The most useless and the best idea

[Anthropoid]

Already asked this question in the Trade Fanbois thread but I'd be curious to see what you Idea Group discussants think

Got a new game as France going, it is ~1465. I'm pushing my AE threshold a bit harder this time, almost constant war since start but have calmed for a couple years. Took Exploration as first idea. If my ultimate goal is to take everything Napoleon took (more-or-less) and hold it till 1821, how does building from a very solid colonial trade base sound as a way to leverage my money for large and potent armies? Since I've already taken exploration and intend to focus on the QftNW that is roughly what I intend to do.

I'd appreciate any suggestions on my plan (though no 'spoilers' per se):
1. Get ahead and stay ahead on exploration.
2. Colonize areas with gold (this will be my first time with exploring so I'll see how that works) and take advantage of my good native relations
3. Slowly eat up all the provinces in the Bordeaux node.
4. For second and third idea I'm undecided. Diplo is so useful for France, but kinda fits with exploration.
5. Push as much as I can on taking Antwerp
6. At some point maybe move my capital to Bordeaux for that bonus?

My observations in previous playthroughs as France:
A. Taking diplomatic first was (seemed to be) quite useful at helping me to gobble up the little kingdoms in my vicinity. Still, I focused a bit too much on diplo and not enough on war. That combined with the Austria (lucky nation on) meant that by 1565 I was facing this terrifying Austrian blob (75K army, several vassals, several allies, force limit in the 80s)
B. I disagree with the "look in the files" philosophy I prefer to learn by playing, then when I get a pretty good sense for how it actually works in game, go look at what the files say. Looking at the first first seems a bit like studying the making of Star Wars without ever having watched the fricking movies! That said, I took Naval as my 2nd idea group as France. Total waste at that point. Not sure it would ever really be useful to France.
C. Third idea group was Economic. Not sure that was optimal, but given I didn't have a real defined strategy / goal it didn't 'hurt' me per se. Still I was not able to leverage it as a strategic multiplier.
D. Even without any military idea groups, and with fairly pathetic Mil Trad, I was able to win every war, including one fairly scary one with Austria.

So, if I'm going to try to play an global colonizing France, with a goal to get ahead on the exploration game and stay ahead, what should my 2nd Idea group be?

Geeze, diplo is SO useful to France. But two ideas in the diplo group will but a constant hurt on my DP. What about Innovative as my 2nd idea?

 

[AdmRepublic]

I've played france with innovative as the second group. I think it's a good choice since I want to pick innovative as early as possible so it affects all the game. It has tons of benefits. (But this was land war focused for me!)

• Saving monarch points that you can use for buildings in a large nation
• Optimism reduces war exhaustion and is seriously OP in the late game
• Reduced Army tradition decay is great

 

[AKronblad]

I often find that Quality is a well-rounded idea group...maybe too well-rounded. If you are landlocked, 3 ideas out of 7 are useless. Maybe it should be split between Land and Naval quality.

Very good point.