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GamingHyena's Europa Universalis 2 FAQ v1.05

So, tired of getting beat by France? Maybe sick of the endless revolts? I created
this FAQ to endure the pain so you don't have to. Sure, some of this in the manual, but
who wants to wade through all that? Besides, I provide hints that actually work.

Table of Contents:
1. For the Rookies
2. Inflation
3. Loans
4. Revolts
5. Religion
6. Diplomacy
7. War
8. Winning the Game

*NOTE*
This FAQ cannot be put on any website, public or private, without express permission of
the author. Want permission? E-mail: Happyhyena2000@yahoo.com. Also, if you send me any tips
I can use, I will be sure to credit you in the FAQ. Check out my
website for reviews and more walkthroughs at http://gaminghyena.tripod.com/
Comments? AIM me at Screename GamingHyena2000
Copyright 2003 All rights Reserved

*NOTE*
v1.00 Initial Release.
v1.01 Minor spelling errors and typos fixed.
v1.02 Spacing and indents added to make FAQ easier to read.
v1.03 Added list of sites where FAQ can be posted.
v1.04 Revised list of sites. (3/20/03)
v1.05 Revised list of sites (again), added AIM screename. (4/4/03)

*NOTE*
The following websites have my permission to post this FAQ (as of 3/20/03). If you see it on any
unauthorized sites, please let me know:
http://gaminghyena.tripod.com/
http://www.cheatcc.com/
http://www.gamefaqs.com/
http://www.actiontrip.com/
http://faqs.ign.com/
http://www.neoseeker.com/

For the Rookies:

This game can be a little overwhelming when you first start out, so a great starting
country is Austria in the Grand Campaign. Almost all the historical events are positive,
and you have a decent economy. Austria starts out with a ready-made alliance with a
decent country (Hungary, just ask to join them) that's at war with one of your neighbors
(Venice). This gives you a chance to take some costal territories, learn how to fight with
a partner, without having to worry about different religious factions. Since Austria
doesn't participate in the colonial battles, (at least, not in real life) you can devote all
your
attention to one area of the map. Also, since Eastern Europe pretty much stays Catholic,
stability and religious infighting shouldn't be a huge factor early in the game. If you are
having difficulties in the game, I would suggest Austria as a good training nation.
Also, building improvements are vital to advancing in the game. A nation with
several Manufactories of all kinds gives you the freedom to temporarily withdraw
funding for one category (say, to boost Stability), while still allowing the other categories
to advance. Although expensive, the sooner you build Manufactories, the better value
they become.

Inflation:

Inflation can become a large problem if you're not careful in managing your
economy. It raises the prices of the things you need to buy, and can be quite hard to get
rid of until you research the appropriate technology. Generally, inflation has two root
causes, having a surplus in the monthly treasury and inflation from gold. Unfortunately
for you, having a deficit in the monthly treasury doesn't seem to reduce inflation, so its
best for your economy to have 0 surplus (or as close as possible). Trying to survive only
off your yearly income you get on Jan 1st of each year (which doesn't count towards your
inflation level) can be hard going at times, particularly when you are at war.
Still, the best way to get rid of inflation in EU2 is not to get it in the first place.
Some inflation will inevitably occur (like when you start colonizing the New World with
its large gold reserves), but if you can keep it under 10% you should be doing fine. Some
of you may be thinking you can reduce inflation by simply not getting gold producing
territories, but these territories produce far more gold than inflation and generally help
your economy more than they hurt.
Later on you can promote mayors to governors (Infrastructure Level 5). Each
governor you make reduces inflation by 1%. The thing to remember is that it's a one shot
bonus: if you convert all mayors to governors and then get inflation you're out of luck.
That's why its important to only produce governors when you need them so you don't
run out of territories whenever inflation rears its ugly head.

Loans:

Anytime you need money you can get a loan. Usually they come in 200 gold
increments, which can be a problem if you only need 20 gold. Plus, you can only pay
them back 5 years from the day you were loaned the gold, and since the game doesn't tell
you the loan's coming due, loans can be a real headache. Their interest drains a couple of
pieces of gold from your treasury every month, which adds salt to the wound. If you
must take a loan, write down on a piece of paper the day you got the loan, plus the day
it's due. Hopefully you won't forget and have enough time to save up before the loan
comes due again. If you are unable to pay your debts and max out your loans, you go
into bankruptcy, which can be a real blow to your country (especially if you are at war).
Bankruptcy Loophole:
If you are a small country, you can max out your loans, buy a large army or
improvement, and declare bankruptcy. Since the game doesn't repossess you assets, you
can abuse the system for free money. Sure your army morale will suffer for a few years,
but if you can ride that time out it can be a good way to jumpstart your military or
investments. I once jumpstarted the Papal States rise to power by building a large army
and a Manufactory in this very fashion. Although I had to wait a few years because of
the drop in morale for my troops, it was worth it in the end.

Revolts:

Even the best run empire occasionally gets revolts, so lets examine the roots of
revolts and how to deal with them. Revolts are occasionally made through a random
event, and generally there's no way to prevent these. Simply grab a nearby army and
send them towards the affected territory. Revolts should always be dealt with quickly, or
else they tend to spread across your empire and eventually territories will declare
independence. The only thing that should command higher priority than a territory in
revolt is a foreign invasion. However, most revolts can be avoided simply by reducing
the revolt risk. You can reduce your overall risk by keeping your stability at +3.
Remember that the larger your empire, the more expensive it is to build up your Stability,
so try and build several Fine Arts Academies to help out. Also, if for whatever reason
you experience a severe drop in Stability, don't hesitate to dump your entire treasury into
improving Stability (i.e. move the Stability slider to the max).
You can generally reduce the improvement time to a couple of months, which can be vital if several
of your
territories suddenly develop a high revolt risk because of the drop in Stability.
When you view each territory, one of the statistics you see is the revolt risk. If
you hold your mouse over the revolt risk line, it will eventually show you all the positive
and negative modifiers that affect this territory. Generally you will see something like
(+3 Religion +1 Cultural Differences -1 Manufactory), which gives the territory an
overall 3% chance of revolting (3 + 1 - 1 = 3). Although sometimes the revolt risk is
beyond your control (like when you conquer a territory, the territory automatically
develops Nationalism), there's usually something you can do about it to help out. Lets
take a look at some of the positive and negative modifiers for revolt and see what can be
done about them.

Modifiers:

Religion (actually, religion can be positive or negative modifier depending on your
country's attitude towards the religion)
Cultural differences (usually +1, occurs when the territory has a different culture than
your capital, not much you can do about it)

Bailiff (+3 but an optional upgrade which boosts taxes in that territory, which makes it a
tough decision on whether it will hurt more than help)
Chief Judge (-1 and increases income, helps take the edge off the bailiff upgrade)
Neighboring Rebels (usually +2, and means one of the territories surrounding this one
are in revolt. Take out the neighboring rebels if they are in your country. However, if
your territory is on the border and your neighbor's territory is revolting, there's not
much
you can do about it)

Nationalism (can range from +3 to +1, and happens whenever you conquer a territory.
After a few decades, it goes away, but in the meantime just station troops in the occupied
territory until Nationalism go away. A territory with Nationalism will always have a
revolt risk regardless of the other modifiers.)
War Weariness (starts out +1, but can quickly grow. Happens when your country as at
war too long, regardless of whether or not you are actually fighting. Depending on your
domestic policies, War Weariness can start several weeks to several months after war is
declared.)

Religion:

Religion can be your most powerful ally against revolt; a religion with maximum
toleration can have a -11 affect on revolt! Unfortunately, you must be intolerant to other
religions to achieve maximum toleration. (To change tolerance, click on your country's
national shield in the upper left corner, and then click on your country's religion emblem)
Usually its best to only allow 1-2 religious minorities in your empire at once. Any more
can take a chunk out of stability. If you have a religious minority (Reformists are good
for this one) in your empire with only one or two territories, try sending missionaries
there to convert them to your state religion. Once they are all gone, put the slider for that
religion at minimum. Since you don't have that minority in your empire any longer, you
can safely put them at minimum with no loss in stability. In fact, all the other religions
will increase their stability.
Tolerance of various religions within your empire also affects other countries with
that same religion (if you start persecuting Muslims, then the Ottomans aren't going to
look too kindly on you). Here is a list of the religions and their affects (it's actually
right
out of the manual pg. 72):

Catholicism: +2 diplomats/year +1 missionary every 2 years. Bonus in Stability
and Production Efficiency.

Counter-Reformed Catholicism: +2 diplomats/year +1 missionary/year Bonus
in Stability, lowers Tax Value. Ability to convert countries by force into Catholicism.
Protestantism: +1 diplomat/year +1 colonist/year Lower Stability. Bonus in
Production Efficiency and Tax Value.

Reformist: +1 diplomat/year +2 colonist/year +1 level of Morale for army and
navy. Bonus to profits of merchants. Lower Stability and Tax Value.

Orthodox: +1 colonist every 2 years. Bonus in Stability. Not affected
diplomatically by change in religion.

Shia Moslem: +1 level of Morale for army and navy. Bonus in Stability. Lower
Tax Value.

Suni Moslem: Bonus in Stability.

Confucianism: Bonus in Stability. Lower Tax Value. Lower Trade Efficiency.

Hinduism: Bonus for morale in army and navy. Lower Stability.

Buddhism: +1 Missionary every 2 years. Lower Tax Value. Bonus in Stability.

So.which one do I choose?
Well, since you can't be any religion you want, you will probably only have two
or three choices. Catholicism is a good default choice for Europe, since most countries
stay Catholic. Counter-Reformed Catholicism is a bit overrated, since there are
restrictions on forced conversion and it lowers your tax value. Protestantism is a good
choice for Western Europe, but you don't want to be, say Austria, and stuck in the middle
of a bunch of Catholic Countries. Reformist, with its army/navy bonus, is only good if
you want to go to war. European countries, because they only have one slider for
Muslims, can easily conquer the Middle East since they don't differentiate between Shia
and Suni Muslims. Finally, remember that changing state religions (except from Catholic
to Counter-Reformed Catholic) mess up your stability and relations with other nations, so
if you do plan to change religions, only do it once per game and make it permanent.

Diplomacy:

Diplomacy will make or break your kingdom, so its best to master diplomacy
early on. Reputation is your bread and butter in the diplomacy biz, so make sure and
keep yours at very least tarnished for as long as possible. Why should you care about
reputation? Other countries will invade you if you have a bad rep, and your allies won't
help out. Since one country generally can't take on an alliance in this game, keeping
your reputation alive will help keep your kingdom alive. Here are some other tips
Strategy First doesn't want you to know about diplomacy..
NEVER be outside a strong alliance. Your alliance should always include one of
the traditional great powers (i.e. England, Russia, Spain, France, or Austria). Make these
powers happy at all cost. Often they will ask you to declare war on some other country.
Unless that country is in a position to swamp you, declare war on them. If you don't,
then your reputation takes a hit, stability takes a hit, and the alliance dissolves, leaving
you in a lurch. Just because you declare war on someone doesn't mean you actually have
to fight them. If you wait a few weeks, you can usually exit the war with a white peace.
Also, if a country breaks away from another because of rebellion, then it will
automatically declare war on the parent country. Often, that parent country will ask you
to declare war on the new country. Do it, and annex the new country. It's an easy way to
gain territories at your ally's expense, and they'll thank you for it!
War Weariness resets the second you aren't at war with anyone. Use this bug to
your advantage by timing your wars right. After you finish off one country, sue for
peace. The second you get peace declare war on your next enemy. By rotating out your
enemies, you can also devote your entire military to fighting only one country at a time.
Another really cool bug you can exploit works if you are entering a risky war with
one of your neighbors, and you are afraid of losing. Generally, a few days after you
begin the war you enemy will come and demand a small sum for peace. Instead of
responding to that offer, drag it off to the side somewhere and go to war. If you are
winning and want out, just decline that initial offer for peace. You can then send them a
diplomat and ask for whatever you want. However, if the war goes badly for you, then
accept the original peace offer and all you'll be out is the original peace offer.
A related note goes to fighting alliances. If you make peace with the leader of an
alliance, then you make peace with everyone. Note that if the alliance declares war on
you, then the leader is whichever country declared war, while if you attack an alliance,
the leader will be whichever country you declared war on. Therefore, when fighting an
alliance, it is best to attack the alliance leader last. For example, if I am Austria and am
fighting Poland (leader) and Lithuania, I should attack Lithuania first. Why? Because if
I can take out Lithuania first and grab a few pieces of land for peace, then I am still at
war with Poland, and can then grab land for peace from her as well, resulting in more
land for me than had I simply attacked and made peace with Poland first.
Likewise, make peace with the leader first if the war goes badly. If Lithuania
now occupies half my territories, and Poland owns nothing of mine, then I should try and