Siege rolls cap at +5, or +8 with the rev age bonus (if I'm winning battles easily, which is almost always by that point, it's often the first thing I take). You get that with 40 cannons.
CNs in Christianity convert very fast if you spam cathedrals into them so if you manage to full annex colonizers by 1750 one faith is probably still in the cards assuming you can handle old world conversions.
I often go defensive/quantity as the military choices. I'll not say it's optimal because it clearly isn't, but these military groups are good for sanity. Slap big stacks all over the place at low cost (pathetic cost with rev bonuses), take very little attrition, and for non-Abrahamic religions you can even run a ticking -WE policy if you want.
Religious/influence is a pretty useful combo (feed for 0 DIP, annex). Administrative is great of course, and diplomatic is useful by absolutism times. The last 2-3 groups are preference really. I go defensive/quantity, but offensive for faster sieges is nice, aristocratic for extra diplomat is nice if leaning more on diploannexations (doable to chain if you have influence or diplomatic + trading in ivory). Quality makes your troops hit harder if you're floundering vs Ottos or something.
You CAN go exploration but it's not a good idea early IMO. Maybe 7th, though you could also just steal maps or buy them with prestige. Once you smash Ottos and have triggered modifiers from holy sites + conquest spree with religious prestige is pretty easy to replace so you can just ally a western non-colonizer and buy their new world coastal maps, pacific sea zones, and cape hope stuff and get the rest of what you need to see by taking land (or in very late game if you can't see tribes or something just steal maps).
CNs in Christianity convert very fast if you spam cathedrals into them so if you manage to full annex colonizers by 1750 one faith is probably still in the cards assuming you can handle old world conversions.
I often go defensive/quantity as the military choices. I'll not say it's optimal because it clearly isn't, but these military groups are good for sanity. Slap big stacks all over the place at low cost (pathetic cost with rev bonuses), take very little attrition, and for non-Abrahamic religions you can even run a ticking -WE policy if you want.
Religious/influence is a pretty useful combo (feed for 0 DIP, annex). Administrative is great of course, and diplomatic is useful by absolutism times. The last 2-3 groups are preference really. I go defensive/quantity, but offensive for faster sieges is nice, aristocratic for extra diplomat is nice if leaning more on diploannexations (doable to chain if you have influence or diplomatic + trading in ivory). Quality makes your troops hit harder if you're floundering vs Ottos or something.
You CAN go exploration but it's not a good idea early IMO. Maybe 7th, though you could also just steal maps or buy them with prestige. Once you smash Ottos and have triggered modifiers from holy sites + conquest spree with religious prestige is pretty easy to replace so you can just ally a western non-colonizer and buy their new world coastal maps, pacific sea zones, and cape hope stuff and get the rest of what you need to see by taking land (or in very late game if you can't see tribes or something just steal maps).
