Actually, Court Ideas is S class

[psvoid]

Almost always taking Court Ideas for second time because all perks are useful there: reform progress, +1 diplomacy MP and +1 to privileges (especially actual for burgers and rabbies), +0.2 to republican tradition - is very useful for reforms and to keep your ruler maxed if have no other sources etc. Mb prestige +1 is minor, but it's still actual early games. But only recently found their superiority nail: -20% to estates interactions provides you not only free generals, explorers, admirals and ministers supply, but the most important: selliing lands, diet calls and revoking lands is now not 5, but 4 years. And with the supremacy of the diet you have everyone happy, your republic tradition maxed and your coffins full of money.

 

[nobodyinparticular]

It provides excellent quality of life and has some good policies but it remains unpopular (except with emperor of china, for which the idea group is perfectly built) because of the opportunity costs - as a colonizer you want exploration and for most nations diplomatic, influence and espionage are king for players who want to blob & do subject play. I do have an idea stirring to do a Friesland -> Netherlands run with court-plutocratic to stack reform progress growth and access the juicy Netherlands government reforms (Modern Economics & Seven Provinces) as early as possible.

 

[windwalker14]

On it's surface. court ideas can be considered average or less. but with policies with Adm. Quantity.Infrastructure.Mercenary.or 2 others they give nice bonuses. I my opinion this idea group is the linchpin to 4 to 6 good polices and extra absolutism reduction.

P.S. I do not use the idea group in every game i play. usually just blobing or need more estate privileges or both.

 

[Cavalry]

Reform progress can be quick by by seizing crown land more than 50-60-70%..., do it every 5 years even if that trigger rebel. We can limit the rebel and loss of loyal by using the privlige that prevent seize crown land of that faction, like the Nobility one that don't cost crownland, or the Merchant Guild that cost 5% but can be useful a long time. By using 2 of this then we only seize land from the third faction, like Clergy. After the Clergy have no land left, then we remove the previliges and seize others

The best 1st idea group other than Quantity, probably is Exploration because:

- It is not just about colony, but help expand toward gold and weak countries. Send spy, then send a colonist next to them, then make a claim, then conquer them then abandon the colony. Repeat elsewhere. The gold is in Marocco, Mexico, Peru, Kilwa... Trade is a benefit later.

- There is a lot of good policy and good events trigger by Exploring Ideas.

- Exploring is sync with the first Age: discover America, present in 2 continents...

- Exploring is all about who reach first and seize the gold province first. So choose it FIRST and rush it , at least for the first 3 idea and Diplo tech 7. Colonial range is lacking and important in early game, so gather everything to get more colonial range.

The rush factor also adds spicy to the game.

 

[iClipse]

Court is an idea group I often pick very lategame. Don't consider it very good early though. And lategame I take it for the policies. 5% CCR and 5% warscore cost is very good. As is Morale damage with Offensive ideas.

Early game, your real bottlenecks are aggressive expansion, and coring costs imo and court doesn't help to mitigate those.

My game usually goes: Admin / Religious (or Humanist) / Diplo as first 3 groups. Sometimes I go for Espionage and take Diplo as 5th group. 4th group always a military group. After that it becomes more flexible, and court gets picked sometimes, as does Naval ideas since invading Britain or crossing Gibraltar can be a pain.

 

[Dakka]

I like them but other idea groups just generally help me more. I usually take them as one of the last groups when I feel I don't have any other pressing choices

 

[Daamned]

Each idea groups have their own utilities, there are no useless idea group.

Court Ideas are the diplomatic ideas which strenghen your country, an administrative idea but using diplo mana.
Diplomatic ideas reinforce your pure diplomatic capacity.
Influence same but more vassal inclined for peaceful expansion.
Espionnage is tailor-made for aggressive expansionism.
Exploration is for colonisation.
Maritime is for navy.
Trade is for money.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Reform progress can be quick by by seizing crown land more than 50-60-70%..., do it every 5 years even if that trigger rebel. We can limit the rebel and loss of loyal by using the privlige that prevent seize crown land of that faction, like the Nobility one that don't cost crownland, or the Merchant Guild that cost 5% but can be useful a long time. By using 2 of this then we only seize land from the third faction, like Clergy. After the Clergy have no land left, then we remove the previliges and seize others

This certainly speeds it up, but w/o using exploits for reform progress, you're probably still looking at early 1600s for tier 13 at earliest if you start as a monarchy and want to end in theocracy. That's if you also only make full states and lower autonomy whenever possible.

Starting as republic, you can go a bit faster, because you don't have slower progress until the tier that allows switching.

If you use the shenanigans that unlock tier 13 before 1500, then none of this matters. Regardless, court's impact on reform progress is a drop in the bucket compared to keeping autonomy low and getting +80% to +180% progress from crown land + republican tradition, if you want to rush it using intended interactions.

As for court ideas, they are ousted by 3 better diplomatic idea groups generally (diplomatic, influence, espionage) and sometimes temporarily exploration as well. This makes them a very late game addition as 7th or 8th group most likely. We can cap score cost using theocracy + diplomatic + monuments pretty easily in vanilla.

 

[psvoid]

It provides excellent quality of life and has some good policies but it remains unpopular (except with emperor of china, for which the idea group is perfectly built) because of the opportunity costs - as a colonizer you want exploration and for most nations diplomatic, influence and espionage are king for players who want to blob & do subject play. I do have an idea stirring to do a Friesland -> Netherlands run with court-plutocratic to stack reform progress growth and access the juicy Netherlands government reforms (Modern Economics & Seven Provinces) as early as possible.

I take Expansion (not even sure why Exploration is needed, Expansion surpass it everywhere and you can gain free explorers from your Burgers or just steal maps). Exploration only need to be taken empty once per 20 years for your Clergy to enact assimilation, then you just scrap it. Playing Maluccas, I don't ever need conquistadors.

 

[Cavalry]

Exploration have better priviliges, range and events. Gold rushing is all about who capture gold provinces first.
We don't need to hard colonize a province, it is very slow, about 20 years in early game, just send a spy, send a colony then make claim. So one colonist is enough.

Also the +25% naval limit will help you reach 500 ships for Naval Hegemon faster and more trade ships.

 

[psvoid]

Exploration have better priviliges, range and events. Gold rushing is all about who capture gold provinces first.
We don't need to hard colonize a province, it is very slow, about 20 years in early game, just send a spy, send a colony then make claim. So one colonist is enough.

Also the +25% naval limit will help you reach 500 ships for Naval Hegemon faster and more trade ships.

Actually, I dislike gold: it's the only resource that depletes, can't be scaled well, has no provincial bonus, generates inflation and doesn't increase trade. I prefer cloves. They don't decrease in price and provide a whopping bonus. Paper and gems also fine. And according to colonies: they are mostly useless as an income source. My almost fully colonized Australia provided like 1 gold income with -600 debt every couple of years and never participated in my wars.

 

[A Pink Duck]

Actually, I dislike gold: it's the only resource that depletes, can't be scaled well, has no provincial bonus, generates inflation and doesn't increase trade. I prefer cloves. They don't decrease in price and provide a whopping bonus. Paper and gems also fine. And according to colonies: they are mostly useless as an income source. My almost fully colonized Australia provided like 1 gold income with -600 debt every couple of years and never participated in my wars.

I actually made a personal mod that works like abolition of slavery, where it replaces all my gold provinces with something else.

 

[Cavalry]

We never have too much gold. Go for gold early also solve many problems, like we don't need to conquer a lot of land and coring them or worrry about limits. Also gold that goes into our pockets is not going to enemy's pocket.

Here is year 1574 with gold from Mexico, Peru, Alaska.. Gold from Treasure Fleet in colonial nation, and Gold from 2 own provinces. Total roughly equale to a very successful Trade income. This is not a stress for record, just regular gameplay.

 

[Lord Sheogorath]

I love the two gold producing monuments in the americas that give flat goods produced bonuses. The first level is always worth investing and no risk of depletion. I take exploration just for these two.