With all the new features of HTTT we also got a lot of new strategies of how to play. When looking at the National Ideas I found some to be a lot less useful, some more useful, and some to take on a whole different meaning. Especially with the ability to hire whatever type of advisor you want, you can easily get the same results of several NIs rather easily – that could either make a NI obsolete or more powerful by stacking tons of the same effect.
I thought it would be helpful to the HTTT community to go through many of the NIs, examine how HTTT changed their use, and start some discussion on new gameplay strategies with them. And be aware I haven’t tried many of these strategies out… they just seem like they could work…
EDIT: (For non-military NIs: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=450526)
Military Drill: This one is clearly more important with the new combat system. Your 40k doomstack can get wiped out by an enemy army of 5k if your army is down to 0 morale for the month. So having more morale is certainly a lot more useful for pretty much every country. Even a small nation could find it useful if it means their smaller army’s morale can outlast a larger one, and then run down the larger down and wipe it out.
National Conscripts: 50% more manpower could be more useful now. With entire army stacks getting destroyed, you’d need more manpower to build new ones. Still probably not a top priority.
Battlefield Commissions: I think this one could be a lot more powerful in HTTT. Granted, it’s possible to recruit advisors that give the same increase in land tradition. But this is one where I think stacking the effects could be very influential. Many advisors require land tradition to be hired, so you could use it to get you a lot of the advisors that increase your land tech or those that increase your morale or discipline, all without draining your ability to recruit good generals. However, from what I’ve seen, I think having good generals makes all the more difference in battle now. A high shock general can wipe out their all-important morale faster. A high-maneuver general (which is now the only way to make your army faster than theirs…. right?) gives your army the ability to get to a hilly or mountainous province first, and force the enemy army to get that very damaging (I think overwhelming) -4 or -5 terrain penalty. What I plan on doing in my next game is taking this idea, using it to recruit 3 advisors that raise land tradition, and using the combined effect to push up my tradition really fast and recruit super-powerful generals early on.
Seahawks: As with land advisors, you now need navy tradition to recruit naval advisors and colonial advisors. I have always found it difficult to raise my navy tradition. Usually I fight one big naval battle with an enemy, destroy their whole navy, and then that’s it. Not much tradition after that. But with Seahawks, instead of getting good admirals (which I’ve never found too useful), a colonial power could use this to supercharge their empire with the right advisors. Imagine the stacking ability for colonial growth: the Land of Opportunity NI (+20% colony growth) + 3 5-star Lord Proprietors advisors (+30%) + National Focus (+50%), a group of your colonies could be getting a 100% growth bonus! After you have a good-sized colonial empire, use your high naval tradition to recruit 3 really good advisors that increase your tariffs. Maybe colonial empires won’t be a drag on your economy anymore…
Naval Glory and Glorious Arms: Even though prestige is more important now, it’s also much easier to gain lots of prestige through the right CBs. When you can gain 60% prestige in some war treaties, more prestige through combat doesn’t seem like that big a deal.
Excellent Shipwrights: Maneuver makes armies faster; I’m assuming it makes ships faster. Any use for fast ships?
Grand Army: Do the new ways of combat require a lot more units?
What do you think?
I thought it would be helpful to the HTTT community to go through many of the NIs, examine how HTTT changed their use, and start some discussion on new gameplay strategies with them. And be aware I haven’t tried many of these strategies out… they just seem like they could work…
EDIT: (For non-military NIs: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=450526)
Military Drill: This one is clearly more important with the new combat system. Your 40k doomstack can get wiped out by an enemy army of 5k if your army is down to 0 morale for the month. So having more morale is certainly a lot more useful for pretty much every country. Even a small nation could find it useful if it means their smaller army’s morale can outlast a larger one, and then run down the larger down and wipe it out.
National Conscripts: 50% more manpower could be more useful now. With entire army stacks getting destroyed, you’d need more manpower to build new ones. Still probably not a top priority.
Battlefield Commissions: I think this one could be a lot more powerful in HTTT. Granted, it’s possible to recruit advisors that give the same increase in land tradition. But this is one where I think stacking the effects could be very influential. Many advisors require land tradition to be hired, so you could use it to get you a lot of the advisors that increase your land tech or those that increase your morale or discipline, all without draining your ability to recruit good generals. However, from what I’ve seen, I think having good generals makes all the more difference in battle now. A high shock general can wipe out their all-important morale faster. A high-maneuver general (which is now the only way to make your army faster than theirs…. right?) gives your army the ability to get to a hilly or mountainous province first, and force the enemy army to get that very damaging (I think overwhelming) -4 or -5 terrain penalty. What I plan on doing in my next game is taking this idea, using it to recruit 3 advisors that raise land tradition, and using the combined effect to push up my tradition really fast and recruit super-powerful generals early on.
Seahawks: As with land advisors, you now need navy tradition to recruit naval advisors and colonial advisors. I have always found it difficult to raise my navy tradition. Usually I fight one big naval battle with an enemy, destroy their whole navy, and then that’s it. Not much tradition after that. But with Seahawks, instead of getting good admirals (which I’ve never found too useful), a colonial power could use this to supercharge their empire with the right advisors. Imagine the stacking ability for colonial growth: the Land of Opportunity NI (+20% colony growth) + 3 5-star Lord Proprietors advisors (+30%) + National Focus (+50%), a group of your colonies could be getting a 100% growth bonus! After you have a good-sized colonial empire, use your high naval tradition to recruit 3 really good advisors that increase your tariffs. Maybe colonial empires won’t be a drag on your economy anymore…
Naval Glory and Glorious Arms: Even though prestige is more important now, it’s also much easier to gain lots of prestige through the right CBs. When you can gain 60% prestige in some war treaties, more prestige through combat doesn’t seem like that big a deal.
Excellent Shipwrights: Maneuver makes armies faster; I’m assuming it makes ships faster. Any use for fast ships?
Grand Army: Do the new ways of combat require a lot more units?
What do you think?
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