EU2 Strategy Questions -- help needed

[Falconhurst]

I love this game, there are some things I still don't quite understand.
I am dominating the game in conquest and diplomacy, but continue to do
very poorly at inflation and trade.

1. Inflation. How do you minimize it, except for promoting mayors to
governors? Is it lower if you spend more money on development and tech
than cash? Is it lower if you accrue money, but don't spend it?
Playing as Austria, my inflation is consistently the highest of anyone
except for the Ottoman Empire and Greece. Not sure why. I've tried to
minimize it but I can't get it under control. I've only taken out a
single loan in the entire game which I immediately payed back.

2. Attrition. About 80% of my army is consistently lost to attrition.
I keep them parked in my own cities, except while I am invading.

Is it better to have multiple small armies for attrition purposes than
large ones (i.e. is attrition lower for 3 armies with 5,000 men, than
for 1 army with 15,000 men)? I am trying to keep my armies relatively
small but am still losing many people.

3. Trading. Is it even worthwhile at the beginning of the grand
campaign? I find myself losing more money than I earn. The costs of
placing single traders, typically 5-20 ducats, absolutely dwarf the
monthly incomes of 0.1-1.5 ducats I am getting from trading. Any trade
secrets or tips to improve this?

4. Tech advancements. I like to put my tech slider on essentially 0%
tech (allowing the monarch bonus + neighbor bonuses to foster
development) and spend my ducats on building & maintaining armies to
invade neighbors. Is this causing inflation problems for me? The
costs of advancement are too astronomical for me to devote a large
portion of my income to infrastructure, trade, etc. which produce
advances only after 10-20 years in many cases. When I invest in tech
at all, it is usually in land military. What do you do and why?

Kudos to Strategy First for a phenomenal game with great realism and historic/educational value!

Thanks!

Falconhurst

 

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4. Tech advancements. I like to put my tech slider on essentially 0%
tech (allowing the monarch bonus + neighbor bonuses to foster
development) and spend my ducats on building & maintaining armies to
invade neighbors. Is this causing inflation problems for me?

Yes it is. All or nearly all of your monthly income should go to research of some sort, except for BRIEF periods when you really need the cash immediately. Cash taken to treasury results in inflation. If you do this to survive one critical war, say, that's not too bad. But if you do this as your normal operation of the country's economy, you sink yourself with a terrible combination of high inflation and low tech.

Don't be discouraged by the high costs to research each step of tech. This is a long-term strategy game. Fifty years from now (in the game) the extra ducats you took into the treasury will be long forgotten, but tech gains are permanent, and vitally important.

 

[Chaingun]

I focused on attrition below, and just rephrase the inflation issue because it is so very important.

Inflation is evil, period. Avoid it unless it's absolutely necessary, because the most common source of inflation (drawing income to treasury), both makes the money worthless and directly decrease technology investment. Inflation increases the costs of virtually anything in the game.

About attrition: You can click on a province and see the "supply limit" of it. It is the maximum thousands of troops you can have in the province before they start to die in attrition. (Though you will still suffer a minimum of 1% attrition while in enemy territory.) This limit is greater in your own territory, and in your allies', but lower in enemy territory. It is also determined by the base tax of the province, the fortress, the terrain (I think), and wheter it is winter there or not. Once you exceed the limit, each extra thousand of troops you have in that province past the support limit adds 1% to the attrition rate, unless it has hit the "maximum attrition" number for that province. Enemy troops are counted as well, and therefore you will usually suffer more attrition than the enemy in hostile territory since he is on his home turf.

In short one can say that attrition is one of the most important tactical aspects of war in this game. Learn to avoid it and force your enemies to endure it. It means to spread your troops out when there are no major enemy forces in sight in enemy territory, and then move them together when fighting a major battle. It means you can't walk around with 100 000 men armies for too long in enemy territory (which is sometimes necessary in multiplayer). Try to force the enemy to move his armies together by harrassing any small armies he have scattered across your territory to siege your provinces.

I'm too tired to write anything more, and although you maybe see that the attrition issue interests me more than the inflation issue, maybe avoid inflation is even more important (especially for achievement of your strategic objectives).

 

[Kaigon]

Kudos to Strategy First for a phenomenal game with great realism and historic/educational value!

AFAIK, Strategy First has nothing to do with the development and features of EU2. All kudos to Paradox!

 

[unmerged(20077)]

3. Trading. Is it even worthwhile at the beginning of the grand
campaign? I find myself losing more money than I earn. The costs of
placing single traders, typically 5-20 ducats, absolutely dwarf the
monthly incomes of 0.1-1.5 ducats I am getting from trading. Any trade
secrets or tips to improve this?

Trade is not there to boost your treasury. Especially early on, yes, you will lose more placing merchants than you gain from their income, but remember that trade boosts income and therefore you are putting that money into research - that's the real benefit of trade... except in Venice. I've found competition there to be so intense it really is a waste of time, since merchants often go bankrupt within days and you never see any money at all.

 

[Kaigon]

2. Attrition. About 80% of my army is consistently lost to attrition.
I keep them parked in my own cities, except while I am invading.

Is it better to have multiple small armies for attrition purposes than
large ones (i.e. is attrition lower for 3 armies with 5,000 men, than
for 1 army with 15,000 men)? I am trying to keep my armies relatively
small but am still losing many people.

Look out for those attrition numbers! (And try not to exced the supply value)
Personally, if there are no big armies around, I tend to set 5000-6000 men for each fortsize in enemy provinces (or you could enter with a larger army and press besiege (will put 6000 men for each fortsize) and then continue on to the next province).
Leader maneuver (<- probably misspelt) will decrease the monthly attrition.
Other tips are to start the movement in the beginning of each month, so if you reach your target before the end of the month, you will suffer no attrition.
During winter I tend to withdraw almost all or all men from enemy provinces or badly supplied provinces (such as colonies, poor provinces or those without forts).

 

[unmerged(24213)]

1. Inflation. How do you minimize it, except for promoting mayors to governors? Is it lower if you spend more money on development and tech than cash? Is it lower if you accrue money, but don't spend it?

1. Do not let any of Your daily income get to Your treasury! Double-click as far as possible to the left! This is essential! It is quite possible to manage Austria upon Your yearly income. (Besides, don't position any slider further to the right than half-way. That would mean waste of resources - much less effectivity from that money.)
2. Do not own any province with gold, or a province bordering such a province! This is not so essential, but necessary for 0% inflation in the start.
3. Promote governors, everywhere! You may very well create colonies just to be able to promote still one governor.
4. Do not get events that rise inflation! (Easier said than made, but to be complete...)
5. Get events that lower inflation! (Same as 4.)

2. Attrition. About 80% of my army is consistently lost to attrition.
I keep them parked in my own cities, except while I am invading.
Is it better to have multiple small armies for attrition purposes than
large ones (i.e. is attrition lower for 3 armies with 5,000 men, than
for 1 army with 15,000 men)? I am trying to keep my armies relatively
small but am still losing many people.

1. Try keeping the siege armies in enemy territory less than the limit of that province. Battle armies are not so easy keeping small, and still win battles, but if possible, use two or tree smaller armies, not in the same province at the same time, except when fighting. Some provinces may have lower limit than is necessary for siege, e.g. Albania, and then attrition is unavoidable, if You really must take that province.
2. Keep support roads open!
3. Do not stay in enemy territory, when there is snow, if possible!
4. Let armies in enemy territory be ruled by a conquistador, if possible! (But these may be better used for colonial research.)
4. Let Your fleets get to harbour often, or be ruled by a discoverer! (But the latter may be better used for discovery.)

3. Trading. Is it even worthwhile at the beginning of the grand
campaign? I find myself losing more money than I earn. The costs of
placing single traders, typically 5-20 ducats, absolutely dwarf the
monthly incomes of 0.1-1.5 ducats I am getting from trading. Any trade
secrets or tips to improve this?

You are quite right. If You don't have a very good monarch, merchant placing outside Your own CoT (if You have one) is a waste of money in game start. Later on they make more money, and in the end this is Your main income.

4. Tech advancements. I like to put my tech slider on essentially 0%
tech (allowing the monarch bonus + neighbor bonuses to foster
development) and spend my ducats on building & maintaining armies to
invade neighbors.

This is very bad. It makes Your inflation go up in the sky and makes Your country backward and inferior. In a century or two You will be totally annihilated by Your foes! The only slider I usually keep to zero or near that is the Stability. If Your country has many provinces, or a bad monarch, it may be better to sometimes move this further to the right, but just if Your stability has gotten really low (-3), and it is even then doubtable. Keep stability up by other means, as far as ever possible!

 

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About attrition: You can click on a province and see the "supply limit" of it. It is the maximum thousands of troops you can have in the province before they start to die in attrition. (Though you will still suffer a minimum of 1% attrition while in enemy territory.) This limit is greater in your own territory, and in your allies', but lower in enemy territory. It is also determined by the base tax of the province, the fortress, the terrain (I think), and wheter it is winter there or not. Once you exceed the limit, each extra thousand of troops you have in that province past the support limit adds 1% to the attrition rate, unless it has hit the "maximum attrition" number for that province. Enemy troops are counted as well, and therefore you will usually suffer more attrition than the enemy in hostile territory since he is on his home turf.

The effective attrition limit is higher than the supply value. You have to add the maneuver value of your army's leader, multiplied by two. Good leaders are the key to deploying armies in provinces with low supply limits.

AFAIK there is no 1% minimum attrition for being in enemy territory. The normal atrition rules apply.

There is, however, a 1% attrition cost if your army is still moving at the end of the month. Why more soldiers are supposed to get sick marching between 30th of a month and 1st of the next month is a mystery I have never been able to fathom.

 

[unmerged(21992)]

Tech advancements. I like to put my tech slider on essentially 0% tech (allowing the monarch bonus + neighbor bonuses to foster development)

Not a good approach. It looks good now because the first few levels of tech are nice and cheap. Later on, the next levels of tech will cost a LOT more. Example: Castille in 1419 can pay 1600 ducats to get infra-2. They can do this in five years by investing in it, or 18 if they mint - but the extra inflation in that time will delay it to 22 years total. However, for Spain later on, in the early 17th century, infra-8 (in my game) costs 30,000 ducats. (That's with about 0.8% inflation.) And my monarch bonus is still - you guessed it - about six ducats.

Incidentally, if you're worried about army maintenance, don't. If you don't have the treasury - i.e. let it run down to zero - it'll get deducted for you - but without causing any inflation. There's no need or reason to ever save money for army maintenance unless you expect your entire country to get looted or something - in which case your army really didn't do you much good and you should spend the money on bribing your neighbors.

 

[Chaingun]

Umm yes I was tired and forgot to tell; leaders and technoloy also effects your attrition rate hehe. Though you don't have to memorize the exact formuale, because after a certain time you will develop a feeling for how much attrition your armies will suffer in a province.

 

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This is very bad. It makes Your inflation go up in the sky and makes Your country backward and inferior. In a century or two You will be totally annihilated by Your foes!

I love how this guy talks, very dramatic

When sieging a province with a harbour, make sure to blockade it, since it doubles the support limit of that province. Still, expect to lose more troops from attrition then from combat, no matter how careful you are. That was the nature of combat during this period.

 

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When sieging a province with a harbour, make sure to blockade it, since it doubles the support limit of that province.

(utterly flabbergasted): what? I had absolutely no idea you could do that!
How did you figure that out? (Are you one of those cunning "read the instructions" wizards?)

 

[Geroshabu]

Blocking harbours is probably the best trick in the game to battle attrition. You can have 0 attrition, even though you're over the supply limit. It's especially good if you need to overpower a siege to protect it from attacks or when preparing an assault.

 

[Watcher]

4. Tech advancements. I like to put my tech slider on essentially 0%
tech (allowing the monarch bonus + neighbor bonuses to foster
development) and spend my ducats on building & maintaining armies to
invade neighbors. Is this causing inflation problems for me? The
costs of advancement are too astronomical for me to devote a large
portion of my income to infrastructure, trade, etc. which produce
advances only after 10-20 years in many cases. When I invest in tech
at all, it is usually in land military. What do you do and why?

Falconhurst

You MUST invest money in tech research. Besides what everybody has said about inflation, you must remember that higher techs mean better armies, fleets, merchants, etc. If your army has a higher thech level than your neighbours, you could possibly reduce its sice and expend less money in its maintenance.
As a rule I give 20% of my income to the treasury, and all the rest to research. I may make an exception during very hard wars, or when I need to repay a loan, but as soon as possible I return to my usual values.

Edit: spelling.

 

[unmerged(17979)]

In regard to inflation and monthly income, I always leave a surplus of about 2-4d per month which raises inflation by about .20. This gives me my census taxes plus about 24-50 extra d per year. I normally go after the economical research first, and the neighbour bonus seems to keep you in touch with Land/Naval.
As for placing merchants, I don't bother until I reach about level 5-6 trade and by that time, I concentrate on getting 5 in each. As Portugal by 1600 you're trade income should be massive.
Attrition is the killer, especially if you are over in Eastern Europe/ Scandanavia. I normally go in with a big army when the snow lifts (Feb/Mar) kill main armies and then besiege with 6k armies (for minimal forts). If I have killed all his troops, I then make sure I cover most of his provinces, and make sure any excess troops are out by the time winter comes around again.
If you're lucky a couple of sieges have finished, and then I run them out to my territory, and then I replace the sieges that have attritioned away back up to 6k. In defensive wars, make attrition your friend, by letting it whittle down the enemies numbers before attacking.

 

[unmerged(15947)]

I do exactly what scrooge does when im powerful countries like Austria, your yearly income from tax collecters etc should be more then the amount of money you lose from having your treasury slider on 0. and u wont get any inflation if its on 0