OP custom nation ideas

[Invicti]

I'm putting together a custom nation and wanted to know which the pros find are the best of the best?

[Medicles]

20% Morale of Armies
10% Disciplin

Those are the top ones that can be used for all custom nations to make your armies superior to basically everyone else. After that it gets specific. Get colonisation ideas for mass colonizing, get AE reduction for faster conquest, get diplomatic ideas so everyone loves you... etc.

[Lasagna]

goods produced is the best economic modifier in the game.

[T. Rex]

I'd also point out you can get -0.10 War Exhaustion fairly cheaply (-0.05 War Exhaustion is nearly a no brainer pick up since it only cost 5 points, but -0.10 is also very obtainable), nice to never have to worry about War Exhaustion without needing to pick up Innovative ideas.

[Invicti]

gotcha thanks guys. Def I'll include morale of armies, discipline, and goods produced. maybe aggressive expansion but won't that be less useful late game?

I was scrolling through the options and what do you guys think of these:

movement speed +20%
siege speed
all power costs -10%
possible policies +1
merchant +2
administrative efficiency
morale of navies +20%

[BoiledInPilk]

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

gotcha thanks guys. Def I'll include morale of armies, discipline, and goods produced. maybe aggressive expansion but won't that be less useful late game?

I was scrolling through the options and what do you guys think of these:

movement speed +20%
siege speed
all power costs -10%
possible policies +1
merchant +2
administrative efficiency
morale of navies +20%

Depending on your custom nation placement morale of navies can be pretty useless. If your in europe, you can no-cb an irish minor and then abuse scottish military access/kill scotland to get rid of england, the one power where sea power could be needed. Unrest reduction and tolerance can be very good. Siberian frontiers I hear can be very strong in the new world, and you could also then get High american tech (best in game), although native changes might make that less worth it. All power costs seems really strong. Core cost reduction and vassal integration cost reduction also are probably really good.

[Lasagna]

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

gotcha thanks guys. Def I'll include morale of armies, discipline, and goods produced. maybe aggressive expansion but won't that be less useful late game?

I was scrolling through the options and what do you guys think of these:

movement speed +20%
siege speed
all power costs -10%
possible policies +1
merchant +2
administrative efficiency
morale of navies +20%

Movement speed and siege ability are nice because they're very hard to get elsewhere.

All powers cost is nice.

policies is good, though it will take a while before you even have the idea groups to use it.

Merchants can easily be gotten via colonial nations and new trade companies, not important unless you're very determined to not expand outside your super-region.

admin efficiency is amazing, you can double up with core cost reduction if you really want to blob hard.

morale of navies isn't very important, navies in general are unimportant except for things like invading the British (assuming you don't invade via scotland) and you can get a strong navy just by building ships, no need to waste ideas on it.

dev cost is really nice if you want to MP-meta and build megatall.

[Medicles]

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

gotcha thanks guys. Def I'll include morale of armies, discipline, and goods produced. maybe aggressive expansion but won't that be less useful late game?

I was scrolling through the options and what do you guys think of these:

movement speed +20%
siege speed
all power costs -10%
possible policies +1
merchant +2
administrative efficiency
morale of navies +20%

Siege ability is good, but i see it on the same level as National Manpower modifier. Helpful, but not exactly needed. Morale of Armies and Disciplin are the ones that have a significant impact.

Administrative Efficiency is very good and i wanted to initially include it in my first comment. Helps enourmously with conquest. Its certainly a safe pick.

All power cost is nice, but also not really needed. The rest is either garbage or too specific.

When you make a custom nation, then you want to have a plan in mind. Do you want to start in the HRE? Then get diplomatic ideas like Improved Relations and Diplomatic Reputation. Want to colonize? Then get Colonists, Settler Chance and Global Settler increase. Want to start next to different religions? Then get some Missionary Strength and Missionaries.

Also plan out what kind of ideas you want to take ingame that either synergize with your custom national ideas or complement them.

[dataseer21]

I have actually found that having +1 infantry shock in the beginning is op. Also a reduction in all power costs. They others have mentioned similar things. In my opinion the general pip ones are a little over priced for level 2 but level 1 isn't bad. Discipline is good as is morale of armies as people have said. Don't forget diplo rep is good in some situations unless you are pulling a korea where all the other nations hate you and it is worthless.

[Medicles]

Originally posted by dataseer21:

I have actually found that having +1 infantry shock in the beginning is op. Also a reduction in all power costs. They others have mentioned similar things. In my opinion the general pip ones are a little over priced for level 2 but level 1 isn't bad. Discipline is good as is morale of armies as people have said. Don't forget diplo rep is good in some situations unless you are pulling a korea where all the other nations hate you and it is worthless.

I would rather suggest Leader Siege. 20% Morale of Armies as tradition is more than enough to crush every army and sieges will also go fast when you have a general with siege pip. The best part is though, that you often times get generals with 2 or even 3 siege pips early on which make sieges almost irrelevant.

[Ashling]

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

all power costs -10%

It's really good, to the point I don't like using it when making broken custom nations because it's too good.

Originally posted by dataseer21:

I have actually found that having +1 infantry shock in the beginning is op. In my opinion the general pip ones are a little over priced for level 2 but level 1 isn't bad.

Yep, pips are good, they're better than army tradition last time I checked and 2 pips are actually really good for the price if you can manage it. With offensive ideas or some army tradition you can essentially guarantee every general will have close to if not three stars. But that also goes for having a 1 pip level idea, offensive is just generally a good idea group.

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There's also an idea that allows your cannons to fire twice (its like cannons +1 fire from the backrow or something) which is powerful if you use cannons a lot.

Something which might be overlooked is that infantry cost reduction (and its ilk) apply to the maintenance of the unit not just the recruiting cost. It's not necessarily broken, but it's something to keep in mind if you want really cheap and massive armies.

Bonus fact: female adviser chance also applies to the chance of recruiting female generals if that option is also available.
Well, I've now told you every neat detail I know about custom nation ideas.

[Invicti]

Originally posted by Medicles:

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

gotcha thanks guys. Def I'll include morale of armies, discipline, and goods produced. maybe aggressive expansion but won't that be less useful late game?

I was scrolling through the options and what do you guys think of these:

movement speed +20%
siege speed
all power costs -10%
possible policies +1
merchant +2
administrative efficiency
morale of navies +20%

Siege ability is good, but i see it on the same level as National Manpower modifier. Helpful, but not exactly needed. Morale of Armies and Disciplin are the ones that have a significant impact.

Administrative Efficiency is very good and i wanted to initially include it in my first comment. Helps enourmously with conquest. Its certainly a safe pick.

All power cost is nice, but also not really needed. The rest is either garbage or too specific.

When you make a custom nation, then you want to have a plan in mind. Do you want to start in the HRE? Then get diplomatic ideas like Improved Relations and Diplomatic Reputation. Want to colonize? Then get Colonists, Settler Chance and Global Settler increase. Want to start next to different religions? Then get some Missionary Strength and Missionaries.

Also plan out what kind of ideas you want to take ingame that either synergize with your custom national ideas or complement them.

I'm starting in Macedonia as a city-state, move eastwards, and conquer Alexander-esque

is movement speed garbage in the game? I was thinking of how Napoleon's armies were overwhelming in part because of their speed of maneuver

[ChaffyExpert]

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

gotcha thanks guys. Def I'll include morale of armies, discipline, and goods produced. maybe aggressive expansion but won't that be less useful late game?

I was scrolling through the options and what do you guys think of these:

movement speed +20%
siege speed
all power costs -10%
possible policies +1
merchant +2
administrative efficiency
morale of navies +20%

possible policies is kind of a waste, i don't think extra merchants is that useful unless you have a global empire, in which case you probably get more from colonial subjects anyways.

Id say you want -20% dev cost for if you need to jumpstart institutions and -10% tech bonus, which stacked with -10% all power costs is -20% tech cost, makes it easy to stay ahead, which is very important. I usually don't pick -10% power costs though.

Also, very important, you want improve relations 30% modifier, it makes Ae decay faster.


Since in another post you said you were playing as macedonia, you are almost certainly going to have to deal with the ottomans, so you may need a diplo idea first then military buffs to secure an alliance. Additionally, go Catholic, Orthodox is OP but it won't help enough against ottomans, don't have the armies for it, you need alliances.

Also, consider -10% shock modifier and -10% fire modifiers to further buff your army,.

[Ashling]

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

is movement speed garbage in the game? I was thinking of how Napoleon's armies were overwhelming in part because of their speed of maneuver

It's alright. It's not overwhelming though, if an army is going to beat you then it's going to beat you regardless of your movement speed. The best use for it in my playthroughs have been to catch armies trying to flee in a large empire (so if the enemies has military access or I didn't feel like properly building forts). Overall, there's still going to be times where the enemy is simply faster than you because of the pathway they're taking, or they don't leave defensive terrain, so it's not as combat-decisive as you'd think.

Plus, leader maneuver pips give you army speed (5% per pip to the max of 30%) and other goodies so you've probably experienced a near 20% speed bonus yourself. But yeah, just like maneuver pips on a general, it's nice to have but not the best.

[Invicti]

Originally posted by Traror:

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

gotcha thanks guys. Def I'll include morale of armies, discipline, and goods produced. maybe aggressive expansion but won't that be less useful late game?

I was scrolling through the options and what do you guys think of these:

movement speed +20%
siege speed
all power costs -10%
possible policies +1
merchant +2
administrative efficiency
morale of navies +20%

possible policies is kind of a waste, i don't think extra merchants is that useful unless you have a global empire, in which case you probably get more from colonial subjects anyways.

Id say you want -20% dev cost for if you need to jumpstart institutions and -10% tech bonus, which stacked with -10% all power costs is -20% tech cost, makes it easy to stay ahead, which is very important. I usually don't pick -10% power costs though.

Also, consider -10% shock modifier and -10% fire modifiers to further buff your army,.

I'll def use the development bonus 1 thanks mate.

I thought the possible policies was super OP in late game because it actually gives you 3 whole policies (1 for adm, dip, and mil)?

[Medicles]

Originally posted by MegasInvicta:

I'll def use the development bonus 1 thanks mate.

I thought the possible policies was super OP in late game because it actually gives you 3 whole policies (1 for adm, dip, and mil)?

Sadly, the lategame doesnt really matter.

The most important part of the game is early to midgame, because you usually start in a challenging position until you reach the status of being the most powerful nation in the world, which is usually in the midgame. Depends on how experienced you are in the game. The more experienced, the faster you reach overpowered status.

With this being the case, the first three ideas you take ingame are also the most important for your campaign. Not only are they the ones who unlock your full national ideas, they are also the most significant ones to help you reach the desired powerlevel of being a threat to the whole world.

Everything that comes after the first three ideas and your desired powerlevel is more or less a "win-more" button/mechanic/system. One of the primary reasons why many, if not the vast majority of players stop their "free" campaign around 1600, because the challenge is mostly gone and replaced with tedious repetition.