Yes loans levels can very. I try not to ever have more than a handful. If you can keep a war going even with a tiny profit that is ideal naturally. I will go deep into the red if it is a matter of survival.
First time playing EU IV - best tips wanted
- Thread starter Magnus Imperator Rex
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Any tips on handling domestic unrest? Does giving a province autonomy makes the situation better?
Was weakning Portugal and Aragon so much and annexing their territories so fast early in the game a valid strategy for eliminating potential troublesome enemies even though its going to be a lot of work in the future to put down these rebellions? Or should I just have eaten at them, province by province in many wars over a long time to help my OE and separatism?
Should I sell my Morocco provinces to weak Aragon instead of letting them fall to Moroccan rebels? I can conquer them later from Aragon.
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Thanks for the picture, that's always helpful. Yes, increasing autonomy in a province will lower unrest in that province (and vice versa). Autonomy normally ticks down over time based on your government and whether you're are peace, so it'll come back down on its own after a while during which the separatism will have expired. Whenever I conquer a province the first thing I do is go in and raise autonomy, which will either remove the unrest in it entirely, or drop it into the single digits and make it a lot more manageable. You can also do the exact opposite and deliberately lower autonomy in order to spark rebels even faster, with an army in place to attack them; according to one person who used this method this should net you exactly two rebel attacks before the separatism modifier wears off. The advantage there is that you get the benefits of lowered autonomy much earlier in exchange for fighting some predicatable rebels that you can probably beat fairly easily. So both are viable options.
Going at Portugal and Aragon fast is totally a viable option, especially if you handle separatism as mentioned in the previous paragraph. It's all about the overextension; as long as it stays below 100 and you keep your stability high it shouldn't be a big issue. You mentioned you were at 110% OE, which suggests that it wouldn't have been too difficult to avoid it, the difference was probably one or two provinces at most. Keep that OE below 100 and it shouldn't stop your wars. The thing to keep in mind is that coring a province takes around two years, so you ideally want to stagger your wars so that by the time you're ready to peace out from your current war the provinces you took in the last war are already cored, or within a few weeks of it.
Selling your Moroccan provinces is definitely a viable strategy, although I'd rather sell them to one of those tiny nations between Morocco and Tunis (can't make out the names). They should be Muslim tech so they'll be even weaker than Aragon, and attacking them won't give you much (if any) Aggressive Expansion penalties with the rest of Europe.
Going at Portugal and Aragon fast is totally a viable option, especially if you handle separatism as mentioned in the previous paragraph. It's all about the overextension; as long as it stays below 100 and you keep your stability high it shouldn't be a big issue. You mentioned you were at 110% OE, which suggests that it wouldn't have been too difficult to avoid it, the difference was probably one or two provinces at most. Keep that OE below 100 and it shouldn't stop your wars. The thing to keep in mind is that coring a province takes around two years, so you ideally want to stagger your wars so that by the time you're ready to peace out from your current war the provinces you took in the last war are already cored, or within a few weeks of it.
Selling your Moroccan provinces is definitely a viable strategy, although I'd rather sell them to one of those tiny nations between Morocco and Tunis (can't make out the names). They should be Muslim tech so they'll be even weaker than Aragon, and attacking them won't give you much (if any) Aggressive Expansion penalties with the rest of Europe.
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As has been said, never ever go over 100% OE. The only time you would want to defy that rule is if you're going for a World Conquest (which is a goal only experts can attempt). The benefits of the extra land are negated by the horrible events fired which can easily cripple you. It will give you tons of rebels, tank stability and other really unpleasant things. It's not worth crippling yourself in such a way, as unlike HOI you have a long timespan. It is actually easier to conquer more and faster if you follow this rule. Think strategically about what you take from an enemy (forts/ports/high tax provinces/high manpower provinces/split in two/etc.) rather than simply taking in bulk.
Tied to this is AE. Admittedly, Paradox have nerfed it with the latest patch, but don't take so much that everyone hates you. At your level of experience, I wouldn't recommend making any country you don't intend to war with in the immediate future (who isn't some one province minor/american native or the like) have more than 50 AE (you can find out about this on coalition mapmode and also on a tooltip in the peace screen). This can lead to coalitions which will try and crush you and can be tricky at times. A good trick is to rotate enemies. AE is mostly based on religion and culture (and proximity obviously). This means if you destroy Muslims then Europe won't care, and killing Europe will not bother Muslims. Your allies are also less bothered by your expansion so get less AE.
As said above, Autonomy is a trade-off. Increasing it decreases the revolt risk, but reduces province output. Decreasing it does the reverse. Both effects are not permanent, they will be removed with time. You can also use harsh treatment for Mil points to delay a revolt by a bit if at war or something. Parking an army on a province also reduces unrest, each unit reduces it by a bit more. All of these have their uses, it's about judging which is best and when.
Overall, you're doing a good Job so far though! EU is a complex (though deeply rewarding) game. Your first few games are not going to have spectacular long term success, it's more a case of trial and error. I'd suggest Ottomans perhaps for the next game as another nation lets you get a feel for how to adapt game mechanics to strategy. They're pretty strong and more conquest focused than Castile (who generally colonise more) They will also give you the chance to experiment with vassals more (whilst not having a difficult start, similar experience or AE issues).
Tied to this is AE. Admittedly, Paradox have nerfed it with the latest patch, but don't take so much that everyone hates you. At your level of experience, I wouldn't recommend making any country you don't intend to war with in the immediate future (who isn't some one province minor/american native or the like) have more than 50 AE (you can find out about this on coalition mapmode and also on a tooltip in the peace screen). This can lead to coalitions which will try and crush you and can be tricky at times. A good trick is to rotate enemies. AE is mostly based on religion and culture (and proximity obviously). This means if you destroy Muslims then Europe won't care, and killing Europe will not bother Muslims. Your allies are also less bothered by your expansion so get less AE.
As said above, Autonomy is a trade-off. Increasing it decreases the revolt risk, but reduces province output. Decreasing it does the reverse. Both effects are not permanent, they will be removed with time. You can also use harsh treatment for Mil points to delay a revolt by a bit if at war or something. Parking an army on a province also reduces unrest, each unit reduces it by a bit more. All of these have their uses, it's about judging which is best and when.
Overall, you're doing a good Job so far though! EU is a complex (though deeply rewarding) game. Your first few games are not going to have spectacular long term success, it's more a case of trial and error. I'd suggest Ottomans perhaps for the next game as another nation lets you get a feel for how to adapt game mechanics to strategy. They're pretty strong and more conquest focused than Castile (who generally colonise more) They will also give you the chance to experiment with vassals more (whilst not having a difficult start, similar experience or AE issues).
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You are going great so far.
A small country can be made a vassal. Vassals can be held 50 -edit- I mean 10 years, then integrated with diplo power if relations are above 190. Any vassal core will become your core. This allows you to add more provinces with less admin power cost.
In short, sell provinces to a vassal, let them spend THEIR admin power to core the provinces, and when you integrate them later on, you basically traded diplo power for more cores. Granted any individual vassal is restricted in admin power same as you, so to achieve optimum growth, each vassal will be enlarged only as fast as it can add cores.
In this case, both Portugal and Aragon are probably still too large to vassalize. You can only vassalize if the cost is less than 100% warscore.
So,
-Just wait, don't make cores in Tangiers, Ceuta, Melilla. Only add cores in Europe for now. You just need to keep AE below 100% to avoid the worst rebel problems.
-Take more land from Portugal and Aragon, until you can vassalize one of them. THEN you sell those provinces to them.
-Even better, Portugal already has a core on Ceuta, so hold that province until you make Portugal your vassal, then sell it back to them.
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p.s. Some people like to create a vassal from Galacia and feed most of Portugal to them. That way you don't have to spend admin power on anything you take from Portugal. Galicia will do it for you. (Just reabsorb Galicia later with DIP.) Portugal can STILL be vassalized when they get small enough, so the trick of letting a vassal Portugal colonize for you is still an option, too.
Enlarging your realm means making cores on the land you conquer. It costs Admin power. Expanding fast means spending lots of admin points. This will slow down admin tech, and delay the idea groups that you get at certain admin tech levels.
A small country can be made a vassal. Vassals can be held 50 -edit- I mean 10 years, then integrated with diplo power if relations are above 190. Any vassal core will become your core. This allows you to add more provinces with less admin power cost.
In short, sell provinces to a vassal, let them spend THEIR admin power to core the provinces, and when you integrate them later on, you basically traded diplo power for more cores. Granted any individual vassal is restricted in admin power same as you, so to achieve optimum growth, each vassal will be enlarged only as fast as it can add cores.
In this case, both Portugal and Aragon are probably still too large to vassalize. You can only vassalize if the cost is less than 100% warscore.
So,
-Just wait, don't make cores in Tangiers, Ceuta, Melilla. Only add cores in Europe for now. You just need to keep AE below 100% to avoid the worst rebel problems.
-Take more land from Portugal and Aragon, until you can vassalize one of them. THEN you sell those provinces to them.
-Even better, Portugal already has a core on Ceuta, so hold that province until you make Portugal your vassal, then sell it back to them.
edit -
p.s. Some people like to create a vassal from Galacia and feed most of Portugal to them. That way you don't have to spend admin power on anything you take from Portugal. Galicia will do it for you. (Just reabsorb Galicia later with DIP.) Portugal can STILL be vassalized when they get small enough, so the trick of letting a vassal Portugal colonize for you is still an option, too.
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You might be thinking of Personal Union junior partners—vassals can be integrated after 10 years. Otherwise, good explanation of vassal feeding.
You're right. Personal unions are 50 years, vassals only 10... Going back to edit the post...
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Well, for Castile v. Granada, just let their forces come out of Granada, because all that land is mountains, put half your force on them, the other half to block off the retreat by running into their lands while the fight is happening.
I recommend not buying a mil tech, maybe in the first 4 techs, but if you do, go Quantity, it's bloody expensive to keep all those units up though.
Mil tech 7, build maybe 6 cannons, use them to siege (split them if necessary). They are kind of useless for fighting, but they are quite important for winning wars because siegeing castles is now very important.
Quite a few good tips in the thread though, but there are some threads on Castile in the forums already once you get your basics under control. My own threads on Castile presume you understand the basics of warfare at least.
I recommend not buying a mil tech, maybe in the first 4 techs, but if you do, go Quantity, it's bloody expensive to keep all those units up though.
Mil tech 7, build maybe 6 cannons, use them to siege (split them if necessary). They are kind of useless for fighting, but they are quite important for winning wars because siegeing castles is now very important.
Quite a few good tips in the thread though, but there are some threads on Castile in the forums already once you get your basics under control. My own threads on Castile presume you understand the basics of warfare at least.