Minarchist said:
I downloaded Europa Portugalis a few days ago, and I'm really getting a chance to enjoy it, but I was wondering if some more experienced players could give some general guidelines to live by when playing EP. It's been really great so far, and I was simply delighted when I saw the coalition wars, and some really competitive AI. So I'm really wondering how I should change my style of play now that Ive made the conversion.
Well I can give you some tips.
1)You should try and make trade agreements(TAs) with strong AIs. This is not worth doing in vanilla single player games but in EP because those major AIs are so strong at trading it really can be profitable to take the -2% trade efficency loss to prevent alot of your merchants from being competed out. I wouldn't reccomend any TAs with minor AIs though. You'll probably only get 2 maybe 3 TAs with major powers at any point in time during the game.
2)Don't engage in any early wars except if you can really beat the AI up good because it's just too big of a mismatch. EP AIs are strong in early wars. You need good military tech, favorable DP settings, and preferably a good monarch military rating and good leaders to be successful in battles vs them.
3)Don't rack up high BB, ever! Keep it under 15 and even under 10 is better. If you get it too high you may get an unwanted DOW by a big AI that borders you. Also it very badly affects your trade income as your merchants get kicked out alot faster with high BB in EP. The few extra provinces you got for that high BB are probably going to be worth less than the trade income you'll lose because of the extra BB.
4)Explore the New World and Africa not just for colonies but to place merchants in COTs there. It may at times even be a higher priority than sending colonists out.
5)Wait for good monarchs and good leaders to go on the warpath. Wars that can be easily won in the vanilla may be harder in EP.
6)Don't keep fighting losing wars. If you're losing a war with a strong AI, maybe you should peace out at a loss quickly, rather thann losing even more in the long run.
7)Keep your navies in large bunches. Small navies may get slaughtered all over the world by the EP AIs as they have larger fleets than vanilla AIs.
8)Make fortresses to defend against the big AIs. In EP, I've actually found out that fortresses sometimes are necessary. They are especially important for lvl 1 fortresses. Empty colonies can often be easily overrun by EP AIs. Remember they have bigger navies, and thus transport troops more often.
9)Don't keep sending merchants to COTs that the AIs are consistently running you out of. That's right. Don't waste them. It probably won't get better later. The AIs just keep getting more and more aggressive in merchant placing throughout the course of the game.
10)Be on top of using explorers and conquistadors for exploration. It will rarely be worth it for you to use them for reducing the cost colonial attempts. EP has more explorers and conqs but they also usually have shorter lifespans.
11)Don't always diplo-annex your vassals. I've found that some times it's better to map trade with them instead and then even give them gifts. Often they'll then fill up some of your colonial COTs for you and then they'll last longer. Keep in mind that in EP the other major colonial powers colonize very aggressively and thus often when a new COT opens up, you won't be the one to get it. So keeping your COTs alive longer, albeit at less trade income than you would have if you were the only one occupying them, likely will make you more money in the long run.
Hope this helps you out.
