Ideas for sweden?

[Joachim Dietrich Raybands]

So, basically i have played as sweden before and i sucked, my army was worthless and so was my economy. I was a noob back then and i now know that my main problem was choosing the wrong ideas. Can you guys PLEASE write every idea that i should use down in the order i should get them? Thanks

[c00lizz]

Depends on what your goals are. Sweden gets more permanent modifiers than anyone so once you hit 1600 you can get absurdbly powerful.

[Joachim Dietrich Raybands]

Originally posted by c00lizz:

Depends on what your goals are. Sweden gets more permanent modifiers than anyone so once you hit 1600 you can get absurdbly powerful.

Basically i want to have a powerful a large quality army to master the mainland, and a good economy. No colonization and the navy is not my biggest ish. What ideas should i use?

[Hurtman]

I'd say it depends on your ruler. If your starter ruler is good in military, go for offensive ideas. If your starter ruler is adminstrative, go for either economic (for more money and such), or adminstrative ideas (to make expansion easier and more efficient)

[Joachim Dietrich Raybands]

Originally posted by Hurtman:

I'd say it depends on your ruler. If your starter ruler is good in military, go for offensive ideas. If your starter ruler is adminstrative, go for either economic (for more money and such), or adminstrative ideas (to make expansion easier and more efficient)

But i mean long term.

[tinisiyo]

Originally posted by Alduin:

Basically i want to have a powerful a large quality army to master the mainland, and a good economy. No colonization and the navy is not my biggest ish. What ideas should i use?

There are standart ideas combinations based on possible policies, they are:
quality + economic for +5% discipline
offensive + economic for +10% arty combat ability
quality + innovative for +20% inf combat ability
quantity + religious for +10% morale and 5% recovery
quality + religious for 5% morale and 10% siege ability
If you want to maximize strength of your army just pick some of this combination.
Also playing as Sweden you will have pretty low manpower so ideas increasing max ammount of mercs like admin and quantity are also good choice.
What are 1st ideas? just as Hurtman said, look at your ruler. Sure if you will pick admin ideas 1st you will expands faster with cheaper coring, religious will let easier convert to protestant and convert orthodox provinces. Offensive or quality will strengthen your army.

[Gagarin]

Innovative+quality for +20% inf combat ability policy, also you can get aristocratic+espionage for +20% cavalry combat ability policy, defensive might be good for extra tradition and morale bonus. For economy just economic ideas (when idea is finished you will get -20% dev cost), bump up development in Dalaskogen, build workshop and then manufactory, its an incredible amount of money you will get. Also it might be good to take quantity for -10% maintenance cost and for -10% dev cost from economic+quantity policy

[Joachim Dietrich Raybands]

You guys help ALOT! But for simplicity's sake, since i have a hard time understanding all this, please write the ideas and what order to have them in this fashion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc. Thanks!

[equinox1911]

Originally posted by Alduin:

You guys help ALOT! But for simplicity's sake, since i have a hard time understanding all this, please write the ideas and what order to have them in this fashion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc. Thanks!

Eu iv is not that easy, every desicion comes with an opportunity cost, the answer is
1.It depends.
2.It depends.
3.It depends.
4.It depends.
5.It depends.
etc pp.

[ConqueroR]

Originally posted by Alduin:

So, basically i have played as sweden before and i sucked, my army was worthless and so was my economy. I was a noob back then and i now know that my main problem was choosing the wrong ideas. Can you guys PLEASE write every idea that i should use down in the order i should get them? Thanks

You should open the trade map and conquer the trade routes first. And place your merchants to collect money from there. Mothball all the forts when there is no possible way to lost them (attacking to a weak enemy or at peace)

I don't thing that money is a great advantage in this game but manpower is. So if you wanna conquer the world you should forge alliances like Ottomans, France or Castille and to do that you can open diplomatic ideas, it provides -%20 war score cost provinces for the extra.

Don't focus on military ideas but your first choice should be quantity ideas for manpower, in future i recommend you to get religious and aristocratic ideas. Because religious helps you convert provinces so you have religious unity for rebels. But aristocratic ideas for a total different reason.

I always pick my ideas according to policies. If you complete 2 idea group you will get mixed policies. I use these 5 at most

Military Zeal Act (5 dicipline + 10 siege ability) quality + religious

Provincial Taxation System (manpower reco %10 + land main -%10 ) quantity + admin

The witchcraft act(unrest -%1 + missioner +%1) Aristocratic + Religious

The Licencing of the Press (improve relations +%20 + agg ext -%10) Admin + Aristocratic

Autonomous Estates ( unrest -%1 + Vassal Force Limit %100) Influence + Aristocrat

All of these policies are for conquering the world quickly without having rebels. I start with diplo because i usually get electors in HRE and become the emperor. But you can start Economic or trade ideas if you really desperate about money (dunno sweden never played) don't forget to protech trade nodes with your lightships, making churchs, workshops. And when you get 50 influence from The Papal State, you can invest them for %15 taxes.

Also a deepnote: Most important thing for the army is Army tradition. And if you lack military points, you can get them from one of the Estates exchange for loyalty (Aristocratic improves their loyalty by time)

[Anaverageguy41]

Don't bother with Aristocratic IMO
It's neat but not worth it, nor is cavalry late game especially for sweden

[tinisiyo]

Originally posted by Alduin:

You guys help ALOT! But for simplicity's sake, since i have a hard time understanding all this, please write the ideas and what order to have them in this fashion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc. Thanks!

Well, something like this for early army str:
1) quality
2) economic
3) offensive
4) innovative
Insert somewhere in between admin or religious or quantity ideas, depending on your ruler stats
Or something like this for faster expanding
1) influence
2) religious
3) offensive
4) innovative
5) admin
6) quality
Turn on imagination ^_^

[Joachim Dietrich Raybands]

Originally posted by tinisiyo:

Originally posted by Alduin:

You guys help ALOT! But for simplicity's sake, since i have a hard time understanding all this, please write the ideas and what order to have them in this fashion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc. Thanks!

Well, something like this for early army str:
1) quality
2) economic
3) offensive
4) innovative
Insert somewhere in between admin or religious or quantity ideas, depending on your ruler stats
Or something like this for faster expanding
1) influence
2) religious
3) quality
4) innovative
5) admin
6) offensive
Turn on imagination ^_^

Thank you so much!
You really helped me out!

[Hopeless Knight]

Originally posted by Alduin:

You guys help ALOT! But for simplicity's sake, since i have a hard time understanding all this, please write the ideas and what order to have them in this fashion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc. Thanks!

Damn people EU 4 is not that complex stop acting like this is HOI 3 or Victoria 2. Besides I think OP wants a casual game not "conquer the world 100% flawless style"



1. Diplomatic Technology is worthless to you since you don't care about your navy so INFLUENCE IDEAS is a must (prob the best idea to start with). It reduces AE and less coalitions agaisnt you led by Dennmark while you conquer the Baltic Coastline.

2, This one depends. You can rush to ADMINISTRATIVE IDEA to reduce the coring costs if your neighbouring nations didn't picked a militaristic Idea (like defensive or offensive). If most of them picked quantity, you're safe to go

Now it really depends how your campaign is going so far.



Now here's the trick, if you want your army to be OP you can

A)
3. Quantity because Europe is a chaotic mess and you need every person in the reserves.

4. Offensive (it's a good duo with Quantity)

5. Economic

Or my special favourite

B) IF YOU ARE REALLY GOOD AT WARRING AND TAKE MINIMAL LOSES

3. Quality
4. Inovative
5. Economic

After you complete those 3 ideas you can take the 2 policies to stack even more your OP permanent army modifiers from several events.
Those policies give
the +5% discipline and +20% infantry combat ability respectably

[Anaverageguy41]

Originally posted by Hopeless Knight:

Originally posted by Alduin:

You guys help ALOT! But for simplicity's sake, since i have a hard time understanding all this, please write the ideas and what order to have them in this fashion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc. Thanks!

A)
3. Quantity because Europe is a chaotic mess and you need every person in the reserves.

4. Offensive (it's a good duo with Quantity)

5. Economic

Or my special favourite

B) IF YOU ARE REALLY GOOD AT WARRING AND TAKE MINIMAL LOSES

3. Quality
4. Inovative
5. Economic

This madman didn't even suggest defensive
Quantity isn't actually a military idea imo
It's more like an economic one, it doesn't actually make an impact on battles so don't choose that until late game and even then it usually doesn't make a difference

Economic is neat but again isn't super impactful

I usually go for
Influence
Defensive
Admin
Offensive
Quality
Innovative
Diplomatic

Not necessarily in that order

Extra diplomats and merchants are super handy for shifting trade and brokering alliances or building spy networks quicker

[Hopeless Knight]

Originally posted by Anaverageguy41:

Originally posted by Hopeless Knight:

A)
3. Quantity because Europe is a chaotic mess and you need every person in the reserves.

4. Offensive (it's a good duo with Quantity)

5. Economic

Or my special favourite

B) IF YOU ARE REALLY GOOD AT WARRING AND TAKE MINIMAL LOSES

3. Quality
4. Inovative
5. Economic

This madman didn't even suggest defensive
Quantity isn't actually a military idea imo
It's more like an economic one, it doesn't actually make an impact on battles so don't choose that until late game and even then it usually doesn't make a difference

Economic is neat but again isn't super impactful

I usually go for
Influence
Defensive
Admin
Offensive
Quality
Innovative
Diplomatic

Not necessarily in that order

Extra diplomats and merchants are super handy for shifting trade and brokering alliances or building spy networks quicker

With B)
It's not necessary if your army has 110% discipline and 140% infantry combat ability, plus -50% mercenary maintenance. Defensive Idea is a waste tbh and an overkill. Also Quantity is not even really a thing to Sweden. With my Idea tree I managed to destroy the HRE and reach to the Iberian Peninsula before 1700 and it was a casual run. And France wasn't really a problem (even without Defensive Idea).