Few noob questions

[michilius]

All,
What an amazing game EU3 is! I'm going through my first campaign (p.s. I have Divine Wind), started in 1399, as England (Now Great Britain). I'm currently in the 1530s and have a few questions:

1. How do you evaluate whether it is better to annex or vasselize? Currently, I have Algiers and Tripoli vasselized, Scotland and Ireland annexed, and I'm about to completely take over the Iriquois and Huron from my NA colonized base of operations in Massachussets, Connecticutt and Manhatten. Any wisdom on how to make this decision generally?

2. What are the benefits of changing religions? I have the option to remain Catholic, or convert to protestant or reformed. I get messages frequently that my individual territories are embracing prtoestantism, so I'm think my remaining Catholic has some negative effect for these places but I am not sure.

3. I'm somewhat confused about some of the province improvements and how I determine how long it takes for them to pay back. Where exactly do I find the following stats for a given province - (1) direct tax, (2) province tax income, (3) province trade income, (4) stability cost?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Mike

[Sevasti]

1. Vassals will give you a part of their income and will join you in war (unless you cancel the ensuing alliance). The vassal remains partly autonomous so you have no direct control. You also miss the extra manpower those regions would have given you. On the other hand your research won't be bogged down (research cost increase for every region you own) and you won't have to deal with the risk of rebellions. You have to weigh the research cost against province tax and trade commodity, surrounding neighbours etc etc.

My point of view is that a vassal at best, is a buffer ally, at worst, a wall of meat standing between you and your enemies. In either case, a vassaled nation is a crippled nation and is yours for the picking when/if the time is right. Be it by force or through diplomatic annexation, whatever suits you best.

2. I have no idea, I just tend to go with the flow on that one. I think protestantism carries better research multipliers and such. Don't quote me on that though.

3. In this game, just estimate instead of trying to determine. Now, I'm not exactly sure what kind of numbers you're asking for but if you're after raw numbers these are the following places to look:

• The Budget tab
• The Province tab (hover over the different entries for all multipliers and variables)
• The income display in the main bar (showing stability etc), as above - hover over the values for more info
• The Ledger (you can really lose track of time in this one)

As a rule of thumb while choosing what to build, just read the description. In most cases it gives you a better understanding on its effects than the usual cascade of numbers. Remember, estimate - Leave the determination for vanquishing your foes instead. ^^

Also:
http://www.paradoxian.org/eu3wiki/Reference_Guides

EDIT: There may be some inconsistencies with my tips. I'm playing modded and I haven't tried DW yet.

[Musthavename]

1. How do you evaluate whether it is better to annex or vasselize? Currently, I have Algiers and Tripoli vasselized, Scotland and Ireland annexed, and I'm about to completely take over the Iriquois and Huron from my NA colonized base of operations in Massachussets, Connecticutt and Manhatten. Any wisdom on how to make this decision generally?

That's quite a complicated question. Firstly, remember that it generally costs less infamy wise to vassalise rather than annex, so you can generally vassalise more often if you want to stay under the infamy limit. On the question of a pure economic basis, it comes down to this. Tech / Stability costs increase with every province you gain. If you have a very rich province, annexing it will increase your monthly income more than this increase, and you'll benefit all round. If it's poor, you'll be sacrificing tech progress, but you'll have more manpower and more land. The border number where a province goes from helping tech to hindering it is quite complicated and heavily dependant on your total number.

2. What are the benefits of changing religions? I have the option to remain Catholic, or convert to protestant or reformed. I get messages frequently that my individual territories are embracing prtoestantism, so I'm think my remaining Catholic has some negative effect for these places but I am not sure.

All religions have different bonuses. It's also worth considering switching if it's simply easier (i.e. there's not much point staying Catholic if 90% of your lands go Protestant). Click on a province and hover over the religion icon, and it'll tell you precisely what these bonuses are.

3. I'm somewhat confused about some of the province improvements and how I determine how long it takes for them to pay back. Where exactly do I find the following stats for a given province - (1) direct tax, (2) province tax income, (3) province trade income, (4) stability cost?

(1): Hover over the "Tax" box in a province. At the bottom, it will say "Each year this province pays X% of it's tax". That's your "direct" tax, also commonly referred to as census tax or yearly tax.
(2) Monthly tax income is in the same place. Click on a province, it's in the top right, under tax.
(3) Again, top right of province. This one could mean a few things. Depending on the good it produces, a province gives a "Production" income that's monthly. It also has "Trade Value" (next to the trade good icon) which says how much it's contributing to the CoT.
(4) This one is very easy to find out if you're playing DW with the latest beta. Otherwise, it's very tricky, and there's no handy way to find this out. Essentially, base stability cost in a province depends on your religion. Then you apply all other factors (Sliders, Wrong Religion, Wrong Culture, etc...) to get how much stability that province is producing.