EU4 - Development Diary - 31st of March 2020

[Battlex]

Reichskrieg interaction is for emperor only, most member state buffs comes from common reforms and manpower buff for electors isn't that much. Still, being HREmperor following centralization path is way more profitable than not (or not being HREmperor at all). Decentralization path should offer more for individual members, a lot more for electors and a bit more for the HREmperor to follow that path.
For now, if empire is decentralized:
- individual members gain next to nothing beyond common reforms buffs
- electors gain manpower that may or may not handle (too weak economy to build/sustain regiments)
- HREmperor gets CB but needs IA to use it (is it really good equivalent of vassal swarm/united HRE?)
I was hoping that decentralization would cause being within HRE a lot better than being fully independent even for stronger nations, while HREmperor wouldn't loose that much (he sacrifices very profitable centralization route, after all).

Decentralised gives an extra elector and free City, which would be a nice offer for some within it

 

[MasterPaw]

Are there any special mechanics in the Reichskrieg when a Decentralised Emperor calls it?

The wording in the Diary makes me assume that all the Princes get an unrefusable offensive Call to Arms when it is used. If that's the case and it's like a regular war with allies, that would make it worse than the wars that the Centralised Emperor wages for free with their vassal swarm in the following ways:

1) Any princes that are allied with your enemy would end up fighting against you instead (unless this takes priority, then it would be a nice way of breaking annoying alliances)
2) Some Princes might be prevented from joining the war if they are involved in another war on the same side as the target (for example a war called by a third country that is allied with both the Prince and your enemy).
3) Unlike vassals, the Princes called to war may end up taking separate peace out when occupied, in the worst case giving away some HRE land in the process.
4) Last and definitely not least: Princes who desire land from your target may refuse to transfer occupation to you if they are the first to siege a province you also want.

The actual CB from the ability would need to be insanely good to justify taking the Decentralised path for a non RP-reason.

One advantage is that vassals are usually less powerfull, so Reichskrieg allow you tu exploit (if everybody joins) full potential of the princes. However you raise valid concern, and there is also the fact that they might be separate peace (maybe?)

 

[Gorton]

Is there going to be a way for the emperor to release nations as their preferred religion rather than dividing, for example, protestants into more protestants?
The way it works rn actively hurts the imperial authority when you break apart heretic nations and release princes, even though you're doing your job as emperor, the game punishes you for it IA wise.

Just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Cassio1401]

Anyone knows if they will update the converter for this Emperor?

 

[xubione]

Hi

I think that another thing that has to be indroduced in the game will be a bonification in the superpower ranking for the emperor. I think that the emperor is alway underated there.

Sorry for my english

 

[Dralurio]

I don’t get the people arguing that the vassal swarm should be on the decentralized side from a flavour perspective. Logically it is a stage of centralization: you go from having no effective control (start), to following your rules (no internal wars), to doing your bidding (vassal), to betting yours (for the HRE tag).

Decentralization should reduce your control over the Empire. What I would have liked to see is much larger bonuses to the Emperor based on the number of members and a massive defensive pact.

Thing is, there is no reason for reforms initiated by the emperor to reduce your control over the empire, gameplay or theming wise. Number one priority for an emperor is to stay emperor, and keep his power. For that to make sense, the electors would have to play an active role reforming the empire.

And I admit that there would have to be some convoluted logic to make decentralized into the vassal swarm, but imo that is a lot better than having it go completely wasted because there is no reason to ever take it. Why call on the empire for a united war, when every war can be a united war?

And it would solve the issue that staying at revoke is better than finshing the reforms, which is one of my biggest issues with the whole system.

 

[Battlex]

Thing is, there is no reason for reforms initiated by the emperor to reduce your control over the empire, gameplay or theming wise. Number one priority for an emperor is to stay emperor, and keep his power. For that to make sense, the electors would have to play an active role reforming the empire.

And I admit that there would have to be some convoluted logic to make decentralized into the vassal swarm, but imo that is a lot better than having it go completely wasted because there is no reason to ever take it. Why call on the empire for a united war, when every war can be a united war?

And it would solve the issue that staying at revoke is better than finshing the reforms, which is one of my biggest issues with the whole system.

From all this we assume that AI has an equal chance of backing either, when the AI may back decentralised more, and likely even more if heretic religion, as happened historically

 

[Dralurio]

From all this we assume that AI has an equal chance of backing either, when the AI may back decentralised more, and likely even more if heretic religion, as happened historically

Yes, I'm with you there, decentralized will probably be easier to achieve. And that is exactly what I don't like about it.

I was expecting the two paths would be balanced options, with reasons to go down both, and trade offs either way.
Instead the options are an easy to achieve one with underwhelming features, and the one every player will want to go down.

 

[RobbieAB]

I have been giving this some thought and the idea which occurs to me is give the decentralised path the current HRE Erbkaisertum vassals, but don’t give them the swarm, make them build it. At the same time, remove the HRE vassals don’t count the combined vassal strength from the centralised path. Trying to keep a revoke swarm in line without the special status is likely to be painful.

 

[Vaximillian]

Love the new HRE interface, looks great!

and... I apologize for off topic but could you please fix the borders of Moldavia? You dont have to move anything or add any new provinces, just change a few pixels on the map. The border between Moldavia and Bessarabia should follow Prut river.

Spoiler

This lovely Dobruja is a treat for my eyes. This Bukovina border, too. I love this so much. Kudos to whomever did it!

 

[Aldwoni]

If you become Emperor, can you choose centralization after somebody else had chosen decentralisation, and if you, Do you simple loose all progress in decentralisation and can start with centralisation?

 

[Battlex]

Yes, I'm with you there, decentralized will probably be easier to achieve. And that is exactly what I don't like about it.

I was expecting the two paths would be balanced options, with reasons to go down both, and trade offs either way.
Instead the options are an easy to achieve one with underwhelming features, and the one every player will want to go down.

Passing a reform when prince's are against it means more IA, if you back the wrong side in an imperial incident, you lose more IA, events like the peasants war are likely to increase the number of protestant states if Luther makes his historical decision, which means more drain to IA, and longer to turn the empire back to one faith.

Also thing to consider for centralised having vassals, its still more centralised than autonomous provinces AND by inheriting all vassals, you'd go over goring capacity quite quickly, especially if you've fed them alot and lots of nations have joined the HRE, as its no longer number of states, but also total development

 

[Schwarzer Ritter]

Why do i need the imperial casus belli which needs 25 imperial authority, when i can have the vassal swarm and need no imperial authority at all? I can then unleash the swarm on anyone. Who would ever choose the decentralised path?

 

[Nwaij]

We’ve also added a Force into HRE CB that the Emperor can use. Nations that have their capital in the same continent and that borders the Empire can be forced in through this treaty.


You do not get 10 IA for adding provinces to the empire, that's only for when a new prince joins the empire. You do not get IA for adding provinces to the Empire.

...so if I force someone into the HRE, I get 10 IA because a new prince just joined the empire?

 

[RobbieAB]

So conquer Ireland, add it to the HRE, and release all the OPMs for loads of IA?

 

[Battlex]

So conquer Ireland, add it to the HRE, and release all the OPMs for loads of IA?

They're all inside the HRE if you release, but yeh balkanise castile and add them to the empire, and it might also be more profitable to let shadow Kingdom happen, then add a balkanised Italy back to the HRE, especially now the papal states are a vassal swarm

 

[Avacyn6]

A few dev diaries ago you talked about marines and which nations will get easy access... i just thik you forgot about japan, i mean castile is far less of a sea power at the start of the 15th century than japan, historically at least

 

[Blackwhitecavias]

A few dev diaries ago you talked about marines and which nations will get easy access... i just thik you forgot about japan, i mean castile is far less of a sea power at the start of the 15th century than japan, historically at least

I personally wouldn't know much about Japan, but I wouldn't expect them to have a marine force (I might be wrong though) specialized at taking territory from the coast.

 

[love sweden]

I personally wouldn't know much about Japan, but I wouldn't expect them to have a marine force (I might be wrong though) specialized at taking territory from the coast.

They lost a war against Korea where they outnumbered the enemy and won every ground battle simply cause their navy failed.

 

[Kerlyle]

Are any of the incidents repeatable?

I outlined a possible incident in my suggestion here for the "Downfall of an Elector" - basically an incident that would happen every time an elector is eliminated and make choosing the new one more dynamic