Monarch Points problems

[Kyrus_Magnus]

Hi folks. Somehow I am really bad at the monarch point system. In my first games, I was 4 to 5 tech levels behind (Ottomans, too much emphazeise on infrastructure I gues)). Then my diplomacy tech was 6 behind (Prussia, too many diplomatic relationships where needed).
Now I played a game as castille. Politicallsy, all went great. Biggest colonial power (middle and sout america, Africa, Taiwan, parts of indonesia), I integrated Aragorn and Naples, and have the biggest amry and fleet. I always made sure that I didn't exceed my diplomatic relationship level, I nearly didn't build any infrastructure at all, was'nt active on the idea site, but even though, I am having trouble staying upt to date regarding tech levels. Other countries like France have one tech level higher than me and 31 ideas (while I hav 17 ), and the lack of infrastructure starts to weaken my empire. What am I doing wrong? I miss the old tech system of EU III...

 

[Yenzen]

Are you fervently trying to stay at 3 stability? How much do you invest on advisors? Have your monarchs been terrible?

 

[frolix42]

1) Expand by release/feeding vassals whenever possible.

2) In a large empire, buildings take up a huge amount of Points if you build every building. Temples are very good, but all Government buildings Courthouse and above are not worth buying. Not even the Developers get them when they play.

3) You must balance your ideas. If you're relatively ahead in Mil Tech, and are woefully behind in Diplo or Admin, get a Military Idea to balance them.

4) If you feel like you're falling way behind, start considering Westernization.

 

[Wizard12]

Also remember that if you have lucky nations on, nations like France will always have 5/6/5 or similar kings meaning they'll be likely to be ahead of you.

 

[joelzhl]

Your biggest MP sink will always be technology. As Spain, you have quite a few decisions such as Counter-Reformation that will drive up your tech cost. Always keep in mind of those so you don't end up with Eastern tech group like tech cost.

When you invest in technology, check the tech cost to make sure you are not ahead of time. If you are ahead of time, just invest in some buildings or ideas. The only time you should tech ahead of time is when you have no more buildings to build, no ideas to invest in, and you are going to cap the particular MP. With careful planning, that should not happen. That said, there are a few tech levels (5-8) that are very important. If you need an extra edge to fight a war, those levels might not be too bad to invest in ahead of time.

Falling behind in ADM/DIP for a short time is not a bad idea. You can use those points to pick up ideas and build key buildings, then take advantage of the neighbor bonus for a massive -25% tech cost.

 

[Rey]

Do you even hire advisors? Do it and you'll have plenty of monarch points. If you plan to expand a lot, don't waste Diplo points in tech, since you'll need them for the peace deals (if you use the vassal feeding technique, you'll often exceed the max number of relationships, leading to a monthly penalty in Diplo points). I've played lots of games where I researched none diplo techs, they are not really that useful for an expanding land power. Focus on ADM and MIL instead.

 

[Kyrus_Magnus]

Hey, thanks for all the quick replies
I did most of the things you advised, except for:
I only made hesitant use of advisors (soo expensive)
I din't care about ahead of time malus.
regarding lucky nations, I set it to off by default, but I looked it up and it seems that the historical lucky nations option was set for my spain game...
I don't do vassal feeding because I esteem it cheating.
Summa summarum, i will make more use of advisors, pay attention to the ahead of time factor and set lucky nations to off^^

 

[LightsShadows]

Castille and Ottomans can both easily afford three level 1 advisers. You shouldn't hesitate to hire those at the very beginning of the game.

And never ever get technology ahead of time (the only exception may be military tech if you need an edge in a particular war, but even then you usually shouldn't). There will always be sinks for your points, be it re-rolling generals, flipping cultures, coring provinces, or taking ideas. All of these are much more useful than throwing your points away buying techs ahead of time.