Advanced Nation Management

In singleplayer, even the laziest nation management can pass. However, in multiplayer? Being lazy with the way your country is run can spell disaster, and pushing every advantage possible is vital. We want to generate money and monarch points, as many as possible, to gain a lead and keep it.A lot of people have a tendency to stockpile their gold and 'wait for a rainy day' with it. In theory, you sit with your money, and if things go bad? Why, you'll just merc up! You'll win the war! What's wrong with this concept?The issue is that buildings exist, and the gold you have in your treasury isn't really doing anything for you.stockpile gold! Gold represents a vital resource that you want to use to invest in your nation. As soon as temples are unlocked, you need to be placing them down in virtually every province you can. The same goes for manufactories and workshops; place down trading posts on estuaries and trade cities to increase the value they give, and place them on the coastline in vital, contested trade zones.For every building you make, you're making your nation stronger and, in the long term, going to be able to put out more troops. A nation with a weak economy will not be able to sustain itself in long wars, especially later in the game, and faces bankruptcy or just stagnation. A strong economy also translates to the ability to hire lucrative advisors for more monarch points, which means better ideas, tech, and development... Which, of course, means more money too.The one exception to this: If you're a small nation, keeping -some- gold in reserve to hire mercs in an emergency situation to avoid taking loans and hitting a death spiral of interest.For most nations, taxation is going to be your early source of income. However, as the game goes on, trade is going to become more and more important. If you can, you're going to want to try to secure a trade node for yourself and funnel money into it however you can. Work out deals to split trade amicably with other players in the node, or kill them and take the land for yourself.There's some exceptions to these rules. Don't funnel trade into a node where you don't have the majority of the power; instead, toy with collecting it up stream and see if it increases or decreases your income, and act accordingly.Manufactories are, by far, the best building for making money. They increase Goods Produced which doesn't rely on development, and add not only to your production income but -also- to trade value. This means that you profit from a manufactory twice: First when it adds directly to your production income, and secondly when it adds trade value to the node it is constructed in that can then be collected.Get control of a node. Make manufactories in it, and make bank.Don't neglect your estates!There's a few things to keep in mind about estates. As you probably know, estates give benefits when loyal and penalties when disloyal; you can do interactions with them to gain benefits, and if their influence gets too high? A disaster will occur.The benefits estates give depends upon their influence. For example, an estate with 75% or more influence will give a whopping total of 150 monarch points when Support is demanded. That's a -lot-! But at the same time, you run the risk of a bad event hitting you and the estate gaining too much power. This is when an element of micromanagement comes in. A truly good player will be able to manage their estates, get the beneifts from them, and revoke land at the last minute before they take control in the nation.Keep track of your Ask for Contribution timer from the Burghers. Money begets money, and free money is the best kind of money. The monarch point options are all good, too, but try to make sure that your estate has greater than 50 influence before using them, otherwise it's just not really worth it!Give high tax base or worthless provinces to the Clergy. Give high manpower provinces and provinces with forts to the nobility. Give trade estuaries and cities to the Burghers, just watch out because giving centers of trade and cities over 30 dev to the Burghers increases their influence even more.And finally, remember the advisors they give. Any opportuinity to save money while getting monarch points is absolutely incredible and shouldn't be passed up.In general:Always take a prestige hit over a monarch point hit unless you feel like you'll really need the morale from prestige in an upcoming war. Giving 50 monarch points to avoid a prestige loss sounds great, sure, but then when you do this ten times? You've lost 500 monarch points, the equivilant of a technology. Bad.Don't be afraid to grant local autonomy in provinces to avoid revolts. Raising your maintenance costs money, remember? And you want to save money.Legitimacy is mostly determined when your heir is born. Unless you're having serious revolt trouble, don't be afraid to let your legitimacy take a hit before your prestige. Republican Tradition, on the other hand, should be greedily hoarded whenever possible.Try to keep stability at +1, at the least, and don't bother raising it to +2 or +3 unless you have a young king that you think will live a while. It's also perfectly acceptable if you get an event that gives a free stability to boost it to +2 and then jump to +3 for free.Avoid going over 100% overextension at all costs. It's not worth it. Make a vassal if you must.Corruption is the devil. Temporary corruption is fine, but try to make monarch point and idea purchases before conquering land or dealing with religious disunity to avoid the monarch point cost increase corruption causes.Stay up to date as much as possible, but if you're having trouble keeping up? Administrative isn't as important unless you're unlocking an early building or new idea group, or administrative efficiency. Diplomatic technology hardly matters for most nations, unless you are navally oriented. Military technology is of paramount importance.There's several 'spikes' in military technologies that most people aren't aware of. Technology four gives morale and tactics, meaning that whoever gets it has a huge lead over anyone with 3. Technology five gives a new unit type, and 6 gives yet more tactics. 12 introduces gunpowder units, and 15 Maurician infantry along with a huge morale bonus.Stay up to date in your military techs, especially ones that give morale and new unit types. Even if you don't upgrade them immediately, it's perfectly acceptable to wait for the -5% and -10% bonuses to the cost as long as you have the points stored to upgrade when needed. Don't get caught two techs behind or more when the enemy comes knocking! You'll regret it.Try to avoid idle diplomats. Build spy networks in high tech countries to get discounts on your own technology, and build spy networks in enemies to get the fort siege bonus a large spy network gives. Improve relations with various human nations across the world so that you can be ready to ally them if a situation arises. Fabricate claims all over the AI to save 10% on core cost.It's easy to forget power projection, but it's amazing. We're looking to maintain our 50 power projection, or higher. Encircle AI's in your nation, if you can rival them, and leave them independent. Let them develop, hit Humiliates out of them, and annex them later for more monarch points.If you're sufficiently wealthy, another option is rivaling another human player and paying them to do a fake war with you. You'll exchange your cash for them immediately surrendering to your Show Strength. Both parties can benefit!