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psvoid

Second Lieutenant
Nov 12, 2023
191
136
Playing as a republic with 1000+ development, recently upgraded to empire but still out of the limits of governing capacity. I have less than half of my culture counties, so it's far from creating vassals or trading companies. I enacted infrastructure ideas, already picked some expanded infrastructures and every county have a courthouse. The tech level is 11, so it should be slightly better on 12, but still far from enough. So, my reform level is only 7 and it's not possible to expand the infrastructure for at least 50 years, how should I expand my government if every free MP is going on developing the counties? How could you keep blobs without government capacity? I still far enough to make trade companies because as I said - I only at the state making regular duchies with my culture group and underdevelopment counties are not the case here. According to simple calculations, I need at least 3000 GP when I conquer all counties of my culture.
 
Stop developing the provinces for a while, and you might want to scale back on the expanded infrastructure since each level adds 10% governing cost plus a flat 15 point increase.

In short, you should have completed the Administrative idea group for the +20% Governing Capacity modifier. Since you're nearly at tech 12, I would focus on getting that sooner rather than later (in your case) not only for the +100 gov cap increase but especially for the State Houses that will unlock. Once you can build State Houses, focus first on provinces with gems, glass, or paper trade goods (these boost the effectiveness of State Houses). Then concentrate on states with 5 provinces, then 4 province states, then finally 3 province states, making sure to build them in the most developed province in each state.

I'm also interested to know just what culture you are, and how you think you need 3000 Governing Capacity just to hold all same culture provinces.
 
Stop developing the provinces for a while, and you might want to scale back on the expanded infrastructure since each level adds 10% governing cost plus a flat 15 point increase.

In short, you should have completed the Administrative idea group for the +20% Governing Capacity modifier. Since you're nearly at tech 12, I would focus on getting that sooner rather than later (in your case) not only for the +100 gov cap increase but especially for the State Houses that will unlock. Once you can build State Houses, focus first on provinces with gems, glass, or paper trade goods (these boost the effectiveness of State Houses). Then concentrate on states with 5 provinces, then 4 province states, then finally 3 province states, making sure to build them in the most developed province in each state.

I'm also interested to know just what culture you are, and how you think you need 3000 Governing Capacity just to hold all same culture provinces.
Malay culture, the average county dev is about 25-30. As I said, I already finished admin ideas and stop developing is not a case.
 
You’ve hit the early game expansion wall. Fast expansion in the first 100 years usually results in moderate to major GC cap issues. It’s worse for republics because you don’t have accesss to the estate privileges that grant GC.

The only thing I do different than what you’ve done is I prefer not expand admin or centralize state at this point in a game unless critically necessary. I prefer to rush govt reforms, at least until I hit the +250 GC reform before I spend points expanding GC.
 
I already took +250 gov. reform, but it's still far from enough. Empire gives +400 and I already applied it. So, the gov. cap is 1000 while development is 1100. Estates give only +100 cap with a cost of 5% land - it's barely nothing.
Also what should you do with extra MP if I have a stack of -60% dev. cost? I got enough mercantilism using monopoly rights and you shouldn't take science ahead of time.
 
Centralize State on your states with highest governing cost/development (requires Leviathan).

It's expensive on admin and takes a long time, but it will reduce your governing cost for those states.

Just keep in mind that any -% in governing cost for a state applies *before* the flat governing cost increase that gets added via expanded infrastructure.
As a result, never centralize your capital state unless you intend to move your capital to another state for some reason.

That being said, I only play casually, and it's definitely not the optimal strat, but it will get the job done.
 
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Centralize State on your states with highest governing cost/development (requires Leviathan).

It's expensive on admin and takes a long time, but it will reduce your governing cost for those states.

Just keep in mind that any -% in governing cost for a state applies *before* the flat governing cost increase that gets added via expanded infrastructure.
As a result, never centralize your capital state unless you intend to move your capital to another state for some reason.

That being said, I only play casually, and it's definitely not the optimal strat, but it will get the job done.
You can't centralize capital duchy.
 
If you want to blob to WC, sooner or later you are better of skipping full states. Territory + courthouse is close to 0 gov cap. Half state + town hall is same.

It is probably possible to full state the entire world with enough modifier stacking, but at some point, 50% min auto after your first 2000+ dev is enough.
 
If you want to blob to WC, sooner or later you are better of skipping full states. Territory + courthouse is close to 0 gov cap. Half state + town hall is same.

It is probably possible to full state the entire world with enough modifier stacking, but at some point, 50% min auto after your first 2000+ dev is enough.
I tend to fully state the whole word when playing as Austria -> HRE. It is usually not even close to the gove cap tbh.
 
I tend to fully state the whole word when playing as Austria -> HRE. It is usually not even close to the gove cap tbh.
Specific nations can definitely change the math. Especially when you don't have to pay admin on making the full core like many other nations would need like when unifying HRE.

Half states are also a bit of a QoL annoyance, so it's nice to skip managing that once you can get away with it. They do allow for some pretty crazy culture drifting to stack mission bonuses though.
 
Are you building state houses in each state (notice that the governing cost reduction affects the whole state, and gets doubled with certain trade goods)? Also, do you have courthouses everywhere? Make sure to pick up all the governing cap estate privileges, centralize your most developed states (if you have the DLC, thanks PDX). Also remember that your capital state basically has no governing cost (assuming you haven't expanded infra), so feel free to stack your development there.

I'm uncertain if you meant to say expanding government capacity, but one thing to note that is that expanding infrastructure in a province is really, really bad for governing capacity. It gives a flat increase and a percentage increase, so on an already highly developed province, that expanded infra can easily kill your governing capacity. It's really good for your economy and devcost stacking, (particularly in clove provinces), but it's not something you put everywhere.

Another thing is that if you're a merchant republic (can build trade posts, make a trade league, etc.), you get a state governing cost penalty. Consider switching away to get rid of the penalty. As well, you don't actually have to expand through your whole culture group if your country can't handle it yet. GC increases with tech, and you will eventually unlock the upgrade to courthouses, so your GC will massively improve as time passes. Also, are you using vassals? You can still get the trade benefits by diverting trade, and deny the land to your enemies, without sucking up more of your GC. Your diplomatic relations limit is a resource you should be using for vassals at this point, and remember the Strong Duchies privilege (Nobility) exists for +2 diplo relations.