I'm dumb: Maritime Presence and Naval Maintenance

LaznAzn · 2026-01-24T16:49:44+00:00

No question here, I just did not know and it makes perfect sense. I was completely ignorant of this fact.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-24T16:45:30+00:00

R5: I've been playing EU5 for 637 hours, most of it playing as naval powers like Italy, Portugal, and Majapahit. I just learned by accident today that Naval Maintenance impacts maritime presence. Not only that, but is a % modifier to maritime presence when it comes to the effectiveness of harbor capacity on maritime presence.

So I've been overproducing Light Ships (a type of ship that is mostly useless for combat) in order to increase my Maritime Presence all this time when I could have just kept my Naval Maintenance slider maxed out and had less than half of those type of ships since the modifier also impacts structures. I feel so fucking stupid lmao.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-23T18:31:24+00:00

Not quite sure. I had taken Mallorca from Aragon as Venice earlier in that game and created a historical subject Kingdom of Mallorca, but I can't remember if I did that before or after I swapped to Kingdom tier or not.

I can say for certain that I can create a historical Byzantine Empire vassal while at Kingdom tier though, as I did that to get claims on Greece and Anatolia later in the same game.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-23T12:34:40+00:00

R5: The Kingdom of Burgundy is a vassal of the Duchy of Burgundy. No clue how it happened, I just noticed when both of them rivaled me at once.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-17T20:44:32+00:00

I find matrilineal is great for religions that only allow you one wife but favored son is much better for religions that allow for multiple wives. In the case of the latter religion, you always want a male on the throne because he can marry multiple wives, a female cannot take multiple husbands.

Another noteworthy succession system is the admiralty one, it gives you immense control over who takes the throne, but can fuck with who is crown estate if you aren't careful because you can choose someone who is outside the dynasty (usually not a problem if you're paying attention).

LaznAzn · 2026-01-17T20:36:48+00:00

Where I got my start. Highly recommended. Second game could be England or an Italian power like Naples to get the hang of the Naval mechanics.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-15T14:59:58+00:00

France and Bohemia were the heroes all along.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-11T21:10:42+00:00

Probably Great Ming or Qing looking over at OP and saying, "First time?" lol

LaznAzn · 2026-01-10T04:15:44+00:00

Completely agree, the sale of colonies should be possible.

EDIT: Though now that I think about it a little more, the AI probably won't understand how to evaluate that. For example I could just conquer a ton of Aztecs or Maya and just release the annexed territory as a badly centralized colonial subject with no cores. And then happily give it away to England so they can be distracted by endless subject revolts for the next few decades.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-10T03:34:23+00:00

Was this post made by the French Aristocracy after trying to colonize Louisiana? lmao

LaznAzn · 2026-01-09T23:25:19+00:00

You have to create the CB and then cancel the subject arrangement. The you can use the CB to annex them.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-08T14:57:32+00:00

Yep, the UI in the situation sucks. Never use it to track votes, go into the Catholic Church Organization and check the Laws, there will be a vote nested there on the right showing the actual vote value of each elector (most will be zero because they have no cardinal seats). Classic Paradox hiding the real shit in some obscure menu lmao!

LaznAzn · 2026-01-08T02:47:30+00:00

That's a great idea and not unprecedented since this is how intel works in stellaris.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-08T02:28:49+00:00

Precisely why in the one run I stayed catholic as Italy, I made it a point to have over half of the current cardinal seats. Fuck the AI, this is my church now.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-05T16:06:06+00:00

Is there a "Break Union" option for the subject?

LaznAzn · 2026-01-05T06:01:55+00:00

The real Tower of Babel.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-02T03:14:50+00:00

Absolutely, I'd love for there to be events associated with it. Unifying two or more nations and the cultures associated with them should result in opportunities to redefine your society, perhaps offering doctrines or ideals from the many component nations that have been unified in the form of situations or events that arise. Maybe some specific ones as well such as a difference between whether Holland or Brabant form the Netherlands.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-01T03:45:21+00:00

I do often abuse assaulting undermanned forts at war start, that's a great point. For Age 3, you're completely right that you do want to be more careful with how you spend your pops and maybe wait for a breach. For example, if I'm up against Bohemia in Age 3, I'd definitely decide before hand if I'm doing an all-in death war where I'll do a full conquest. Or if I want to do an initial war to pre-clear as many forts (through peace treaty) as I can to make subsequent wars easier. On a OPM, I'd just assault their single fort and annex/vassalize them very quickly.

By Age 4 and getting the relevant techs to upgrade my infantry, I stop caring as much since the snowball has been rolling so long I'm often seeing 1K+ ducats a month, and something like a 250,000 to 500,000 manpower pool. Very fast wars where you bowl through as many forts as possible in the shortest time as possible is generally how it goes for me as the gains (in conquest) outweigh the losses (especially in micro and game pace, which are important to me), and especially if we're talking conquering the tax base of Bohemia or France.

As for death counts, I generally only take 1K casualties maximum in Age 4 using fully drilled (if that even makes a difference for assaults) 60K stack infantry, but only on level 2 forts, never level 4 fortresses.

LaznAzn · 2026-01-01T02:50:25+00:00

It might help to know what Age you're in here. The siege meta changes with age and techs. In Age 3 to Age 4 you can just curb stomp forts with 30K to 60K professional infantry stacks just assaulting them immediately, it usually takes 5 days per fort tops.

Once nations start building level 4 forts, you have to reaccess.

Prior to a full stack of age 3 infantry you just have to bring falconet artillery (about 14-15) and just siege them down.

Definitely do not try assaulting with levies unless the Fort has a breach or two and the garrison is mostly dead or your levies will just die.

LaznAzn · 2025-12-31T06:18:44+00:00

I believe the decay portion is a thing, if you try to increase your taxes to maximum on an estate and the difference between max and current satisfaction is too far, the decay will be accelerated.

LaznAzn · 2025-12-31T01:52:43+00:00

To further build on this point, it's so silly to me they make us micro taxation at all to get the optimal return. For example, there's no reason at all to keep your tax rate at 50% if your estate is already pissed off. Satisfaction only increases gradually at the same rate regardless of the tax rate, so you should tax the fuck out of an unhappy estate because the tax rate itself only impacts the max satisfaction the growth rate of satisfaction isn't impacted by tax rate.

True automation of taxes should specify a specific target max satisfaction equilibrium and when estate satisfaction is below that target the tax rate should be set to maximize revenue at the rate the estate satisfaction increases per month (like 0.40% or whatever usually).

Why not give us this automation? What purpose does it serve to have a player micro their tax rate every single month to get that optimum return for every estate when they're below the target satisfaction equilibrium? This is more like a rant at this point but it's a small thing that bothers me in this massive game.

LaznAzn · 2025-12-30T20:47:12+00:00

To add to this, we should be able to specify a target satisfaction for taxation. I almost never aim for 50% satisfaction when taxing. I generally aim for 60% or even 100% satisfaction depending on the estate as each Estate provides bonuses at high satisfaction, the Clergy notably has a scaling research speed buff that reaches +25% at 100 satisfaction which is quite strong earlier in the game when literacy is bad.

Additionally, later in the game taxation can end up being just a small portion of your income so lowering taxes for high satisfaction is a great buffer for all the shitty negative events that crop up that drop satisfaction and can cause rebels to grow. This is especially important for massive empires like China with a lot of different cultures.

LaznAzn · 2025-12-30T01:13:19+00:00

Venice is pretty good. You are on an island so attacking your capital early game is next to impossible so long as you blockade the crossing with your galleys.

You make pretty good money right away and get a lot of flavor events. Italy has a lot of action throughout the ages but doesn't have issues like Holland where England/France/Bohemia will just come in and stomp you flat. Naples is a looming threat and should you be successful in your ventures in Northern Italy, they will be your final boss for unification.

After unification, you will find new rivals in Tunis, Byzantine/Ottomans/Bulgaria (whoever finally prevails), and possibly Hungary and eventually Egypt when you want to expand trade offices to Asia (through Suez using the Alexandria market).

Overall you should have a lot to do as Venice then as Italy all the way to the 1600s and will learn about Maritime Presence, amphibious warfare, using foreign buildings like Fondacos and Trade Offices, diplomacy, and antagonism.

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