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! Europa Universalis IV !
! {accurate for version 1.8} !
! !
! IDEA GUIDE !
! !
! by coineineagh !
! version 1.1 !
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Table Of Contents:
1. INTRODUCTION
- links
2. ADMIN TYPE IDEAS
- Innovative
- Religious
- Economic
- Expansion
- Administrative
- Humanist
3. DIPLO TYPE IDEAS
- Espionage
- Diplomatic
- Trade
- Exploration
- Maritime
- Influence
4. MILITARY TYPE IDEAS
- Aristocratic
- Plutocratic
- Offensive
- Defensive
- Quality
- Quantity
- Naval
5. THE FINAL EIGHT (PLUS TWO)
- Diplomatic
- Exploration
- Quantity
- Expansion
- Offensive
- Influence
- Quality
- Innovative
+ (Administrative & Religious)
- The Five Best Policies (+3)
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
7. VERSION INFORMATION
___________________________________________________________________________
DISCLAIMERS
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any website or otherwise distributed
publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other
website or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a
violation of copyright. This document may not be bought or sold, or used in
any way for profitable gain.
This FAQ is authorized to be hosted on the following websites:
www.gamefaqs.com
www.gamespot.com
www.neoseeker.com
This guide is copyright 2015 by Thomas de Jong, e.g. coineineagh.
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by
their respective trademark and copyright holders.
___________________________________________________________________________
<3 <3 <3
Dedicated to my wife Suby, my son Owen, and our new arrival Andy!
<3 <3 <3
*------------------*
| *--------------* |
| | INTRODUCTION | |
| *--------------* |
*------------------*
When Paradox released a new version of the Europa Universalis series, I was
again hooked by the addictive gameplay offered. The game has a level of
complexity that is manageable, and the learning curve is not too steep as to
stifle enjoyment. You will find that many aspects of the game take time to
master, and I also found myself starting over after having learned a few things
early on. Everyone must find their own way to enjoy the game; some like to
expand their country into a global empire (nicknamed 'blobbing') until they're
too powerful for any nation or even coalition to challenge them. Others prefer
to limit their territory, so there remain challenging foes for them throughout
the 400 years of history. Yet other people attempt to simulate the true course
of history with their nation. Whatever you decide to do, you eventually stumble
upon dilemmas when choosing idea groups for your nation to pursue. Choosing the
right idea group for your nation can be a daunting task, especially if your
understanding of the advantages offered is not yet complete. What this guide
attempts to do, is offer an evaluation of all the ideas, while at the same time
discussing many related aspects of the gameplay. It is all highly subjective
and opinionated of course, but by knowing my views of certain ideas, you should
have an extra perspective to form a more informed strategy of your own.
I use the terms 'tree' and 'group' interchangeably to refer to the idea groups,
but each idea group's ideas must be taken one by one in correct order. National
ideas are not discussed in this guide at all, but my insights should help you
better evaluate your chosen nation's ideas. Recent reader feedback has allowed
me to improve my knowledge of certain game aspects.
Information resource:
http://www.eu4wiki.com/Europa_Universalis_4_Wiki
*----------------------*
| *------------------* |
| | ADMIN TYPE IDEAS | |
| *------------------* |
*----------------------*
Not to be confused with the Administrative ideas tree. Admin ideas use up
Administrative Monarch points to learn. Admin points are considered by most to
be the most important type of Monarch points in the game, as they are needed
for coring provinces you annex during war, raising stability, manually reducing
your inflation, changing government, moving your capital, and constructing
government and production type buildings. I disagree with the assessment that
Admin points are the most crucial, but that's because I like to play as a
Western-European colonial power. If you are playing a non-colonial game, then
your income sources rely more on production and tax, making these buildings
very profitable, and having high priority. A nation that conquers a lot of land
will also need lots of Admin points for coring. Finally, stabilty drop events
may be more frequent for some nations than for others. If you suffer from many
such events, it is advisable not to raise your stability higher than +1, since
high stability also causes those events to occur more often. Medium stabilty is
a necessary evil for such countries, possibly precluding you from some positive
events that will only occur at high stability.
*------------*
| INNOVATIVE |
*------------*
Patron of the Arts
-1% PRESTIGE DECAY: Prestige tends to drop steadily during peacetime, so
anything that reduces the decline helps.
Pragmatism
-25% MERCENARY COST: This can be somewhat helpful for winning a difficult
war that has depleted your manpower reserves. But it has limits, as going
over land forcelimits will still cause expenses to skyrocket.
Scientific Revolution
-5% TECHNOLOGY COST: Saves western tech nations up to 2700 monarch points
depending on how many techs still need researching. In comparison, every
idea you purchase grants 2% cheaper tech points cost of its type. -5% is
like having a 2nd university, but it isn't a colossal game changer.
Knowledge Transfer
-2% YEARLY ARMY TRADITION DECAY
-2% YEARLY NAVY TRADITION DECAY: There's nothing quite like this in other
ideas. Since Tradition helps determine the strength of generals/admirals,
this idea aids you in securing good long-term military leadership. Without
it, a nation must be in near-constant state of war to keep its Tradition
high enough. This may actually be feasible for a warring state in Europe's
heartlands or an aggressively expansionist colonial power, but this idea
is less risky than war in the long run. Exploring uncharted lands/seas also
gains +1 Army/Naval Tradition, so there are many opprtunities to keep your
tradition high in the mid game, but war and tradition-preservation are all
that's left after the world has been largely charted. Reader feedback has
made me realize I place too much emphasis on the importance of Tradition,
since its major benefit is to your military leaders, and their stats are
still partially determined by (un)lucky dice rolls.
Resilient State
-10% REDUCE INFLATION COST: If you need to reduce inflation, you probably
have Gold provinces, and you're better off hiring a Master of Mint advisor,
and/or buildings that reduce inflation gradually and for free. In the most
extreme cases, Economic ideas should be considered.
Optimism
-0.05 MONTHLY WAR EXHAUSTION: Another unique idea with no equal. It helps
you fight long protracted wars, obviously. War Exhaustion is most serious
in the early game, or when you are losing battles. This idea minimizes the
damage wars do to your nation, so helps weak central European nations most
of all.
Formalized Officer Corps
+1 LEADER WITHOUT UPKEEP: It's difficult to get Leader slots until tech level
19, when you'll have an easy 4 with buildings and Power Projection. By then,
a 5th Leader slot just tempts you to spend more monarch points every time a
leader dies, which will be five times as often. I can't imagine needing 5
leaders at the same time, so you'd be exploring a lot, or having idle
siege/maneuver specialists standing around. Even generals in hostile territory
can be recalled by reorganizing the army into a new one (don't do this with
navies as it will kill the admiral). But there's no way to assign a new leader
to an army in hostile territory, and then it doesn't matter if you have 5.
Bonus:
-25% ADVISOR COSTS: Advisor costs increase quadratically over time. Although
your income should also increase, this cost reduction can help a lot. If you
are employing 3 level 3 advisors, the savings of this idea might be better
than army maintenance bonuses.
Noteworthy Policies:
+QUALITY: +20% Infantry combat ability will make your armies *invincible*.
+EXPLORATION: +5% Colonist chance, +10% Trade power
+MARITIME: +1 Naval leader Maneuver, +10% Heavy ship combat ability
Summary: Innovative ideas offers a variety of useful ideas that aid a nation
in a variety of ways. I wouldn't take it as an early idea group, but many
countries would be wise to get it once more important groups have been gained.
A large nation can be in extensive wars, and still be reducing their WE most
of the time: Optimism is usually more than the WE increase from monthly losses
due to attrition. Opinions on the value of Innovative vary among players. Keep
in mind that role-playing preferences for certain idea groups may cloud their
objective value: Concepts like innovation and humanism will appeal more to a
non-religious player than the Religious ideas would, for example.
*-----------*
| RELIGIOUS |
*-----------*
Deus Vult
PERMANENT CASUS BELLI AGAINST NEIGBOURING HEATHENS AND HERETICS: Many players
speak highly of this advantage, though I rarely found it difficult to gain
casus belli when I needed them. Often, I'd only fabricate claims for the
lower coring cost. Expansion and Exploration trees also have ideas that grant
casus belli, but this is the only one that can apply to European nations. It
allows you to claim provinces for no diplomatic power cost, so if Europe is
where you must expand, this is a valuable idea. Colonial powers have better,
less risky avenues of expansion. In practice, you'll need to pay diplo points
for most of your victories in Europe even with this idea. Keep in mind that
although it should only apply to the War Leader of religious wars you are in,
players have in fact reported that the benefits are also applied when you sign
separate peace treaties.
Missionary Schools
+1 MISSIONARIES: Naturally, nations that have religious unity problems will
benefit a lot from this idea and the rest of the tree. Certain provinces in
the game will grant an extra missionary, as will some decisions, temporarily.
Church Attendance Duty
-25% STABILITY COST MODIFIER: Online sources question the usefulness of going
over +1 stability, since stability-lowering events will increase. If you have
a lot of those, this idea helps. Often it's unclear whether this is important
to a nation. You may acquire it only to find that your Time of Troubles has
passed.
Divine Supremacy
+3% MISSIONARY STRENGTH: Good when your nation is riddled with heresy, or you
have colonial conquests that can't be sold to a Colonial Nation or made into
a Trading Post. It strengthens and speeds up conversion.
Devoutness
+1 TOLERANCE OF THE TRUE FAITH
+2 YEARLY PAPAL INFLUENCE
+0.25 MONTHLY FERVOR: The papal influence isn't so big but helpful. Personally
I favour the +1% Mercantilism bonus from the Papacy; it's often better than
spending it on Stability or Legitimacy. That is, until you're already drowning
in ducats. Fervor helps Reformed nations gain the bonus they want more often.
Religious Tradition
+1 YEARLY PRESTIGE: A nice bonus to prestige, to alleviate its plummet before
the next war. It's easy to gain Prestige in wars, assuming you win battles.
Inquisition
+2% MISSIONARY STRENGTH VS HERETICS: Since the most vital provinces to convert
are high-base-tax European provinces, this is a great help.
Bonus:
-25% CULTURE CONVERSION COST: Converting culture takes ages, but it can be a
great boost, raising income, manpower and many other things. But it usually
isn't your first priority. I rarely had diplomatic power free to convert
cultures, and most provinces will be fine unconverted. It also feels wrong to
go around homogenizing cultural diversity, though it's just a game after all.
Noteworthy Policies:
+QUALITY: +2.5% Discipline, +10% Morale of armies
+INFLUENCE: -20% Culture conversion cost; for when you have excess Diplo power
and want to put it to good use. Total cost reduction 45% with full Religious
ideas.
Many Religious policies increase Religious unity or missionary strength, but
since the idea tree already increases your control of religion, most policies
are of limited use. One gripe I have with the game's policies, is that few
other idea trees raise religious unity, and NONE besides Religious policies
improve missionary strength. Nations with Religious ideas have little need for
these policies, and those without would stand to benefit a lot. Unbalanced, in
my opinion. Would a nation in control of religion need to enact such policies?
Summary: Colonial powers should probably try to make do with their single weak
missionary. Non-colonial nations will find this idea group a great help. Other
players, after reading my comments, offered valuable feedback. It depends on
whether a Center of Reformation appears in/near your territory, really. Some
games will have need of Religious ideas to weed out heresy, or expand into
territories of another religion faster
