Europa Universalis IV - official discussion

[hellheaven1987]

Just like Victoria 2 discussion, feel free to give comments or tips about EU4.

[hellheaven1987]

I look into the National Ideas, and feel the best combo would be 3 + 3 + 2 from the three different groups. Currently it seems Administration Ideas group is most worthless so it probably would get 2 while other two ideas groups would get 3 each. Some must-have ideas are:

- Economic ideas from Adm Ideas, largely to get that 10% national tax modification.

- Either Exploration or Expansion from Diplo Ideas, since they are only two providing colonist (unless you don't want to create colonies).

The rest is really up to player's own combination; some worthy ideas are:

- Adm Ideas - Religion (that old Deus Vult can only get it from this group), Innovation (-5% all technology is pretty good bonus).

- Diplo Ideas - Diplomacy (give similar effect as Revolution and Counter-Revolution), Trade (obvious if you want to trade), Navy (unfortunately Navy is not part of Military Ideas).

- Military Ideas - pretty much all are attractive; Offensive now improve leader's fire and shock + troop's discipline (only idea group to improve discipline), while Defensive allows you to put more men on field with bonus for siege and fort defense. Quality improve all combat value of all unit types while Quantity gives manpower and reduce unit cost. Lastly Aristocracy gives a rather mixed improvement in all areas (manpower bonus, research bonus, leader bonus and cavalry bonus).

Furthermore due to the new point system I feel Republic is much more desirable than Monarchy, since the point increasing is largely depended on the trait of your leader - which means a suck king/queen that live too long would slow down your progress.

[ptoss1]

Furthermore due to the new point system I feel Republic is much more desirable than Monarchy, since the point increasing is largely depended on the trait of your leader - which means a suck king/queen that live too long would slow down your progress.

That's why you go to war with a monarch leader.

On the downside you may get a regency.

[Neoton]

On the downside you may get a regency.

Happened to me in my Austria campaign in the demo. Lost 12 years doing nothing, because it's impossible to declare wars during regencies...
Anyway, I was wondering how can we colonise Central America as Spain. In the demo I could only reach to 300 colonial range with Portugal which is really not that much and I was barely able to get Rio Grande(I think that was the name of the territory at the "tip of Brazil"). But that's because I had Cabo Verde, so what can we do as Spain? Maybe conquer Cabo Verde from the Portuguese and then steadily go from the coast of Brazil to Cuba and then to Mexico. Or am I completely missing something?
And btw + rep for telling me how to unlock the nations in the demo, it doesn't work for me but it's probabbly me messing something up so I will just wait a few more days.

[Knight_of_Ni]

Only did a Venice playthrough to 1520. As for republics getting better leaders: yes, you may be able to get a beastly leader. However, your republican tradition is going to drop fast. Every time you re-elect someone, sure they gain a point in every stat. But you also lose 10% of your rep. tradition. There are also several events that let you choose between getting a chunk of gold in exchange for a loss of tradition. And I think there might be another where you choose between a penalty/lost of tradition. And so far as I saw, there is no way to increase the rate of replenishment.

[mr_president]

I look into the National Ideas, and feel the best combo would be 3 + 3 + 2 from the three different groups. Currently it seems Administration Ideas group is most worthless so it probably would get 2 while other two ideas groups would get 3 each. Some must-have ideas are:

- Economic ideas from Adm Ideas, largely to get that 10% national tax modification.

- Either Exploration or Expansion from Diplo Ideas, since they are only two providing colonist (unless you don't want to create colonies).

The rest is really up to player's own combination; some worthy ideas are:

- Adm Ideas - Religion (that old Deus Vult can only get it from this group), Innovation (-5% all technology is pretty good bonus).

- Diplo Ideas - Diplomacy (give similar effect as Revolution and Counter-Revolution), Trade (obvious if you want to trade), Navy (unfortunately Navy is not part of Military Ideas).

- Military Ideas - pretty much all are attractive; Offensive now improve leader's fire and shock + troop's discipline (only idea group to improve discipline), while Defensive allows you to put more men on field with bonus for siege and fort defense. Quality improve all combat value of all unit types while Quantity gives manpower and reduce unit cost. Lastly Aristocracy gives a rather mixed improvement in all areas (manpower bonus, research bonus, leader bonus and cavalry bonus).

Furthermore due to the new point system I feel Republic is much more desirable than Monarchy, since the point increasing is largely depended on the trait of your leader - which means a suck king/queen that live too long would slow down your progress.

Economic seems to be the only idea administration idea worth getting. Religous is only good if you are planning on taking lots of different relgion regions and even then I was able to convert all of the balkans to Sunni in a few years without it (though I did get a extra missionary from being defender of the faith and later capturing Jerusalem). Innovation just doesn't seem worth it the -5% technology cost is nice by the rest of the ideas aren't that good and considering how many points it would cost to get the technology discount you would have to do it early on for it to be worth it.

I like all the diplomatic and military so I would probably go 4+3+1 with the 1 being administration and the others varying on who I am playing as. Also from my experience with the demo there just seems to be more you can do with administartion points then the other two.

When playing as a republic you can no longer just elect the same leader again and again because of the republic tradition falling.

Anyway, I was wondering how can we colonise Central America as Spain. In the demo I could only reach to 300 colonial range with Portugal which is really not that much and I was barely able to get Rio Grande(I think that was the name of the territory at the "tip of Brazil"). But that's because I had Cabo Verde, so what can we do as Spain? Maybe conquer Cabo Verde from the Portuguese and then steadily go from the coast of Brazil to Cuba and then to Mexico. Or am I completely missing something?

Leveling up your technology increases colonial range

[♔The Black Knight♔]

Happened to me in my Austria campaign in the demo. Lost 12 years doing nothing, because it's impossible to declare wars during regencies...
Anyway, I was wondering how can we colonise Central America as Spain. In the demo I could only reach to 300 colonial range with Portugal which is really not that much and I was barely able to get Rio Grande(I think that was the name of the territory at the "tip of Brazil"). But that's because I had Cabo Verde, so what can we do as Spain? Maybe conquer Cabo Verde from the Portuguese and then steadily go from the coast of Brazil to Cuba and then to Mexico. Or am I completely missing something?
And btw + rep for telling me how to unlock the nations in the demo, it doesn't work for me but it's probabbly me messing something up so I will just wait a few more days.

Cant you just conquer the aztecs and other people around them?

[ggggtotalwarrior]

I tried the demo because of my love for Crusader Kings II. It might have killed my will to ever try any other Paradox game. It was sooooo much more difficult. I still want to learn it, but I have no idea what I'm doing.

[Neoton]

Cant you just conquer the aztecs and other people around them?

Nope, it doesn't really work like that. When you get their lands you recieve like 130% overextention(rebel party hell yeah) because you don't have cores in them, and they are too far away to create any. Maybe the ony way is to wait for the tech levels if you wana go directly there or just go to Brazil first and then to Cuba.

[Ynen]

To really colonise you need a decent diplo level and the increased colonial range from the exploration idea group iirc.

[hellheaven1987]

To really colonise you need a decent diplo level and the increased colonial range from the exploration idea group iirc.

Yap, although once you got a core province in new world it would become easier.

[therussian]

I tried the demo because of my love for Crusader Kings II. It might have killed my will to ever try any other Paradox game. It was sooooo much more difficult. I still want to learn it, but I have no idea what I'm doing.

See, I found CK II more difficult than EU3 ( haven't tried the EU4 demo yet, so can't really speak on that). I STILL don't really have full control of CK2

[Border Patrol]

I took over the Maya, christianized it, and then took over half the Aztecs (which had eaten the Zapotec) all while establishing two self-sustaining Brazilian cities and nabbing Trinidad in my first attempt as Portugal. Had half of the Maya lands cored as well. I'm sure someone else here could have done it even better. Immediately taking Mesoamerica is very doable.

[ggggtotalwarrior]

I couldn't even figure out how to move my ships to Mesoamerica.....

[hellheaven1987]

See, I found CK II more difficult than EU3 ( haven't tried the EU4 demo yet, so can't really speak on that). I STILL don't really have full control of CK2

There are several changes in EU4 that makes it more complex than EU3, although CK2 is most stressful Paradox game I ever play before.

Economic seems to be the only idea administration idea worth getting. Religous is only good if you are planning on taking lots of different relgion regions and even then I was able to convert all of the balkans to Sunni in a few years without it (though I did get a extra missionary from being defender of the faith and later capturing Jerusalem). Innovation just doesn't seem worth it the -5% technology cost is nice by the rest of the ideas aren't that good and considering how many points it would cost to get the technology discount you would have to do it early on for it to be worth it.

Technically all the administration ideas you want should get early on, mostly prefer be second, third or fourth idea (you first idea would probably either Exploration or Expansion).

Colonization now requires more serious investment but the rewards are much more worthy.

[Ynen]

I wouldn't say the economic idea group and the religious one are the only good ones. The last one, with the cheaper and more mercs, is also really good. With that group mercs will actually be cheaper to maintain than your regular troops and as mercs are actually decent now they can turn the tide of a war if you need to replace men quickly and cheap.

[hellheaven1987]

That is, well, if you are a small state; big state has both cash (and cash I mean a lot of cash) and manpower to maintain large regulars.

[mr_president]

I wouldn't say the economic idea group and the religious one are the only good ones. The last one, with the cheaper and more mercs, is also really good. With that group mercs will actually be cheaper to maintain than your regular troops and as mercs are actually decent now they can turn the tide of a war if you need to replace men quickly and cheap.

I never used mercs as there was only ever cavarly mercs avalible in Eu3. I never take out loans either as I don't see the point. Meaning that I would only ever use half the ideas in the group. Perhaps mercs will be better in Eu4 though.

[hellheaven1987]

Mercenary is pretty much necessary for small state if you want to expand, as the manpower system follows latest DW version which mean it replenish very slowly.

[mr_president]

Yeah the only time I used mercs was after that update but I didn't play much after.

Anyway the graphics seem to be acting up for me even though they were fine when I was playing the demo.