Jak's Game Guide: An EU4 Tutorial

[jak7139]

What’s the significance again of synced timers?

This is more of an old habit. There used to not be alerts for when you could interact with the estates. So you had to remember when the cooldowns expired (and remembering one date for all three is easier than three separate dates).

I still like to try and keep the timers linked, but sometimes that's not possible (you can't seize land during war, as an example).

Gut feel would be more small increments: sounds more flexible.

Yes, I think so. Flexibility is always good when strategizing.

By developing provinces? How does that work?

If you hover over the development button on a province, the tooltip should mention that it increases your Crownland by a small percentage for each click. So if you do a lot of development clicks, your Crownland will increase.

Per above, recommend some sample checks on bigger shots once in a while to see how they look.

I'll try that. Thanks!

 

[MidKnightDreary]

Thanks for the tips. Starting to follow

 

[jak7139]

Thanks for the tips. Starting to follow

Thanks for following MDK! Hope you enjoy it and your time on the forum!

 

[Midnite Duke]

Welcome @MidKnightDreary!

 

[jak7139]

Author's Note: So I tried looking at the preview for this chapter on mobile before posting. Even when these screenshots are full-sized, they are still tiny on my phone's screen. Is that normal for those of you on mobile? How do you see them?

I've made the images as large as I can to help readability. To compensate though for the larger images, I've cut four or five superfluous images from the chapter to reduce loading times. This will probably be an ongoing process as I try to find the right balance.

Anyway, enjoy the newest chapter!

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CHAPTER THREE: Our First War
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(July 1446-May 1449)​

Even so far.

Um. Erwan?

Erwan?

Hmm...

​

Well, at least we have our allies to help. Come on Burgundy!

​

We start the siege of Anjou. Burgundy stands nearby in the province of Maine as support. There were times, long ago, when the AI did not care about attrition and would’ve parked its whole army on a fort to siege it. It still sometimes does. But it has gotten better.

We build a Spy Network in Provence to help us siege faster. I should’ve done it earlier, but I forgot. In October we get another bad event. This time it’s a dispute between the Bourgeoisie and the Nobles. We side with the Nobles because we don’t make very much off trade right now. You can’t lose much if you have very little to begin with.

It is now 1447. Holland and Flanders have come to help us siege. I notice Holland has a general with a +2 siege pip. I tell them to occupy the province, then move some of my units away so we don’t go over the supply limit. We keep 1k of infantry led by Erwan behind to control the siege (and get the bonus from having a Spy Network), while the rest move to Bro Naoned. As soon as I do that, the Dutch AI moves in (this is because it didn’t want to suffer unnecessary attrition, since by myself I had enough units to siege Anjou).

​

On the 9th of July, after 272 days, Anjou falls. We rejoice!

I mothball the fort to not pay for it. We aren’t made of money.

Now, we have a choice to make. Either, since I occupy everything I want, I could sit back, lower my army and fort maintenance, and let my allies finish this war. Or, I could help them and gain more “Participation” (how much the game thinks you contributed to the war versus everyone else on your side), but lose money and men doing so.

If I were a richer power, I would help out. But we need to stay home. Ireland is on the horizon. We’re losing 0.69 ducats with our armies turned off and our forts mothballed, and over the past 3 years we’ve nearly spent everything the Estates gave us when we sold off our Crownland (21 gold left out of the 160 we started with, 107 of it was from the Estates).

In December a very important event pops up: “Estate Statutory Rights”.

Option 1: gain 30 Crownland back from the Estates. But we can’t seize land anymore and all our Territories will be more autonomous (less income, manpower, etc) until this is revoked.

Option 2: do nothing.

I want to hear from all of you. What would you choose?

​

Spoiler: Our Choice

In the end, we do nothing. Why? Because having that autonomy in our lands would murder our economy. We would get less money from our provinces, but we’d also have a lower forcelimit. Which means a smaller army. Which means we’re less likely to win wars and expand our economy that way.

Moving on, Aragon gets an event that lets them abandon their union over Naples. Ever since Paradox added this event (the Emperor patch/DLC I think it was. Nearly 4 years ago) I’ve never seen the AI try and keep the union. Aragon has weakened themselves and a potential Spain if that ever forms, meaning France has no one to really challenge them on the continent. Austria and Burgundy are both much weaker and are too busy with HRE politics to care. So, it’ll be tougher for us if we ever decide to challenge France.

It is July of 1448, and we finally decide to start peacing people out. We start with Siena. We give Siena to the Pope in the hope that he stays strong. Separate peaces unfortunately don’t count to the “promised territory” we guaranteed our allies when we called them in. But we want the Pope to be stable enough in Italy to help us in the future.

Our decision to not help out comes into play here. Less participation means we get less of Siena’s money as it’s divided up between us and our allies. But it also means Burgundy and the Pope expect more land in the final settlement. I still stand by my earlier decision, but it’s something to keep in mind should we ever try this again.

I wanted to wait for Milan to be fully sieged down, but unfortunately Provence has unconditionally surrendered. This makes our warscore jump straight to 100% with Provence, but their allies remain in whatever state they were in before. If we don’t peace out the war soon, our war exhaustion will skyrocket.

I reluctantly peace out Milan. The war reparations we took thankfully aren’t affected by our participation in the war, so it all goes to us. However, I forgot that the prestige would still be divvied out. We still don’t have enough for our mission (15/30).

​

An event pops up, forcing the peasants to rebel in Bro Roazhon. The other option costs us more prestige and I don’t want that. We could deal with the rebel army ourselves, but I have a trick to show you.

Since rebels are considered “enemy” armies. And since we have helpful allies like Burgundy in a war with us. Our AI allies will see our rebels as an army of Provence and attack it. Sure enough, Burgundy and his vassals make their way back from Milan and do the work for us as January rolls into February.

Something else happened in the new year while I was waiting for Burgundy to arrive. We spent a few of our precious coins on a National Epic to give us more prestige. But, now we’re at risk of taking a loan.

Except, if you remember, we still haven’t taken our 1% Bourgeoisie loans. We take the loans on offer. We now have some debt, but this was necessary. You have to spend money to make money, after all.

In world news, the start of 1449 also sees the House of York come out on top in England. I had hoped the War of the Roses would go on for a while longer. The weaker England gets, the less trouble they’ll be in Ireland. Though it will still take them a while to recover.

​

After taking out our loans, it is time for this war to end. We take Anjou for ourselves, give Aix to the Pope, and give Barrois and Verdun to Burgundy. Neither of our allies are happy about this. They both think they deserve more, but we don’t have enough warscore for that (peacedeal costs 94%). We also take some cash, not that it helps much. The peace is signed on February 18th, 1449.

Since they didn’t receive enough land relative to their participation, Burgundy and the Pope trust us less. If their trust drops too low, they could decide to drop us as an ally. Thankfully, they don’t. Giving them at least some land has counteracted that a bit. But we need to be careful. I could use favors to bump up their trust a little bit, but I don’t. Right now, our favors are better spent on other things.

​

And that concludes our first war. Thanks for reading everyone! See you next time!

 

[HistoryDude]

What was this National Epic about?

I think you made the right choice by doing nothing. It seems like you need the gold in order to remain solvent... and a bankrupt realm would be much easier prey for other European countries.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Is Provence still three disjoined provinces? Did you eliminate Provence? Doing nothing is often a hard thing to do, but so often (like here) the correct call. Does Ireland shorten your route to the New World and quicken being within colonization range? Thanks

 

[Rensslaer]

Well done!

You've grown by 25% or so. Does France view you any differently now that you've done that? How automatic is their wanting to war against their French neighbors? In my game they went pretty aggressively against all of them, just as the English did in Ireland.

It's interesting to see more about the mechanics of peace and giving territory to allies. I was unaware of how complex it can be.

Rensslaer

 

[MidKnightDreary]

Seems like Mr Pope and Mr Burgandy have unrealistic expectations.

 

[jak7139]

What was this National Epic about?

The flavor-text for the event mentions Jean the Fifth. Wikipedia says there are two Breton monarchs with that name (due to weird numbering from English or French sources). Either Francois' father (1389-1442) or a previous duke (1339-1399).

I'm guessing the game just substitute's a previous ruler's name in for the event. That would be an interesting writing exercise though, trying to come up with a fictional epic account.

I think you made the right choice by doing nothing. It seems like you need the gold in order to remain solvent... and a bankrupt realm would be much easier prey for other European countries.

Bankruptcy would be a guaranteed death for us. It's something we want to avoid at all costs.

Is Provence still three disjoined provinces? Did you eliminate Provence? Doing nothing is often a hard thing to do, but so often (like here) the correct call.

Provence still has two provinces around Marseille, near the Pope's enclave in Avignon. They also still have their union over Lorraine.

Does Ireland shorten your route to the New World and quicken being within colonization range? Thanks

It does. Which is part of the reason I want to go for it. The other is that it will be our only expansion route now that Anjou is ours.

Well done!

You've grown by 25% or so. Does France view you any differently now that you've done that? How automatic is their wanting to war against their French neighbors? In my game they went pretty aggressively against all of them, just as the English did in Ireland.

France dislikes us a little bit now, but the situation is not critical. If we have one of our diplomats improve relations it should not be a problem. From up to where I've played, France hasn't done much expansion against their neighbors (though something major did just happen in my last play-session). Those smaller French states all start out as vassals, so they've been slowly integrating them.

It's interesting to see more about the mechanics of peace and giving territory to allies. I was unaware of how complex it can be.

Yes. I like to use favors to call allies in whenever possible, but in this case we needed their help and couldn't wait.

Seems like Mr Pope and Mr Burgandy have unrealistic expectations.

Well, from their perspective I get it. We fought one battle, lost it, and sieged Anjou. Burgundy and the Pope did all the work against Milan, Siena, Lorraine, and Provence's southern territories.

 

[coz1]

Allies get what they get. All worth it to take Anjou. That said, France will see that as a tasty morsel sometime soon. I'll be curious how long it takes.

 

[jak7139]

Allies get what they get. All worth it to take Anjou.

Yes. Anjou is ours. Our allies will just have to deal with it. They're still relatively loyal, so we'll just have to be careful in the future.

That said, France will see that as a tasty morsel sometime soon. I'll be curious how long it takes.

France could destroy us easily if they wanted to. We have to keep relations high to deter them and find other ways to grow.

 

[Bullfilter]

Author's Note: So I tried looking at the preview for this chapter on mobile before posting. Even when these screenshots are full-sized, they are still tiny on my phone's screen. Is that normal for those of you on mobile? How do you see them?

I've made the images as large as I can to help readability. To compensate though for the larger images, I've cut four or five superfluous images from the chapter to reduce loading times. This will probably be an ongoing process as I try to find the right balance.

On images, I think there’s only so much you can do for mobile phone users in an image heavy AAR. I tend to read them on a tablet, which gives better visibility on images anyway, and I guess many people can use a laptop/pc otherwise. As long as they’re jpg rather than png or bmp, I think the bandwidth problem is probably a secondary issue.

I think if you’re culling some images out and are under the 35 image per post limit, you could make some of those larger compound images smaller and simpler. I’ve used the one below as an example. First, you could break them up into two or three separate images. Easily enough done and it doesn’t increase the bandwidth.

Second, you could do a bit of cut and paste to consolidate them and make them quite a bit smaller (less bandwidth and easier for reading on small devices). So in the yellow highlighted section, you could cut down and list all the message boxes underneath each other, for instance. They’re all the same event x 5, after all. And the other three could all be separate images, as they’re dealing with different things. Just thoughts, but this one looked pretty busy with lots of small text even on an iPad held in landscape, so a mobile would have been a bit squeezy, I’m thinking!

​

since by myself I had enough units to siege Anjou).

Is there a general rule of thumb for the optimum besieging army strength? More infantry than the garrison size (in case of loss events above attrition)? And having the same artillery strength as fort strength, that kind of thing? (Aside from separate considerations if there are still marauding enemy field armies around)

In the end, we do nothing.

I would have guessed the same, not knowing those specific reasons but more a gut feel for not wanting to limit flexibility unnecessarily.

Our AI allies will see our rebels as an army of Provence and attack it.

Nice trick, if a bit cynical haha

First war a relative success, onwards and upwards.

Since they didn’t receive enough land relative to their participation, Burgundy and the Pope trust us less. If their trust drops too low, they could decide to drop us as an ally.

Let’s hope not.

 

[filcat]

Is there a general rule of thumb for the optimum besieging army strength?

The topic of siege warfare is remarkable in its complexity for showing how the code behaviour is miserable in its simplicity thus it requires insurmountable effort to accept its banality.

And it involves too many topics as manpower, and consequently manpower recovery speed, attrition, siege parameters, generals, blockades, and the discrepancy in the advantages between the code and the player, etc.; which force any answer into a rant too long to sustain.

For a summary brief as possible without butchering the thread,

Spoiler: siege warfare

{i} - The minimum required besieger force is three times the garrison size; each fort level provides thousand defenders; so a 3k besieging force for a capital fort of level 1 is enough.
{ii} - It is advisable to use f(x)=3.x+1 for the minimum amount of the besieging force to account for attrition-sortie due to low dice rolls, and despite the same chances, the player will always have low dice rolls, whereas the code will rarely suffer from it; so a 4k besieging force for a capital fort of level 1 is safe for a continuous siege.
{iii} - Artillery adds bonus only to the siege dice rolls, ranging [+1] to [+5], therefore at least 1k artillery is good enough for all siege warfare in the initial phase (1444-1500). More artillery will add more bonus on the siege dice rolls.
{iiii} - Artillery will also count as besieging troops; so for a capital with additional fort level 2, which makes it fort level 3 in total, would require 10k troops in accordance with {ii}, but the player can arrange it as,

- 6k infantry and 4k artillery; this will ensure continuous siege regardless of any low dice rolls, while providing [+2] artillery bonus, and allow the player to use artillery barrage.​

- 4k infantry and 6k artillery; this will provide [+3] artillery bonus during full strength, but ensure both continuous siege and [+2] artillery bonus in case of any low dice rolls, while allowing the player to use artillery barrage.​

And... or no, enough, tired of this. The player is bound by these rules, whereas the code will throw a 30k-stack to a capital fort of level 3 on a mountain-province with salt (default fort defence 40%), gets a natural breach in the second phase, suffers almost null attrition, completes the siege faster than a player-siege on a capital fort of level 1 on a farmland (default fort defence 0).

Spoiler: whatever mate

Edit: Corrected spelling mistake.

 

[jak7139]

are under the 35 image per post limit

Where did you get this number from by the way? I've always gone off the 20-limit rule in this post.

Just thoughts, but this one looked pretty busy with lots of small text even on an iPad held in landscape, so a mobile would have been a bit squeezy, I’m thinking!

In my mind, to cut down on the number of images, I'd like to group images together as often as possible (like in your above example). That single image was originally six different screenshots. But, to not show six screens one after the other, I grouped them together. I figured that would be easier for readers to not have so many images.

Maybe my thinking is off on this. But having fewer images seems like it would be easier for people to read.

Is there a general rule of thumb for the optimum besieging army strength? More infantry than the garrison size (in case of loss events above attrition)? And having the same artillery strength as fort strength, that kind of thing? (Aside from separate considerations if there are still marauding enemy field armies around)

@filcat gives an excellent explanation. You generally want enough units to siege and NO MORE (because of attrition). When artillery becomes a bigger factor in the mid/late game, you want enough artillery on a fort to get the full +5 bonus.

I like to park all my artillery and general (if he has a siege pip) on a fort, then leave my inf and cav one province away to deter enemy armies or reinforce.

Sometimes, you need to park your whole army on a siege, regardless of attrition. If you leave a small army on a fort and no reinforcements nearby, the AI will pounce. And sometimes, really late into the game, you just have so much manpower that attrition doesn't matter.

I'll use last chapter's siege of Anjou as an example.

The red-highlight is the number of troops we need to siege (6k). The yellow-highlight, if we hovered over it and if we had artillery, would show us the number of cannons needed for a +5 bonus.

Now, the reason there are 13k troops on this siege when we only need 6k is because of the AI. I kept my 1k on the siege to maintain control of it. The other 12k are Holland, Brabant, and Flanders all "helping."

I would have guessed the same, not knowing those specific reasons but more a gut feel for not wanting to limit flexibility unnecessarily.

Flexibility is very key when you're a small nation. We need to keep our options open.

Nice trick, if a bit cynical haha

I remember someone in your own AAR saying EU4 heavily encourages realpolitik with your AI allies. This is a very cynical view, but it is also very true. The AI is easily manipulated, which leads to these kinds of cynical approaches.

 

[Chac1]

Where did you get this number from by the way? I've always gone off the 20-limit rule in this post.

Perhaps it is different in different parts of the forum? I go by the 20 image limit and sometimes I find posting close to that limit creates problems. Lately, I stay between 15 and 17.

 

[Bullfilter]

Where did you get this number from by the way? I've always gone off the 20-limit rule in this post.

Well, I wasn’t really across that limit, which may have been enacted at a time when the great worldwide interweb and mobile networks didn’t have the bandwidth they do today, and no one seems to talk about it any more. The forum itself allows you up to 35 images per post (ie it won’t take 36), so I’m not sure why that would be the case if you can’t use them. It‘s not the number of images that is the determinant of their download time but their size: one big image will take the same time to download as four small ones if it is divided into quarters <shrugs>

In my mind, to cut down on the number of images, I'd like to group images together as often as possible (like in your above example). That single image was originally six different screenshots. But, to not show six screens one after the other, I grouped them together. I figured that would be easier for readers to not have so many images.

Maybe my thinking is off on this. But having fewer images seems like it would be easier for people to read.

I try to do the same thing too where I can, though it’s normally when they’re all linked to a theme. But per above, afaik it doesn’t save any bandwidth and if they become so large they are hard to read, I think it becomes a bit self defeating sometimes. Not sure why say six smaller images in a row would be harder to read than one big one with the same info in it … each with a shorter description to break them up.

But anyway, it’s all up to the individual user I guess! Neither approach is invalid. This was sparked a bit by the conversation about doing something to make it easier for mobile users to see the images, which was where I was going with that I think - ironic because I don’t usually read AARs much on the mobile!

ps: my above thoughts are based on using smaller-bandwidth jpg images that have been cut down to the smallest size possible, rather than whole-page png shots. For example, 20 x full-sized png screenshots from EU4 = 78.84MB (3.942MB each), while 35 cut down jpg shots = (for a recent upload) 9.13MB. So basically, 3 x big pngs = more than 35 small jpgs. The indicative image limit should be more accurately expressed as total MB per post than 'number of images' if it's bandwidth we're talking about. I can objectively tell that as I download pages on a mobile phone on roaming: png-heavy pages (even when they are cut down a little) with fewer shots take way longer to download or refresh than for those using smaller jpg images.

Thanks to you and @filcat for the explanatory info re sieges, very helpful.

 

[jak7139]

It‘s not the number of images that is the determinant of their download time but their size: one big image will take the same time to download as four small ones if it is divided into quarters <shrugs>

ps: my above thoughts are based on using smaller-bandwidth jpg images that have been cut down to the smallest size possible, rather than whole-page png shots. For example, 20 x full-sized png screenshots from EU4 = 78.84MB (3.942MB each), while 35 cut down jpg shots = (for a recent upload) 9.13MB. So basically, 3 x big pngs = more than 35 small jpgs. The indicative image limit should be more accurately expressed as total MB per post than 'number of images' if it's bandwidth we're talking about.

Thank for this info regarding bandwidth and images. Very helpful!

 

[jak7139]

CHAPTER FOUR: Anjou, Ireland, & Other Things
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(May 1449-June 1450)​

On the first day of May, we receive good news! Anjou has become home to a Cardinal. He’ll help us influence the Pope more. And, if the Papal Controller (the nationality of the current Pope) picks a certain Papal Bull (various decrees that he can enact), then the Cardinal will even spread Institutions to our provinces. Very helpful!

Now, Anjou has some Devastation from being under occupation for so long. It does go down naturally (slowly) while under our control, but we want to speed this process up. We could either spend some of our Monarch Points to develop the province a bit. Or we could turn on the fort in Anjou and increase the rate of decay. Even though it costs us more money, I choose to turn on Anjou’s fort. We need our points for tech and other things and shouldn’t be spending them willy-nilly.

Over the summer, we check out the closest of the Irish nations, Munster. Declaring a no-CB war would cost us 2 stability (currently at 0), some war exhaustion, and some Aggressive Expansion with the other Irish counts. A small Coalition would form, but nothing to seriously challenge us. I decide to wait until January of 1450 to then declare war. Why do I do this? A few reasons:

• The first is that Aggressive Expansion (AE) goes down on the yearly tick. So, it won’t hurt to let what we accrued from taking Anjou decay a little bit.
• The second is that we need some time to let our war exhaustion recover. It won’t go down while at war, and we will be doing many wars after we take Munster. Can you guess with who?
• Thirdly, if we wait until January, there’s a good chance we’ll be able to fight the Provencal rebels that will rise up in Anjou. If they don’t rise up, then we’ll have to either ship our army back from Ireland or delay the war. And every moment we delay is a moment that England or Scotland could use to pounce on the Irish before we do.

​

In December, before we declare war, I notice that we can seize some Crownland again. We do so, at the cost of some Estate disloyalty and a small stack of rebels which we quickly deal with. In the battle with the rebels, Erwan gains a trait that will help him keep our men in the fight for longer.

We could Sell Titles too for some more money (and we still have the agenda to develop Bro Wened so can’t take another one), but I hold off. I decide to wait until we need the money. We have 119 ducats right now thanks to the loans from the Bourgeoisie.

​

It’s a good time to declare on Munster. We decide to mark Munster’s ally, Ormond, as a “cobelligernt”. This lets Ormond call their own allies (of which they have none), and removes the penalties for taking land from them as a separate participant. Those penalties being +50% AE and +100% warscore cost for taking any of their provinces.

It is the 15th of January, 1450 and we declare war.

​

We immediately spend some of our admin points to get us back up to 0 stability. Meanwhile, our Light Ships which were protecting trade meet Munster’s trade fleet in battle. It’s our 8 versus their 7, but the rolls are in our favor today. They lose 2 ships, bringing them down to 5. One of which we captured. Our fleet stays in the Celtic Sea to keep the way clear for our Transports.

​

We can only load 6 of our regiments onto our 6 transport ships, and we choose to only infantry. Why? A 4-2 (inf/cav) landing force would be a bad idea. Since we are in the Western Tech Group, we can only have a maximum of 50% of our army’s frontline be cavalry (soft-cap). If we go above this cap, we suffer terrible penalties to our combat effectiveness. This cap also counts the individual men in each regiment, not the number of regiments as a whole. So a 4-2 landing force is just asking to get defeated, especially with the -2 penalty we will get for attempting a naval invasion. We would need more Transports to make bringing cavalry work. Since we don’t, pure infantry is our best bet.

As we begin disembarking from our ships, the game says we will arrive in Munster on April 17th. Why is this important? Every month, if we have manpower, our armies receive reinforcements. However, since we are at sea, our armies instead take attrition. April 17th is before the next month-tick, so I can show something off about EU4’s armies.

​

A peculiarity of EU4’s combat system is that, assuming all other factors are equal, a full 1,000-strength regiment is more effective than, say, two 500-strength ones. And, thankfully, there is a handy little button on our army to consolidate our regiments down and take advantage of this. Although, weirdly, it is also hidden under a tooltip. Given how important this button is, this was an odd design choice by Paradox.

Be honest right now, how many of you knew about holding the Shift-key and pressing the Consolidate button? I certainly didn’t for a long while.

Back to my point about April 17th. Our 6-regiment army under Erwan has lot 60 men to attrition, leaving behind six 990-strength regiments. We want this naval invasion to succeed without any hiccups, so I “Shift-Consolidate” our forces, leaving behind five 1,000-strength regiments and one 886-strength one. They are now, through the mysteries of the game’s code, more effective at fighting.

To the uninitiated, this may seem like a small change. But wars have been won or lost based on players’ abilities to keep their army as cohesive as possible. You’d be surprised at how big of a difference this makes when fighting much larger wars against much larger opponents.

​

And so, we land. Our army is in as good of a shape as it can be, and we attack Munster’s 2-1 force. We actually suffer a -3 penalty in this battle (the naval invasion, plus attacking into woody terrain). But, after a bloody battle, we beat the Irish. The enemy army has nowhere to retreat to, so is instantly deleted. Leaving just Ormond with a capable fighting force.

​

We stand in Munster, ready to siege. But some of you may have remembered something. Something that I immediately try to rectify. We don’t have enough troops to start the siege! Munster is in fact, a level 3 fort. Which requires 9,000 men to siege. I reluctantly build another infantry regiment back at home. This brings our total number of regiments (not soldiers) up to 9 out of 11.

​

In June, Anjou finishes coring. I turn the Area of Loire Valley where Anjou is located into a State. This is useful. Let me explain.

EU4’s map is made up of Provinces. Groups of Provinces get assigned to Areas. Areas, if they aren’t turned into States, are called Territories. The main thing Territories do is they always have a minimum of 90% Autonomy, giving you less money and troops. Stating Territories removes that Autonomy floor.

The Core we created in Anjou is what is called a “half-core”. This is because Territories only cost 50% to core. To “full-core” Anjou now that it is in a State, we would need to pay the other half of the cost. This would set the Autonomy floor to 0%. However, leaving Anjou half-cored but Stated, lowers the floor to only 50%. Better than the 90% of a Territory, but not as good as it could be.

I would like to full-core Anjou eventually, but we need our admin points to core any Irish land we take. For now, we leave Anjou as a half-core. There are a couple of other benefits to States over Territories that I won’t get into right now. I’m sure you all want to get back to the war with Munster and see how that’s going…

​

Actually, one more thing before I end this part, an Alert popped up on our screen letting us know that we can gain Innovativeness from taking tech. And the opportunity to do so is expiring soon. I’ll bring this back up in December when I decide what to do.

​

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Author's Note: Yes, I know. A cliffhanger! But I'm hoping to keep these updates at a manageable length for people. Regarding length and rate of posting: Is this working for everyone? Is a once a week update schedule too much? Is the post length okay?

 

[HistoryDude]

This length is fine...

You can create massive regiments with shift+consolidate? I'm going to need to try that.

Will Munster be completely annexed or vassalized?