New player with some questions

[unmerged(326354)]

Hello everyone

I recently started to play this game again and I want to play it decently now. I'm still playing my first game and there are still some things which I don't fully understand.

1) Trading ( supply - demand) is one of them. I've tried to read about this but I could find an answer. What does a marketplace exactly do? Does it increase supply or demand? As far as I can tell, it increases the value a bit, but this is only means your cot increases a bit, so you only have a very little increase in income because you only have 5 merchants.

2) I'm playing as castili because I read somewhere it was the easiest country to start with. I've finished with my first goal. Conquer Aragon. I know own all Aragaron, Almost complete Maracco, Tuat, And Tlemen in North Africa. I've also control navarra and Sicily. I'm not sure what my goal should be. Doing this have given me quite some infamy though. Would the African countries stop being overseas if I would be able to create a Roman empire so they are linked to castilie? Should I keep focussing on Africa and colonize conquer that, or isn't it interesting? Because I'm the defender of faith, I can wage war with them and gain prestige for a fairly low price.

3) I'm almost going to reach gov lvl 9 so I can chose a new idea. I'm doubting between tax, - inflation or + colonists. The Inflation will help em lower my inflation (3.7%, it comes from 4% thx to my lvl 5 master of mint) and it will let me safe money to recruit and built buildings. However this does not actually add me extra money, just gives me more options how to use my currently available money while the extra tax will give me about 2 extra ducats/month. @ lvl 11 I was thinking to pick colonists so that I can faster colonize Africa.

4) How does population effect the game? Up till now I only found that it somewhat effect the trade value of a province? I have currently settlement policy and Andalusia, it costs me quite a lot colonists and infamy wise, so is it worth it? In 15 years both of them will have reached 1 000 000 population, will this give them a significant boost?

5) Can I join the Holy Roman Empire, and if so how?

6) I can change my type of government to empire from feudal monarchy. Is this interesting? I would lose the bonuses from Feudal monarchy but I will be able to chance my centralism slider more to the left.

7) What to do with Portugal? I don't have a special interest in them, but every so many years they are being extremly anoying to attack myself in the back, which means I need to leave a patch of troops stationed there every time. I usually win every war swiftly. The only annoying thing is that England (who has almost completely conquered Scotland) is always allaying with them. Should I start a war in 30 years (time it will take for my infamy to reach 0) and try to annex as much of their provinces as I can? It's not fun to have torn in your side.

8) What do I do with France? I think I'm quite safe with the exception of France (who is almost done uniting) , looking at their amount of troops, they can easily defeat me. This also hinders my ability to grow in Europe.

 

[mgoetze]

(1) Well, a marketplace does increase the demand for certain goods but that's more of a hidden effect. The main effect is that the trade value of your province is increased. If you are producing, say, 1.5 units of a good whose unit price (and global supply and demand affect this unit price) is 20, then the trade value of your province 1.5*20=30 without a marketplace and 1.5*20*1.1=33 with a marketplace. Funnily enough it seems the production value of your province is also based on this trade value, not just the base value of the goods, so you will benefit immediately there. Also you will be able to get more of the trade value later on in the game when you can get monopolies and your trade efficiency increases.

(2) They will stop being overseas if you can create a land connection to your capital, so you would basically have to conquer stuff in France, Italy, the Balkans, Turkey, Egypt... In theory of course you could also move your capital to Africa, in which case your European provinces would be overseas instead. In general African provinces are rather poor, you only want rich overseas provinces e.g. Caribbean, Brazil, Indonesia.

(3) Military Drill is probably the most important idea early on. National Bank is almost never a bad idea. Bureaucracy is somewhat underpowered, later on your tax income will be lower than your trade and production income so National Trade Policy is generally a more powerful idea. As for Colonial Ventures, consider that colonies cost money to maintain, having too many of them at a time may stretch your budget. Quest for the New World is of course a very important idea.

(4) Population increases the amount of goods produced in a province linearly up to 100,000 (exception: overseas provinces). Beyond that, it's just a nuisance e.g. making cultural assimilation less likely, missionaries more expensive. Settlement policy is definitely a waste of resources in accepted culture or same culture group provinces. (Notably as Castille owning Aragon you should be able to form Spain in which case this becomes moot). Beyond that it's a question of how much do the stability costs hurt you. E.g. if you need to westernise (you don't as Castille of course) it might be worth it.

(5) Joining the HRE is a province decision for provinces bordering the empire, and the emperor needs to approve. Basically, as Castille, forget about it.

(6) Yes empire is generally a step up from feudal monarchy.

(7) Whatever you want.

(8) Well... get an ally maybe?

 

[DDRJake]

So many questions, let's see what I can do.

What does a marketplace exactly do? Does it increase supply or demand?

It will increase demand for exotic goods by a tiny amount, not something worth worrying about. The main benefit it will give you is it will increase the trade value of the good in that province by 10%, meaning it contricutes 10% more to the value of the Centre of Trade it goes to and also will increase the production income of that province by 10% (production of a province is the value of the goods in that province*production efficiency. Yes, this is a small increase, but as you reach later years production and trade efficiency increases and you will gain more and more money through production and trade.

2) I'm playing as castili because I read somewhere it was the easiest country to start with. I've finished with my first goal. Conquer Aragon. I know own all Aragaron, Almost complete Maracco, Tuat, And Tlemen in North Africa. I've also control navarra and Sicily. I'm not sure what my goal should be.

Brilliant choice for starting country. Your goal is whatever you want it to be. If you want to colonise, conquer or enslave the world, all that is your choice. These games do not give win or lose conditions. Make your own.

Doing this have given me quite some infamy though.

Never go over the infamy limit. Keep infamy as low as possible or else your nation will prove to be difficult to keep stable and everyone will hate you.

Would the African countries stop being overseas if I would be able to create a Roman empire so they are linked to castilie?

A province is considered overseas if it is on a different continent from your capital AND does not have an uninterrupted chain of owned provinces leading to your capital. If you were to conquer all of the Med, all those lands would have land connection to your capital and would not be "overseas". Overseas provinces contribute much less money and manpower than non-overseas provinces, and you have to keep a light or big ship for every overseas province you own to get full tarrifs.

Should I keep focussing on Africa and colonize conquer that, or isn't it interesting? Because I'm the defender of faith, I can wage war with them and gain prestige for a fairly low price.

North Africa is a lot of very poor wrong-religion wrong-culture lands. They will only prove worthwhile if you can make a land connection. South Africa on the other hand is rich with slaves and Ivory. Make of that what you will.

3) I'm almost going to reach gov lvl 9 so I can chose a new idea. I'm doubting between tax, - inflation or + colonists. The Inflation will help em lower my inflation (3.7%, it comes from 4% thx to my lvl 5 master of mint) and it will let me safe money to recruit and built buildings. However this does not actually add me extra money, just gives me more options how to use my currently available money while the extra tax will give me about 2 extra ducats/month. @ lvl 11 I was thinking to pick colonists so that I can faster colonize Africa.

Opinions are divided on which national ideas are best but for a nation like castille that +10% tax is almost worthless. Colonial ideas are almost certainly better than the tiny amount of tax you get. Since you are able to keep your inflation impressively low for a new player, National Bank doesn't seem like much use for you unless you really want to be swimming in minted money (and remember, minting that money means you're not using it for research, so you may fall a little behind in tech)

4) How does population effect the game?

It does hardly anything. It will slightly increase manpower and a little bit of income and trade units produced, but for the most part population won't affect much. It's really one of the common complaints for this game. Also, populations of more than 101,000 have absolutely no impact mechanics-wise. It stops giving any benefit and just becomes a flavour.

5) Can I join the Holy Roman Empire, and if so how?

You must have your capital on an HRE province. check the HRE mapmode for HRE provinces. You will have to add provinces one by one to the empire using a provine decision and the Emperor will likely refuse because of your size and infamy. Best way into the empire is to become emperor, and for that the best route is simply to vassalise the electors and keep your infamy low.


6) I can change my type of government to empire from feudal monarchy. Is this interesting? I would lose the bonuses from Feudal monarchy but I will be able to chance my centralism slider more to the left.

It is generally better as it has some hidden benefits. Plus, for your first game, you may as well try new things. Plus, centralisation is definitely good. If you go past the "limit" that your current government has, you will get +1 revolt risk everywhere for every step past the limit you are.

7) What to do with Portugal? I don't have a special interest in them, but every so many years they are being extremly anoying to attack myself in the back, which means I need to leave a patch of troops stationed there every time. I usually win every war swiftly. The only annoying thing is that England (who has almost completely conquered Scotland) is always allaying with them. Should I start a war in 30 years (time it will take for my infamy to reach 0) and try to annex as much of their provinces as I can? It's not fun to have torn in your side.

It may be an idea, if they have no heir or an heir with a weak claim, to make a claim on their throne and force them into a union. This will make them loyal to you. You can do this through a spy mission on their capital or through marrying them and making the diplomatic option to claim the throne. Otherwise, try improving relations or just waiting for your infamy to burn then obliterate them.

8) What do I do with France? I think I'm quite safe with the exception of France (who is almost done uniting) , looking at their amount of troops, they can easily defeat me. This also hinders my ability to grow in Europe.

Keep them happy until you feel like testing out large warfare in the game. Save before warring with them and see how you fare. Good warfare practice is invaluable.

I hope this helps. Any other questions just fire away.

 

[unmerged(326354)]

Thx for the great answers guys!

 

[panionios]

Should I start a war in 30 years (time it will take for my infamy to reach 0)

Erm, that's quite a lot. Did you use the correct casus belli to take all these provinces? My guess is that you've annexed Aragon, meaning +4 infamy per province taken when you could have vassalized them or wait (though it could take long) for a low legitimacy Aragon ruler to form a PU.

What's your infamy right now? And why will it take you 30 years? Have you built an embassy (-0.4 per year)? Do you have a good Diplomat (4-6 star)?