Good Ideas for Sweden

[Karsk]

I read a post from Johan saying that he takes diplomacy when he plays as Sweden, Im thinking that the two best starting ones are trade or diplomacy. Beyond that I am lost.

[Xara]

Sweden is probably next on my "to play" list

I very often go Diplomacy first, it's simply too helpful for both peaceful and hostile land-grabbing

Then an admin tech, but only to keep admin points from stacking up. I like Economic, since it gets anti-inflation rolling, and eventually provides good benefits for both tax income, production income, and buffing your army - via the Militia Act (+6% discipline after you get Centralization and have a Mil 4+ ruler) and reduced maintenance.

Then a Mil tech, since it will be getting years ahead. I understand Sweden has good strength boosts via Discipline ideas and such - might as well stack it together with Quality.

Then it's back to Diplo idea, where both Trade or Naval would be helpful depending on how you are proceeding.

I'd also add in Religious or Innovative - I don't see Admininistrative as useful at all, and Espionage is interseting, but not all that helpful unless you are facing a huuuuge opponent.

Offense for a 2nd mil idea, for sure, even more discipline to stack. Defense and Quality both pretty much stack with everything else military, so either or both help.

Summary :
Diplo : Diplo, Naval / Trade
Admin : Economic, Religious / Innovative
Mil : Quality, Offense, Defense / Quantity

just my thoughts, have not done it yet. wiggle room to pick as it suits you

[Bandit17]

I have one Seden campaign under my belt and I agree that Diplomacy is always a good first choice. After that I went: Offensive, Religion, Exploration, Quality, Trade, Economic, Defense and Expansion.

Diplomacy, Offensive, Exploration and Trade are a must have imho. After that you can go different ways depending on preferences. You could sub Expansion for Exploration if your late to the colonial race.

Economic is optional because once you get your country up and running money is usually pretty easy to come by. Religion is also optional for Sweden as converting to Protestant is not too much of a headache if you prepare properly. Defense is another optional as with your awesome discipline stacked with quality and offensive nothing will be standing in your way. Not even France late game.

So Naval is a solid bet if you want to compete with Great Britain and/or just increase trade profits. I also do like Espionage late game just for the Spy Efficiency and most importantly the extra diplomat. I think Aristocratic is a nice option for Sweden for extra mp, cavalry bonuses and the extra diplomat.

[Xara]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bandit17:

Economic is optional because once you get your country up and running money is usually pretty easy to come by.

I dunno about that. The bigger I get, the bigger my army gets, and another 10% discount on maintaining it never hurt. Economic also ties in with colonizing - your production efficiency adds to settling chance

And like I said, Centralization leads to a 6% discipline boost, great for army and navy alike!

[Karsk]

As far as colonization goes, I want to colonize North America, but will I need to conquer Norway and move my capital to the North Sea node in order to collect? Or Conquer Denmark move capital to Lubeck node and send everything there?

[Bandit17]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Xara:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bandit17:

Economic is optional because once you get your country up and running money is usually pretty easy to come by.

I dunno about that. The bigger I get, the bigger my army gets, and another 10% discount on maintaining it never hurt. Economic also ties in with colonizing - your production efficiency adds to settling chance

And like I said, Centralization leads to a 6% discipline boost, great for army and navy alike!

My three campaign end date totals in order of completion:
Sweden: 27,517 (still learning about trade and basic game mechanics)
Russia: 148, 531 (getting the hang of things but lack of solid trade oppurtunities for Russia holds the profits back some.)
Venice: 372,227 (good grasp of game mechanics)

In the last two campaigns I couldn't spend the money fast enough and in my venice campaign I just stopped caring about trade for large portions of the game. Once you get the hang of the game and depending on which country you play money should not be an issue once you get things like trade and some expansion going.

But I do agree that centralization bonus is pretty nice. I also find that admin points can be hard to come by so it's another reason why I only usually pick two admin idea groups.

[Bandit17]

Another thing I'd like to add is that, in my experience, I have found money and manpower are very hard to come by early but mid-game they begin to come in larger amounts as you expand your borders, invest in buildings and begin to stick your fingers into more and more trade.

Late game the only two factors holding me back is the number of relations I can have and the number of diplomats I have. In my second campaign I almost reached 300 provinces as Russia. In my last campaign as Venice I reached 663 provinces. Diplomacy in all forms is just too important and I always make it a priority.

Edit: And with patch 1.2 possibly adding the fact that most buildings will be saved in any provinces you conquer will allow for money to come by even easier now which I think might unbalance the game but we shall see.

[Xara]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Bandit17:

. Once you get the hang of the game and depending on which country you play money should not be an issue once you get things like trade and some expansion going.

Yes, if you own a modest expanse of land around where you started, and your forcelimit means you're funding a small surgical strike team in Europe and a few colony defenses, with everything you have poured into +naval forcelimit buildings and trade ships, taking some maintenance off your army doesn't do much.

But I'm a huge Europe-conqueror. My biggest game, to date, was becoming HRE Emperor as Spain, and uniting it. I had integrated Portugal, Aragon, Hungary, Poland, and Naples. I owned basically everything in Europe that wasn't French or the Pope's backyard. My last war against the French I fought on 4 continents simultaneously using upwards of 300 regiments. Maintenance counts in that case! 10% off 200 ducats/mo is fairly noteworthy for income then.

I'm working on an even bigger game now as Austria. I got a union with Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, and Aragon who all got inherited/integrated. I've got a union with Lithuania I will add in. I've got a union with Montenegro, who itself has a union with Muscovy, although they'll lose that and hopefully I can force mine back onto Muscovy. I have marriages with Sweden and Britain just waiting for their king to die so I can strike and force a union there. I've got a union with Portugal that I will seize colonies from. I am fighting Castille to take away *their* colonies and force them back to only the Iberian peninsula, which I will slowly seize as aggression / coalitions wear off. France has been replaced by Guyenne. Almost nobody has colonized, it's funny, except for Britain slowly starting in N.A. and Portugal/Castille working through Brazil, which I'm now taking. I've taken Judea through Libya and splintered the Ottomans.

My forcelimit is at 193 as is and is going to go through the roof when I bring Lithuania, Portugal, and the HRE into the fold. Maintenance costs, I tell you!

Nice part about the land conquest is simply owning every province in a trade node. No need to steer, really. Only have 3 merchants at this point and I'm just collecting from Antwerp, Genoa, and Venice with them, plus Wien, my home

Even given all that, I've never seen the income levels you apparently have such that land costs are irrelevant

[Bandit17]

To sum it up for the OP: If you are still learning the mechanics of the game or just want to be super super rich than economic is a solid bet. If your a veteran and want to create the largest empire possible than economic is very optional imho.

Edited for serious typo!

[Bandit17]

@Xara, this is my final Finance report as Venice/Italy showing my European holdings in the screenshot:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=180084306

I also had colonial control of half of the Americas, most of Africa and portions of India and SE Asia.

I agree that if you max your army to it's forcelimits and if your colonial empire/trade is average at best than money can still be tight. This is why I almost always stay pretty far under my forcelimits about mid-game on. And when your not at war you can drop maintenance all the way down and make some serious cash.

So yea, if you are running around with super large armies everywhere and like that option to be available to you than economic ideas is good for that.

[Xara]

All that and you weren't running 3x +3 advisors? tsk tsk

[Bandit17]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Xara:

All that and you weren't running 3x +3 advisors? tsk tsk

I tend to get some bad luck with that. I have tons of cash and I get no +3 advisors. I'm broke and I get +3 advisors all the time!

[Xara]

Should take control of the Papacy and the HRE when you're at it like that, that's +3 possible for each type. Easy enough to control every cardinal with that much base tax and buildings

Or did you create the HRE fully and then create Italy?

[Bandit17]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Xara:

Should take control of the Papacy and the HRE when you're at it like that, that's +3 possible for each type. Easy enough to control every cardinal with that much base tax and buildings

Or did you create the HRE fully and then create Italy?

I actually was so pissed at Bohemia's shenanigans that I tore the HRE apart and ended it's existance once and for all! Later on though I did kind've wish I would've kept it. In hindsight I made some mistakes in my push into central europe in the late game.

Yea, I tend to jump on the Protestant bandwagon pretty early even if I do control the Holy See. Next time I play a European country I will definitely rethink my HRE strategy.

[Xara]

It's worth thinking about keeping since if you control the entire cardinal influx you will end up with every cardinal, which means a constant 7% tech discount, an extra leader, diplomat, and several advisors

I love being the HRE emperor too, I'm sad the bonuses go away when you finish the reforms. I'm thinking about just annexing all the vassals one by one instead. Plus I hate the color the HRE gets.

More impressive conquest than I've ever done, you got there. I've never had trade be much beyond simply worthwhile, certainly not in the hundreds net, much less thousands. If I had that I'd be colonizing 20 at a time!

-British king just lost his heir and is 59 years old. I am literally salivating at the thought that my throne claim may peacefully go through. There will be *nobody* in the Americas except the natives, me, and my unions if so!

[Bandit17]

I think your on your way from the sounds of it. Most of my American colonial empire was from successfull PU's. Burgandy, Spain, Castille, France and Portugal all became a proud member of my PU family at one point or another and they all had or created colonial empires as my subjects.

This is why I think a wc is possible w/out abusing the OE mechanics. The power of the PU is a huge boon to creating a very very large and powerful world spanning empire and I would think a Catholic Austria would have the best chance at succeeding. But in the end it also comes down to luck as you need the larger countries like Russia to be very successful so you can PU them and gain all that yummy territory.