Economy Building 101 for Austria/Large Countries

[JesterCorp1990]

Every since I began playing EU3, I've played small trading countries. Ulm, Hansa, Venice, Genoa, even Mecklenburg and they all have one major way to play. You focus in trading and tech and you are set for the game pretty much. I have never played a large nation or even attempted one until now.

I began a game as Austria with the goal to conquer Italy and vassalize Bohemia. I figured it was an achievable goal. I set my economy up like I always do and quickly realized something; Austria sucks at trading and you are surrounded by enemies. By 1408, I had been in one war which was against Bavaria. I was forced to max my force limits and hire more troops to defend myself and even then, Bavaria and their allies almost rolled me. (Granted, as a trading nation I rarely ever dabbled in the military aspects of the game, so I still make newb mistakes.)

Anyways, that one war forced me to take a loan and wrecked my economy because I have no idea how to base my economy beyond trading and well, quite frankly, Austria's sliders are pretty horrible for trading. I could not keep merchants in Venezia or Lubeck and never had more than 2 in Liguria or Antwerpen. The only success I had was in Ile-de-France where I had a constant 3 merchants. I was spending more money sending merchants than I was making. By 1410, I managed to get my first national idea. I invested in Shrewd Commerce Practice and also moved my slider towards free trade, hoping to get a lucky roll. I did and I got a level 3 Trader. I was excited and figured this would help me get my trade up. It helped nothing. By 1412, I had one merchant in Ile-de-France and could make no progress in any other center of trade. I was dishing out around 40-50 ducats a years sending out merchants and was pulling in on average a monthly 1-3 ducats a month in trade for a maximum of 36 ducats a year. My only saving grace was my 10 ducat monthly income from gold.

So, as a big country; where does your profit come in and how do you build your economy? I obviously made a mistake trying to build Austria like the trading nations I am so fond of.

 

[unmerged(487181)]

The biggest key to playing any country in EU3 is to recognize the initial slider settings and come to terms with whatever style of play that implies for you going forward. Austria, with solid Aristocracy, solid Serfdom, slight Narrowmindedness and solid Mercantilism, is not going to be a progressive trading state like Holland. This thing is built to be a land blob and needs to play like one.

With Austria specifically, the sliders are well-equipped to pick up four nice national decisions available to the Feudal Monarchy form of government to start the game: Court of Wards and Liveries, Tenures Abolition Act, Recruiting Act and Militia Act. Aside from the effects (which, imo, are all net gains), the slider moves are pretty incredible: net +1 Free Subjects, +1 Centralization, +2 Quantity, +1 Innovative. Your first slider move should be to Innovative to set up for those four reforms; subsequent ones should be toward Centralization, since the main sticking point is that you need to get to 2 Centralization (for the Militia Act, which carries you to the 3 Centralization needed for Court of Wards and Tenures Abolition - the latter of which provides the Innovative move needed for the Recruiting Act).

After you get there, focus should be on increasing Free Subjects to reduce your tech costs. Austria will become a large land empire, which means its tech costs will go up. Counteract this by setting up your sliders to minimize tech costs. After you max Free Subjects, focus on Land or Innovative/Narrowminded - both have advantages, your call as to which one is the right call.

Your income will be mostly from taxes early and production late; get a Master of Mint, mint to 10% and build as close to your force limits as you can get without incurring an annual loss. If you're just conquering everything then it's probably not worth it to try to focus on infrastructure. Trade is a sideshow; just wait until you start conquering major chunks of land around a COT and use your mercantilism to your advantage.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Yeah. If you start off with mercantilism bias, then don't be a free trader. Just do your Italian missions and conquer when CB's come up. Don't be worried about falling behind in tech, as it's normal for blobs to be in yellow/orange/red until mid 1550's.

 

[Kurblius]

Is it just me, or is Austria also devastatingly good at inheriting countries through forced Personal Unions? Inheriting immediately gives you a core on all German culture territory. Since cores give you 90% in direct tax, I'd imagine it can partially offset your losses to trade.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Is it just me, or is Austria also devastatingly good at inheriting countries through forced Personal Unions? Inheriting immediately gives you a core on all German culture territory. Since cores give you 90% in direct tax, I'd imagine it can partially offset your losses to trade.

Well, it's one of the best countries to PU the HRE because it is rich, strong, and in the HRE whereas other big players always have to contend with the Emperor when trying to force PU on HRE minors.

 

[sprites]

They might be the best due to their habsburg_dominance decision. (+3 diplomatic skill)

Oh , and if you want to trade , you should try to annex Venice and trade there.
don't waste money on merchants before owning a coT.

 

[Grubnessul]

Annexing Venice may take you a while before you can take on their fleet. As Austria colonising wouldn't be your priority so you can also build a CoT in Venice.

 

[unmerged(471650)]

Production and tax until you own cot's.
I always tech- gov. land and production.
the bigger you get the greater % of income will be from production.

 

[unmerged(204522)]

large, mercantile nations that dont own a CoT, should ignore trade completely and focus instead on production-that means constables/workshops in every core province-it also means expanding territory by adding every rich, core, province you can get your hands on-expanding by forcing PUs will also give you the prestige to expand your SoI-with this strategy your yearly income from census tax will soon be enough to cover all your cash needs, leaving your monthly income to fully invest in tech-by this time, the OPMs will have raced ahead in trade tech, allowing you to catch up via the neighbour bonuses-also, since youre not trading, you can afford to take some early BB by vassalisation, giving you allies, income and control of the HRE-with all thes wars going on, you should also gain large dollops of cash from all the peace treaties, so, as a large nation, even enemy cascading alliances help to make you rich and powerful.....

 

[unmerged(499943)]

I don't agree. Every christian nation in the game can be a great trader, it's only a question of how many slider moves it takes to get to maximum free trade. In the case of Austria it's 7, which leaves quite a window of of opportunity for initial conquests. It may be different in MP where it is a bit of a gamble as you may be blockaded for extended periods of time, face harsh competition in CoTs and be challenged militarily but in SP going free trade is a no-brainer that always gives a huge ROI. IMO the best strategy is to time your conquests right so that your infamy will have gone back down to close to 0 by 1480-90 when you start trading for good for that incredible economic and tech boost.

And yeh, as for buildings, constables/workshops are probably the best ones initially.

 

[brifbates]

I don't agree. Every christian nation in the game can be a great trader, it's only a question of how many slider moves it takes to get to maximum free trade. In the case of Austria it's 7, which leaves quite a window of of opportunity for initial conquests. It may be different in MP where it is a bit of a gamble as you may be blockaded for extended periods of time, face harsh competition in CoTs and be challenged militarily but in SP going free trade is a no-brainer that always gives a huge ROI. IMO the best strategy is to time your conquests right so that your infamy will have gone back down to close to 0 by 1480-90 when you start trading for good for that incredible economic and tech boost.

It's all a matter of trade-offs. A nation like Austria could use those 8 (not 7) slider moves to get to full land & quality (with 1 left over) which coupled with their huge army as HRE makes them an unstoppable land force. Free trade moves are pointless until you get to at least the +2/3 range which means spending 65 years making pointless slider moves instead of playing to your country's strengths. By the time they can get to full free trading they could also easily have gone mercantalist and be 2/3 of the way to +55% trade income from triggered modifiers using smarter slider moves.

 

[sprites]

I don't agree. Every christian nation in the game can be a great trader, it's only a question of how many slider moves it takes to get to maximum free trade. In the case of Austria it's 7, which leaves quite a window of of opportunity for initial conquests. It may be different in MP where it is a bit of a gamble as you may be blockaded for extended periods of time, face harsh competition in CoTs and be challenged militarily but in SP going free trade is a no-brainer that always gives a huge ROI. IMO the best strategy is to time your conquests right so that your infamy will have gone back down to close to 0 by 1480-90 when you start trading for good for that incredible economic and tech boost.

And yeh, as for buildings, constables/workshops are probably the best ones initially.

It must be boring if you try to play all countries the same way ...

 

[unmerged(499943)]

It must be boring if you try to play all countries the same way ...

You seem to be making an invalid assumption. I am discussing game mechanics, not role playing.

It's all a matter of trade-offs. A nation like Austria could use those 8 (not 7) slider moves to get to full land & quality (with 1 left over) which coupled with their huge army as HRE makes them an unstoppable land force. Free trade moves are pointless until you get to at least the +2/3 range which means spending 65 years making pointless slider moves instead of playing to your country's strengths. By the time they can get to full free trading they could also easily have gone mercantalist and be 2/3 of the way to +55% trade income from triggered modifiers using smarter slider moves.

Indeed, it is a matter of trade offs. I am merely arguing that some options in these trade offs are usually better than others, which I am actually not very fond of. It should not be too hard to have double the income of a mercantile Austria in SP by 1500 as a free trader.

 

[unmerged(471650)]

My idea for trade is to annex the competition.:laugh:

 

[sashar]

If you are really lucky you can get vassal mission after vassal mission and get a lot of income from all of the income from the HRE vassals.

 

[cotwell]

As Austria, I had a PU I didn't even know about until I inherited! Also, I was the tech leader pretty early on on the GC. I figured it was because of all the vassals I'd collected. I got half their income without incurring the tech penalty (I presume.)