Newbie`s questions.

[trevi2]

Playing now seriously my first game...

I am Castille. Right now in 1411, I count with Granada and Navarra Annexed and all Aragon but Barcelona. Also Avignon and Sicily. And going now to get all Portugal but Lisboa

Well the questions are:

1. There are many revolts with large numbers of peasents troops 6.000 to 9.000 with a three stability in my kingdom, prestige near 3, and bad reputation. Is there anyway to stop this, or I have to wait till the new provinces become cores?

2. I can form the empire. Is it worthy? The same with despotic monarchy. Worthy?

3. I do not understand the trade system, or perhaps is simple. My understanding is: I have provinces. Depending of the product, population and installations I have a production value (percentage of the production) goes to my treasure. The Gold goes entirely to my treasure. Besides are the COTs where I send my merchants, that I can increase its rate with tecnology and COT's. Is that all?

4. I have good tech bonuses from my neighbours. Should I annex Lisboa and Barcelona, or leave them aside and take profit of those bonusses?

5. When I make a vassal, I understand that some money comes to me, no manpower, but I do not have to produce so much tech to achieve a level tech. Is that it? Once I release a vassal, how many years I can think he will be on my side?

6. How many own provinces are needed to operate well. It seems to me, that I do not need the manpower of Aragon and Portugal. Could that be?

Thanks in advance

 

[trevi2]

Version IN

 

[Ruanek]

1. Assuming your reputation/infamy isn't over the limit, the revolts should largely stop being a problem once you get cores.

2. Unfortunately I don't remember the government differences in IN.

3. For trade - every province trades through some CoT. The more merchants you have in that CoT, the more income you get from there. If a province's trade good is worth more, it will contribute more to the CoT, meaning more money for everyone who has merchants there. If you have high trade efficiency you get more money from having merchants placed.

4. The "neighbor bonus" isn't actually from physical neighbors; it's for the tech group you're a part of. In this case you're part of the western tech group, so any nation ahead of you in a tech in the western group could be giving you the bonus (it's based on how far ahead the leader is from you). You're probably getting a boost from a German or Italian minor, bot Portugal or Aragon.

5. Each province you have increases the total cost of your next stability and tech levels. If the provinces are rich it really isn't an issue, since they can generally give more than they cost. Vassals will never turn against you if you ally with them (and there's no reason not to do that).

6. You can run well with 5 provinces, or 10, or 30, or 100. You'd just have to play differently depending on your size. If you want to fight big wars to get more land, having more land to begin with is generally helpful. If you're more interested in colonization and a peaceful game, you might not want to fight as much (though keep in mind that you may end up fighting other major colonizers, particularly England and France). I personally tend to not release vassals, and I tend to conquer lots of land.

 

[trevi2]

Understood everything, but...

May I make a vassal of let's say Portugal, make an alliance and assume he will not get apart from me never ever?

 

[trevi2]

Needing help in point 2...

For example making the empire policy means loosing 3 stability to get 5 points of prestige. If that is the deal I don't see it interesting

 

[Ruanek]

Understood everything, but...

May I make a vassal of let's say Portugal, make an alliance and assume he will not get apart from me never ever?

Yep, if you're allied to a vassal they'll never betray you. And you can diplo-annex them.

Needing help in point 2...

For example making the empire policy means loosing 3 stability to get 5 points of prestige. If that is the deal I don't see it interesting

Well, it also changes your government type, giving you different modifiers.

 

[trevi2]

In the instructions nothing appear about the empire. Thanks anyhow

 

[Ruanek]

I assume you're currently a feudal monarchy. From the wiki:

Feudal Monarchy

-Administrative Efficiency: 16
-Special: Global Manpower Modifier 0.15, Land Forcelimit Modifier 0.15
-Limits: Aristocracy vs. Plutocracy -1

Despotic Monarchy

-Administrative Efficiency: 1.25
-Special: Infamy limit +10
-Limits: Serfdom vs. Free Subjects +1

Empire

-Administrative Efficiency: 1.20
-Special: Land morale = 0.25;
-Limits: Centralization vs.Decentralization -3

Lower administrative efficiency means you can change sliders more frequently. (I'd guess that the administrative efficiency of a feudal monarchy is supposed to be 1.6 rather than 16 - that may be a typo.) Essentially, ignoring slider limitations (I'd guess they aren't too limiting at this point in the game) if you switch away from feudal monarchy you're going to be able to make slider changes faster, but you'll lose a manpower and land forcelimit buff. If you go to Despotic monarchy all you get is a higher infamy limit. Empire gives a morale boost as well as the best administrative efficiency, but it also causes the largest stability hit.

Edit: switching to an empire also changes your ruler's title to Emperor/Empress. That can be cool.

 

[grommile]

The really important things about Empire are: you get a cheap CB on all non-Christians, and you can go three steps Centralized without raising your revolt risk.

 

[Dauth]

Fixed the bug on the wiki Ruanek. Thanks for spotting it.

 

[trevi2]

Did I said I had too much manpower? NEVER

 

[trevi2]

For newbies: Finally... First game lost or at least it is going to be lost . Not because of the other countries, but beacause of the usual peasants revolts. Even though I had a +3 stability (usually always), I was a dishonourable scum, and that makes them revolt. It is 1426, and I have no troops since a lot time ago. Troops fullfiled with manwork, I mean. My point of view is that you should have at least 10.000 reinforcements available before you begin a war. In this case, the problem is that France with 57.000 troops has decided to attack me, being myself in peace and 17.000 men, although having 15.000 peasents revolted. I have spent my landforce against peasents instead of against countries

 

[Ruanek]

Did I said I had too much manpower? NEVER

Alright, no need to use caps.

For newbies: Finally... First game lost or at least it is going to be lost . Not because of the other countries, but beacause of the usual peasants revolts. Even though I had a +3 stability (usually always), I was a dishonourable scum, and that makes them revolt. It is 1426, and I have no troops since a lot time ago. Troops fullfiled with manwork, I mean. My point of view is that you should have at least 10.000 reinforcements available before you begin a war. In this case, the problem is that France with 57.000 troops has decided to attack me, being myself in peace and 17.000 men, although having 15.000 peasents revolted. I have spent my landforce against peasents instead of against countries

It seems like the main problem is you went over the infamy limit. You don't want to ever have so much infamy to be dishonorable scum - it causes many revolts, gives other nations a free CB against you - it's just a bad idea.

17,000 isn't actually a very big army for a nation as big as Castille, especially if you've been conquering more land. And 10,000 manower for reinforcements for a war isn't that much, either.

 

[trevi2]

Ruanek,

For sure you are more experienced than me... I am a great player in HOI and Patrician so I do get things clear faster than others.

Yes the problem was infamy, and I think that is near close in importance than the stability. Although I attacked all Italy (Milan, Sicily, Napoles, Mantua, and Ferrara), it was beacause they were allied with Aragon and Switzerland (who with no reason attacked me). I also counted with Avignon and Burgundy's territories (also repelling the "agression" when Aragon called their allies). Now I do understand that in certain ocassions is much better to be really loaded of troops, attack your real objectives, and leave the secondary ones for later - I discarded several white peace offers with far away territories-. Nevertheless, I do not undersstand why I can not reppell an agression without being harmed in reputation.

In fact I believe that infamy should be placed in the main screen, and not in the secondary one.

17.000 were my army of 50.000 reduced after the attacks of the pesants and foreign countries -I really tell you they have killed me- , and 10.000 are the potential reinforcements I believe you have to count with as reinforcements. Do you play with a higher ratio of 20%?

Now I am playing another with this focus, and is going better (Praying for that)

Thanks

 

[Ruanek]

Infamy is put onto the main screen in the later expansions.

You get infamy every time you take territory. You can repel an invasion without taking so much territory that you go over your infamy limit.

What do you mean by a ratio of 20%?

And yeah, it took me several games to really figure out how to play EU3. It takes a while to learn all the intricacies.

 

[Serzis]

Your rebel problem may also be a result of high War Exhaustion (WE). When you fight battles, or take attrition from placing too many regiments in the same province, your country becomes more and more exhausted, increasing revolt risk, stab cost, etc. Check the military tab (the one with the maintenance sliders) and check for a number. If it isn't something like 0/18, then you'll experience a few nasty penalties and a lot of rebellions.

Tell me, you haven't perchance made "doom-stacks" of 30 or so regiments standing in the same province, considering you've experienced manpower problems from rebellions and small wars (which ought not be very common)?

 

[trevi2]

Serzis,

Not really, although yes really, could have happened... I did not know that number, and the consequences...

It was 6/19 and with six points, so I don't think it was so bad. I did not understand why I had revolts in "national provinces"¡¡¡

In the other hand, the most I put was 12k-18-k (for a quick siege) because I really put attention to the attrition. If you go abroad with that size you experience a 5%-8% which means that in that month you don't have reinforcements... (The manpower problem was due to the revolts, not attrition).

Thanks

 

[the.ront]

In fact I believe that infamy should be placed in the main screen, and not in the secondary one.

This always bugged me with IN. Thankfully it was placed on the main screen with later expansions (but I don't recall which one).

 

[trevi2]

I am playing well now. Taking care of infamy 1,5 and stability +3. Going for the second attack in Aragon and Portugal. Suddenly in Oporto (already conquered), when I was placing troops in my borders appeared two revolts in the province. The first one 8.000. Two weeks later another 10.000¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

It has no sense...

How to solve this? I will tell you... Loading the autosave. 3 a.m. Late to fight against that¡¡¡

 

[Ruanek]

That could just be bad luck. I've had that happen sometimes, where a revolt is closely followed by another revolt before I can crush the first one.