Vassal Feeding/How to save Admin tech?

[ParrotCarrot]

Hello, I am a player that is still fairly new to EU4, and I want to know if there is a way to save admin tech while I go on conquests and core the new land. I’ve heard of vassal feeding but I’m not sure how to do it or if I need DLCs. Any tips?

[Server Jester]

if there are cores on the land you just conquered of a nation that doesnt/stopped existing (annexed) then you can release them as a vassal
then you feed your vassal land by occupying provinces and then transferring occupation over to your vassal so they get the land in the peace deal (note I think you need Art of War to do this)
You then diplomatically annex the vassal once you're able to and want to
This is extremely useful in areas like North Africa where the land is just a massive waste of admin points
Example: You beat Morocco in a war and you take Melilla, Fez, and Meknes
Those 3 provinces have cores from the nation Fez, so you release Fez as a vassal and you use Fez to more efficiently expand in North Africa
Vs just annexing the provinces and dealing with low admin points and of course r e b e l s

[Solitus]

You can also just take the "make vassal" option instead of releasing a core. This is especially fun to do as a Free City in the HRE. You can feed your vassals, develop your capital to stupid levels(keeping your free city bonuses); and then integrate. Beast Mode.

[reprodukTOOOOOOOOOOOR]

one think, you dont have to actually occupy province and then transfer, you can take it yourself and then cede province to vassal

[bri]

You don't have to transfer ownership to the vassal (although you can and in some cases it will save you diplo points as well). After taking it you can grant/sell it to them (depending on DLC in play). You can also use return cores in the peace deal to return their cores whether they occupy the land or not.

To OP: note that the preferred use of "vassal feeding" is to release/force a vassal that has plenty of cores owned by other nations then use the return core peace terms as it generates far less AE than conquering.

[brian_va]

if you click around on different provinces, you will see that there are some that show an existing country that doesn't own it or no longer exists. if you were to take that province and then release that country as a vassal after the war is over (no need to core it, generally speaking), you could then go to war using that vassals cores as the CB for 25% AE (i think art of war is required for this, not 100% tho). later you can annex them, making them part of your country using diplo points instead of admin points.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1710704118

current game as prussia. notable vassals that didn't exist and were released to feed them cores were finland, novgorod, livonian order, several minors inside lithuania, norway and probably a fair few others. poland is also a PU, great horde and netherlands are vassals with cores still to be fed. i'm considering going after scotland who has one small island left to feed them and get more trade power in the future, but that would take away from feeding their colonial lands to my colonies. think its currently sitting at 1350 or so dev, and i am by no means an aggressive player. diplomacy and some waiting can net you great returns.

vassal feeding works real well in/around the HRE as well as when you don't have significant reductions to core costs.

[tonypa]

You can also fully conquer neighbouring small country and force-vassalize them (last tab in the peace deal) instead of releasing your own province.

Originally posted by cougarben7:

Hello, I am a player that is still fairly new to EU4, and I want to know if there is a way to save admin tech while I go on conquests and core the new land. I’ve heard of vassal feeding but I’m not sure how to do it or if I need DLCs. Any tips?

Once you have vassal with AoW DLC you can use claims of that vassal to start war. While in the war, transfer occupation to Vasal and in the peace deal demand lands that your vassal occupies. So your vassal gets the land, and start to core these with their own Admin points. Once the vassal has grown big enugh you integrate them using Diplo points.

Even better if the vassal has permanent cores on large number of land owned by other countries. This allows you to use re-conquer CB with 25% AE and 75% cost of normal conquest to get all these cores back to your vassal. Once returned, your vassal does not even need to spend any admin points as these are already their own core.

Notice that if you let your vassals grow too big, their liberty desire grows and they can eventually become disloyal and start war against you to gain independence.

[Server Jester]

Originally posted by tonypa:

You can also fully conquer neighbouring small country and force-vassalize them (last tab in the peace deal) instead of releasing your own province.

Originally posted by cougarben7:

Hello, I am a player that is still fairly new to EU4, and I want to know if there is a way to save admin tech while I go on conquests and core the new land. I’ve heard of vassal feeding but I’m not sure how to do it or if I need DLCs. Any tips?

Once you have vassal with AoW DLC you can use claims of that vassal to start war. While in the war, transfer occupation to Vasal and in the peace deal demand lands that your vassal occupies. So your vassal gets the land, and start to core these with their own Admin points. Once the vassal has grown big enugh you integrate them using Diplo points.

Even better if the vassal has permanent cores on large number of land owned by other countries. This allows you to use re-conquer CB with 25% AE and 75% cost of normal conquest to get all these cores back to your vassal. Once returned, your vassal does not even need to spend any admin points as these are already their own core.

Notice that if you let your vassals grow too big, their liberty desire grows and they can eventually become disloyal and start war against you to gain independence.

isnt force vassalizing bad because they will usually start out disloyal to you?

[tonypa]

Originally posted by PunishedMuskovy:

Originally posted by tonypa:

You can also fully conquer neighbouring small country and force-vassalize them (last tab in the peace deal) instead of releasing your own province.

isnt force vassalizing bad because they will usually start out disloyal to you?

Yes, depending on previous actions and relations, but you have plenty time to improve relation. If you are Great Power and rich you can get them to loyal pretty fast. Feed them few provinces from enemy, pay their debt and they will love you.

I don't like to release new countries as there is no clear way to check their potential cores, their religion or culture (there probably is but I have not learned it). When you force-vassalize you can check easily all their stats.