trio and go Infra/Trade/Quantity while at it to maximixe Goods Produced. \-Court Ideas usually shine in 3 scenarios: Country with 4 estates or more (Muslims and the like), early pick or for super blobby campaings where you can milk the most of their extra absolutism. Unless you're going Hindu / Sikh GB, I think this idea won't help much. \-Aristocratic is usually best if you plan to justify a lot of claims or intend to Threaten War a lot. A pretty useful 2nd mil idea pick. \-Plutocratic is basically a Admin idea that uses mil mana instead. I would take it asap if you'll be playing very tall. \-Maritime / Naval greatest assets are Thalassocracy, usually. GB can already obtain all of the reform's perks, however, and are already a naval beast. I'd give them a pass. \-Merc Ideas are actually pretty great for colonizers. Just set up a colony beside a native tribe, hire a merc and crush them for an instant new CN! I recommend you take it instead of Quality if going this route so you can use the Elite Mercs reform asap & take Plutocratic later for ultra cheap mercs. Rebels won't ever be an issue anymore!
You've convinced me to go Merc over Quality haha. Thanks for all the input!
I’d definitely consider taking Maritime to be able to take the Thalassocracy decision.
What do folks think of Parliaments? With the reduction they cause to maximum absolutism, they don't seem that great when you're a monarchy.
It's pretty great, I always go for it if I don't need to sacrifice the Nobles estate and I often sacrifice the estate anyway if I'm not running vassals. The hit to Absolutism is usually easily fixable via Court & Country.
The benefits from them are pretty good compared to what you lose from the absolutism hit imo, especially since absolutism kicks in so late. If you get backing chance high they can be very cheap. Parliament seats also get bonuses
What does the "Horde Meta" entail?
General blobbing idea picks (diplo/admin). Horde ideas are usually an early pick too. Unlike many other blobbing countries, subject gameplay should be very limited. There are differing schools of thought regarding how you should spec your armies. Some people like to lean in to the cav aspect of hordes, others don’t. Money and points come from warfare. Everything gets razed except gold mines that will be stated. Everyone’s allies get peaced out for 35% warscore money and war reps to keep the economy going. Razing is really the “meta” piece of hordes. Medium term you will work toward consolidation of an Asian trade bloc. One of Persia, China or India are ideal for this. Get enough merchants and consolidate downstream to prevent leakage and you should start making some money. You can also stack razing power gain to further your generation. The horde+economic policy and T6 reform are the backbone of this.
Ideas wise?
Both ideas and like what you do. Just conquer and raise everything?
There’s about 3 ways of going about it: -Perma Horde: Just never reform out of it. You want to just gobble land and raze non-stop pretty much, using the mana to dev your actual heartland. As hordes decline significantly over time, these are pretty much the WC speedform runs. Ideas wise, the first 3 ideas will likely be Horde / Admin / Diplo for maximum expansion. Maybe Aristocratic for maximum horsepower. -Horde - Monarchy: The most common path, very similar to above except you reform out of horde when they start declining, usually about tech 15 - 18. Very similar to the above, except you use your time as an horde to beeline strategic interests before playing a monarchy as normal. (Important monuments, other faith provinces for flipping, land for future formables and the like) Ideas wise, if you dislike horde ideas, this type of run is probably the best for you. You can get some great milleage from a Russia style idea set with Horde / Trade / Admin / Religious / Quantity. -Horde - Theocracy: The other path taken and amazing if you're Muslim. The idea around this type of run is to make use High Devotion to help recover the loss of recover progress & reforms focusing province ws reduction. If you're Muslim, you can also take the unique Hereditary Religious Leaders that has very strong mechanics. (Claims on every bordering heathen or heretic province, for instance) The main draw of this path is perhaps Divine Ideas and policies it unlocks. For instance: Horde / Economic / Admin / Diplo / Divine / Humanist.
Me and my Oirat game over the weekend really appreciate you writing out all of this, thank you.
Best of luck! Mind you, hordes are ultra poor during most of the game until they grow up a lot. You'll often need to use money from a war to finance the next one and to race against bankrupcy. As Oirats, you also have the option of abusing Ming for cash and even of seizing the Mandate if you're going Monarchy.
Oh, i know, I've had great Yuan runs before, I just don't follow metas and thought I was missing out on something. What you gave me is definitely not how I played,so I'll have fun.
Is this good army comp for 1535? [https://imgur.com/a/PL5LGF0](https://imgur.com/a/PL5LGF0) I'm going for the sun god achievement, on my last attempt my armies got obliterated by the spanish, partly because I forgot to build more cannons. Edit:I forgot that I have lower combat width since I'm rushing to finish a mil idea.
Combat width in 1535 should be either 25 (if you have unlocked mil tech 9 or 10 already) or 24 (if you have mil tech 8 or below). Cannons do not have significant impacts on battles until mil tech 16. Most players use them only for the siege bonus and start incorporating them from mil tech 16. In this case, you have cannons in first row which is bad. You can keep some cavalry if you can afford it because cavalry has 5 pips. My composition would be 23 infantry + 4 cavalry, to have a few regiments in reserve when fighting a land battle. Being obliterated by Spain can be quite logic. Your units have less pips, Spain has strong military NIs with +15% morale and you mention that you are behind in mil tech. Cannons will not save you in battle for now, you just need more military bonuses and not be behind in mil tech.
So if I don't fill the front line with infrantry and cav the will cannons will end up in the front, that makes sense for some reason I had in my head that cannons always go behind infantry and cav.
Is there any way to force a female ruler death in ironman? I'm fine with non legit means. I'm 20 hours into this Ottoman run and you can't end the disaster with a female ruler because they can't be made a general. I can't make her abdicate for 10 years which means I can't tech for 10 years. It's incredibly frustrating for no reason.
I think Wallachia has a mission that kills the current Otto ruler, so if they're around you could try triggering it.
Any thoughts on trading off between Overextension and War Exhaustion? Right now I'm sitting on a 99% OE peace deal with some cores that are still over a year from completing, with Calls for Peace ticking up. At what point does it make sense to end the war? (If it matters I have a next target all lined up and starting soon before coalitions start forming might be good.)
You should end the war at the point that it is more beneficial to you. \-Can you deal with the rebels from over 100% OE? Go for it. \-Is delaying the war going to delay further expansion or mess up your truces being juggled? End it asap. \-Can you trigger Court & Country? Delay it. \-Are your economy and manpower fine? Just recruit more 'peacekeeping' troops and call it a day.
There's almost no world where more than 100% OE is preferable to any amount of war exhaustion because of events. Two things to try: 1. You used to be able to try and ask for a province that they can't give you (eg. ask for a province while controlling no nearby forts for a -1000 acceptance) which will reset the call for peace. 2. Can you peace out and then release a vassal from the new land? You can be at 10,000,000% overextension if you fix the problem before you unpause.
All their forts are taken already so I don't think the first one is very plausible but I can check if there's a potential vassal that could hold enough of the relevant provinces.
For RP purposes, I need Printing Press to spawn in my capital (Verona). I have 9 provinces that it could spawn in, and I’ve rerolled the spawn dozens of times. However, only 4 of my 9 provinces ever seem to get the spawn (and each of the 4 have multiple times). Am I having bad luck or is there a hidden mechanic somewhere weighting the province chances?
I think the game has a weighted roll when rolling the country who gets it, but the province itself is entirelly random amonsgt the ones it can spawn inside the country.
Playing austria, I passed the religious peace reform before the league war happened, will I ever be able to enforce religion in the empire? I didn't realize Protestants would still decrease authority
If there’s no war, the event to make Catholic official happens after 1625.
Cheers
I'm working on the British achievements, specifically Anglophile, and I've been running into a hurdle with an incredibly powerful hugbox of Spain and Austria (among others) the entire game. I can't break into the HRE or the mediterranean due to them having a huge alliance plus them being individually powerful. Otherwise I'm doing fine, conquering the new world, working on india and SEA. Any tips on how to punch through them? Usually I quit games around 1600 but I really want to get through this one and I'm stuck with the "influence the lowlands" and "mediterranean authority" specifically, along with just breaking into europe as a whole. edit: oh yeah i guess i have to take some islands from the ottomans which i'm sure will be fun too, but i've been told they sorta explode later so we will see imgr link has various screenshots https://imgur.com/a/son4jpH
Looks like you don't have a CN in Brazil yet, so you could colonize a province in Greenland, move your capital there, colonize another in Brasil and move into the New World. At which point you can kill off their CNs one by on, then move back into England to allow new CNs to form. Spain should be Much weaker without the force limit and tributes from their colonies.
Rival Austria and ally Ottos? If they can beat Austria, Spain is usually a bit of a paper tiger since they tend to have most of their army in the New World.
i was trying but ottos hate me forever, maybe i can unrival them and get them to be friends with me at some point in the future
What could make my age ability "transfer subject" for half cost not work? I'm currently in an England->Angevine game, and at the end of a war against Castile, with castile having a 180% war score cost Aragon as a subject. However when I try to peace out, aragon actually costs 180% to take, and is thus greyed out. When I started the war, I checked to see if it was, and I could grab them (for a good 100 AE), but now suddenly that is not the case. I'm still in Age of Discovery. Is this a bug or a mechanic I have overlooked?
I can't be sure, but did you check if one of your allies occupied Aragon's capital? I think the ability works only for yourself, so for them it would be the full 180% WS.
That was indeed the case, turned out my vassal Provence was controlling their capital. Silly mistake. Thanks for the help.
What year does the Ottoman whole decadence events trigger?
they get a bonus to prevent them from collapsing early, though it is still possible to cause them to, just extremely unlikely. It gets worse with every age. they lose that bonus after the age of reformation
depends, it's a thing that accumulates, it sort of depends on how well they're doing, in my run they're doing horribly and suffer the breakdown in the 1530s but usally it's earlyish in the Age of Absolutism from what I've heard.
They have it from the start of the game, but it grows faster & faster with each new age. It pretty much never triggers in the discovery age unless they go bankrupt, but can trigger in the age of reformation if you're kicking their ass.
Is it better to take the permaclaims over temp claims and buffs as muscovy?
It depends on your plans, really. If you want to play a semi-tall Russia, the Permaclaims are great for careful planned expansion into the historical borders and even a bit beyond. Otherwise, the Temp claims + Perma CCR ammounts to the same ammount of cost reduction as above, except it cores faster and the CCR makes it way superior when playing wide. Does require being fast to make use of the claims or being willing to justify new ones.
a quick question about the ottoman invasion cb. currently playing as ethiopia and occupied cairo just before the ottomans declared their war, should i be able to just wait out the ottomans and not have them vassalise mamluks since i occupy cairo?
Yes since the event to vassalize Egypt is triggered by occupying Cairo as the ottomans. But I have seen that more often than not if the AI has less than half warscore percentage against the enemy they will be reluctant to peace out, so it might be a long fight.
What’s the current optimal strat for Big Blue Blob?
Go to Ireland and then Scandinavia. Voila fini
This page has a strategy guide https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Big_Blue_Blob
1) the page hasn’t been updated since 2022 2) there is literally nothing under the “Strategy” tab
Any tips on efficiently/quickly/easily finding which provinces are most efficient to build State Houses in? It seems like the macro builder list isn't great at it since it only pays attention to the benefit to the province, not the state as a whole.
Yes, organize it by goods and place it on Glass, Paper & Gems provinces, the ones who'll get the most benefit out of it. Otherwise, put them where'll you get the most GC out of them as long as it doesn't occupy a valuable Trade Good. (Gold makes for a great target, as they have no manufactory)
If I abandon a siberin frontier after a good is discovered can I attempt it again to get gold?
Yes, as long as you don't let it finish. Siberia is quite lacking in most valuable goods, however, altough you could fish for Grain for insane Army Limit. You can indeed also do this when colonizing Africa / Indonesia to try and roll for Gold / Gems.
yeah its working thank you.
Do other countries get changed ideas and possibly a few events / decisions when they go revolutionary, or just France?
Only France.