Noobie needs a lot of help please.

[unmerged(32323)]

I have owned this game for a while and just started playing it. I usually play Sweden in the Age of enlightenment. I have figured out the basics of this game but some parts I just do not understand.

1. Is it better to just invest in one thing at a time, or invest in 5 or 6 things (naval/land warfare, stability, etc).

2. How many traders do you usually have, I usually can get 3 monopolies before I get bored. Does the computer do a good job with merchants>?

3. How do yu make military alliances>? Do you have to have a royal marriage?

4. I have taken control of provinces before against Denmark but I was never able to capture them. How do you capture a city so it is owned by Sweden and not just controlled by Sweden?

Those are my questions for now,. thanks!

 

[MAlexander06]

1. I usually have one area into which I put most of my investments and keep a little bit in each of the other areas. But then again, I'm certainly not the final authority on this issue and there are probably others who do it differently.

2. I usually try to keep 3 or 4 traders in most CoTs. I don't like monopolies because IIRC you get competed out more easily and have to keep sending merchants to maintain them. And the AI pretty much always sucks at trade.

3. You don't need an RM to make an alliance. To join an existing alliance, find the alliance leader (it'll be the first country listed on a given country's list of allies or the country you're looking at if there's an option to join the alliance) and just ask them if you can join. Or you can create your own alliance with a country that also is not in an alliance and then invite other members that also aren't in an alliance. If the alliance you're trying to join or inviting members to has 5 members the AI will always reject the offer.

4. First of all, if Denmark isn't the leader of the alliance you'll need to make a separate peace with them. You just click on Denmark and then go to diplomacy. Click on "offer peace" and then "demand tribute." The list of provinces you can take should be displayed along with the warscore it costs to take them. Note that you can't take the capital until it's the last province they have.

I can't believe I'm telling you how to take Danish territory.

 

[Jayavarman]

1. Invest all your income in one thing at a time. It is mathematically sound. Whice area you prioritize is also important, but that is up to you. I generally prioritize the tech that will finish the earliest.

 

[LlywelynII]

Welcome, Milk!

I have owned this game for a while and just started playing it. I usually play Sweden in the Age of enlightenment.

I actually think that's what the programmers had in mind, too

I have figured out the basics of this game but some parts I just do not understand.

1. Is it better to just invest in one thing at a time, or invest in 5 or 6 things (naval/land warfare, stability, etc).

It's always good to have +3 stability for a lot of reasons, but it's best to stay there by being small or having luxe manufactories. Usually, I'll invest full on to get out of stab -3 and -2; and keep at least some investment in until +1 or so...

It's always bad to be a CRT level behind the people you're at war with (esp. the first one, when they get a fire round for their infantry and you don't otherwise, the "classical" wisdom is to invest hard to get to either trade 3 (monopolies, = $) and/or infra 5 (governors, = low inflation.) The thinking is that the increased income will pay your way forward as you make up for lost time.

Two things to keep in mind are neighbor bonus, which as a Latin techie will keep you from ever lagging behind the heathens, and early tech penalty, which got stronger in the betas and penalizes you for trying to write The Wealth of Nations in 1465. If you reach a point (usu. around tech 7 for infra/trade) where you notice the next level is going to take you forever to reach, just invest in something else for a few decades and it should become more reasonable...

That said, it kinda depends: if you're England and keep up your navy, no one can touch you...

2. How many traders do you usually have, I usually can get 3 monopolies before I get bored. Does the computer do a good job with merchants>?

Depends on the country and whether my merchants are returning the investment.
Depends on the mod. In vanilla Eu2, no.

Hope it helps!
jay.

 

[Derrflinger]

Early tech penalty,

I'm playing France and I went all-out for infrastructure. That is until I hit level 5 somewhere around 1505 I think. The next level was 128,000 - sometime two or three millenia away. Needless to say, since I was behind in Land/Naval tech, I decided it was time to catch up.

Having a governor in every province really makes that easier. My inflation is now down to .7.

Invest as much as you can in a single area. Say it takes 20 years to advance Infrastructure and Trade up one level. Well, if you invest everything in Infrastructure, it may take only 10 years, then you get the benefit of the increased level while you are investing in Trade for the next 10 years.

This works as long as you are not significantly "ahead of history".
You can tell you are ahead when each month the cost of the next level increases slightly - as long as you are investing something. Another way to check is to see what happens when you stop investment. When I saw it was going to take 128,000 ducats to get to the next level, I moved it all to Land tech and worked on that for a couple of decades. I noticed that each month that number dropped. Somewhere it hit a magical threshold and dropped to 28,000 - now that I've taken a few more provinces, it's increased back up to 30,000 due to the number of provinces modifier. Now that I'm ahead in Land tech, I'm back to Infrastructure.

 

[Drakken]

As for monopolies, it depends. At Trade level 8 I can keep most of my monopolies into most of CoTs, especially in the New World and in Asia, even in Spanish-controlled CoTs.

Monopolies is a must the farther the Centres are from the metropoles.

 

[Drakken]

For investments, it depends of your country and your kind of play. With Britain Naval, Trade and Infra are musts, while with Russia a Navy is really luxury and Land is THE must. A Russia dominating in Land investment is a juggernaut.

The only ones which are ALWAYS worth investing into are Trade and Infra, especially Infra since it influes on Production revenues of your provinces. Trade is good, but preferable only if you wish to invest in lots of CoTs and control them.

 

[unmerged(24512)]

About tech:

ALWAYS invest in only one tech(or stability). Think of it this way: If you invest 50% in land and 50% in naval, and they'll both be done in 10 years that way, it would be better to invest 100% in one of them first, have that ready in 5 years, and invest 100% in the other afterwards, and have that ready in another 5 years. You'll have both techs in 10 years, but you'll be able to benefit from having one of them after only 5 years.

Try to invest as much as possible in trade and infra early, unless you need land tech to survive. This will give you an economic lead over the AI, and allow you to tech up way faster in land and naval afterwards. Infra tech level 5 is important, to get governors. After that, i'd go for trade though, as trade becomes extremely profitable, and will likely be your biggest source of revenue, if you get high trade tech.

Finally.. keep inflation low, unless survival is threatened. Inflation kills tech development. 20% inflation means 20% more expensive techs, in other words, 20% slower tech development. I always keep inflation under 10%, some would say it's ok to go a bit over that if you invest the money well.. manufactories, for instance.

 

[Jayavarman]

An even better example is: If you invest 50% in land and 50% in infra, and they'll both be done in 10 years that way, it would be better to invest 100% in infra first, have that ready in 5 years, and invest 100% in the other afterwards, and have that ready in less years due to inreased income from production.