Jak's Game Guide: An EU4 Tutorial

[diskoerekto]

Then again... Islands can be curses, too. I remember the nightmare I had in EU III when I acquired Crete as an early conquest. Islands can be harder to defend.

Rensslaer

I remember around 2 decades ago playing AGCEEP mod of EU2, an event that gave an extra level of fort on the island of the knights of Rhodes, which should fire only once during game start, was firing every time the game was loaded. So if one didn't take the island from them in the first 3-5 time the game is loaded it would be impossible later. I tried playing a game with them and boy, an island with maximum amount of forts centuries beyond the current tech level was such a safe feeling

 

[coz1]

Great to see you continuing your conquest of NA. Though somehow I doubt that will keep Portugal from upper Louisiana. The Portuguese gauchos love to live in Montana.

 

[Bullfilter]

Because we’re the first Catholic nation with a CN in this region, the Pope signs a Treaty of Tordesillas. This means the Pope has legitimized our claim to this region, telling other Catholics to stay out. Because of this, our colonies in this region will grow faster and other Catholics’ colonies will grow slower.

That’s a big bonus. As a colonial power, being “Tordesillassed” in a number of areas really messed up my relations with the Papacy and some powerful rival colonial powers has been a real pain.

a plant called “Toe-back-oh”

Reminded me instantly of this

so the Florentines and Provençals should be too distracted to bother us, right? What do you think?

from what I've learned from filcat of course they'll go crazy on your capital

Provence/Lorraine will head for you because you are the Player per @filcat.

Hmmm.... You'd think they wouldn't bother you, but I think @filcat and @diskoerekto are correct.

For the reasons the others mentioned above and my own experience, it sounds like they’ll come for you … but only if they can get at you via a land route. What is the status of France?

 

[jak7139]

Which is best?

It depends on your goals. Self-governing colonies grow much faster than the other two types if you need to fill out the uncolonized areas quickly. The downside is that they are the most disloyal. Crown colonies are the most loyal and integrated. They are perfect if your CN owns any gold provinces due to an interaction you can do with them. Private enterprises are good in areas with cash crops (sugar, tobacco, etc), and in my experience, will build larger navies than the other two. Ideal if you want to project trade/naval power overseas.

Who's in the new world, just about to reach it, and can compete with you?

Portugal has some land in the Caribbean. Castille owns a few provinces in Venezuela. And England has some in Brazil. France, Denmark-Norway, or the Dutch haven't shown up yet.

so it's only the trade power in that specific node? in a hypothetical scenario which you own all the provinces tied to that node, would that mean this penalty is moot since nobody controls anything else in that node?

Yes. If you collect somewhere that's not your main node, you lose half your control in that node. In that hypothetical, the penalty would be moot. But if the node isn't particularly valuable, or it would be better to use that merchant somewhere else instead, then you could end up making less money.

For trade, it's very difficult to say what is best in all scenarios. You just have to play around with your merchant configuration and watch what your trade income does after each change.

at one point you should translate them all from French to Breton

I plan to do that once we get caught up to gameplay. But that won't be for a while.

so are we running a race with Portugal over who'll core 5 colonies in the Carribean first?

A very prescient question given the upcoming chapter's focus. Yes, this is a race.

from what I've learned from filcat of course they'll go crazy on your capital

Provence/Lorraine will head for you because you are the Player per @filcat.

Hmmm.... You'd think they wouldn't bother you, but I think @filcat and @diskoerekto are correct. Murphy will find you!

For the reasons the others mentioned above and my own experience, it sounds like they’ll come for you … but on if they can get at you via a land route.

You're all correct and have been paying attention! A gold star for each of you!

What is the status of France?

France is still big and scary. A diplomat, when not busy in the New World, has been kept on them constantly to keep our relations high. They're eyeing our lands hungrily, but haven't made any moves...yet.

Did you not take property from Provence?

We took Anjou from Provence early on, but they still have their lands near Marseille and Avignon in southern France.

They also still have their union over Lorraine. Something I haven't been mentioning is that four or five different nations are supporting Lorraine's independence right now. This has kept Lorraine perpetually disloyal, so they'll never help Provence in war. But Provence is also allied to Austria, so the AI is too skittish to declare.

Where is Portugal in the Caribbean if you got Havana and Puerto Rico?

I'll show a map net chapter, but they own St. Martin and most of Hispaniola.

What is the best Caribbean besides Havana and Puerto Rico?

@diskoerekto has already answered you there. Yes, any Trade Center is a good get. After that, any of the high-dev provinces (the Caribbean has a lot).

If we are racing with Portugal, having a landing spot on each of the major islands and near each of the straits (Lesser Antilles) in case of a future war is key.

Brittany should try and colonize Jamaica and Curaucao. Because they are Islands and no borders with other colonial powers.

Islands are good for defense if we have naval supremacy. That's a big ask when fighting Portugal. Having a land border is actually more of a help since we can land troops on our outposts before the war and beat Portugal on land.

It depends if we want to pursue an aggressive strategy or not.

Jamaica and Curacao are also Trade Centers, so are still a priority.

Excellent work with gaining colonial nations! I'm sure it will be interesting to see how they work. In my game Spain seems to have twelve of them, or something, and they always fill the screen anytime a colonial war starts.

I'll try to show them off as much as I can. I'm not as experienced with their mechanics as with other subjects like vassals. But they, like any subject, are great for inflating army sizes as you've seen with Spain.

Great to see you continuing your conquest of NA. Though somehow I doubt that will keep Portugal from upper Louisiana. The Portuguese gauchos love to live in Montana.

The Portuguese AI does love to go for the Louisiana region (which has its northern boundary at the modern Montana-Canada border). I'm not sure why it always goes there and not Brazil.

That’s a big bonus. As a colonial power, being “Tordesillassed” in a number of areas really messed up my relations with the Papacy and some powerful rival colonial powers has been a real pain.

It can be a pain (but I won't spoil how that goes). We'll have to deal with being on the receiving end of it (as you'll see soon).

Reminded me instantly of this

Not intentional, but I can see it! I've been kind of in the mood recently to rewatch the movies, so maybe an unconscious decision.

And this is actually the second time a LOTR reference has come up, intentional or not, in one of my AARs. An interesting pattern.

 

[jak7139]

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Colonialism & An Important Decision
|-|
(June 1500-January 1501)​

To recap our situation, we’re wrapping up a war in North America to expand our colony, and the Pope has just called us against Florence, Provence (with their union, Lorraine), and Ferrara. The Pope and his other allies (Strasbourg and Trent) have enough to win this by themselves. So, I’ve decided to finish up our own war first before sending stuff over.

In the meantime, we pick up the next slot in Expansion. This gives us an extra +20 Global Settler Increase, making our colonies gain an extra 20 people per year (see Chapter 14). And, in other colonial news, Portugal has gotten their own Treaty of Tordesillas in the Caribbean.

​

If you didn’t believe we were in a race with Portugal before, this next bit of info will certainly change your mind. Both us and Portugal have picked Exploration and Expansion as our first two idea groups, but Portugal has nearly double our colony growth. Part of this is the recently signed treaty, but the rest is because of Portugal’s bonuses as a Historical Lucky Nation, their National Ideas, and a unique Age of Discovery bonus they can pick.

I usually keep Lucky Nations turned on because it is the game’s default setting, and because, as you’ll hopefully see by the end of this AAR, these bonuses don’t improve the AI’s ability to dominate the player that much.

​

Anyway, the colonies we’ve already started in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico and Havanna) won’t cause any outrage with Portugal or the Pope, but they will now grow slower. But if we start any new colonies in the region, their opinions will decrease. We have a choice to make here:

• Cut our losses: once our 2 colonies finish, we leave the Caribbean and go colonize somewhere else. We won’t get a Colonial Nation this way and will have to own those provinces directly, but they’re still rich provinces with Trade Centers. Not a huge loss even if we won’t get another subject or Merchant.
• Form a CN: colonize 3 more provinces when we can (preferably Trade Centers) to gain a new subject, then leave. Our relations with the Pope and Portugal will suffer, but we should be able to manage a small malus.
  
  • Having a subject in the Caribbean also adds extra diplomatic options for us. Nations with their capital in the New World who declare on other New-World-capital nations, won’t have to worry about the nations’ overlord defending them most of the time (except for one exception).
  • So, we could eventually build up our Caribbean CN enough to challenge Portugal’s CN in a 1 vs. 1 fight. We won’t have control of the peacedeal. But as long as our subject wins, they will take land. And we can economically subsidize them too.
  • The exception to the overlord not defending them rule is the “Enforce Peace” diplomatic option. Portugal could send an ultimatum to us to force a white peace, otherwise they’d escalate it into a full war. Portugal would be the defender and able to call its own allies as well.
• Double Down: We go all in to try and get 10 provinces before Portugal fills in the entire region. Trade will be, by the end of the game, our largest source of income. Directing the flow of trade with our Merchants will help with this. Our relations with Portugal will suffer. But since they’ll want our Caribbean land forever if we do this, they don’t matter. The real issue is the Pope. But if I keep a diplomat on him to keep his relations high, we might be fine.

We don’t have to make a decision until Puerto Rico finishes (currently at 819 settlers). But it’s something to think about as we continue playing.

In August, Provence decides to annoy us by besieging our capital with 6,000 men. There’s nothing we can do except turn on the Defensive Edict and wait. We have 7,000 men in Ireland, but all our transports are across the Atlantic. I immediately order them to make the crossing. Hopefully, they arrive in time.

​

The month after that, we take the next diplo tech. We’re finally caught up on all 3 categories! This tech isn’t anything special, just slight increases to Trade Range and naval Morale, and a new building for increased naval forcelimit. We at least get the ahead-of-time bonus now for a little while (5 years).

​

By October, our ships arrive in Ireland. I ship our whole army over to Pen-ar-Bed and prepare for a confrontation. While this happens, we get a free Stability from an event. We’re finally, for the first time this campaign above 0. I’d wanted to boost us up manually as well before clicking the event so we could be at a discounted +2, but we didn’t have enough points.

​

We also finally end our American war in January 1501. Here’s what we took (both provinces end up going to d’Elbene):

• Susquehannock (in Pennsylvania to the west of Lenape: AMT. 35 ducats. Is disconnected from everything so can’t be cored.
• Cherokee (in Virginia on the coast): AMT. 80 ducats (15.38 goes to d’Elbene because of their participation).

The next Institution, Colonialism, spawns as well in January. We had a chance for it to spawn in us, but unfortunately, fate favors Portugal. Regardless, it should spread to us rather quickly because of our ideas and colonial focus. The Institution’s province of origin, Porto, does get a permanent modifier to signify its importance as a colonial port. It would’ve been nice if we had gotten it, but oh well.

​

Now, I’m out of screenshots, but this chapter feels a little short. To make up for it, here are some nice-looking maps of our burgeoning empire.

See you all later and thanks for reading!

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Given the type of European empire you're building, why not compete with Portugal directly and also conquer them in Europe?

 

[Midnite Duke]

How goes the Vatican/Provence war overall? How much help does the Poop (shame on him, our ally and he says that Port U Gal should own the Carib Bean) need? Thanks

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

That siege should last a while, but hopefully your capital doesn't get captured.

 

[Cromwell]

Don't roll of over in the Caribbean, they stole the instituation spawn from you and it's time you stole something from them! Time for a Breton colonial nation in the land of sun and sugar!

 

[Bullfilter]

Will look forward to seeing what you try re Portugal and the Caribbean. For me, it would be mainly about the opportunity cost of going all-in for the Caribbean. Are there other new regions where you might be able to get the treaty backing for Brittany?

 

[diskoerekto]

depends on your goals. Self-governing colonies grow much faster than the other two types if you need to fill out the uncolonized areas quickly. The downside is that they are the most disloyal. Crown colonies are the most loyal and integrated. They are perfect if your CN owns any gold provinces due to an interaction you can do with them. Private enterprises are good in areas with cash crops (sugar, tobacco, etc), and in my experience, will build larger navies than the other two. Ideal if you want to project trade/naval power overseas.

So one can leave them as self governing until they expand into all the empty territory then change to loyal crown colony

If you didn’t believe we were in a race with Portugal before, this next bit of info will certainly change your mind. Both us and Portugal have picked Exploration and Expansion as our first two idea groups, but Portugal has nearly double our colony growth. Part of this is the recently signed treaty, but the rest is because of Portugal’s bonuses as a Historical Lucky Nation, their National Ideas, and a unique Age of Discovery bonus they can pick.

But didnt we just lose the race already if they managed to get tordesillas for Caribbean? Does it become a lost cause after this or is there a way to get sanctioned as the rightful colonizer of the region?

Double Down: We go all in to try and get 10 provinces before Portugal fills in the entire region. Trade will be, by the end of the game, our largest source of income. Directing the flow of trade with our Merchants will help with this. Our relations with Portugal will suffer. But since they’ll want our Caribbean land forever if we do this, they don’t matter. The real issue is the Pope. But if I keep a diplomat on him to keep his relations high, we might be fine.

My question above is mostly answered, but still, 1- is there a specific reason for 10 provinces or is it just a random number bigger than 5? 2- regarding the fixed flow pattern of trade nodes, can we say Caribbean is by far the most important node of the new world?

We also finally end our American war in January 1501. Here’s what we took (both provinces end up going to d’Elbene):

Are there local nations in other north American regions such as canada or Louisiana which form a land bridge until the coast? Since they migrate, is it a strategy to keep an eye on them to align so they can be Anne Ed and cored?

 

[filcat]

Right.

First off, the war.

---

so the Florentines and Provençals should be too distracted to bother us, right? What do you think?

Heh.
diskoerekto, Midnite Duke, Rennslaer already gave the answer, and jak already confirmed the outcome as the provence-tag besieging the capital of the player.

Spoiler: To clarify

(and to answer Bullfilter as well);

For the reasons the others mentioned above and my own experience, it sounds like they’ll come for you … but only if they can get at you via a land route. What is the status of France?

There is no if in that equation. Any tag that is at least of neutral attitude with any other can and will grant the military access. There is even a possibility for the code to grant the access to its rivals, and there is the situation when even friendly attitude would not be enough to receive military access (at war with another ally of the tag).
In this particular situation, at this phase (beginning of mid-phase), every possible tag must have already kept their relations high with the france-tag. Also all tags in that war are most probably neutral if not friendly with the france-tag, and despite the provence-france alliance fell off long ago, due to proximity they will have neutral attitudes for each other at the least. If the france-tag is outraged at the provence-tag or vice-versa, there is still the florence-tag that usually keeps good relations with the france-tag, which can ask for it.
Own bet is that if not the provence-tag, then the access rights have been asked by the papal-tag, the war leader. Yeah, for various reasons. Hovering over the access rights flag will reveal the answer to which tag it is originally granted.
Addendum: Don't forget the lorraine-tag. A disloyal subject will sit and defend its own provinces instead of actively participating in the overlord's war, yes, but the same disloyal subject can and will still ask for military access from any other tag, therefore the overlord will have the access rights. Oh yeah.

In any case, the player has no mitigating moves for the military access warfare aspect of this war, which is... usual.

---

Second; one part that actually prompted this comment.

We had a chance for it to spawn in us, but unfortunately, fate favors Portugal.

Uh...

they stole the instituation spawn from you

Errr...

Not exactly, and as much as the situation being frustrating, it is not stolen, that is just a dice-roll for the player vs. the code, but on top of that, the player has actually lower chances against the code in this case.

The colonialism requires, among others, a province that:

is in Europe, Asia, or Africa, coastal, not an island, in a state,​

is connected to the capital​

is the capital or has at least 12 development or has a Center of Trade​

So a tag with explo-set that has discovered any province in north-south America does not get an increase in its chances to spawn the institution. It does not matter being the first time discoverer, else having ten colonial subjects by 1500, or hundreds of colonies, etc., these do not affect any chances, but only make the tag eligible,
AND,
brittany-tag has 4 coastal provinces in Europe,1 capital, 3 connected to its capital. Provinces in Ireland, etc. are not eligible, not connected to the capital.
portugal-tag has 5 coastal provinces in Europe, 1 capital, 4 connected to its capital. Provinces in Africa, islands of Açores, Madeira, etc. are not eligible, not connected to the capital.

Each province has 5% chance to spawn at the beginning of a year, starting with 1500.

(assuming all above have 12-dev or more, else with centre of trade, such as Porto) So by the number of eligible provinces to test for 5%, the player has lower chances than the code-portugal.

The dice-roll still follows the province id list, but it chooses the highest roll for x>=95 in (0,100). It did not favour the castile-tag, nor the england-tag (no idea if it has taken explo-set), etc.; as they have more coastal provinces with 12-dev or more, they should have higher chances. But the first round apparently failed, and it has spawned one year later than 1500.

Edit: Minor simplifications and grammatical correction; added minor clarifications.

 

[jak7139]

Given the type of European empire you're building, why not compete with Portugal directly and also conquer them in Europe?

We'd have to tackle Portugal's allies if we went in directly. They have England, Castille, and the Pope on their side. If we can steal the Caribbean through a proxy war, I'd much prefer to do that.

Don't roll of over in the Caribbean, they stole the instituation spawn from you and it's time you stole something from them! Time for a Breton colonial nation in the land of sun and sugar!

Will look forward to seeing what you try re Portugal and the Caribbean. For me, it would be mainly about the opportunity cost of going all-in for the Caribbean.

We won't see for a couple chapters yet what I decided about the Caribbean. We technically have two decisions to make: do we push for five provinces to get a CN, and do we then make five more colonies to get an extra merchant?

Merchants are nice, but will this be worth it? We'll see.

How goes the Vatican/Provence war overall? How much help does the Poop (shame on him, our ally and he says that Port U Gal should own the Carib Bean) need?

The Pope is slowly sieging Provence and Florence down. They could win this on their own, but they needed our help too for some reason.

This hatred towards the Pope...keep it in mind when a certain something happens later.

That siege should last a while, but hopefully your capital doesn't get captured.

That's the idea. I just need to ship enough troops back to relieve the siege.

So one can leave them as self governing until they expand into all the empty territory then change to loyal crown colony

Yes. It just takes monarch points and money to change their type. It might also give them some liberty desire, not sure since I've never done it. I've always just kept them as whatever I picked when they formed.

But didnt we just lose the race already if they managed to get tordesillas for Caribbean? Does it become a lost cause after this or is there a way to get sanctioned as the rightful colonizer of the region?

The only way to become sanctioned as the rightful owner would be if Portugal somehow loses their CN. It's not a lost cause if Portugal gets the treaty, it's just harder for us to colonize provinces in the region.

My question above is mostly answered, but still, 1- is there a specific reason for 10 provinces or is it just a random number bigger than 5? 2- regarding the fixed flow pattern of trade nodes, can we say Caribbean is by far the most important node of the new world?

Ten provinces and above means the CN gives you a merchant. That's the main benefit of having them.

The Caribbean is very key since it flows to so many other spots. Yes, I'd say for directing New World trade, it is the most important.

Are there local nations in other north American regions such as canada or Louisiana which form a land bridge until the coast? Since they migrate, is it a strategy to keep an eye on them to align so they can be Anne Ed and cored?

In my experience, the AI natives migrate to random provinces, so the likelihood of a land bridge forming is very low. It's much faster to annex them and colonize them to fill in the gaps. We don't have to deal with the uncored, provinces, our subject does. So it's not a huge priority for us.

Thank you @filcat for the detailed info about military access and institution spawns. I didn't know it followed the province ID list like that. Very useful to keep in mind.

 

[jak7139]

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Professionalism & Brittany’s Next Top General
|-|
(January 1501-November 1503)​

With Colonialism having spawned in the last chapter, the world sees permanent changes to the prices of Livestock and Grain. We have a few of these provinces, but it’s probably a wash. Neither good is very valuable anyway.

​

As our army in Europe gears up for battle, our North American army doesn’t stay idle. Next, we move against Mahican and their allies of Powhatan and Osheaga. Sklaer’s force pounces on the Mahican army and capital, while I tell d’Elbene to go siege Osheaga.

​

In April, the Pope separate peaces Ferrara by annexing them. We get 11.73 ducats for our trouble. Even though we haven’t helped at all, our besieged provinces count for participation as far as the game’s concerned.

​

After that, we pick up the Age bonus for an extra +1 to our dice-roll in battles with the same terrain as our capital. Then, helpfully, our European army doesn’t even need to fight the enemy force in Brittany. A combined Papal-Tridentine force arrives in Bro-Naoned, beating the enemy there, then stackwiping them in Anjou since they’ve nowhere to run.

​

I load our army back onto our transports and head for Ireland. More rebellions are always brewing because of our actions to decrease Autonomy. But eventually their anger will subside. We need the economic value out of those provinces more than we need a peaceful populace.

October sees Naples’ war against Florence end. Naples takes Pisa while Savoy takes Avignon and Forcalquier. It’s at this point I noticed Avignon wasn’t owned by the Pope (that’s how little I’ve been paying attention to this war). Provence has a mission to ask the Pope for control of it. Sometimes he says no, other times yes. But I’d assumed since the Pope still owns Acchisi (Aix) from our first war (see Chapter 3) that they’d refuse.

​

Savoy takes this moment of peace to rival us. Not that this really matters since neither of us are near each other.

At the same time, Milan takes both of Genoa’s mainland Italian provinces and releases Corsica. The once mighty merchant republic is just left with their Black Sea and Aegean holdings, all of which are currently occupied by the Ottomans as part of the war mentioned in Chapter 21. The Turks end that war in November. They take the Aegean stuff, plus Venice’s provinces in Albania, Greece, and a few in Croatia.

​

With Puerto Rico almost finished (975 settlers), I’ve finally come to a decision regarding the Caribbean. When building an empire, you have to take risks. Our colonist starts the journey to Jamaica (a 10 Dev Trade Center).

The Pope helpfully chooses the Golden Bull for Institution Spread. With that, the already small risk of us falling behind on tech is negated. A province like Anjou, which doesn't normally meet the requirements for Colonialism to spread, is gaining it at 2.50 a month just because of its Cardinal.

Naples chooses to continue their conquests once 1502 rolls around. This time they go after unlucky Lucca. Weirdly, this puts Naples at war with their former ally Savoy. Why’d they waste warscore by giving provinces to Savoy in the last war if they were just going to end the alliance a few months later?

​

By April, d’Elbene finishes their siege of Osheaga and moves down to Powhatan. Aren’t subjects great? I don’t even have to waste manpower on sieges!

Castille takes a huge chunk out of Tunis. Even if we become rivals one day, right now, it’s good to have Castille so strong. The Pope doesn’t take anything from Provence, just money (we get 1.68 of it). Theodoro takes 2 of the 3 provinces in Genoese Crimea. The last one (Azov) is occupied by Crimea itself. But rather than annexing them, Crimea decides to make Genoa a vassal. Did they hope to reconquer some of their cores?

​

Our siege of Mahican ends in June. Now we’re just waiting for Powhatan to fall. Portugal finally rivals us during the middle of this. It was bound to happen eventually. But colonizing Jamaica has pushed them over the edge.

I turn on the Institution Spread Edict in all of our European provinces to help out. The sooner we embrace Colonialism, the sooner we can sell it back to someone for a profit. And, in happy news, Francois II has much better luck than his father regarding spousal loyalty. His wife Claudine is so loyal in fact, that he receives a permanent +1 to his admin stat.

In December, our Papal bonus for increased taxes expires. We unfortunately don’t have enough Papal Influence to pick it again. And we won’t have enough for a while, as violating the Treaty of Tordesillas also penalizes your PI for every colony you put down.

More importantly than that though, we AMT Osheaga. Their province is immediately transferred to d’Elbene, giving them their tenth province, and us an extra Merchant.

I decide that sending him to the Caribbean node is our best bet. The Caribbean is a very important node as it transfers to Sevilla, Chesapeake Bay, and Bordeaux. Right now, all the money is going towards Sevilla because of Portugal. But with the number of Trade Centers we control in the region (3 of the 6), we should have enough power to force some of that money towards Bordeaux. Our trade income goes from 5.92 before the change (Dec. 1502), to 6.71 when I check it again (July 1503).

In January, young Henri’s fifteenth birthday comes around. His first trait is really good! Decreased AE Impact. Even though his stats are average, that trait has sealed the deal for me, we’re keeping him.

​

We’re already in 2 wars. What’s the harm in starting another? This time, we’re attacking Innui, Algonquin, Cree, and Ottawa.

​

With a few events providing extra admin power, we’re able to pick up the next Expansion slot in June. This gives us extra tariffs which is…not much. But it also gives us decreased travel time for our diplomats. With the amount of transatlantic wars we’re conducting, this is a great boost.

​

Since we’re nearing the mil points cap, we could consider doing more development. However, there’s one other way to get manpower which we haven’t discussed yet: Professionalism.

On the Military screen, there’s a horizontal progress-bar that runs across it with a tricorn in the top-left corner. As your Professionalism grows, that bar fills up, giving your army different bonuses. If your manpower situation is dire, you can spend Professionalism to increase your rate of manpower recovery by a significant amount. Since your recovery-rate is also affected by your cap, if you have a large maximum manpower, you can refill it quickly with Professionalism.

There are 2 main ways to gain Professionalism:

• Drilling: drilling is a special action you can do with your armies that gives you ticking Professionalism as long as they drill. Drilling decreases their morale down to 0 but will fill up your Professionalism bar and another bar specific to your army (which I will discuss another time). The amount of Professionalism you get is determined by the proportion of your forcelimit that is drilling.
• Hiring Generals: every time you hire a general, your Professionalism increases by +1. That’s it.

So, with our excess number of mil points, I decide to hire a couple of generals. I’ll only keep one since I don’t want to go over our general-cap right now, but even the ones we fire the same day they’re hired still give Professionalism.

First up, we have Roman de Beaudiez, a relative of Loïc. Unfortunately, his stats aren’t great. No nepotism today. We send him away.

Next, we have someone pretending to be the legendary Erwan de Machecoul. They have the same name and everything. His stats are okay, but we can do better. Thanks for coming in. Next!

The last candidate is finally someone new. Gwilherm de Kerdrel. He has the exact same stats as Erwan, except he has an extra Fire pip. Oh, if only we were in the 1600s…

​

Anyway, that’s enough auditions for now. Gwilherm can stay. Welcome to the team!

Part of the reason we did all this was because there were only 7 days left on the Innovativeness timer for the next mil tech. We’re at the cap for the number of mil points we can hold, so need to spend some of it. We spent 147 on generals (our current Innovativeness has decreased the cost to 49 from the normal 50) and 770 on mil tech 9.

Tech 9 is very important. We get some more Tactics, an extra +1 to our CW, and get to pick a new infantry unit. France or Portugal should be deterred from attacking us, at least until they also get the tech, and our New World wars should be even easier.

​

Speaking of our wars, how are they going? Well, Innui and Algonquin’s armies are holed up on Newfoundland not doing anything. Our armies are sieging as much as they can.

​

The Mahican war is almost over, we’re just waiting for our diplomats to finish their European duties first. They are each improving relations with Castille, the Pope, and France.

And the Pope has just finished their war. They annex what’s left of Florence, and we get 3.23 ducats.

​

In August, Havanna finishes. Seems those cigars were more popular than Francois thought. Because our transports are busy, I colonize Guane, the province next-door, so our garrison at Havanna can just march into it.

Three last things before I end it here. One, I move our Merchant from the North Sea to Chesapeake Bay. I suspect that with our control over the East Coast solidifying, we’d make more money Transferring Trade from Chesapeake to GSL, which would then go to Bordeaux.

Turns out, I’m right. We were making 0.59 in the North Sea and 6.71 in total. Now, we transfer an extra 0.70 from Chesapeake to GSL, which then moves towards Bordeaux, and make 7.16 in total.

Secondly, Bro-Naoned becomes the seat of a Cardinal. Our alliance with the Pope is a great benefit. I hope it never ends.

And thirdly, we end our Mahican war:

• Powhatan: AMT.
• Mahican: AMT. 45 ducats (d’Elbene gets 23.65 of that).
• Both provinces go to d’Elbene.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Presumably this means the Pope is about to die.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

We’re already in 2 wars. What’s the harm in starting another? This time, we’re attacking Innui, Algonquin, Cree, and Ottawa.

Why stop at three?

 

[Midnite Duke]

Did you experiment with sending Caribbean to Chesapeake to Gulf St. Lawrence to Bordeaux instead of Caribbean to Bordeaux? (Paradox Law #7b states that more confusion is better.) Is the end goal to move our home trade zone from Bordeaux to the English Channel? What are approx. modern-day locations of Mahican and Powhatan? Are both core-able or do we not care since it is a colonial nation problem? Who are our enemies/rivals? Thanks

 

[Cromwell]

I'm glad you have stood up to Portrugal, they should learn their place.

 

[crisrko]

Hey jak, just wanted to let you know I've nominated you for WritAAR of the week.

 

[diskoerekto]

As our army in Europe gears up for battle, our North American army doesn’t stay idle. Next, we move against Mahican and their allies of Powhatan and Osheaga. Sklaer’s force pounces on the Mahican army and capital, while I tell d’Elbene to go siege Osheaga.

Are they in the same colonial region as the cn we have?

With Puerto Rico almost finished (975 settlers), I’ve finally come to a decision regarding the Caribbean. When building an empire, you have to take risks. Our colonist starts the journey to Jamaica (a 10 Dev Trade Center).

If it takes 10 provinces for the extra merchant you gotta do this

What’s the harm in starting another? This time, we’re attacking Innui, Algonquin, Cree, and Ottawa.

For sure Canada this time