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When going for a colonial game (which I'm doing really serious for the first time as Castile -> Iberia) about when should I be in north America? I just wanna make sure I'm not slacking too much or if I am that I need to get my ass there :p

He probably implies conquering the natives there ;) otherwise you'd better be Portugal!
Yes, that was the idea. Get some provinces from Creek and/or Maya as soon as you can, so that you will have those valuable first American cores earlier.
 
He probably implies conquering the natives there ;) otherwise you'd better be Portugal!
Also, with the right mix of audacity and dumb luck, Castille can start colonizing South America quite early:

Force PU on Aragon quickly.
Get lucky with respect to France being dismembered, so that you don't need to worry as much about land tech.
Inherit at the first opportunity; form Spain.
Flip your first NI (whatever it was) over to QftNW ASAP.
Find the Canarias (cored by formation of Spain) and colonize them.
Start pumping naval tech as soon as you have QftNW.
 
Can cultural unity be promoted anywhere, or only in places with cultures from your same culture group?
 
Find the Canarias (cored by formation of Spain) and colonize them.
Really??

Admirals and explorers, they both can have high stats, is an explorer as good in naval combat as an admiral?

yes. Explorers more valuable because they can explore and they cost a colonist instead of a diplomat.
 
I'm colonizing the Caribbean, and have been building docks and marketplaces in every colony. I can't tell if they have an effect on tariffs though; logic says yes but the numbers say no. Does building docks and marketplaces have an effect on tarrifs, or are tarrifs based on pre-bonus production only?

EDIT: I realized marketplaces do have an effect, but what about docks and other production improvements?
 
Was "A formal Request" disabled in 5.1? I have not gotten it for 10 years now...

Also, can the Papal States ever move away from Papacy government?
 
Does altering who has the lucky tags in the save file have any effect?

Yes it will. Anyway i think that if you will make number of lucky tags lower than 7 the new lucky nation will spawn. Not sure though. I am also not sure what adding additional lucky tags will do to the game whatsoever.

How can you decrease recruitment times?

Id depend on your game version. I see you play DW - you need to build military buildings. Also if you have no War Exhaustion it will be quicker than when you have some of it.
Also there is National idea - Regimental system - increases it by 40% i think - but i suppose in DW they changed it and made it to decrease cost of armies... Also there is decision of pass recruitment act that decrease it by 10%. Also there is provincional decision - but you can make it only in one province - "Establish Recruiting Center" that decreases it by 10 but only for one province. Not sure about it being available for divine wind anyway.