Japanese ideas vs Shimazu ideas

[Golden]

Hey EUIV players, i managed to unify Japan as Shimazu and i would like to receive some opinions regarding the "new traditions and ambitions" event.

I intend to colonize the pacific and posibly attack ming and vietnam latter on, so should i switch to Japanese ideas or not?

Advices from experienced players would be appreciated, thank you.

[OscarTheGrouchiest]

I would say Shimazu has better ideas, but they're both kind of simmilar.

-5% technology cost is the same.
+5% discipline is the same
Japan +15% Infantry combat ability > Shimazu +10% Infantry combat ability
but Shimazu also has +10% Morale of armies and +10% Land fire damage.

Shimazu ideas will also make you more money with +10% National tax modifier and +10% Production efficiency. Japan has +20 Global settler increase which will be better for colonising, but it's not like that's a game changer when colonising without it.

So with Shimazu you have slightly more money and better armies, and with Japan you'll have slightly faster colonising and less unrest with less agressive expansion. I'd go with Shimazu then.

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Japan
http://www.eu4wiki.com/Shimazu

But like I said, they're pretty simmilar. It's not like choosing one or the other will make things much harder for you as a player either way.

[Phoenix VII]

From the wiki, Shimazu has:

+10% infantry combat ability; -1 yearly army tradition decay
+10% morale of armies
+15% manpower recovery speed
+10 production efficiency
+5% discipline
+10% land fire damage
+20% trade steering
-5% technology cost
+10% national tax modifier

Japan has:

-10% stability cost; +5% discipline
-2 national unrest
+20% national manpower modifier
-5% technology cost; +10% institution spread
+10% ship durability
+1 yearly prestige
+20 global settler increase
-15% aggressive expansion impact
+15% infantry combat ability

Japan will complete colonies quicker, have more manpower, can take more land without triggering coalitions (honestly, this looks more impressive then it actually is), have somewhat better ships, and be able to deal with unrest somewhat better than Shimazu all things being equal. Shimazu will have the better economy and their military ideas make them the Prussia of the East. Their +10% land fire damage will give them a major advantage over any enemy in battle from Tech 16 onwards.

TL;DR: Japan's ideas are very good (better than most in the East and I'd take them over most of the daimyo as well [even Uesugi]) but I don't see a reason to switch from Shimazu's ideas unless colonization speed is a major issue for you.

[Golden]

I was thinking about this a similar way, that the Global settler increase isn't really necessary and that overall the morale of armies and land fire damage bonus seem more appealing than what japanese ideas as to offer even tho both idea sets are really good.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[Damphair]

Aggresive Expansion modifier is useless in east asia if you're a tributary to Ming, if you take so much land that you'll be the target of a coalation you kinda need to go over 100% overextension in every war and you would never survive that.