How to reduse aggressive expansion faster?
- Thread starter raahoj
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Keeping your prestige high gives up to +50% improve relations bonus at 100 prestige and has a -10% AE impact reduction too.
Improve relations really is the way to go. Stacking modifiers that speed that up, well, speed up AE decay as well.
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Or just make sure you get less aggressive expansion. I did a game recently as Florance where I worked on stacking - X% agressive expansion impact modifiers, using Espionage ideas + High Prestige + Curia controller + Age bonus (first age) + Carefull ruler (sure, that one is very RNG dependend) you can get -60-70% agressive expansion quite quickly into the game. If you get lucky with some events and stuff you can get even more. (and I switched culture to form Sardinia-Piedmont for another -10%), at some point I could just annex whatever I wanted without any coalition.
Reduced aggressive expansion modifiers are very strong because they apply to the first calculation of base aggressive expansion.
For example, with -70% aggressive expansion, annexing 100 development in a single war would cost you only 18 base aggressive expansion. (100 * 0.6 (demand province modifier) * 0.3 (because of -70%) = 18. (of course the real aggressive expansion might be a little higher for same religion/same culture nations)
Reduced aggressive expansion modifiers are very strong because they apply to the first calculation of base aggressive expansion.
For example, with -70% aggressive expansion, annexing 100 development in a single war would cost you only 18 base aggressive expansion. (100 * 0.6 (demand province modifier) * 0.3 (because of -70%) = 18. (of course the real aggressive expansion might be a little higher for same religion/same culture nations)
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Once you're large enough, AE really isn't an issue. I recently revoked the privliagia in my Austria game and I annexed a very large part of france fro 100+ AE. No coalition formed because I was too powerful (+owned half of europe...).
Folks are right that the direct answer to the question is improve relations. But a more complete answer is that this is the core EU4 mid-game strategic question for good players. And how you do it is complex and takes planning: modifiers, using vassals, different cbs, truce cycling, using alliances to reduce AE, spreading AE around regions and religions, and more.
edit: in the case where you didn’t do this stuff and have a lot of AE, some options are to use gifts and GP influence to get nations out of the coalition, to get some strong Allies to deter and distract the coalition, to try and declare a war that lets you quickly break off and truce lock some coalition nations, or just to give up and accept releasing some dev that will be easy for you to reconquer as the price of getting them to go away for a while as you get your ducks in a row.
edit: in the case where you didn’t do this stuff and have a lot of AE, some options are to use gifts and GP influence to get nations out of the coalition, to get some strong Allies to deter and distract the coalition, to try and declare a war that lets you quickly break off and truce lock some coalition nations, or just to give up and accept releasing some dev that will be easy for you to reconquer as the price of getting them to go away for a while as you get your ducks in a row.
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Here are some tips:
(1) In the early game, the amount of trade income that you get is not that significant. Strategically place your merchants, but also set them to "form communities," instead of maximize profits. The improved relations with the nations that also share that node is worth much more.
(2) When you start a war, immediately go to the peace treaty interaction and select the peace that you'd like (you do start a war knowing more or less what you want out of it, right?). Check out who is going to be really upset with you after you peace out. Are there any big problems there that are not already your rival? If so, set a diplomat to improve with them while you are at war. No nation can join a coalition against you that has 50+ relations with you. Since your war will take a couple years, that's several months if not a year or two of work your diplomats could be doing beforehand.
(3) Prioritize Prestige -- Prestige is under-rated by most players, higher prestige helps your AE evaporate faster.
(4) dismantling coalitions, part one -- you can fight a war against a non-coalition member to get a truce with a coalition member they are allied to. If things fall into place well, you can do a quick and easy war white peace everyone and reset those truces.
(5) dismantling coalitions, part two -- you can attack into a coalition while its small and just white peace them all, this buys you some time for your AE to evaporate
(6) dismantling coalitions, part three -- Let's say you get a typical HRE coalition. It hasn't fired, but you are a bit stuck. Start improving relations, but prioritize larger nations that are farther away from the clay you stole. They will hate you less and drop out more easily. It take 4 nations to build a coalition, but unless some threatening countries are there, a coalition of small-fries rarely triggers.
(7) instead of setting a diplomat (assuming you have a spare) to "outraged countries," try "threatening countries," instead. I find it more helpful to have ok relations with larger non-rivals even if I'm not going to ally them. Your allies care if you ally their rivals, not whether you have OK relations with their rivals. AI nations do not take actions that would de-stabilize themselves.
(1) In the early game, the amount of trade income that you get is not that significant. Strategically place your merchants, but also set them to "form communities," instead of maximize profits. The improved relations with the nations that also share that node is worth much more.
(2) When you start a war, immediately go to the peace treaty interaction and select the peace that you'd like (you do start a war knowing more or less what you want out of it, right?). Check out who is going to be really upset with you after you peace out. Are there any big problems there that are not already your rival? If so, set a diplomat to improve with them while you are at war. No nation can join a coalition against you that has 50+ relations with you. Since your war will take a couple years, that's several months if not a year or two of work your diplomats could be doing beforehand.
(3) Prioritize Prestige -- Prestige is under-rated by most players, higher prestige helps your AE evaporate faster.
(4) dismantling coalitions, part one -- you can fight a war against a non-coalition member to get a truce with a coalition member they are allied to. If things fall into place well, you can do a quick and easy war white peace everyone and reset those truces.
(5) dismantling coalitions, part two -- you can attack into a coalition while its small and just white peace them all, this buys you some time for your AE to evaporate
(6) dismantling coalitions, part three -- Let's say you get a typical HRE coalition. It hasn't fired, but you are a bit stuck. Start improving relations, but prioritize larger nations that are farther away from the clay you stole. They will hate you less and drop out more easily. It take 4 nations to build a coalition, but unless some threatening countries are there, a coalition of small-fries rarely triggers.
(7) instead of setting a diplomat (assuming you have a spare) to "outraged countries," try "threatening countries," instead. I find it more helpful to have ok relations with larger non-rivals even if I'm not going to ally them. Your allies care if you ally their rivals, not whether you have OK relations with their rivals. AI nations do not take actions that would de-stabilize themselves.
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