Finally integrated Portugal as Spain, and good lord their colonies are a massive headache....

[Blunder Bro]

So I have crown colonies in the following colonial regions: Columbia, La Plata, Peru, Mexico, California, Whatever the Ivory Coast trade node would be, Caribbean, and Brazil.

I was content to let Portugal nab colonial regions from India to New Zealand, and South Africa, as it wasn't near my stuff and I would get them when I integrate Portugal.

Problem is Portugal didn't get the message when the pope decreed that everything from California to the Falklands is mine. Where I fully expanded my colonies into the Americas the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Portuguese have made their own sister colonies to mine. The Caribbean, Colombia and Mexico colonial regions are an absolute mess to say the least!! There is no way for me to tell "Portuguese Columbia" that they should give everything to the Spanish "Colombian Company" colony I have there. It splits my colony up and has a load of random tiles elsewhere too!

So what is the best way to transfer these to make the map not a headache? I was thinking ramping up their liberty desire and annex them so that i.e. the "Colombian Company" can automatically have the territory transferred to them as it does when you directly annex provinces in their colonial region. I would be taking all of "Portuguese Colombia", directly annexing it, and hope that the game correctly gives it all to the "Colombian Company", as it is in their region.

Thoughts?

[bri]

You have two options:

1) deal with the bordergore and maintain the doubled up colonial nations (which can be good if both have 10+ provinces)

2) grant the smaller cn independence then conquer it

[Blunder Bro]

Originally posted by bri:

You have two options:

1) deal with the bordergore and maintain the doubled up colonial nations (which can be good if both have 10+ provinces)

2) grant the smaller cn independence then conquer it

I have no idea what you just said.

Forgot to put in post no acronyms please. That is what I hate the most about "Beginner friendly" EU4 tutorial videos. CB CN VD VA DA RM WP OV PU CV , all of it just gives me a headache.

[Malvastor]

Originally posted by Demonic Cookie:

Originally posted by bri:

You have two options:

1) deal with the bordergore and maintain the doubled up colonial nations (which can be good if both have 10+ provinces)

2) grant the smaller cn independence then conquer it

I have no idea what you just said.

Forgot to put in post no acronyms please. That is what I hate the most about "Beginner friendly" EU4 tutorial videos. CB CN VD VA DA RM WP OV PU CV , all of it just gives me a headache.

To break his points down:

1. Two colonial nations (CNs) in the same region isn't necessarily a bad thing. If they have more than ten provinces, both will give you a merchant- and merchants are awesome.

2. If it still bothers you, you can let the smaller colonial nation go free, then attack them and have your larger colonial nation annex their territory.

[Blunder Bro]

Originally posted by Malvastor:

Originally posted by Demonic Cookie:

I have no idea what you just said.

Forgot to put in post no acronyms please. That is what I hate the most about "Beginner friendly" EU4 tutorial videos. CB CN VD VA DA RM WP OV PU CV , all of it just gives me a headache.

To break his points down:

1. Two colonial nations (CNs) in the same region isn't necessarily a bad thing. If they have more than ten provinces, both will give you a merchant- and merchants are awesome.

2. If it still bothers you, you can let the smaller colonial nation go free, then attack them and have your larger colonial nation annex their territory.

1. Thanks. Also, I have enough Merchants right now. I got 11 and I have to headache of sorting all the Portuguese ships and troops. Besides I am running out of nodes to use them on. At least any nodes that would actually do anything. I am not going to get ♥♥♥♥ from those that wouldn't feed anything to the nodes I actually can profit from.

2. Yeah that is what I want to do but I am not sure if my way of doing it is the right way. If I just release them, I would have a cease fire wouldn't I? And what about my enemies, would it be possible that they would ally my ex colonies and make the retaking much more annoying? I have never had an independence war with a colony, so I am not sure if letting them rebel and annex them that way would be a good idea.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

colonies are never going to rebel unless someone is supporting their independence in which case it's the same as them being allied, so it really doesn't matter. (you have to be MAJORLY screwing up to actually be weak enough for colonies to rebel these days).

Also allies don't really matter that much. Especially as due to their size, colonies are unlikely to even be able to find any meaningful allies. Large nations only care for trying to break a colony free. They generally immediately break the alliance after they've supported the independence. So they can conquer it themselves. Or if it's small enough, they might try to vassalize them.

And any small allies are going to barely be a road bump in the conquest or can be ignored entirely.

it's also possible your other colony will eat them themselves before the truce with you is even up. (your colonies will absolutely fight each other over territory they believe should belong to them (if one of them has somehow acquired territory that is part of a different colonial region that another colony is part of), and doubly so for colonies that aren't part of your realm).

[Blunder Bro]

Originally posted by kaiyl_kariashi:

colonies are never going to rebel unless someone is supporting their independence in which case it's the same as them being allied, so it really doesn't matter. (you have to be MAJORLY screwing up to actually be weak enough for colonies to rebel these days).

Also allies don't really matter that much. Especially as due to their size, colonies are unlikely to even be able to find any meaningful allies. Large nations only care for trying to break a colony free. They generally immediately break the alliance after they've supported the independence. So they can conquer it themselves. Or if it's small enough, they might try to vassalize them.

And any small allies are going to barely be a road bump in the conquest or can be ignored entirely.

it's also possible your other colony will eat them themselves before the truce with you is even up. (your colonies will absolutely fight each other over territory they believe should belong to them (if one of them has somehow acquired territory that is part of a different colonial region that another colony is part of), and doubly so for colonies that aren't part of your realm).

Ah right, well am noob so thanks for that info. I had no idea. So are you saying that even if the game warns "liberty desire is above 50%, they might rebel for independence" can only actually kick off if someone else lights the match? So to speak.

It is more a concern that idk France or something joins them. Which I can handle, I cannot overemphasise how much stronger I am than everyone else. It is just irritating and I am not in the best position to deal with it proper. I have so much integration red tape to clean up with all the troops, ships and the random ass Portuguese Colonies.

Hmmm, yeah... So are you saying I could tell the colony I wish to have the land, to attack them once they are free? Not sure if they would be under a truce too, but it is better than the situation I am in. It is such a mess.

Thanks

[Marquoz]

Originally posted by Demonic Cookie:

Ah right, well am noob so thanks for that info. I had no idea. So are you saying that even if the game warns "liberty desire is above 50%, they might rebel for independence" can only actually kick off if someone else lights the match? So to speak.

The wiki is always your friend: https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Colonial_nation#Liberty_desire

Colonial nations with high liberty desire might band together against you, and they might also get help from abroad. So liberty desire does matter. There are many ways to keep it in check, and you should take advantage of them to make sure you don't have issues. The most powerful of these is to be VERY strong militarily yourself. Don't focus all your efforts on colonial expansion. Conquer non-colonial provinces in Europe, Asia, and Africa to increase your own force limit so they never become disloyal.