Europa Universalis IV announced

[Monoriu]

But it does. The coalition only forms if the outraged nations think they can beat you.

I'd like to know more about how the coalition mechanics work, because coalition is the single biggest problem in my games.  My experience is that they form if the accumulated AE is too high.  They only declare war if they think they can beat me.  They leave the coalition if relations improve.  I as Portugal is the single biggest entity with like 150 provinces and around 90 regiments in my current game.  But countries like Aragon, Brittany, and the Papal States form coalitions against me all the time, except they almost never declare war.  I always send my diplomats to improve relations with them and avoid European wars for a while.  Then they leave the coalition one by one, until my next European war. 

[Eddie Teach]

Well, I can only speak for what I've seen. If the outraged nations are strictly tiny rumps and don't have a shot, they don't bother forming a coalition. If there are more powerful nations which might join, then Provence or a two province Austria that you've been killing might start one. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the powerful nations with just over 50 AE don't bother joining the coalition and then it usually falls apart.

One thing I do is always check the AE when creating a peace deal and see who might join the coalition. Weigh their strength against yours, and that of your alliance. If there's too much danger of a coalition forming, you could take a smaller peace deal, or even take provinces in a different place- AE rating is highly dependent on proximity of the annexed provinces.

[Norgy]

<excellent explanation>

You could've written the manual on trade in EU IV. Well done, sir!

Some nodes are always "end nodes", like Lübeck, Seville and Venice (and probably more). Don't bother transferring from them.

[Eddie Teach]

One definite advantage for Portugal(or Castile)- Christopher Columbus. That dude mapped out all the way to Indonesia and California and revealed pretty much every coastal province for me, all from his base in Cape Verde. Anonymous French explorer in my current game mapped out Africa to the Cape and the Caribbean and the coast of Brazil. Maybe revealed 10-20 provinces.

[crazy canuck]

One definite advantage for Portugal(or Castile)- Christopher Columbus. That dude mapped out all the way to Indonesia and California and revealed pretty much every coastal province for me, all from his base in Cape Verde. Anonymous French explorer in my current game mapped out Africa to the Cape and the Caribbean and the coast of Brazil. Maybe revealed 10-20 provinces.

With the new exploration mechanic the person you select isnt that important.  exploration of new regions is limited by a number of factors now.  There are times I have had my explorer just doing trading because there are no new regions unlocked and ready to explore.  The main benefit of Columbus now is that he just costs a bit of gold rather than having to invest the Diplomacy points in a random explorer.

[Eddie Teach]

exploration of new regions is limited by a number of factors now.

Well, in the case of my game, those are primarily speed, distance from port and attrition.

[crazy canuck]

exploration of new regions is limited by a number of factors now.

Well, in the case of my game, those are primarily speed, distance from port and attrition.

Then I assume you are not playing with whatever expansion changed the exploration mechanic?

[Monoriu]

One definite advantage for Portugal(or Castile)- Christopher Columbus. That dude mapped out all the way to Indonesia and California and revealed pretty much every coastal province for me, all from his base in Cape Verde. Anonymous French explorer in my current game mapped out Africa to the Cape and the Caribbean and the coast of Brazil. Maybe revealed 10-20 provinces.

He is nice, but even without him Portugal explores just fine.  The limiting factor on further expansion around the Cape of Good Hope isn't naval exploration.  It takes a long time to build up a chain of colonies down the African coast, until Kilwa/Mutapa is within colonial range to allow me to annex and core their provinces.  Initially, Portugal will lag behind in DIP technology because the first Portugese idea must be Exploration, which takes DIP points to develop.

[Josephus]

One definite advantage for Portugal(or Castile)- Christopher Columbus. That dude mapped out all the way to Indonesia and California and revealed pretty much every coastal province for me, all from his base in Cape Verde. Anonymous French explorer in my current game mapped out Africa to the Cape and the Caribbean and the coast of Brazil. Maybe revealed 10-20 provinces.

With the new exploration mechanic the person you select isnt that important.  exploration of new regions is limited by a number of factors now.  There are times I have had my explorer just doing trading because there are no new regions unlocked and ready to explore.  The main benefit of Columbus now is that he just costs a bit of gold rather than having to invest the Diplomacy points in a random explorer.

What do you mean by having explorer doing trading?

[Eddie Teach]

He is nice, but even without him Portugal explores just fine.  The limiting factor on further expansion around the Cape of Good Hope isn't naval exploration.  It takes a long time to build up a chain of colonies down the African coast, until Kilwa/Mutapa is within colonial range to allow me to annex and core their provinces.  Initially, Portugal will lag behind in DIP technology because the first Portugese idea must be Exploration, which takes DIP points to develop.

Well, basically I wouldn't have needed to hire another explorer for a hundred years or more. Saves a fair amount of those dip points which they need.

[crazy canuck]

One definite advantage for Portugal(or Castile)- Christopher Columbus. That dude mapped out all the way to Indonesia and California and revealed pretty much every coastal province for me, all from his base in Cape Verde. Anonymous French explorer in my current game mapped out Africa to the Cape and the Caribbean and the coast of Brazil. Maybe revealed 10-20 provinces.

With the new exploration mechanic the person you select isnt that important.  exploration of new regions is limited by a number of factors now.  There are times I have had my explorer just doing trading because there are no new regions unlocked and ready to explore.  The main benefit of Columbus now is that he just costs a bit of gold rather than having to invest the Diplomacy points in a random explorer.

What do you mean by having explorer doing trading?

put him as the admiral in charge of the trading fleet.  That bumps the effectiveness of the trading modifier.

[crazy canuck]

He is nice, but even without him Portugal explores just fine.  The limiting factor on further expansion around the Cape of Good Hope isn't naval exploration.  It takes a long time to build up a chain of colonies down the African coast, until Kilwa/Mutapa is within colonial range to allow me to annex and core their provinces.  Initially, Portugal will lag behind in DIP technology because the first Portugese idea must be Exploration, which takes DIP points to develop.

Well, basically I wouldn't have needed to hire another explorer for a hundred years or more. Saves a fair amount of those dip points which they need.

Sure, but given the fact you have explored all that territory I think you are not using an up to date version of the game.  I dont know how it is possible for Columbus to explore all of that territory using the new exploration mechanic.

[Eddie Teach]

I never claimed to have all the dlc. But it's patch 1.14, so I wouldn't call it out of date.

[crazy canuck]

I never claimed to have all the dlc. But it's patch 1.14, so I wouldn't call it out of date.

I know you didn't.  But it puts your enthusiasm for Columbus in context - its not that great with the new exploration mechanic. ie, you cant do all that exploration with the new system in the lifetime of Columbus.

[Eddie Teach]

Well, somebody on the Paradox forum was talking about how they used him to go to war with some North Africans and captured 3/4 of their ships, so I suppose you could do that if you're locked out of exploration zones.