EUIV - Quick Questions / Quick Answers

[Praetorian44]

Is there a difference between the infantry sprite level 4 and sprite level 5? I'm not noticing any difference, but I'm also not looking at them side by side. Considering that sprite level 5 isn't gained until MIL tech 30, which is quite late in the game, I don't think that there is a difference. It wouldn't make sense to create a sprite for the last 15 years of game play when every other sprite is used for around a hundred years.

 

[Theoden]

It was probably asked plenty of times before, but I do not have enough time to search for it everywhere, so please don't shoot the pianist.

I tried to understand the trade module, and after reading some articles and reviews, I think I got most of the details, or at least will try to understand them on my own skin.

I still have a question, though: can I trust the balance it is shown when I want to send a ship to Protect Trade? I mean... if it says it's unprofitable, or profitabile, is it really like this, and the numbers are real?

 

[Incompetent]

I still have a question, though: can I trust the balance it is shown when I want to send a ship to Protect Trade? I mean... if it says it's unprofitable, or profitabile, is it really like this, and the numbers are real?

Short answer: No. It's necessarily a crude estimate, because it only looks at that trade node in isolation.

It's OK as a rule of thumb for nodes you are currently collecting in (assuming you don't have collection points further downstream).

 

[Theoden]

Short answer: No. It's necessarily a crude estimate, because it only looks at that trade node in isolation.

It's OK as a rule of thumb for nodes you are currently collecting in (assuming you don't have collection points further downstream).

Thank you!

This means that sometimes, even if the profit shown is smaller, I can make my own calculus and see if I get a +, right? Not forgetting about the benefits of steering trade over and over again, ofc.

I was initially collecting in all the trade nodes where I had provinces, especially in the New World, as I owned the Carribean, Brazil and Rio de la Plata regions, so I was thinking it is better to get those riches right away, than send them back to Europe and share them with others, even if I have an important power there as well. Then I read some reviews, explaining that forwarding over several nodes is better, and I changed my tactics, but I am not sure that numbers support this.

Anyway, I have some more questions:

1) Why is everything on 0 in Western Europe trade node, at least at the start, for the first 100 years or so, until someone places there a merchant? Or is it something else that starts the trade flow there?
2) Any ideas why are ALL of the colonial nations greyed at some moment in my game? Probably a bad save or something? A bug? Or is it how it is supposed to be?
3) Any advices how to continue once I have colonized the Cape as Portugal? I'm still the first in exploring/colonizing, so I want to get the most out of the years ahead.

 

[Path]

This means that sometimes, even if the profit shown is smaller, I can make my own calculus and see if I get a +, right? Not forgetting about the benefits of steering trade over and over again, ofc.

I was initially collecting in all the trade nodes where I had provinces, especially in the New World, as I owned the Carribean, Brazil and Rio de la Plata regions, so I was thinking it is better to get those riches right away, than send them back to Europe and share them with others, even if I have an important power there as well. Then I read some reviews, explaining that forwarding over several nodes is better, and I changed my tactics, but I am not sure that numbers support this.

Anyway, I have some more questions:

1) Why is everything on 0 in Western Europe trade node, at least at the start, for the first 100 years or so, until someone places there a merchant? Or is it something else that starts the trade flow there?
2) Any ideas why are ALL of the colonial nations greyed at some moment in my game? Probably a bad save or something? A bug? Or is it how it is supposed to be?
3) Any advices how to continue once I have colonized the Cape as Portugal? I'm still the first in exploring/colonizing, so I want to get the most out of the years ahead.

Yes. Early on, especially if you only have real trade power in one node, you can trust the numbers, but with a large empire spanning all the way to China you'll want to check it manually. It's bound to be better to send extra merchantmen to Asia rather than phaving them protect a European node if that means bringing your control up to 99% from 98%, for example, no matter what the UI tells you.

Because there's no trade value in it. For there to be any trade value in a node, it either has to produce something or have some trade value steered towards it from another node. Since the node's in the middle of the sea, it doesn't produce anything, so unless trade's being steered there it'll never have any value.

I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure what you mean by greyed.

Cape's the stepping stone to Asia (assuming you can't/don't want to go through Sinai). It depends on your colonial range, but the best course from there is usually to go for one of the islands off the coast of Madagaskar (Bourbon), since they're not jungle and have relatively high BT. From there you can jump to the islands off the coast of India and then into India proper (using the mission).

 

[Theoden]

Yes. Early on, especially if you only have real trade power in one node, you can trust the numbers, but with a large empire spanning all the way to China you'll want to check it manually. It's bound to be better to send extra merchantmen to Asia rather than phaving them protect a European node if that means bringing your control up to 99% from 98%, for example, no matter what the UI tells you.

Because there's no trade value in it. For there to be any trade value in a node, it either has to produce something or have some trade value steered towards it from another node. Since the node's in the middle of the sea, it doesn't produce anything, so unless trade's being steered there it'll never have any value.

I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure what you mean by greyed.

Cape's the stepping stone to Asia (assuming you can't/don't want to go through Sinai). It depends on your colonial range, but the best course from there is usually to go for one of the islands off the coast of Madagaskar (Bourbon), since they're not jungle and have relatively high BT. From there you can jump to the islands off the coast of India and then into India proper (using the mission).

By "greyed" I mean that, from green, yellow or red (me, Castile, England), the colonial nations have the some colour as any other uncolonised province - grey.

So you mean that I should take a province from Indian continent (by war that is, I suppose)?

 

[Path]

By "greyed" I mean that, from green, yellow or red (me, Castile, England), the colonial nations have the some colour as any other uncolonised province - grey.

So you mean that I should take a province from Indian continent (by war that is, I suppose)?

That does sound weird.

Yes, once you got a core close enough for the India mission to give you a claim on every coastal province in India. You should decide at that point whether you want to conquer India or dominate the trade. If the former, you can use the free claims to start chewing through India. If the latter, you can start a series of simultaneous wars against the countries that hold the vital trade provinces (Ceylon, Bengal Delta etc). The claims from the mission dissapear once you gain any Indian province, so you'll want to win and end the wars at the same time so you can keep the coring cost down. If you go for that approach you'll want to use the Expansion CB to turn India (and later Asia) into protectorates.



Something like this.

 

[Theoden]

That does sound weird.

Yes, once you got a core close enough for the India mission to give you a claim on every coastal province in India. You should decide at that point whether you want to conquer India or dominate the trade. If the former, you can use the free claims to start chewing through India. If the latter, you can start a series of simultaneous wars against the countries that hold the vital trade provinces (Ceylon, Bengal Delta etc). The claims from the mission dissapear once you gain any Indian province, so you'll want to win and end the wars at the same time so you can keep the coring cost down. If you go for that approach you'll want to use the Expansion CB to turn India (and later Asia) into protectorates.

View attachment 113557

Something like this.

Thank you, that was useful!

Never spent too much time on a single game, so catching the 1600s was very rare. That's why I never reached as Portugal that far.

 

[brifbates]

1) Why is everything on 0 in Western Europe trade node, at least at the start, for the first 100 years or so, until someone places there a merchant? Or is it something else that starts the trade flow there?

It's specifically because no one places a merchant there. Something changed (not sure if intended or not) that inhibits trade flow into a node where no nations have an actual presence (merchant or province) so until someone puts a merchant there to start the money flowing the WETN will remain worthless.

 

[Theoden]

And... is there any sense in building Production buildings on other continents (they count as overseas, right?). There was a production malus of -90%, or am I getting this wrong after a long while?

 

[Nationalbear]

In an earlier game I had a problem with my colonial nations going to war against other colonial nations (e.g. Castillian La Plata going to war with English Argentina), and pretty much losing every single time. While I didn't feel like going to war with the parent nation by supporting them directly, I was thinking that I might be able to "gift" military units to them somehow, but I don't know if that's possible. Is it, or is there any other way you can help them out without actively declaring war on their enemy?

 

[londoner247]

In an earlier game I had a problem with my colonial nations going to war against other colonial nations (e.g. Castillian La Plata going to war with English Argentina), and pretty much losing every single time. While I didn't feel like going to war with the parent nation by supporting them directly, I was thinking that I might be able to "gift" military units to them somehow, but I don't know if that's possible. Is it, or is there any other way you can help them out without actively declaring war on their enemy?

You can give them money and hope they spend it wisely but that's about it. Longer term, you can prioritise military governors in the hope that this will give them a tech advantage if you suspect that they will be dragged into local wars but this will obviously mean that they end up falling behind on other techs and ideas.

 

[kongzheng]

Question about coring:

I can core a province bordering my vassal's core in my home continent.
Can I core a province bordering my vassal's core in overseas continent?

I am playing EU IV 1.73.

 

[Nationalbear]

You can give them money and hope they spend it wisely but that's about it. Longer term, you can prioritise military governors in the hope that this will give them a tech advantage if you suspect that they will be dragged into local wars but this will obviously mean that they end up falling behind on other techs and ideas.

Ah, ok. That was my very first EU4 run, so I was kind of naive when it came to the governors. I thought that they set the "personality" of the colonies rather than the tech paths. I.e. if you selected a military one they'd be more likely to declare war, a diplomatic one would work on their relations and an administrative one would work on income. So when they started declaring war all the time I switched to diplomatic governors thinking that'd help... My mistake obviously, as I must've made them easier prey instead

 

[londoner247]

Question about coring:

I can core a province bordering my vassal's core in my home continent.
Can I core a province bordering my vassal's core in overseas continent?

I am playing EU IV 1.73.

No

 

[Qoff]

They already fixed the exploit were protectorates can't be target of a coalition?

 

[V1ribus]

They already fixed the exploit were protectorates can't be target of a coalition?

I imagine so, haven't checked myself but given there has been a patch in between that Ryukyu run and now I would be surprised if it hasn't been fixed up.

 

[Nationalbear]

Just started the path to Westernization for the first time as Ottomans (my first time playing a nation with a non-western tech group). I started this rather late, in 1713, and currently it says "it increases by 3.0 every month, expected to be finished by 1783".... Is there any way to speed this along, or should I just skip Westernization for this run? As it is with the increased revolt risk, I need to divert troops to fight rebellions, and I don't really feel like putting up with that for 80 years as it will hinder my expansion elsewhere.

 

[Path]

Just started the path to Westernization for the first time as Ottomans (my first time playing a nation with a non-western tech group). I started this rather late, in 1713, and currently it says "it increases by 3.0 every month, expected to be finished by 1783".... Is there any way to speed this along, or should I just skip Westernization for this run? As it is with the increased revolt risk, I need to divert troops to fight rebellions, and I don't really feel like putting up with that for 80 years as it will hinder my expansion elsewhere.

Skip it. There's absolutely no reason for you to westernize with the Ottomans, and doing so that late in the game with a major blob would be madness. If you absolutely want to westernize for some reason, do it early on.

 

[brifbates]

To speed things up you need to drop your income. Each multiple of 15 drops the max points/month (per type) by one from the maximum of 10 to the one you are getting for having 135+/month income. Depending on your situation you could remove merchants, have them steer different directions, release vassals, grab some OE for higher revolt risk, and so on. That said, I'd agree that if you're going to do it it's best to do so early as that yields the most returns. In my current game (Poland) I finished westernizing in 1479 and have been swimming in monarch points for at least 100 years while building buildings all over, continuing to expand into Asia via direct conquest with coring & harsh treatment, and culture converting every non-accepted culture province I have.

While it's possible to maintain on-time tech without westernizing as long as your rulers aren't complete fail (as Ottomans you need 750 pts every 13 years or a bit under 5/month) it can pinch you and limit your ability to do anything other than tech when you get those bad rulers.