I'm pretty bad at blobbing, any advice?

[Reboundingdice]

I've played Eu4 for nearly 1000 hours, but I've never really gotten good at blobbing, I had a campaign as Sukhothai which I really enjoyed but I feel I could have done much better probably. I'd really appreciate any advice that I could be given

[EDIT: Should add I'm playing without MoH and CoC]

From my own recollection of things (Hindsight being 20/20), I should have conquered south and taken the trade in Malacca for myself. My only worry was being attacked without a decent ally for a long time and Malacca as an AI was a very reliable ally throughout the whole campaign launching amphibious attacks on AI capitals (Seriously is this the same AI I see playing England?)

I probably should have expanded into Bengal earlier (didn't find a chink in the power-bloc they formed with Delhi til the Timurids and Ottos came knocking in 1720ish)

One thing I really struggled with was keeping up on tech and specifically ideas, I was quite a few ideas behind everyone else in the end game due to developing for institutions.

 

[Yross]

Look at some Siu king Video, it's the master of blobing. He made some guides, and a lot of WC where he explain how he did.

 

[TenshiN]

Im by no means a master of blobbing, but i still have a few simple rules that help even a relaxed and slow player like me to carve impressive-ish blobs (my best result was 8,5k development and 1,4 million troops). For me, blobbing is mostly a matter of your army's strength and if i actually have the admin point to core the land i conquer. Avoiding coalitions can be done by allying some strong blobs away from the direction of your conquests, preferrably. India is usually good for this if you are in Asia, which i see you used yourself.
1) Colonisation. Indochinese tags really benefit from it - those islands are rich with good tradegoods, also opening you new front to fabricate the CB's and invade. Colonise a province in the Filippines - and invade. Colonise in Africa - and invade. Colonise in America - invade and steal the colonial nations for yourself
2) Idea groups. You probably know this alreade, some groups are just better for blobbing. Administrative, Influence/Exploration, Religious/Humanist, Quantity are idea groups i pick in 95% of my games.
3) Late game and absolutism. Late game expansion is absolutely monstrous - maximize your absolutism early, combine with -CCR from administrative and take huge chunks off the AI blobs you beat in a single war. It includes stuff like annexing whole Japan in 1 war (or 2 if you are unlucky/don't want to smash tons of rebels)
4) MP conservation. Basically, don't unlock techs ahead of time unless it is a crucial military technology to help you out in a difficult war. Taking it slow and unlocking ideas instead is very beneficial as it can result in a nice big discount on tech from neighbour bonus, as well as -2% from every unlocked idea in this MP cathegory. Ah, also milk the estates for monarchpoints and advisors as often as possible. Getting an extra 100 points off each is actually pretty easy. Also, make sure that the provinces you develop for institutions are neighbouring eachother, so when you develop one of them, it quickly spreads to other high-development provinces nearby (not sure if you know this already).

EDIT: Also, props for succeeding as a difficult tag like Sukhothai

 

[Reboundingdice]

Thanks for the replies

I'll definitely check out some of Siu King's videos later today.

And yeah, I was perhaps a bit too afraid of coalitions. I should have realized the Hindu's in India would barely care about me conquering Theravada lands.
And you're definitely correct, I should have taken Exploration as well, crushing Malacca and colonizing the spice islands would have definitely benefited me mid game instead of sitting around waiting for alliances to fall apart. I really want to retry this campaign with hopefully a better idea of what I'm doing.

I wanted defensive for the morale buff due to Sukhothai's ideas, or rather lack of military ideas. Though perhaps administrative > Exploration or vice versa is a better route early on.

 

[Badesumofu]

I recently read a guide on reddit - it's a broad outline of how to WC and in most respects it is spot on. In my opinion Humanist is almost always a better choice than Religious, but the way this guide lays out the blueprint is really good. There is a lot that someone who wants to get better at blobbing could learn from it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/7l2bfr/a_concise_guide_to_world_conquest/

 

[Vicodin_Addict]

I couldn't tell without more details, for instance:
- How's your score in absolutism? The discipline and admin efficiency can become integral number in blobbing. You can eat whole Sumatra in 1 go with high ADM efficiency.
- How big is your navy compared to Malaya? As Majapahit, I can utterly destroy Malacca-Pasai-Brunei alliance alone (I meant who would ally lonely Hindu nation in East Asian peninsula?) By efficiently blocking the Malacca straits and Borneo strait, and trapping Malacca/Brunei forces in the process. That should be 1st priority in continent vs island nations. You have land access to Malaysia via Thailand anyway.

Also gaining access early game to lower Yemen (via Oman) or brute force the India to directly border the Middle East nation can make institution spread faster (you will end up bordering Ottoman within those two roads anyway).

 

[Reboundingdice]

I couldn't tell without more details, for instance:
- How's your score in absolutism? The discipline and admin efficiency can become integral number in blobbing. You can eat whole Sumatra in 1 go with high ADM efficiency.
- How big is your navy compared to Malaya? As Majapahit, I can utterly destroy Malacca-Pasai-Brunei alliance alone (I meant who would ally lonely Hindu nation in East Asian peninsula?) By efficiently blocking the Malacca straits and Borneo strait, and trapping Malacca/Brunei forces in the process. That should be 1st priority in continent vs island nations. You have land access to Malaysia via Thailand anyway.

Also gaining access early game to lower Yemen (via Oman) or brute force the India to directly border the Middle East nation can make institution spread faster (you will end up bordering Ottoman within those two roads anyway).

I wasn't focusing on absolutism so my numbers there are a bit of a joke.. (Any advice on when/how to gain it decently?)
As for navies, I wasn't focusing on naval invasions rather than just trade. Although I owned much of the coast and could have increased my navy's forcelimit 40 ships or so.

 

[Reboundingdice]

By the way, would it be a good idea to go Humanist as I already have tolerance from my ideas to stack it for unrest reduction?

 

[Badesumofu]

This is a great video for Absolutism.

 

[LeifNyerikson]

What ideas did you take? What allies do you have?

A couple of ideas for you here:

- unless you're a horde nation (I usually play them differently), it almost always pay$ to expand into rich trade nodes (and move your trade capitol there) or expand into trade nodes that feed into your home node. As Sukothai I would aim at being a major player in the rich Malacca node. Large armies and countries require lots of cash, so get rich from trade!!

- don't be afraid to take loans in the name of expansion. That 50 ducat loan you took in 1450 will be chump change when you've conquered all of your neighbors by 1550. I'm not saying "take loans immediately" but rather don't be afraid to go to war when a good opportunity presents itself even when you're strapped for cash.

- make claims on EVERYONE around you and attack them whenever they're losing a war. It's an easy way to take a few provinces without taking on someone's full force.

- no cb wars! I very rarely use them because I usually take exploration. However, having different avenues of expansion is vital for blobbing. Seize the Maldives or Madagascar and beat up other regions. The additional money and manpower you gain will allow you to return home and beat the snot out of your seemingly powerful neighbors.

Hoped my ramblings helped!

 

[I_am_Nemo]

If you're looking at starting a new campaign, might be worth trying a "powerhouse" nation like Ottos or Russkovy. They're pretty well set up to encourage blobbing, and there are few(er) consequences for getting overly aggressive, so it's less of a balancing act. Once you get the hang of expanding like crazy, you can translate that (in a slightly more careful fashion) to other nations.

 

[Incompetent]

The biggest qualitative change from relaxed play to blobbing seems to be AE.

Relaxed play means you respect the so-called anti-blobbing limits put in place by AE. You just keep (almost) everyone under 50 and improve relations with the occasional country that goes over. Maybe focus on places you can conquer in an AE-efficient way, e.g. using reconquest on behalf of vassals. You can stop warring any time and the diplomatic situation will be fine.

Actual blobbing play means you'll go over 50AE with lots of countries, so you beat the coalition mechanics in other ways. That means juggling truces, killing off isolated angry countries (in some situations, you can kill more coalition members than you create from the resulting AE) and exploiting the fact that a coalition won't form if relative strength of alliances is too low (so as you bulk up and get strong allies, and cripple potential enemies, you can get away with more). It's diplomatically unstable in that ceasing your aggression will lead to a punitive war. (Coalitions in EU4 don't deter blobbing, they punish you for letting the AI off the hook after you have blobbed.)

 

[Vicodin_Addict]

I wasn't focusing on absolutism so my numbers there are a bit of a joke.. (Any advice on when/how to gain it decently?)
As for navies, I wasn't focusing on naval invasions rather than just trade. Although I owned much of the coast and could have increased my navy's forcelimit 40 ships or so.

As Badesumofu said, you can learn how to gain absolutism quickly and almost pain free from Reman Paradox's video (stamp of approval from DDRJake himself).
Basically by reducing autonomy and strengthen government in such particular fashion.

About naval FL tho, just build Grand Shipyard in 10 coastal provinces (+4 for every shipyard, so +40 in total) then build 30 Heavy +10 galley/light ship. Then block Malacca strait. Ez peZ.

 

[TheCrimsonMajor]

Not trying to derail, but offering an alternative: Don't try to blob. The bigger and more powerful you get, the less interesting the game gets. I find that most of my EU4 games which last a long time are those where I'm limiting my expansion to some extent. Better to set certain goals, valuable provinces, historical enemies, etc. and take them.