World Conquest tips for 1.30 patch?

[Sinuous]

I was wondering if anyone has completed a WC campaign with the new patch outside of using the OP HRE mechanics that might have some advice with handling some of the new patch mechanics particularly leading up to and during the Age of Absolutism.

Specifically, how do people deal with the governing capacity for WC as well as how to manage the estate privileges going into the age of Absolutism. The extra monarch points and governing capacity seem too good to give up, but it reduces the max absolutism. It's also nice to get the colonization privileges (I'm playing France in my current game and took exploration for the extra trade income). I can live without the others. Also, do people still go for the Court and Country disaster? As France, should I go revolutionary? I'd prefer not to, but I might make a save game to try it out and see what happens. Any other advice with the new patch?

I'm at 2300-2400 development in 1570 and should be able to take Castile in a PU pretty easily once I get to that point in the mission tree, so I'm in a strong position for WC. Figured I'd ask for some advice before I hit the Age of Absolutism especially since I'm having issues staying under the governing capacity cap. I am working my way through the admin idea group, so that should help a lot. I didn't take it first because I had so many vassal opportunities as France that I took influence first. And having vassals helps with staying under admin cap.

 

[Sfan]

I don't think anyone has finished a "serious" campaign yet, this just takes too much time.
The extra monarch points are nice, but less and less useful as the game goes on. Monarch points are not the limiting factor of a late game WC, simply create client states if you're short on admin. You can keep a few privileges anyway by having high crownland and proper government reforms, and still have 100 absolutism. The only things you lose is discipline, but Admin Efficiency is capped at 100 absolutism anyway. You don't need CaC anymore for 100 absolutism. You also imply you are France, so you need it even less.
Colonization privilege is irrelevant for a World Conquest. With a PU on Castile in your mission tree, you probably shouldn't have colonized at all and use their colony as a bridgehead lategame instead.
I don't know if Revolutionary mechanics have been polished, I've seen nothing in 1.30.2 patchnotes. Extensively test with console, some things seemed broken/weird/unbalanced and you don't want to lose your whole WC run for it. Once again, if you don't want to OneTag, you don't need Revolutionary if you have a decent pace.
Yes, subjects is the way to be under the cap I assume. Also keep territories, and don't TC everything anymore. From Dip 23 you can spam client states.
Other general rules still apply this patch, I don't think a standard 1800 WC without OneTag has been affected at all.

 

[Sinuous]

I don't think anyone has finished a "serious" campaign yet, this just takes too much time.
The extra monarch points are nice, but less and less useful as the game goes on. Monarch points are not the limiting factor of a late game WC, simply create client states if you're short on admin. You can keep a few privileges anyway by having high crownland and proper government reforms, and still have 100 absolutism. The only things you lose is discipline, but Admin Efficiency is capped at 100 absolutism anyway. You don't need CaC anymore for 100 absolutism. You also imply you are France, so you need it even less.
Colonization privilege is irrelevant for a World Conquest. With a PU on Castile in your mission tree, you probably shouldn't have colonized at all and use their colony as a bridgehead lategame instead.
I don't know if Revolutionary mechanics have been polished, I've seen nothing in 1.30.2 patchnotes. Extensively test with console, some things seemed broken/weird/unbalanced and you don't want to lose your whole WC run for it. Once again, if you don't want to OneTag, you don't need Revolutionary if you have a decent pace.
Yes, subjects is the way to be under the cap I assume. Also keep territories, and don't TC everything anymore. From Dip 23 you can spam client states.
Other general rules still apply this patch, I don't think a standard 1800 WC without OneTag has been affected at all.

Thanks, this is helpful. Don't have access to client states yet, but I'll utilize that if needed. I'm not that interested in One Tag. I saw Ivory Coast was uncolonized and I felt like I wanted to secure income to the English Channel and get more merchants, which is why I took exploration. And integrated Castile is probably 75-100 years away since I don't have PU yet. Perhaps colonizing NA is a waste of time, but I could get colonial nations in Lousiana, East coast, and Canada still. Maybe I'll try a game in the future without exploration and see if I like it better. I also like colonial games, which is why England/France/Castile are my favorite countries to play.

Do you think keeping strong duchies is worthwhile? It's particularly powerful for France. The extra three relationship slots has been the key to my campaign so far and I have so many diplovassalize opportunities, even on HRE members. I've diplovassalized utrecht and lorraine, which are in the HRE.

 

[Alblaka]

I don't think anyone has finished a "serious" campaign yet, this just takes too much time.

Speak for yourself, peasant. (Please do not take offense, the cursive is representative of the most self-ironic and amused tone possible.)

I've completed a Kingdom of God run, and an AEIOU one (which requires you, as Austria, to curbstomp Europe, seize control of India/Malaya and steal Ming's trade, followed by winning as or against the Revolution). The latter DEFINITELY qualifies as a serious campaign for me.
So, yes, 1 week after the patch, that's plenty of time to complete full campaign for nolifersdedicated players.


Could probably have turned it into a WC, too, because @OP

holy shit is Austria OP in 1.30.1 (slightly less in 1.30.2, but eh). You get free PUs, several times over (literally. I got 2 PU casus belli EACH on Brandenburg and Hungary in my game), more reforms to make your HRE stronger, far easier time acruing IA, and then there's the quasi-exploit of revoking Privilegia (aka win the game by default vassal swarm) by 1490.

The sole requirement for a WC is to have ~1-2k developement, a good trade node, and the ability to cap out Absolutism at 1610. Austria can check those boxes by 1500, then waste 100 years doing fun stuff, and still qualify for WC.

 

[Sfan]

It depends what you call a serious campaign. Casually playing to the 18th century in one week is perfectly doable. Doing a OneTag isn't unless you literally only did that. I think it's hard to do in less than 100 IRL hours. I'm far from the best player, but even when I had no life besides EU4, it took me 2-3 weeks whenever I wanted to WC. The cleaning up is half the IRL time, remember, you would basically triple the IRL time you spent in your Austrian run to WC it.

 

[gia257]

Thanks, this is helpful. Don't have access to client states yet, but I'll utilize that if needed. I'm not that interested in One Tag. I saw Ivory Coast was uncolonized and I felt like I wanted to secure income to the English Channel and get more merchants, which is why I took exploration. And integrated Castile is probably 75-100 years away since I don't have PU yet. Perhaps colonizing NA is a waste of time, but I could get colonial nations in Lousiana, East coast, and Canada still. Maybe I'll try a game in the future without exploration and see if I like it better. I also like colonial games, which is why England/France/Castile are my favorite countries to play.

Do you think keeping strong duchies is worthwhile? It's particularly powerful for France. The extra three relationship slots has been the key to my campaign so far and I have so many diplovassalize opportunities, even on HRE members. I've diplovassalized utrecht and lorraine, which are in the HRE.

using many vassal slots on tiny countries is not the best deal, although it is fine if you have no alternatives. Ideally you want PUs as those dont add up in liberty desire, and, if vassals you want lots and lots of reconquest vassals, admininfluence and many diplomats to mass annex (at the very least half of your relations, rounded up).

Im not sure if reconquest still adds opinion, because this game Ive been using cede rather than return (gives less AE and costs less apparently, but no opinion boost). You do need the opinion boost to counter the malus from annexed vassals without having to enforce religion and ruler

 

[Sinuous]

The sole requirement for a WC is to have ~1-2k developement, a good trade node, and the ability to cap out Absolutism at 1610. Austria can check those boxes by 1500, then waste 100 years doing fun stuff, and still qualify for WC.

What's the most effective way to cap Absolutism in 1610 with the new patch? I'm in 1570 now and if I need to make preparations to do this, I'd like to know how.

 

[Sfan]

100% Crownland is completely broken once absolutism hits. This hampers the early game as you don't get the benefit of selling land, and don't enjoy high loyalty as you constantly seize land, so that's balanced overall. But that massively sped absolutism stacking come 17th century.

 

[Sinuous]

using many vassal slots on tiny countries is not the best deal, although it is fine if you have no alternatives. Ideally you want PUs as those dont add up in liberty desire, and, if vassals you want lots and lots of reconquest vassals, admininfluence and many diplomats to mass annex (at the very least half of your relations, rounded up).

Im not sure if reconquest still adds opinion, because this game Ive been using cede rather than return (gives less AE and costs less apparently, but no opinion boost). You do need the opinion boost to counter the malus from annexed vassals without having to enforce religion and ruler

I diplo-vassalized tiny countries only in the HRE to reduce AE. I also diplovassalize medium sized countries if I have a slot to reduce AE. Utrecht and Lorraine also had cores I could take back. I do plan on integrating them soon to open up slots, but I have to be careful with negative opinion modifiers. My other vassals like Novgorod and Northumberland (now integrated so I have more trade power in English Channel) were used to take back cores and make large vassals. I also used transfer subject ability on Norway and Sweden. My short term plan is to consolidate my vassals and rely more on PUs. I have Naples in a PU now and will expand his land into the balkans. Already took the Greece area from Ottomans.

 

[Sfan]

Out of curiosity, how experienced are you with WC though? I think this is a bit harder now unless you play the HRE, and some of your decisions or your pace seem rather odd.

 

[Sinuous]

Out of curiosity, how experienced are you with WC though? I think this is a bit harder now unless you play the HRE, and some of your decisions or your pace seem rather odd.

Not very. I'm fine with trying and failing but figured I'd ask for some advice to make a good attempt. It seems like what happens before 1600 doesn't matter as much as long as you build a good base of development. I've looked at guides for previous patches, but it seems like the new patch threw enough wrenches that I wanted to see if anyone had revised their tactics.

What about the pace seems odd? Maybe some decisions are unoptimal, but I'm by far the largest country in the world. I have almost twice the development as Ming. The biggest European power is Commonweath at around 800 development and I can PU them using the mission tree. My biggest hurdle is the HRE because of the bug that allowed all of the Italian countries to rejoin so I'm constantly fighting AE issues to get to the Castile PU mission. And in the meantime, I try and take low AE options for expansion.

I should also mention that the Emperor is extremely weak in my game. Thuringia has been emperor since after Austria's king died, so it's been easy to make potshots at the empire here and there.

 

[Sfan]

That's definitely the general idea, and France already almost has the powerbase on gamestart.
For future runs, do not waste diplomatic slots on German minors you will easily eat lategame after you dismantled the HRE, and do not go colonial. This goes against the purpose of a powerbase, as this is an early-midgame massive investment for a lategame insane monetary reward, which is not needed at that point. The only use of colonies in a WC is to create bridgeheads, but you will have Castile for that, and you probably already destroyed most of the colonizers.

 

[Alblaka]

What's the most effective way to cap Absolutism in 1610 with the new patch? I'm in 1570 now and if I need to make preparations to do this, I'd like to know how.

The most gamey way is to have those 2k developement, and then increase autonomy... 30 years (aka, the cooldown for autonomy interaction) before 1610 = 1580. This way, you will have an entire empire full of provinces that you can farm absolutism from my reducing autonomy at exactly 1610.

Additionally, with 1.30.1, you want to have 80+% crown land at 1610, since this will give you +maximum absolutism and +1 yearly absolutism. Additionally Austria has some missions that give absolutism, and there's an Age Goal (which you can reach fast by already fullfilling the Age of Absolutism Goals at point 1610... i.e. being a big Empire, having 200k force limit, owning trade companies, the whole deal).

Alternatively, you can bank up on a ton of military points, since you can trade 100 swordmana for some points of absolutism (with the sideeffect of maxing your legitimacy, which again gives max absolutism).

 

[Sinuous]

That's definitely the general idea, and France already almost has the powerbase on gamestart.
For future runs, do not waste diplomatic slots on German minors you will easily eat lategame after you dismantled the HRE, and do not go colonial. This goes against the purpose of a powerbase, as this is an early-midgame massive investment for a lategame insane monetary reward, which is not needed at that point. The only use of colonies in a WC is to create bridgeheads, but you will have Castile for that, and you probably already destroyed most of the colonizers.

Fair enough. But with 10 relationship slots, adding german minors wasn't a big deal. However integrating them does cause malus with the HRE, making it harder to avoid coalitions. Looks like the rejoin HRE bug for Italian countries is fixed, so it should be easier for France to take the necessary provinces for the Castile PU mission. I definitely will avoid diplovassalizing HRE minors again. Lorraine was an okay option as it is needed to complete the mission, but Utrecht was probably a waste.

Last question. Given that Commonwealth is an will continue to be a huge threat in my game, do you think I should prioritize dismantling the empire to get the PU mission, or keep him as an ally to help me beat up countries later and then get the PU much later down the road. I don't think getting my dynasty on the throne will be an option so I have to rely on the mission. Right now I'm using him to help fight muscovy/ottomans so we have the same peace timer to limit his eastern expansion so the PU war isn't insanely difficult and/or time consuming later.

 

[Sfan]

Damn, I must have a look at the new French mission tree if you can PU the entire world

No point in breaking someone you can PU with a mission. A good ally is a liability in a WC, at least to prevent coalitions from forming. Even if you can't PU them, with max admin efficiency, Imperialism and Diplo, dismantling a nation is really quick anyway, especially if you break them in the first war by taking all the forts and cutting them in multiple parts.

 

[Sinuous]

Damn, I must have a look at the new French mission tree if you can PU the entire world

No point in breaking someone you can PU with a mission. A good ally is a liability in a WC, at least to prevent coalitions from forming. Even if you can't PU them, with max admin efficiency, Imperialism and Diplo, dismantling a nation is really quick anyway, especially if you break them in the first war by taking all the forts and cutting them in multiple parts.

Lol yeah, the new French mission tree is pretty strong though not as OP as Austria. You get missions to PU Castile and Commonwealth, but the latter is harder to get to as you have to become emperor or dismantle the empire. The most OP part of France is being able to inherit/integrate all of Burgundy and its vassals for 0 monarch points. Just restart the game until you can Ally/marry Burgundy. I drop the provence alliance day one to open a slot. Then just wait to get the Burdundian inheritance and refuse the emperor to release the lowlands to the HRE. Burgundy inherits its vassals when it decides to become a PU under France (almost certain to happen with alliance and royal marriage) and then when Marie dies, all the lands become part of France.

My whole WC strategy has been to utilize this and Castile/Commonwealth PU missions.

 

[AnssiA]

I quit my Provence-Jerusalem-France run around 1700 and had ~6k dev. In the end I had 50-60% of my gov capacity used. The "trick" is to build courthouses and the 'manufactory' that reduces gov cost in state, that let's you have 4x more stated dev.

For WC the strongest options are probably in this order:
Austria
All decent-sized hordes
Ottomans
Aragon -> France
Castille -> France
England -> France
France
Poland -> Russia

 

[Biopoulet]

Sad to break it to you but you don't get a PU casus belli against Commonwealth as France. Their mission gives you a vassalization cassus belli, which will serve to nothing against a big commonwealth because you will need 300% score to vassalize them. I just tried two days ago.

My new plan is to try is to get a "normal" PU on them by having a Valois on their throne around 1600, when it becomes hereditary instead of elective.

 

[Orkonkel]

Uh, you instantly get 100 absolutism at 1610 once more by accepting particularist demands and lowering autonomy in all provinces. Just have upset burgers (clerics and nobles at 50+ loyalty) and revoke land, rebels poof up, accept demands. Now you have tons of lands to decrease autonomy in.

 

[Sinuous]

Sad to break it to you but you don't get a PU casus belli against Commonwealth as France. Their mission gives you a vassalization cassus belli, which will serve to nothing against a big commonwealth because you will need 300% score to vassalize them. I just tried two days ago.

My new plan is to try is to get a "normal" PU on them by having a Valois on their throne around 1600, when it becomes hereditary instead of elective.

Damn, must have misread the tree. That sucks, though not sure I can get a Valois on the throne but at least now I know that I need to try. Reread the tree and seems like the intent is for a late game France to have a bunch of client states/subjects, particularly European subjects. Kind of a worthless mission then. Would have been nice if it were a PU mission since Austria and Castile has so many.