Higher Game
Arcane
I think there are two main sets of ideas that have a critical mass effect that allows for world domination, the "iron fist" and the "velvet glove" sets that you want to collect as soon as possible for their synergies.
Iron Fist: Basically means taking advantage of the fact that wrestling with someone bigger than you becomes exponentially harder, and the fact that vassal stacks of 50ish regiments might be worth 3x as much as trash mobs of 30ish regiments. Coalitions don't matter because you can spread out anywhere you want and dilute aggressive expansion. These ideas are administrative, influence, religious, and quantity. Administrative means +25% governing capacity, influence means -21% liberty desire in subjects (84 development worth each!), religious offers loads of prestige to placate subjects, and quantity makes you stronger and further able to support larger subjects. You add all this up and it means 5000+ development of states and vassal provinces, top tier real estate, more powerful than everything else as a territory, colony, or trade company combined. No ordinary alliance can stop this combination. In fact, going "full retard" by blasting past the governing capacity limit works perfectly well with this setup, since having so much sheer quality size is worth being universally despised.
Velvet Glove: Means finding a weak point on the map and doubling down on it as much as you want without facing a coalition mob. You make deserts and call it peace before the world figures out what's going on. These ideas are humanism, diplomacy, espionage, and innovative. They're the ideas with the most improve relations and aggressive expansion impact reduction possible. Add them all up and you almost have a blank check for conquest, if you're strong enough to cash it. Maybe mercenaries and a couple strategic bankruptcies are the key to making this one work, because it can be a slow starter, but it finishes strong. It needs a little extra help in the beginning, in the early 17th century.
I am starting to lean towards Iron Fist because I am starting to see just how massive you can make vassals before they get rebellious, and how much better they are than territory map painting. They're like your left arm, while states are your right. Colonies and trade companies and territories are just your gut, not doing much by themselves.
I suspect optimized play means picking one of these sets and then taking as many military ideas as possible. They both play very differently, but military ideas are always nice to have.
Iron Fist: Basically means taking advantage of the fact that wrestling with someone bigger than you becomes exponentially harder, and the fact that vassal stacks of 50ish regiments might be worth 3x as much as trash mobs of 30ish regiments. Coalitions don't matter because you can spread out anywhere you want and dilute aggressive expansion. These ideas are administrative, influence, religious, and quantity. Administrative means +25% governing capacity, influence means -21% liberty desire in subjects (84 development worth each!), religious offers loads of prestige to placate subjects, and quantity makes you stronger and further able to support larger subjects. You add all this up and it means 5000+ development of states and vassal provinces, top tier real estate, more powerful than everything else as a territory, colony, or trade company combined. No ordinary alliance can stop this combination. In fact, going "full retard" by blasting past the governing capacity limit works perfectly well with this setup, since having so much sheer quality size is worth being universally despised.
Velvet Glove: Means finding a weak point on the map and doubling down on it as much as you want without facing a coalition mob. You make deserts and call it peace before the world figures out what's going on. These ideas are humanism, diplomacy, espionage, and innovative. They're the ideas with the most improve relations and aggressive expansion impact reduction possible. Add them all up and you almost have a blank check for conquest, if you're strong enough to cash it. Maybe mercenaries and a couple strategic bankruptcies are the key to making this one work, because it can be a slow starter, but it finishes strong. It needs a little extra help in the beginning, in the early 17th century.
I am starting to lean towards Iron Fist because I am starting to see just how massive you can make vassals before they get rebellious, and how much better they are than territory map painting. They're like your left arm, while states are your right. Colonies and trade companies and territories are just your gut, not doing much by themselves.
I suspect optimized play means picking one of these sets and then taking as many military ideas as possible. They both play very differently, but military ideas are always nice to have.
