Provinces - What's best?

[Filip de Norre]

A simple question, which example is the best to have and crave?

1.

2 Provinces, both core, both your culture, both your religion, both producing grain, both 4 base tax, both 5000 inhabitants, both 2 manpower

2.

1 Province, core, culture, religion, grain, 8 base tax, 10000 inhabitants, 4 manpower

 

[Icendoan]

I would say option 2 if you do nothing, due to faster tech. Option 1 if you can build things on it.

 

[unmerged(62860)]

I would go for 1.

1) One less province to give you -0.3 prestige due not owning core.
2) More provinces to build structures.
3) If port higher tolls and naval force limit.
4) More land foce limit.

 

[knul]

3) If port higher tolls and naval force limit.
4) More land foce limit.

IIRC, force limits depend on tax base, so I think the increase in naval/land force limit would be the same for 1 and 2.


As for the OP, this situation is so artificial, it's difficult to say. Normally I would go for as many provinces as possible, because after a certain size, extra provinces do not really slow down your tech rate. Before that size, you generally need the extra manpower, income and force limits.

 

[unmerged(62860)]

Agree that it is difficult to say, alot of other things need to be considered. Ihmo there is no "answer for all situations".

Edit: You might be right regarding land force limit (im not sure) but for naval you need ports.

 

[Filip de Norre]

Thanks for the answers so far.

The context is that I'm doing a little map modding, and was in doubt about how many provinces I wanted, and where, both for balance and so on.

 

[Boon63]

The advantages of the 2 situations are different :
1- You earn more production income and may add another province in your CoT. Besides you can have 2 lv 5 and 6 buildings instead of 1 !
2- Your tech and stab costs are lower and you'll need less buildings to max your stab cost and your tax income (except for workshops and all the lv5 & 6 buildings).

So if you haven't reach lv 23 in tech, I'd suggest case 2 : one province. At tech lv 23 and higher, case 1 would be more advantageous for you, as lv 5 and 6 buildings are very powerfull.

The only downside of case 2 (before tech lv 23) is you only have 1 workshop instead of 2 and potentially 1 National Focus bonus instead of 2. Although NF and workshops are taken into account in forcelimits calculation (a quarter of (BaseTax + BT workshop + BT capital + BT NF + BT CoT) for Land Forcelimit, and half the same for Naval Forcelimit), the bonus in tax and forcelimits isn't as great as the ones lv 5 and 6 prod, land and naval buildings can provide.

EDIT : I'm still playing 5.1 btw.

 

[DanubianCossak]

IIRC, force limits depend on tax base, so I think the increase in naval/land force limit would be the same for 1 and 2.

Amount of force limits is more heavily impacted by number of provinces than by the base tax or tax incomes. (as far as i know it isnt 1 for 1)

Basically in terms of sheer numbers, 1 province of 4 base tax will give you less advantage than 2 provinces of 2. At least i think so. I tested this long time ago. When i gave England a flat bonus of 100 base tax in London gave it far smaller bonus in terms of force limits than when i split that 100 and assigned it to many different provinces (theres that effect too).