What are the point of colonies or exploring in EUIV?

[Lupin II]

Am a noob to EUIV and while i was playing (playing as portugal) i notice spain expanding and exploring now and i was wondering whats the point i tired it as well and i see no point to it what so ever if theres a point or use can someone tell me??

[Wizard777]

colonies make you money... you like money its that simple
also it gives you infulence over colonial trade nodes and infulnce=power
also your colonies can give you military support in a war
Also by colonizing a provence that means someone else cant colonise it (best thing)
and if they cant colonize it then they dont get money or power which makes them weaker (good).

[Lupin II]

But ain't that just a hassle to handle more colonies because its already hard enough making money as portugal and they are meant to a beginner civ and its already hard to mae money in the game, tax from colonies are low as well my force limit to small so when i send extra units to the colonies am just weaking myself at home?

[Wizard777]

Tax from colonies grow alot over time also portugal is ment to be a begginer nation because of colonial problems. and what is your force limit to small for?

[Lupin II]

it weaken my defence at home remember that why i dont like spliting up my force to much i just got out of war with morroco and it took years before i was able to get my army back and navy back to some sort of strenght. i had to break an alliance with england or order to ally with france and stay ally with spain since they are massive and basically eat me up during this 100 years scenrio part like money is really slow
how long does tax actually take to build up from colonies and is more colonies you have the better?

[Exarch_Alpha]

Colonies in carribean/Mexico = good

Colonies in the rest = meh.

You also need colonies to fo towards Asia and found East India Trade company. And more colonial nations = more merchants.

To sum it up: the main reason to go colonists is for TRADE. The military and tariff benefits are secondary.

[Carl Johnson BR (real)]

I conquered West Africa as England (Yes I forgot to form Britain) from 1534-1580. I had two colonies

British Nigeria and British Kongo
British Kongo helped me fight the ottomans a lot because they went across the desert and bit them in Egypt where they were totally undefended

[c00lizz]

Publicado originalmente por Franz Joseph I:

I conquered West Africa as England (Yes I forgot to form Britain) from 1534-1580. I had two colonies

British Nigeria and British Kongo
British Kongo helped me fight the ottomans a lot because they went across the desert and bit them in Egypt where they were totally undefended

Not entirely sure how helpful it is for your to relay your experiences playing with mods to someone who's obviously new at the game. :/

[Quicksilver]

Manpower to support attacking other nations' colonies, Trade Power to steer trade to your nodes for money. Trade Power for getting buffs from controlling high % of trade of certain goods. Tarifs for money. Gold treasure fleets for money. Increased territorial area in high attrition zones that usually require a fleet to get to to make you tougher to defeat vs the blobby nations like France. Expanding your total development for making it easier to control larger european PUs and Vassals. Denying your enemies all of the above.

[barkingamer]

Lmao I started a few colonies in the Caribbean as granada after crushing Spain

1st colony: this sucks, I'm getting so little

2nd colony:at least I'm getting a little,no, a lot more cash

3rd colony: aaww hell yeah, im swimming in gold

4th and 5th colonies: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this is a lot of money

And I still got like 10 more provinces to colonize, don't care if it forms a colonial nation, I want that cash

[Lupin II]

Publicado originalmente por barkingamer:

Lmao I started a few colonies in the Caribbean as granada after crushing Spain

1st colony: this sucks, I'm getting so little

2nd colony:at least I'm getting a little,no, a lot more cash

3rd colony: aaww hell yeah, im swimming in gold

4th and 5th colonies: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this is a lot of money

And I still got like 10 more provinces to colonize, don't care if it forms a colonial nation, I want that cash

Okay i can see colonial nations so as portugal i kinda want to make brazil is that possible i have one provinces in colonial brazil so could it form a nation if i get more?

Publicado originalmente por Quicksilver:

Manpower to support attacking other nations' colonies, Trade Power to steer trade to your nodes for money. Trade Power for getting buffs from controlling high % of trade of certain goods. Tarifs for money. Gold treasure fleets for money. Increased territorial area in high attrition zones that usually require a fleet to get to to make you tougher to defeat vs the blobby nations like France. Expanding your total development for making it easier to control larger european PUs and Vassals. Denying your enemies all of the above.

Portugal doesn't seem to be a trade power or central node like my neighbour spain but if i found this east india company thing will that up my power in the trading world or something? Urmm want do you mean about expanding development how is that done?

[Findus]

The best way to get colonies nowadays I think is just to join later and beat the crap out of colonial nations, forcing them to concede whole colonial areas at once. Thats basically how I ended up controlling most of the new world as norway in my last game.

Overall I think blobbing is worth more money, but it takes monarch points which is a much more finite source than ducats.

[Exarch_Alpha]

That makes zero sense. The number one goal of having more money in the end IS having the gold to pay level 3 advisors... which ya know... give more MP by default, and even more by their special events.

In other words - gold is something you can control, MP by king you don´t.

[Furios]

Colonial states are like vassals, they manage their own defence.
Only the land in Africa and Aisia does not form a colonial nation.
Trade power from your colonies (colonial nations gice you some of theirs) flows into your home node, giving you more power there.
EUIV takes a while to learn so keep at it!
(links to the mighty wiki below)
http://www.eu4wiki.com/Trade
http://www.eu4wiki.com/Colonization

[Briar]

Portugal is considered a begginner nation because you have no threats to your existance. As long as you don't ally nations that are going to get declared on by strong enemies (allying pretty much anything but castille is probably pointless as portugal unless you are planning to militarily expand), you are pretty much immune to war. You can peacefully build up your economy up until colonization and then move your troops all to the new world as castille/spain will protect you in the old world. As long as you don't piss Spain/England (England makes a decent ally once france takes their cores back) off by colonizing their areas, they should shield you and continue to make you immune to being attacked. In the new world with the full force limit of a european nation to support your CNs, you should be able to rapidly expand them and keep them from falling apart. Once they get 10 provinces they give you a merchant that you can use to steal their trade. Between trade and tarriffs you should be insanely rich after getting a few CNs rolling.

[Unit 202]

I honestly am awful at colonizing (my Byzantium owned, yet my portugal sucked), and from what I can tell, it takes a long time to pay off (I usually abandon my games in the 1600s due to slow computer) but it's rediculous, I will be less advanced than the natives by a large margin. Institutions are helping, since as spain with three mil techs from "black magic" I was 5 ahead of the chinese minors. Institutions have the ability to make the game balanced for all continents, but it also can make Europe even greater. So it takes over a centry for sure for me to benefit from colonization, but that was no DLC. DLCs seem to make colonization much easier, with the protestant settler increase and treaty of tordestallis and native policy and all of that stuff. I WAS a decent england into the 1500s though on my second game who broke baguette and had decent mil tech as I recalled, and a few minor canadian colonies. But if you want to know how great colonization can be, play as spain in a historical start where they have their big colonies.