The MP Economic Domination Guide

The MP Economic Domination Guide Ryoken 69

Visscher, Nicolas (1618-1679). Novissima et accuratissima totius Americae descriptio per N. Visscher. (435 x 545 mm).

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The MP Economic Domination Guide Ryoken 69

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Table of contents Economic Philosophy Technology and MP

| 11 | 15

DP Slider Management DP Slider Settings

| 17

| 19

Merchants and Trade

| 23

Efficient Exploration

| 27

Colonial Economics Manufactories Legal Counsels

| 31

| 33 | 35

Military Maintenance

| 37

Inflationary Control and Manegement Economics and Warfare Diplomacy

| 39

| 43

| 45

Economic Grand Strategies Stability: Your Friend How-to Guide

| 51

| 57

| 65

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This document is the synthesis of my learning over the past several months and years. It is by no means perfect and everyone should feel free to criticize anything found herein.

This document was produced at the specific request of FAL and because of my realization of a general need for such information to be widely disseminated.

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Economic Philosophy Economics is the most important part of playing Europa Universalis. Economics is the driver of the game; it determines the winner and loser. Great economics allows one to excel despite weak generalship. A strong economy supports a larger more advanced army. A strong economy creates influence through bribery, coercion, and power.

Baron Von Clausvitz is famous for the saying «War is simply diplomacy by other means.» The same could be applied to economics. The real winner of a war is decided before the first soldier sets foot on the battlefield. The war was won in production, trade, taxation, technology, and supplies. Wars are won by peasants and laborers, not on the field of battle but in grain fields and iron smelters. In most cases, war is a foregone conclusion.

The very first thing that you must do in order to run a solid economy is think about the game in a different way.

Most people think about money in terms of «liabilities».

Money is something you save up to purchase things. In real life, you save up money to buy a car. In Europa, you save up money to buy an army. Thinking in terms of liabilities is a dead end road. In real life and Europa, if you only invest your money in items that cost you money and dont provide returns, you will become poor. You must change your approach to money and think of things in terms of «assets».

You need to have most of your income funneled into the purchase of assets, not liabilities. The second you purchase a car in real life, it begins to depreciate in value. Houses, land, and businesses on the other hand continually accrues 11

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profit (unless mismanaged, obviously). This is the basis of profit in the capitalist system.

The rich get richer because they invest their riches in assets and the poor waste their money on liabilities.

Whenever you spend money in Europa, you need to think in terms of assets; what return am I making on this investment? This guide is designed to help you make those decisions. The answer to that question changes over time and across circumstances. You must make the ultimate decision about investment, trade, and asset accumulation.

My job is to provide you with guidance towards that end.

Once you are thinking about assets, you must begin to make critical evaluations of the future. This is driven largely by experience, but I can offer some guidance here.

Each country has its own strengths and weaknesses. You must make decisions that augment your strength and cover your weaknesses. Often, people simply focus on the former and ignore the latter. In the long run, these people will be overrun by opponents that follow both doctrines.

For purposes of this essay, I will divide all investments into two sub-fields; asset and liability. Despite the caution of the above paragraphs, some liabilities are very important; such as an army. The key is a favorable balance. Look at the below list of assets and liabilities.

Assets: Stability Infrastructure Technology Trade Technology Manufactories Official Promotions Merchants Colonists Missionaries 12

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Liabilities: Land Military Technology Naval Military Technology Armies Navies Fortifications Assets create wealth over time. They are investments.

Stability and higher Infrastructure or Trade technology nets you larger returns but costs a lot to advance. Manufactories, Official Promotions, Merchants, Colonists, and Missionaries cost a lot up front but provide steady returns over time.

Liabilities create strength now at the cost of wealth in the future. Military technology allows you to fight better in the near future, but is difficult to maintain over time without asset cultivation. Armies and Navies provide an instantaneous military capacity, but return nothing.

Fortifications provide an abstract security boost that is difficult to measure, but they provide no monetary returns.

These things may protect your current assets, but they are not assets themselves.

The key to success is balancing these investments. You must assess how many liabilities you will need to protect yourself. This is a product of a host of variables; enemy aggressiveness and capacity, geographic considerations, geo-political considerations, etc. You must learn to assess this value. Then you must invest the minimal amount to maintain that level of readiness and put the rest of the money into assets. You must always keep one eye on defense and the other on growth. Failure to maintain adequate levels of both will lead to ruin.

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Technology and MP To many players new to MP, one of the most striking differences is the dramatic and rapid technological advancement of MP play. Because every major state is usually running a high-tech strategy, technology advances much faster than usual. There are several reasons why technology advances so fast in MP and if you do not manage your country properly you can fall behind VERY fast. The following are my most educated guess for why technology advances occur the way they do in MP. Since I dont have access to every player’s behavior, I cannot be certain of these hypotheses. But I am fairly confident they are the underlying causes for the Hyper-Tech state.

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DP Slider Management In MP, players always move their DP sliders when they can except in unique situations (long wars, during nasty event effects, forgetfulness, etc). Because there are certain states who have little need for missionaries, there is a strong tendency for players to lean ÂŤinnovativeÂť. This cuts tech costs dramatically. Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Brandenburg often have few religious problems. England, France, Austria, and Poland often go innovative after they convert the protestants/orthodox provinces in their territory.

The Ottomans, Russians, and Spanish are consistently narrow-minded for missionaries and colonists. There are hints that this strategy may be a poor one as Russia and the OE almost always decline in the later periods of the game.

Spain also tends to decline if she stumbles and stagnates in the face of colonial competition. I have yet to see anyone run a innovative Russia, OE, or Spain in MP, though I suspect it may be a good strategy. I am not willing to place weeks or months of my time at risk to try it just yet‌ Manufactories The hallmark of a very good player is a landscape of manufactories. An England, Spain, France, or Austria that glistens with factories in 1600-1650 is common.

Manufactories act as a kind of compound interest for technology. If you do not build manufactories, over time you will be totally crushed by the opposition. A country with 5+ manufactories of the same type will rapidly outpace you in that tech field; particularly military tech where there are 17

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lots of small increases. A small country with manufactories can be much stronger than a large one without it. This is typical in the Austria/Ottoman conflict. The Ottoman Empire is a country whose player typically fails to invest in manufactories, despite huge income and capabilities. In my opinion, this is typically the reason the OE often declines.

Economic Technology Most new players place the majority of the tech investment in military technology. This is a terrible mistake.

The best players are investing in economic technology (trade/infra) and over time they will have more money than you. This means they will advance faster later and overcome you, despite any meager advantage you gained. Then you will begin a period of rapid decline as their income balloons and yours stagnates.

Infrastructure technology is the most important for most nations. Higher infrastructure technology means more tax income. Infrastructure also opens the doors to new improvements to help you; chief judges, governors, and goods manufactories. Trade technology increases merchant success rates and trade income. This is vital for trading nations like Holland and England. The bottom line is simple; invest in economic technology! I have subbed too many nations with infrastructure that is several points behind the other players. That is not acceptable!

High Stability/Small Size Because of fewer war declarations and the need to keep up in technology, MP leads players to maintain high stability levels for most of the game. This leads to increased revenue relative to size. Most empires in MP are not gigantic; except Spain, Russia, and the Ottomans. Note that these are the countries most likely to fall behind in technology. I think people develop tech faster in MP because of these size-stability ratios.

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DP Slider Settings I am just going to go down the list and provide my thoughts on how to structure your DP settings one slider at a time. There is lots of discussion about these strategies on the boards, but many time prior analysis is rendered invalid by a Beta-Patch change. So I am going to be making the following recommendations assuming everyone is using the March 2nd Beta patch. Any changes after that point, I cannot be assumed to know, though I will try to update this thread as things change.

Plutocracy vs Aristocracy I am a plutocrat. The increased cost of cavalry and the decreased DIP value are not as valuable as increased trade and production efficiency. Warship cost decrease is nice, but not the real important thing on this slider. There may be a case for aristocratic being important for nations that do a LOT of diploannexing, but that is all, IMHO. Narrow-Minded vs Innovative I am innovative. There are some countries for whom innovative is worthless because of events (Spain, OE, Russia), but generally innovative is better. Tech cost reduction is vitally important in MP. Unless you are hurting for colonists because of other DP sliders, you should lean innovative.

Getting free manufactories by random event is keyed to this slider. Thus if you have a high innovative, you are more likely to get a free manufactory every once in a while. When manufactory costs are huge, this can by a BIG help.

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Free Trade vs Mercantilism I am a free trader. The bonuses in the beta patch that make your merchants more likely to out-compete other nations is great. Free trade gives you extra colonists; which is very important. The merchant cost increase is a pain and if you cant afford to send many merchants, then you may want to lean Mercantilism in that case Defensive vs Offensive I am a defender. Forts are vitally important in the late game. Lower costs for forts is important in keeping a highly fortified nation. Additionally, fortification effort random events are tied to this slider. Like free manufactories, free forts are GREAT. Especially when you get free medium+ forts. If you have poor morale because of other sliders, however, offensive may be for you.

Land vs Naval This slider affects so many things, especially in the beta patches. There seems to be a community consensus in favor of land, even for colonizers; but I am skeptical. I advocate naval for nations that aspire to colonial greatness.

The military consequences may be hard to swallow, but the economic boosts are vital to your success. In most cases, however, I advocate land too.

Quantity vs Quality Quality is the only sensible choice. Unit cost increases are miniscule. The morale and fire bonuses are strong. The manpower bonus from quantity is not worth having your hordes annihilated by a quality opponent. With the new beta patches, morale is a very important variable. I advocate quality in all circumstances; even Portugal

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Free Subjects vs Serfdom I am a free subject. The extra cost of infantry is miniscule. Morale bonus is strong. Production efficiency is very powerful. Increased stability costs are worth those gains. Unless you have ballooning stability costs, you should go free subjects in almost all cases.

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Merchants and Trade Merchants should be sent in clusters of three. This is because one will fail, the other will compete out someone, and the last will succeed. This occurs the vast majority of the time unless you have very low trade efficiency relative to others in the COT. Sending merchants in clusters of three may cause AI nations to embargo you reflexively. The proper response to this is to get a trade agreement with the AI nation in question. This may involve sending gifts, so make sure that you will be able to recover the cost of the gifts within a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, you can use the AI Embargo reflex as a justification for declaring war and taking their COT (especially useful vs.

Venice, Genoa, Gujarat, and Bengal).

They should be sent to the most profitable COT. This is not necessarily the largest.

Example 1: Ganges Value = 800 Cost to send Merchant = 30 Cost to send 3 merchants = 90 Yearly income from 1 merchant = 40 Conclusion: Sending 3 merchants will pay for themselves in just over 2 years.

Example 2: Venice Value = 250 Cost to send Merchant = 5 Cost to send 3 merchants = 15 Yearly income from 1 merchant = 12.5 23

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Conclusion: Sending 3 merchants will pay for themselves with a year.

Even if you lose a merchant in Venice 1.5 years, you will still make a profit. If you lose a merchant in Ganges every 2.5 years, you will make a profit. Of course, it is all about risk. You have a low level of risk in Venice, a high level in Ganges. If you succeed in keeping merchants in Ganges for more than 2.5 years, you can make more profit in a few months than a merchant that stays in Venice for a long time.

The value of Ganges is larger. But you need to be aware of the risk, so you can properly allocate your resources.

The odds of you staying in a COT are obviously a result of your trade level, religion, etc. You must balance these variables against the general level of competitiveness in a COT. Venice in 1492 is a lot more competitive than Venice in 1700. COTs like Tago, Andalusia, and Anglia have very low levels of competition relative to other powers. Colonial COTs have extremely low levels of competition because they are almost exclusively player-nation dominated (except the Indian COTs and Malacca), but are hard to discover (Zacatecas being a great example). Africa and Eastern European COTs are remarkably profitable due to low trade tech of AI nations in the region. Fledgling trade empires need to keep these ideas in mind at all times.

NOTE: The above example assumes 100% trade efficiency. Of course, you will probably never have that.

However, the relative differential is what is important and that is unaffected by this assumption.

I have found that the most profitable trading situation is to keep 5 merchants in every COT you can. Holding a monopoly is very difficult except in secluded COTs 24

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(Zacatecas, Siberia, etc). A monopoly gives you an extra merchant every year as a bonus, but if you are getting knocked out of your monopoly once a year or so, you are losing merchants to maintain it. Unless the profits are huge, dont keep a monopoly. Sending those merchants to establish a 5-merchant presence in another COT is probably going to be more profitable.

Alternative Strategy: Looking for Empty Slots in COTs I know several players out there, like Freiherr vStein, Barnius, and Daniel, use this strategy. I dont use it. In my opinion, this strategy is most effective against the AI and in European COTs, and therefore usually becomes less effective after 1550 in MP because the AI nations are greatly reduced and the competition in European COTs becomes dramatically lowered.

Another drawback to this is that it takes time. You may not have the time to check how many traders are in a COT. And you cant pause frequently in MP, so you may discover the empty slot and then it is filled before you can send your merchants. In order to pursue this strategy, you must be willing to devote lots of time to tracking merchant dynamics around the world constantly. I am just not willing to make that sacrifice.

However, there are a number of players out there who use this strategy and I suggest that you try out both strategies and choose the one you like the best.

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Efficient Exploration There are three basic tactics that will rapidly enhance your exploration skills. Exploring with a conquistador is simple and attrition is usually a non-issue. So this discussion is strictly about using Explorers. The function of both of these tactics is to maximize your time out of port and minimize your attrition.

Looping Send your explorer in a large arcing loop to explore.

England’s first exploration trip with Cabot, for example, should be from the Greenland Sea (KNOWN) to the Newfoundland Banks, then on to Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Sea of Labrador, and then back into the Greenland Sea before heading home. You make this loop so you dont have to backtrack on yourself. Dont make your loop too large or you will have excessive attrition. If you make your loop to small, you will waste time you could have been using to explore. The happy medium depends on the skill of your explorer and your good judgement.

Tunneling When speed is an issue, you should explore in a straight line to the target you wish to discover. For example, Christopher Columbus can travel from Andalusia to the Coast of Carolina and back in 1492. This is the shortest trip across the central Atlantic because the sea zones are larger than the ones near the Caribbean. If Columbus shoots across the Atlantic, you can send an army to conquer the 27

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Creek and get a port without having to wait for a colony to be built (and perhaps fail). Once again, how long you are out to sea is a product of your explorer’s skills and your judgement about speed and distance.

Bouncing Bouncing is a special tactic to reveal lots of provinces in a small region. The best places to bounce are Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Saint Lawrence (13 provinces) and Straits of Puerto Rico/Lesser Antillas. Other places will work, it just isnt as effective. Bouncing involves sending an explorer on a patrol route between just 2 sea zones. To do it for a long time, you need to own at least one province bordering each sea zone to establish national waters and eliminate attrition.

The explorer will travel back and forth between the two sea zones and every time he arrives in one of the zones he will check to spot land provinces that border that sea zone.

For example, England sents Cabot on that loop I described above. Lets assume Cabot spotted Isle Royale and Belle Isle and that you were able to establish trading posts in both provinces; establishing national waters. Now you send Cabot back out on his second trip to the Bay of Fundy. Then you select Cabot, send him to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and then check the «Patrol» button on the unit panel. Now Cabot bounces back and forth, each time checking to explore more provinces in the area. Soon, you will have spotted a lot of provinces and perhaps established a colony for Cabot to dock at to refresh his supplies before heading out to explore other areas.

Bouncing also works coming in and out of a port. A port in Stadacone can be used to patrol from Stadacone to Gulf of St. Lawrence and back very rapidly. This is perhaps the fastest way to explore in the entire game before you can automatically see coastal provinces. However, you need a port first. You will probably not have that very often.

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General Note In general, refrain from sending your explorers on Kamikaze missions. They are very valuable and unless you have conquered Mexico and want to discover the route around South America with an explorer that is crappy or going to die soon; dont do it. Of course, any explorer that you know will die within a year or two could be used in this fashion. Even then, it is usually better to have them do something else. Unless you are trying to tunnel into a new area (Around Africa, Around S.America, Into Indonesia, etc), dont use Kamikaze tactics. You will waste valuable exploration time.

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Colonial Economics Many people underestimate the power of trade. With the above merchant policies, you will be able to acquire substantial trade returns from your COTs. This income can be greatly enhanced through proper deployment of trading posts. England, Portugal, Spain, and Russia benefit the most from trading posts. Trading posts require minimal investment, but can generate substantial returns if they feed into COTs you have mercantile dominance in. Trading posts should be used in conjuction with colonies, both are valuable in their own way.

Lets say you have 100 cash per year to use on colonies.

If it costs you 55 ducats for a colony, you can only send one per year. However, you can send 1 colonist and 4 traders (assuming a cost of 10). Once you have a TP established, the cost drops to around 5. Thus making the return even larger.

It is imperative to promote TPs to size 6 quickly so that your success chance will not drop because you have too many low level TPs. Trading posts have an added security risk because they can be burned. However, in the early phases of colonization this is not a substantial problem since few can even see your colonies until around 1600.

Colonies should be viewed as long-term assets. They involve a large up-front cost and a long-term return. I will use Nova Scotia as a simple example. Nova Scotia costs approximately 55 ducats per colonist to develop (assuming 0 inflation). It gives a return of 20 ducats a year with a baliff.

Nova Scotia has a small docile native population.

Assuming no loss to native uprisings, but a single failed 31

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colonist (normally assume 2 failures, but Nova Scotia has very high percents); Nova Scotia costs 550 to develop to a level 9 colony (and thus a city because of natives). With the additional cost of 50 ducats for a baliff, the total investment is about 600 ducats.

If we assume 20 income per year from this colony, it will take 30 years to pay for itself. That is a very long time horizon. However, Nova Scotia is a very different colony from Chesapeake. Chesapeake has a large trade value that it sends to the local COT. Your percentage of that trade (usually very high, if you are England) should be added to your investment returns, then you are earning money a lot faster.

For these reasons, colonies with better trade goods should be colonized first. However, the Nova Scotia’s of the world are valuable in the long run because they give you consistent return. The point of all this is that colonies have long investment horizons. For these reasons, it may be more economical for you to invest your money in manufactories, especially if you are a non-colonial nation like Austria.

However, colonies will never generate return at level 1.

You must upgrade your colonies to cities as soon as possible.

5 lv 2 colonies are not as valuable as 1 level 10 colony (i.e. a city).

Keep in mind that there may be an unmeasurable strategic value to a particular province. It may be a useful naval base (St. Helena/Falklands) or it may be blocking access to colonial territory inland (Chimo/Siberia) or it may block movement up and down a coastline. While I normally advocate ÂŤcluster colonizationÂť to keep your empire consolidated and easier to defend, certain pieces of real estate are simply very valuable strategically. Keep this in mind.

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Manufactories Manufactories are probably the most profitable investments in the game. Unfortunately, many people do not invest heavily in them. This is a mistake. Manufactories are more profitable than colonies by far.

A refinery returns 12 ducats a year by adding revenue to the province it is built in (assuming it is wine or sugar). It also returns 60 ducats a year in free trade research. That is a grand total of 72 ducats a year (the equivalent of about 3 and a half Nova Scotia’s).

Assuming that it costs you 700 ducats to build, this refinery will pay for itself after just under 10 years. After that, every month you are making pure profit. Even if we assume that a refinery costs 2000 ducats it will pay for itself in about 30 years. Therefore, a 2000 ducat refinery is as profitable an investment as Nova Scotia.

Of course, the majority of the revenue doesnt touch your palm. You cannot pull it out with the treasury slider.

But you shouldnt be doing that anyway, as I have already discussed! The refinery income will accrue slowly, but will give you a definitive edge in the world of trading. The 1 percent increase in trade efficiency alone is a significant boost. Multiple refineries will keep your merchants in COTs longer and make them earn more each month; earning you huge profits.

Goods manufactories are the second most profitable investment. They return their cost just as fast as refineries, but they give you a one percent increase in production efficiency. This is huge for a large empire. Weapons and 33

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Naval Equipment manufactories are also profitable. Their increased support limit lowers your military support costs; generating large savings/revenue over time.

This balance can change later in the game. As military technology advances and armies grow very large, military manufactories can become essential in maintaining a military edge. The increased troop/navy support limits of these manufactories can be vital in keeping costs of large standing armies/navies to deal with the enemy.

Additionally, the late game makes warfare occur much faster and technology can swing victory to its possessor very easily. Keep this in mind when you are deciding which manufactory to invest in.

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Legal Counsels Legal counsels are not just good for RR reduction; they give 2 extra points of income. That may not sound like much, but it becomes substantial over time. It is deceptively easy to compare massive promotion of legal counsels to manufactories and conclude that they are less profitable.

Saving up for a manufactory takes a long time in the late game and that delays investment return. It is best to consider each Legal Counsel individually.

Legal counsels give 2 extra tax income per year. Lets also assume that the extra RR reduction produces a marginal return. Assuming no inflation, a 100 ducat legal counsel will take about 50 years to return on investment. That is neither good nor terrible.

However, these values are affected by the tax percentages of your provinces. If you are protestant, you will be getting back 2.6d per year and returning your investment in a little over 38 years. If you are at low or high stab, you will also get varying returns.

However, as colonial expansion dries up and manufactory costs climb, they can be very profitable. Remember, a manufactory built on an appropriate province returns 72 ducats a year compared to 66 for an inappropriate province.

Therefore, in 50 years, a manufactory will return 3600 or 3300 ducats respectively. Thus you can reach the following conclusions: 1. If you have appropriate provinces for a manufactory and manufactory costs are higher than 3600 ducats, invest in legal counsels.

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2. If you have no appropriate provinces for a manufactory and manufactory costs are higher than 3300 ducats, invest in legal counsels.

3. In virtually all other situations; invest in manufactories.

As PeterEbbesen notes, because legal counsels are affected by tax percentage values, you should promote them in descending order from your highest tax percentage provinces (homeland) to your lowest (colonies/conquests). * Manufactory costs for protestants would be 2736 and 2508; so protestants should almost always invest in legal counsels. * Very special thanks to Peter Ebbesen, Ironfounderson, and Tonioz for their correction of my own misinformation on legal counsels.

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Military Maintenance Unless you are having severe revolt problems (like Spain, Russia, and OE during certain periods) or about to enter a war or be attacked, you should run half-maintenance. Do not sit your army on a province likely to revolt, but keep it on a safe province nearby. When there is a revolt, up the maintenance slider, move to kill the rebels, then lower the slider again. The same applies to the naval slider and pirates. Die scum! The savings of running half-maintenance are huge. Just remember to push the slider back up during wartime!

Under the new beta patches, rebel morale is linked to your own. Therefore if the cost of province looting is high, you may want to station your army in the territory about to revolt so they can kill the rebel army before looting occurs. Looting in Zacatecas will cost you a lot of money, looting in Meath will not. Obviously, stationing your army in the territory does not give you the ability to choose not to engage the rebels immediately. If this is a trade-off you are willing to take, then take it.

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Inflationary Control Management

and

Budgetary

Inflation is a systematic drain on your economy. It should be prevented and reduced at all times. Inflation is carries a hidden cost that is hard to detect. You spend 100 ducats per year on purchases affected by inflation. Lets say you have 10 percent inflation. You just lost 10 ducats to the inflation devil. 10 ducats is not much, but spending 100 ducats a year on purchases affected by inflation is small too. As costs increase and budgets expand, the inflation devil takes away more and more income.

The majority of the time, your treasury slider should be kept at zero. Exceptions to this are minor powers who cannot afford to pay for their military maintenance out of their cash reserves. If you absolutely need cash, print money for a month or two, then go back to a zero setting.

Do not run a continual treasury withdrawl, no matter how small the withdrawl is. Over time this will generate large inflation and it is easy to let it sneak up on you. This will also deprive you of research, which is the true measure of power.

Imagine the following scenario: (comparable to France in AoE) Census Taxes: 250 Monthly Income: 50 Inflation: 0.0 Monthly Maintenance: 10 At a zero treasury slider setting, this nation invests 50 income in tech per month, but only has 130 cash to spend.

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At a 20% treasury slider setting, this nation invests 40 income in tech per month, but has the full 250 cash to spend.

In five years the 20% treasury setting will result in 1% inflation. This seems small. 1% of 250 is just 2.5 ducats.

In twenty-five years the 20% treasury setting will result in 5% inflation. This is no longer small. 5% of 250 is 12.5 ducats.

Assuming zero growth (unrealistic), the 20% setup has netted an extra 120 ducats a year for 25 years; or 3000 ducats.

However, inflation drag has begun. In the second 5year span, 12.5 ducats was lost. In the third 5-year span, 25 ducats was lost. In the fourth 5-year span, 37.5 ducats was lost. In the last 5-year span, 50 ducats was lost.

Lets assume that this practice is stopped and zero treasury is run until the player reaches Infra 5. Lets assume that takes 100 years; a fairly reasonable expectation for anyone not investing more than half their income in infrastructure. In fact, 100 is on the conservative side, it will probably take longer.

Under these conditions and assuming zero growth (unrealistic); the player will lose 12.5 ducats a year to inflation. That is only 1250 ducats! What a deal! You gained 3000 ducats but only lost 1250 right? Wrong.

Why? Because your economy is growing! Lets assume 20 percent growth per decade. This is a fairly conservative estimate at any one point in time, but should be fairly average in the long term. If this hypothetical country was growing at 20 percent a decade, then after 10 years they will have 300 monthly income. Over the next ten years, they will lose 150 ducats to inflation, not the previously assumed 125.

The next decade they will have 360 income, causing a loss of 180 ducats. And these numbers will continue to climb.

After 100 years, they will have lost well over 3000 ducats to the inflation demon.

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There is a counter argument that if you grow faster than inflation you will be okay. That sounds solid in theory.

However, as your inflation rate grows, your investments become more expensive (colonies, manufactories, merchants, etc) all cost more. You make less return from them over time because of that cost increase. It takes 40 years to recoup the investment in Nova Scotia, your manufactories take longer to return on their investment, you merchants need more staying power to be profitable, and your troops are more costly to replace. It may be easy to maintain a high growth rate in the beginning, but over time you will lose the battle to inflation.

This analysis has ignored the cost of inflation on your technological development. The cost of your technology will increase through inflation too, which has a very different and hard to measure consequence; backwardness.

The basic principle one needs to understand about inflation is that you are gaining money in the present at the cost of money in the future. The inflation drag discussed above was just 5 percent. Imagine what 20 percent will do to you? Inflation would only be acceptable if you were not growing. The cost of inflation is based on your income in the future, which will certainly be higher than your income today. You cannot beat the inflation demon in the long term unless you practice tight fiscal control.

Some players run with just over 5% inflation because they are betting on an «Exceptional Year» or «Deflation» event. This is a very risky gamble, in my opinion. Random events are just that; random. You may not get an exceptional year for a century or more. I know that I have gone decades without an event that was good in any sense, much less an exceptional year. Deflation events only occur after a certain year too. You may get an «exceptional year», you may not.

Would you charge up a huge bill on your credit cards because you thought you might win the lottery? I cannot 41

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advise anyone to take an economic strategy dependent upon luck.

Note: None of these numbers can be assumed to be exact because growth is a constant process and I am not going to calculate on a monthly basis. However, these values are conservative because I am assuming that you will have 10 years at income X, 10 years at income Y, when in reality your are growing over time and the cost of inflation rises every year, not every decade in a big jump.

Note: This analysis is fatally flawed if you have a major deflation event in your future. England has an event that gives you —10 to inflation in 1555. I recommend going full treasury from 1545 to 1555 to get as much money as you can before the event hits. The same applies to Spain before the Fuggers event.

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Economics and Warfare Warfare is an investment too. But it is much more risky.

The costs are not easy to measure. If the war turns badly, you may lose a huge amount of money. The easiest way to measure the risk is to start with what your goal is in the war.

Lets imagine you are France and contemplating a war with Austria in the middle 1500s. Your goal is the province of Baden. Baden generates 20 ducats a year in taxes for Austria plus a census tax 5 ducats; a total of 25 ducats. Since it is a non-culture province, France will only early 17.5 ducats a year from Baden. Assuming France is successful in the war, Baden will generate 175 ducats in revenue every 10 years.

Viewed as an investment, war for Baden is not very profitable. In order to turn a profit in 30 years, France would have to spend less than 525 ducats. This may very well be possible, but consider the following; you cannot know how much the war will cost beforehand. You may have a good estimate, but nothing is certain. What if Spain enters the war and attacks you in the south? What if Austrian AI allies send huge armies through Austria and you have to spend large sums on more troops to kill these armies? A variety of things could happen that you cannot really control.

Even after Baden turns a profit for you, which may be a very long time, you will still only be earning 15 ducats a year. In the middle 1500s, France is better off investing in manufactories or colonies. Most colonies cost around 600 ducats to develop and yield between 10 and 20 ducats a year. That is roughly equal to the cost/return of Baden, 43

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without the risk of open warfare. Most manufactories cost around 1000 ducats on average and return 72 ducats in the proper province (66 in an improper province). 1000 ducat manufactories pay for themselves in around 14 years; longer for those in an improper province. You will generate much higher returns for much less risk. You may get a fire, but as long as you don’t get a fire in the first 14 years, you will profit from that investment.

On defense, the goal should be to minimize loss. Lets say you are Austria in our above example. You first need to kill the attacking army. The greatest weakness of the attacker is that they are fighting on your soil and thus cannot keep large armies together for very long without suffering horrible attrition. The first step you need to take is to move your army into a defensive position. Place your army across a river from the enemy or in a mountain province (forest/swamp if you have no mountains). This makes it very difficult for them to move a large army onto yours to crush you. It forces the attacker to divide his forces across your terrain to avoid attrition. And in doing so, it opens him up to counter attack.

On defense, you must pick your battles. Losing control of a province temporarily is not a big deal. It forces the enemy to move further away from his own country and leaves him even more vulnerable to your counter attacks.

Defensive warfare should be conducted guerilla style.

Ambush their armies. Wait until their forces are spread out, out of supply, or on vulnerable provinces (plains/desert when you have cavalry advantage, for example). You have the advantage of vision. You can see their army, but you can hide yours behind the fog of war (assuming a 3rd party isnt feeding them information). Avoid their main army, let them take attrition marching around in low support provinces.

Attack their siege forces. Attack them when they have lost morale during an assault. The goal of defensive warfare is to minimize your loss of money and maximize their losses.

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Diplomacy The Art of International Trade The economic aspects of diplomacy for most players are almost exclusively linked to trade. International trade is a delicate balance. No one country can hold all the COTs in the world or even a majority. Therefore, if you want to conduct a large amount of trade you must do so in an international environment. As a doctorate student of International Political Economy (IPE), I am extensively educated in the real world dynamics of international economics. The theories of IPE are readily applicable to EU2.

In IPE there is a theoretical model known as «Complex Interdependence». Complex interdependence is simply an international situation in which complex economic linkages exist between all the states in the international system. This is commonly thought to act as a suppressant of international conflict, especially war. This theory is more commonly known as the «McDonald’s Theory» of international politics.

Basically, any country with a McDonald’s will not declare war on another country with a McDonald’s because both have a greater interest in maintaining peaceful economic relations than any possible gain of such warfare. Until the military strikes on Serbia in the Kosovar conflict of 1998, no country with a McDonald’s attacked another country with a McDonald’s. Since 1998, the theory has lost favor because of this. But the basic idea remains. Ironically, it is the same basic principle of «mutually assured destruction» used to maintain nuclear peace in the Cold War. 45

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As you develop trade linkages between nations, the likelihood of war decreases. If Holland trades heavily in English COTs and England trades heavily in Dutch COTs then both have an interest in not going to war. The potential loss of trade revenues is substantially higher than any potential gain in armed conflict. This can be viewed as being both good and bad. On one hand, complex linkages preventing war is good because you can predict the actions of a 3rd party. England can safely declare war on Denmark without worrying about Dutch involvement because the Dutch have too much to lose. On the other hand, complex linkages preventing war can be bad because they limit your potential options in the international arena.

There is no easy way around this problem. I wish it was a simple one to solve. It is not. However, you can hedge against potential problems. If you are trading heavily around the world, make sure you are stuffing the profits into returns that are not dependent on international trade (manufactories, colonies that feed into your COTs, baliffs, chief judges, mayors, etc). This will at least expand a stable domestic economy so that war will not result in catastrophic loss. Additionally, you need to carefully monitor the situation to make sure that economic interdependence does not turn into just dependence. If you are trading heavily in one nations COTs and they are not trading in yours, you are giving that country a great deal of leverage against you.

Conversely, you should try to set up potential enemies to be dependent on you.

For example, imagine you France and contemplating a war against Austria. If you get a trade agreement with England and Spain and allow them to bring in substantial revenues from your colonial COTs, then you have created strong incentives for them to maintain peaceful relations with you. Then you can declare war on Austria with less risk of a two-front war. Think of it as an ultra royal marriage, creating a hard penalty for a war declaration.

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The Art of Agreements A great deal of your economic success in dependent upon your agreements with other nations. Many new players fail to realize the potential gains of making substantial agreements with other nations. Agreements can be used in the same way trade can; as a weapon or as a shield.

You should make agreements will all nations, even your enemies. You should think of agreements as a barter system.

I will give you this if you give me that and those. The key to success is to be flexible. Mix and match different promises and demands to achieve a favorable balance. Following this paragraph is a list of agreements that can be made. You should choose one or more items that you are willing to give to an opponent in exchange for their compliance on another issue or issues of your choice from the list.

Potential concessions/demands: Provinces Cash International Loans Trade Agreements Military Access Royal Marriages Sharing Maps Right to trade in a particular COT Non-Aggression agreement for X years Not sharing maps with country X Not colonizing a specific area/province Not conquering a specific area/province Colonizing a specific area to block country X Releasing a certain vassal Releasing a historical claim on a specific area For example, England may agree to not trade maps with France or colonize in the Spanish ToT Zone except in Florida in exchange for a trade agreement and the right to 47

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colonize Florida. The trick is to agree to conceed things you were already going to do anyway in exchange for something you need the other nations assistance in. In our example, England traded two items it may not have planned on doing anyway. England has no great incentive to trade maps with France, but Spain has an interest in the French having limited access to knowledge. Therefore, England can present these terms to Spain with a probability of success because Spain wants France and England to not trade maps.

However, while England could have no intention of doing the map trade in the first place, it appears to be a potential outcome to Spain simply because England is proposing it. When England says, ÂŤIf you do this, I wont do thisÂť it is implying that unless their demands are met, they WILL do what they are offering to not do. That is not always the case.

The same applies to the pledge to not colonize outside of Florida in the ToT Zone. England may not even be planning on doing that anyway.

However, the flaw of this agreement lies in the demands.

The first demand is solid. Spain usually owns more COTs and more valuable COTs than England, therefore England having a trade agreement benefits England more. Therefore this is a good demand because Spain may not have an incentive to sign such an agreement by itself. However, the second demand is sketchy. What exactly is Florida?

Is it just Seminole and Everglades? Or is it also Savannah and Talahassee? How far east does Florida extend? Biloxi?

Rio Grande? Who knows? Always makes sure that you are extremely specific about your demands, but make your concessions as vague as possible.

Additionally, choose concessions that can be weaseled out out of. The concession to not trade maps with France can be easily circumvented. You could use a 3rd party with little colonial ability (Brandenburg, Russia, Poland, etc) to bounce maps off of. An extremely sneaky England 48

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could find a pagan nation that cant really colonize (Dakota, Shawnee, Zimbabwe, Kongo, etc) or that is about to be annexed anyway and get France to foot the bill for English gifts to this Pagan nation, who would then accept a trade maps offer, and then France could trade maps with them.

Thus the maps are bounced to France without a direct trade.

England is acting within the bounds of the agreement. You could argue they acted outside the ÂŤspiritÂť of the agreement, but you cannot really nail them for actually breaking it.

You can weave some interesting webs with international agreements. You can offer the same concessions to multiple nations, thus getting extra concessions for no additional cost. The key is to play countries off each other for your benefit. Welcome to the era of Machiavelli!

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Economic Grand Strategies A Grand Strategy is a coherent long-term economic plan you are trying to achieve. Grand Strategies have short-term goals that interlock together to form a string of actions to achieve a result in the future. Certain Grand Strategies are useful only for a certain country, religion, group of countries, or other variables. They may be unsuccessful or even disastrous if used incorrectly. Switching Grand Strategies mid-game is risky and may fail. Use your own judgment and run a few practice games in SP using one of these strategies before you try to implement it in multiplayer.

Each entry is split into 3 components; a introductory description, a DP slider list, and then an implementation section. Additional lists may be added as necessary. The DP slider list consists of three tiers; first tier, second tier, and third tier. The First Tier are the DP sliders you should move first. Once they are set properly, begin moving the Second Tier. Only after both First and Second Tier DP sliders are set, should you move the Third Tier sliders. Some DP settings give a range (such as 0-4). In that case, you should choose a value within that range that suits you best. Third Tier sliders are not given a recommended value; that is left up to you.

The Hyper-Tech State The Hyper-Tech State is a strategy designed to maximize technological advantage and surge ahead of your enemies. It is most suitable for non-colonial nations because of the high 51

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internal investment demands. France, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland benefit the most from this strategy.

The Hyper-Tech State uses manufactories and investment strategies to push forward technological progress. After the tech edge has been established, territory expansion begins.

DP Slider List First Tier: Innovative = 7-10 Free Subjects = 0 Plutocracy = 0 Second Tier: Free Trade = 0 Defensive = 0-2 Centralization = 7-10 Third Tier: Naval/Land Quantity/Quality Implementation The primary power of this strategy lies in manufactories.

Build them early, build them often. Your first set of manufactories should be 3 refineries. Build them all at once. You can build multiple refineries at once for a lower cost than you would pay if you built them one at a time. This may be hard for a country like Denmark/Sweden, so use your judgment. You can get 3 refineries for 2100 ducats if you build at once (650+700+750). Build refineries and only refineries until you can build goods manufactories. Once you run out of appropriate provinces, build the refineries in grain, furs, and other provinces that NO factory benefits from. Don’t build more than one Fine Arts Academy and ONLY build it in your capital. By building refineries, you don’t have to invest in trade until later in the game. This 52

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lets you keep a solid edge in Infrastructure and Land technology.

Set your technology sliders to 50% land military tech and 50% infrastructure until you reach Infrastructure Technology 6. Build mayors everywhere as soon as you can.

If you have kept your inflation low, you can print money to build more manufactories. Dont waste your money fighting wars over small spoils. Pick on the AI if you can and try to get your core provinces if you dont have them. But dont expand rapidly or draw attention to yourself. Your strength is in passivity. By the time your enemies realize you are strong, it will be too late.

After you can build goods manufactories, switch to 75% land, 25% Trade. Your trade tech will start to leap ahead of other nations and your trade income should grow across the board. Your goal is now to get to Land Tech 18 so you can build weapons manufactories. As you get close, begin saving lots of cash to build them all at once and save money.

After you reach Land Tech 18, you can change your sliders to whatever you need to maintain your tech lead. Keep an eye on your opponent’s tech levels and advancement rates.

Dont let them catch up. Your military will be the strongest in Europe once you get a good CRT lead on your opponents.

Combined with your booming economy, you can get whatever you want in the diplomatic field.

Dont waste your money on colonies. Build a few strategic ones for ports if you want. Dont build a large empire. Your tightly packed empire will be easier to defend with your elite troops. Build a lot of forts. After all, you have the money. After Land Tech 18, you are on your own. Use your judgement and be ready to adapt as the situation changes. * If you are Denmark/Sweden/England, split the military research among both fields equally and build more naval manufactories.

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The Colonizer The Colonizer is a strategy designed to create a large colonial empire to draw wealth from. It is obviously most suitable for heavily colonial nations like England, Holland, Portugal, Spain, and sometimes Denmark, Sweden, France, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. Adapting this strategy to Russia or the Ottomans is very hard; use your own judgement. The Colonizer maximizes colonial revenues through trade and refineries. Expansion is the name of the game.

DP Slider List First Tier: Free Trade = 0 Naval = 0-5 Plutocracy = 0 Second Tier: Innovative = 0-5 Free Subjects = 0 Third Tier: Centralization Quantity/Quality Defensive/Offensive Implementation The primary power of the strategy lies in colonists.

Use every one you can. Dont let them go to waste because you didnt have the revenue. Find the revenue. Set your DP sliders to get the most colonists possible. Your choice of religion will affect this too. Trade technology and naval power is important. Keep a large fleet to protect your colonies from attack. At the beginning, set your technology research to 40% infrastructure, 20% land, 20% naval, and 20% trade. Use excess revenue to build refineries, but dont let that interfere with building colonies. Once you get to 54

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infrastructure 5, equalize research across all four fields.

Cluster your colonies around one geographic region if possible. For England and France, this is usually North America. Spain and Portugal will be more spread out; but dont be tempted to colonize Asia and the Americas simultaneously. Unless the colonist percentages are very high (Table for example), set up a trading post first. You should have the colonists and you want to minimize losses from failure. A failed TP is cheap. A failed colony is expensive. Use your money wisely.

Focus on developing provinces in groups of three or less. More than that and your percentages will drop. Take strategic provinces first (Isle Royale, Mahe, Sunda), then colonize provinces from highest base tax value to lowest.

Dont worry as much about getting the high-trade value provinces because they will probably feed into your COT; but dont ignore them either.

Fight wars to remove foriegn colonies from your zone before they spawn COTs. Otherwise, peace is your friend.

Print money to avoid wasting colonists but dont make a habit of it. If you cannot afford to send all the colonists you are getting, use your DP slider click on other sliders until you can. Dont waste a click you cant use. Use embargoes to block access to your colonial COTs. Dont take non-religion non-culture provinces unless they are VERY wealthy or strategically important. Your empire will be large and so stability may become a problem. If it does, build a few Fine Arts Academies.

Otherwise, it should be smooth sailing.

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Stability: Your Friend A lot of player mismanage their stability score in MP. There are essentially three basic rules of thumb about stability. First, keep a stability of +1 or higher as much as you can. Second, be careful about what provinces you add to your empire to keep stability costs low. Thirdly, do not take stability hits from random events if you can avoid it.

Maintaining Stability Civil Wars are the nastiest thing in EU2. You cannot get a Civil War if you have a stability of +1 or higher. On the other hand, you dont want to get a stability boosting event (random or historical) while you are at +3! So as a general rule, do not invest in stability if it is +1 or higher. Unless you know you have a stability boosting event in your future, do not allow your stability to sit at -3 or -2. The additional revolt risk caused by having very low stability cuts into your income severely. If you keep a very high stability, you will get a bonus to your province income (not trade) of 20% for +3 and 10% for +2. It is unlikely you will be able to keep the same stability score for very long. Therefore, you should try instead to keep your hovering around +1. If you drop too far away, invest some of your monthly budget into stability. If you go up, enjoy the benefits.

Keeping Stability Costs Down The first and easiest way to control your stability is to keep your Badboy score as low as possible. Every point of badboy (even decimal points) will raise your stability costs.

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Dont get a ton of badboy or you will have serious trouble regaining stability costs. Common Victims include Spain, Austria, Ottomans, and Russia. Though Poland can get into trouble in Northern Germany; as would any Brandenburg player.

Another important thing to watch is your empire’s religion coordination. Not only does having non-culture provinces give you a 30% tax penalty but non-religion provinces give you another 30% penalty. Additionally, that province will cause your stability cost (the amount you need to invest to gain one level of stability) to go up. The more non-religion provinces that you possess, the higher the stability cost. When you acquire new territories, you need to think of the long-term damage of those provinces. There are three areas I see frequently conquered that greatly undermine the stability of scores of nations; Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. These areas are very profitable for trade and the acquisition of COT provinces (Malacca, Ganges, Kutch, Timbuktu/Ivoria, or any colonial spawned COTs) can be very useful acquisitions. However, the conquest of large swaths of non-religion provinces destroys your stability costs.

Spanish or Portuguese ventures into North and West Africa usually cause more pain than profit. The same can be said about late colonizers (such as Denmark or Sweden) who expand into Southeast Asia or Africa. Any large territory acquisitions in India are certainly going to ruin your stability costs. High stability costs act as dead weight and prevent you from spending your money on other more useful investments. Converting Buddhists in Vietnam to Protestantism is tough work and is probably going to cost you more in the short run than you are ever going to make in the long run. That does not mean that pagan conquests are without their own burdens. Convert pagans as soon as possible. They act as a huge drag on your stability costs.

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I have seen many pagan conquests in North America go unconverted. If you are too innovative to convert pagans, do not conquer them!

Release Vassals to lower stability costs and raise revenues if you find yourself in one of these situations. A non-religion non-culture province will only give you 40% of their taxes. If that province is overseas and you are not fully naval, it will give you even less. It is actually more profitable to release that province as a vassal if you can. Dont do this for a COT, obviously. Certain places in the Ottoman CB shield zone, for example, are non-culture non-religion provinces; like Wallachia, Albania, etc. Releasing these provinces as vassals is sometimes advantageous. I would not invite these vassals to your wars though. Any vassal that is totally within your territory is safe from intruders unless they declare war on you both and can defeat the large AI army combined with your own. The AI also provides you with mindless troops if you do invite them to do battle.

Stability Loss from Events Finally, regarding random events, many players foolishly take a stability hit from many random events rather than pay a small sum of cash they do not have. For this essay, I will use the example of a ÂŤGrant Export LicensesÂť random event. Option A involves the payment of a small sum of cash; lets assume 100 ducats for simplicity. Option B involves taking a -1 stability hit. For this example we will assume the following attributes; Example 1: Year: 1520 Monthly Income: 50 Stability Cost: 1000 Interest Rate: 20% Loan Size: 200 59

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Monarch Skill Bonus: +10 Religion: Catholic Option A: Loan Cost: 200 (principle) + 200 (Interest: 40x5) = 400 Total Ducat Cost: 400 Option B: Time to raise stability 1 point with no investment: 100 months (approx 8 years) Income: +3 stability in 1520 = 60 +2 stability in 1520 = 55 +1 stability in 1520 = 50 Starting with +3 Stability: 5 income loss over 100 months = 500 Starting with +2 Stability: 5 income loss over 100 months = 500 Total Ducat Cost: Dependent upon starting stability, revolt risk, and other factors.

The cost of Option B is variable. Unless you are Portugal, England w/o Ireland or Scotland, Sweden, or Denmark; your stability cost is probably going to be a lot more than the price of taking out a loan. Especially since you are not spending the entire loan on the event. If you have a poor monarch, high stability cost, or +3 or +2 stability already, choosing to take a stability hit is going to be a major pain for you. Option B is really only viable in the early years of the game when stability costs are low. This example even assumes a relatively high interest rate. To illustrate the dramatic shift over time, lets look at a late year example.

I will hold the interest rate, loan size, monarch bonus, and religion constant for a fair comparison.

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Example 2: Year: 1650 Monthly Income: 200 Stability Cost: 5000 Interest Rate: 20% Loan Size: 200 Monarch Skill Bonus: +10 Religion: Catholic Option A: Loan Cost: 200 (principle) + 200 (Interest: 40x5) = 400 Total Ducat Cost: 400 Option B: Time to raise stability 1 point with no investment: 500 months (approx 42 years) Time to raise stability 1 point with full investment: 24 months (2 years) @200 income Time to raise stability 1 point with full investment: 23 months (2 years) @220 income Total Cost of Full Investment = 4800 @200 income Total Cost of Full Investment = 5060 @220 income Income: +3 stability in 1520 = 240 +2 stability in 1520 = 220 +1 stability in 1520 = 200 Starting with +3 Stability: 20 income loss over 500 months = 10000 Starting with +3 Stability: 20 income loss over 24 months = 480 Starting with +2 Stability: 20 income loss over 500 months = 10000 Starting with +2 Stability: 20 income loss over 24 months = 480 61

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Total Ducat Cost: Dependent upon starting stability, revolt risk, and other factors.

The cost of Option B is once again variable, but is now very costly. Most nations have at least 1000 stability cost at this point in the game. The cost of stability loss at this stage of the game is immense. The cost of a single loan at this stage of the game is miniscule. The choice is obvious.

Unfortunately, lots of people still choose option B. It is very disheartening to see people do this. Unless you are on the verge of bankruptcy, it is more profitable to simply take the loan. Only take the stability loss if you are an average or small country with a low stability cost and low income.

This analysis should be used to evaluate any potentially avoidable stability loss from an event. Unless you have 5 or fewer provinces, do not ever take the second option in the Petition of Redress Event. The monetary cost of that decision FAR outweighs the benefits. Of course, all of this is meaningless if you are already at -2 or -3 stability anyway.

Choosing to lose a stability point when you are already at -3 stability is a no-brainer. Choosing to lose more than one stability point instead of just one while you are at -2 stability (like in Petition of Redress), is equally a no-brainer.

-3 stability is also the best time to cancel military access, break royal marriages, putting up embargos and other -1 stability actions that you would normally be averse to doing.

You should make sure to cluster these actions rather than take them individually when you have a higher stability score.

NOTE: Building a Fine Arts Academy gives you +5 free stability investment per month. It also gives you a 1 percent reduction in stability cost. For a nation with 3000 stability cost, that is 30 ducats. That might not sound like much, but multiple FAAs will dramatically lower stability costs. If you 62

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are the Ottomans, Russians, or another nation with chronic stability problems, invest in FAAs. Example: 3000 stability cost/+10 monarch skill Time to recover 1 stab with no investment: 300 months Time to recover 1 stab with no investment but 1 FAA: 198 months Time to recover 1 stab with no investment but 2 FAAs: 147 months Time to recover 1 stab with no investment but 3 FAAs: 116 months Time to recover 1 stab with no investment but 4 FAAs: 96 months Time to recover 1 stab with no investment but 5 FAAs: 81 months Thus, a country with 5 FAAs and a 3000 stability cost will recover a stab point without investment every 7 years. That is truly a great achievement. FAAs are perhaps the most underused manufactory. For some countries, they can be very good investments. Especially after you have built a few of each kind of manufactory.

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How-to Guide Chapter 1. Running a Hyper-Tech France This piece is designed to establish a baseline example of a hyper-tech country. I chose France because I often see it played poorly. This is an applied piece; using a specific example (France) to illustrate a grand strategy (Hyper-Tech).

Because this is a generic example; I will try to assume as few things as possible. At the end, I will present a list of «Targets of Opportunity». These are small goals that may or may not be possible depending on the situation (diplo-annexation of Genoa, for example). I also will be assuming NO colonial conquests or growth. Thus any colonies you build or colonial territory you acquire is a boon. This is a baseline and I must assume minimal parameters. These guidelines are designed to get you to 1542. This will establish the basic concepts of the strategy and how it works. You should have a strong foundation on which to build the country you really want France to be by that time. Also, I cannot possibly anticipate the reality of your country beyond that point.

This is not intended to be an iron-clad strategy; but a flexible guide for you to follow. If you have to make changes because of your situation, skills, or desires; feel free to do so.

NOTE: I am assuming a 1492 campaign using Peter Ebbesen’s Scenario.

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EVENT CHOICES: 1492-1542 1494: Inheritance of Anjou: A CB on Naples for 60 Months -100 Relations with Spain, Naples, and Aragon +150 Relations with Papal States Add Core: Napoli Add Core: Apulia Stability +1 1496: State Control of Guilds: A CENTRALIZATION +1 +100 Ducats Stability –1 1529: Claims in Italy Weakened: A Revolt Risk in Lombardia –6 Remove Core: Lombardia Remove Core: Napoli Remove Core: Apulia Relations with Spain, Austria, Aragon, and Naples + 100 Stability +1 Non-Critical Events The League of Cambrai Random Event Choices Unhappiness with the Clergy: -1 Stability Unhappiness among Artisans: -1 Serfdom Corruption: +1 Inflation Nobles Demands Rights: +2 RR for 24 Months Sale of Offices: -5 VP Cessation of Church Functions to Nobility: -5 VP Nobles Demand Increased Pensions: Ducat Loss Grant Export Licences: Ducat Loss Nobles Demand Old Rights: -1 Centralization 66

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Cities Demand Old Rights: -1 Centralization Bourgeoisie Request Privileges: -1 Aristocracy Italian Engineer Available: -5 VP Foreign Drill Instructor Available: -1 VP Build a Great Palace: VP –50 Regional Heresy: Ducat Loss Boundary Dispute: Stability +1 Petition for Redress: -1 Stability Grant Nobles Aid: Ducat Loss Support for Dissidents Abroad: Ducat Loss Foreign Trade Competition Rises: -1 Mercantilism Exceptional Court Painter Available: +1 Innovative DP SLIDERS The first list of settings in this section is the IDEAL French DP Setting. Of course, you will have random events that you cannot control. However, the basic decision on the random events are driven by the need to maintain high stability and keep important DP sliders in place.

These are followed by a guide for the first century of DP movements. After 1542; you should move DPs towards their optimal settings at your own discretion. 50 years into the game, I dont know what problems you are having with your DP sliders. The only really specific DP setting is your innovative. You need to keep a setting of 7 (so that you still get a missionary every 5 years) until you convert your core provinces that are reformed. You should be able to convert all of them before the Walls of Paris event; which will knock your Innovative up to 8. So after they are converted; go full innovative. Of course, none of these decisions are fixed.

You have to use your good sense to make the right decision based on your situation.

DP Targets Aristocracy = 0 67

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Centralization = 10 Innovative = 10 Mercantilism = 0 Offensive = 2 Land = 10 Quality = 10 Serfdom = 0 SUGGESTED DP MOVEMENTS: 1492-1542 1492: +1 Innovative 1502: +1 Innovative 1512: +1 Innovative 1522: +1 Land 1532: -1 Serfdom 1542: -1 Aristocracy Starting DP Sliders Aristocracy = 8 Centralization = 6 Innovative = 4 Mercantilism = 6 Offensive = 6 Land = 7 Quality = 6 Serfdom = 7 Foriegn Policy Your first territorial goals should be the acquisition of Calais, Artois, Rousillon, Bearn, and Franche-Comte. The first two are relatively easy to get. England will usually sell you Calais for a couple hundred ducats. Austria has a hard time defending the Netherlands and thus if you attack them in a blitz, you can stab-hit them for Artois relatively quickly. They will usually give it up after that. Rousillon and Bearn are harder to get. You may be able to get Spain 68

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to agree to split Navarra with you. They can attack first and take Navarra and then you can attack and annex them to get Bearn. Rousillon is Iberian culture, but if you attack Spain while they are distracted (fighting Incas is a good time) then you may be able to get it through a short war. Lorraine and Franche-Comte are hard to get because they are not cores and well defended. However, you should aim to get it because they are good Catholic provinces with French culture.

In general, your diplomacy should be peaceful. If Spain gets too powerful, you may want to attack them to weaken them a little. Other than that, you should play a passive game. It fosters trust and friendship; particularly with England, the Dutch, and the Ottomans. Austria and Spain may be kinder to you as well if you play nice. The French player usually gets a reputation as a badboy. You should avoid this. Once you promote all of your baliffs to tax collectors; you should send gifts to Savoy and offer them vassalage. Keep trying until you succeed. After 10 years of vassalage; annex them. You can diplo-annex Brittany in 1502. You can diplo-annex Bourbounais in 1527. If any of your vassals break their vassalage; kick them from your alliance and DOW them to strip them of provinces and revassalize. If they are one province when they break; annex them militarily. Your badboy points should be low enough that this is not a problem. A more aggressive alternative is to kick Bourbounais immediately and DOW them when/ if you have low stab at game-start. This will allow you to eliminate your vassals faster and possibly sneak into an alliance to diplo-vassalize some more countries (like Genoa or some German minors) Research You should research towards specific goals. The following list contains technologies ranked in order of importance.

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You should put all your research in the specified field until you reach your target. Then switch to the next target.

Estimations of time are in parentheses.

Research Targets Infrastructure 3 (1504-1507) Land Tech 9 (1506-1508) Infrastructure 4 (1528-1532) Land Tech 14 (1541-1543) Infrastructure 5 The Economy Early Expenses: Ranked By Order of Execution 1. Promote All Baliffs (1492-1495) 2. Gifts to Vassalize Savoy (1495-1496) 3. Gifts to Annex Brittany (1497-1502) 4. Gifts to Annex Savoy (1502-1507) 5. Gifts to Annex Bourbounais (1507-1527) Saving for Manufactories During the first two decades; you should save money.

Use it for the above expenses and for random events; but try to keep expenses to a minimum. Dont fight in unneccessary wars. When you reach 1600 ducats in the treasury (estimate 1508); print money until you get around 2100 (estimate 1509). Then build three refineries; in Gascogne, Bourgogne, and Provence. Because you build them all at once, the cost only increases a small bit for each refinery. After you do this, stop printing money and just save your census taxes for a few years. Then you should build a Fine Arts Academy in Paris after you save up enough money. After that, save your money and build another refinery in Champagne. Now save your money because you should be nearing infrastructure tech 4 and legal counsel promotions.

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Merchants First, use my merchant strategies. Try to maintain a Five Merchant presence in every COT you send merchants to.

Until you build the three refineries; only send merchants to Ile De France. After that, send merchants to COTs worth the most trade value. If you meet stiff resistance, try another COT. Sometimes it is not profitable to send merchants to Venice, Liguria, and Danzig. Just use your common sense here. If you lose your 5 merchant dominance in a COT, reestablish dominance. Once you have trade tech 4, try to keep a monopoly in any COT you own to get an extra merchant per year.

Civilian Upgrades When you get Infrastructure Technology 4; upgrade legal counsels to chief judges in all your provinces. When you get Infrastructure Technology 5; upgrade all mayors to governors. Once you have all your mayors promoted and inflation drops to zero; you can extract a portion of your monthly income as cash by setting the budget sliders properly. You set the treasury slider so that you have a net deflation of 0.0 despite full mayors; this will result in a lot of extra money to build manufactories. Civilian Upgrades take precedence over manufactories in terms of budgeting your cash. Always promote civilians as soon as possible.

Religion Once you upgrade all your legal counsels (around 15331535), you should begin saving money. The Jean Calvin Event is coming soon. You should have a nice treasury on hand to begin conversions once the reformed religion appears in your provinces. Because you kept 7 innovative for so long, you should have 6 missionaries on hand. It will cost you between 1300-1500 to use all of them. So make sure you have a nice treasury saved up to pay for it.

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I recommend staying Catholic. However, if you want to go reformed, it is possible with this strategy. Some may even prefer it. If you are going to do this, you should convert to Reformed during the Wars of Religion event. This will ease the transition a LOT. If you do this, you get 4 free conversions (one of which is Paris) at the end of the Wars of Religion when the Walls of Paris event fires. Going reformed is risky, but you can make a lot more trade income later in the game.

You also have a lot of trouble converting your provinces under a reformed religion because of your innovativeness.

Also, further conquests will probably create religious problems for you. However, if you want to go reformed, I am not wholly against it.

The Future After you reach Infrastructure 5 and have promoted your mayors; use your treasury to build more refineries. Once you reach Infrastructure 6; build Goods Manufactories instead. Once you reach Land Tech 18, build Weapons Manufactories instead. After you reach Infrastructure 5, you should use the following research goals. If you want to become a maritime power; insert Naval Tech 16 in that sequence and build some Naval Equipment manufactories in Brittany.

Future Research Targets Infrastructure 5 Land Tech 18 Infrastructure 6 Trade Tech 4 Trade Tech 5 Land Tech 26 Testing this Strategy in Single Player You should try this out in SP before you try it in MP. I would recommend using some save game edits to give 72

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yourself Artois and Calais around 1500-1505. You can edit in a penalty to represent what you think it would cost you to have gotten those provinces in the groups you play with.

Then around 1515-1520, you can edit Navarra to Spain (if the AI doesnt already take it by force) and then attack and annex Navarra. You can take Franche-Comte, Lorraine, or Rousillon. I assume that I actually dont get these provinces in my testing. If you dont know how to edit a save file; learn to do so from the link in my signature, or I could do it for you over ICQ, or you could just DOW the AI and be gentle with them. Whatever you want to do. The idea is to create a realistic test of an MP game, so use your judgement.

Targets of Opportunity The above strategy guide assumes that you only take your core provinces and Savoy. If you are in a real MP game, you should usually not restrain yourself to that. The following is a list of good places to expand your realm. Choose what to do based on the conditions present in the MP game you are in.

Diploannexations Genoa, Modena, Tuscany, Siena, Helvetia, Lorraine, Palatinat, Navarra Conquests The Netherlands in general, Italy in general, Alsace, Koln, Naples Colonial Areas Because of your Innovation, you should steal colonies instead of build them. If you do build them, build only in very high base tax provinces; four or higher. If you want to build more colonies, build a shipyard and focus your exploration in a particular region.

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Chapter 2. Running a Hyper-Tech Ottoman Empire This piece is designed to show how to adapt the hypertech idea to a country that, at first glance, appears to be a poor candidate. I chose the Ottoman Empire because, like France, I often see it played poorly. This is an applied piece; using a specific example (Ottoman Empire) to illustrate a grand strategy (Hyper-Tech). Because this is a generic example; I will try to assume as few things as possible. At the end, I will present a list of «Targets of Opportunity».

These are small goals that may or may not be possible depending on the situation (diplo-annexation of Crimea, for example). I also will be assuming NO colonial conquests or growth. Thus any colonies you build or colonial territory you acquire is a boon. This is a baseline and I must assume minimal parameters. These guidelines are designed to get you to 1542. This will establish the basic concepts of the strategy and how it works. You should have a strong foundation on which to build the country you really want the Ottoman Empire to be by that time. Also, I cannot possibly anticipate the reality of your country beyond that point.

This is not intended to be an iron-clad strategy; but a flexible guide for you to follow. If you have to make changes because of your situation, skills, or desires; feel free to do so.

NOTE: I am assuming a 1492 campaign using Peter Ebbesen’s Scenario.

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EVENT CHOICES: 1492-1542 NOTE: Some of these events have triggers. The VenetoTurkish Conflict requires that you own Alexandria. The Celali Uprising requires you own Sivas. The Sultan becomes Khalifa if you control Egypt. The Persian event is riggered

by Persia; so you may not get it.

1494-1559: The Veneto-Turkish Conflict: A Stability +1 -100 Relations with Knights, Genoa, Papal States, and Venice 1515: The Great Naval Reform: A -600 Ducats +1000 Naval Tech 20 galleys Shipyard in Thrace 1519: The 1st Celali Uprising: A Revolt in Sivas Random Revolt Stability –1 ADM +3 for 24 months +200 Infrastructure Tech 1510-1819: Sultan becomes Khalifa: A Inherit Mamluks Vassalize The Hedjaz +50 Relations with 8 Muslim Countries 1512: The Turko-Persian Conflicts: Shiite rebels: A -100 Relations with Persia +1 Stability +200 Land Tech CB on Persia for 120 months 76

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1520: Mamluk Uprising: A 6 Revolts in Egypt 1538: Mimar Sinan’s Great Constructions: A -800 Ducats +2000 Infrastructure Tech Stability +2 Fine Arts Academy in Thrace 1540: The Legal Reforms of Suleyman the Magnificent: A CENTRALIZATION +1 Stability +1 +200 Infrastructure Tech Random Event Choices: Unhappiness with the Clergy: -1 Stability Unhappiness among Artisans: -1 Serfdom Corruption: +1 Inflation Nobles Demands Rights: +2 RR for 24 Months Sale of Offices: -5 VP Cessation of Church Functions to Nobility: -5 VP Nobles Demand Increased Pensions: Ducat Loss Grant Export Licences: Ducat Loss Nobles Demand Old Rights: -1 Centralization Cities Demand Old Rights: -1 Centralization Bourgeoisie Request Privileges: -1 Aristocracy Italian Engineer Available: -5 VP Foreign Drill Instructor Available: -1 VP Build a Great Palace: VP –50 Uncooperative Philosopher: +1 Innovative Regional Heresy: Ducat Loss Boundary Dispute: Stability +1 Petition for Redress: -1 Stability Grant Nobles Aid: Ducat Loss Support for Dissidents Abroad: Ducat Loss 77

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Foreign Trade Competition Rises: -1 Mercantilism Exceptional Court Painter Available: +1 Innovative DP SLIDERS The first list of settings in this section is the IDEAL Ottoman DP Setting. Of course, you will have random events that you cannot control. However, the basic decision on the random events are driven by the need to maintain high stability and keep important DP sliders in place.

These are followed by a guide for the first century of DP movements. After 1542; you should move DPs towards their optimal settings at your own discretion. 50 years into the game, I dont know what problems you are having with your DP sliders. The only really specific DP setting is your innovative. You need to keep a setting of 7 (so that you still get a missionary every 5 years) until you convert your all the same-culture provinces in your empire. This will take a long time; perhaps a century or more. But after they are converted; go full innovative. Of course, none of these decisions are fixed. You have to use your good sense to make the right decision based on your situation.

DP Targets Aristocracy = 0 Centralization = 10 Innovative = 10 Mercantilism = 0 Offensive = 2 Land = 10 Quality = 10 Serfdom = 0 SUGGESTED DP MOVEMENTS: 1492-1542 1492: +1 Innovative 1502: +1 Innovative 78

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1512: +1 Innovative 1522: +1 Innovative 1532: +1 Land 1542: -1 Aristocracy Starting DP Sliders Aristocracy = 7 Centralization = 5 Innovative = 3 Mercantilism = 7 Offensive = 3 Land = 6 Quality = 7 Serfdom = 4 Foreign Policy Your first territorial goals should be the acquisition of your core provinces. This includes the islands held by the Venetians, Hungary, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and Egypt.

If Venice is AI, you should DOW them within a month of game start and take all their islands from them. If you want to stick it to Austria, you can let them keep Ionia and take all their other provinces. This will make it impossible for Austria to annex them militarily when the war is over.

However, you can also let Austria have Venice (by taking ALL Venice’s provinces) and use that concession to get Austria to give you something else; like Hungary or cash.

If Persia is AI, you should attack them next. Strip them of their provinces that are your cores and try to get Iraq and Kirkuk if you can. The latter are sunni arabic provinces.

Even though they are not cores, they are good provinces.

In 1510, load a huge army on your fleet, sail to Egypt, DOW the Mamluks, land in Egypt, assault Cairo, and once the province falls it will trigger the Khalifa event and you can inherit the Mamluks. Do NOT fight the Mamluk troops if 79

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you can, because you get to keep them after inheritance. If the Hedjaz was still allied to the Mamluks, you will not get to vassalize them by event. So just use the inherited troops to vassalize the Hedjaz and annex them later.

At this point, you can turn on Hungary and the Balkans.

You should do this last because you want to secure your flanks from AI attacks. Russia should not be a threat at this point, so you have just Hungary and Austria to worry about.

It is easiest to attack Austria in concert with France or while Austria is busy with Poland or a few german minors. This will keep Austrian AI allies troops from being a terrible nuissance. How much of Hungary you take is your call.

Often, it may depend on the rules of the game you are in; some games have rules about adding extra cultures, how many provinces you can take at once, and so on. Try to attack Hungary while it is still AI though.

With respect to players, you are going to be a threat because of your size. This is usually irrespective of what you do. So you can use this as a license to be a bit more aggressive than usual.

Research You should research towards specific goals. The following list contains technologies ranked in order of importance.

You should put all your research in the specified field until you reach your target. Then switch to the next target.

Estimations of time are very hard for me to provide, since the conquests of the Ottoman Empire can vary dramatically (and thus so can your income/tech costs). You will probably be a little bit behind a hyper-tech France; they are simply more compact and have a higher income/size ratio than you. You are also in the Orthodox Tech group; so you will advance slower anyway. Just keep this in mind when you are comparing yourself to others.

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Research Targets Infrastructure 3 Land Tech 9 Infrastructure 4 Land Tech 14 Infrastructure 5 The Economy. Early Expenses First, promote all your baliffs. Then start converting heretics. You will have the greatest chances of converting your provinces under Suleyman the Great; but you may want to get started early. Conversions cost a lot, but use all your income to do it. You have to get those provinces converted to Sunni. That will lower your stability costs, increase your revenue, and provide lower revolt risks. Focus on Catholics first. Eliminate them from your empire as soon as you can. This will allow you to balance your tolerance a lot better. Once you have conversions done, you can think about manufactories.

Manufactories You will get into the manufactory game late. Build refineries when you can. I can usually get one or two built before I hit Infra 4. After that, build legal counsels with your extra cash. Then go back to building manufactories. Once you reach Land Tech 18, build weapons manufactories.

Once you reach Infrastructure 6, build goods factories.

Keeping up in Land Tech is easy for France, but harder for the Ottomans. So you may want to build more weapons manufactories.

Merchants First, use my merchant strategies. Try to maintain a Five Merchant presence in every COT you send merchants to.

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establish dominance in your own COTs first. If you meet stiff resistance, try another COT. Sometimes it is not profitable to send merchants to Venice, Liguria, and Danzig. Just use your common sense here. If you lose your 5 merchant dominance in a COT, re-establish dominance. Once you have trade tech 4, try to keep a monopoly in any COT you own to get an extra merchant per year. Unlike France, you start with good trade tech. Dont lose this edge! Keep up trade research in the future!

Civilian Upgrades When you get Infrastructure Technology 4; upgrade legal counsels to chief judges in all your provinces. When you get Infrastructure Technology 5; upgrade all mayors to governors. Once you have all your mayors promoted and inflation drops to zero; you can extract a portion of your monthly income as cash by setting the budget sliders properly. You set the treasury slider so that you have a net deflation of 0.0 despite full mayors; this will result in a lot of extra money to build manufactories. Civilian Upgrades take precedence over manufactories in terms of budgeting your cash. Always promote civilians as soon as possible.

Religion: Religion is a big problem for you. Convert! Convert!

Convert! You will love Suleyman the Great because he will allow you to convert like a madman. 70% success rates are normal under Suleyman. Convert Catholics first. Try to steer your conquests so that you avoid religious problems. There is a case to be made for not taking the provinces in Hungary that go Protestant/Reformed.

The Future After you reach Infrastructure 5 and have promoted your mayors; use your treasury to build more refineries. Once 82

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you reach Land Tech 18, build Weapons Manufactories instead.Once you reach Infrastructure 6; build Goods Manufactories instead. After you reach Infrastructure 5, you should use the following research goals. If you want to become a maritime power; insert Naval Tech 16 in that sequence and build some Naval Equipment manufactories.

Note these are not the exact same goals as those for France.

Future Research Targets: Infrastructure 5 Land Tech 18 Trade Tech 4 Infrastructure 6 Land Tech 26 Trade Tech 5 Testing this Strategy in Single Player You should try this out in SP before you try it in MP. I would recommend using some save game edits to give yourself provinces from conquest if you are fighting against countries that are normally human in your games (Austria, Venice, Persia, etc). You can edit in a penalty to represent what you think it would cost you to have gotten those provinces in the groups you play with. If you dont know how to edit a save file; learn to do so from the link in my signature, or I could do it for you over ICQ, or you could just DOW the AI and be gentle with them. Whatever you want to do. The idea is to create a realistic test of an MP game, so use your judgement.

Targets of Opportunity The above strategy guide assumes that you only take your core provinces non-cores you snag from the Mamluks.

If you are in a real MP game, you should usually not restrain yourself to that. The following is a list of good 83

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places to expand your realm. Choose what to do based on the conditions present in the MP game you are in.

Diploannexations Crimea, Aden, Tripolitania, Tunisia, Algiers, Morocco Conquests Persia, Hungary, Crimea, N.Africa, Khanates, Sunni India Colonial Areas Because of your Innovation, you should steal colonies instead of build them. If you do build them, build only in very high base tax provinces; like those in India. Dont colonize in Africa; those provinces are CRAPPY. If you want to build more colonies, build a shipyard and focus your exploration in a particular region.

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Chapter 3. Running a Colonizer Spain This piece is designed to show how to run a country using the Colonizer grand strategy. Spain is the Great Colonizer.

She has a wealth of explorers and conquistadors, good monarchs, a strong homeland, and a wonderful strategic position. Spanish domestic policies require little tweaking to reach optimization for colonial expansion. Spain is, in many respects, the perfect case for colonization. However, this is a baseline and I must assume minimal parameters. I assume that you do not expand into Italy beyond the diplomatic annexation of Naples, that you lose Rousillon and Bearn to France, that you recieve a fairly intact Netherlands, and that you keep to your Treaty of Tordesillas land-grant. If you have the opportunity to expand beyond these parameters; that is wonderful. However, this is a baseline and I must assume basic Spanish conquests.

These guidelines are designed to get you to 1542. This will establish the basic concepts of the strategy and how it works. You should have a strong foundation on which to build the country you really want the Ottoman Empire to be by that time. Also, I cannot possibly anticipate the reality of your country beyond that point. This is not intended to be an iron-clad strategy; but a flexible guide for you to follow. If you have to make changes because of your situation, skills, or desires; feel free to do so.

NOTE: I am assuming a 1492 campaign using Peter Ebbesen’s Scenario.

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EVENT CHOICES: 1492-1542 1493: Torquemada and the Expulsion of the Moors: B INNOVATIVE –4 -20,000 Population in Grenada and Toledo Andalusia, Grenada, Murcia, and Gibraltar convert to Catholic Revolt in Andalusia, Grenada, Murcia, and Gibraltar Stability –3 1519: The Habsburg Wedding: A Stability –2 ARISTOCRACY +2 CENTRALIZATION –1 -6 Diplomats 1492-1560: The Quest for the New World: A Inherit Aztecs Stability +1 Treasury +300 Colonists +6 Missionaries +6 1514: The Fuggers: A Loansize increased to 1000 ducats -100 Ducats +6 Merchants -5 Inflation 1520: The Communeros: B -200 Ducats ARISTOCRACY –1 SERFDOM –1 20,000 Infantry Revolt Risk +2 for 18 months 86

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Random Event Choices Unhappiness with the Clergy: -1 Stability Unhappiness among Artisans: -1 Serfdom Corruption: +1 Inflation Nobles Demands Rights: +2 RR for 24 Months Sale of Offices: -5 VP Cessation of Church Functions to Nobility: -5 VP Nobles Demand Increased Pensions: Ducat Loss Grant Export Licences: Ducat Loss Nobles Demand Old Rights: -1 Centralization Cities Demand Old Rights: -1 Centralization Bourgeoisie Request Privileges: -1 Aristocracy Italian Engineer Available: -1 Offensive Foreign Drill Instructor Available: -1 VP Build a Great Palace: VP –50 Uncooperative Philosopher: +1 Innovative Regional Heresy: Ducat Loss Boundary Dispute: Stability +1 Petition for Redress: -1 Stability Grant Nobles Aid: Ducat Loss Support for Dissidents Abroad: Ducat Loss Foreign Trade Competition Rises: -1 Mercantilism Exceptional Court Painter Available: +1 Innovative DP SLIDERS DP Targets Aristocracy = 0 Centralization = 10 Innovative = 0 Mercantilism = 0 Offensive = 2 Land = 5 Quality = 10 Serfdom = 0 87

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SUGGESTED DP MOVEMENTS: 1492-1542 1492: +1 Quality 1502: -1 Aristocracy 1512: -1 Serfdom 1522: +1 Quality 1532: -1 Aristocracy 1542: -1 Serfdom Starting DP Sliders: Aristocracy = 7 Centralization = 6 Innovative = 3 Mercantilism = 9 Offensive = 3 Land = 5 Quality = 8 Serfdom = 6 Foreign Policy Try to stay out of European politics for the first 50 years.

Unless France is seriously beating up on Austria, keep your help to a minimum. France has a military edge on you at the beginning and you need time to get your income up to counteract your manpower disadvantage. Play tough with Austria and demand that they choose B in the Habsburg Wedding Event; otherwise you will not give them money to help them fight France. Austria is not entitled to your help; use your leverage to control their politics in your interests.

Dont let the Habsburg Empire be ruled from Vienna in a real sense. You are the boss; dont let Austria hustle you.

If you need to sell Rousillon to France to keep your efforts focused abroad, do it. The income is negligible to the cost of defending it because you can be using that money to build your empire instead.

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lot of pagans. Taking down some of these pagan empires, particularly the Incas, is very demanding. Keep a good-size army in Madrid to fend off any continental threats while you are off in the New World. If you leave Iberia undefended, you are inviting disaster. Once you crush the Incas, you have a lot of freedom in the colonial region. You may want to make deals with other nations about colonial development. This is especially useful in gaining favor with the English, Dutch, and Scandinavians.

With respect to players, you are going to be a threat because of your size. This is usually irrespective of what you do. Dont allow this to develop into a serious problem. Make sure that your competition benefits more from your good will than they can gain from you in a war. This is especially true when there is not a three province rule to protect you from large gang attacks.

Research You should research towards specific goals. The following list contains technologies ranked in order of importance.

You should put all your research in the specified field until you reach your target. Then switch to the next target.

Estimations of time are very hard for me to provide because they are a result of your success in the New World. You will probably be a little bit behind a hyper-tech France in land tech, but ahead in infrastructure because that is your focus.

You are also narrowminded; so you will advance slower anyway. Just keep this in mind when you are comparing yourself to others. Your primary goal in the early years is to get to infrastructure technology 5 and promoting mayors to counteract your inflation problems.

Research Targets Infrastructure 3 Infrastructure 4 89

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Land Tech 14 Infrastructure 5 The Pagan Conquests Early Conquests: The Creek and the Aztecs First, promote all your baliffs. This will take some time.

Since we need our money for promoting baliffs, we wont be able to send out colonists. So we will attack the Creek instead and gain a port on either side of Florida. At game start, send Columbus straight across the Atlantic to the Coast of Carolina and move your Mediterranian fleet to Andalusia. It takes him about nine months to get out there and four to get back. In 1493, you will make a clean sweep of the Moors. Use your army to put down the revolts. Then march your army back to Andalusia. Merge your fleet with Columbus to create a fleet with about 30 transport capacity and led by Columbus. Load 25-30 thousand infantry on the fleet. If you fear French attack, withhold more of your army.

Now send this fleet across the Atlantic to Coast of Carolina. If you have not spotted the Creek nation yet, bounce your fleet back and forth between Coast of Carolina and Cape Hatteras or Cape Canaveral. Once you spot the Creek, land and assault both provinces then annex them.

Once you assault Savannah, your fleet can dock. Then break off Columbus and send him around Florida to dock at your newly acquired port of Talahassee. Once you have a sea route around Florida, send the rest of your fleet to Talahassee too. I usually complete this action in late 1494.

You are now ready to leap on the Aztecs. Send Columbus around the edge of the Gulf of Mexico and have him bounce between the Yucatan Sea and the Gulf of Tampico. Once you sight the Aztec province of Tlaxcala, it will reveal Tenochitlan. Send Columbus back to merge with your remaining fleet in Talahasse, load up your army, and attack the Aztecs. Once you control Tenochitlan, the Quest for the 90

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New World will fire and you will annex them. This should be around 1497 or later if you are unlucky. Now use Columbus to explore the entire Caribbean from your new ports. Until you get Ojeda in 1499, you will not be able to explore and thus annex the other Native American nations in Mexico.

You have what matter though; the gold. You should now begin to colonize. Promote baliffs immediately in gold provinces and Tlaxcala to increase your census income; but you can take your time with the other pagan provinces.

Middle Conquests: The Mayans and Incas After Ojeda spawns in 1499, send him over to the New World. Scout the Mayan provinces you dont have explored yet and then attack them. Once they are annexed, it is time for the Incas. Give Ojeda the maximum army he can support; 12,000. Make sure some of this is cavalry. Then disembark him onto Isthmus and march south to the Incas. Declare war on the Incas and move Ojeda around.

Systematically explore their territory and avoid contact with their main army. Once you have explored their entire country, land another army of about 20,000 men in Isthmus and march into the Incan territory. Use your two armies to outmaneuver the Incans and try to get as many free soldiers as you can when you annex them. You should easily be able to annex the Incas by 1510; maybe even a few years before that if you get lucky.

The Colonial Economy Colonization is something that takes some time to get very good at. You should aim to cultivate two colonies and a few trading posts at a time. The process is simple. Start with trading posts. Unless the chance of colonization is higher than 60 percent, send a trader first to establish a beachhead.

If he fails, you only lose a small amount of money. Once you have a few trading posts, send out two colonists to 91

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start building colonies in two of your trading posts. Build up those two colonies exclusively. If you are getting more colonists than you need, dont let them go to waste. Send them out as traders to build new trading posts. These will act as the starting point for your future colonies.

Start with the provinces with highest base tax values.

The Southern Coast of North America and all the Caribbean Islands have fairly good values; especially the Lesser Antilles. Dont waste your time colonizing the Northern coast of South America in the beginning. If there is a province that you want to colonize, but it has hostile natives. Send an army to kill them. Any natives over Low(3) should be killed.

It is just too risky if they are more hostile than that. Dont kill a lot of natives at once because countries like England and France may come along and use your efforts for their own gain and colonize the province.

If you have a conquistador that is not doing anything or you can afford to take one away from exploring; place him in your colonies when they are just getting started.

His presence will dramatically increase your success rates. Also, a conquistador can raise success rates to the point that some of the more hostile natives dont have to be killed. This allows you to develop large colonies but it takes a conquistador away from exploration. What you want to use your conquistadors for is your call, but that is the trade-off.

Merchants First, use my merchant strategies. Try to maintain a Five Merchant presence in every COT you send merchants to.

Send merchants to COTs worth the most trade value; but establish dominance in your own COTs first. If you meet stiff resistance, try another COT. Sometimes it is not profitable to send merchants to Venice, Liguria, and Danzig. Just use your common sense here. If you lose your 5 merchant 92

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dominance in a COT, re-establish dominance. Once you have trade tech 4, try to keep a monopoly in any COT you own to get an extra merchant per year. Unlike France, you start with good trade tech. Dont lose this edge! Keep up trade research in the future! When you discover a new colonial COT, send merchants there. Tlaxcala and Cuzco are very easy to dominate and you can enjoy an absolute monopoly until the other Europeans arrive if you kill off the Native Americans or embargo them. Later in the game, colonial trading will net a large amount of income for you.

Civilian Upgrades When you get Infrastructure Technology 4; dont upgrade legal counsels to chief judges in all your provinces.

Your money is much better spent elsewhere. When you get Infrastructure Technology 5; upgrade all mayors to governors. Once you have all your mayors promoted and inflation drops to zero; you can extract a portion of your monthly income as cash by setting the budget sliders properly. You set the treasury slider so that you have a net deflation of 0.0 despite full mayors. Mayor upgrades take precedence over almost everything else. Inflation is your biggest enemy. You should try to get inflation down to 0.0 before the State Bankruptcies hit.

Religion Religion is a big problem for you. Convert! Convert!

Convert! You will love Isabel and Ferdinand because they will allow you to convert like a madman. Huge success rates are normal. Convert Mexico first. After that, convert the Creek. Then try to get the Incans converted. Pagans are a major liability in terms of revolts and income loss. Get rid of them ASAP!

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Inflation Because of the Fuggers event; during the first two decades you can run up a good bit of inflation. Dont spend too much, but you have a little room to print some cash. It is best to do most of your printing AFTER you annex the Incas and have a HUGE income. Try not to waste inflation points when you are making less than 100 ducats a month.

In the long run, it isnt so great a strategy. If you have too many colonists and not enough money; build trading posts instead! They are very cheap. Once you get the Fuggers event, try to be very conservative about printing cash. You dont want to go over 10 percent inflation before you get full mayors. It will be very hard to get back down in time for the bankruptcy events. You will take gold inflation after you annex the Incas. Build colonies up to cities and use trading posts to boost trade values of your colonial COTs. You have to lower gold income as a PERCENTAGE OF YOUR TOTAL INCOME; so find other ways to get your income up; colonies, trade, conquests, etc.

The Future After you reach Infrastructure 5 and have promoted your mayors; use your treasury to build more colonies and upgrade legal counsels. Keep up with France in land technology. Your huge income will allow you to dominate in technology. Invest wisely.

Future Research Targets Land Tech 18 Trade Tech 4 Trade Tech 5 Land Tech 26 Testing this Strategy in Single Player You should try this out in SP before you try it in MP. 94

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I would recommend using some save game edits to give Rousillon to France and give yourself Navarra. You can edit in a penalty to represent what you think you could get France to pay for the province. This will result in AI France leaving you alone. If you dont know how to edit a save file; learn to do so from the link in my signature, or I could do it for you over ICQ, or you could just DOW the AI and be gentle with them. Whatever you want to do. The idea is to create a realistic test of an MP game, so use your judgement.

Targets of Opportunity The above strategy guide assumes that you only take your core provinces and Naples. If you are in a real MP game, you should usually not restrain yourself to that. The following is a list of good places to expand your realm.

Choose what to do based on the conditions present in the MP game you are in.

Diploannexations Navarra, Portugal, Papal States (force-vassal), Italy in General Conquests Italy, Africa, Indonesia, India, China Colonial Areas If your game rules allow you to expand beyond your ToT; go for high base-tax colonies or Gold; like New Zealand/ Australia, Indonesia, Hawaii, Alaska, Wewak, Siberian coast, and so on.

KNOW YOUR EXPLORATION CAPABILITIES! Explorers: 1492-1542 Columbus: 1492-1506 Pinzon: 1499-1518 95

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Vespucci: 1499-1512 Cosa: 1499-150 Solis: 1508-1516 Elcano: 1519-1526 Megellan: 1519-1521 Loaisa: 1523-1526 Ceron: 1527-1529 Conquistadors: 1492-1542 Ojeda: 1499-1510 Balboa: 1509-1519 Narvaez: 1511-1528 Leon: 1512-1521 Cortez: 1518-1540 Montejo: 1518-1550 Vaca: 1527-1545 Pizarro: 1530-1541 Grijalva: 1508-1527 De Soto: 1532-1542 Mendoza: 1534-1537 Quesada: 1536-1540 Coronada: 1540-1550 Valdivia: 1540-1554 Orellana: 1541-1546

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editEU • de re militari • 1. La guía para la dominación económica en multiplayer Ryoken 69; traducción de Luis Pivo 2. La guía para la dominación táctica en multijugador Ryoken 69; traducción de Luis Pivo 3. Sobre la guerra: Observaciones sobre la guerra y la paz en el Europa Universalis Ryoken 69; traducción de Luis Pivo 4. MP Economic Domination Guide Ryoken 69

*  * 1. De la guerra Karl von Clausewitz 2. El arte de la guerra Sun Tzu 3. El príncipe Maquiavelo