To answer many of your questions, I recommend going into “country guides” at http://www.europa-universalis.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page This helped me through the learning phase of the game (I played Castille and Portugul mainly while learning)
But to address specific points:
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What government type do you usually strive for and when do you go for it? I’ve just been going with whatever government everyone else seems to have…usually an Administrative Monarchy. What do YOU like, and how do you go for it?
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If you are a small country without much land, go for a government with +% to trade income. If you have lots of land and resources, go for +% to production. You know how it’ll say furs sell for 20.4g (or so)? Well, you only get your production % of that. So if you have 50% production, you really only get 10.2g income from that. You get the idea.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
How do you arrange your slider bars for domestic policy…or do you just leave them alone? I have NO idea what is good or not. Usually when it gives me the option I’ve been moving the bar between Mercantilism and Free Trade toward Free Trade…and the one between Innovative and Narrowmindedness toward Innovative. Also, I played a bit with the moving towards Free Subjects. The usual result seems to be I start to run out of money or provinces revolt when I screw with the bars though.
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If you intend to explore and settle the gray unsettled territories on the map (mostly African, East Asian, and the Western Hemisphere) then bump up everything that gives you more colonists. You need 10 successful colonists (1000 population total) sent to an unsettled territory to make it become a full province, so you need about 4 million of them by the end of the game. After that, focus on anything that increases you production % or trade % (see above for which to focus on). Don’t worry about the negative +% to technology. It costs quite a bit to begin with, and another 1% won’t make much difference in the long run.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
How the hell do you do trade? What I generally have been doing is finding the trade center that seems to be worth the most and then throwing all my traders at it over and over again. It seems that every couple of turns they all get kicked out (or something…gods know) so I just keep doing it. This can’t possibly be the optimal strategy though.
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Read the trade strategy on that website I linked above, it gives a great tutorial on the how and why of trade in this game. I think it is under ‘core concepts’
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What National Ideas do you like…and why? I’ve just been picking them pretty much at random…though I go with the ones that seem to be for trade mostly.?
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I tend to go with vast land-based empires with as much territory as I can manage. I focus on conquering my neighbors by overwhelming troop numbers, and at the same time exploring and settling new territories. Therefore, I favor production well over trade. In order, my national ideas generally are Deus Vult, Quest for the New World, Smithian Economics, National Bank, Viceroys, Bureaucracy, Bill Of Rights, Shrewd Commerce Practice, National Trade Policy, Military Drill.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Do you mess with the slider bars for money and technology…or just leave them alone? If you mess with them, whats your strategy? The only one I usually screw with is the one for the treasury if I’m running a deficit…but I have no idea if I should put more in Naval, Land or whatever.
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In general, try to keep a little going into your treasury as you can. Money going into your treasury leads to inflation. While not really noticable at first, after about 100 years you’ll have potentially doubled the price of everything. Try to get by on just your end-of-year income (I know, not always feasable, but do your best). One of the buildings, Constable I think, increases this end-of-year income by 50%, so build those as soon as you can.
Otherwise, keep all research at an even keel as they are weighted to not outpace each other too far. If you are in desperate need of stability points, by all means throw everything you can into stability until it gets back on track.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
How do you play the whole colonization thingy? Which do you go for? At first I just started grabbing any in the new world as they were explored (no idea WHO is doing that exploration either :))…but I don’t think this was a very good strategy. I also grabbed (or tried too grab) a bunch of territories in the south Pacific…though it takes forever. What do you usually go for and how much effort do you put in it?
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It depends on the country I am playing. If you are a European power, get to the new world as fast as you can. Colonize the Caribbean for some quick cash and profitable land. The New World is easily 5x as rich as mainland Europe. South America is very nice to colonize, as is Southeastern North America. Just keep pumping out colonists as fast and often as you can, and as many as you can afford. Heck, it’s territory without war, which is hard to come by.
Oh, I suppose I should explain how to explore. Once you get the “Quest for the New World” national idea, you will be able to build Conquistadors (for land) and Explorers (for boats). These can be found on the far right tab next to generals. It takes 1 colonist to create a conquistador or explorer. Select a unit (say a boat). See where it says “no leader” in the boat’s window? While in a friendly territory, click that button and select an explorer. Now you can move that boat into the previously white “Terra Incognita” areas. The same process applies for land units.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
What (if anything) do you do with religion?
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Territories that have a different religion than your main one pay significantly less taxes and are more likely to revolt. Pick a religion (recommend Catholic for european nations) and stick with it. When you can afford it and the % chance get fairly high, send missionaries to your territories with different religions to convert them.
Regarding the religion sliders, I tend to go all or nothing. Obviously you want full tolerance on your main religion. Put the sliders to full for any other religions that are active in territories you own. If you are intolerant of Islam, for instance, your Islamic provinces with be significantly more likely to rebel. Get these converted as quickly as possible to your main religion (see above).
[QUOTE=xtisme]
How do I fix my Tax Rate and Inflation? In the last game I played, it claimed my Tax Rate was 125%(!!) and my inflation was something like 69%(!!)…but I don’t see where you can even SET the Tax Rate. In addition, despite this seemingly ruinous rate, I still had what looked to me like plenty of money coming in…and no major revolts on my hands (except when I would screw with the bars :)).
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You don’t set your tax rate. It is based on many factors, such as relion in each province, national ideas, whether there is a land connection to a territory, etc. Each territory screen has the tax in the top right corner. This works the same as production or trade %. If you have a 90% tax rate, you get 90% of that number for that territory.
For inflation, try not to bring in money to your treasury each month if you can help it. Get the National Bank national idea, and build Tax Assessors as soon as you are able. It’s damn near impossible to keep inflation at 0, but you can manage it if careful. If it makes you feel better, my first game I didn’t know this, and had an inflation of 124 by 1600.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Advisors…whats your strategy? I’ve been simply picking the ‘good’ ones whenever they come up and in the mean time I usually just pick a diplomat, trader and colonist if I’m in that phase of the game…if not I either leave it blank or go with maybe the spymaster type. Should I just leave them open if there isn’t anyone good?
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I go for colonists above all else, followed by researchers and stability managers. I don’t use trade, but if I did I assume I’d want merchants. Balance these the best you see fit. Would you rather have a 3 star colonist or 5 star researcher? Go with what you need most at the time. If I’m given the choice of all 1 star advisors, I try to at least fill it with a colonist because they are usually my limiting factor in expansion.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Wars…do you bother? Every time I went to war it was a long drawn out slogfest…and usually I lose. Even when I take a territory it doesn’t seem I GET the territory unless there is a peace and they cede the land to me. If I leave everyone alone (I played England) everyone seems to leave me alone (the exception being the stupid Welsh that keep trying to win back their home land by revolting).
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Go to the first tab. Under your prestige there is a summary of your reputation. Probably “You have a respectable reputation” to start. Hover over this to get a numerical number. These are known as Badboy points, the most important number to watch in the game. You gain points for being, well, evil. You get 1 point for declaring war, 6 for annexing another country, a couple for getting ceded territories, etc. This number slowly goes down depending on your leader, usually .4 to .8 per year. Yes, year. It takes a damn long time to gain respect back. When you declare war, you better make sure you do it right.
Best strategy for war: Calvery with annihilate infantry. Infantry can take forts by force. If you want to take a level 1 fort with 1000 troops inside, bring 8000 infantry and storm the place. You will now ‘occupy’ that territory. When you try to talk about peace to a country you are at war with, they have a rating for what they think of you. It is the large white number when you first send a diplomat. This can go up to a maximum of 99%. The higher the number, the more likely they are to settle for peace in your favor. To get this number higher, you’ll need to take a couple territories.
Let me give an example. Say I am France in a war on Castille. I want Navarra. I can’t just stand troops around in Navarra. The world at large still things of it as a Castille province with me invading. I need Castille to agree that it is mine. So I take a huge army and rampage across the Castille countryside occupying his provinces. Make sure you leave a few thousand men behind in each to protect it from counterattack. Once Castille is suffiently pissed off, demand that he give you Navarra in exchange for peace. On the peace offer screen, Navarra will be given a numerical value. The higher the value, the more it is worth, and the more reluctant that Castille will be to give it up. Trial and error are best for learning how far you can push a country into giving up its territory.
Just remember, for war: Overwhelming odds, calvary for battles, infantry for sieges. I don’t bother with cannons because, well, I build ALOT of infantry and calvary.
Another thing about war: If you can afford it, recruit a general for each army. This gives them modifiers to their attacks that give you a large edge against the enemy. Recruit generals the same was as Explorers above.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Those are my basic questions ( 
I know…not so basic or easy)…if you can think of anything else that you do to play the game let me know. It DOES seem to be a pretty cool game, but its one of those that figuring out how to play is the easy part…figuring out a winning strategy seems much more difficult.
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PM me or post to this thread any more questions you may have. I learned of this game originally from a thread here (I’ll see if I can find it) where someone posted a great story of his rise with Mecklenburg, and it just tickled the strategy-game gene in me in ways it hasn’t been tickled since reading The Worthing Sage by Orson Scott Card. I haven’t quit playing this game in weeks.
I hope for a multiplayer patch that allows someone to join a game in mid-session. Imagine the possibility of 20 straight dope players each picking a country, setting the game speed to the slowest possible, and everyone logging in once every day or two to issue orders to their prospective country. I’m sorry, but to me that sounds phenominally awesome.
I know…not so basic or easy)…if you can think of anything else that you do to play the game let me know. It DOES seem to be a pretty cool game, but its one of those that figuring out how to play is the easy part…figuring out a winning strategy seems much more difficult.
