Questions on EUIII

[IZob]

Post here if you have any game play questions on EU3 or how to play the game:

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It seems to take a long time just to advance technology.

For instance, playing as Scotland I want to level up my trade technology. But the game says the technology wont go up for at least 20 - 30 years (this is when putting normal investment into the technology). Is there something I can do to fasten the technology process?

As far as I know, technology defines what you can build, hence what kind of units your can recruit.

Any tips for a new player btw?

[Musthavename]

Technology costs go up with number of provinces and change with other modifiers such as your Free People / Serfdom and Innovative / Narrowminded sliders.

All of your monthly income will go into investments. This includes all techs, the stability slider and the treasury slider. Essentially, more monthly income means quicker tech progress. Since tech becomes more expensive with more provinces it basically means this. Small nations with high monthly income (i.e. those with high base tax, expensive goods, or major trading nations) will tech fast. Large nations with proportionately lower monthly income will tech slow (i.e. those with low base tax, crap goods or those with no trading influence).

As Scotland you've got a buch of mediocre-poor trade goods and your provinces arn't particularly wealthy, so don't expect to tech fast. Making a lot of Free Trade moves and trading in various places would allow you to trade abroad, up your monthly income and tech faster - but that would take a good 50-100 years to make those changes.

Keep in mind there are balancing modifiers that may help. If you see something called a "Neighbour bonus", this won't mean that your immediate neighbours are teching faster than you. It means someone in your tech group is teching faster. In Scotland's case, that's the Western tech group. The neighbour bonus is determined by the relevant tech level of whomever in that group has the highest of that tech.

If you're a new player, Scotland isn't exactly a good starting nation. Try England / Portugal.

[IZob]

Ah cool thanks Musthavename. Guess I should try other factions, see how they advance.

Didnt want to try England just yet, as I have a good idea of what to expect from them, so it wouldnt be to surprising. Portugal might be a good change.

Just another question: I think if a AI faction starts a war without a Belcium Crusis on their side, its unlikely their allies would support this 'aggressor' faction. Is that true? For a defensives faction I know if this faction has allies, then these allies will be given a Belcium Crusis reason to fight the aggressor. The AI are quick to take this opptunity for war.

Not sure on the spelling of BS btw.

[John I Tzimisces]

1. It's casus belli. Case of war, ie justification for going to war.
2. AI factions do not necessarily care if the aggressor has a Casus Belli on a nation it has declared war upon: it takes into account a potential stability hit and it's own ability to wage war in relation to the other nation and it's allies (which is determined by it's number of regiments, it's stability, it's war exhaustion, and whether or not any of the nations involved are already at war). Since declaring war without a casus belli is AT LEAST a -2 hit to stability, this above all other things may discourage the AI from doing this or assisting a nation which has declared war like this. If the AI is powerful enough in relation to another nation, it may not care about this penalty, however.
3. All factions within a tech group generally advance in technology at a similar rate. Scotland, although relatively poor compared to england, france, and other large nations, has to spend less than larger nations, as tech cost is determined by the number of provinces under a nation's control (IE, more provinces = more investment) as well as sliders (specifically serfdom vs freedom, innovation vs narrowminded). Furthermore, there is a "historical" date for techs: if you concentrate too much in a certain area and advance too far, there is a penalty which raises the cost of research.

[IZob]

Seems I'm heading for the poor house according to the charts. How can I turn things around?

And how do you use merchants?

[Mangerman]

Get a Master of Mint and move your treasury slider till the point that you gain zero inflation. Also cut down on you military costs during peacetime by moving the slider all the way on the left on the military tab.

Merchants are used by going to the CoT (every province will trade through a certain Center of Trade, if you click on the province there is a button you can click that brings you straight to the CoT) and left or right click the vertical bar to automatically send merchants (it will factor in your monthly income so it should never bankrupt you). Alternatively click on the merchant icon to send them manually. It costs money to send merchants.

[cenkiss]

Send them to trade centers.

[Musthavename]

General tips:
- Pay your army maintenence with your yearly income, not your monthly one. You will almost always make a loss every month unless you're a large trader minting part of their income. Making a loss every month is NOT nescessarily a bad thing.
- Reduce your army maintence in peacetime to 50% (or even lower, but 50% is usually appropriate to fight rebels and will reinforce).
- Get a Master of Mint (I tend to spam most early game magistrates on culture, then hire a 5-6* one) or pick up National Bank as your first NI. Then proceed to mint approximatly 10% of your income.
- If you want to build buildings or hire new troops, do it in December. That way, you know exactly how much money you have to play with. As the game goes on I tend to amass stockpiles of ducats meaning I don't have to put stuff off, but early game it's a good idea.

Do not expect to be able to trade in foreign CoTs unless you go free trade. As Portugal you're quite small so Mercantalism barely has an impact.

[IZob]

Ok those are some good tips thanks.

Is it risky to disband the majority of your army in peace time? iirc I have ~5 ground units and 3-4 carracks, taking up all of the military funds. I'm not sure about disbanding more, as my neighbours nearby like Spain, Aragon, France and Morocco have many more units.

How do I payback loans, and how can I stop the faction from automatically taking loans?
Is Interest in the Monthly Expenses table, the interest on the loans currently not payed?

Is production and trade income increased by building types (ie: ports), more trade partners, bigger population, etc ...

What effect does it have of employing a master mint?

Merchants are used by going to the CoT (every province will trade through a certain Center of Trade, if you click on the province there is a button you can click that brings you straight to the CoT) and left or right click the vertical bar to automatically send merchants (it will factor in your monthly income so it should never bankrupt you). Alternatively click on the merchant icon to send them manually. It costs money to send merchants.

Ahh thanks.

[Akar]

Ok those are some good tips thanks.

Is it risky to disband the majority of your army in peace time? iirc I have ~5 ground units and 3-4 carracks, taking up all of the military funds. I'm not sure about disbanding more, as my neighbours nearby like Spain, Aragon, France and Morocco have many more units.

How do I payback loans, and how can I stop the faction from automatically taking loans?
Is Interest in the Monthly Expenses table, the interest on the loans currently not payed?

Is production and trade income increased by building types (ie: ports), more trade partners, bigger population, etc ...

What effect does it have of employing a master mint?


Ahh thanks.

It could be risky, depending on whether your neighbors are hostile.

You will get a request to re-pay the loan after 5 years of taking out the loan (I think it's 5)

Yes.

It decreases your inflation level when you hire one. This allows you to lose inflation or to mint higher without gaining inflation.

[Knight_of_Ni]

Ok those are some good tips thanks.

Is it risky to disband the majority of your army in peace time? iirc I have ~5 ground units and 3-4 carracks, taking up all of the military funds. I'm not sure about disbanding more, as my neighbours nearby like Spain, Aragon, France and Morocco have many more units.

How do I payback loans, and how can I stop the faction from automatically taking loans?
Is Interest in the Monthly Expenses table, the interest on the loans currently not payed?

Is production and trade income increased by building types (ie: ports), more trade partners, bigger population, etc ...

What effect does it have of employing a master mint?

Just got the game a few weeks ago, but I think I can help a little.

1. It is usually pretty risky to disband your entire army, even in peace. I never disband ships becasue they take forever to replace and are quite expensive to do so. Like other have said, the AI does take into account the size of your standing army when it decides to declare war. This is why its better to just lower your maintenance and have a slightly lower income than to risk a war and where you won't be able to defend yourself. (NOTE: In this early stage of the game, the Muslims will have a higher tech than you, so if you are interested in taking any North African provinces, you will have to depend on your larger manpower.)

2. To stop automatically taking loans, you will need enough money to repay your original loan. If the loan is quite big (500<), I would suggest possibly getting a good banker right before you repay it. If its not that large, don't waste your money. And don't forget if you unable to pay back 5 loans in a row, you will go bankrupt, leaving your country in a deep hole for a long time.

3. I don't really know how to increase production. I think it is the base value of the product that each province produces. And if I remember, the first level of docks increases production.

4. Master of Mint (MoM) reduces your inflation by ~.1-.8 (I think) depending on the number of stars. This is useful if you get any inflation events, have natural inflation due to gold mines, or you absolutely need money and have to mint. (Minting is when you move the treasury slider to the right. It raises your monthly income in return for inflation.)

[Musthavename]

Is it risky to disband the majority of your army in peace time? iirc I have ~5 ground units and 3-4 carracks, taking up all of the military funds. I'm not sure about disbanding more, as my neighbours nearby like Spain, Aragon, France and Morocco have many more units.

Ofcourse it's tricky. That's why you lower their "maintenence", not their numbers. Open the army tab. Right at the bottom are "maintenence" sliders. Adjust those.

How do I payback loans, and how can I stop the faction from automatically taking loans?

Loans have set due periods (the "Take Loan" one defaults to 5 years). Once that period is up, you get a prompt where you can choose to repay the loan, or put it off for another 5 years (where you'll continue to pay interest).

It automatically takes a loan if you would otherwise go below 0 ducats. Simply don't go below 0 ducats.

Is Interest in the Monthly Expenses table, the interest on the loans currently not payed?

It's on loans taken out. Loan process it this. I loan 100 ducats from the virtual bank (which is affiliated to no-one). I get charged a monthly interest figure on that which comes out of my monthly income until 5 years elapse. Once those 5 years elapse, I can either give them back 100 ducats and stop paying interest, or put it off for 5 years where i'll continue to pay interest.

Essentially, it's purely interest - it's not a general repayment over time.

Is production and trade income increased by building types (ie: ports), more trade partners, bigger population, etc ...

Are you playing Divine Wind or something else? Buildings are radically different in Divine Wind so i'd need to know to give you a real answer. In general though, population doesn't have a huge effect. The base tax, culture, core status and trade good type have more impact.

What effect does it have of employing a master mint?

I'll try and re-explain the "treasury slider". By upping this slider, instead of investing your monthly income in research, you're turning it into cash. This normally will increase inflation. So if the treasury slider is at 10%, inflation will increase by 0.1 per year. Inflation increases the cost of more or less everything you do, so obviously you want to keep it low. A Master of Mint reduces your inflation by 0.02 per star per year. So if I got a 5* Master of Mint, i'd effectivly be able to put my treasury slider on 10% and not incur any inflation. This will harm my research, but it will give me money every month.

[Scipio Afracanis]

Inflation is not a horrible thing when your just getting started. You just need to keep it at a decent % when your trying to get your nation running. Defending your self, expanding, getting your merchants locked into COT's, building improvements ect........

I would rather have 2-4% inflation for 5-7 years and have a decent military which means I can expand and drum up more money. Loans aren't the end of the world either, 1 or 2 for the short term can get your off to a fast start and for some nations starting out I need them to even survive for the 1st few years.(TO a couple of times I played them)

Its all in moderation, not to many loans, not to much minting, not going one tech crazy, not have lots of money but little military and little manpower to replace losses ect....

[Akar]

Actually, one should try their hardest to avoid loans. You can take out massive loans for tiny financial problems and the interest can kill you. Especially if you're a small nation your economy is already pretty bad.

[IZob]

I'll copy what America does. Take out loans to pay the loans.

[Akar]

I'll copy what America does. Take out loans to pay the loans.

And then drive your economy into the ground after invading countries half way around the world?

[SLN445]

Whenever i disband a sizable portion of my army, the AI abuse the living crap out of it and declare war....hurts alot if you are playing a smaller nation.

[IZob]

This might seem quiet obvious ... but it isn't to me anyway.


How do you load a saved game?

edit: nvm I found it

[Scipio Afracanis]

Actually, one should try their hardest to avoid loans. You can take out massive loans for tiny financial problems and the interest can kill you. Especially if you're a small nation your economy is already pretty bad.

Loans aren't that bad. Multiple loans on the other hand can be a killer.

When you are trying to build up as a smaller power to take on a larger one, you need that money in the early game to make more Cav. units so you can get a couple of decent provinces and cut those immediate threats down to size.

A couple of years later when the war is long done and your units have gotten you your new prizes you won't even miss that money.

Most countries don't have to worry that much but for small to medium size nations having 6-9 extra units in the early game war means starting well or a slow crawl.

[SLN445]

Agreed, my Byzantine games go alot better when i take out a loan or two early for that extra boost.