Exploit or ?good game strat-> Spain and New Spain

[razor1952]

Spain VH/N 1722 world domination

Since 1.2 I have read that large empires are harder to maintain due to decreased tax revenue/increased admin costs. Also large empires give you "territorial expansion" diplomatic negative.


So I figured, lets keep New Spain. I'll give it every tinpot non critical country I conquer keeping only those of best production , this should keep income/country up and diplomatic relations improved.

This strat. seems to work a treat. It seems to be such a clear weinner in the strat stakes that it really should be classed as an exploit.. do people agree with this analysis/view?.

BTW I also swapped Flanders(indefensible) and Florida(useless and indefensible)for Dutch Guyana at turn 1 also avoiding certain war with the Dutch. I took Texas and Trinidad/Tobago so now easy to take Curacao to complete mission and get New Spain provinces. This attack however is planned for 1799.

Also BTW took note of recent analyses which IMHO infer that tax at 1/1 for all regions also best compound increase growth of pop/wealth, this also works very well.

[FriendoftheDork]

I'm pretty much doing the same thing in my GB game with the 13 colonies. I only have to take Quebec to gain them (held by Iroqui currently), but so far there is little incentive to get the huge administration penalty. As for relations, you don't get any penalties for getting your colonies, and even if you take a region and then gift it to your colony/protectorate, the diplo penalty still goes away at the exact same rate.

Still it's useful when you conquer regions with heavy resistance to just give it away and continue the advance right off the bat.

As for it being an exploit, we'll see. I'm gonna take over my colonies sooner or later, and when I do compare income before and after. If it actually decreases, then yeah it's an exploit or bad game feature.

[Hannibolico]

No it's not an exploit, it's what makes sense. Countries don't need to defend land they don't want to hold, they choose to do so for propaganda purposes.

[razor1952]

Another thing I'm trying with this strat is giving New Spain a country with a college, then as on VH the ai researches quicker than human , it may be possible to then trade your newly conquered country for these techs......

[Spraetter]

I'd complete the mission and place the New Spain regions under my banner. New Spain has some of the richest territories in the game, especially the Mexico region. You will earn alot more money if you take control over them yourself. They're not hard to defend either, your only threat are the Pueblo indiands.

[carlisimo]

You only get half the income from a protectorate... administrative costs are nothing in comparison.

[Black Prince IV]

I would say its border line exploit. Just imagine if your relations took a drop and they attacked you.

[razor1952]

Also advantage as firendofthe dork says, give away your troublesome countries and gain them back at the end minus unrest. But fair enough I'll play it both ways to the end and see which is better strat.

[caralampio]

A lot of people say Florida and Flanders are indefensible. I just completed a Spain campaign on hard and I kept these territories. Actually, when the Dutch declared war I conquered them from Flanders. Building up from start in these isolated locations is the key.