Europa Universalis III Tips & Hints

[Lawrence of Arabia]

INFLATION

It is best to keep your inflation at 0.00 a year. Inflation can quickly become a beast that essentially destroys your income and development of technology. Inflation can be helped with the National Idea of National Bank (-.10 Inflation) but for most countries it comes a little too late. If you have 30 inflation, it will take 300 years to fix it using only NB.

However, many countries do not have the luxury of avoiding inflation due to the fact they need to mint to achieve a positive income. If one has a negative income and has to take out a loan when their treasure runs low; it is essentially the same as adding inflation.

Tips to lowering and controlling inflation:

1.) Reduce the maintenance level of armies and navies during times of peace. Their morale will be much lower, but you can save a lot of money and thus not have to mint as much!

2.) Grab National Bank if your inflation is extremely difficult to manage

3.) Never let your inflation increase by any more than .1 a year unless you need to to prevent bankruptcy.

4.) Get to Government Tech Level 24 (EU3+VA)/27 (IN) and build Tax Assessors! These will reduce inflation quite a bit.

5.) Go to war with small nations, especially pagan nations in the New World (read: Aztecs) and, instead of annexing them, demand a king's ransom in gold. Pagan nations cut off from Europe will produce income that they can't spend due to their technology levels. Not every successful war has to end with annexation or just the ceding of provinces. This increased capital will allow you to lower your minting.

6.) Moving your policy slider towards Centralization will reduce inflation as well. Be aware of its penalties, however.

7.) You can keep the income slider from moving by right clicking on it! This can be done for every single slider in EU3, HoI2, and Victoria. Hell, maybe with CK too.

8.) Probably one of the bigger, more common mistakes: Don't mint just to attain a positive monthly income. You should be able to rely on your yearly tax income to keep your economy afloat.


<MORE COMING WHEN I HAVE THE TIME>

WESTERNIZATION

Westernization is a great idea for non-Latin countries that are trying to get on par with their Western European counterparts. I'll quickly show you the steps to becoming Western.

Tip 1: Get a western neighbor.

This may be harder than it sounds. You want a western neighbor that won't invade you and overrun you. However, you won't have to worry about this if you, yourself, are also powerful. There are two ways I know of forcing a shared border between a Latin tech group neighbor and yourself.

The most direct way works if you're sufficiently powerful -- go to war with a weak neighbor of a Western country that isn't the same religion as your target. If you go to war with someone of the same faith their relation will drop with you once you annex or force them to cede territory.

The second, more indirect way of going about doing this, is to sell a useless, isolated province to a western neighbor (can't be an island!). This will give you a shared border. You just have to perform step 2 quickly if they are strong.

(TIP: It would behoove you to establish a shared border with a weak nation rather than a large nation that may want to start conquering your surrounding territory.)

Step 2: Build relations to above 100. (If not in Eastern or Muslim tech group)

This can be done in a myriad of ways, but some ways are just not possible with negative relations.

-200 - 0: Accept any diplomatic offers from your targeted nation unless it would be damaging to your nation. Also, send gifts to the nation.

0 - 99: Continue to send gifts if you have the gold. Starting with either 3.1 or 3.2 you can also get a small boost from guaranteeing independence and it doesn't cost money. Offering military access or royal marriages also work. If you can manage it, establish an alliance as well!

Step 3: Wait for a ruler with an Administration level of at least 5 (if not Eastern or Muslim)

The Western Influences (Napoleon's Ambition), Westernization, and Western Culture events all have different requirements, let's start with Western Influences.

Western Culture is a Napoleon's Ambition country event in which an New World, African or Asian Tech nation can become a Latin Tech nation.

The Mean-Time-To-Happen (MTTH): 180 months = 15 years

• An Administrative setting of 7 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• An Administrative setting of 8 decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• A Military setting of 7 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• A Military setting of 8 decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Having a Statesman advisor decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -3 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -4 decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -5 decreases MTTH by 36 months.

If you have an Administration and Military level of 8, a Statesman adviser, and a Innovated/Narrow-minded level of -5, your MTTH will be reduced to 54 months (4.5 years).

• A Military setting of 4 increases MTTH by 18 months.
• A Military setting of 3 increases MTTH by 36 months.
• Not having a Statesman advisor increases MTTH by 18 months.

Having a bad military ruler and no statesman adviser could prolong this process by 54 months as well.

Consequences of accepting Western Culture:

• Technology group changed to Latin.
• Increase Tax Base and Manpower in a random province by 1.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider changed by -1 (moved 1 step to the left).
• Lose 2 Stability points.
• One Receives the 'Western Influences' event modifier for 200 days with the following effects:
  
  • Increase Merchant Placement Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Compete Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Cost by 20%.
  • Increase cost of Infantry, Cavalry, Big Ships and Light Ships by 10% each.

Western Influences is the Easternization event for Muslim tech group countries.

Requirements are different from the previous event!!

• One must be in the Muslim Technology group.
• One's Innovated/Narrowminded slider must be set no greater than -3.
• One's Monarch must have both a Military and an Administrative setting of at least 6.

MTTH: 180 months -- 15 years

• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -4 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -5 decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Having a level 5 Army Reformer decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Having a level 6 Army Reformer decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Having a level 5 Statesman decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Having a level 6 Statesman decreases MTTH by 54 months.
• Having any other Statesman adviser decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Having a Monarch with an Administrative setting of 8 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Having a Monarch with an Administrative setting of 9 decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Having a Neighbor in the Latin or Eastern Tech group decreases MTTH 18 months.

Best-case scenario: 0 months. So therefore, I assume it would happen immediately.

• Not having a Statesman advisor increases MTTH by 18 months.

Worst-case scenario: 198 months = 16.5 years

Consequences:

• Technology group changed to Eastern.
• Increase Tax Base and Manpower in a random province by 1.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider changed by -1 (moved 1 step to the left).
• Lose 2 Stability points.
• One Receives the 'Western Influences' event modifier for 200 days with the following effects:
  
  • Increase Merchant Placement Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Compete Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Cost by 20%.
  • Increase cost of Infantry, Cavalry, Big Ships and Light Ships by 10% each.
  
  

Waves of Influence is the Westernization event for Eastern tech-group countries. (Read: Eastern European, not Asian)

Requirements:

• One must be in the Eastern Technology group.
• One's Innovated/Narrowminded slider must be set no greater than -1.
• One must have a level 5 Statesman advisor.
• One's Monarch must have an Administrative setting of at least 7.

MTTH: 180 months = 15 years

• A level 6 Statesman decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• A Monarch with an Administrative setting of 8 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• A Monarch with an Administrative setting of 9 decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -3 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -4 decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Centralization/Decentralization slider of -3 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Centralization/Decentralization slider of -4 decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Having a neighbor in the Latin Tech group decreases MTTH 18 months.
• A Naval Reformer Advisor decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• An Army Reformer Advisor decreases MTTH by 18 months.

Best case scenario: 18 months = 1.5 years

• Not having a Naval Reformer Advisor increases MTTH by 18 months.
• Not having an Army Reformer Advisor increases MTTH by 18 months.

Worst-case scenario: 216 months = 18 years


Consequences:

• Technology group changed to Latin.
• Increase Tax Base and Manpower in a random province by 1.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider changed by -1 (moved 1 step to the left).
• Lose 2 Stability points.
• One Receives the 'Western Influences' event modifier for 200 days with the following effects:
  
  • Increase Merchant Placement Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Compete Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Cost by 20%.
  • Increase cost of Infantry, Cavalry, Big Ships and Light Ships by 10% each.
  
  

Feel free to request tips on aspects of EU3.

[Savage_Swede]

Never underestimate your enemy. Larger nations are extremely good at pulling thousands of men out of their own arse, so be prepared for it. And make sure you have troops to spend. If you know that you only have one or two armies that will win or loose this war for you, train more troops at any cost. I learned this the hard way when Austria managed to completely erase 16.000 of my fresh fresh troops in two battles.

[Kennylz]

Good tips. I'd really like to see a guide on hyper-westernization as an inferior tech group. Just -something- to get me that technological edge, because I hate falling behind. Maybe even a technology primer period, as I know how to handle things in general, but I just know I could be doing it better.

Question: Is it worth it, if I am in a very safe position against a weak enemy in a war, to prolong the war far longer than I'd need to secure total victory just so I can keep raising war taxes? I know it raises war weariness, but it is such a minor trade off, especially when I go long stretches of time without war. It might seem gamey, but I could imagine a machiavellian ruler actually employing this to artificially manipulate his people.

Question: What are the rules added with the expansions to help alleviate ping pong wars? I heard there were some new things added, but I guess I keep fighting in the old way because I don't see much of a change.

Question: What are some good choices in the 'options' categories, ala historical leaders, lucky nations, etc? I'm not entirely sure what I'd prefer, because I don't know what they do.

Question: I don't see hardly any use for spies, unless I have a huge disposable income, outside of maybe to get a core on someone. Are spies more important than I think?

Question: For some reason I didn't see Royal Marriage as even an option playing as Japan. Is it due to government type, or some slider setting? Other Asians had them.

With some of those answered I'm sure I'll be well on my way to world conquest...

[Spart]

Question: Is it worth it, if I am in a very safe position against a weak enemy in a war, to prolong the war far longer than I'd need to secure total victory just so I can keep raising war taxes? I know it raises war weariness, but it is such a minor trade off, especially when I go long stretches of time without war. It might seem gamey, but I could imagine a machiavellian ruler actually employing this to artificially manipulate his people.

I don't know what version you're playing, in pre-In nomine this seems to work quite well actually. In nomine has more serious war exhaustion I believe so not sure about that..

Question: What are the rules added with the expansions to help alleviate ping pong wars? I heard there were some new things added, but I guess I keep fighting in the old way because I don't see much of a change.

In nomine makes it possible to completely destroy armies that are more than one tenth of your own army. Also there's a rule that armies can't flee before they've fought at least a few days, and the reinforcement speeds are much slower.

Question: What are some good choices in the 'options' categories, ala historical leaders, lucky nations, etc? I'm not entirely sure what I'd prefer, because I don't know what they do.

Historical leaders doesn't really work that well, since there will be countries with no leaders at all, some monarchs live forever and you can't do royal marriages yourself. Lucky nations option gives bonuses to 10 countries, random or historical, so some major powers will form more likely, choose any option you prefer here. For other options I use default settings myself.

Question: I don't see hardly any use for spies, unless I have a huge disposable income, outside of maybe to get a core on someone. Are spies more important than I think?

Fabricating claims (although you don't get a core in In Nomine) and inciting natives are the missions I mostly use. Sowing discontent is also surprisingly useful when used on a large nation with internal problems. So I'd say spies are definetely useful.

Question: For some reason I didn't see Royal Marriage as even an option playing as Japan. Is it due to government type, or some slider setting? Other Asians had them.

Probably because there aren't many (any?) other shinto countries around, since royal marriage requires the same religious group. Only other thing that makes royal marriage impossible, is the lack of a monarch.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Good tips. I'd really like to see a guide on hyper-westernization as an inferior tech group. Just -something- to get me that technological edge, because I hate falling behind. Maybe even a technology primer period, as I know how to handle things in general, but I just know I could be doing it better.

Will work on it.

Question: Is it worth it, if I am in a very safe position against a weak enemy in a war, to prolong the war far longer than I'd need to secure total victory just so I can keep raising war taxes? I know it raises war weariness, but it is such a minor trade off, especially when I go long stretches of time without war. It might seem gamey, but I could imagine a machiavellian ruler actually employing this to artificially manipulate his people.

I was under the impression that the taxes are raised for a certain amount of period irregardless of whether you are in a war or not. I realize you have to be at war to use war taxes, but I wasn't aware they went away after peace was made.

If you can't use war taxes right before you end the war, just prolong it to December 29-31 so you get the taxes on January 1, and then just make peace afterwards. I rather have normal tax income as a larger nation than more war exhaustion.

Question: What are some good choices in the 'options' categories, ala historical leaders, lucky nations, etc? I'm not entirely sure what I'd prefer, because I don't know what they do.

I personally dislike historical leaders and its ilk. It prevents you from creating royal marriages and I believe also from claiming the throne of other nations. Lucky nations, as previously stated, gives bonuses to nations to make them stronger and last longer than other nations. I can play either as historical or as random, they both have their pros and cons.

Question: I don't see hardly any use for spies, unless I have a huge disposable income, outside of maybe to get a core on someone. Are spies more important than I think?

Inciting natives, fabricating claims, and supporting rebels (if you have the ducats) are good missions. I usually sent out spies to support rebels in high revolt-risk provinces before I start to grab land from strong opponents. I'm not entirely sure how effective it really is, but it has a high success rate and costs 25 ducats

Question: For some reason I didn't see Royal Marriage as even an option playing as Japan. Is it due to government type, or some slider setting? Other Asians had them.

I am playing as Japan too and I have Royal Marriages with Ming and Tibet. Make sure your not under a union with a neighbor, you don't have a regency council, and you're not playing with historical leaders. It may also be that you're already married (but less likely since you would have been the one to accept/propose)


WESTERNIZATION

Westernization is a great idea for non-Latin countries that are trying to get on par with their Western European counterparts. I'll quickly show you the steps to becoming Western.

Tip 1: Get a western neighbor.

This may be harder than it sounds. You want a western neighbor that won't invade you and overrun you. However, you won't have to worry about this if you, yourself, are also powerful. There are two ways I know of forcing a shared border between a Latin tech group neighbor and yourself.

The most direct way works if you're sufficiently powerful -- go to war with a weak neighbor of a Western country that isn't the same religion as your target. If you go to war with someone of the same faith their relation will drop with you once you annex or force them to cede territory.

The second, more indirect way of going about doing this, is to sell a useless, isolated province to a western neighbor (can't be an island!). This will give you a shared border. You just have to perform step 2 quickly if they are strong.

(TIP: It would behoove you to establish a shared border with a weak nation rather than a large nation that may want to start conquering your surrounding territory.)

Step 2: Build relations to above 100. (If not in Eastern or Muslim tech group)

This can be done in a myriad of ways, but some ways are just not possible with negative relations.

-200 - 0: Accept any diplomatic offers from your targeted nation unless it would be damaging to your nation. Also, send gifts to the nation.

0 - 99: Continue to send gifts if you have the gold. Starting with either 3.1 or 3.2 you can also get a small boost from guaranteeing independence and it doesn't cost money. Offering military access or royal marriages also work. If you can manage it, establish an alliance as well!

Step 3: Wait for a ruler with an Administration level of at least 5 (if not Eastern or Muslim)

The Western Influences (Napoleon's Ambition), Westernization, and Western Culture events all have different requirements, let's start with Western Influences.

Western Culture is a Napoleon's Ambition country event in which an New World, African or Asian Tech nation can become a Latin Tech nation.

The Mean-Time-To-Happen (MTTH): 180 months = 15 years

• An Administrative setting of 7 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• An Administrative setting of 8 decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• A Military setting of 7 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• A Military setting of 8 decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Having a Statesman advisor decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -3 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -4 decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -5 decreases MTTH by 36 months.

If you have an Administration and Military level of 8, a Statesman adviser, and a Innovated/Narrow-minded level of -5, your MTTH will be reduced to 54 months (4.5 years).

• A Military setting of 4 increases MTTH by 18 months.
• A Military setting of 3 increases MTTH by 36 months.
• Not having a Statesman advisor increases MTTH by 18 months.

Having a bad military ruler and no statesman adviser could prolong this process by 54 months as well.

Consequences of accepting Western Culture:

• Technology group changed to Latin.
• Increase Tax Base and Manpower in a random province by 1.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider changed by -1 (moved 1 step to the left).
• Lose 2 Stability points.
• One Receives the 'Western Influences' event modifier for 200 days with the following effects:
  
  • Increase Merchant Placement Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Compete Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Cost by 20%.
  • Increase cost of Infantry, Cavalry, Big Ships and Light Ships by 10% each.

Western Influences is the Easternization event for Muslim tech group countries.

Requirements are different from the previous event!!

• One must be in the Muslim Technology group.
• One's Innovated/Narrowminded slider must be set no greater than -3.
• One's Monarch must have both a Military and an Administrative setting of at least 6.

MTTH: 180 months -- 15 years

• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -4 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -5 decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Having a level 5 Army Reformer decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Having a level 6 Army Reformer decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Having a level 5 Statesman decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Having a level 6 Statesman decreases MTTH by 54 months.
• Having any other Statesman adviser decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Having a Monarch with an Administrative setting of 8 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Having a Monarch with an Administrative setting of 9 decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Having a Neighbor in the Latin or Eastern Tech group decreases MTTH 18 months.

Best-case scenario: 0 months. So therefore, I assume it would happen immediately.

• Not having a Statesman advisor increases MTTH by 18 months.

Worst-case scenario: 198 months = 16.5 years

Consequences:

• Technology group changed to Eastern.
• Increase Tax Base and Manpower in a random province by 1.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider changed by -1 (moved 1 step to the left).
• Lose 2 Stability points.
• One Receives the 'Western Influences' event modifier for 200 days with the following effects:
  
  • Increase Merchant Placement Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Compete Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Cost by 20%.
  • Increase cost of Infantry, Cavalry, Big Ships and Light Ships by 10% each.
  
  

Waves of Influence is the Westernization event for Eastern tech-group countries. (Read: Eastern European, not Asian)

Requirements:

• One must be in the Eastern Technology group.
• One's Innovated/Narrowminded slider must be set no greater than -1.
• One must have a level 5 Statesman advisor.
• One's Monarch must have an Administrative setting of at least 7.

MTTH: 180 months = 15 years

• A level 6 Statesman decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• A Monarch with an Administrative setting of 8 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• A Monarch with an Administrative setting of 9 decreases MTTH by 36 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -3 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider of -4 decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Centralization/Decentralization slider of -3 decreases MTTH by 9 months.
• Centralization/Decentralization slider of -4 decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• Having a neighbor in the Latin Tech group decreases MTTH 18 months.
• A Naval Reformer Advisor decreases MTTH by 18 months.
• An Army Reformer Advisor decreases MTTH by 18 months.

Best case scenario: 18 months = 1.5 years

• Not having a Naval Reformer Advisor increases MTTH by 18 months.
• Not having an Army Reformer Advisor increases MTTH by 18 months.

Worst-case scenario: 216 months = 18 years


Consequences:

• Technology group changed to Latin.
• Increase Tax Base and Manpower in a random province by 1.
• Innovated/Narrowminded slider changed by -1 (moved 1 step to the left).
• Lose 2 Stability points.
• One Receives the 'Western Influences' event modifier for 200 days with the following effects:
  
  • Increase Merchant Placement Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Compete Chance by 4%.
  • Increase Merchant Cost by 20%.
  • Increase cost of Infantry, Cavalry, Big Ships and Light Ships by 10% each.
  
  

[Kennylz]

Thaaaanks! I couldn't do royal marriages because I had historical leaders by the way, which turned out to be a horrible, horrible choice since it limited my diplomatic options and my first leader seemed to live to 180, and he was a very poor leader.

[Celsius]

Nice work

[Aonghus G. Friedhold]

How can I expand more effectively?
The first problem I always incounter is that everyone is allied or guaranties the small nations I want to attack. Then, if I can get around that, it takes months to take cities and years to destroy armies, because I beat them and they just retreat to another province, and I have to chase them and beat them again and again. I recently spent 2 years getting rid of a 3,000 strong army, because I'd only take them down around 200-300 men per battle, spend a week or two getting to fight them again, they'd have gotten men back, and then I'd fight them again.
How can I get rid of rebels?
I mean, keep them from existing. In HoI, you could cheat to remove them, but I can't cheat in EUIII for some reason, so is this possible?

[Augustus Lucifer]

How can I expand more effectively?

How can I get rid of rebels?

It differs in every game. No two games are exactly the same, so if you're dealt an extremely bad hand you can always start over and hope for better luck the next time. Look for a nation near you to ally and declare war on moderately sized nations who are allied with single-province nations. You can annex the smaller nation in the war generally and let them deal with the bigger one. National banking is a must for a small nation because you're going to need to mint money to stay afloat so the additional -0.5(is it?) that it grants is indispensable.

Depending on where you start there are different situations. In central europe there's plenty of moderately sized nations to take control of. In eastern europe you'll want to try and break for the 0-level forts in the east and middle east. In africa your best bet is getting the new world idea and colonizing the inland provinces.

Start off with a decently sized nation like Castile, France, England, or Burgundy. Once you can get a grasp for the progression you can move onto smaller nations that start with 3-6 provinces like Bohemia, Sicily, Aragon, Portugal, Poland, etc. Then finally you can try your hand at the small 1-province nations. Don't aim to big at first, and realize that you will never realistically conquer the world in 95% of campaigns, because it not only takes a moderately sized power, but turbo-annexting and luck in order to do so. Once you realize that waiting 10 years before expanding and another 5-10 and so forth at the start is not the end of the world, it becomes easier.

Casus Belli is important, if you declare wars without it often then you will take hard stability hits. It might take you 100 gold and some luck to get a core on another nation's capital via espionage, so that you can freely prosecute wars against them, but your income will get hit substantially more trying to invest in stability with the war exhaustion you're liable to obtain. Same applies to religious group, if you get a chance to switch to Protestant or Reformed take it, because otherwise you will get the "Same Religious Group" war declaration penalty most of the time. Some times a nation will ally a random small muslim nation or similar, so take the opportunity to declare war on one of their allies to get to them if it lets you bypass the religion penalty, 99 times out of 100 all of the allies of an AI nation will aid them in a war. Do this always, see what nations they are allied to, and then look at those allies and see who they're allied to, and knowing that you will be in a war with one of the combination, choose the best one.

When chasing armies, sit in some areas to regain morale and see if you can take the city from them, wait for them to move to get behind you and go cut them off. Proceed to follow them everywhere rather than sitting and taking provinces if you can't field enough armies to constitute a front. The AI has just as hard of a time mustering armies once they've been destroyed as players do, so if you can get their big army then you will generally run into 1,000 man stacks that you can wipe in one battle if you have more than 4,000 infantry and 1,000 horses.

And don't take on the big dogs if you can manage it until you can at least field 60k+ troops in ~4 stacks with potentially artillery. The AI big dogs have a knack for vastly overreaching what you would perceive to be their supply limit, and especially if France happens to ally Castile or Burgundy like they do in many games then you will be in for a rough ride.

Last and not least, don't be afraid to sign white peace and recuperate, you aren't going to win every war, some times a stalemate is a godsend.

[Celsius]

Last and not least, don't be afraid to sign white peace and recuperate, you aren't going to win every war, some times a stalemate is a godsend

Perfectly said.

[Aonghus G. Friedhold]

Augustus, I owe you rep.

[ajm317]

I have always thought that EU3 players make too big a deal of inflation. Yes it is a negative statistic, but it is hardly the end of the world.

I will gladly take some inflation if it means I get to build an economic building quicker throughout my empire, or if it means I can send out the max number of merchants. I will also take inflation to support a war which could net me a few juicy COT's, or to improve relations with critical neighbors.

Depending on circumstances I may run at 0 monthly income or more. Yes I know most veterans are horrified by the very notion. Yes I know I "could" keep myself afloat off my census tax with much less minting. But doing so would frequently require me to forgo opportunities for economic expansion, or put them off until later. +2 tax throughout my empire for example is well worth a percent of inflation, and I will make that trade every time. Paying 110% price for something while having 100 ducats to spend is better than 100% price with 70 ducats to spend.

People will often tell me that "sure you could mint to build those workshops, but if I just wait a bit longer I can do the same with no inflation, and at the end of the day you're just stuck with your inflation." Well, it doesn't really work like that. After I build those workshops, I'm going to do something else, like build a COT, I'm not waiting around for you to catch up. While I'm doing that, you're still building workshops. Then I'll conquer some same culture/same religion provinces. At this point you're probably saving up for a COT. Then I'll convert some wrong religion provinces. You're still saving up for that COT. Things just snowball. The guy who mints, and keeps minting, just keeps getting further and further ahead, and at the end of the day, he gets to build tax assessors and make all his inflation go away anyway.

Will the guy who's minting fall behind in tech? Maybe a little bit, but not as much as you'd think. At the end of the day buying something for 110% price with 100 ducats is better than 100% with 70 ducats, and that holds for techs too. And really, falling a little behind in tech is not the end of the world in this game, especially when your more developed empire is likely to catch up later when you build tax assessors.

I shoot for 30% inflation when tax assessors come on the scene. Never had any regrets. And when they changed the time to gain core from 25 years to 50 years, it became even more important to mint.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

If you get to 30% inflation as a country, how can you expect to get to the tech level to get Tax Assessors. Maybe if you're a Latin tech country but not as an Asian or Indian one, that's for sure.

[Kennylz]

That is really high inflation. What difficulty settings do you play on, and do you play with countries that just simply can't handle that type of inflation?

[ajm317]

If you get to 30% inflation as a country, how can you expect to get to the tech level to get Tax Assessors. Maybe if you're a Latin tech country but not as an Asian or Indian one, that's for sure.

Well for starters, most people spend most games playing as Latin tech countries. I realize you don't, but realize you're the exception not the rule.

I have played games as Indian countries, most notably one as Bihar before Indian countries could westernize. I played until 1700 or so, and did not get tax assessors, but it was not really an issue. I managed to conquer all of Asia, but got bored at that point. I was indeed far behind the Euros in tech, but thanks to some captured European colonies in Africa I was able to field line infantry. Due to tech bonuses they were not as good as their European counterparts but superior numbers and decent generals made up for that.

Thing is, even with 0% inflation I wasn't going to be caught up with the Euros anyway since I couldn't westernize, so I'm still not really convinced I lost anything, and I know that with 0% inflation there is no way I could have survived those early wars and I certainly would have had difficulty conquering Asia by that point.

I've not played as Asian or Muslim countries, although I have played as Eastern ones with no issue. As a Latin country with 30% inflation you can get tax assessors in the 17th century no problem. Heck, one game I let inflation get a away from me a bit and got them with 50% inflation no problem.

Thing is, 30% inflation just makes techs cost 30% more. If you have 30% more money it all evens out. Although it is no longer true that there is a point at which larger empires cease to see tech costs increase at all when they add a province, the effect does still start to level off as you get bigger and there comes a point where 9 times out of 10 bigger is better. Toss in the fact the minting player will have more buildings, COT's, a larger military, more money for merchants etc. and I have a hard time believing you're better off not minting. Especially now that you have to wait 50 years to get core (unless they changed that back to 25 on the last IN patch.)

Now let me ask you a question. Have you played a game where you let your inflation get that high? A game where you said to yourself "I'd like to build some workshops now, I'll just go ahead and mint and do that?"

That is really high inflation. What difficulty settings do you play on, and do you play with countries that just simply can't handle that type of inflation?

I don't see how difficulty really matters. The effects of inflation are the same on all difficulty levels as far as I know. If you're better off minting on one difficulty level you're probably better off minting on all of them.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

In IN, workshops come at a higher level of production tech so I haven't even gotten to them in my game as Japan. I maintained very low inflation as Japan just by relying on tribute from wars and keeping a responsibly low amount of troops but enough to defend myself.

[Pious Agnost]

+Rep, simply because I didn't know you could right-click sliders (I got frustrated that you couldn't, tbh)

[Ulf]

Ok, stupid question. I've been playing EUIII since it came out and have still never found out what the last two columns of the first page of the ledger are (TE and PE I believe). anyone know what those mean? Would probably be good to know

[Ishoss]

Trade efficiency and Production efficiency. Not really sure what they give, but the higher PE you have the more your workshops add to research and the more TE you have the more trade adds to research?

[Kennylz]

Trade Efficiency determines how much money your merchants earn, and production effeciency determines how much money you get from cities with production ratings. I believe. If you trade a lot, you want a high TE. I'm more sure about TE than PE, since I took a national idea that raised TE and saw my income rise.