What type of PowerBlock would be best?

[DaniTheHero]

Is there a generally "best" one right now?
If not, what should be the consideration to take each one?

[SIX]

They all have different purposes and are oriented for specific countries.

[Strifeboy]

I've only tried the subjection one as Spain, I really liked it because I subjected a lot of lesser countries around the world and conquered everything around them to expand them, China exploded and that was fun. Think about easier keeping china in line with 25% extra income from them.

The one thing I hated was the difficulty of getting anyone into my power block, its 1900 and the only people I managed is Portugal and 2 minor Italian countries, though I'm I don't know if that's this power blocks problem or a power block problem as a whole as it was Leverage getting to 200 was the problem not the -30 for acceptance chance.

But I have to say it was one of my most fun games playing tall like that, the only thing I want to do now is a peaceful run and get people to join me but not sure if that will work.

[Vellsi]

There is no default choice, as it really depends on which nation you are and what you want to do.

The Trade League is not that important if you make other nations your subjects, as those are considered being in your market, too, but else it's the only way to share a market with others, which can be great for nations with issues accessing certain resources.

The Sovereign Empire is generally great if you want to have lots of subjects and makes it much easier to keep them under control.

The Ideological Union is great if you want to get into unsual governance principles, as you can drag others along. If you want to be democratic before others it helps to ensure you will not be alone and hated in the world - the same goes for communist systems.

The Military Treaty is not that great for Major Powers and would be more useful for smaller ones, as it allows adding wargoals on wars of others (which means free stuff for you). If one is small 20% Training Rate also matters a lot more. Since small nations can not create Power Blocs it's probably the weakest in my opinion.

Religious Convocation on the other hand is very specific. If you are of a popular religion in an area it makes diplomacy much easier, gives you a huge bonus to loyalists/radicals and lets you get a ton of income from non-believing nations you make your subjects. You need to play as a theocracy though, as without it you will just end up alone without anyone's support (as theocracies are rare). It also gives a massive trade route preference bonus when trading with any other nation that has the same state religion. It's very specific and hard to get working.

Originally posted by Strifeboy:

But I have to say it was one of my most fun games playing tall like that, the only thing I want to do now is a peaceful run and get people to join me but not sure if that will work.

That will work quite well but you need to understand how to create leverage. Often you have to end up importing or exporting goods from their market directly to increase economic dependency and it helps to have a pro-country lobby in them, too (which can be expensive to create for nations with higher GDP). Diplomacy is bit hit and miss though, as domestic politics might change at any point and make you less popular for a while. For that reason it's important to proactively set other nations up to be aligned with you - sometimes even by declaring war to gain investment rights early to make them dependent later.

[DaniTheHero]

Originally posted by SIX:

They all have different purposes and are oriented for specific countries.

What would you pick for nations like the UK, France, Austria/Prussia and the like then?

[Vellsi]

UK already has one at the start of the game, so do Prussia, Russia, Austria and the Ottoman Empire. They all form a solid baseline for historical context and play styles but if one wants to do something ahistoric and wild it might be interesting to use a different one. It really depends on specific goals.

[SIX]

Originally posted by DaniTheHero:

Originally posted by SIX:

They all have different purposes and are oriented for specific countries.

What would you pick for nations like the UK, France, Austria/Prussia and the like then?

i would do the Sovereign Empire one and just puppet small nation left and right. The vassalisation ideology is nice with the 25 authority for each puppet. The UK and Russia start with it btw but.