New player questions on idea groups

[Foefaller]

OP said his goal is to make the British Empire. If we take that to mean the same as it did historically, then Religious is highly unnecessary and Humanist is superior.

I would say neither is necessary if you're not going to be conquering Europe and stick to colonial/trade company regions, unless you have a specific policy in mind. Colonies in the new world are always your nations religion and Primary Culture (and once the colonial nation is formed, the act of converting the locals is your CN's problem, not yours), and putting territory into trade companies negates the problems with wrong religion and culture elsewhere. Plus, it's very unlikely that unwanted reformation centers jump across the English Channel (especially if your are one of the first to embrace Protestant or Reformed when you control all the British Isles.

 

[ecrurudesby]

I would say neither is necessary if you're not going to be conquering Europe and stick to colonial/trade company regions, unless you have a specific policy in mind. Colonies in the new world are always your nations religion and Primary Culture (and once the colonial nation is formed, the act of converting the locals is your CN's problem, not yours), and putting territory into trade companies negates the problems with wrong religion and culture elsewhere. Plus, it's very unlikely that unwanted reformation centers jump across the English Channel (especially if your are one of the first to embrace Protestant or Reformed when you control all the British Isles.

Trade Companies negate religion and culture, but not seperatism. That is where Humanist's unrest and seperatism reduction will benefit OP if he's going to go heavy on India. Accepted cultures great for the Age objective, improve relations great, idea cost great.

 

[Badesumofu]

I dont get how is sitting with other religions provinces better than not just converting them to your own?

Sure, when the reformation starts, the tolerance might stop a revolt or two, but during the entire game time frame, i think religious just wins, no contest.

What am i missing?

You don't need Religious to convert Catholics to Protestantism or Protestants back to Catholicism. You won't get much use out of Dues Vult in an England game, especially if trying to recreate the British Empire. Humanism keeps your RU up, prevents most rebels from ever spawning, significantly reduces separatism.

Religious is great if you're going to get a lot of use out of DV and/or you need to convert hard to convert provinces or just want to convert everything. In general there is no need to convert anything in TC regions, and with Humanism religion kind of stops mattering that much anyway.

 

[Foefaller]

Trade Companies negate religion and culture, but not seperatism. That is where Humanist's unrest and seperatism reduction will benefit OP if he's going to go heavy on India. Accepted cultures great for the Age objective, improve relations great, idea cost great.

Don't have MoH, so no age bonuses, normally take Influence for tech costs and cheaper advisers so Idea cost isn't as much of a draw. Unrest stuff I can't argue with, though I'm normally OK with housing troops nearby for the revolt, especially if I'm mimicking the British Empire and have no mainland Europe territory; Noone's getting by the Royal Navy.

 

[Badesumofu]

Don't have MoH, so no age bonuses, normally take Influence for tech costs and cheaper advisers so Idea cost isn't as much of a draw. Unrest stuff I can't argue with, though I'm normally OK with housing troops nearby for the revolt, especially if I'm mimicking the British Empire and have no mainland Europe territory; Noone's getting by the Royal Navy.

You mean Innovative, right? That's one of those idea groups I like but isn't good enough to take unless I'm doing a casual run. Another group in that category is Economic which I could see being good for a British Empire run - you're likely going to want to develop a lot and that -20% dev cost is fantastic if you are playing tall.

 

[Casko]

Do you have most or all the DLC?

as many have suggested, you should take exploration,
However I'd suggest possibly take Economics first for extra income, and as a new player the income boost you get from it makes few mistakes somewhat less rough. + at the start of the game you do not have enough colonial range to reach any provinces to colonize, so you can take a moment to fill the economic ideas up.
after Exploration I'd suggest you to take Offensive as your military idea, as England and GB you'll probably be lacking military tradition for good generals and lack the nobles estate for the 40 tradition generals. so the extra fire and shock pips will help you a ton.
after that its more or up for the person's liking.

 

[Rubidium]

1490 is late enough that I'd go for Exploration just to start grabbing some colonial regions and taking control of the trade routes you'll need for your future British Empire before other countries snatch them all up. It will also put you in a good spot for the Colonialism institution (which can spawn on you if you've discovered the New World, and will spread faster if you have a colonial nation), which is just around the corner.

 

[Badesumofu]

I started my own GB game for fun and went Economic-Exploration and the went against my own advice and took Religious. Figure I'll Dues Vult some Africans and Indians to get my trade empire up and going faster.

I'm also going for An Industrial Evolution achieve. Been quite fun so far doing everything differently to normal. Started by selling off some mainland provinces to focus on my splendidly isolated isles. Now I have a couple of nice CNs (Cuba and 13C) up and running and I'm off to Gold Coast and beyond. Already fully converted to Protestant and using the Royal Army to interfere in stuff on the mainland like helping Sweden get free. Very enjoyable game so far.

 

[Gomine]

dlc I don't have 140 dollars laying around for expansions

 

[Foefaller]

dlc I don't have 140 dollars laying around for expansions

Luckily, 99.9% of the advice already in the thread works regardless of the DLC you have. Outside of a couple of bonuses that get swapped, pretty much all the paid content adds to stuff outside of Ideas.

The only changes is that, without Common Sense, you can't build development in province (Economic finisher becomes +20% good produced instead) and without MoH, the push to pick Humanist/Religious as your 2nd or 3rd Idea isn't as strong... though without Wealth of Nations, the need to take Humanist at some point becomes very strong for a British Empire game, because you can't put India under Trade Companies to deal with the religious and culture issues.

Also, slight tangent, but I would also not actually go into India until you are ready for a full-scale invasion to take the sub-continent; No Trade Companies also means you can't prevent Institution spread in territory that would normally be in trade company territory, meaning that once you start making India your own, your new neighbors will start to lose their tech cost penalties and start catching up in military technology.

 

[Gomine]

ok then