EUIV: Tactics, Tips, Strategies, Questions....

[Nefaro]

What is more profitable?
Sending a merchant to participate in a trade zone?
Or directing trade to a trade zone (that you dominate)?

Very situational.  I would think that directing trade down to the next trade node would be ideal - if the next one in line is your Home Node where you have tons of trade power (and therefore you get a much higher percentage). 

Then again, if you have lots of Light Warships with good Trade Power bonuses, you can send them to an external trade node.  That will boost your trade power there - hopefully to a higher level than most others present.  If you can boost it pretty high like that, and the next trade node down the line isn't your Home Trade Node, then I would think that sending a Merchant to collect in that would be ideal if the potential profit was there.

This may happen more often when trade nodes in the new world open up and there aren't many nations competing in each one.  IIRC, there are only a handful of Nations who have a direct trade connection to the ones in the new world (Spain, Portugal, England, maybe France & Holland & someone else??) so those are the ones that would benefit from pushing it's part of that trade back to it's home  node - the next in a row.  Other nations would have to push it through two or more nodes, and with each push the amount is getting divvied up in the next node so it would be a waste in two ways:  1) Having to use more than one Merchant and 2) Getting the amount you pushed forward divided up between all the trade powers within the next one (that isn't your Home node).    Oh.. and a third problem: In order to keep your Light Warship flotilla in such a distant trade node, you'll need either a port of your own or an allies' port in the vicinity so you can keep your ships supplied.

The problem with collecting at a non-home trade node is that it's heavily penalized when you do so.  Like -50% to the trade income IIRC... or more perhaps?  Still.. that can be better than pushing it through an intermediate node where you don't have a huge Trade Power rating (think "Shares" when regarding the effect of Trade Power in a node).


Edit:

In the 1444 start date, I've done the exact same setup with my trade since it's so early and undeveloped:

*1 Merchant Collects Trade in the Home Trade Zone
This only gives +10% trade income there, since you don't even need to commit a Merchant in your home province to collect.  But since most nations have little other Trade Power in other nodes, it's more profitable to just boost this (your largest and possibly only one with a presence)

*1 Merchant pushes trade from the next Trade Node up the line.
This is likely pretty tiny but your Merchant would otherwise be doing nothing at all so what the hell.  If you're lucky, you may already have a tiny bit of Trade Power in one of these 'upstream' nodes too.

*Make a fleet with all your Light Warships and give them the Trade Patrol order in your Home Trade Node.  This will further boost your Trade Power there (i.e. Shares) and give you a larger percentage of the income.

It's the way most of them start, I believe.   If you also have a free Admiral with some Maneuver Rating on him, you can attach him to the Light Warship trade patrol fleet and that will further boost the trade power bonus it gives.

[Nefaro]

My alarm about using Diplomats to create Cores in other people's territory wasn't based on full info.

Even with a few bonuses, I just gave an order to do so with one of my Diplos and it took about 478 days for my last one.  So not quite as bad as I originally thought.  There may be numerous factors that have an effect on that length so perhaps the earlier time estimates I had seen were getting some big bonus (same ethnic group or something??).

[sandman2575]

I actually found this quite helpful over on the Paradox forums.  3 short videos about how trade works, only about 2 min. apiece.  Helps explain trade steering, trade power, 'pulling' trade and so forth.  Post #25:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?709910-I-still-don-t-understand-trade-can-someone-explain-it-simplified/page2

I didn't realize that having a merchant 'collect' at a node in your territory only gives you a 10% bonus *as opposed to having no merchant there at all*.  Thus it seems like it is often more useful to have your 2 starter merchants steer trade from other nodes.

Also found this explanation helpful -- this stuff may be obvious to y'all but I didn't really understand the concept of "trade power" --


"Trade flows along the arrows from trade hub to trade hub, until it reaches an end point. At each hub some trade will generate money for the hub and some will move on.

Trade power can be used by nations to either direct the trade in a specific direction, or to gain money from the trade hub. A nation with a capital in a trade hub will gain a big bonus to trade revenue in that hub, so for them it will be an advantage to direct the trade there and then collect it.

The effectiveness of directing trade or collecting it is dependent on the trade power compared to that of competing nations. Trade can be thought of as a tug of war, some nations will want the trade to stay, others will try to move it in various directions. The sum of trade power commited to either moving it or trading in the trade center will influence how the trade flows.

Basic trade power is generated by owning provinces connected to the trade center. Trade power can be increased with traders or by using light ships to secure the trade if the trade center is coastal. "

[jomni]

Appointing enemies and rivals...  What are the effects?

[Nefaro]

Appointing enemies and rivals...  What are the effects?

I think you can only appoint three rivals (at start anyway).  Not sure how the enemies are chosen.. perhaps by whom you've warred last or have claims on?

The tooltip on the Rival selection shields, in your own Diplomacy info page, tells you what actions you get bonuses for against them.  IIRC.. Spy action discount, Producing diplo (or is it Making a Core?) claims discount of about 50% shorter time.  One or two other things. 

[Kushan]

Appointing enemies and rivals...  What are the effects?

I think you can only appoint three rivals (at start anyway).  Not sure how the enemies are chosen.. perhaps by whom you've warred last or have claims on?

The tooltip on the Rival selection shields, in your own Diplomacy info page, tells you what actions you get bonuses for against them.  IIRC.. Spy action discount, Producing diplo (or is it Making a Core?) claims discount of about 50% shorter time.  One or two other things.

You also get an opnion boost to anyone who has the target country set as a rival. I think you can only have 3 rivals but I believe you can change them at any time.

[tgb]

I think enemies are nations who have a CB against you, or vice versa.

[Yskonyn]

Rivals do seem to get notified and take an opinion hit towards you.
There are bound to be modifiers when getting into a war with a rival, but I don't have them present.

Thanks for the trade video link. :)

[PanzersEast]

I posted this in the other EUIV thread... but it may help some.

Just in case you guys have questions.... Arumba put out some videos covering a wide variety of topics in a short condensed format videos.  Also, his Dwarf Fortress tutorial/LP is excellent as well.... just FYI

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH-huzMEgGWBz8XAD77YTwMe6wx-Ql_Ao


PE

[Nefaro]

Here is a nice visual guide on the basics of the new Trade system.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?710484-Guide-Trading-in-EUIV-for-Dummies

OR

http://imgur.com/a/A1Hk1


Just screenshots with word bubbles, for the visually-oriented.  8)

[Kushan]

Here is a nice visual guide on the basics of the new Trade system.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?710484-Guide-Trading-in-EUIV-for-Dummies

OR

http://imgur.com/a/A1Hk1


Just screenshots with word bubbles, for the visually-oriented.  8)

Thanks Nefaro.

[Kushan]

Didn't realize until this morning; you need to turn any colonies into core provinces before they count towards your fleet supply / colonial range. I thought colonies were automatically cored when they became a full province. I colonized two provinces in Brazil but couldn't figure out for the life of me why it was saying the closest port was the Azores, now I know  :-[

[Nefaro]

Didn't realize until this morning; you need to turn any colonies into core provinces before they count towards your fleet supply / colonial range. I thought colonies were automatically cored when they became a full province. I colonized two provinces in Brazil but couldn't figure out for the life of me why it was saying the closest port was the Azores, now I know  :-[

Some dude has a bunch of gameplay vids as Portugal up on YouTube.  This post about having to Core colonies reminded me of his confusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLc3FNKAxjg

The guy certainly doesn't know how everything works, and he's still kinda figuring some of it out as he goes.  However, I've always found it interesting seeing other peoples' thought processes when it comes to deep grand strategy games.  It makes you realize how many different branching decisions you would've made compared to whom you're watching, and how the outcomes of the paths you don't normally take turn out.

[jomni]

There's a lot of micro now compared to before. Gotta remember about manually converting cores, changing culture and religion, increasing stability, reducing war weariness.
Last time, these were automatic.  Now these things cost action points so you gotta choose which one to do.

[Nefaro]

There's a lot of micro now compared to before. Gotta remember about manually converting cores, changing culture and religion, increasing stability, reducing war weariness.
Last time, these were automatic.  Now these things cost action points so you gotta choose which one to do.

Yep.

I've been in a debate with a die-hard EU3 fan, ever since release, and his big complaint is that EU4 is "Dumbed Down".  I just don't see it at all.  EU4 is keeping me way more busy than EU3 ever did, and it's giving me far more difficult decisions to make too!  To say nothing of all the other big leaps in gameplay, AI, UI and graphics.  Some people have a severe tendency to resist change don't they?  ;D