States

[FinnegansFather]

I am having trouble wrapping my mind around states, even after reading the Territories and States page of the wiki. I don't think this was part of the game last time I played it.

So... I am looking at the New World and strategizing where to colonize. But I am aware that the limited number of states is one thing to factor in. Am I correct that, if I look at the Areas overlay map, that those are the future state boundaries? So if I fill in all the provinces of a particular area, I am minimizing the number of states I will eventually have, but if I keep grabbing a single province from a different area, I will face problems with my number of states? (And that the Regions map is not telling me anything particularly important to my strategy?)

 

[erneiz_hyde]

You don't have to worry about states in the New World since you can only state provinces that you directly control and not your CNs or Vassals. You change a Territory into a State by clicking the button in the States tab in the province screen, and then paying the Admin points. Generally, you want high-dev provinces to be made States.

 

[Restless Native]

Those boundaries are different. You can have states in the new world but if you get more than 4 colonies in a colonial area they then become a colonial nation. Kind of like a vassal but have some different rules.

As said above you want to make states in high developed areas first. the biggest difference between states and territories is local autonomy (also some coring rules) which translates into money and manpower really. You also have state edicts which can be important to your strategy. Especially around institutions and reformation time.

Short answer is in the new world aim to get at least five colonies in the same colonial area for a colonial nation and only create states in your home country.

 

[FinnegansFather]

Thanks, this helps, and I have read through some wiki information I had overlooked previously.

Still a bit blurry:
1) As a European civ, is there any advantage to simply colonizing four and only four provinces in a region (and based upon the wiki, it appears to be within a region rather than an area, but please correct me if this has changed and I am wrong) and making this a permanent state rather than having it turn into a colonial nation? (Assuming that I have a high enough number of allowed states)
2) Also, why is my new colony already cored? I thought I had to spend admin power to do that.

 

[Restless Native]

1) No advantage really unless you are really short in manpower maybe. There's much more advantages imho. It gives other nations a penalty to colonise in the same region and gives you a CB if they do. You're right it's different than potential states.
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Colonial_nation

2) cores straight away now

 

[Piotrzeci]

-Finishing 5 colonies in a colonial region (Americas and Australia) creates a colonial nation so you should never state NW provinces.
-There are no penalties for controlling land in more states than you are allowed to have. You just can't "state" them. It means their autonomy will never drop below 75%.
-Areas mapmode is the mapmode of states
-Only cultures in full cores (so a stated province) are considered when checking it's percentage in your lands. It means you can't accept a culture that is only in non-state provinces.
-Estates (Cossacks DLC) demand land based on the amount of your stated development and can only take stated land.
-Edicts and Prosperity (Mandate of Heaven) also work only on states
-To state something you need it to be cored (every province in said area that is owned by you) and then you click the blue-ish flag. The game will tell you that there are states to be created. It costs ADMpoints to do and then a monthly upkeep of money, but is instant. It's not always the best choice to be on the state cap.

 

[IndraSunrise]

When colonizing, my goal is to make a CN as fast as possible.

 

[Yxklyx]

1) As a European civ, is there any advantage to simply colonizing four and only four provinces in a region (and based upon the wiki, it appears to be within a region rather than an area, but please correct me if this has changed and I am wrong) and making this a permanent state rather than having it turn into a colonial nation? (Assuming that I have a high enough number of allowed states).

There are only a few cases where you could do this. If you're playing a Merchant Republic, capturing a center of trade and making it a trade post could be useful.

 

[Piotrzeci]

Stating an area in NW is pretty much always a bad idea. The only situation where you would do that is if you had an estuary and no way of grabing more land there.

 

[rinehime]

A few more tips on states not mentioned above:

You're not required to full-core states. States w/o a full core have an autonomy floor of 50% and can be assigned edicts. Leaving states without a full core is useful when you want lower-autonomy provinces, but don't want to spend the mana or you want to assign an edict like the conversion one for more missionary strength. If you want to convert everything, it's useful to leave one free state slot open to state-convert-unstate as needed.

Also, it's a bit exploit-y, but, because of the way that the "hidden (i.e. real) autonomy" works, you can state an area, (dropping autonomy below 75%), increase autonomy in the provinces, then un-state it, bringing autonomy back up to 75% (or slightly higher, depending on what it was before. Thus you get the unreset reduction without increasing the effective autonomy.

The only downside to not-full coring is with Estates (Cossacks DLC). Estates demand development based on all states, not just full cores, but you can't give half-core states to estates. This can also be used, however. to affect Estate influence and try and eke out those last few points of influence for more mana or lower influence to prevent a disaster.

Diplo-annexing makes (potentially) cheaper (full core) states
When you diplo-annex, you get full cores for 8 bird mana vs 10 paper mana. Depending on your annexation and RCC modifiers it's probably cheaper to dip-annex high-dev areas and make states out of them. The only issue with this is that dip-annex provinces start with 60% (or greater) autonomy, whereas conquered provinces start at 40% (w/ claim) or 50%. Integrated PUs are the best - full core and 0% (or whatever the autonomy was when integrating).

Trade Companies are (almost) states with only half cores.
Don't make states where you can create TCs. Yeah, you don't get the base manpower/tax, but any building in a TC is more effective than in a regular territorial province due to the 0% autonomy. The production/manufactories are good first choices, but manpower buildings in the high-dev provinces in Borneo, for example, can net you 1.5 - 3k men easy.

Don't state (i.e. full-core) provinces in Colonial Regions
OK... this was mentioned above, but I'm just reiterating.... The only exception to this is if your capital is in a colonial region and it won't become a CN. Another exception is if you have extra state slots and can state, but not full core. You might as well then if it doesn't cause estate issues.

 

[rydhi]

Diplo-annexing makes (potentially) cheaper (full core) states
When you diplo-annex, you get full cores for 8 bird mana vs 10 paper mana. Depending on your annexation and RCC modifiers it's probably cheaper to dip-annex high-dev areas and make states out of them. The only issue with this is that dip-annex provinces start with 60% (or greater) autonomy, whereas conquered provinces start at 40% (w/ claim) or 50%. Integrated PUs are the best - full core and 0% (or whatever the autonomy was when integrating).

To add to this:
Dip-annexed provinces do start with higher autonomy but without separatism (even if it still had decades of separatism left when it was annexed) and without the associated unrest meaning you can immediately lower the autonomy or start a culture conversion without waiting 30 years for separatism to go away or start a religious conversion without shooting unrest through the roof.

 

[Amadeu of Savoy]

I have a question about Colonial Nations: once destroyed, they never come back, right?

 

[erneiz_hyde]

If you take provinces from an enemy CN and then core them and you don't have a CN in that area then they will automatically form a separate CN themselves under you.

 

[rinehime]

I have a question about Colonial Nations: once destroyed, they never come back, right?

What do you mean by "never come back"? For example, if you full-annex, say, Spain's CN in Mexico, they'll create another CN when they get 5 core provinces in Mexico again. Technically, I think this a new TAG - the original CN could've been C05 and the new one C07 or something.

If you have a capital in a colonial region, then these provinces will be integrated directly into your nation. If you have a capital outside a CN, then they'll go to your CN or create a new CN if you don't have one. An important "exception" is if, instead of taking the provinces in a peace deal directly, or by "concede colonial region", you full-annex their overlord. Then you get the CN (with the same TAG, I think) as a new vassal, in addition to any CN you already have in the region.

I've also seen eliminated CNs lose their cores after they've been completely eliminated. I don't know if this always happens or if some conditions need to be met. This led to some weird revolter tags like "C07 Separatists" being the likely rebels....

 

[Yxklyx]

...
I've also seen eliminated CNs lose their cores after they've been completely eliminated. I don't know if this always happens or if some conditions need to be met. This led to some weird revolter tags like "C07 Separatists" being the likely rebels....

This always happens. If you want to remove the reconquest CB from your enemy do a full annex of the CN.