New Gov Reforms and Estate Privileges?

[MasterYi]

I just started my first 1.34 campaign, and I’m wondering which Gov Reforms and which Estate Privileges are worth taking? What combination etc.

(The Gov Reforms aren’t available on the Wiki so I guess I gotta rely on the dev diary which may have some inaccuracies)

Tier 2: I took “Strengthen Noble Privileges” (+15% manpower)

Other Contenders: “Noble Officer Corps” (Yearly Army Tradition and Professionalism, Recruiting Generals give 2% Loyalty)

“Puppeteer the Nobility” (Can revoke Estate Privileges regardless of loyalty and influence), very useful, I don’t see any other way to use 6 privilege slots and still manage to revoke them.

Pointless: “Seek a Compromise with the Nobility”, it makes the “Increased Levies” estate privilege not give Influence nor decrease Max Absolutism. But considering it’s only as powerful as the Land Ownership by your Nobility it kinda sucks? Cuz usually the manpower buff is around +15% anyways so why not just take “Strengthen Noble Privileges” instead and save yourself an estate slot?

It can be useful in Multiplayer by giving most of your land to the Nobility and have low Crownland, but in Singleplayer you wanna have high crownland and limit your estate’s influence so…

Tier 3: I chose “Centralized Bureaucracy” for the Admin refund and reduced gov cap

Other Contenders: “Decrentalized Bureaucracy”

Pointless: “Royal Favouritism” (Disables Call Diet wtf?)

Tier 5 - “Administrative Clergy”, “Nobles of the Robe”, and “Meritocratic Recruitment” are all good, up to the player to choose which estate they wanna increase the loyalty and influence of.

Pointless: “Dynastic Administration”, +0.15 Yearly Corruption and +10% influence for all estates? No thanks.

Tier 6: All good but I’d rank it as follows: “General Estates” (Calling Diet no longer increases influence), “Royal Decree” (Max Absolutism), and “Aristocratic Court” (Dip Rep and Army Tradition Decay).

Tier 7: Dev diary doesn’t have… or it was unchanged? Typo? Idk.

Tier 8: “Leviathan” (-33% Harsh Treatment Cost can be good to farm Absolutism), “The Social Construct” (+25% Religious Unity, Heretic and Heathen provinces no longer give debuffs) - Good.

“Machiavellistic Reign” - Kinda sus giving “+15% AE for +10 Absolutism”, only viable in the late game where you’re so strong no one dares to form a coalition against you.

Tier 9: All good

Tier 10: All good

Has anyone had successful campaigns using all 6 Privilege slots in either 1 or more Estates? Or do you still only grant 4?

I made a mistake of giving too many privileges, so I guess my only option now is to take the underwhelming Espionage Ideas as my 2nd Idea Group to unlock the Tier 2 Reform? (Btw why is it a Tier 2 Reform? No one can complete their first Idea Group that early. They deliberately force you to waste Gov Reform Progress to change your Tier 2 later cuz this Reform is kinda OP?)

Some Nerfs I noticed: Diet Rewards are nowhere near as powerful, I see a lot of “+10% loyalty” rewards… the Improve Relations to 100 mission has also been lowered to 50 it seems, so I guess it balances out if the requirements have also become easier.

You cannot spam “Patronage of the Arts” in the beginning anymore for free prestige, alright I guess, less exploitative.

First time I seen the AI actually Unconditionally Surrender before being 100% occupied and before their allies are peaced out or fully occupied. This is hardly helpful imo cuz if you are winning that hard it isn’t much effort to go the extra mile anyways. Kinda annoying how now you can’t separate peace their allies for extra ducats, break alliances, white peace for short truces/truce resets etc.

My usual rhythm of Selling Titles, expanding to raise crownland then seizing land and comfortably keeping Crownland above 10% is no longer possible with such high Estate Influence, my Crownland Equilibrium is somewhere between 5-10%… So I skipped Selling Titles a few times cuz I’d rather seize land to keep it above 10%.

[Medicles]

You should still be able to peace out enemy allies even though the main target surrendered, just have to deal with ticking war exhaustion.

I find myself going for 6 Nobility Privileges alot of times, using Noble Land Rights, Primacy of the Nobility, Nobility Integration Policy, Strong Duchies, Supremacy over the Crown and Right of Counsel. Last one is mainly to get the loyalty equilibrium high, but only when i play Theocracies, which is my government of choice.

I usually do not have problems getting rid of the privileges later, because of bonuses i use through reforms. Like, i wouldnt take "Strenghten Noble Privileges" as monarchy but rather "Curtail Noble Privileges", since monarchy goes hard into Nobility and i really dont need any manpower modifiers in my games.

[MasterYi]

Originally posted by Medicles:

You should still be able to peace out enemy allies even though the main target surrendered, just have to deal with ticking war exhaustion.

Do you still Chain Wars? I find the ticking warscore to be not wurf, I think I got 6 war exhaustion by prolonging a war by 1-2 years lel.

Originally posted by Medicles:

I find myself going for 6 Nobility Privileges alot of times, using Noble Land Rights, Primacy of the Nobility, Nobility Integration Policy, Strong Duchies, Supremacy over the Crown and Right of Counsel. Last one is mainly to get the loyalty equilibrium high, but only when i play Theocracies, which is my government of choice.

I usually do not have problems getting rid of the privileges later, because of bonuses i use through reforms. Like, i wouldnt take "Strenghten Noble Privileges" as monarchy but rather "Curtail Noble Privileges", since monarchy goes hard into Nobility and i really dont need any manpower modifiers in my games.

Is “Noble Land Rights” the one that give +100 Gov Cap?

What’s “Curtail Noble Privileges”? The +10% Tax Buff?

I never read the name nor the flavour text, I just read the buffs and debuffs. I wish the EU4 Wiki listed the privilege…. Dunno why it’s so lacking.

What to do when Estate influence reach 100% though? Getting Loyalty to be over even 80% is extremely difficult.

[Medicles]

Originally posted by MasterYi:

Do you still Chain Wars? I find the ticking warscore to be not wurf, I think I got 6 war exhaustion by prolonging a war by 1-2 years lel.

Sometimes. It depends on the purpose of my campaign.

Originally posted by MasterYi:

Is “Noble Land Rights” the one that give +100 Gov Cap?

What’s “Curtail Noble Privileges”? The +10% Tax Buff?

I never read the name nor the flavour text, I just read the buffs and debuffs. I wish the EU4 Wiki listed the privilege…. Dunno why it’s so lacking.

What to do when Estate influence reach 100% though? Getting Loyalty to be over even 80% is extremely difficult.

Yes, "Noble Land Rights" is the +100 Gov Cap.

Yes, "Curtail Noble Privileges" is the one that gives now 15% Tax income, but more importantly it gives -10% Nobility influence.

The EU4 Wiki lists the privileges, they are just a little hidden. https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Base_estates

I am not really sure what to do then, because i make sure it doesnt reach 100% since that was very bad back then in the earlier Estate versions.

[MasterYi]

Originally posted by Medicles:

The EU4 Wiki lists the privileges, they are just a little hidden. https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Base_estates

Thanks for the link, it is indeed a bit hidden and I scan read too fast xd

So for my first campaign I chose Avaria and Muslim nations got some new privileges: “Establish Religious Schools” (Inviting a scholar has no Admin cost) - I think this is worth since 50 admin is quite a lot especially since it it the most important monarch point. I also like taking Admin Ideas first and rush the 2nd idea for -25% CCR so I can blob.

I also chose “Grant Local Residence to Scholar” giving you access to all schools regardless of piety and relations with said nation which is handy cuz less micro, less preparation and waiting for 150 relations, said nation might even disappear etc. I like having -10% AE impact and then switch to -10% Dev Cost when it’s time to dev institutions which as a Caucus nation you pretty much have to dev push Renaissance, Colonialism and Printing Press.

I chose “Religious Diplomats” cuz I thought it would make countries harder to join in a coalition against me since I am surrounded by Sunnis and have to expand into Sunnis. Also to get my overlord’s rivals to support my independence faster (turns out I didn’t need the help and all Shirvan did was steal a province from me).

So that’s how I got 6 privileges and 100% clergy influence… I’ll definitely cancel these privileges except “Establish Religious Schools” - The Wiki says it is possible to have more than one foreign scholar active at the time, but how? Doesn’t the existing Scholar just get replaced?

Also is -10 Shock Damaged Received better? Or +10 Shock Damage given better?

Also, once u fire an advisor they are really gone now and cannot be rehired like before?!

[Medicles]

It shouldnt be possible and the Wiki states too that its not possible to have more than one scholar active.

Quote: "It is impossible to have more than one foreign scholar at any given time. Inviting a scholar while one is already present will result in their replacement. "

https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Muslim_denominations#Muslim_schools_of_law

I am not sure about the Shock Damage question, i can only say the obvious that the Shock Damage given is certainly better for Horde nations. For everyone else the question shouldnt be significant enough because other combat modifiers are still superior.

You should still be able to hire the advisor you have fired.

[RCMidas]

Originally posted by MasterYi:

“Puppeteer the Nobility” (Can revoke Estate Privileges regardless of loyalty and influence), very useful, I don’t see any other way to use 6 privilege slots and still manage to revoke them.

Seize Kongo's capital at Mbemba, accept their culture, upgrade the Great Project. Also boosts Reform Progress gain.

Originally posted by MasterYi:

Pointless: “Dynastic Administration”, +0.15 Yearly Corruption and +10% influence for all estates? No thanks.

That's actually a negative influence modifier. In exchange, +1 Admin Skill for your monarchs. Extremely good if you can deal with the corruption. Synergy with Puppeteer The Nobility due to Espionage granting -0.20 Yearly Corruption.

Originally posted by MasterYi:

“Machiavellistic Reign” - Kinda sus giving “+15% AE for +10 Absolutism”, only viable in the late game where you’re so strong no one dares to form a coalition against you.

Serious conquerors should have Diplomacy ideas, counteracting that increase long before you get this reform*. You should already be too strong for any coalition to be of concern by the Age of Reformation. If you take this reform, you should be willing to hit hard and fast and bloody, such as when you have very good relations with someone you want to kill, because that will save you on Admin mana to counteract any Stability hit. It also allows no loss of Stability for no-CB wars when combined with Diplomatic ideas. Just saying.

*As in, +25% Improve Relations. If you're taking Espionage already, then you've got an actual -20% AE modifier in that group. No policy synergy if you take both, which is a long-term thing to consider.

Originally posted by MasterYi:

(Btw why is it a Tier 2 Reform? No one can complete their first Idea Group that early. They deliberately force you to waste Gov Reform Progress to change your Tier 2 later cuz this Reform is kinda OP?)

All nobility reforms are tier 2 by default. No other reason. You could also spend that progress on boosting GC instead. If you're taking Espionage, you're already unlikely to be playing optimally or fully minmaxing, therefore you don't need to worry too much about non-optimal reform expenditure.

[MasterYi]

I just had a very hard fought war against the Ottomans who had 150k troops in 1535 (Why AIs so buffed in 1.34?), who attacked my ally the Mamluks, not ideal to be in a defensive war for an ally but I really needed the Mamluks and their ally Morocco to be alive cuz the Ottos already won some wars previously and took northern Syria.

The Mamluks were on Low attitude despite not having any land occupied, I did most of the fighting and managed to fully siege Anatolia apart from Sugla (while the Ottomans were trying to march from Crimea), and got 45% Warscore as well as having ticking warscore cuz Mams were holding Homs. But despite all this, the Mamluks decided to peace out of the war and force the Ottos to release 2 OPMs: Corfu and Trebizond.

Idk why this happened cuz all they did was white peace out Tunis with the help of Morocco, didn’t fight the Ottos and just walked around taking attrition.

P.s. What to do with the Dhimmi? I just give them the +10% loyalty and influence privilege to keep their loyalty equilibrium above 50% so they don’t revolt when I seize land.

I hate having 4 estates cuz it really drives down your Crownland equilibrium.