Paradox Studio Thread

[Super Hans v2]

I'm good at all Paradox games, I can blob in 50 years in CK2, I know that I need to rush gas attack in Vic2, I know that I eed to make 21/24 width inf divisions, but I can never understand how to make money in EU4. All my games bar one have resulted in mw quitting my 1500ish when I can't effectively conquer everyone around me and make money at the same time. the one game in where I made it to 1590 was one as England where united the isles before 1500 and managed to colonize but the Portugese resulted in border gore and they were allied to France who were allied to Aragon (Spain never formed) and I think Venice who would backsiege my mainland holdings, and whenever I went to war with France to try and finally put them down they got a huge 80something-k deathstack (For reference my armies were split up sieging down forts, 2 armies within one province distance of each other, always 30k men) and wiped out 30k men from two armies, my army templates were alright and I was up to date with my mil tech too plus I had quality ideas. On the topic of ducats, I made sure to steer trade to the Channel from the New World and North Sea and build manufactories and trade power buildings, but I only had a profit of 3-8 ducats at a time because I needed to construct armies and ships to keep up with France, and barely in money in reserve because I built buildings to raise my force limit.

If you haven't yet, I would recommend an already big nation that doesn't focus on colonizing like the Ottomans, Muscovy, or France. My general rule for income is building churches and workhouses when they generate +.2, trade ports at +2, and factories at +.4. Colonizing is generally fucked because colonies are semi-independent, so they can declare war on be declared on without you being drawn in, and I don't think anybody can decipher how trade actually works.

 

[hawkisnight]

I'm good at all Paradox games, I can blob in 50 years in CK2, I know that I need to rush gas attack in Vic2, I know that I eed to make 21/24 width inf divisions, but I can never understand how to make money in EU4. All my games bar one have resulted in mw quitting my 1500ish when I can't effectively conquer everyone around me and make money at the same time. the one game in where I made it to 1590 was one as England where united the isles before 1500 and managed to colonize but the Portugese resulted in border gore and they were allied to France who were allied to Aragon (Spain never formed) and I think Venice who would backsiege my mainland holdings, and whenever I went to war with France to try and finally put them down they got a huge 80something-k deathstack (For reference my armies were split up sieging down forts, 2 armies within one province distance of each other, always 30k men) and wiped out 30k men from two armies, my army templates were alright and I was up to date with my mil tech too plus I had quality ideas. On the topic of ducats, I made sure to steer trade to the Channel from the New World and North Sea and build manufactories and trade power buildings, but I only had a profit of 3-8 ducats at a time because I needed to construct armies and ships to keep up with France, and barely in money in reserve because I built buildings to raise my force limit.

You will need to post your map and economy tab for more help. How much % of the node you have? Maybe you can't afford advisors? Too many forts? Over the force limit?
If you can't win against someone usually the answer is ally their enemies and conquer somewhere else until you are stronger.

 

[Chickenpolar]

If you haven't yet, I would recommend an already big nation that doesn't focus on colonizing like the Ottomans, Muscovy, or France. My general rule for income is building churches and workhouses when they generate +.2, trade ports at +2, and factories at +.4.

I do this, but I do churches when they're +.1

What I've done with trade is you want merchants directing trade as long of a snake as you can back to your home trade node. I don't know if that's optimal but I get pretty good trade income.

Colonizing is generally fucked because colonies are semi-independent, so they can declare war on be declared on without you being drawn in, and I don't think anybody can decipher how trade actually works.

Many times I've gone to check in on my colonies and they're basically gone because the Iroquois or whatever declared war on them and I didn't pay attention to the notification.

You also need to subsidize new colonies ~5 ducats/month to help them stay out of debt and grow which is dumb. That should be baked in.

 

[Super Hans v2]

What I've done with trade is you want merchants directing trade as long of a snake as you can back to your home trade node. I don't know if that's optimal but I get pretty good trade income.

I get that and it's generally what I do too, but what I don't understand is how the hell in my current England->Angevin game I have ~35% trade power in Cheasapeake Bay without a merchant, no transfer of trade power, no subjects colonizing there, and my furthest west province being Iceland.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Colonizing is generally fucked because colonies are semi-independent, so they can declare war on be declared on without you being drawn in

While you're not automatically drawn in you can still do something about it. If your colony is the one declaring you should be able to use the same CB to get involved. If your colony is being attacked you should be able to use enforce peace to either end it, or join in.

Many times I've gone to check in on my colonies and they're basically gone because the Iroquois or whatever declared war on them and I didn't pay attention to the notification.

I mean not paying attention to notifications kinda sounds like a skill issue tbh

I get that and it's generally what I do too, but what I don't understand is how the hell in my current England->Angevin game I have ~35% trade power in Cheasapeake Bay without a merchant, no transfer of trade power, no subjects colonizing there, and my furthest west province being Iceland.

Trade power automatically propagates upstream. Since you're Angevin I assume you're completely dominating the Channel, and 20% of your provincial trade power propagates to nodes upstream, which includes Chesapeake. If you go to the Chesapeake node and hover over your total trade power, the tooltip should show something about "transfer from traders downstream"