The joke is that the blitzkrieg was a super offensive strategy in real life, so that doesn't make sense that in eu4, defensive is actually the better offensive idea group, I wish I didn't have to explain the irony
@@AlanMakbeth Used to go by the name of "remanemperor" now he's just "reman". His avatar is an American flag. He also did the first I:R WC so you shouldn't have trouble tracking him down on reddit or the PDX forums.
You cant just move Naval to diplomatic, if anything they should move naval ideas into maritime (but dont make it too much stronger) and give naval ideas a real military benefiit, like naval battles provide more warscore, or blockading add more warscore, maybe the ability to recruit marines.
You know, Reeman is one of those guys who don't take youtube seriously. He just did it for fun and to give a somewhat easy approach to the complexity of paradox games so the community can enjoy them to their full extend. Maybe he just quitted because he wasn't having fun while doing videos, maybe he got some personal affairs that involved not being able to upload for a while, etc...
I pretty much agree with everything here, BUT for any newcomers don't try this in multiplayer you will get your butt handed to you by everyone else who is out there having an arms race of discipline and stacking every modifier to have anti-space marine space marines.
Most newcomers to games like this won't touch multiplayer at all. At least I hope not, it just doesn't make sense for them to learn to run before they can walk. Multiplayer always follows different rules and player meta in comparison to the standard single player experience.
Having watched TONS of EU4 videos on youtube I say this is the Paradox Professor. The videos are packed with content describing HOW the game(s) work and giving viewers a uniquely intuitive understanding rather than vague advice or half-explanations still allowing us to discover the game for ourselves. Professor Reman also uses a ton of math and graphs which is the cherry on top. Subscribed.
Man, where are you? You have been gone for two months. Your videos are the best videos which explain everything regarding EU4. I hope everything is going great for you and you come back soon. Peace!
If you take offensive ideas as Scotland the +1 leader shocks stack which can be useful in the early game when you're at your weakest and when the shock phase is king. Besides that I'm team defensive all the way
If you want a really nice meme, take offensive as Machu. They get 2 shock pips from ideas, making their early game generals rather nuts. Combine that with high tradition from all the raping and pillaging and 100% cav armies and you've got a fucking disgusting deathstack on your hands.
Well.. because of diminishing returns on pips, I'd rather go aristocratic first as Manchu, but I'd take offensive anyways. About Scotland, I agree, for a very early game against England
Reman, love your videos! Not only do you make solid suggestions... you explain WHY with sheer hard numbers. It helps you have a buttery voice that melts my mind and allows the information to be absorbed organically.
Thanks for great content as usual. You are so much smoother than other paradox gamers who attempt to explain their idea group picks, and you provide so much more evidence and numbers while being even in your presentation. I also like how you slip in God-tier runs in the background
Why don't people just do a role-playing style, instead of what is mathematically the best? If I'm the Dutch, I want to go Naval and Plutocratic if I follow history, and maybe choose a different two if I want alternative history. You don't always have to be optimal - be fun instead.
If you're planning on choosing weak options that you like, it is often effective to balance that out by taking some strong options as well. Sleecting only options that you prefer, neglecting strategy, stunts your agency and can render you wholly ineffectual. By instead using strong options to support your favorite options you can create opportunities for them to shine. It's both more interesting (because you aren't anchoring yourself solely to a small subset of options) and more fun (because you get to see your favorite options at their full potential).
About Aristocratic Ideas: “You can go full Winged Hussar mode with Poland and stack every combat modifier available, which isn’t efficient, but is always entertaining.” *It’s not always about efficiency, it’s about sending a message*
Dude we must go DEEPER haha. I absolutely love the scientific process you go about testing ideas for a video game to let us geek out at min/maxing for dat sweet optimization. Quality stuff as always!
I found naval ideas in the older games to be useful playing as a lower tech groups in Indonesia, fighting off Castile, Portugal, GB, France trying to to take me over. Sinking a 30 stack transport from getting on your shore being 5 techs below in diplo and military is invaluable, but it's a huge investment - but you eventually get white peace and save your autonomy.
Don't forget that Quantity can be paired with Trade to give you one of the best economic policies in the game (Production Quotas) which boosts production AND trade income to help pay for your giant army.
Love the vids mate. Ever consider doing an in depth guide on all idea groups similar to this? As a newer player, only about 600 hours in, I "believe" I can tell the best, say, Admin groups. But a guide stating something like "on this situation maybe this idea group is better". Just a thought, keep up the good work bud!
Despite also being a "new player" with ~600 hours, I would say that the admin and diplo groups are far more dependent on what you're specifically trying to achieve, i.e. if you want to blob, take administrative, if you want to colonise, take exploration (and possibly expansion as well), if you're having trouble with money or rebels, take economic or humanist respectively. The point is that it doesn't make sense to tier them like this (except for the fact that espionage and maritime are trash).
Other idea groups are generally more self explanatory too imo. They say what they do right on the tin, while all the army modifiers are a lot less obvious to new players.
Echoing Sam Otten here, as almost each idea set has a particular focus. Admin ideas are particularly easy and actually carry what could've been mutually exclusive had PDX liked that policy - Religious for converting, Humanist if you don't want to convert. Administrative if you want to blob, Economic if you (instead) want to play tall. Expansion's for more colonies or Africa/Asian expansion and innovative is if you want the 20% inf combat ability policy (And ticking war exhaustion reduction) mentioned by Reman above. Similarly, diplomatic is basically a must-have if you do not plan on expansion through vassals and influence if you do. I tend to pick both as my dip idea groups as each have their own way of dealing with AE. Trade is if you wish to get more merchants and can't be bothered with trade companies/colonies. Exploration if you intend on colonizing. Then you have espionage and maritime, both which are quite bad, with the former not even having a clear focus except maybe general annoyance. Maritime is at least focused on naval trade, but unless you are heavily dependent on light ships protecting trade and does not have any intentions on blobbing (I.e merchant republic or roleplay reasons), it's almost never worth it.
Sam Otten Espionage ideas aren't _that_ bad, in fact they have rather good policies (e.g. -1% military trad. decay, or +20% cav combat ability) Also, maritime beats naval by a million miles because it gives you better bonuses (i.e. to light ships and trade, which is all anyone cares about the navy for anyway) and, more importantly, it isn't a military idea group. It is quite powerful for nations like England or, rather situationally, Japan.
One thing you forgot to mention about Quantity ideas is the bonus you get with economic. while nothing major it gives you -10% Development cost. and if you can stack development cost reductions enough you can really go nice and tall real fast with your provinces. Or if you play in a poor region of the world where even with quantity you feel like you are still lacking. or simply do not have the economy to handle the increased force limit and need to burn some diplo and admin points for some extra income.
I'm playing the Mamluks right now (cause why not, and I'm testing out force conversions and forming multiple nations ^^) and it might be interesting to know they get a *CRAZY TON* of development boosts through events and government forms etc. I just wish it wasn't the _Mamluks_ that got development cost boosts :p Cause they start with 370+ development...
18:00 aristocratic is probably the best group to pair with an already strong military nation, especially if operating in and around the HRE. 1 extra diplomat is like getting to choose extra siege ability, reduced aggressive expansion, cheaper claims, or a multitude of other diplomatic options. If you want pure military power, no its not the best, but it is a hugely powerful complementary military group. Also, as has been noted elsewhere, the gauranteed siege pip is actually hugely useful. it guarantees a general which will always be useful. I have never in thousands of hours playing considered a general with a siege pip to be completely useless. I have found innumerable other pip combinations to be more a liability than a benefit, but I can always find a way to use a general with a pip of siege.
The extra general is also pretty damned useful when you're absolutely massive and have wars going on in South America at the same time as Central Asia and East Africa. Likewise the general is useful for such cases as they tend to travel rather slowly.
I would put it in the first group, its usually a safe bet, -1% army/navy tradition decay is something like +1 yearly army tradition, also lower mil tech cost pays off in the long run, war taxes more often, can strenghten government more often, can develop more province (dont know how many mil points you save over the course of the game but one extra manpower in a province adds 330 total manpower with +33% increased manpower from serfdom idea)
I'm a quantity man myself - however, I'd like to point out a subtle "hidden" bonus to defensive ideas. The +1 attrition for enemies helps you in the background when the AI does that sneaky backdoor sieging of your lands. They'll usually leave just enough men for the siege to tick, and the +1 attrition will constantly halt their progress (especially late in the war when they're tapped on manpower). It's subtle, it's negligible, but it's there. You probably wont notice it much when you're curb stomping someone but when you're involved in multiple difficult wars the extra exhaustion from being carpet sieged by a dozen troops doing that annoying backdoor thing can mean a lot. It also helps ending wars faster since they don't get easy warscore that way.
It’s been 7 months without a reman video... the world has become a land of savages, without anyone there to lead us. If only He, the Chosen One, would come back to us, maybe we could finally have some peace. But I fear the worst is yet to come.
Once again, thank you Reman. Your videos are great and you manage to clarify and teach me stuff on a game i thought i completely knew. But what I find most interesting is your discussion about Military Score. I had never considered the fact that the idea group one pick may affect AI diplomacy, or at least not to that extent. From my perspective, it makes quantity a must have as first or second idea group, for two reasons. First, military points are quite cheap compared to admin and dips, if you plan on conquering. Second, it prevents coalitions from firing and helps you call friends in war, and that is HUGE.
Don't scoff too much on innovative ideas. If they are taken as the first idea group and you get the tech bonus by tech level seven, assuming you get each Tech at around 600 Monarch points, you will save 1500 Monarch points for each category by the end of the game. This means faster technology, more ideas, and more development. It really helps you build tall instead of wide
Ouch, the hate for innovative is pretty painful. I like innovative a lot the -.05 war exhaustion is very good with the introduction of absolutism, -10% tech cost for each category is amazing if taken early (-10% embracement cost is ok lets you take institution a little faster/cheaper), -25% of adviser cost is nice for getting level 3 advisers or higher now that they can go above level 3, -25% merc cost makes merc way cheaper, and 1 more general is helpful late game when your fighting in multiple wars or have lot's of sieges going on at once.
-10% tech cost looks better than it is. It's about 1 monarch point a month combined (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) if you take it asap. Don't get me wrong, its nice and such, but "amazing"? I don't think so. ;)
it's 1 monarch point per month if taken as the first idea group means 369 years until tech 32 at 1 per month or 4,428 points (1,476 in each cat). It's half an idea group for each category or 1,476 admin points for coring. If you factor in the decimal points then it's 5109 points over the game or 1,703 points per category. Also only said the -10% was only good in the early game the later you take it the worse it is I would never say take it as a 3rd or 4th idea group.
NADster36 Since the introduction of institutions those -10% actually are amazing. They save you so much points when you cant embrace an institution right away.
if you can not embrace institution early, economic would help better than innovative, because dev push is the most viable way to deal with institution :) and early game boost to economy is really nice
I’m completely new to this channel.. but like.. dude. What solid talent. I hope you’re safe and okay. Too many good youtubers loosing their lives or falling off the platform..
Very good guide, its smilar to what i think is the best strategy so far (after 1,4k hours). I think many peaple will argue with quantity cause evryone want elite regiments^^
I was about to call nonsense on taking quantity as a great idea group until you starting talking about the AI perspective. I did not know that. Sounds very useful.
In our Multiplayer Game we used some restrictions on Idea Groups, which make the choices more dynamic. No Policies which affect Discipline, Morale oder Combat Abiity, since they dictate which other Ideagroups are must pics (Economy for another 5% Dis, Innovative for 20% Inf CA, Religious for more Morale) Only two of your named Mainline Ideagroups, now you really have to decide. Only one of the Situational ones, so no shenanigans with taking Plutocratic, then becoming a Monarchy and also taking Aristocratic. Anyone can take Naval if they want to, since at most only 3 of 4 Military Idea Groups are locked in. What you didn't talk about is the order of ideas you get in ideagroups. Defensive is really frontloaded with +1AT and 20% Morale in the first two Ideas, which make in excellent as a first ideagroup for the really early wars. Quality is only really that good if you got all of the ideas for the 5% Disclipine, which make it worse as an early idea. Offenisve has +1Leader Shock early on, which is really nice, sadly 20% FL and 5% Discipline are the finisher. Finally Quantity your favourite. The two strong Manpower Buffs are the first two Ideas, which is nice, but this doesn't help in fights at all. You need to finish the Idea to get the very nice 50% FL, only then it is really usefull, which can be rather late for some game starts. Personally I'll take Quantity later one for fun in SP, or also later in MP for several reasons. Usualy in our MP Player Wars are only later one, and in the start you defeat the AI around you, and the game is more cooperative, and chilled. Only later on they get intensive, and then stacking the 50% more Forcelimit with lots of Force Limit Buildings can suddenly increase your FL alot which can surprise your enemy. Only then you can really the economy to sustain Wars with so many soldiers. In midegame, having more soldiers makes it more difficult to move in bad terrain without loosing horrible in Manpower trough attrition. Having less but better troops in provinces helps with that. Also Naval Transporting, e.g. as Great Britain. With more Soldiers you have to have more Transport Ships or have them sail more often, and until all of your army is where it needs to be, that are really bad. In my current MP Game I play an High American in a Random New World, and with the above written restrictions I would never take Quantity idea in this situation. I want my Troops in Europe fast, if I want to fight there, and I need good troops but also ships. So I picked Offensive and Quality Ideas, to stack Discipline.
Thanks for confirming my believe in quantity making alliances more likely and enemy attacks less likely. As a paranoid tall player i mostly use my army to deter enemys declarations
Overall this video still holds true, (for 1.31), keep in mind defensive was nerfed from +1 army tradition to +100% army tradition from battles, meaning always fighting is a must now early game with it. Additionally, quality was nerfed going from +1 army tradition to +0.5 army tradition and the infantry combat ability from Innovative was cut in half from +20% to +10%. I would say this buffed both Quantity and Offensive since Quantity now has +33% supply limit instead, and Offensive remained the same. Keep in mind that Reman actually underestimates Innovative ideas. It's a great idea group to take early since the reduced power cost and Army/Naval tradition decay will save you more monarch power than the hold group costs and then some. Check out Radio Res's video where he does the calculations on Innovative ideas. th-cam.com/video/aQaumKqMCnQ/w-d-xo.html I haven't checked all the other policy combinations so check these out as well.
naval bonus is now marine force limit. marines are huge for ocean going nations. all it takes is 1 occupied coastal province to start injecting grand armies.
Aristocratic for sure is a very niche pick, I usually only go for it for flavour reasons. However, in my Ardabil to Persia run, I took it just for the monthly autonomy reduction. The government form, feudal theocracy, doesn't get autonomy reduction, so I was sitting on a whole heap of basically useless land that would never go down in autonomy because I was constantly at war. Economic might've been better for autonomy reasons, but I've never been much of a fan of it. Trade is, in my opinion, better if you need money. And in any case, administrative and humanist/religious is a better investment of admin points in 95% of cases. I rarely take more than two admin ideas, after that it's all used for coring. I think quantity is probably the strongest military idea group on average, but my personal favourite is definitely offensive. Fill up the extra force limit with mercs, led by amazing generals, and win wars by outsieging the enemy. One thing I wonder about is whether quality/defensive with their 1+ yearly army tradition or offensive with its two additional pips give better generals, on average. Good video as always, keep it up.
Loving the War Adademy series! I would love to know your strategies on province development and building construction to fit different situations. Like an overall “Building/Improvement” guide!
I think the advice is mostly applicable to sibgleplayer. Quality eco. Or more specifically eco first followed by quality is probable the most dominant idea group combo in multiplayer for a range of reasons. In multiplayer blobbing is generally not a great idea. Limiting the amount of admin needed to core. Because of this developing a core region is hugely important. And money begets more money. So the earlier you get it the better. Quality seems weak on its own and I would agree. But discipline is the single most important factor in a balanced multiplayer war. And the only way to have on demand discipline is qual eco. You do forget that you can turn it off when you no longer need it. That being said in singleplayer world conquests I can't a argue with your assessments. P.s. Maritime is the better naval idea group, pointless in singleplayer but stupidly important in any multiplayer game where b anyone is trying to out ship Britain.
I've seen defensive being taken a lot in MP games early too, simply because very early game players don't have balanced wars a lot, and its a job of gobbling up nearby AIs and consolidating land, or having short-scale battles with lesser troops against other players, where the morale can be gamechanging.
Subarno Hossain the issue is that anytime you're beaten that badly nothing will help you and you don't need anything to win. But when you need it's so important that you can't not take it.
I read on some forum a few months back that they considered quantity to be over rated and bad (they also said that the vast majority of the experienced player base agrees). I pretty much ignored what he said, because my bottlenecks for expansion are almost always manpower and economics in the early game. I've consistently taken quantity within my first 2 choices for pretty much every game, and i'm happy to learn that the guy in the forum was just very confused.
1. Defensive 2. Offensive 3. Quality 4. Quantity Defense gives you that sweet, sweet army morale in the early game when you need it most, and you get army tradition even in peacetime so you can hire better generals. THEN you take Offensive, which makes your generals even better. In most cases it makes sense to get Defensive first, followed by Offensive, followed by Quality, because by the time you get to a third or fourth group, your manpower pool is probably big enough already without the Quantity group.
quality is really good and fitting for small-ish naval nations like portugal and netherlands. But I would say this is perfect for Japan, as having naval superiority is a must against ming
Agreed with quantity it makes conquering neighbours a lot easier if you're playing a weak nation with low trade income or manpower. I remember falling in love with this idea group while playing Ethiopia back when Art of War was a new dlc and used it to defeat Mamluks and Ottomans relatively early. And since they never really changed the military groups it was always my go to pick for most non-european nations.
Now, I am a new player, so there is that. But, my take on Quantity Ideas is that I don't appreciate them very much. Not so much because I am blinded by the shininess of Offensive or Quality ideas. In fact, when I first started playing I took Quantity because I liked the manpower bonus and the recovery speed bonus, but I soon realized I couldn't win fights with the Quantity idea group. I consistently was losing fights to AI countries with smaller armies than my own. Most of these countries had taken either Quality, Offensive, or Defensive. Their troop morale, discipline, or leaders simply beat the snot out of mine. I could only win by swarming with allies, vassals, or with the help of my more experienced friend. Even then, one AI (Spain) was a serious pain to beat and brought us both to zero manpower and hurting before we could barely eek out a peace deal. Some might consider than normal, but in my mind, that is no way to win. I had one fight were I had over 60k troops, as France, against a Spanish stack of 30k, and they handedly crushed my army. Mostly based off morale, but I still lost a lot of troops. In the current game I am playing, I took Quality first, then Offensive, and my armies and leaders are outstanding. I've been doing far better. The only close war I've had, thus far, was against a strong Austria with one military tech higher than me and my friend. But my troops proved superior in the end. Another reason I support Quality over Quantity is how the AI behaves when moving its troops around. The AI is really good at appearing to be moving one way, then suddenly descending upon your unsuspecting army and summarily butchering it. I had that happen so many times in the games where I had been using Quantity. Even if I outnumbered the pouncing army, my troops lost most of the time. Due to loss of morale or the enemies general just being far too good. Whereas, when the same thing happened with my Quality armies, I rarely lost. My, sometimes, smaller armies were usually whooping on the larger AI armies. Again, I am a new player and haven't grasped the full nuances of the game, but in my opinion Quantity simply can't compete when the AI country takes one of the other three main military ideas (especially a country like Castille/Spain, gets bonus morale built in, plus other bonuses).
As always, video is on the point. Keep it up and a Patreon or some way to support your effort, every video you make, one can see is hours of hard work.
Speaking of morale, in my game with Milan I'm second only to Muscovy and the Ottomans, thanks to the Defensive Ideas group, and I'm also planning to take Plutocratic ideas, to have an overall bonus of 25% morale for my army, and while yes, the other modifiers aren't really important, they still give me something alongside the main +10%, and it's better than just taking both defensive and quantity.
I play a lot of multiplayer and i would say for a Spain or Portugal it could be game changing. This is because GB and the netherlands will pose huge threats to your navies and you cant beat them without a naval idea group to help level the playing field or say goodbye to that colonial empire.
I almost always pick innovative first. The -10% tech cost nets you a lot of points if taken early. Base tech cost 600 x 10% = 60 To keep up you should tech up every 13 years. 60/13=4.61 MP per year 4.61/12= 0.38 ADM, DIP and MIL per month for the rest of the game. -25% advisor cost means you can afford the level 5 advisors very soon -1% prestige decay isnt noticeable, but definetly helps -0.05 monthly war exhaustion reduction basically means you can ignore WE for the rest of the game (unless you are constantly being siege 100%)
It's problem is that it's a decent/good idea group in a category with amazing/god-tier idea groups. It also takes admin points, which are widely considered to be the best type of points to have because of the number of things you can spend them on. As for a breakdown of the ideas, there's a few standouts. -10% tech cost and Institution cost is massive early on, and the main reason I like it. -25% adviser cost really helps to get higher level advisers earlier while still maintaining a surplus. -.05 war exhaustion per month is fantastic if you don't have any other sources for that, because it allows you to remain at war pretty much constantly. Every other idea is either useless or minor. The events are very random. Some of them are fantastically beneficial (-10% tech cost to a tech of your choice), while others are really bad (-1 stab, +5% tech cost). If you want to save scum, then Innovative has much better events for that. Policies are what most people pick this group for. The infamous +20% infantry combat ability comes to mind, as well as it's lesser known cousin +10% siege ability and +1 leader siege. The rest of them are okay, but not worth turning on frequently, IMO. In conclusion, I wouldn't call Innovative a "must have" idea group unless you're going for some non-optimal playstyle. Like focusing on making spees mahreens who slaughter three times their number in battle, or making an enlightened trading utopia. If you want to be somewhat "optimal" and "meta", pick it at the beginning if you want to take full advantage of the monarch point gain it provides, or pick it at the end for those two amazing army policies. I can't really recommend taking it in the middle.
Defensive can be so op. I had a game where I fought off 3 coalitions at once and one coalition had around 20 nations the other 2 around 10. I got 70% fort defense and were mostly just hiding behind my level 6 forts on mountains and let the enemies die by attrition and also stackwiping them on my forts.
Something sort of noteworthy regarding Aristocratic, if you manage to get it on a republic (changed government/noble republic), you can get a Policy with Diplomatic that adds 0.4 yearly republican tradition. On republics with 4 year election cycles, this value gives you the tradition you need to keep reelecting more often, thus paying itself off as reptrad converts almost directly to monarch points. From AlricWaskir on the Paradox forums: "The policy from Aristocratic/diplomatic IS worth it for 4y republics but not for 5y republics. It increases RT by 0.4 (4 jumps) for the cost of 12 MP per year, while it increases MP by ~16MP (4y) or just under 12 MP (5y)" I'd argue it justifies usage in Singleplayer if for some reason you decide to stick to a republic, as more MP is far more vital than army quality throught most of the game
I think too many people overrate Quantity. The point of it is simply "more men with guns" and I think that wastes an idea group slot a lot of the time if you plan to become big anyways. You don't really need 20 stacks of 80K each if you're not going for a WC. Nowadays, if I need a little bit of manpower I pick Aristocratic, the 33% is plenty and at the end I also get a guaranteed siege pip on leaders, massively speeding wars up.
He compares quantity and def in the video, so find your arguments there :-) For me has Quantity the largest edge over Defensive in diplomacy. I am 1500 hours in and I cannot remember taking defensive once. Early game are all mil ideas bad compared to admin/reliligous/influence/humanist/diplomatic and late game is defensive bad compared to offensive/quality
Especially since you'll already have half a million troops halfway through Age of Absolutism, so you won't be needing quantity, doubly so if you play as Russia. That said, quantity is still the single most powerful earlygame idea group and it never really gets dated unlike defensive.
Io I disagree, it's the *only* military idea group that gets truly dated. Defensive's +1AT alone makes it more of a worthwhile permanent investment, not to mention other things like morale,reduced attrition for you and increased attrition for enemies. Quantity, on the other hand, can become dated as early as the mid game, if your troops are good, your forts are well positioned and you are a skilled warmongerer there isn't much difference between 200 troops and 300 troops. Unless, again, you're blobbing big time or WCing and need many stacks for multiple fronts. The saving graces of it, the reduced attrition and maintenance are potatoes when compared to the meat that is morale and army tradition. And in the end game, you'll be so rich that you will likely build force limit and manpower at will, further making Quantity redundant. I'd personally replace it with something better around 1680-1700, even when blobbing.
Reman, I have watched your Absolutism and Military Idea Groups video, and I have a question regarding the combination of those. It will most likely have something to do with preference, but quite regularly I like to pick Innovative & Quality Ideas quite early. I do this for several reasons, depending on certain situations. The situations where I might pick this combination is one or both of the following: - when I know I will be set on monarch points (very good leader/heir, Ming, etc) - when I know I will be set on early institutions (start around Europe or when I know I will spawn Colonialism) The reasons are as follows: - the combination of ideas provides good firepower (+30% infantry*, +10% cavalry/artillery combat ability) & +5 discipline *policy included - it creates monarch points by: 1. being able to afford more expensive advisors, 2. cheaper/sooner tech increase, 3. quick access to 100 innovativeness - it grants overall modifiers which are great for late game: 1. -0.05 war exhaustion, 2. -1% prestige decay, 3. 1 more leader without upkeep, 4. the option to add offensive ideas for extra siege power - possibility of achieving 90+ Absolutism really cheaply: 100 innovativeness and -50% Harsh treatment cost (age of absolutism ability) and spam harsh treatment on newly gained, low cost provinces. You could even go as far as combining 100 innovativeness,-50% cost from absolutism ability, -33% cost from generic mission tree, -10% golden age. It would cost less than 500 military points to gain 100 absolutism this way. I prefer this combination for the assurance of high innovativeness, passive war exhaustion reduction and a generally good base of bonuses to ducats, monarch points and combat ability. Since you left this out of your Absolutism as well as your Military Ideas video, I would like to have your take on my thoughts. Thank you for your time! :)
The buffed aristocratic idea groups is very good IMO, the extra siege pip really helps in the late game bottleneck - sieging. In the early game also helps in taking forts easier, for quicker wars. If you add the offensive policy that also gives a pip, you'll always have two siege pips generals, sometimes you can roll a godly 6 pip general.
Aristocratic mil tech reduction is _awesome_ coupled with Sikh religion! ;) Also, like you mentioned... tech > all But yeah I agree it's quite situational (I like all the bonuses, it just doesn't help much with army _combat quality_ except indirectly via good generals/tradition) Loved the video btw! And Really liked the end :) Great work :) (you're much better than me at not trying to preach "your way" lol)
Exceptional situation for boosting army quality, which will almost always be single-player because no one will let you do in multiplayer: Prussia You can either take everything but the mainline military ideas because you are already so good that you can't be stopped or you take all the most powerful quality boosting ideas so you can stack-wipe armies twice your size. Either way all you really need to do is fine some way of managing the monetary costs or manpower and you're set for life. Personally I like the Burgundian Inheritance myself because it does both of those things and basically gives you everything you need to do a world conquest with Brandenburg/Prussia. (where you take none of the things traditionally needed to do a world conquest, like Innovative, and no Influence, Administrative, or Quantity ideas, then rage the HRE into Protestantism, unite the HRE and watch as you have more space marines than you no what do with and laugh at everything)
Tengri horde with all cav bonuses plus a noational idea can be 100% cavalry with up to 60% combat modifier, tried it out till 1700 you basically stackwipe enemies in every single fight, after 1700 you dont and the fights get a bit more balanced but it still goes a something like this: combat fire phase you lose 500 they lose 50, combat meele you lose 500 they lose 5000. I won a war vs Muscovy with only half the troops while i had thousands of rebels spawn because I could stackwipe every single russian army even when it was bigger than mine, stackwip not as in instant moral stackwipe but stackwipe as in killing all the soldiers before their morale runs out.
personally i like to always get defensive and sometimes i also get quantity mainly because for me it seems to work out better this way as playing england it allows me to beat france and castile a lot easier early game to get stronger. i may only be able to take the odd Provence at the start but thats where for me it shines. i use defensive not to beat country's but push them back allowing me to win a few fights and siege down their their capitals and forts then peace out before i run out of men but i take land with releasable vassels with a lot of cores. then next war i do the same but that small amount of score i get from what i can siege becomes 5-6 cores returned allowing me to ripe a country apart in 2 wars and not get massive aggressive expansion after that they are so week my stronger army can win the war. its not a perfect way to play but it works for me
i almost always pick influence first then quantity followed by an adm idea like economic, the first 2-3 ideas of admin or expansion and then offensive. i'll pick quality as my 5th or 6th idea if i have a navy whatsoever at that point
Defensive is so underrated, the extra moral means you're also saving manpower since you're first of all stackwipeing armies easier and second of all you end battles more quickly because the amount of moral damage your army does depends on your max moral. I usually go defensive -> offensive -> quantity/quality (yea i take 3 military idea groups :D) Also the way i play the games is i avoid all battles and only fight absolutely necessairy ones or those which i can win really easily so defensive is far better than quantity for me.
I hardly ever pick Quantity. I know theyre better now but still, that bonus attrition on enemies from defensive gives you a huge bonus if you just have a few nice positioned castles.
I love my Royal Marines too much for Quantity. I think England is probably the best nation for Quality next to Prussia and Nepal, because you can actually take advantage of the ship bonus to be actually unstoppable until the end of the gmae on the water, which for a country centered around overseas expansion, is really useful.
I agree with you that the really important idea groups are not military groups at all, usually I will take offensive near the endgame for ultra fast sieges if looking for world domination. I personally don't to take quantity because it is way too much of a "win more" group even on the hardest settings, I guess I like the cold sweat and strife of calculating the perfect war, declaring at the enemies weakest moment and not being able to take on larger nations until much later in the game.
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Man, I miss this dude. He worked so hard on his videos and was so smart.
Reman please come back we love you.
he is back
He is BACK!!!
@some boby For real?!
He bacc
"If you enjoy blitzkrieging and don't like sitting around, you should take defensive ideas"
.....OK.
WAD
Well it is nice having 1.5 or 2 morale more than everyone else lol. You can just thrash their armies and keep goin.
As they say, the best defense is a good offense. And defensive gives you that. (and makes you pretty tanky too).
The joke is that the blitzkrieg was a super offensive strategy in real life, so that doesn't make sense that in eu4, defensive is actually the better offensive idea group, I wish I didn't have to explain the irony
TO BLITZKRIEG ONE MUST MAGINOT
Are you okay Reman? Still alive? You are direly needed to explain to us plebs how the new HoI4 naval stuff works x'D
Hope you're well Reman, we miss you.
He is still very much active on the forums. Recently he made his first Imperator WC.
@@khankhomrad8855 Whats his nick?
@@AlanMakbeth Used to go by the name of "remanemperor" now he's just "reman". His avatar is an American flag. He also did the first I:R WC so you shouldn't have trouble tracking him down on reddit or the PDX forums.
His ghost just uploaded a new video
I have one rule in my army. If the baby can walk on it's legs, it goes to the front lines. If not then it must do so crawling.
AlphaSections Damn dude
Are your EU4 battles just a horde of babys swarming an army of grown men like zombies?
Same lol
Arumba uploads: I sleep.
Valefisk uploads: REAL SH*T
Reman uploads: ASCENDED
Florry uploads
>Florry uploads
monkaS
Subarno Hossain using monkaS on TH-cam...
Time for Basileus of Byzantium 9999
Wiley Hunt episode 9999: year 1750
Subarno Hossain florry doesn't upload :(
1:32 Tier list: Mainline, Situational and.... naval. I love how you used the name of this idea group as something degrading xD
Naval would not be that bad... if it wouldnt be a militay idea group, that is. And if Navy would be useful.
Or if it gave some Navel related economic advantage rather than just combat power, like Maritime or Quality ideas.
naval should be just moved to diplo group, thats the only way to make it good
You cant just move Naval to diplomatic, if anything they should move naval ideas into maritime (but dont make it too much stronger) and give naval ideas a real military benefiit, like naval battles provide more warscore, or blockading add more warscore, maybe the ability to recruit marines.
They could have naval able to bombard distal forts or add a modifier to battles along the coast
Nothing gets me more pumped to play EU4 than this.
And Long Game Short's summary of the dev clashes.
DUDE, where have you being!? The last update was 4 months... =/
5 >:X
:(
Please come back :(
Let me tell you something man I really need a Reman Paradox video man. Like right now the Videos were really good man. Reman get back here.
You know, Reeman is one of those guys who don't take youtube seriously. He just did it for fun and to give a somewhat easy approach to the complexity of paradox games so the community can enjoy them to their full extend. Maybe he just quitted because he wasn't having fun while doing videos, maybe he got some personal affairs that involved not being able to upload for a while, etc...
I pretty much agree with everything here, BUT for any newcomers don't try this in multiplayer you will get your butt handed to you by everyone else who is out there having an arms race of discipline and stacking every modifier to have anti-space marine space marines.
7 morale in 1630 no problem
Most newcomers to games like this won't touch multiplayer at all. At least I hope not, it just doesn't make sense for them to learn to run before they can walk.
Multiplayer always follows different rules and player meta in comparison to the standard single player experience.
1 year anniversary of this channel suddenly dying....
:(
He's still alive and on the pdx forum
2 years now
He is back!!!
@@sr.s6852 now hes gone again
Having watched TONS of EU4 videos on youtube I say this is the Paradox Professor. The videos are packed with content describing HOW the game(s) work and giving viewers a uniquely intuitive understanding rather than vague advice or half-explanations still allowing us to discover the game for ourselves. Professor Reman also uses a ton of math and graphs which is the cherry on top. Subscribed.
Jonathan Carter he no longer uploads
@@cameronarmstorng7666 Sadly
We miss you. I hope everything is still good with you, and that you may soon come back. Thanks for all the videos so far!
We miss you Reman... Your content was always amazingly informative and easy to consume.
I feel like they should rename offensive and defensive to tactical and strategic respectively
The Wallaby I like that idea.
or late game and early game respectively
I would like more defensive as logistical
As prussia just take all dem military ideas
Leufinngamer stack with innovative for total 50% inf combat ability. AI will cry
As a prussia you don't need to take any mil ideas cuz your troops are already best in the game
yes you do its fun to stackwipe units larger than you
stackwiping 100k ottomans with your 35k prussian army is the best thing you can do with clothes on.
Why stackwipe with 35k when you can stack wipe with 100k if you have normal ideas.
Man, where are you? You have been gone for two months. Your videos are the best videos which explain everything regarding EU4. I hope everything is going great for you and you come back soon. Peace!
I see him on Paradox Forums only.
Vladimir That's sad
@Alexandre Burko THIS.
B... But... Mah space marines...
I'm going Prussia in a campaign right now, I can't in my right conscience NOT make space marines
Hear hear!
You don't go Prussia unless you go Space Marines. It's the unspoken golden rule.
Its hard to keep the space marines with huge prussia. The militarization keeps ticking very fast.
Prussia is a boring meme
If you take offensive ideas as Scotland the +1 leader shocks stack which can be useful in the early game when you're at your weakest and when the shock phase is king. Besides that I'm team defensive all the way
If you want a really nice meme, take offensive as Machu. They get 2 shock pips from ideas, making their early game generals rather nuts. Combine that with high tradition from all the raping and pillaging and 100% cav armies and you've got a fucking disgusting deathstack on your hands.
Well.. because of diminishing returns on pips, I'd rather go aristocratic first as Manchu, but I'd take offensive anyways. About Scotland, I agree, for a very early game against England
Reman, love your videos! Not only do you make solid suggestions... you explain WHY with sheer hard numbers. It helps you have a buttery voice that melts my mind and allows the information to be absorbed organically.
Thanks for great content as usual. You are so much smoother than other paradox gamers who attempt to explain their idea group picks, and you provide so much more evidence and numbers while being even in your presentation. I also like how you slip in God-tier runs in the background
Why don't people just do a role-playing style, instead of what is mathematically the best? If I'm the Dutch, I want to go Naval and Plutocratic if I follow history, and maybe choose a different two if I want alternative history. You don't always have to be optimal - be fun instead.
you could do that but when you are aiming for one of the hardest acheivements in game it would make it much harder
If you're planning on choosing weak options that you like, it is often effective to balance that out by taking some strong options as well.
Sleecting only options that you prefer, neglecting strategy, stunts your agency and can render you wholly ineffectual.
By instead using strong options to support your favorite options you can create opportunities for them to shine. It's both more interesting (because you aren't anchoring yourself solely to a small subset of options) and more fun (because you get to see your favorite options at their full potential).
About Aristocratic Ideas:
“You can go full Winged Hussar mode with Poland and stack every combat modifier available, which isn’t efficient, but is always entertaining.”
*It’s not always about efficiency, it’s about sending a message*
Poland and Aristocratic Ideas makes it godmode. Calvary combat bonus just makes winged hussars even better.
HE CAME BACK
I just watched your other War Academy videos and they helped me understand combat so much more. Thanks so much
6 months since my last fix! Come on Reman, best guides ever!!
Dude we must go DEEPER haha. I absolutely love the scientific process you go about testing ideas for a video game to let us geek out at min/maxing for dat sweet optimization.
Quality stuff as always!
Thanks for going over the tech/ideas choices. Knowing which will help larger and smaller nations is really useful.
I found naval ideas in the older games to be useful playing as a lower tech groups in Indonesia, fighting off Castile, Portugal, GB, France trying to to take me over. Sinking a 30 stack transport from getting on your shore being 5 techs below in diplo and military is invaluable, but it's a huge investment - but you eventually get white peace and save your autonomy.
Don't forget that Quantity can be paired with Trade to give you one of the best economic policies in the game (Production Quotas) which boosts production AND trade income to help pay for your giant army.
I really like the attrition modifier. It's amazing to be able to walk around with your 80k stack!
Love the vids mate. Ever consider doing an in depth guide on all idea groups similar to this? As a newer player, only about 600 hours in, I "believe" I can tell the best, say, Admin groups. But a guide stating something like "on this situation maybe this idea group is better".
Just a thought, keep up the good work bud!
I love how with EU4 it's acceptable to call yourself a newer player with "only" 600 hours!
Despite also being a "new player" with ~600 hours, I would say that the admin and diplo groups are far more dependent on what you're specifically trying to achieve, i.e. if you want to blob, take administrative, if you want to colonise, take exploration (and possibly expansion as well), if you're having trouble with money or rebels, take economic or humanist respectively. The point is that it doesn't make sense to tier them like this (except for the fact that espionage and maritime are trash).
Other idea groups are generally more self explanatory too imo. They say what they do right on the tin, while all the army modifiers are a lot less obvious to new players.
Echoing Sam Otten here, as almost each idea set has a particular focus. Admin ideas are particularly easy and actually carry what could've been mutually exclusive had PDX liked that policy - Religious for converting, Humanist if you don't want to convert. Administrative if you want to blob, Economic if you (instead) want to play tall. Expansion's for more colonies or Africa/Asian expansion and innovative is if you want the 20% inf combat ability policy (And ticking war exhaustion reduction) mentioned by Reman above.
Similarly, diplomatic is basically a must-have if you do not plan on expansion through vassals and influence if you do. I tend to pick both as my dip idea groups as each have their own way of dealing with AE. Trade is if you wish to get more merchants and can't be bothered with trade companies/colonies. Exploration if you intend on colonizing. Then you have espionage and maritime, both which are quite bad, with the former not even having a clear focus except maybe general annoyance. Maritime is at least focused on naval trade, but unless you are heavily dependent on light ships protecting trade and does not have any intentions on blobbing (I.e merchant republic or roleplay reasons), it's almost never worth it.
Sam Otten Espionage ideas aren't _that_ bad, in fact they have rather good policies (e.g. -1% military trad. decay, or +20% cav combat ability)
Also, maritime beats naval by a million miles because it gives you better bonuses (i.e. to light ships and trade, which is all anyone cares about the navy for anyway) and, more importantly, it isn't a military idea group. It is quite powerful for nations like England or, rather situationally, Japan.
Bookkeeper has three double letters in a row
Laughoutloud Studios Dutch has voorraaddoos meaning storage box, there was an attempt
ookkee
no
Hey
true
One thing you forgot to mention about Quantity ideas is the bonus you get with economic. while nothing major it gives you -10% Development cost. and if you can stack development cost reductions enough you can really go nice and tall real fast with your provinces.
Or if you play in a poor region of the world where even with quantity you feel like you are still lacking. or simply do not have the economy to handle the increased force limit and need to burn some diplo and admin points for some extra income.
I'm playing the Mamluks right now (cause why not, and I'm testing out force conversions and forming multiple nations ^^) and it might be interesting to know they get a *CRAZY TON* of development boosts through events and government forms etc.
I just wish it wasn't the _Mamluks_ that got development cost boosts :p Cause they start with 370+ development...
Reman we still waiting for u
Just go on the pdx forum
18:00 aristocratic is probably the best group to pair with an already strong military nation, especially if operating in and around the HRE. 1 extra diplomat is like getting to choose extra siege ability, reduced aggressive expansion, cheaper claims, or a multitude of other diplomatic options. If you want pure military power, no its not the best, but it is a hugely powerful complementary military group.
Also, as has been noted elsewhere, the gauranteed siege pip is actually hugely useful. it guarantees a general which will always be useful. I have never in thousands of hours playing considered a general with a siege pip to be completely useless. I have found innumerable other pip combinations to be more a liability than a benefit, but I can always find a way to use a general with a pip of siege.
The extra general is also pretty damned useful when you're absolutely massive and have wars going on in South America at the same time as Central Asia and East Africa. Likewise the general is useful for such cases as they tend to travel rather slowly.
I would put it in the first group, its usually a safe bet, -1% army/navy tradition decay is something like +1 yearly army tradition, also lower mil tech cost pays off in the long run, war taxes more often, can strenghten government more often, can develop more province (dont know how many mil points you save over the course of the game but one extra manpower in a province adds 330 total manpower with +33% increased manpower from serfdom idea)
I'm a quantity man myself - however, I'd like to point out a subtle "hidden" bonus to defensive ideas. The +1 attrition for enemies helps you in the background when the AI does that sneaky backdoor sieging of your lands. They'll usually leave just enough men for the siege to tick, and the +1 attrition will constantly halt their progress (especially late in the war when they're tapped on manpower). It's subtle, it's negligible, but it's there.
You probably wont notice it much when you're curb stomping someone but when you're involved in multiple difficult wars the extra exhaustion from being carpet sieged by a dozen troops doing that annoying backdoor thing can mean a lot. It also helps ending wars faster since they don't get easy warscore that way.
It’s been 7 months without a reman video... the world has become a land of savages, without anyone there to lead us. If only He, the Chosen One, would come back to us, maybe we could finally have some peace. But I fear the worst is yet to come.
Only he can defeat the Ottoblob
haven't played eu4 in months but I find your videos enamoring and can't stop watching them
Once again, thank you Reman. Your videos are great and you manage to clarify and teach me stuff on a game i thought i completely knew. But what I find most interesting is your discussion about Military Score. I had never considered the fact that the idea group one pick may affect AI diplomacy, or at least not to that extent. From my perspective, it makes quantity a must have as first or second idea group, for two reasons. First, military points are quite cheap compared to admin and dips, if you plan on conquering. Second, it prevents coalitions from firing and helps you call friends in war, and that is HUGE.
This is a sublime guide for reference. Even though I knew a lot of this, it really clears the debate.
Don't scoff too much on innovative ideas. If they are taken as the first idea group and you get the tech bonus by tech level seven, assuming you get each Tech at around 600 Monarch points, you will save 1500 Monarch points for each category by the end of the game. This means faster technology, more ideas, and more development. It really helps you build tall instead of wide
we need reman to come back, possibly the best eu4 videos. also innovative is actually decent now!
Ouch, the hate for innovative is pretty painful. I like innovative a lot the -.05 war exhaustion is very good with the introduction of absolutism, -10% tech cost for each category is amazing if taken early (-10% embracement cost is ok lets you take institution a little faster/cheaper), -25% of adviser cost is nice for getting level 3 advisers or higher now that they can go above level 3, -25% merc cost makes merc way cheaper, and 1 more general is helpful late game when your fighting in multiple wars or have lot's of sieges going on at once.
-10% tech cost looks better than it is. It's about 1 monarch point a month combined (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) if you take it asap. Don't get me wrong, its nice and such, but "amazing"? I don't think so. ;)
it's 1 monarch point per month if taken as the first idea group means 369 years until tech 32 at 1 per month or 4,428 points (1,476 in each cat). It's half an idea group for each category or 1,476 admin points for coring. If you factor in the decimal points then it's 5109 points over the game or 1,703 points per category. Also only said the -10% was only good in the early game the later you take it the worse it is I would never say take it as a 3rd or 4th idea group.
NADster36 Since the introduction of institutions those -10% actually are amazing. They save you so much points when you cant embrace an institution right away.
Kosake that true I didn’t even think of that when I said why I liked innovation.
if you can not embrace institution early, economic would help better than innovative, because dev push is the most viable way to deal with institution :) and early game boost to economy is really nice
I’m completely new to this channel.. but like.. dude. What solid talent. I hope you’re safe and okay.
Too many good youtubers loosing their lives or falling off the platform..
Where you at reman?
Very good guide, its smilar to what i think is the best strategy so far (after 1,4k hours).
I think many peaple will argue with quantity cause evryone want elite regiments^^
There is also one feature of Quantity that makes it so great... the ideas descriptions :D
Please come back Reman, your vids really helped me understand and enjoy this game, would love more
Great to see another video from you!
I love your videos, they're the best guides for Paradox games out there!
I was about to call nonsense on taking quantity as a great idea group until you starting talking about the AI perspective. I did not know that. Sounds very useful.
In our Multiplayer Game we used some restrictions on Idea Groups, which make the choices more dynamic.
No Policies which affect Discipline, Morale oder Combat Abiity, since they dictate which other Ideagroups are must pics (Economy for another 5% Dis, Innovative for 20% Inf CA, Religious for more Morale)
Only two of your named Mainline Ideagroups, now you really have to decide.
Only one of the Situational ones, so no shenanigans with taking Plutocratic, then becoming a Monarchy and also taking Aristocratic.
Anyone can take Naval if they want to, since at most only 3 of 4 Military Idea Groups are locked in.
What you didn't talk about is the order of ideas you get in ideagroups. Defensive is really frontloaded with +1AT and 20% Morale in the first two Ideas, which make in excellent as a first ideagroup for the really early wars.
Quality is only really that good if you got all of the ideas for the 5% Disclipine, which make it worse as an early idea.
Offenisve has +1Leader Shock early on, which is really nice, sadly 20% FL and 5% Discipline are the finisher.
Finally Quantity your favourite. The two strong Manpower Buffs are the first two Ideas, which is nice, but this doesn't help in fights at all. You need to finish the Idea to get the very nice 50% FL, only then it is really usefull, which can be rather late for some game starts.
Personally I'll take Quantity later one for fun in SP, or also later in MP for several reasons.
Usualy in our MP Player Wars are only later one, and in the start you defeat the AI around you, and the game is more cooperative, and chilled. Only later on they get intensive, and then stacking the 50% more Forcelimit with lots of Force Limit Buildings can suddenly increase your FL alot which can surprise your enemy. Only then you can really the economy to sustain Wars with so many soldiers.
In midegame, having more soldiers makes it more difficult to move in bad terrain without loosing horrible in Manpower trough attrition. Having less but better troops in provinces helps with that. Also Naval Transporting, e.g. as Great Britain. With more Soldiers you have to have more Transport Ships or have them sail more often, and until all of your army is where it needs to be, that are really bad.
In my current MP Game I play an High American in a Random New World, and with the above written restrictions I would never take Quantity idea in this situation. I want my Troops in Europe fast, if I want to fight there, and I need good troops but also ships. So I picked Offensive and Quality Ideas, to stack Discipline.
Thanks for confirming my believe in quantity making alliances more likely and enemy attacks less likely. As a paranoid tall player i mostly use my army to deter enemys declarations
Those episodes are absolutely amazing, thanks a lot for doing this and please keep up great work.
Overall this video still holds true, (for 1.31), keep in mind defensive was nerfed from +1 army tradition to +100% army tradition from battles, meaning always fighting is a must now early game with it.
Additionally, quality was nerfed going from +1 army tradition to +0.5 army tradition and the infantry combat ability from Innovative was cut in half from +20% to +10%.
I would say this buffed both Quantity and Offensive since Quantity now has +33% supply limit instead, and Offensive remained the same.
Keep in mind that Reman actually underestimates Innovative ideas. It's a great idea group to take early since the reduced power cost and Army/Naval tradition decay will save you more monarch power than the hold group costs and then some.
Check out Radio Res's video where he does the calculations on Innovative ideas.
th-cam.com/video/aQaumKqMCnQ/w-d-xo.html
I haven't checked all the other policy combinations so check these out as well.
naval bonus is now marine force limit.
marines are huge for ocean going nations.
all it takes is 1 occupied coastal province to start injecting grand armies.
Goodbye, Reman...
We need you back chief....
I think I always convinced myself Quality is better then it realy is. Great Video =)
Aristocratic for sure is a very niche pick, I usually only go for it for flavour reasons. However, in my Ardabil to Persia run, I took it just for the monthly autonomy reduction. The government form, feudal theocracy, doesn't get autonomy reduction, so I was sitting on a whole heap of basically useless land that would never go down in autonomy because I was constantly at war. Economic might've been better for autonomy reasons, but I've never been much of a fan of it. Trade is, in my opinion, better if you need money. And in any case, administrative and humanist/religious is a better investment of admin points in 95% of cases. I rarely take more than two admin ideas, after that it's all used for coring.
I think quantity is probably the strongest military idea group on average, but my personal favourite is definitely offensive. Fill up the extra force limit with mercs, led by amazing generals, and win wars by outsieging the enemy. One thing I wonder about is whether quality/defensive with their 1+ yearly army tradition or offensive with its two additional pips give better generals, on average.
Good video as always, keep it up.
What happened man? Hope everything is alright, stay safe. It's been a bummer with all these new updates and no Exploit videos, or just you in general.
Dude, you're awesome. Thanks for putting in the effort on these videos. I've learnt so much.
Loving the War Adademy series! I would love to know your strategies on province development and building construction to fit different situations. Like an overall “Building/Improvement” guide!
I think the advice is mostly applicable to sibgleplayer. Quality eco. Or more specifically eco first followed by quality is probable the most dominant idea group combo in multiplayer for a range of reasons.
In multiplayer blobbing is generally not a great idea. Limiting the amount of admin needed to core. Because of this developing a core region is hugely important. And money begets more money. So the earlier you get it the better. Quality seems weak on its own and I would agree. But discipline is the single most important factor in a balanced multiplayer war. And the only way to have on demand discipline is qual eco. You do forget that you can turn it off when you no longer need it. That being said in singleplayer world conquests I can't a argue with your assessments.
P.s. Maritime is the better naval idea group, pointless in singleplayer but stupidly important in any multiplayer game where b anyone is trying to out ship Britain.
I've seen defensive being taken a lot in MP games early too, simply because very early game players don't have balanced wars a lot, and its a job of gobbling up nearby AIs and consolidating land, or having short-scale battles with lesser troops against other players, where the morale can be gamechanging.
.. you still need atleast 120 points total to have it tho.. but still personally I would gladly pay that for lol stacking disc :)
Subarno Hossain the issue is that anytime you're beaten that badly nothing will help you and you don't need anything to win. But when you need it's so important that you can't not take it.
We miss you, man. I hope life is going well for you! If you return, you'll have a waiting audience :)
And then he was never seen again....
I read on some forum a few months back that they considered quantity to be over rated and bad (they also said that the vast majority of the experienced player base agrees). I pretty much ignored what he said, because my bottlenecks for expansion are almost always manpower and economics in the early game. I've consistently taken quantity within my first 2 choices for pretty much every game, and i'm happy to learn that the guy in the forum was just very confused.
As always a great and informative video. Aristocratic is still my favouite military idea group though.
1. Defensive
2. Offensive
3. Quality
4. Quantity
Defense gives you that sweet, sweet army morale in the early game when you need it most, and you get army tradition even in peacetime so you can hire better generals. THEN you take Offensive, which makes your generals even better. In most cases it makes sense to get Defensive first, followed by Offensive, followed by Quality, because by the time you get to a third or fourth group, your manpower pool is probably big enough already without the Quantity group.
quality is really good and fitting for small-ish naval nations like portugal and netherlands. But I would say this is perfect for Japan, as having naval superiority is a must against ming
Agreed with quantity it makes conquering neighbours a lot easier if you're playing a weak nation with low trade income or manpower. I remember falling in love with this idea group while playing Ethiopia back when Art of War was a new dlc and used it to defeat Mamluks and Ottomans relatively early. And since they never really changed the military groups it was always my go to pick for most non-european nations.
gone, like an angel's kiss
Now, I am a new player, so there is that. But, my take on Quantity Ideas is that I don't appreciate them very much. Not so much because I am blinded by the shininess of Offensive or Quality ideas. In fact, when I first started playing I took Quantity because I liked the manpower bonus and the recovery speed bonus, but I soon realized I couldn't win fights with the Quantity idea group. I consistently was losing fights to AI countries with smaller armies than my own. Most of these countries had taken either Quality, Offensive, or Defensive. Their troop morale, discipline, or leaders simply beat the snot out of mine. I could only win by swarming with allies, vassals, or with the help of my more experienced friend. Even then, one AI (Spain) was a serious pain to beat and brought us both to zero manpower and hurting before we could barely eek out a peace deal. Some might consider than normal, but in my mind, that is no way to win. I had one fight were I had over 60k troops, as France, against a Spanish stack of 30k, and they handedly crushed my army. Mostly based off morale, but I still lost a lot of troops.
In the current game I am playing, I took Quality first, then Offensive, and my armies and leaders are outstanding. I've been doing far better. The only close war I've had, thus far, was against a strong Austria with one military tech higher than me and my friend. But my troops proved superior in the end.
Another reason I support Quality over Quantity is how the AI behaves when moving its troops around. The AI is really good at appearing to be moving one way, then suddenly descending upon your unsuspecting army and summarily butchering it. I had that happen so many times in the games where I had been using Quantity. Even if I outnumbered the pouncing army, my troops lost most of the time. Due to loss of morale or the enemies general just being far too good. Whereas, when the same thing happened with my Quality armies, I rarely lost. My, sometimes, smaller armies were usually whooping on the larger AI armies.
Again, I am a new player and haven't grasped the full nuances of the game, but in my opinion Quantity simply can't compete when the AI country takes one of the other three main military ideas (especially a country like Castille/Spain, gets bonus morale built in, plus other bonuses).
As always, video is on the point. Keep it up and a Patreon or some way to support your effort, every video you make, one can see is hours of hard work.
Speaking of morale, in my game with Milan I'm second only to Muscovy and the Ottomans, thanks to the Defensive Ideas group, and I'm also planning to take Plutocratic ideas, to have an overall bonus of 25% morale for my army, and while yes, the other modifiers aren't really important, they still give me something alongside the main +10%, and it's better than just taking both defensive and quantity.
I play a lot of multiplayer and i would say for a Spain or Portugal it could be game changing. This is because GB and the netherlands will pose huge threats to your navies and you cant beat them without a naval idea group to help level the playing field or say goodbye to that colonial empire.
Could we get a video about those "underwhelming innovative ideas?" I feel like it's a group I always juuuuuust maybe want to pick.
and Innovative-Offensive
I almost always pick innovative first.
The -10% tech cost nets you a lot of points if taken early.
Base tech cost 600 x 10% = 60
To keep up you should tech up every 13 years.
60/13=4.61 MP per year
4.61/12= 0.38 ADM, DIP and MIL per month for the rest of the game.
-25% advisor cost means you can afford the level 5 advisors very soon
-1% prestige decay isnt noticeable, but definetly helps
-0.05 monthly war exhaustion reduction basically means you can ignore WE for the rest of the game (unless you are constantly being siege 100%)
When playing muslim countries it is even better due to the Ibadat Khana decision.
You also get and event that gives you 100 of each monarch point when you pick it
It's problem is that it's a decent/good idea group in a category with amazing/god-tier idea groups. It also takes admin points, which are widely considered to be the best type of points to have because of the number of things you can spend them on.
As for a breakdown of the ideas, there's a few standouts. -10% tech cost and Institution cost is massive early on, and the main reason I like it. -25% adviser cost really helps to get higher level advisers earlier while still maintaining a surplus. -.05 war exhaustion per month is fantastic if you don't have any other sources for that, because it allows you to remain at war pretty much constantly. Every other idea is either useless or minor.
The events are very random. Some of them are fantastically beneficial (-10% tech cost to a tech of your choice), while others are really bad (-1 stab, +5% tech cost). If you want to save scum, then Innovative has much better events for that.
Policies are what most people pick this group for. The infamous +20% infantry combat ability comes to mind, as well as it's lesser known cousin +10% siege ability and +1 leader siege. The rest of them are okay, but not worth turning on frequently, IMO.
In conclusion, I wouldn't call Innovative a "must have" idea group unless you're going for some non-optimal playstyle. Like focusing on making spees mahreens who slaughter three times their number in battle, or making an enlightened trading utopia. If you want to be somewhat "optimal" and "meta", pick it at the beginning if you want to take full advantage of the monarch point gain it provides, or pick it at the end for those two amazing army policies. I can't really recommend taking it in the middle.
Defensive can be so op. I had a game where I fought off 3 coalitions at once and one coalition had around 20 nations the other 2 around 10. I got 70% fort defense and were mostly just hiding behind my level 6 forts on mountains and let the enemies die by attrition and also stackwiping them on my forts.
Russian cold-winter tactic approves
thats one thicc russian tactic =)
Something sort of noteworthy regarding Aristocratic, if you manage to get it on a republic (changed government/noble republic), you can get a Policy with Diplomatic that adds 0.4 yearly republican tradition. On republics with 4 year election cycles, this value gives you the tradition you need to keep reelecting more often, thus paying itself off as reptrad converts almost directly to monarch points.
From AlricWaskir on the Paradox forums: "The policy from Aristocratic/diplomatic IS worth it for 4y republics but not for 5y republics. It increases RT by 0.4 (4 jumps) for the cost of 12 MP per year, while it increases MP by ~16MP (4y) or just under 12 MP (5y)"
I'd argue it justifies usage in Singleplayer if for some reason you decide to stick to a republic, as more MP is far more vital than army quality throught most of the game
Ah so all idea groups are correct.
But some are more correct than others.
Uebeltank you know too much
Omfg i love in depth discussions about eu4 mechanics
I think too many people overrate Quantity. The point of it is simply "more men with guns" and I think that wastes an idea group slot a lot of the time if you plan to become big anyways. You don't really need 20 stacks of 80K each if you're not going for a WC. Nowadays, if I need a little bit of manpower I pick Aristocratic, the 33% is plenty and at the end I also get a guaranteed siege pip on leaders, massively speeding wars up.
Stacks are for rebel management.
ye, i got like 5k hours played and i picked quanti maybe twice ^^ Def is definitely the way to go for first military group in 95% of the cases.
He compares quantity and def in the video, so find your arguments there :-) For me has Quantity the largest edge over Defensive in diplomacy. I am 1500 hours in and I cannot remember taking defensive once. Early game are all mil ideas bad compared to admin/reliligous/influence/humanist/diplomatic and late game is defensive bad compared to offensive/quality
Especially since you'll already have half a million troops halfway through Age of Absolutism, so you won't be needing quantity, doubly so if you play as Russia. That said, quantity is still the single most powerful earlygame idea group and it never really gets dated unlike defensive.
Io I disagree, it's the *only* military idea group that gets truly dated. Defensive's +1AT alone makes it more of a worthwhile permanent investment, not to mention other things like morale,reduced attrition for you and increased attrition for enemies. Quantity, on the other hand, can become dated as early as the mid game, if your troops are good, your forts are well positioned and you are a skilled warmongerer there isn't much difference between 200 troops and 300 troops. Unless, again, you're blobbing big time or WCing and need many stacks for multiple fronts. The saving graces of it, the reduced attrition and maintenance are potatoes when compared to the meat that is morale and army tradition. And in the end game, you'll be so rich that you will likely build force limit and manpower at will, further making Quantity redundant. I'd personally replace it with something better around 1680-1700, even when blobbing.
Reman, I have watched your Absolutism and Military Idea Groups video, and I have a question regarding the combination of those.
It will most likely have something to do with preference, but quite regularly I like to pick Innovative & Quality Ideas quite early. I do this for several reasons, depending on certain situations. The situations where I might pick this combination is one or both of the following:
- when I know I will be set on monarch points (very good leader/heir, Ming, etc)
- when I know I will be set on early institutions (start around Europe or when I know I will spawn Colonialism)
The reasons are as follows:
- the combination of ideas provides good firepower (+30% infantry*, +10% cavalry/artillery combat ability) & +5 discipline *policy included
- it creates monarch points by: 1. being able to afford more expensive advisors, 2. cheaper/sooner tech increase, 3. quick access to 100 innovativeness
- it grants overall modifiers which are great for late game: 1. -0.05 war exhaustion, 2. -1% prestige decay, 3. 1 more leader without upkeep, 4. the option to add offensive ideas for extra siege power
- possibility of achieving 90+ Absolutism really cheaply: 100 innovativeness and -50% Harsh treatment cost (age of absolutism ability) and spam harsh treatment on newly gained, low cost provinces. You could even go as far as combining 100 innovativeness,-50% cost from absolutism ability, -33% cost from generic mission tree, -10% golden age. It would cost less than 500 military points to gain 100 absolutism this way.
I prefer this combination for the assurance of high innovativeness, passive war exhaustion reduction and a generally good base of bonuses to ducats, monarch points and combat ability. Since you left this out of your Absolutism as well as your Military Ideas video, I would like to have your take on my thoughts.
Thank you for your time! :)
The buffed aristocratic idea groups is very good IMO, the extra siege pip really helps in the late game bottleneck - sieging. In the early game also helps in taking forts easier, for quicker wars. If you add the offensive policy that also gives a pip, you'll always have two siege pips generals, sometimes you can roll a godly 6 pip general.
Is Reman okay???
Aristocratic mil tech reduction is _awesome_ coupled with Sikh religion! ;)
Also, like you mentioned... tech > all
But yeah I agree it's quite situational (I like all the bonuses, it just doesn't help much with army _combat quality_ except indirectly via good generals/tradition)
Loved the video btw! And Really liked the end :) Great work :)
(you're much better than me at not trying to preach "your way" lol)
Exceptional situation for boosting army quality, which will almost always be single-player because no one will let you do in multiplayer: Prussia
You can either take everything but the mainline military ideas because you are already so good that you can't be stopped or you take all the most powerful quality boosting ideas so you can stack-wipe armies twice your size. Either way all you really need to do is fine some way of managing the monetary costs or manpower and you're set for life.
Personally I like the Burgundian Inheritance myself because it does both of those things and basically gives you everything you need to do a world conquest with Brandenburg/Prussia.
(where you take none of the things traditionally needed to do a world conquest, like Innovative, and no Influence, Administrative, or Quantity ideas, then rage the HRE into Protestantism, unite the HRE and watch as you have more space marines than you no what do with and laugh at everything)
Tengri horde with all cav bonuses plus a noational idea can be 100% cavalry with up to 60% combat modifier, tried it out till 1700 you basically stackwipe enemies in every single fight, after 1700 you dont and the fights get a bit more balanced but it still goes a something like this: combat fire phase you lose 500 they lose 50, combat meele you lose 500 they lose 5000. I won a war vs Muscovy with only half the troops while i had thousands of rebels spawn because I could stackwipe every single russian army even when it was bigger than mine, stackwip not as in instant moral stackwipe but stackwipe as in killing all the soldiers before their morale runs out.
personally i like to always get defensive and sometimes i also get quantity mainly because for me it seems to work out better this way as playing england it allows me to beat france and castile a lot easier early game to get stronger. i may only be able to take the odd Provence at the start but thats where for me it shines. i use defensive not to beat country's but push them back allowing me to win a few fights and siege down their their capitals and forts then peace out before i run out of men but i take land with releasable vassels with a lot of cores. then next war i do the same but that small amount of score i get from what i can siege becomes 5-6 cores returned allowing me to ripe a country apart in 2 wars and not get massive aggressive expansion after that they are so week my stronger army can win the war. its not a perfect way to play but it works for me
i almost always pick influence first then quantity followed by an adm idea like economic, the first 2-3 ideas of admin or expansion and then offensive. i'll pick quality as my 5th or 6th idea if i have a navy whatsoever at that point
Still waiting for the next Reman's Paradox video. They are awesome, no matter what game.
Defensive is so underrated, the extra moral means you're also saving manpower since you're first of all stackwipeing armies easier and second of all you end battles more quickly because the amount of moral damage your army does depends on your max moral.
I usually go defensive -> offensive -> quantity/quality (yea i take 3 military idea groups :D)
Also the way i play the games is i avoid all battles and only fight absolutely necessairy ones or those which i can win really easily so defensive is far better than quantity for me.
This puts things into perspective, because I always thought that Defensive was great for slow, grinding, wars of attrition.
FifthofAscalante still true if you are russian or any nation that stack attrition for enemy
I hardly ever pick Quantity. I know theyre better now but still, that bonus attrition on enemies from defensive gives you a huge bonus if you just have a few nice positioned castles.
I love my Royal Marines too much for Quantity. I think England is probably the best nation for Quality next to Prussia and Nepal, because you can actually take advantage of the ship bonus to be actually unstoppable until the end of the gmae on the water, which for a country centered around overseas expansion, is really useful.
Valerie Aust True, Quality better synergizes with GB’s National ideas overall
I agree with you that the really important idea groups are not military groups at all, usually I will take offensive near the endgame for ultra fast sieges if looking for world domination.
I personally don't to take quantity because it is way too much of a "win more" group even on the hardest settings, I guess I like the cold sweat and strife of calculating the perfect war, declaring at the enemies weakest moment and not being able to take on larger nations until much later in the game.
Plutocratic is an extremely undervalued ideal set paying military points for extra merchant and goods produced is a no brainer
Gerald Todd I think it's more of a economic idea group that nice to take if your playing a tall game with little to no warfare.
For me Plutocratic is one of those ideas you get if you have the chance early game. It looses value towards the mid to late game.
its more about the opportunity cost with a lot of these groups, sure the bonuses are alright but compared to x, y, z you'd want them instead
i miss you reman you make so amazing videos
Hey now, my grandfather was a macabre bookkeeper and I can tell you it's a noble profession!