Best idea groups.

[BarrosRodrigues]

While +3 to heretic tolerance is meh, -10 years of nationalism is great for direct conquest, especially if you get it to stack with other -nationalism modifiers. 10 less years of nationalism doesn't start out with the normal +15 RR and then decay over only 20 years instead of 30, it will actually only start out at +10 RR, as if 10 years had already passed. It's effectively a -5 RR on conquered territory. With Horde ideas, constitutional monarchy, and the policy, it's a -12.5 RR reduction, better than automatic harsh treatment.

I am not saying that Humanism is not great for a regular game but for a WC where ADM points to core are the bottleneck (at least for me) it is not worth it; RR in the end is only money and we are flooded in money in the later stages so I prefer to keep the points and accept demands ad eternum. This strategy will probably change with 1.8 but only because ADM points will be less important (unless ofc PDS makes a 180º turn yet again).

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I am not saying that Humanism is not great for a regular game but for a WC where ADM points to core are the bottleneck (at least for me) it is not worth it; RR in the end is only money and we are flooded in money in the later stages so I prefer to keep the points and accept demands ad eternum. This strategy will probably change with 1.8 but only because ADM points will be less important (unless ofc PDS makes a 180º turn yet again).

In 1.8, accepting rebel demands will have the same effect as them enforcing. You will not be accepting rebel demands constantly.

Also, ADM to core being the bottleneck depends on how you're going about it. If you're doing the "add capitol to HRE then release nation into your revoke swarm", coring isn't really a significant bottleneck. You can protectorate Asia, easily full annex --> release most hordes with overseas expansion (50% adm efficiency or more makes it pathetically easy), and for a nation like the Ottomans with 26 or 29 you can probably full annex --> release them too just by doing truce break and assaulting to get fast occupations.

You'll still want to core here and there, but unless you're going for 1-tag WC or can't realistically get into HRE + revoke ADM is not necessarily a bottleneck.

The reason I like -RR is that you can ride low stability, namely -2 stability, and not get your prestige completely tanked by rebels. As a result, the consequence of breaking a truce amounts to the ADM cost of boosting stability once rather than multiple times. Especially if you also have diplomatic ideas that let you buy down the resulting WE for ~50 DIP (35ish with aristocratic), -rr is pretty welcome with such an approach. It's not like anything in the game can handle you if you've already revoked AND just crushed them 1 month ago.

 

[BarrosRodrigues]

In 1.8, accepting rebel demands will have the same effect as them enforcing. You will not be accepting rebel demands constantly.

Also, ADM to core being the bottleneck depends on how you're going about it. If you're doing the "add capitol to HRE then release nation into your revoke swarm", coring isn't really a significant bottleneck. You can protectorate Asia, easily full annex --> release most hordes with overseas expansion (50% adm efficiency or more makes it pathetically easy), and for a nation like the Ottomans with 26 or 29 you can probably full annex --> release them too just by doing truce break and assaulting to get fast occupations.

You'll still want to core here and there, but unless you're going for 1-tag WC or can't realistically get into HRE + revoke ADM is not necessarily a bottleneck.

The reason I like -RR is that you can ride low stability, namely -2 stability, and not get your prestige completely tanked by rebels. As a result, the consequence of breaking a truce amounts to the ADM cost of boosting stability once rather than multiple times. Especially if you also have diplomatic ideas that let you buy down the resulting WE for ~50 DIP (35ish with aristocratic), -rr is pretty welcome with such an approach. It's not like anything in the game can handle you if you've already revoked AND just crushed them 1 month ago.

Thanks but I am aware of the 1.8 changes. Coring the capital and releasing the nation for most cases it won´t work without heavy coring because it needs to be adjacent to an HRE province (...) My goal is usually to achieve a 1 tag WC but it is not always possible (...) ; in my last game lack of ADM was the only thing that prevented me from doing it as Frankfurt despite the huge amounts of vassal feeding I simply did not had enough to core Mali, Ming, Korea and Japan; it was not because of lack of time it was only because of lack of freaking ADM points. Btw the lack of ADM also prevented me from getting the achievement ~40 years sooner. Filling the Humanism idea group would only make things worse.

Spoiler

In 1.8 vassal feeding will be much, much easier to the point of making the players ADM almost irrelevant unless ofc PDS makes a 180º turn (I would not be surprised) so I will most likely end up filling the Humanism group.

 

[seu.nacib]

Overseas Expansion - Gold star here, this is one of the best WC CBs possible. If you're western, you can rapidly protectorate the majority of Asia in 10-15 years with no risk of coalitions due to the chaining. There probably isn't a single stronger individual idea you can have.

How exactly does this work? I've never heard about this but it seems very interesting.

 

[SweetHalcyHS]

How exactly does this work? I've never heard about this but it seems very interesting.

Overseas Expansion (OE) does not require a border, so you can easily declare war on every non-horde asian country, albeit one per month, and because of its the lack of a need for borders, can take the entire continent out piecemeal and then peace out all at once.

 

[kitemasaki]

This strategy will probably change with 1.8 but only because ADM points will be less important (unless ofc PDS makes a 180º turn yet again).

ADM points will be very important in 1.8 since you need them for autonomy reduction for 'every single province' that you conquer. If anything, conquering via conquest is going to be MUCH more inefficient with 1.8.
Humanism is one of the best new idea groups for nations that don't have many options for expanding their accepted cultures and will be useful to placate revolt risk since it seems rebel demands are much more threatening than they are currently. It isn't necessary for every nation, but it can be for some play styles.

 

[CPMuskovy]

ADM points will be very important in 1.8 since you need them for autonomy reduction for 'every single province' that you conquer.

This is now proven to be false.

Now that 1.8 is actually out, what's the new conquest 'meta' idea groups? To me, it looks like vassalization will need to be used sparingly with how slow it takes (Less bigger vassals > more smaller vassals). But besides that, what idea groups will be more important? Adm? Diplomatic? Influence?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

This is now proven to be false.

Now that 1.8 is actually out, what's the new conquest 'meta' idea groups? To me, it looks like vassalization will need to be used sparingly with how slow it takes (Less bigger vassals > more smaller vassals). But besides that, what idea groups will be more important? Adm? Diplomatic? Influence?

Vassalization has the disadvantage of giving provinces with initial 75% autonomy, but if you have influence + diplomatic you'll tear through vassals like nothing. Mid game options like absolute monarchy or admin republic start giving -.2% monthly autonomy and thus an annexed vassal would lose all autonomy in roughly 30 years if you were at war the entire time by that point. Before that you can probably sit on influence + feudal monarchy for 60% vassal income and big subject FL contribution.

The alternative is to run a nation like Ottos with the big -core cost and just rip everything up right away, or the usual HRE BS.

 

[Amosblanco]

My favorite: Innovative+Defensive combo= +1 army tradtion/ -2% tradition decay help you keep your military tradition high even during peace.

 

[Frungy78]

Diplomatic and influence seem must-haves if you're going to vassalize much or become emperor. Diplomatic reputation is so powerful now.

And you really need more than 2 diplomats, so diplomatic and aristocratic are more appealing.

 

[Beagá]

Aristocracy is quite more viable, since manpower is in shorter supply. Economy is also very good for medium sized countries and above. +10% tax obviously is a bit pathetic if you have three provinces, heh.

 

[oblio-]

Am I wrong in assuming that Diplomatic / Influence are very good? With several vassal hordes you can literally cover the world. And if they rebel just crush they pathetic troops.

 

[DanubianCossak]

First 3 idea group you go for 1 adm, 1 dip and 1 mil, starting with whichever one your monarch is best at.

For mil i would say defensive has become a pretty good idea group because of morale (morale is really important nowdays). Aristocracy is good for getting more tradition (tradition = better generals, and even more morale).

For adm i would say religious is pretty decent, youll want to convert stuff sooner or later anyway. No reason not to. Innovative is a pretty awesome group because of tech bonus AND tradition decay (maintaining 100 tradition will give you 6/6/6 generals often, AND it will give you a morale boost).

For dip go with whatever your heart desires. I usually try to stack up as many diplo relations as i can, because that = more zerg vassal horde.

 

[Prom_STar]

Best admin: religious and humanism
Best diplo: influence and diplomatic
Best military: quantity and offensive

Honorable mention for exploration and expansion if you're going the colony game.

 

[Poh]

my first 4 groups would probably involve 1 ADM (probably first), Aristocracy (-10% MIL tech and the diplomat is important for annexing vassals constantly), Influence (-25% dip cost also affect annex time), Diplomatic (1 diplomat more and -20% warscore cost).

 

[Outrider]

I'd say Admin/Influence/Diplomatic, the mix of -coring and diploannex/vassal feed boosts let you overcome the primary slowdown in mass conquest - limited Monarch Points.

If you start off as a smaller power, military or income boosting ideas might be needed to get you off the ground, but once you get some BT/BMP under you, you should be able to pummel the AI in war regardless of MIL buffs, so they cease to be nearly as relevant.

My favorite: Innovative+Defensive combo= +1 army tradtion/ -2% tradition decay help you keep your military tradition high even during peace.

Ability to keep MIL trad high during peacetime is pretty irrelevant in a hyper-conquest run, as you'll already be at max tradition most of the time from warfare.

Vassalization has the disadvantage of giving provinces with initial 75% autonomy, but if you have influence + diplomatic you'll tear through vassals like nothing.

I'm not sure how much of a relative disadvantage it is generally speaking. Conquered territories have 40%/50% base, so a diploannexed territory with the manual -25% LA will have as much LA as a regularly conquered province, as most of the time you can't really conquer and then further manually reduce LA. If you have large -unrest, +ttf, -nationalism from NI/humanism/policies, you may be able to pull it off, in which case conquest might be the better route.

Also don't forget, there's a point in SP at which you don't need incremental tax income/manpower; so high LA may cease to matter at that point.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The difference is that timer starts at least ten years later, usually more.

Vassals are pretty situational unless you focus on boosting them.

 

[1alexey]

For a WC, the first thing you should decide, is : Do you colonize?
If you don`t the ideas are fairly obvious:
Administrative: because mercs are your infinite manpower, coring cost and diplo cost give you tonne of admin points that you will need.
Then you need to know how fast you will expand outside your own faith, to know when to pick your idea that deals with religion. Religious or Tolerance both work perfectly fine, just pick the one stacking with your NI/religion, usually 1st to 3d pick, depending on starting location.

Pick Diplomatic and Influence. Diplopoints can be a real bottleneck, and diplo reputation is necessary for fast annexations.

Plutocracy/Innovative. Mostly for tech cost reduction.
After that, pick whatever you fill you`re lacking. Extra diplomats, military power or policies combos.

Military ideas are very weak for WC, as your bottleneck is Diplo/Admin monarch points, after first 100 years, there should be no state able to challenge your anyway.
Only military ideas that are worth picking are offencive for siege bonus and Aristocracy for extra diplomat.

If you want to colonize, you need to switch your idea order and squize exploration and expansion as your 2d and 3d ideas. The "pro" is that you don`t have to deal with AI colonial nations going rogue and becoming independent, especially since wreaking their mother country now directly increases liberty desire due to high war exhaustion.

First 3 idea group you go for 1 adm, 1 dip and 1 mil, starting with whichever one your monarch is best at.

Unless you use national focus.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Aristocratic is great for WC because you can get cheaper -WE on truce break and an extra diplomat while rotating an extra general to a split front.

Keep in mind NF is DLC only, so not everyone necessarily has it.

 

[1alexey]

Aristocratic is great for WC because you can get cheaper -WE on truce break and an extra diplomat while rotating an extra general to a split front.

It is not "great", it is "useful".

You can approach all blobs in due time anyway, so no reason for truce breaking unless you`re really, really late, to reduce some blob into oblivion.

Keep in mind NF is DLC only, so not everyone necessarily has it.

Yes, that is why i said "unless".