800% Increase In Income Exploit.

[Zardnaar]

As the title says I think I have found the new broken sauce combo in EUIV. It is a very easy combo as well but I will leave highly detailed instructions.

1. Start a game as ulm.
2. Take trade as your 1st idea, save your ducats. Use merchants to collect income in the best trade nodes.
3. Build a grain manufactory.
4. Research economics as your 2nd idea, complete the research.
5. Become a merchant republic.

And that is about it.And here is a screenshot to prove it!!!. Income of 5 ducats a month as an OPM no expansion required. At game start that income was on 0.6 or so. OMG best combo ever and as promised 800% increase in income no expansion required



Screenshot is not very clear.

Tax 1.07
Production 0.92
Trade 4.09

 

[corneh]

haha good one. It just shows how powerfull merchant republics are ^^

 

[Zardnaar]

haha good one. It just shows how powerfull merchant republics are ^^

Yup what is funny is the era sees the rise of England as the major economic power house and the decline of Merchant Republics starting as early as 1453. Early in EUIV MR were very good but now they get to pile on various bonuses for insane levels of trade power- trade posts and the factions in particular, even being the reformed faith and directing fervour to trade.

 

[cpm4001]

Uh-oh; something like this in the hands of Ulm? That's just scary...

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Yup what is funny is the era sees the rise of England as the major economic power house and the decline of Merchant Republics starting as early as 1453. Early in EUIV MR were very good but now they get to pile on various bonuses for insane levels of trade power- trade posts and the factions in particular, even being the reformed faith and directing fervour to trade.

It is a little odd. That said, if you prevent the reasons merchant republics declined in history or just sufficiently change history, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Novgorod: Was killed by Muscovy. Had it not been, they probably thrive.
Venice, Genoa, Ragusa: The fates of all of these 3 in history were tied heavily with the success of the Ottoman empire's rise. Considering that in-game Ottomans only occasionally muster anything even close to what we saw in history and haphazard AI colonization, a different outcome for the republics is to be expected.

 

[Red John]

It is a little odd. That said, if you prevent the reasons merchant republics declined in history or just sufficiently change history, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Novgorod: Was killed by Muscovy. Had it not been, they probably thrive.
Venice, Genoa, Ragusa: The fates of all of these 3 in history were tied heavily with the success of the Ottoman empire's rise. Considering that in-game Ottomans only occasionally muster anything even close to what we saw in history and haphazard AI colonization, a different outcome for the republics is to be expected.

I'm glad Venice got wrecked.

Still salty about that whole Crusade business.

 

[Phaex]

Do this strat as East Frisia, I think it's the province with a trade modifier in the Antwerpen node. Tell us the % increase on that!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm glad Venice got wrecked.

Still salty about that whole Crusade business.

I'm not going either way on it in terms of preference, too many what-ifs. I'm just pointing out that the incentive for new world and the entire Asian trade route to Europe might have looked different if the Ottomans didn't rise to such an enormous degree, and especially if they were conquered or limited. They had a direct impact on every merchant republic in the game other than Novgorod and Hansa, but IRL "The Hansa" was a bit different from the concept of a unified German merchant republic operating entirely as a nation, so it's hard to really place them in history vs merchant republic gameplay.

Do this strat as East Frisia, I think it's the province with a trade modifier in the Antwerpen node. Tell us the % increase on that!

Whoever starts with control of Holland has the important center of trade there that comes to mind. Stacking trade ideas with building multipliers there should be nasty indeed, as NED players have shown.

 

[Phaex]

Whoever starts with control of Holland has the important center of trade there that comes to mind. Stacking trade ideas with building multipliers there should be nasty indeed, as NED players have shown.

Burgundy starts with Holland iirc unfortunately. East Frisia has a 10tp estuary bonus, not nearly as good as Antwerpen or Holland, but the only opm in either Lubeck or Antwerpen nodes with a bonus I believe. Aren't those the two richest nodes at game start?

 

[Outrider]

What an exploit!

5,600 monarch points to increase income by 4-5 ducats month.

What I think is funnier is that half of what you did has an extremely negligible impact on income.

Lol.

 

[Topsy Cret]

I'll keep it mind the next time I play Ulm. Or any other minor, like Auvergne... Ohhhh it has such a nice color...

 

[aitaituo]

It is a little odd. That said, if you prevent the reasons merchant republics declined in history or just sufficiently change history, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Novgorod: Was killed by Muscovy. Had it not been, they probably thrive.
Venice, Genoa, Ragusa: The fates of all of these 3 in history were tied heavily with the success of the Ottoman empire's rise. Considering that in-game Ottomans only occasionally muster anything even close to what we saw in history and haphazard AI colonization, a different outcome for the republics is to be expected.

The Hanseatic League faded into obscurity in the EUIV period too and they weren't facing serious military threats. As I recall they diminished with the rise of the Dutch and East India Companies and colonization in general.

 

[sermaciej]

Exploit? Taking ideas? You call that an exploit?

 

[Outrider]

Exploit? Taking ideas? You call that an exploit?

Presuming he's serious, he's just amazed that a country could get an 8x multiplier on their income without expanding. If 2 idea groups did that to England or France, it'd potentially be something to look at. But when income starts near 0, any piddly increase seems exponentially large.

 

[Mauer]

Exploit? Taking ideas? You call that an exploit?

This.

 

[Zardnaar]

Do this strat as East Frisia, I think it's the province with a trade modifier in the Antwerpen node. Tell us the % increase on that!

Might do as it oinly takes about half an hour or so cranking the game speed to test it out.


As people can tell I was not being to serious with tihs. It could be a thing to test out for OPM starts that do expand and you go to 9 provinces and then just use vassals and then convert to merchant republic. Trades decent by itself, economics not so much but I have been experimenting with the later idea to abuse it and you can do some silly things with it like get Merchant Republic income as a land based power in Germany.

Also wondering if you could abuse it with something like turning Brandenburg into a MR or maybe Crimea.

 

[Outrider]

Might do as it oinly takes about half an hour or so cranking the game speed to test it out.


As people can tell I was not being to serious with tihs. It could be a thing to test out for OPM starts that do expand and you go to 9 provinces and then just use vassals and then convert to merchant republic. Trades decent by itself, economics not so much but I have been experimenting with the later idea to abuse it and you can do some silly things with it like get Merchant Republic income as a land based power in Germany.

Also wondering if you could abuse it with something like turning Brandenburg into a MR or maybe Crimea.

There is a lot of potential for abuse with MRs, but the things you did don't really have anything to do with MRs (other than an extra merchant to steer towards your home node).

Choosing trade ideas was your biggest bonus, for the extra TP/TE/TI in general, and the extra merchants/steering to pull trade your direction (though you can just rely on other HRE minors to do that as well later on).

Economic and the factory were extremely minor changes (see the starting tax/production income compared to after you did those things), and MR just let you steer slightly more trade to your node.

To really abuse MRs you need to play games with trade power boosting goods production.
You need to:
a) Expand all over the place to make trade posts in high TP provinces in many nodes.
b) Build large CNs (which give your 50% of their trade power, in turn boosting their goods produced)
c) Protectorate spam in Asia

You can make a MR as whoever, but generally none will do it as well as the existing MRs, which already have strong trade/naval NIs compared to someone like Brandenburg, whose NIs have absolutely no synergy with the MR play strategy.

 

[Zardnaar]

There is a lot of potential for abuse with MRs, but the things you did don't really have anything to do with MRs (other than an extra merchant to steer towards your home node).

Choosing trade ideas was your biggest bonus, for the extra TP/TE/TI in general, and the extra merchants/steering to pull trade your direction (though you can just rely on other HRE minors to do that as well later on).

Economic and the factory were extremely minor changes (see the starting tax/production income compared to after you did those things), and MR just let you steer slightly more trade to your node.

To really abuse MRs you need to play games with trade power boosting goods production.
You need to:
a) Expand all over the place to make trade posts in high TP provinces in many nodes.
b) Build large CNs (which give your 50% of their trade power, in turn boosting their goods produced)
c) Protectorate spam in Asia

You can make a MR as whoever, but generally none will do it as well as the existing MRs, which already have strong trade/naval NIs compared to someone like Brandenburg, whose NIs have absolutely no synergy with the MR play strategy.

The existing MRs kind of stink at warfare though. Brandenburg as a MR solves that problem and you may not be as good at trade as a pure MR you are a lot better at war and will still be better at trading than say Portugal. It would also solve any cash problems a land based power would have.

Economics can also double your income in a few short years as you kind of get a 20% boost to income levels, a higher % of disposable income and a 20% discount on buildings which would let you spam manufactories early on. Depends if you think limiting yourself to 9 provinces early in the game is a good idea or not and in some cases with OPMs it may be advantageous to do so anyway. Some nations could also function better as a MR as well Brittany comes to mind.

In some cases I suspect becoming a MR may be the optimal way to play.

 

[Qoff]

Everything for this forum is now an exploit.

 

[Outrider]

In some cases I suspect becoming a MR may be the optimal way to play.

Sure...It's a decision that fits a certain type of niche nation or objective.

As for the rest, a lot of unsupported nonsense.

No land-combat based NIs =/= sucks at warfare (swarming mercs is a different way of succeeding at warfare than discipline and combat ability bonuses. Its very effective).

A swap to MR might do a small amount for income in the short run, but hampers the ability to diplovassal/annex and thus gain BT that would otherwise be generating you lots of tax, production, and trade income. It also locks you into two idea groups that could otherwise be used to help a land power expand.

Economics won't really ever come even close to doubling your income. It gives a 10% boost to two types of income, which means at most a 10% boost to income (assuming no vassals, tariffs, or trade). Depending on how much of your income goes to your army upkeep and other land maintenance modifiers, it
could be maybe up to 15% cost savings (if you already had another 30% land maintenance reduction and land maintenance was 100% of your cost).

Even the additional buildings will often be marginally useful, as with -20% from economics and the reduction from having the appropriate faction, you're still using up a ton of ducats that could otherwise have been used to pay mercs/troops/ships and actually expand your territory.