Are colonies worth it?

[m.dm]

So from my current game perspective, England (now Great Britain) 1650 i have large colonies: The 13 colonies, Brtish Columbia, British California, Briitish Panama, Australia, and Philipines. Also maintain Hawaii, Marshall Islands having used them as colonial range links etc....
My objective was to control the important trade nodes situated in those regions, job done,.


Problem is its super boring. For one i dont like how the regional colonies automatically turn into a new entity once x amount of provinves are colonised in a region. And with the way these colonies liberty desire is rampant even in 1650 (not histrically accurate) it makes one not want to invtes in the infrastructiur of those colonies. I started out spending thousands of gold building them plantations, and other expensive buildings but realise in the end there's no real apreciateon showed by the colony. Even when player rejects any events trying to raise tariffs the AI colony will find some excuse for more lliberty desire.

I think liberty desire is way too high when one considers that most colonies acually got their freedom from the overlord walking away because it could not afford the keep. The Roman Empie is probably the best example, having retreated from their subjects lands in most cases, not forced out by rebellion. The British Empire is another example, except for the Amercian war of Independence, Britain walked away from most of her colonies post world wars having literally gone bankrupt. There may have been rebellions but few led to indepdnence as was the case with America.

In my curent game i just had 38K rebellion in Manila with a modern army, that is almost half the size of British army golbally. How is that possible from a province like Manila?

So i'm finding a lack of incentive to play the colony game, as it seems mostly take one way.

I'm interested in others perspectives because i'm finding the colony side of this game less gratifying than the rest of what is mostly excellent game.

[Skipper_Penguin]

I think it is fun because you get to expand your land over the world. You get money, millitary, World Power. It also gives you trade. It is an amazing and the reason why its so fun is because its like a race for dominace your racing against other countries most likely spain and portugaul. Also it is cool when the colony revolts and leaves and you have a whole new country. It also gives your religious dominace since most colonies are your religion. So even if it isnt worth it to make colonies it still is fun to see your colonies grow and to see how far your land could reach.

And also if you arent playing ironman mode and have mods it is extremely fun to play because you can colonize alot more places and even australia which is usually a terrible colony to colonize in a normal game.

[ඞ]

Well, for starters, if you only own the British isles, and the combined total of all your CN's are more than your power, then they are gonna take that into account for calculatinf liberty desire. A good way to increase your power would be to try taking land in Africa, making use of Ivory and Slave trade goods. Generally, it's better to have more land than your colonies, and just have small, high powered colonies(a good example would be if France focused on ONLY colonizing the Carribean, and constructing buildings and adding development to improve the colony, to where it makes tons of money). Now, if you have the capability to own multiple massive colonies(like Spain/Castile), by all means go for it. But be ready for your colonies to declare independance if you're smaller than them combined. Also, you can always just declare war on the nation after they break free, but you have to deal with the possibilities of them having allies...

[Kilrathii]

Best colonies are trade companies. Make a chain all the way to india and spice isles by genociding all the natives. Im fairly new to EU4 but CNs have been nothing but a money sink for me.

[Phoenix VII]

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Trade_nodes

IMO, colonial nations are very profitable if you can steer their trade back to you and if you fully control either the English Channel or Genoa (they're both end nodes, so trade going there can't go anywhere else).

[Mr.M]

You can make a ♥♥♥♥ ton of money out of them my dear.

There even is an exploit where you can easily gain over hundred tariffs from just one colony.

[m.dm]

Yes i already have the major trade nodes under my control.


Its not money i lack. My point was the colony game seems not worth the efffort considering the amount one puts into them.

Colonising itself is actually pretty tedious and boring but its even more boring knowing they dont really serve any purpose.

[Mr.M]

Originally posted by MrMonokel2000:

You can make a ♥♥♥♥ ton of money out of them my dear.

And wut effort

You colonize 5 provinces in each area to create a colonial nation, either colonize a bit more till they get enough income to hold themselves or give them +3 subsidies and then they will colonize further on their own.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by m.dm:

Yes i already have the major trade nodes under my control.


Its not money i lack. My point was the colony game seems not worth the efffort considering the amount one puts into them.

Colonising itself is actually pretty tedious and boring but its even more boring knowing they dont really serve any purpose.

That's the purpose. You have a crap load of gold from them, and get extra merchants. They get big enough and colonize themselves too, so you only really have to start them and you can either leave them to themselves or keep colonizing near them and they grow even faster.

How is colonizing any less tedious and boring than anything else in this game, anyways?

[LAG]

Originally posted by Commandant Pantaloons:

Well, for starters, if you only own the British isles, and the combined total of all your CN's are more than your power, then they are gonna take that into account for calculatinf liberty desire. A good way to increase your power would be to try taking land in Africa, making use of Ivory and Slave trade goods. Generally, it's better to have more land than your colonies, and just have small, high powered colonies(a good example would be if France focused on ONLY colonizing the Carribean, and constructing buildings and adding development to improve the colony, to where it makes tons of money). Now, if you have the capability to own multiple massive colonies(like Spain/Castile), by all means go for it. But be ready for your colonies to declare independance if you're smaller than them combined. Also, you can always just declare war on the nation after they break free, but you have to deal with the possibilities of them having allies...

colonies will get high liberty desire no matter what you do.

Mercantalism and tarrifs aside, they get 0.1% liberty desire for every devlopment they have. This makes it very easy for them to reach the 50%+ where they don't pay you ♥♥♥♥ anyway.

The important factor is that they give you 50% of their trade power, allowing you to earn money on trade. That is the only relative purpose they have, that and preventing your rivals from doing the same.

playing as revolutionary france my 2 colonies that i stole from norway has colonized half of america & canada and are at 50% and 70% liberty desire from development each.

Usually though, the relative power will put them at high liberty desire in combination with development, but i own all of europe so i only get 10% liberty desire from that.

do note that i could easily stomp them as i did rest of europe.

[m.dm]

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Originally posted by m.dm:

Yes i already have the major trade nodes under my control.


Its not money i lack. My point was the colony game seems not worth the efffort considering the amount one puts into them.

Colonising itself is actually pretty tedious and boring but its even more boring knowing they dont really serve any purpose.

That's the purpose. You have a crap load of gold from them, and get extra merchants. They get big enough and colonize themselves too, so you only really have to start them and you can either leave them to themselves or keep colonizing near them and they grow even faster.

How is colonizing any less tedious and boring than anything else in this game, anyways?

Yes i guess its just mid game blues, sort of feels alot of work for little reward.

[m.dm]

Originally posted by LAG:

Originally posted by Commandant Pantaloons:

Well, for starters, if you only own the British isles, and the combined total of all your CN's are more than your power, then they are gonna take that into account for calculatinf liberty desire. A good way to increase your power would be to try taking land in Africa, making use of Ivory and Slave trade goods. Generally, it's better to have more land than your colonies, and just have small, high powered colonies(a good example would be if France focused on ONLY colonizing the Carribean, and constructing buildings and adding development to improve the colony, to where it makes tons of money). Now, if you have the capability to own multiple massive colonies(like Spain/Castile), by all means go for it. But be ready for your colonies to declare independance if you're smaller than them combined. Also, you can always just declare war on the nation after they break free, but you have to deal with the possibilities of them having allies...

colonies will get high liberty desire no matter what you do.

Mercantalism and tarrifs aside, they get 0.1% liberty desire for every devlopment they have. This makes it very easy for them to reach the 50%+ where they don't pay you ♥♥♥♥ anyway.

The important factor is that they give you 50% of their trade power, allowing you to earn money on trade. That is the only relative purpose they have, that and preventing your rivals from doing the same.

playing as revolutionary france my 2 colonies that i stole from norway has colonized half of america & canada and are at 50% and 70% liberty desire from development each.

Usually though, the relative power will put them at high liberty desire in combination with development, but i own all of europe so i only get 10% liberty desire from that.

do note that i could easily stomp them as i did rest of europe.

Yes but at that point seems there is no longer any challenge. The idea of continual wars with colonies looking to liberate fills me with tedium.

[Rumi]

you know you can put your capital in the new world right? meaning that no colonial nations form and you can annex all the land for yourself, basically move your capital to the falklands to be able to then move your capital to any north american province, or move your capital to bermuda to be able to move your capital to any south american province.

[m.dm]

Originally posted by Rumi:

you know you can put your capital in the new world right? meaning that no colonial nations form and you can annex all the land for yourself, basically move your capital to the falklands to be able to then move your capital to any north american province, or move your capital to bermuda to be able to move your capital to any south american province.

didint realise that. TY

[Yaldabaoth]

Originally posted by m.dm:

Originally posted by Rumi:

you know you can put your capital in the new world right? meaning that no colonial nations form and you can annex all the land for yourself, basically move your capital to the falklands to be able to then move your capital to any north american province, or move your capital to bermuda to be able to move your capital to any south american province.

didint realise that. TY

In before you realize that most land there is worthless and you don't have enough state slots to get even 25% out of most of these ♥♥♥♥♥♥ provinces.

[Rumi]

Originally posted by Yaldabaoth:

Originally posted by m.dm:

didint realise that. TY

In before you realize that most land there is worthless and you don't have enough state slots to get even 25% out of most of these ♥♥♥♥♥♥ provinces.

new york wasn't built in a day