Monarch Points Help

[Mattar19K]

I just got this game a week or two ago thanks to the big Paradox Back to School sale (Thank you Paradox!), so I really don't have a clue despite watching more YouTubes than I have playtime. I've got all of 40 hours in so far.

I'm trying to understand how to balance Monarch Points in the beginning of the game. I understand how to get them, and I understand all the ways I can spend them, but I don't yet have a good grasp on how to prioritize the spending of these rare points. I just flat out don't have enough to do much.

I understand not to tech up until the penalty is at zero, or almost. But should I just constantly save the points? When do I develop provinces, and is there a best practice for how?

And it seems that when I'm just about to get enough to do something, an event will hit me that moves the goalposts. Aargh!

I have yet to survive to the 1480s. I do not think that my Total War perspective is going to serve me well here.

 

[Lord Zsinj]

Staying up to date in Military tech is worth eating a penalty, especially if it gains you Tactics. Being behind in that loses you wars.

Don't develop land with high development penalties. Gold is worth developing production to 10, past that you increase the risk of gold being tapped out.

 

[SolSys]

A visit to the specific wiki might help you in more than one occasion: http://www.eu4wiki.com/Europa_Universalis_4_Wiki
You can find strategies for the nation you're playing [maybe you picked a hard one?] and general helpful tips.

Other than that, if you plan on going to war which may turn problematic you may want to tech in military even with the penalty.

As for development, I only end up using it only if I have no other avenue for spending the points. You'll find that conquest is a better investment for your points compared to development**.


**unless you like to role-play than never mind.

 

[Mattar19K]

If you're new to PDS games in general a visit to the PDS wikis will help you in more than one occasion.
http://www.eu4wiki.com/Europa_Universalis_4_Wiki
http://wikis.paradoxplaza.com/

Thanks. I have spent several hours on the Wiki, but while it explains the concepts, it isn't helping me with the implementation.

 

[Larva]

Balancing early monarch points is not something you will embrace quickly
It differs from country to country, from your personal strat and so on.
Military points good if you want/need/have to war early (miltech4 gives +0.5 morale and +0.25 tactics which can be crucial) especially from behind
Admin points used to core conquered provinces which you will require a lot if you expand easily early on
Diplo points needed mostly for colonization (filling in Exploration idea group and greatly increasing colonial range at diplotech7)

 

[brifbates]

If you're having troubles getting to the 1480s you should probably start playing an easier nation. Unless the issue is the opposite and you are overplaying a stronger nation into trouble. Without more details it's difficult to come up with solutions. As for your questions...

How to prioritize spending...

1) tech, particularly military
2) tech, particularly military
3) tech, particularly military
4) ideas, coring, assimilation, stability-these are all pretty similar in the overall picture, you adjust among them in the short term depending on the map situation
5) other stuff-development, strengthen throne, inflation reduction, culture swapping, buying mercantilism-generally these are things you do when you have an excess of mp (with the exception of development to force institutions)

Yes, you should generally not tech up until the penalty is as low as you can reasonably achieve although a better rule is don't tech ahead of time except in extreme circumstances

 

[Mattar19K]

I think the biggest problem is that I am approaching this with a Total War mindset. I'm moving too fast to conquer and expanding until I get stomped in retaliation.

I'll try to slow it down (even more) tonight and see how I do. I just start getting nervous when I'm losing Great Power status, and that is when things fall apart.

@brifbates So you never build unless you need to burn points? Hmm. I've been trying to sneak in a few improvements.

 

[Larva]

don't tech ahead of time except in extreme circumstances

I would rather disagree here - being ahead in tech provide nice bonuses

 

[Larva]

@brifbates So you never build unless you need to burn points? Hmm. I've been trying to sneak in a few improvements.

Yeah, a bit counter-intuitive but developing provinces is not something you do frequently here - with one huge exception for getting institutions http://www.eu4wiki.com/Institutions#Effects_of_development

 

[brifbates]

I would rather disagree here - being ahead in tech provide nice bonuses

For the bonuses, being ahead in tech means that if you teched up now you'd pay an ahead of time penalty, it doesn't mean you paid the ahead of time penalty for your current tech. Unless you absolutely need that tech level for a key strategic impact (winning an important war, winning the colonization drag race) paying the extra cost to get a tech early is a waste of mp. In the majority of cases I'll wait until I have a 5% neighbor bonus as well before buying the tech.

 

[brifbates]

I think the biggest problem is that I am approaching this with a Total War mindset. I'm moving too fast to conquer and expanding until I get stomped in retaliation.

I'll try to slow it down (even more) tonight and see how I do. I just start getting nervous when I'm losing Great Power status, and that is when things fall apart.

@brifbates So you never build unless you need to burn points? Hmm. I've been trying to sneak in a few improvements.

As a general rule of thumb, no.

There are exceptions such as popping a few points to get the age bonus for a large city if I start close to it or maybe bumping some European provinces from 8/9 to 10 for the institution spread, or if I'm working on an achievement that encourages such.

Great power status, especially if you are on the fringe, will shift around a fair bit in the early years as events grant nations massive chunks of points or institutions spread to blobs outside Europe. It's not something to be overly concerned about (although it does have some nice perks with all the DLCs).

 

[Robert de Bruce]

For beginners it is hard to deal with all the new options all the DLCs and patches added to the game. When the game came out in 2013, there were way less options.

With military you could get tech, ideas and reduce rebel spawn rate.

Diplo you could use for tech, ideas, diploannexation and reducing war exhaustion.

Admin for tech, ideas, coring, stability and reducing inflation.

All the new stuff is far less important than the basics.

Overall, tech and ideas are the most important things. But the importance of each group is different. You should try to always be up to date in mil tech. Admin tech is good since it offers you new idea groups, but it is not a catastrophe if you are 1-3 techs behind. This is even more true for diplomatic tech. The most important thing about it is the colonial range. When you do not colonise (and don't fight on sea), you can nearly ignore diplo tech. But be aware having unequal tech with more than 2 level distance means increased corruption.

This should be considered for idea group order. Since diplo tech is the least important, taking a diplo idea group is best as first, at least as long as you are a beginner. Second depends a bit on how many points you could spare. If you have plenty of mil points left, take a mil idea group second, third then admin. If you are struggling with mil, take an admin group or even a second diplo. For which specific idea groups you should pick, this depends on your game and goal and style, but everything that saves you monarch points is a good choice.

Stability: it is very important to keep it 0 or positive. If you drop to negative stability, raise it at all costs. Best is to stay at stab 1 and increase it further when you get free stab via event, since level 2 and 3 increases the cost.

inflation, war exhaustion: don't spend points for it, unless you have really high values or decent trouble with it. War exhaustion drops in peace time and for inflation you can get advisor or ideas. Best is to control it not to grow much. So war taxes only when you really need them and bloody wars only if there is no other option. And loans only if definitely needed/worth.

Spare admin and diplo points should go into coring and diploannexation for best use. When you don't have the points, don't expand.

Ofcourse, these are the very basics and you will improve it with morex experience a lot, but for start do it like this.