Power Blocs and Principles ranked

[Valdo82]

So I am teaching a friend the game and today we got a bit deeper in the power bloc mechanics and after my takes on distribution of power laws, here are my takes on power blocs and principles. I am single player, so any MP meta might be different.

Power blocs from worst to best


Worst of the Worst

Military Treaty:

I never spent much time with it, but looking up their effects it took basically the only redeeming idea away from this bloc: let's start with the good: 20% more training rate is nice, meaning your troops replenish faster - this was it. Consindering you have to be a great power you are at a place where you probably have some defensive options, either through diplomatic means or military means. So using the PB for offensive options, sound nice in theory, but basically you loose cohesion for infamy. So getting a military treaty for a periah run is not an option. It is basically a big defensive pact for many nations that pushes military built up, which you then cant use. The primary principles arent that good either.


Could have been nice


Ideological Union:

The idea is probably a sovjet or better socialist/communist bloc. This can work in theory, but cohesion is pain. First off you get hefty debuffs if any other member has a different goverment than you, secondly you need high legitimacy, something you dont if you want to shift your country through many laws, something the principles suggest. The principles are mid. Not shiny, but not useless either. You can impose goverment on your members but this cost cohesion, so basically you are locked to your starting goverment or recruit outside members AFTER you reached your final form.



The mid Option


Trade League:

Oh how much have we fallen. The trade rework put a hefty blow to this as customs unions are not that powerful anymore, since you now easily import goods and dont need to be fully autark anymore. The bonus Arent great, but not bad either. It is basically the option if you cant go for any of the next blocs. So it is a bit the grey standard option.



The new Kid

Cultural Commonwealth:

First off, just not taking much unification 'cheese' into account. Culture Commonwealth is decent, it helps to get members that share a primary trait to chain together. Especially south america is easily to push into this bloc if you are either a spanish or lusophone nation and debuffs to cohesion if you dont share any with your clients. Spread primary culture in other countries is great and helps with a 'flow' of pops within the commonwealth. (Example you have Peru and Spain in your commonwealth: As neither Peru has any spanish culture community nor spain any south andean culture community, setting the culture to spanish on peru, generates firstly culture communities in peru allowing to fill jobs there and vice versa spanish culture communities are a lot in spain, so no cultural community gamble here). The principle are mid till great. So yes overall a good choice if you plan a run around a lot of primary cultures. (multiculture makes the pb worse through debuffs, but they are weak enough not to kill the idea directly)


The growth Bloc

Religious convocation

Statswise the best PB: +5% birth rate and +33% conversion is great. This is basically the option for any closed borders / ethnostate players, you get decent growth if you stay in the same religion, requires strong devout, which is a mixed bag, but they can be handled with. Great bloc for solitary growth. Meh principles.


Best (and it is not even close)

Sovereign Empire

I guess no suprises here, subjugating power bloc members saves a lot of infamy: Venezuela, Denmark, Sardinia-Piedmont for free as subjects early on for 0 infamy? Here you go. The downside is basically that you need to be a monarchy to be it. So no starting Sovereign Empire for the US. Basically it is a trade league that pays you taxes. with probably a bit worse principles. Carving up countries, just to make the releaseables your subject gets a valid option for a lot of warfare.




The Principles

So before while not a lot of things are really hurtful, there is still a lot of opportunity cost, which makes some rather 'bad' principles even worse. Also there are a few times, where i think that the boni are nice for temporary moments, but get more or less useless later on. I will mark these as you can switch principles with most pbs rather easy, but if you have a pb that gains a principle every 20 years you might not consider these. But Britain/Russia/any constant big PBs have some options just to enact some principles for 10 years or so and then switch back.

Lastly i will put pb exclusives in a way how or if they are superior to their other primary.



D-ogwater Tier:


Aggressive Coordination: (Military Treaty only) Maneuvers are rarely a thing i struggle in offensive plays, it is more the infamy. so saving -30% is ok, -15% War exhaustion is at the moment how warscore works pretty useless and -10 cohesion + 15% infamy just to have a vassal swarm is crazy, especially since i loose double cohesion through infamymalus. There are basically not much redeeming qualities here, from aggresive coordination i would love to see a bonus to offense or anything. I guess if you plan a run to shatter the world into minor powers this could work. Else i dont see much use.


Ideological Truth: (Ideological Union only) There is a lot of situational stuff in here: reduced suppression and bolstering cost is nice, 25 minimum legitimacy is meh and very very niche, when you need it. The same goes for party whip. All in All it basically looses hard against the counterpart Creative Legislature.


Exploitation of members: (Sovereign empire only) you get a tiny bit more authority, if you are small a pb compared to vassalization and generally influence compared to it, but less tax income. You loose on money compared to vassalization and your subject and bloc leader loose on authority and influence. The pros is that the money transfer is per bloc member. It feels you could use it for a pb that doesnt plan to subjugate their members or has a lot of major powers, which you cant subjugate per power, but all in all i see vassalization as the flat better option here.




C-ertainly mediocore Tier:


Defensive Cooperation: (Military Treaty) No internal wars between blocmembers additional to all around def pact for the pb, you still have to pay reduced maneuvers. The better of the military treaty options as it allows your bloc for better defense. No infighting is maybe an option for south america depending on the state of bolivia, but normally not that helpful. The only bonus is that you may get notified when a pb is attacked, something you can miss, if you are sidetracked with other stuff, but else not worth it.


Sacred Civics: (Religious Convocation): The more diplomatic one of the two options: higher diplo acceptance can be nice, reduced liberty desire can also be helpful if you are not that strong, so you can keep your puppets in line. Same Church and state law imposing is meh. So pick this if you are religious convocation and want more diplo options.

Divine Economics (Religious primary): The other religious option. +50 Trade advantage with same religion can be nice and is somewhat strong, +25% wages for state religion pops can be great if you aim for high sol, though can be bad if you want to hit the 15 SOL sweetspot, but it is tier 3 so you can reduce to two. The PM change basically gives your clergyman more jobs in manor houses and fin districts at the costs of capitalists/aristocrats.


Foreign Investment: the first neutral option and it is a bad one. Leverage from dependence helps getting bloc members and foreign investment rights saves some bureaucracy for non individual pacts. Everything is not bad, but rarely worth a slot. Basically useful in a Zollverein, where you as prussia doesnt want to unify, but you would need a lot of members to make it useful.


External Trade (Trade League primary): This can be very strong in the hands of a country that focusses mostly on trade, like Cuba, where you export AND import a lot of stuff. Influential Trade Center give a lot of influence if you have a 1000 of them. Else it is more of an edge case.

Internal Trade: (trade league only): You picked a trade league just because you wanted to have a pb? Pick this: +10% infrastructure and 5% company throughput are good boni. Convoys are somewhat complicated, while until industrial ports (and ai port spam) convoys are quite useful if you act worldwide, but then it falls down a cliff as convoys become mostly unimportant.


Shared Canon: (Cultural commonwealth only): Ok, first off. The worst thing that is against this principle: It 'fights' with Freedom of movement for its slot. It is not bad. 10% society spread is good, 10% assimilation is always good and -10% radicalism for full acceptance is also ok to keep some political movements at bay. The issue is basically that it is not focussed as each bonus is good on its own, but it doesn't synergize in a game where bonus stacking and doubling down on stuff is basically essential.


Creative legislature (Ideological Union primary): Here are two cases. This is the time, where you have the principle enabled all the time. It is the better union principle so a pick here, else it is not good enough to have a permanent spot in your pb. But it is quite good if you want to shift your country in a certain direction, enact multiculturalism and other stuff, but basically at 1900-1910 you are through with your big laws or your favored parties are in place. So as a permanent option not that good.

Vassalization (Sovereign Empire primary): Not a good principle, you get some money, you get some authority, you can enact greener gras in your subjects to get their oil fields or any important industry going. Better one for the sovereign empire ones.



B-Etter than before Tier:

Militarize Industry: the whole tier is basically: yes, if you meet the circumstances this principle is great: It is basically just the first tier: +10 throughput for 'military industry and automotive' if you have maybe some company/companies that specializes in military, then it is nice. the -15% military goods are nice, though not that powerful, but saving a bit money on the big army helps you to survive longer wars. Supply route cost is again something that falls off later on. Balloon Reconnaissance is an ok option. Basically a nice option for a worlds leading arms dealer.


Transportation: solid, especially later on. 10Economy of scale is a nice bonus basically especially for tall nations a translation for +10 throughput on every urban building and with a lot of building comes a lot of the need for infrastructure this law helps a lot, so if you are tired in the endgame that your trainyards are tooo subsidized and you spent too much money on it, this law can help you, that you pay less and dont have to check every month which provinces now lacks market access, cause it has 100 new buildings.


Market unification: strange principle: Tier I gives you trade advantage within the power bloc, just to negate it by making it a customs union. So if you have a non trade league pb with a lot of independent member, like a south american union: it helps to give you more demand and easier access to some ressources. Like i said with trade league, charters of commerce did a lot of damage to customs union. Oh and i am repeating myself: you get convoys, which fall flat later.



A-lmost amazing Tier:

Police Coordination: let's open the tierlist with a hot take! I like police coordination: it saves a lot of bureaucracy: for police force itself and you basically dont need internal affairs Institution as you get -25% movement activism on level 5. ( 10 more than guaranteed liberties/national guard and 5 less than secret police on 5) + 250 authority. Especially for larger countries where you spend a lot on Institution this safes a lot of money/bureaucracy.


Creative legislature (temporary): i hinted at it before: this law is great, when you would struggle to enact multiculturalism with 3:90 odds or technocracy or any other law you want to eanct: just get the three mandates in it, pass the laws you want, switch back, but 4 setbacks and -33 stall and -25% activism from disapprovment are sometimes all you need for a tough law, especially if you enlightened royalist monarch is 60, sickly and so on.


Construction (one tier/temp): 10% state construction is nice, can fall off later on. The company is good too, but most of the time its goods with other companys, one company slot is worth a freakton. so your average big nation may not put the power behind it, but having the first slot while you build up your pb, especially if you gain mandates slow/medium pace, it can have its uses.

Construction (tall): yeah basically the same around, but the less states you have the better the company gets as the more you value construction from that company and again tall nations struggle more with infrastructure in the late game so having more of it also has some uses. The reason it is two times in the same tier was, that this is more of an afterthought addition as i put it one tier lower before.


Advanced Research: If you start with great tech this principle can be great, being the techleader and the first to introduce goods like radios, cars, etc to the market is top, being ahead in the military race can also make a difference. I feel this law looses a bit of power the more behind you are in the tech tree. Would be somewhat better if the lower half of the techtree wouldnt feel so lackluster. at least i get way less excited when discovering late game techs. The production tree lacks ideas and electricty feels more like a chore than anything, the military tree is a pure mess at the bottom part and society is good but here feels some 'shiny' things. paved roads is an amazing tech, but feels more that the tech relieves me of late game infrastructural chores *rant mode off*



S-hining Star Tier:

Food standardization: -10% mortality is freaking wild. the one sol can be nice but maybe you want it reduce to level 2 if you plan to hit the 15 sol spot. 10% agriculture is meh, but the mortality bonus? (malus?) alone shoots this principle in the 'i pick it at least every second run' tier.


Freedom of movement: (cultural commonwealth primary): yes, you get S-Tier as primary. Migration attraction is great for intrmarket including migration quota (more people move at the same in / out a state) and it turns your country in a mass migration machine, so much that you get annoyed by the notification, cause it pops up every week. Pops are the most scarce ressource in the endgame and we have two laws that help with pops.


Colonial offices: Yes, the migration stuff is nice. you save some Bureaucracy, but this is not the reason this is up here. -25% infamy generation against unrecognized power. Yes, pops again: india and China have a lot of it, in the later Qings law may stop people from migrating, time to carve something out of them. The infamy safer here is strong, combined with civilizing mission and Multilateral Alliances, you can get a lot of stuff super cheap.



Broken:

Company: oh, technocracy is one of the best laws not because it is good, but because of the one company slot. Guess where the principle is that does exactly the same. But not only you get one slot. You also get 10% throughput. yes exact one of the reasons companies are so downright broken and you can double down on it, while all the previous laws had some cons: closed borders, more relying on immigration than on birth/death, not interested in carving up asia. There is no downside, no case where you shouldnt pick this principle.

[ethangs]

Great rankings. The sovereign empire bloc is ridiculously strong. For example, you can play as Russia and "liberate" Bulgaria &c from the Ottomans, and you can subjugate the entire Balkan region for no cost in infamy in only a decade or two. It objectively needs a nerf, but I also love it so much... so maybe it can stay, lol

I love my institution-based principles. I often skip the company principle and instead go for colonial offices, police coordination, and advanced research (I recognize this is off-meta; companies are very powerful).

[Jean Dupleix]

Nice ranking. But I guess one has to think twice before going for a souvereign empire.
In practice when you start a power bloc you want to get mandate growth up and I guess that in many cases it is better to start a trading empire and get mandates much quicker.

[RatedRH]

I'm playing with principles for the first time right now and I have Construction, Advanced Research and Creative Legislature enabled. I can only see an impact on legislature. There it shows 33% less stall chance. I have no 10% Conctruction bonus and no 5% research bonus. Does anybody know why that could be?

[Valdo82]

Originally posted by Jean Dupleix:

Nice ranking. But I guess one has to think twice before going for a souvereign empire.
In practice when you start a power bloc you want to get mandate growth up and I guess that in many cases it is better to start a trading empire and get mandates much quicker.

you want mandate growth, that is correct, but there is not much difference between trade league and empire, the difference is invitation acceptance, but this negatable and only really hard when you have like 75 infamy or so, but standard if you have +200 leverage you can pull anybody in, unless they hate you, but this is rarely the case with +200 leverage. So there isnt that much diffrence, you take a few dives in cohesion. Zollverein is mandate spamming because is has 546451 minors in their bloc, but this is not trade league exclusive.

Originally posted by RatedRH:

I'm playing with principles for the first time right now and I have Construction, Advanced Research and Creative Legislature enabled. I can only see an impact on legislature. There it shows 33% less stall chance. I have no 10% Conctruction bonus and no 5% research bonus. Does anybody know why that could be?

Yes: because neither construction nor research do these things: Construction gives State Construction efficency, meaning you need less OWN construction to reach maximum construction per week.

If you generate 20 Construction and have a weekly cap of 20 you just need 18 construction in your states. This the caveat i tried to put in the ranking, cause it just works on your own states.

And reasearch is more complicated: it gives you Education*5 innovation cap, meaning you still need the unis to fill the cap; Education*5 Techspread you should see it if you hover over your innovation and - education*5% ahead of time penalty meaning if you snipe some tech the standard malus is a bit negated.

[Jean Dupleix]

Originally posted by Valdo82:

you want mandate growth, that is correct, but there is not much difference between trade league and empire, the difference is invitation acceptance, but this negatable and only really hard when you have like 75 infamy or so, but standard if you have +200 leverage you can pull anybody in, unless they hate you, but this is rarely the case with +200 leverage. So there isnt that much diffrence, you take a few dives in cohesion. Zollverein is mandate spamming because is has 546451 minors in their bloc, but this is not trade league exclusive.

Thanks for your response. I was confused by the "-3 Bloc Cohesion per power bloc member" which led me to think that cohesion was much harder to get than with a Trade Leadue. Checking the Wiki I saw that this is only for independent bloc members. Trying it out proved that I was starting with 79 cohesion with a newly formed sovereign empire with 3 subjects whereas a Trade League got me less than 30. Contrary to my first impression the Trade League is in fact harder to get cohesion with not least because every goods shortage incurs -5 cohesion. These can always crop up when you get new goods via tech advance.
This is a good reason to stay with a monarchy.

[RatedRH]

Yes: because neither construction nor research do these things: Construction gives State Construction efficency, meaning you need less OWN construction to reach maximum construction per week.

If you generate 20 Construction and have a weekly cap of 20 you just need 18 construction in your states. This the caveat i tried to put in the ranking, cause it just works on your own states.

And reasearch is more complicated: it gives you Education*5 innovation cap, meaning you still need the unis to fill the cap; Education*5 Techspread you should see it if you hover over your innovation and - education*5% ahead of time penalty meaning if you snipe some tech the standard malus is a bit negated.

I checked my numbers, I have 13 construction sectors in one state. No thoughput bonus (normal) and an efficiency bonus of 5.2%. That's it. There's no 10% bonus, Doesn't show up anywhere. When I build it's suddenly 15.2. It doesn't show up anywhere else. Doesn't say. So maybe the 5% Bonus in research is also there, but it just doesn't show. This is ridiculous, but okay