Thought on Tech vs Ideas

[cerapa]

Thoughts on Tech vs Ideas

The general complaint seems to be that peaceful countries will have higher military tech than other countries. But this seems to be discounting the ideas system. Every 3 ideas give a national idea. In Portugals case for example, you can spend 1200 military points for a merchant, 25% cheaper buildings, etc... , or on an useless lead in military tech.

The defensive, plutocratic and aristocratic ideas in particular seem suited for this purpose. As they either discourage attacks, or give straight up bonuses to your economy.

Obviously we will have to wait till to tomorrow how it's gonna play out, but I would like to hear peoples opinion on this.

 

[Battlecry]

The general complaint seems to be that peaceful countries will have higher military tech than other countries. But this seems to be discounting the ideas system. Every 3 ideas give a national idea. In Portugals case for example, you can spend 1200 military points for a merchant, 25% cheaper buildings, etc... , or on an useless lead in military tech.

The defensive, plutocratic and aristocratic ideas in particular seem suited for this purpose. As they either discourage attacks, or give straight up bonuses to your economy.

Obviously we will have to wait till to tomorrow how it's gonna play out, but I would like to hear peoples opinion on this.

You don't gain less MIL points for being at war, so I don't really see the major difference between peaceful/belligerent countries in this regard. Yes there are more things to spend MIL on in war (assaults, forced marches) but these are cheap and totally optional. Ideas count for more than any given tech in military matters - for instance the +25% manpower idea goes way beyond techs, and the +1 leader shock will win more battles than tech-based unit improvements.

Edit: Yes, not buying any leaders will give you a tech or idea lead, but that will take a while to be significant, and really the game is not intended to remain balanced in any sort of long term. Countries that focus on their military will be ahead of others in this regard, and so forth with other foci. There will be winners and losers. My first game tomorrow will be as France. England and Castille will be losers...shattered forgotten losers.

That said, military development tends to be accelerated significantly by actual military action/experience (take Maurice of Orange vs. the Spanish Tercios, for instance), so battle should really give small military tech/idea cost reductions.