I'm trying to pick a Military idea for my second choice, and just can't decide. The way I see it, all the options are good.
Aristocratic: the bonuses seem a bit scattershot, but they are very solid. The best part is the diplo bonus, tho, so I may take Diplomatic in the mid-late instead.
Offensive: I tried this before and it worked extremely well. The Forced March special bonus is extremely useful and has let me insta-kill several AI stack once I made them run. Apart from that, good leaders won me battles, even against France.
Defensive: France surprised me with this, but it definitely works. The final bonus is more of a nicety, but the defensiveness improvements will help... ironically especially against France. But also in dealing with the odd rebels here or there. The interesting thing is the early morale boost, which is a nasty thing in peacetime, as it lets you have solid morale while keeping the army budget slider low.
Quality: It actually looks a little weak, but has some really good points. It's the only military idea with substantial effect on your navy, the morale regeneration is a small but very helpful bonus, and the final Discipline boost is a real killer (ba-dum-kssh!) One of the nice things about this is that it lets you be much more effective in terms of transporting troops. You can't easily drop an powerful army anywhere you need it, but this allows you to move smaller, more powerful forces easily.
Quantity: With Spain, you expect this to be less important as you can eventually stack even basic armories into a massive manpower pool. Then again, Quantity does a lot more than that: quick resupply, high force limits, low cost.
My though is to go Defensive -> Quantity -> Offensive, and thus beat France at their own game. I'm actually thinking to bypass Naval altogether, and take Exploration -> Expansion -> Diplomatic. While this means I'd have a weaker navy, I can also have the raw naval numbers to pwn anyone anyway. Thoughts?
Aristocratic: the bonuses seem a bit scattershot, but they are very solid. The best part is the diplo bonus, tho, so I may take Diplomatic in the mid-late instead.
Offensive: I tried this before and it worked extremely well. The Forced March special bonus is extremely useful and has let me insta-kill several AI stack once I made them run. Apart from that, good leaders won me battles, even against France.
Defensive: France surprised me with this, but it definitely works. The final bonus is more of a nicety, but the defensiveness improvements will help... ironically especially against France. But also in dealing with the odd rebels here or there. The interesting thing is the early morale boost, which is a nasty thing in peacetime, as it lets you have solid morale while keeping the army budget slider low.
Quality: It actually looks a little weak, but has some really good points. It's the only military idea with substantial effect on your navy, the morale regeneration is a small but very helpful bonus, and the final Discipline boost is a real killer (ba-dum-kssh!) One of the nice things about this is that it lets you be much more effective in terms of transporting troops. You can't easily drop an powerful army anywhere you need it, but this allows you to move smaller, more powerful forces easily.
Quantity: With Spain, you expect this to be less important as you can eventually stack even basic armories into a massive manpower pool. Then again, Quantity does a lot more than that: quick resupply, high force limits, low cost.
My though is to go Defensive -> Quantity -> Offensive, and thus beat France at their own game. I'm actually thinking to bypass Naval altogether, and take Exploration -> Expansion -> Diplomatic. While this means I'd have a weaker navy, I can also have the raw naval numbers to pwn anyone anyway. Thoughts?