And here’s ideas on how non-military NIs have changed in HTTT. The post on military NIs is here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=450519
National Bank: What used to be a must-have 1st or 2nd NI for many players, I think is pretty useless now. It’s easy to just hire some Masters of Mints. And in my experience, there’s only certain parts of the game where I mint a lot, so having the -.10 inflation all the time isn’t very useful when you can hire advisors for a quick, momentary reduction.
Bill of Rights: I love this NI now, though it may only be useful for certain types of play. The lowering of revolt risk isn’t much since there’s lots of new ways to do that. Even having another CB is of questionable value with all the CBs you can get now. But it’s a pretty sweet CB. 300% prestige (!) and 50% cost for liberating a country, releasing a vassal, or reducing SoI. If you have a big rival you need to beat down, but can’t hold on to any land of theirs you take, using this CB to slice them up and take away their vassals is ideal. I have in mind a fun game where I’ll play as England, conquer enough land to have one of the largest armies, and then play World Police. Any time a country annexes another, Great Britain swoops into the rescue – and then uses the resulting prestige to expand my SoI to all those needing protecting.
Bureaucracy: Could just hire a sheriff advisor now. And how on earth does taking the province decision “Expand the bureaucracy” give you more magistrates, but the NI called Bureaucracy doesn’t???
The Trade NIs (Merchant Adventurers, Shrewd Commerce Practice, National Trade Policy): Trade has changed a lot with trade leagues and exclusive trading rights. I haven’t figured out how all these things have impacted countries not leading a trade league yet. Obviously Merchant Republics (or those wanting to become one) would find all these more useful. One thing I’ve noticed is that when you’re in a trade league, it’s a whole lot harder to place your merchants. If you’re in the Hanseatic League, there may be 20 countries that your merchant can’t compete with to earn a place in a COT. So if you’re part of a League, I think SCP would be even more helpful in elbowing your way into COTs.
Espionage: Definitely less useful. All the CBs means less of a need to fabricate claims. However, if you lead a trade league, this could be very useful with the new spy mission “weaken rival league.”
Ecumenism and Humanist Tolerance: Again, there’s easier ways to lower revolt risk now. These will also make the Papacy hate you. I’m not sure how much the Reformation and spreading of religion has changed now, so maybe Ecumenism could still be important.
Unam Sanctum: It’s a neat CB, but can’t you get the same type within the HRE at a certain point? If not, then it would be a must for the HRE emperor. Aside from that, I’ve never seen a big use of going around, forcing others to convert to you (though it could make a fun game with Muscovy or Byzantines, forcing Europe to go Orthodox). On the other hand, the new Papacy influence can be fun to play with. Combine this with Church Attendance Duty and Divine Supremacy to be the Pope for quite a while. Still, are the abilities to excommunicate and crusade worth 2 or 3 or your NIs?
Cabinet: If you play long enough to get to Gov Tech 30 and haven’t taken over the world yet, you could use this with a combination of philosophers to go on conquest/annexation spree. Since you get more BB/infamy now without good CBs, this should be more useful.
National Bank: What used to be a must-have 1st or 2nd NI for many players, I think is pretty useless now. It’s easy to just hire some Masters of Mints. And in my experience, there’s only certain parts of the game where I mint a lot, so having the -.10 inflation all the time isn’t very useful when you can hire advisors for a quick, momentary reduction.
Bill of Rights: I love this NI now, though it may only be useful for certain types of play. The lowering of revolt risk isn’t much since there’s lots of new ways to do that. Even having another CB is of questionable value with all the CBs you can get now. But it’s a pretty sweet CB. 300% prestige (!) and 50% cost for liberating a country, releasing a vassal, or reducing SoI. If you have a big rival you need to beat down, but can’t hold on to any land of theirs you take, using this CB to slice them up and take away their vassals is ideal. I have in mind a fun game where I’ll play as England, conquer enough land to have one of the largest armies, and then play World Police. Any time a country annexes another, Great Britain swoops into the rescue – and then uses the resulting prestige to expand my SoI to all those needing protecting.
Bureaucracy: Could just hire a sheriff advisor now. And how on earth does taking the province decision “Expand the bureaucracy” give you more magistrates, but the NI called Bureaucracy doesn’t???
The Trade NIs (Merchant Adventurers, Shrewd Commerce Practice, National Trade Policy): Trade has changed a lot with trade leagues and exclusive trading rights. I haven’t figured out how all these things have impacted countries not leading a trade league yet. Obviously Merchant Republics (or those wanting to become one) would find all these more useful. One thing I’ve noticed is that when you’re in a trade league, it’s a whole lot harder to place your merchants. If you’re in the Hanseatic League, there may be 20 countries that your merchant can’t compete with to earn a place in a COT. So if you’re part of a League, I think SCP would be even more helpful in elbowing your way into COTs.
Espionage: Definitely less useful. All the CBs means less of a need to fabricate claims. However, if you lead a trade league, this could be very useful with the new spy mission “weaken rival league.”
Ecumenism and Humanist Tolerance: Again, there’s easier ways to lower revolt risk now. These will also make the Papacy hate you. I’m not sure how much the Reformation and spreading of religion has changed now, so maybe Ecumenism could still be important.
Unam Sanctum: It’s a neat CB, but can’t you get the same type within the HRE at a certain point? If not, then it would be a must for the HRE emperor. Aside from that, I’ve never seen a big use of going around, forcing others to convert to you (though it could make a fun game with Muscovy or Byzantines, forcing Europe to go Orthodox). On the other hand, the new Papacy influence can be fun to play with. Combine this with Church Attendance Duty and Divine Supremacy to be the Pope for quite a while. Still, are the abilities to excommunicate and crusade worth 2 or 3 or your NIs?
Cabinet: If you play long enough to get to Gov Tech 30 and haven’t taken over the world yet, you could use this with a combination of philosophers to go on conquest/annexation spree. Since you get more BB/infamy now without good CBs, this should be more useful.
