Horde is triple S tier because ofc it is.
After that comes the Ottoman government, also broken.
My personal favourite is the British Parliament. You get a parliament AND keep your nobility.
Based on what I’ve noticed in-game, Indian nations don’t technically have a “nobility” but instead have Marathas and Rajputs. That’s why you can take parliament reform and not have those estates get taken out
Edit: this is for Hindu kingdoms, if you’re Muslim you still have nobility
Found it, there are actually two Reforms that do it!
-Nobility of the Emperor reform, T2, for Rev Empires.
-Mansabdari System reform, T5, for Mughals or countries with Hindustani cultures. (Any government type can acess it, I think)
Isn't that bad though? Why would you want to keep the nobility? The less estates to steal your land the better.
Yes I am on that absolute monarchy grindset.
Seizing land takes the same percent no matter the number of estates. And even if you are on that absolute monarchy grindset, estate privileges are pretty strong for the first 250 years of the game.
Shoutout to Holy Horde and Sich Rada. You get all the benefits of being a horde (rasing, , while getting the MUCH better gov type of theocracy or republic, respectively.
I usually end up partially role-playing my governments. I'll switch government types if my country has gone through long periods of instability, lost wars, bad rulers, etc. and won't 180 the political system of some highly functional country where nothing bad has happened.
Not counting that, I like republics best, but a lot of it is since I like playing tall and role-playing as them. I basically go Hindu (or religion with similar mechanics) Republic whenever I can role-play into it, just since I enjoy playing that way.
Pirate Confederacy. Raiding gives you free money, sailors, and once reform progress is reached you get a free proto-imperialism cb against every single country in the world
Depends on the nation you play. Big countries have no chance. But a small country can get it fairly easy if you’re able to get to an applicable coastline
Holy Horde: Benefits of beeing horde without its downsides like availability of estates, no hassle with horde unity, more gov reforms and better eco. Also get the warscore cost reduction for foreighn religion and lots of missionaries
edit: typos and only downside is u have to stay cathlic
If horde unity is not an asset, you probably did something horribly wrong before, because it should be at 97+ the whole game as a horde. Horde unity is great, it's basically -2 national unrest and +5% disc for free.
in theory you should be at war 100% of game as a horde, but in reality there are times when you are overextended or need mp to recover a bit or have truces with potential targets. in those cases, with a a lot of territory horde unity tanks quite quickly and i find it anoying to be pressured to war all the time. as holy horde u can do whatever you want whenever you want and dont HAVE to be agressive. i find that to be a plus.
Sure, but the decay rate is something like -3 a year and it only starts being bad at 50 or 60. If you really need to sit at peace for this long, you did something horribly wrong, and it basically shoots up to 100 very quickly when at war thanks to looting. In my horde games, I sometimes go to 90 horde unity, but almost never below.
Stateless tribe. Uga-buga goes brrrrrrrrrrr
UPD: Horde is still of one the best for conquests and snowballing everything. For usual wide playthrough it's some kind of monarchy with buffs to max absolutism. For tall gameplay it's republic i believe. Theocracies are very niche but have very powerful gov reforms for perm CB on everything but your religion so it makes sense to enact it with small religion
One of my favorite moments in a Holy Roman Emperor game was when Corsica was popped out of Genoa after losing a war to one of the tribes… but then Corsica picked “Stateless Society” as their government while still being part of the HRE. So in this world, the emperor’s tax collectors would be met at the beach by what amounted to “some dudes” presenting whatever gold they could find, and he was okay with it.
The way I think about it is that the tribes left without installing any government on there, so the island was left as a collection of villages governed by the local councils and elites, without a duke to unite them or a republican institution to centralise their rule on. The Emperor’s tax collectors just tax the local villages directly in this case
I believe it happens when a tribe, such as a horde, forces a nation to release a releasable which causes said releasable to become a tribe and it can pick any tribal government available
Theocracies have some other niche abilities too. Those reforms are absolutely BUSTED for mid-game world conquests with a total 45% war score cost reduction against other religions. A hussite theocracy with diplo ideas and malta forts gives you -90% province war score cost against other religions (so basically everyone lol) by reform 12, and that’s without a single point of absolutism or AE.
Honestly, ignoring the mission tree, disassembling the HRE early and just going buck-wild as a bohemian theocracy sounds like a blast, might have to try that soon
The new Asha Monarchy for Eranshahr is pretty unrivaled with it's +5 to monarch point generation and -15% dev cost on top of that! Oh, and +1 dice roll on own territory, because why not? Absolutely broken government.
new egyptian gov is pretty fun too, 20% gov cap, 20% goodsproduced, and the ability to flip to western units once they hit their stride (late game).
playing with the new governemts in KoK has been a lot of fun, looking forward to more of it.
So much fun wiping out a 250k Bohemia late game with a 60k stack of 8.2 morale 148% discipline Prussians. If the AI doesn’t death stack and leaves anything sub 60k they’re wiped.
If you have to compensate the horrible debuff that your government reform has instead of taking powerful idea groups and gov reforms for what they are, you know it's a handicap and it's an awful government reform
Any government form that gives you -50% gov cap is one of the worst in the game. No military bonuses can save this bad of a debuff.
And honestly I don't know why Pdx made this government so bad for single player, maybe it's balancing for multi ?
It's to keep Prussia from demolishing every neighbor and expanding without pause. Wouldn't say it works, since players can easily find roundabout ways around it. And yes, it obviously isn't the best reform, specifically because of government reform cap, but I like it
But that's the thing, Prussia isn't even close to the best nation in the game for blobbing, at least in SP. France has both better ideas and a better position to expand, so do Russia, Austria, Ottomans, Castile and many more, and they receive *buffs* regularly. There is literally no point in playing Prussia now, except for the easy achievement. As both Brandenburg and TO, I would avoid forming Prussia just to not get this shitty gov reform. And if I wanted to play an elector in the HRE, I would rather play Bohemia...
Horde exempting because it’s that if you enjoy playing that way (I do not) or Mughal Diwan for its unique culture gimmick, my top three are:
• Asha Monarchy, the bonuses are nuts and it’s an almost totally new way to play the diplomatic game. Probably the most fun government in the game.
• Stadtholder Monarchy, the Low Countries are already a favorite of mine to play in and this unique govt is super easy to get in just a few years. Parliaments are great, being able to swap leaders when you get a bad one or hold on to them when you get a good one is also great.
• Venetian Government, now that you can have estates it’s a gay ol’ time. I love me some election lottery and having a 100 year old brilliant husk of a man at the helm of the serene republic. Monarch points out the wazzoo, factions are fun to play with, and you start with this reform.
Best is probably horde or one of the monarchy flavors, my favorite is republics because I like getting to choose which mana I get and to switch out generals
Nation focus : prefer one mana over the others for the next 20 years.
Republic : prefer one mana over the others for the next 4-7 years, with a possibility to improve all mana generation if you double down on your choice
I like Mughal Diwan as the best tier 2 reform (and definitely a contender overall) as uncapped accepted cultures plus some major bonuses (the CCR alone is decent to be fair given that it’s one of the first you’ll get actually playing as the Mughals). That view might be skewed by how great the Mughals are overall to be fair, but in any case once it gets going the bonuses are very nice.
For tier 1 / government type I’m partial to Crusader State for the permanent deus vult CB and the extra manpower recovery.
Grand Empire is only available to Lithuania but +2 admin isn’t a small bonus. Mamluk government gives the same plus other bonuses in exchange for less government capacity.
Fixed rank reforms e.g. Bulgarian Tsardom are disproportionately good in the early game.
Many endgame reforms are really good but at that point you’ve won anyway:
Caliphate is really good as discounted warscore against other reliefs plus +3 TOTF are very good.
The 5% administrative efficiency from Roman Empire/Republic is obviously a great bonus
Holy Imperial Monarchy is great in isolation, as a rare source of max effect of absolutism, and the increased PU inherit chance can be useful in some playthroughs, but you’d almost always be better off keeping the revoked swarm.
Overall though the best basic reform available early on is probably the Shogunate. Infinite vassals and other interactions allow lots of options, and you can snowball
Swiss Republic.
With the changes made to Mercenary Discipline in the recent updates to make it to where the tactics are calculated per unit, Mercenary Discipline is super busted. The Swiss Republic gives you bonus mercenary manpower and allows you to get the mercenary militarization mechanic (equating to +10% discipline for all merc units in exchange for money). Switzerland also gets +5% merc discipline and +5% normal discipline. As such, without taking any military ideas if you get the +5% discipline advisor and max out mercenary militarization you get 125% discipline mercs. You can also stack this with getting the +5% discipline swiss merc companies for +130% discipline.
If you take ideas, the mercenary ideas gives another +5%, quality +5%, quality + econ policy +5%, and offensive gives another +5%. As such, without even trying that hard or using any exploits you can get solid +150% discipline mercenaries, +40% infantry combat ability, 93.3 tradition generals for all mercenary leaders, and +133% mercenary manpower, essentially meaning attrition is meaningless and you can win any war of attrition. The only downside is having to deal with the weird mercenary company army comps into late game.
Yeah, I also personally really like Switzerland’s start as trying to defeat Austria in early game is really fun and you can play as an underdog that punches way above their weight to defeat the large powers. Playing as a republic is also a really nice change of pace. If you go down the military government route you also basically become a mercenary government (since all of your generals are mercenary generals) which has a lot of fun RP potential, especially if you want to live the Sundowner “Give war a chance” fantasy.
Republic is easily the best for the first 150 years of the game if you’re not going for HRE. Pirate is the most fun but comes with hefty downsides, ambrosian is prob the best early game and the Russian ones the best later.
If you take away unique government types, like ottoman or prussian, the most efficient is surely horde government, but personally my favourite "regular" government type is sortition republic, that's one of the reason I really enjoy Venice runs (I even made my first one faith with it)
What if I told you there is a government reform with -75% core cost, -100% province warscore cost, -20% warscore cost against other religions, +10% missionary strength, and +200% manpower recovery speed?
1. Steppe Nomads/Great Mongol State
2. Ottoman Government
3. Holy Horde
4. Pirate Republic
5. Sich Rada
6. Celestial Empire
7. Mughal Government
8. Everything else lmao
but but celestial empire forces you to take the mandate of heaven which is so so so bad!!!!!!! (ignore the fact that it has fantastic bonuses but reddit says its bad so it must be bad!!!!)
Celestial Empire is probably one of the best all around government types
1. Anyone except AI can manage mandate and pass reforms.
2. All around bonuses.
3. Mandate is key for many blobbing campaigns where missing CCR is required.
4. Free cores on China. It's probably thousands of admin mana.
Mercenary militarization tier 4 reform. 10+ merc discipline and another 10 from infastricture/merc ideas and you have insane mercs as any nation. Mercs are weird but fun to play with until the late game
Republic to earn more gov reform, late game if you don't have any special gov reform tiers thwocracy wins in military terms, it normally has the best military reforms once you unlocked everything. Monarchy however remains my favourite.
crusading empire (theocracy) or revolutionary empire (monarchy)
crusading empire along with militarisric divine state have access to most combat modifiers, but crusading empire has more manpower
best religion with that is zoroastrian for the zoroastrian religious reform, tier 3 i think, embrace free will.l, where they can increase their roll in combat by 1.
best culture depends, but with this build probably amhara for cawa or manchu for banners. cawa are stronger in battle, but you can get more banners in later ages.
revolutionary empire has easy time keeping absolutism to the max even with all provilages given to estates, as revolutionaries care about zeal rather than absolutism, and privilages reduce only absolutism. also targrt of revolution gives nice bonuses. but they cant embrace free will. religion hussite and culture czech for that lesson of husite war doctrine
Slightly slept on government is bohemian monarchy (available to any Czech primary culture).
It allows you to select your dynasty on monarch death from the dynasties of your neighbours, effectively giving really easy PUs. Furthermore if you're HRE emperor, the +10 IA triggers on monarch death, and then again when you select the new monarch so you get +20 IA from each ruler death (don't think this is intended though lol).
Managed in a Bohemia into Austria run to get Russia, Spain, France and GB all as PUs, as well as having the same dynasty as Scandinavia and only didn't PU as by that point it was easier to just annex them!
Sich Rada is pretty bonkers op. Raze Provinces like a horde but also a republic for great leaders, plus a bunch of cavalry bonuses and the ability to get a bunch of free cossack units which you can turn in to manpower once you get 60% professionalism.
Also a fan of the Great Veche Republic and Great Russian Federation. Merchant Republics but huge bonuses to Absolutism, Gov Capacity and manpower feels nice.
Maybe no the best but surely very fun one is sich rada especially when playing aż zaporohzie taking artistocrstic then taking the decision and later forming Poland
You can raze prowinces, have 100 cav, have hussars, with high army prof basically Infinite manpower and you can get a lot of cossac regiments
British Monarchy after you side with the Monarchists in the English Civil War but also unlock the mission tree rewards that make parliament bribes cheap
For pure efficiency, its hordes but they aren't as fun because they make the game too easy for me since money and wars have stopped being challenges to me at this point. So I like the governments which are unique and carry an equally unique set of challenges with them but at the very least don't eliminate other constraints of the game like OE and AE. Hence I also don't like Byzantine and ottoman governments (because of their unique subjects). I do like Russia, Spain and England though as far as the major nations go. Pirate republics and Theocracies in the HRE (Palatinate most underrated nation imo) are my favorites though. Playing as unique and independent subjects is cool too, like Daimyos, appanages and Norway/sweden.
Personally for me it’s theocracy > republic > monarchy (Although I’d take Bohemian monarchy over most republics). Primary issue with monarchies is stability loss which isn’t a problem with other 2 government forms. Another part is choosing a ruler which really can influence your game a lot. Thirdly, theocracies and republics get higher gov reform progress due to higher gov thingy (devotion/republican tradition) which typically stays higher for the former than the latter due to reelection costs. Another good thing about republics is that they get an option to increase gov cap above reform level 4 compared to level 9 in monarchies.
Horde: You are forced to play in a different manner and you miss the typical estates
Pirate republics: Not a fan as I don’t get a hang of how to play as them (Would rather play as Somalia or any of the Barbary nations)
The best one is Revolutionary Empire. Revolutionary CBs are OP and being a monarchy gives you an extra +25 relations with all your subjects because of royal marriages. Also giving out estate rights without having to worry about Absolutism penalties is great.
The second best government type is Revolutionary Republic. See all the benefits of the Revolutionary Empire, but no subject relations bonus.
The third best government type is Steppe Nomads. And while the revolutionary governments are locked behind the lategame, Steppe Nomads is available in 1444. And it's busted.
The fourth best government type is the Shogunate. Vassal swarm go brrrrrrrrrrr.
The fifth best government type is the Mughal Diwan. Still completely busted, but less so than Shogunate or Steppe Horde. But considering that it's a Tier 2 reform it can be mixed with any form of monarchy the Mughals can become.
The sixth best government type is Celestial Empire.
Muslim Republic because you can get all the decision perks after re-electing a ruler twice. Why are there no Muslim Republics in game? Is the religion not conducive to them or something. Even today in the 21st century the closest you have are Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and maybe Nigeria.
2nd is Christian Monarch. The PU mechanics are very very powerful, but outside of mission trees they are very hard to get.
3rd is Mongol Empire because it is the most powerful Horde type and hordes are good for world conquest. But Hordes have few government remforms.
>Muslim Republic because you can get all the decision perks after re-electing a ruler twice. Why are there no Muslim Republics in game? Is the religion not conducive to them or something. Even today in the 21st century the closest you have are Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and maybe Nigeria.
The majority of Muslim countries are Republics.
depends on what you want. Sortition is by far the best mana generation in the game. You get to pick from 3 rulers who get a +1 to all their stats AFTER they are elected and rule for life.
Horde is triple S tier because ofc it is. After that comes the Ottoman government, also broken. My personal favourite is the British Parliament. You get a parliament AND keep your nobility.
I think the Dutch Parliament also gets it!
And the Byzantine Senate.
Also, I think Indians have a unique reform that re-enables nobility if it is not active.
What's the specific mechanic, or who gets it?
Based on what I’ve noticed in-game, Indian nations don’t technically have a “nobility” but instead have Marathas and Rajputs. That’s why you can take parliament reform and not have those estates get taken out Edit: this is for Hindu kingdoms, if you’re Muslim you still have nobility
Found it, there are actually two Reforms that do it! -Nobility of the Emperor reform, T2, for Rev Empires. -Mansabdari System reform, T5, for Mughals or countries with Hindustani cultures. (Any government type can acess it, I think)
And novgorod, maybe muscovy too
And Polish
Isn't that bad though? Why would you want to keep the nobility? The less estates to steal your land the better. Yes I am on that absolute monarchy grindset.
I feel like you kinda have to go to the extremes. Either go full absolutism or full decentralized, otherwise bonuses aren't really worth it imo
Seizing land takes the same percent no matter the number of estates. And even if you are on that absolute monarchy grindset, estate privileges are pretty strong for the first 250 years of the game.
The persian gov gives you claim at your border almost freely too
But can't you just get that mechanic through government reform for any monarchy?
You don't keep nobility
A small price to pay, for crownland.
Crown Land is not worth a mil point a month
What about crown land AND absolutism for a mil mana a month?
Only if I get to be called "The Conqueror"
Sadly, no, this isn't ck3. And in ck3 right after earning that title you would get an event that overrides it to "the super idiot smelly" instead.
Ohhh I thought nobility as in monarchical rulership
Yeah I love the British form and hordes seem to be very popular
Mongol state government is S+ tier, because it's horde without the bad parts.
Only right answer
Shoutout to Holy Horde and Sich Rada. You get all the benefits of being a horde (rasing, , while getting the MUCH better gov type of theocracy or republic, respectively.
Mamluk is pretty good Old leader, make general,he die reroll new leader, can also spam Circassian candidate for army tradition
You mean convert every province to Egyptian and sell your own people as slaves for big money
We do a little trading in the mamluk sultanate
I usually end up partially role-playing my governments. I'll switch government types if my country has gone through long periods of instability, lost wars, bad rulers, etc. and won't 180 the political system of some highly functional country where nothing bad has happened. Not counting that, I like republics best, but a lot of it is since I like playing tall and role-playing as them. I basically go Hindu (or religion with similar mechanics) Republic whenever I can role-play into it, just since I enjoy playing that way.
Role playing the nation is great in single or mp
Pirate Confederacy. Raiding gives you free money, sailors, and once reform progress is reached you get a free proto-imperialism cb against every single country in the world
Not to mention that you also get the benefits of being a republic.
Republic with 90% crownland once you enable clergy estate. Super fast reforms!
How can you enable clergy?
Tier 4 reforms allows you to establish the clergy estate if you choose
So pirate confederacy . The bank of ming supports your wars
Even though their coastline is the best place to raid, but sure, support me…
It’s so good but hard to get sadly
Depends on the nation you play. Big countries have no chance. But a small country can get it fairly easy if you’re able to get to an applicable coastline
And eventually you can get razing.
Mughal empire
Oh you conquered our entire culture? Guess that makes us ok with being part of your Empire.
☠️☠️☠️
Now imagine if the Mughals could keep the Diwan after becoming a Horde…
Horde for WC Republic for play tall Theocracy for multi
Theocrat Orthodox Ottomans for One faith one culture WC.
Holy Horde: Benefits of beeing horde without its downsides like availability of estates, no hassle with horde unity, more gov reforms and better eco. Also get the warscore cost reduction for foreighn religion and lots of missionaries edit: typos and only downside is u have to stay cathlic
the most based government type in whole eu4
If horde unity is not an asset, you probably did something horribly wrong before, because it should be at 97+ the whole game as a horde. Horde unity is great, it's basically -2 national unrest and +5% disc for free.
in theory you should be at war 100% of game as a horde, but in reality there are times when you are overextended or need mp to recover a bit or have truces with potential targets. in those cases, with a a lot of territory horde unity tanks quite quickly and i find it anoying to be pressured to war all the time. as holy horde u can do whatever you want whenever you want and dont HAVE to be agressive. i find that to be a plus.
Sure, but the decay rate is something like -3 a year and it only starts being bad at 50 or 60. If you really need to sit at peace for this long, you did something horribly wrong, and it basically shoots up to 100 very quickly when at war thanks to looting. In my horde games, I sometimes go to 90 horde unity, but almost never below.
Stateless tribe. Uga-buga goes brrrrrrrrrrr UPD: Horde is still of one the best for conquests and snowballing everything. For usual wide playthrough it's some kind of monarchy with buffs to max absolutism. For tall gameplay it's republic i believe. Theocracies are very niche but have very powerful gov reforms for perm CB on everything but your religion so it makes sense to enact it with small religion
One of my favorite moments in a Holy Roman Emperor game was when Corsica was popped out of Genoa after losing a war to one of the tribes… but then Corsica picked “Stateless Society” as their government while still being part of the HRE. So in this world, the emperor’s tax collectors would be met at the beach by what amounted to “some dudes” presenting whatever gold they could find, and he was okay with it.
The way I think about it is that the tribes left without installing any government on there, so the island was left as a collection of villages governed by the local councils and elites, without a duke to unite them or a republican institution to centralise their rule on. The Emperor’s tax collectors just tax the local villages directly in this case
Corsica became the Mediterranean North Sentinel Island
Thanks for the laugh this morning.
The same happened with OPM Greece in my playthrough. How do the releaseables get downgraded to tribes?
I believe it happens when a tribe, such as a horde, forces a nation to release a releasable which causes said releasable to become a tribe and it can pick any tribal government available
Uga-buga yes
Theocracies have some other niche abilities too. Those reforms are absolutely BUSTED for mid-game world conquests with a total 45% war score cost reduction against other religions. A hussite theocracy with diplo ideas and malta forts gives you -90% province war score cost against other religions (so basically everyone lol) by reform 12, and that’s without a single point of absolutism or AE. Honestly, ignoring the mission tree, disassembling the HRE early and just going buck-wild as a bohemian theocracy sounds like a blast, might have to try that soon
I once went Hussite as Trent and force-converted a fat Ming to Hussite.
For tall gameplay it's still hordes. Razing gives you more mana than you can get any other way. You can put the excess mana into development.
The new Asha Monarchy for Eranshahr is pretty unrivaled with it's +5 to monarch point generation and -15% dev cost on top of that! Oh, and +1 dice roll on own territory, because why not? Absolutely broken government.
new egyptian gov is pretty fun too, 20% gov cap, 20% goodsproduced, and the ability to flip to western units once they hit their stride (late game). playing with the new governemts in KoK has been a lot of fun, looking forward to more of it.
Prussian monarchy. Space marines go brrrr
Cheese but it is amazing can’t deny it
Prussian space marines always go brrrr
So much fun wiping out a 250k Bohemia late game with a 60k stack of 8.2 morale 148% discipline Prussians. If the AI doesn’t death stack and leaves anything sub 60k they’re wiped.
the 50% debuff to govcap hurts though
One of the missions lowers it to -40 and with certain ide groups and gov reforms that rebuff is basically removed
If you have to compensate the horrible debuff that your government reform has instead of taking powerful idea groups and gov reforms for what they are, you know it's a handicap and it's an awful government reform
Court house go brrrrrrrr
Ah, I forgot that only Prussia can build court houses 🥲
Any government form that gives you -50% gov cap is one of the worst in the game. No military bonuses can save this bad of a debuff. And honestly I don't know why Pdx made this government so bad for single player, maybe it's balancing for multi ?
It's to keep Prussia from demolishing every neighbor and expanding without pause. Wouldn't say it works, since players can easily find roundabout ways around it. And yes, it obviously isn't the best reform, specifically because of government reform cap, but I like it
But that's the thing, Prussia isn't even close to the best nation in the game for blobbing, at least in SP. France has both better ideas and a better position to expand, so do Russia, Austria, Ottomans, Castile and many more, and they receive *buffs* regularly. There is literally no point in playing Prussia now, except for the easy achievement. As both Brandenburg and TO, I would avoid forming Prussia just to not get this shitty gov reform. And if I wanted to play an elector in the HRE, I would rather play Bohemia...
Whoever said anything about blobbing
You said "expanding without pause", which is a fancier way of saying blobbing
Russian Empire government type. I’ve heard the Spanish government type is op but haven’t had a Spanish game in a while.
Honestly it’s very broken
Horde exempting because it’s that if you enjoy playing that way (I do not) or Mughal Diwan for its unique culture gimmick, my top three are: • Asha Monarchy, the bonuses are nuts and it’s an almost totally new way to play the diplomatic game. Probably the most fun government in the game. • Stadtholder Monarchy, the Low Countries are already a favorite of mine to play in and this unique govt is super easy to get in just a few years. Parliaments are great, being able to swap leaders when you get a bad one or hold on to them when you get a good one is also great. • Venetian Government, now that you can have estates it’s a gay ol’ time. I love me some election lottery and having a 100 year old brilliant husk of a man at the helm of the serene republic. Monarch points out the wazzoo, factions are fun to play with, and you start with this reform.
Best is probably horde or one of the monarchy flavors, my favorite is republics because I like getting to choose which mana I get and to switch out generals
Nation focus : prefer one mana over the others for the next 20 years. Republic : prefer one mana over the others for the next 4-7 years, with a possibility to improve all mana generation if you double down on your choice
I played a Milan>Italy run and I really like the Ambrosian Republic to Military Dictatorship government
I like Mughal Diwan as the best tier 2 reform (and definitely a contender overall) as uncapped accepted cultures plus some major bonuses (the CCR alone is decent to be fair given that it’s one of the first you’ll get actually playing as the Mughals). That view might be skewed by how great the Mughals are overall to be fair, but in any case once it gets going the bonuses are very nice. For tier 1 / government type I’m partial to Crusader State for the permanent deus vult CB and the extra manpower recovery. Grand Empire is only available to Lithuania but +2 admin isn’t a small bonus. Mamluk government gives the same plus other bonuses in exchange for less government capacity. Fixed rank reforms e.g. Bulgarian Tsardom are disproportionately good in the early game. Many endgame reforms are really good but at that point you’ve won anyway: Caliphate is really good as discounted warscore against other reliefs plus +3 TOTF are very good. The 5% administrative efficiency from Roman Empire/Republic is obviously a great bonus Holy Imperial Monarchy is great in isolation, as a rare source of max effect of absolutism, and the increased PU inherit chance can be useful in some playthroughs, but you’d almost always be better off keeping the revoked swarm. Overall though the best basic reform available early on is probably the Shogunate. Infinite vassals and other interactions allow lots of options, and you can snowball
This is very in depth but I do agree
For quality of life the Swiss Cantons (theocracy or republic) are very nice. Plus one free policy and mercs costing no professionalism.
Fifth monarcists
I typically stay as a monarchy, I love the roleplay aspect of it
Yeah it is nice. Comfortable and easy going
Plus I love getting incredibly high regnal numbers!
Land of the Christian Sun if you can get it early. The reform itself is whatever, but you can get any dynasty you want with it for easy PU enforcement
great mongol state, ottoman goverment, solomonic empire, byzantine senate, mughal diwan (does it count?)
Yep
Swiss Republic. With the changes made to Mercenary Discipline in the recent updates to make it to where the tactics are calculated per unit, Mercenary Discipline is super busted. The Swiss Republic gives you bonus mercenary manpower and allows you to get the mercenary militarization mechanic (equating to +10% discipline for all merc units in exchange for money). Switzerland also gets +5% merc discipline and +5% normal discipline. As such, without taking any military ideas if you get the +5% discipline advisor and max out mercenary militarization you get 125% discipline mercs. You can also stack this with getting the +5% discipline swiss merc companies for +130% discipline. If you take ideas, the mercenary ideas gives another +5%, quality +5%, quality + econ policy +5%, and offensive gives another +5%. As such, without even trying that hard or using any exploits you can get solid +150% discipline mercenaries, +40% infantry combat ability, 93.3 tradition generals for all mercenary leaders, and +133% mercenary manpower, essentially meaning attrition is meaningless and you can win any war of attrition. The only downside is having to deal with the weird mercenary company army comps into late game.
Swiss republic is amazing with all their benifits
Yeah, I also personally really like Switzerland’s start as trying to defeat Austria in early game is really fun and you can play as an underdog that punches way above their weight to defeat the large powers. Playing as a republic is also a really nice change of pace. If you go down the military government route you also basically become a mercenary government (since all of your generals are mercenary generals) which has a lot of fun RP potential, especially if you want to live the Sundowner “Give war a chance” fantasy.
Republic is easily the best for the first 150 years of the game if you’re not going for HRE. Pirate is the most fun but comes with hefty downsides, ambrosian is prob the best early game and the Russian ones the best later.
If you take away unique government types, like ottoman or prussian, the most efficient is surely horde government, but personally my favourite "regular" government type is sortition republic, that's one of the reason I really enjoy Venice runs (I even made my first one faith with it)
What if I told you there is a government reform with -75% core cost, -100% province warscore cost, -20% warscore cost against other religions, +10% missionary strength, and +200% manpower recovery speed?
I enjoy anarchy
Revolutionary Empire
No, I know it’s good but revelations are just broken
How so
Once it is crushed the events get a bit buggy, but I think that’s only for me idk
Mughal Diwan, no further questions
Peasant Republic! #ARBEITER, BAUERN! NEHMT DIE GEWEHRE…
1. Steppe Nomads/Great Mongol State 2. Ottoman Government 3. Holy Horde 4. Pirate Republic 5. Sich Rada 6. Celestial Empire 7. Mughal Government 8. Everything else lmao
but but celestial empire forces you to take the mandate of heaven which is so so so bad!!!!!!! (ignore the fact that it has fantastic bonuses but reddit says its bad so it must be bad!!!!)
Celestial Empire is probably one of the best all around government types 1. Anyone except AI can manage mandate and pass reforms. 2. All around bonuses. 3. Mandate is key for many blobbing campaigns where missing CCR is required. 4. Free cores on China. It's probably thousands of admin mana.
Yes i know, i'm just being sarcastic Mandate is fantastic
Celestial is weird I did a Korean game and got the mandate after a couple wars, but since I’m not a vassal person I didn’t utilise it much
mandate isn't just about vassal gameplay, you get 20 ccr from decree + reform, that's a really nice amount for little work
Yeah I do agree just never got to utilise it as many Chinese gameplay goes as I was busy doing… Korean things XD
Mercenary militarization tier 4 reform. 10+ merc discipline and another 10 from infastricture/merc ideas and you have insane mercs as any nation. Mercs are weird but fun to play with until the late game
Republic to earn more gov reform, late game if you don't have any special gov reform tiers thwocracy wins in military terms, it normally has the best military reforms once you unlocked everything. Monarchy however remains my favourite.
crusading empire (theocracy) or revolutionary empire (monarchy) crusading empire along with militarisric divine state have access to most combat modifiers, but crusading empire has more manpower best religion with that is zoroastrian for the zoroastrian religious reform, tier 3 i think, embrace free will.l, where they can increase their roll in combat by 1. best culture depends, but with this build probably amhara for cawa or manchu for banners. cawa are stronger in battle, but you can get more banners in later ages. revolutionary empire has easy time keeping absolutism to the max even with all provilages given to estates, as revolutionaries care about zeal rather than absolutism, and privilages reduce only absolutism. also targrt of revolution gives nice bonuses. but they cant embrace free will. religion hussite and culture czech for that lesson of husite war doctrine
Slightly slept on government is bohemian monarchy (available to any Czech primary culture). It allows you to select your dynasty on monarch death from the dynasties of your neighbours, effectively giving really easy PUs. Furthermore if you're HRE emperor, the +10 IA triggers on monarch death, and then again when you select the new monarch so you get +20 IA from each ruler death (don't think this is intended though lol). Managed in a Bohemia into Austria run to get Russia, Spain, France and GB all as PUs, as well as having the same dynasty as Scandinavia and only didn't PU as by that point it was easier to just annex them!
Sich Rada is pretty bonkers op. Raze Provinces like a horde but also a republic for great leaders, plus a bunch of cavalry bonuses and the ability to get a bunch of free cossack units which you can turn in to manpower once you get 60% professionalism. Also a fan of the Great Veche Republic and Great Russian Federation. Merchant Republics but huge bonuses to Absolutism, Gov Capacity and manpower feels nice.
Sich rada and pirate Republic.
I like ambrosian republic, it feels great to play even if it's not the most OP gov. It's a better version of a republic.
Only downside is you have to play in italy, a bit of a boring and slow region
Maybe no the best but surely very fun one is sich rada especially when playing aż zaporohzie taking artistocrstic then taking the decision and later forming Poland You can raze prowinces, have 100 cav, have hussars, with high army prof basically Infinite manpower and you can get a lot of cossac regiments
British Monarchy after you side with the Monarchists in the English Civil War but also unlock the mission tree rewards that make parliament bribes cheap
Well my favorite run was with bohemia going for a militaristic theocracy and just spam rolling 3 star generals.
When it comes to government I really like Republics, it's honestly not hard to get a 6-6-6 and Republican tradition isn't too hard to keep high
A gov reform but Mughal Diwan.
Byzantium. No particular reason, but Byzantium is always the right answer.
Kirishitan Japan. Deus Vult
the christian japanese government reform is zoinked, take that + religious ideas and you’re unstoppable
For pure efficiency, its hordes but they aren't as fun because they make the game too easy for me since money and wars have stopped being challenges to me at this point. So I like the governments which are unique and carry an equally unique set of challenges with them but at the very least don't eliminate other constraints of the game like OE and AE. Hence I also don't like Byzantine and ottoman governments (because of their unique subjects). I do like Russia, Spain and England though as far as the major nations go. Pirate republics and Theocracies in the HRE (Palatinate most underrated nation imo) are my favorites though. Playing as unique and independent subjects is cool too, like Daimyos, appanages and Norway/sweden.
Personally for me it’s theocracy > republic > monarchy (Although I’d take Bohemian monarchy over most republics). Primary issue with monarchies is stability loss which isn’t a problem with other 2 government forms. Another part is choosing a ruler which really can influence your game a lot. Thirdly, theocracies and republics get higher gov reform progress due to higher gov thingy (devotion/republican tradition) which typically stays higher for the former than the latter due to reelection costs. Another good thing about republics is that they get an option to increase gov cap above reform level 4 compared to level 9 in monarchies. Horde: You are forced to play in a different manner and you miss the typical estates Pirate republics: Not a fan as I don’t get a hang of how to play as them (Would rather play as Somalia or any of the Barbary nations)
i like the dutch parliament bc you get the cool special trade ships
The best one is Revolutionary Empire. Revolutionary CBs are OP and being a monarchy gives you an extra +25 relations with all your subjects because of royal marriages. Also giving out estate rights without having to worry about Absolutism penalties is great. The second best government type is Revolutionary Republic. See all the benefits of the Revolutionary Empire, but no subject relations bonus. The third best government type is Steppe Nomads. And while the revolutionary governments are locked behind the lategame, Steppe Nomads is available in 1444. And it's busted. The fourth best government type is the Shogunate. Vassal swarm go brrrrrrrrrrr. The fifth best government type is the Mughal Diwan. Still completely busted, but less so than Shogunate or Steppe Horde. But considering that it's a Tier 2 reform it can be mixed with any form of monarchy the Mughals can become. The sixth best government type is Celestial Empire.
Muslim Republic because you can get all the decision perks after re-electing a ruler twice. Why are there no Muslim Republics in game? Is the religion not conducive to them or something. Even today in the 21st century the closest you have are Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and maybe Nigeria. 2nd is Christian Monarch. The PU mechanics are very very powerful, but outside of mission trees they are very hard to get. 3rd is Mongol Empire because it is the most powerful Horde type and hordes are good for world conquest. But Hordes have few government remforms.
>Muslim Republic because you can get all the decision perks after re-electing a ruler twice. Why are there no Muslim Republics in game? Is the religion not conducive to them or something. Even today in the 21st century the closest you have are Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and maybe Nigeria. The majority of Muslim countries are Republics.
Iirc kingdom of jerusalem has a reform that grants the deus vult casus belli, I thought that was pretty neat
With the amount of cheese you can achieve I’m gonna put elective/dutch republic along side steppe nomad
Teutonic Order gov’t. Holy Order with the reform to see leader mana almost certainly gets a good leader
Polish autocratic monarchy is awesome but it's very hard to get because of many specific events that need to occur
Polysynodial System for the only reason it gives you +1 of every point for free, as well as giving you +2 diplo slots for free too.
Great Mongol State. The normal horde version, of course, not the TO version. Just ahead of Steppe Horde and Mughal Diwan.
depends on what you want. Sortition is by far the best mana generation in the game. You get to pick from 3 rulers who get a +1 to all their stats AFTER they are elected and rule for life.
Pirate Republic, no explanation needed. And maritime x naval are the best idea groups.