Vassal feeding current guide?

[StefanFan]

Hey guys

Until recently I had no achievements for EU since I always played no Ironman and with mods. But now since my former favorite mod and my actual favorite mod are either totally messed up ( former ), or still needs some future features who will come in future patches ( my actual favorite ), I turned to doing achievements. Any vassal feeding guide so I can improve in this regard? I plan to do a WC with Castile, started good, very good, I am in 1562 and I am in a very strong position, but now I think it's time for me to vassal feed properly, and I lack the knowledge.

By the way, I want general vassal feeding tips, not Castile specific ones. Also, I'd rather have a written guide, videos waste too much time, you can read things that take hours in videos in minutes.

Thanks

 

[Vetgirig]

Take influence ideas. And preferable also diplomatic (for extra diplo reputation).

1. Find a nation who has many cores but who do not own them.
2. Force (or diplomatical) that nation to become your vassal.
3. Do a re-conquest war for your vassals cores.
4. Annex the vassal (when you have no more provinces you can give it).

If you can't find a nation that works. Just take any nation (or a client state) and feed it cores of the same culture (group).

A colonizer can be good to take since it will colonize on its own so you do not have to do anything for it to grow.

Make sure it creates claims by telling it you want the land you want to feed the vassal.

 

[StefanFan]

So vassals are not useful to keep after you don't have any more land to feed them? Doesn't that help with micromanagement, and also development? Since it creates more diplo/admin/mil points by itself?

EDIT: Since I broke Portugal into little pieces, I am going to attack them once more to make them a vasal as they are a colonizer nation as you said.
EDIT2: And where are my manners... Thank you for the tips. I especially lacked the colonizer one tip, I haven't even thought about it.
EDIT3: How can I make my colonial nations be more aggressive towards their neighbors? I can help them with converting if they have other religions, and I can send them cash, but I'd like to see them having their own wars, my AE doesn't always allow me to do it for them, somehow I managed to piss a lot of nations on 4 continents.
Answer: I had to scroll down in game, it's named Start War in Colony.

 

[Vetgirig]

Well you can only have a limited number of vassals. So when done with one - and it has converted all provinces to your religion - you create a new one.

To feed a vassal; a province has to be close to it. You can't vassalfeed on another continent. Also if they become to big - they can rebel.


You can force a colony to start a war. But you better be sure it can win the war.

 

[Piotrzeci]

It's probably a good idea to get as much absolutism as you can and always take provinces for yourself (and then give to vassals via interaction). Absolutism gives Admin Efficiency that reduces the cost of creating cores, diplo. annexation and warscore for taking provinces. You probably can take more land than your vassals could afford in warscore. Vassal Feeding tactic could also be interesting as Cradle of Civilization's Iqta. They get special taxing policies that can give you bonuses based on the amount of development in vassals' lands (First two give you instant Manpower or Ducats, while the third simply gives +1 Diplo. Rep. and -15% Liberty Desire in subjects).

 

[StefanFan]

Dully noted. I am still in the age of reformation, and at my current speed and micromanagement it will be a while until I get to that. I will remember that vassals will be less efficient at that point and plan accordingly.

One thing I just noticed. Spanish Argentina has been granted 2 cores by me for 2 small provinces from 2 separate natives, yet I can't send it to war because it says "They have no Casus Belli against a country without a truce with them." But they have no truce with either of those natives, and those natives are not even allied with natives that have truce with me or my CNs.

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[gia257]

So vassals are not useful to keep after you don't have any more land to feed them? Doesn't that help with micromanagement, and also development? Since it creates more diplo/admin/mil points by itself?

EDIT: Since I broke Portugal into little pieces, I am going to attack them once more to make them a vasal as they are a colonizer nation as you said.
EDIT2: And where are my manners... Thank you for the tips. I especially lacked the colonizer one tip, I haven't even thought about it.
EDIT3: How can I make my colonial nations be more aggressive towards their neighbors? I can help them with converting if they have other religions, and I can send them cash, but I'd like to see them having their own wars, my AE doesn't always allow me to do it for them, somehow I managed to piss a lot of nations on 4 continents.
Answer: I had to scroll down in game, it's named Start War in Colony.

theres three vassals, reconquest vassals, lifelong buddies, and get this OE off me

reconquest -> what he said, you get a single core to release (worst case scenario you use threaten war for this core), and reconquest everything else, good vassals: novgorod, byzantium, lithuania, aragon or catalonia if aragon is still around, timurids/persia/whoever, syria, gascony, kazahk, and anyone that got big but then died as theyll have many cores, you do this mostly early game while AE still scares you and dont have absolutism yet

lifelong -> when ae doesnt scare you, you go to war as often as you want and when you dont have points to core, you give it all to your buddy, good buddies have humanism or religious + religious tradtions (novgorod, nadj, byz, etc), you will annex them much much later, after you have 70% admin efficiency and influence+admin. They will have a lot of dev by then and you will have to pay a lot of debts, improve development or spend prestige to keep them happy, but, because you wait until annexing is at its cheapest, it costs you less diplo in the long run and the land probably comes converted for you. The buddy could be a march to get some extra liberty desire reduction. If you have a big buddy or more it sort of makes the reconquest vassals a bit more annoying because of combined power or reduced diplo rep from annexations (which gives LD).

oe dumps -> after you can get a lot of land in a single go (usually at least absolutism, if not client states), you finish a war and get all the land you can, regardless of future penalties. And then you figure out how to get out of that overextension hole. A good method, is to release the biggest vassal you can, and grant them all the uncored provinces you can. And if not enough, release another, and another. Bother about annexation later. With client states you are not limited to "feeding" only 100% OE to this vassal, although you may have other limits.

about colonial nations, not sure if doable now, but i recall giving them land outside their cn territory (eg. africa), they didnt do conversion work sadly

 

[Vulkandrache]

5 bucks that your main question isnt about the use of vassals but about the timing of when to grow them and when to annex vs getting a new one.

I am in 1562 and I am in a very strong position

If starting as Castille then, by 1562, i would most likely have annex several vassals already.
Granada with parts of the Berber lands.
Circassia, now Georgia, for because coring range into Asia.
Someone turkish to offload Ottoman land to get full cores there.

 

[StefanFan]

@gia257 Thanks mate, I guess reconquest is only possible if I can create vassals with claims from the lands I own or conquer. I think Portugal will be a lifelong one, although first I took some of its lands in wars. Waging multiple wars sometimes become a pain in the arse tho, with all the constant moving on the map.

@Vulkandrache I am as you said partially, the peninsula is all about me, got berber Moroccan lands, the Portuguese are my puppets, so they will colonize for me too, but I am not sure I can handle the Ottomans because I ignored them at game start as they were far from me, and now they are quite strong.

 

[gia257]

@gia257 Thanks mate, I guess reconquest is only possible if I can create vassals with claims from the lands I own or conquer. I think Portugal will be a lifelong one, although first I took some of its lands in wars. Waging multiple wars sometimes become a pain in the arse tho, with all the constant moving on the map.

@Vulkandrache I am as you said partially, the peninsula is all about me, got berber Moroccan lands, the Portuguese are my puppets, so they will colonize for me too, but I am not sure I can handle the Ottomans because I ignored them at game start as they were far from me, and now they are quite strong.

Reconquest needs cores, not claims, so permanent claims is not as useful (unless you dont have religious, then at least it will save you diplo)

Yes you have to make sure you get a province with a tag that has several cores, that the province is the same culture as the tag you want to release, and that you peace out the 1st of the month and release on the second, because cores can instantly expire on monthly tick.

as castille, portugal lifelong is good, and taking both their trade centers is good as well, feed them the berbers except the trade centers. Then you can feed them the rest of africa except the trade companies.

Grow into genoa trade node (stay in seville until you control the other one)

if you take exploration you dont need to mess with the ottomans, go colony hopping through africa your goal is the control of ivory coast -> cape -> zanzibar -> aden -> india -> rest of trade companies, then you mess with every blob

if you dont take exploration quickly mess with tunis to get los with mamluks, you want to beat the ottomans to most of that land, mess with them and take jerusalem and grow towards medina and mecca (if possible you could also reconquest syria from there), snake to persia and reconquest all of it (and you can keep that as a lifelong so that they eat the trade that would go to ottomans instead), then go trade company hunting, with that ottomans can only grow north.

 

[StefanFan]

For Santa's sake I think I released a trade center yesterday to my fellow Portuguese vassals. Idiota. And yes, I am evolving into the Genoa node, but for now I make the bling in Sevilla. I went exploration, glad to see Ottomans were not a must, in my current situation I definitely can't fight them easily, and I am not sure if wasting resources on them is a good idea now, when I can expand in other areas.

Thanks mate, golden tips.

 

[PhoenixG]

I still don't see any warnings about NOT take vassals with increase coring cost if you avoid it.

 

[StefanFan]

I still don't see any warnings about NOT take vassals with increase coring cost if you avoid it.

Hm, I am missing the point a bit. So you mean I should not take in vassals that have increase coring costs?

 

[StefanFan]

Question about annexing Portugal. As I said, sadly I gave them a trade company, the Ivory Coast one. If I annex them, can I then quickly release them again with The Azores for example? I want to regain the TC for myself in the best way.

 

[gia257]

Question about annexing Portugal. As I said, sadly I gave them a trade company, the Ivory Coast one. If I annex them, can I then quickly release them again with The Azores for example? I want to regain the TC for myself in the best way.

seize the ivory coast, or just let them have it, dont annex to release the same tag again

 

[StefanFan]

seize the ivory coast, or just let them have it, dont annex to release the same tag again

Thanks.

 

[Bouchart]

Hm, I am missing the point a bit. So you mean I should not take in vassals that have increase coring costs?

There's nothing wrong with a vassal that has increased coring costs if you only feed them land that already has increased coring costs. Like most of North Africa.

Some games when I play in Iberia or nearby I'll make something like Mzab a vassal, feed them some land, and let them sit around for a while until I have far more dip points than I need.

 

[Vulkandrache]

There's nothing wrong with a vassal that has increased coring costs if you only feed them land that already has increased coring costs. Like most of North Africa.

People need to start updating their knowledge after new patches come out.
The ICC modifier goes inactive if the nations granting it gets full annexed.

 

[StefanFan]

People need to start updating their knowledge after new patches come out.
The ICC modifier goes inactive if the nations granting it gets full annexed.

Well, then that's a good thing. Thanks again. I am a total noob, I lack so much info, my 4 figures hours of gameplay mean nothing since I mainly played or observed overhauled modded games.

 

[holyvigil]

Most important is multiple areas of expansion. Especially Africa. You can get bogged down with transporting units and losing ships so he careful with that. Having a vassal at each point really saves the admin.