I'm playing a relaxed ironman game as England, but am rather conflicted about where to go next.
As background: It's 1553, and I'm playing a somewhat isolationist, colonizing England which has gone Reformed and Humanist. I have completed Exploration, Naval, and Humanism. Naval may have been a mistake, in retrospect. My income after a set of 2/2/2 advisors and a 260-strong navy is about 40 to 50gp per month; am currently waiting for funds to buy a +3 admin adviser.
In the Americas, my Mexico (aka New Ireland) has eaten almost all of the locals; I'm currently expanding in Canada and Chesapeake. The other European colonizers have been habitually declaring war on me in futile attempts at retaking the Canaries, and I've been liberating their colonial possessions in return, so there isn't much threat on the American front aside from a Portuguese Argentina. Which is in Argentina and so for the moment irrelevant.
In Africa, I should have near-complete dominance of the route around the Cape within the next ten years. I have just taken Malacca, and have colonized a chain of depots as far as Taiwan.
However, I'm facing a bit of a conundrum:
(1) My current ruler is 5/2/0 and old. His heir is 0/5/5 and young. My original plan was to take Administrative for the reduced mercenary and coring and tech costs, because my next step is to liberate centers of trade in India and Southeast Asia, which tend to have fairly high base tax, and whose owners will probably put up more of a fight than my miniscule manpower can reliably absorb. However, with a 0-admin heir, taking an admin idea at this time seems to be extremely inefficient because I will likely end up over the limit in both military and diplomatic tech.
Should I instead take Trade for the income boost as my fourth idea group, and take Administrative as fifth? Is there some other idea group I should take instead of trade or administrative? How likely am I to core the 1600 base tax in provinces to make the Administrative core reduction worthwhile?
(2) Should I drop Naval for some other idea group, and if so, which one would be best? Naval at this point is mostly an insurance policy. I have more heavy ships than all of the other countries combined, but if I lose a good chunk of those ships, then the Iberians and the French will quickly eat me.
My current thought is to take Trade as the fourth idea, and see how far ahead I go in admin points. If I get enough admin points to fund Administrative, possibly because my 0/5/5/ heir dies early and I get a high-admin heir, then I will drop Naval and pick up Administrative.
As background: It's 1553, and I'm playing a somewhat isolationist, colonizing England which has gone Reformed and Humanist. I have completed Exploration, Naval, and Humanism. Naval may have been a mistake, in retrospect. My income after a set of 2/2/2 advisors and a 260-strong navy is about 40 to 50gp per month; am currently waiting for funds to buy a +3 admin adviser.
In the Americas, my Mexico (aka New Ireland) has eaten almost all of the locals; I'm currently expanding in Canada and Chesapeake. The other European colonizers have been habitually declaring war on me in futile attempts at retaking the Canaries, and I've been liberating their colonial possessions in return, so there isn't much threat on the American front aside from a Portuguese Argentina. Which is in Argentina and so for the moment irrelevant.
In Africa, I should have near-complete dominance of the route around the Cape within the next ten years. I have just taken Malacca, and have colonized a chain of depots as far as Taiwan.
However, I'm facing a bit of a conundrum:
(1) My current ruler is 5/2/0 and old. His heir is 0/5/5 and young. My original plan was to take Administrative for the reduced mercenary and coring and tech costs, because my next step is to liberate centers of trade in India and Southeast Asia, which tend to have fairly high base tax, and whose owners will probably put up more of a fight than my miniscule manpower can reliably absorb. However, with a 0-admin heir, taking an admin idea at this time seems to be extremely inefficient because I will likely end up over the limit in both military and diplomatic tech.
Should I instead take Trade for the income boost as my fourth idea group, and take Administrative as fifth? Is there some other idea group I should take instead of trade or administrative? How likely am I to core the 1600 base tax in provinces to make the Administrative core reduction worthwhile?
(2) Should I drop Naval for some other idea group, and if so, which one would be best? Naval at this point is mostly an insurance policy. I have more heavy ships than all of the other countries combined, but if I lose a good chunk of those ships, then the Iberians and the French will quickly eat me.
My current thought is to take Trade as the fourth idea, and see how far ahead I go in admin points. If I get enough admin points to fund Administrative, possibly because my 0/5/5/ heir dies early and I get a high-admin heir, then I will drop Naval and pick up Administrative.