Question about PU, Monarch Points, cultures and cores

[DataTraveler]

Hello everybody,
I have few new player questions. I am playing the latest patch plus colonization expansion

First Question: I was playing as Lithuania on normal. Westernized, occupied a lot of territories and I noticed that in 1600+ Most of the countries have 24+ ideas already however I only have like 5 ideas and I do not have that much points to spare whee do they get all the points?

Second question: Is it worth to change culture? I usually like to do that but is it worth the amount of Diplomatic points to do so or is it better to save them for something else.

Third question: I was doing all my conquering by vasalising my opponents if I cant I just take enough land or make them release nations to be able to vasalise them and the annex after 10 years. However, it is very hard to do with European nations in 1600+ then they all have aliances and are hard to beat so I was reading EU IV wiki that PU are also a way to do it but the problem is I did not understand from wiki how to do it.
This is what I understand: I have to have Royal Marriage and wait until they have no heir or have a weak claim heir, then if I have more prestige I go and make the action "claim the thrown" and if their ruler dies I will enter in PU with them right?

Fourth question: What is the fastest way to get cores? Is there any way to make it faster? In conquering Nomad nations the only way is just to take their lans and turn the to cores but it takes time and a lot of Overextention.

Thank you for your answers.

 

[DataTraveler]

Anyone wanna help a noobie?

 

[FrancescoT]

1) depends how lucky they are with their kings, how many and skilled advisers they can afford and see point 2
2) No, it's not worth to change culture, find better ways to spend your dip point, like ideas.
3) PU happens in 2 ways: first by luck if you have a RM with that country and they have no heir or weak claim heir, second by force as for previous conditions when you use claim throne dip option. Notice that in this case you get a huge diplomatic hit with any other country you have a RM with and you risk a succession war.
4) claim on a province give a -25% cost on coring and remember to core at 0 WE because it increases the cost.

 

[DataTraveler]

1) depends how lucky they are with their kings, how many and skilled advisers they can afford and see point 2
2) No, it's not worth to change culture, find better ways to spend your dip point, like ideas.
3) PU happens in 2 ways: first by luck if you have a RM with that country and they have no heir or weak claim heir, second by force as for previous conditions when you use claim throne dip option. Notice that in this case you get a huge diplomatic hit with any other country you have a RM with and you risk a succession war.
4) claim on a province give a -25% cost on coring and remember to core at 0 WE because it increases the cost.

Thank you for your answer.
However it i not just one nations I checked most of them in Europe, East Europe even Middle east and around 1650 and they all have more than 24 ideas so I assume that is normal at that time and I was just lagging behind. Now that I think about it it might make sense as I was westernizing and that like 8 Ideas cost plus I changed culture on many provinces and a lot of coring, Now i learned that vasalizing and giving them back their territory is better way to do as then I annex i get free cores.

One more additional question. Is it worth to convert to Protestant? In my case I was the curia controller and I was able to stay as it almost all the time so I decided not to change and joined counter-revolution and converted everything back to Catholics. Is that what most of you would do or Protestant is the way to go?

 

[rebelde]

If you can easily control the curia staying catholic is better, the bonuses for curia controller + every active cardinal outclass the protestant bonuses.

 

[pebbles]

If you read the wiki, you know about the neighbour bonus and the ahead of time penalty for technologies. Don't waste your monarch points to rush technology. Better invest in ideas. But don't fall back in military technology.

 

[Red John]

If you read the wiki, you know about the neighbour bonus and the ahead of time penalty for technologies. Don't waste your monarch points to rush technology. Better invest in ideas. But don't fall back in military technology.

It can sometimes be worth it to rush military technology, but that's about it. (Maybe diplo for a new ship, maaaybe.)

 

[DataTraveler]

Yes I am usually ahead in time in Military tech so I wait until Ahead of time bonus is gone and only then I buy it. When do you get neighbor bonus? When someone you have a border are more advanced in tech than you?

 

[rebelde]

Yes I am usually ahead in time in Military tech so I wait until Ahead of time bonus is gone and only then I buy it. When do you get neighbor bonus? When someone you have a border are more advanced in tech than you?

Yes, if a bordering country is ahead in tech compared to you you have 5% discount for every tech level of difference.

 

[DataTraveler]

Thank you guys you really help understand EU IV more.
One more question. Can I vassalaise Orthodox nation (Tver) if I am Catholic (Lithuania), because then I look at diplo actions they are willing to become my vassals (A green check) but I have to have alliance, RM and same religion. Does same religion means being Catholic as well or being Christian is enough because then you look at Muslim or any other religion they are not willing to vassalise because they have -1000 because of the religion.

 

[lordelenath]

As long as they can enter a royal marriage, they can be vassalized diplomatically. You can marry within your religious group, so every christian is possible.

 

[cholliman]

For your idea deficit, I'm not quite certain how far behind an eastern tech nation will typically be than a western (I usually play western or something Asian/Indian), but being that far behind seems unusual. Some notes:

1. Don't buy techs ahead of time, with the exclusion of some military techs as people have discussed. If you are having an ahead of time penalty, this is the time where you start doing things like culture flipping provinces, getting some extra stability, spamming lots of buildings, etc.

2. Try to avoid coring provinces yourself. Force vassalize nations and annex them later. If possible, "feed" this vassal (if it has more cores that you can acquire) before adding its territory to your own. This will save you a lot of admin points as you won't be coring as many provinces yourself. Depending on your location though, there might not be as many good targets.

3. Get ideas that have further cost savings! The main ones are Innovative and Plutocracy (Aristocracy is really meh). Unfortunately, Plutocracy is limited to republics, but as an example: if you get Innovative + Pluto + University + other savings like Imperial Integrity, etc. you end up saving a LOT of monarch points.

4. I typically prefer Protestant, unless I'm sticking to Catholic for "RP" reasons. First you don't have to worry about the cardinal mini-game anymore. Second you get a nice discount on ideas (more monarch point savings) and an income buff. Managing your switch to Protestant can be tricky depending on how lucky you get with the events that swap your provinces, but usually if you have saved up a nice amount of cash you can weather the storm.

Hope that helps!!

 

[DataTraveler]

For your idea deficit, I'm not quite certain how far behind an eastern tech nation will typically be than a western (I usually play western or something Asian/Indian), but being that far behind seems unusual. Some notes:

1. Don't buy techs ahead of time, with the exclusion of some military techs as people have discussed. If you are having an ahead of time penalty, this is the time where you start doing things like culture flipping provinces, getting some extra stability, spamming lots of buildings, etc.

2. Try to avoid coring provinces yourself. Force vassalize nations and annex them later. If possible, "feed" this vassal (if it has more cores that you can acquire) before adding its territory to your own. This will save you a lot of admin points as you won't be coring as many provinces yourself. Depending on your location though, there might not be as many good targets.

3. Get ideas that have further cost savings! The main ones are Innovative and Plutocracy (Aristocracy is really meh). Unfortunately, Plutocracy is limited to republics, but as an example: if you get Innovative + Pluto + University + other savings like Imperial Integrity, etc. you end up saving a LOT of monarch points.

4. I typically prefer Protestant, unless I'm sticking to Catholic for "RP" reasons. First you don't have to worry about the cardinal mini-game anymore. Second you get a nice discount on ideas (more monarch point savings) and an income buff. Managing your switch to Protestant can be tricky depending on how lucky you get with the events that swap your provinces, but usually if you have saved up a nice amount of cash you can weather the storm.

Hope that helps!!

Thanks it really did help. Now I restarted and playing Lithuania (again). Now I have much more MP as I do not spend for things I do not really need and Whenever I am on a conquest I always make vassals and give them territories.

Now i came up with new question. I have RM with Poland and Poland's dynasty is the same as mine does this give me any advantages to take them? What can I do to make PU or integrate them?