Idea Groups for Sweden?

[pgroves]

Hi - I'm just wondering about which idea groups to take as Sweden, despite playing the EU franchise for years, it's the first time I've ever played a game as them!


Anyway, I've begun a 1440 start ironman game as Sweden, it's now 1478 and I'm having lots of fun.


My national focus has been on Military since the game start, and I've had pretty decent and balanced monarchs. The first idea group I've taken is Offensive, and I've now got the first 3 ideas (to get both Shock and Fire Leader bonuses and to unlock my first National idea), but going back to focus on MIL tech for a bit now.


I'm swimming in ADM points and will have to take a 15% ahead of time penalty in about a month to take ADM 7 before I waste ADM. Points, so will get my next idea group soon. My DIP tech is 4, but I now have just enough points to get to DIP 5 *or* to take a DIP idea. My MIL tech has just reached 7.


I was thinking of taking Exploration next, but I'm going to need DIP points to annex Denmark and later Norway, and won't be able to reach America until DIP 7 and also when I've got access to the Norwegian islands. So, as I have plenty of ADM points, I'm thinking that actually an ADM idea group might be worth taking e.g. Administration (cheap and more plentiful Mercs - useful espc. in Russia - cheaper coring, and some other nice ideas, including the -10% ADM cost finisher) or maybe Innovative (cheaper mercs, -5% tech cost, -2% tradition decay etc.) or Humanism (for expanding into Orthodox Russia). Would this be a sensible move? Which of these would be best to take first - Administration, perhaps? If taking an ADM idea group, I may switch national focus to ADM until I reach ADM 10, at least.


BTW I declared the Statute in Restraint of Appeals very early on, and intend to go protestant as soon as I can.


So far I've reduced Denmark to it's mainland holdings and it's 3 main islands, as well as vassalised it - will begin integrating around 1482 when my Dip. Rep. hit from dipl-annexing Riga has expired. I've conquered all the Finnish culture territories (including Ingerman) from Novgorod and have converted them all to Catholic. I've taken the 3 Estonian provinces from the Livonian Order (which is now allied to Muscovy) I have Kurland (which won an independence war from the Livonian Order that I supported, later I will use them to expand westwards along the Baltic coast) and Finland (which is Orthodox and currently owns just Karelia and Kola, but will likely expand them up to at least Archangel before integrating, or I might make them a March) as my other vassals.


I've taken my core province and the 3 northern ones off Norway and will likely vassalise them in my next war with them. The Hansa and Poland/Lithuania are my allies, though I will likely have to ditch Poland later (maybe ally with Austria or Brandenberg) if going for the "Sweden is not Overpowered" achievement, but not before they've helped me beat up Muscovy a bit. My only rival left (Novgorod and Norway are now too small to qualify) is no Muscovy, which hates me. I intend to go to war with them soon, as I've just reached MIL 7 (they're on MIL 6) and all my allies will join against them.

 

[pgroves]

Anyone? Can post a screenie of my current situation, if anyone is interested...

 

[TolHydra]

Exploration? You seem to be off a decent start there, Perhaps you could bring the riches of the new world to Lübeck? Don't worry about the timing too much, there is plenty of land in this patch.

Or Diplomatic/Influence perhaps? in order to become the emperor? I've not played Sweden I'm not really sure, I often take quantity and humanism though, they're amazing.

 

[Path]

It depends on your skill, ambitions and where you want to take the game. Clearly you want to colonize, in which case you'll want Exploration (a recommended path here is to snatch Orkney and/or Iceland from Norway--the latter will put you fairly close to NA whereas the former will let you fabricate claims on Scotland, which you can use to eat the British Isles (highly recommended since the Channel is now an end node, and the sooner you gain control of one the sooner your income is assured) ). Administrative is always a good pick if you're a warmonger, and as Sweden you'll have chronic problems with manpower early on, so relying on mercenaries is better (and your NIs help with that, too).

Going Protestant early on and picking religious is how I like to play Sweden, but you can go for humanism instead if you prefer (it'll make things somewhat easier in Russian/Orthodox lands early on)--I blob too much for humanism to be all that powerful, except as a late-game way of keeping unrest down, but if you're not looking to conquer Europe and beyond, it's not a bad group.

Offensive (already picked)
Administrative
Exploration / Religious / Humanism
Exploration / Religious / Humanism

I prefer to skip military ideas with powerful tags like Sweden, but stronger armies never hurt. Pick Exploration as your third idea and then religious or humanism for your fourth (reverse this if you prefer to secure your European holdings before you head to the Americas--unless you're set on dominating the Carribean it doesn't really matter if you get started a bit later than the Iberians). Alternatively, if you're really gung-ho about colonizing, you could pick it as your second idea, but then you'll need to be aggressive with claiming lands (you basically have to snipe a colony from the Iberians since you won't be able to core anything that far south before you take control of the British Isles or get a much higher dip level).

Another option is to become Russia--not necessarily tag switching, but trashing Muscovy isn't particularly hard, and once you do the path it open to Siberia, and you won't be competing with anyone else for the land.

 

[Ktanzei]

I did a "Sweden is not overpowered!" in 1.7 which absolutely crushed everything in its way, and I eventually ended up quitting that game in boredom after getting the provinces required in like 1520. I went quantity-diplomatic-religious-influence, but as you've already taken a military idea I'd say administrative is your best bet. (Colonising requires diptech 7 even if you have Iceland, as I experienced with Denmark.) Exploration is too early and you could grab it at either third or even fourth without any difficulties. Administrative will allow you to field great mercenary armies which, as Sweden, will be needed without quantity. Use them to siege Russia instead and thus avoid the WE. Also, grab Hansa. You won't be sorry when you're getting 60-70 ducats from Lubeck.
EDIT: Gah, doubleninja'd for the second time today!

 

[pgroves]

Okay, looks like Administrative next for me! I'm still not 100% sure I want to go the colonization route Btw (or maybe only in Siberia...).

Not sure about going for the Hansa, won't that drag the Emperor and all his allies into war against me?

 

[TheDanish]

Exploration for colonization.

Otherwise, Quantity or Administrative are both great for Sweden. As Ktanzei said you'll probably need one or the other, since Sweden's manpower is pretty low.