[Morgoth]

The new expansion is out, and I've picked - perhaps somewhat counter intuitively considering the focus of this new expansion - to play as Tuscany. The birth place of the reneissance. I was so sick of being behind in everything playing as Najd trying to compete for the med, I'm going all out tech this round. Starting ambition the top administrative one and so forth.

I started by declaring war on Sienna before anyone had time to ally. Might be a little unethical perhaps, but turning them into a vassal and soon a cored part of my territories will be well worth it. I allied with Savoy and Urbion, and rivaled Genoa, Milan and the Papal States.

The head of my Republic, perhaps the most famous of the Medici, has 6/5/5 in stats, and I've keept him for another election, leaving me with a 6/6/6 ruler. So I'm ahead in Tech (the 10 % reduction for being part of the HRE, and the 5 % for a University in Florence helps too), and soon I will get another 10 % Tech reduction from my chosen Idea-group and a national idea. Not to mention a - 5 % to idea cost. I wonder if I should try to convert my nation and enjoy the fruits of being Protestant later on.

I've acquired a province from the Papal States, connecting my small kingdom to the Adriatic as well, which will come in handy. I've also allied with Naples after Spain broke their union with Aragon. The question now is what I should chose for my second idea group. I'm waffling between a number of them. I know I'll be needing a better flow of cash, which would make trade or naval good choices. Naval is always good for controlling the med at any rate. At the same time being in Italy and a member of the HRE I'll need a lot of diplomacy, so the diplomatic idea might be very beneficial, and it will also provide me with free casus beli against the rich muslim provinces of Northern africa. I also envision some problematic warfare in my future, and as such I really should pick a military idea too. Aristocrats will provide an extra diplomat (in Italy you need dozens of them), and reduce military tech cost by another 10 %, but it's otherwise not so efficient for purely military purposes. I'd rather pick Quality, which will blend nicely with my national idea finisher of 10 % discipline, and help with the navy too.

Decisions decisions.

[Gothos]

Quite a game you've got going there.
Myself I loaded up my Japan game, and the first thing that happens is Japanese Mexico formed. My cash balance went from +15-ish to below -40 in one day. All from losing aztec Gold as a resource and trade from Mexico. Seems I'll have to go down to my forcelimits now, and I'm not even sure if that will fix my moneys, and mind you - I hold almost all of the pacific and indian ocean possible colonies as well.

This patch will severely nerf overseas colonial powers, bye bye Spain, bye bye Portugal. Russia and France reign supreme. I didn't get the xpac itself yet, will have to remedy that. Considering going

[Morgoth]

Russia's manpower bonus has been reduced from 100 to 50 %, so a little less dominance from their end I hope.

[Gothos]

Well, there's that. Still, 50% extra forcelimits and easy gains in Siberia remain. I've not yet seem to have seen Time of Troubles fire in any of my games, at no point was Muscovy/Russia weak and vulnerable. In my Japan game they blobbed all over central Asia and make headways into China and India by 1707.

Another change I didn't see - if you try to vassalize, no longer do you see the "Y base tax compared to X" negative modifier, now if they have more than 30 total base tax it gives a -1000 negative and makes it impossible. With the adding of protectorates, vassalizing has been severely nerfed as well. In my new Wendish Empire game (new import, stretching from Koln to the west to Finnmark and Reykyavik in the north to Ryazan in the east to Sillistria and Salzburg in the south) couldn't vassalize Rus (who had like 10 provinces focused around Novogrod)...

Note for those who would like to colonize along Iceland and Greenland - with a core in Reykyavik, range for Greenland is 328. You need exploration ideas 3 for +50% colonial range and at least diplo tech 8 to reach it.
Also, is it just me, or is it quite silly that a navy gets attrition in ocean and can sink if left unchecked (lost like 30 transports by now this way because other stuff took my focus and they just drifted into attrition with an explorer on board), but a land army can not only march across all of present day Canada and United states over a dozen years or two but get no attrition and receive reinforcements?

[MTS]

Morgoth, on 15 January 2014 - 07:11 AM, said:

The new expansion is out, and I've picked - perhaps somewhat counter intuitively considering the focus of this new expansion - to play as Tuscany. The birth place of the reneissance. I was so sick of being behind in everything playing as Najd trying to compete for the med, I'm going all out tech this round. Starting ambition the top administrative one and so forth.

I started by declaring war on Sienna before anyone had time to ally. Might be a little unethical perhaps, but turning them into a vassal and soon a cored part of my territories will be well worth it. I allied with Savoy and Urbion, and rivaled Genoa, Milan and the Papal States.

The head of my Republic, perhaps the most famous of the Medici, has 6/5/5 in stats, and I've keept him for another election, leaving me with a 6/6/6 ruler. So I'm ahead in Tech (the 10 % reduction for being part of the HRE, and the 5 % for a University in Florence helps too), and soon I will get another 10 % Tech reduction from my chosen Idea-group and a national idea. Not to mention a - 5 % to idea cost. I wonder if I should try to convert my nation and enjoy the fruits of being Protestant later on.

I've acquired a province from the Papal States, connecting my small kingdom to the Adriatic as well, which will come in handy. I've also allied with Naples after Spain broke their union with Aragon. The question now is what I should chose for my second idea group. I'm waffling between a number of them. I know I'll be needing a better flow of cash, which would make trade or naval good choices. Naval is always good for controlling the med at any rate. At the same time being in Italy and a member of the HRE I'll need a lot of diplomacy, so the diplomatic idea might be very beneficial, and it will also provide me with free casus beli against the rich muslim provinces of Northern africa. I also envision some problematic warfare in my future, and as such I really should pick a military idea too. Aristocrats will provide an extra diplomat (in Italy you need dozens of them), and reduce military tech cost by another 10 %, but it's otherwise not so efficient for purely military purposes. I'd rather pick Quality, which will blend nicely with my national idea finisher of 10 % discipline, and help with the navy too.

Decisions decisions.

Before this patch you had two Universities, one in Pisa and one in Florence, but sadly one of them is gone now.

I had a great time with Tuscany, Italy is in such a good position to dominate Europe and expand in many directions. Anyway, I would go Protestant, the bonuses are better and you get free CBs against Catholics that lock the warleader if you take Religious (not needed if you go Diplomatic and stay a republic, as Deus Vult and Revolution do the same thing basically). Mind you, you miss out on Curia Controller, but you'll be pissing off the Pope so much you won't ever get enough Influence (or relative territory) to keep it anyway, so not that big of a loss. If you decide to do it convert as soon as you can because the spread of Protestantism among your provinces decreases the longer the Reformation has gone on, and in the beginning it spreads like wildfire. I controlled most of northern Italy by the time the Reformation hit and I only had to convert two provinces (Venice and Rome) out of about 15.

As for idea groups, I generally take a military one for my second, as I end up warring and force-vassalising more than I engage in peaceful annexation. Considering how much I was fighting in the Alps, how important morale has become and how important manpower is in the early game I would choose Defensive. Hostile attrition shredded my enemies and I was able to outlast forces twice my size in the mountains (provided I was the defender) due to my morale boosts, which allowed me to punch with the big boys a lot earlier. I'd save Quality for fourth or fifth pick personally, and Offensive is probably about equal with Defensive as a good second pick. Aristocratic looks tempting with the mil tech discount but overall it's rubbish. The only nations that can use that group effectively are hordes, and then only before level 10.

I never picked trade or naval personally (I think I took Innovative, Plutocratic, Defensive, Offensive, Religious, Diplomatic, Economic and Quantity off the top of my head [though not in that order]) because I spent all the points I was saving on tech and ideas on buildings. Level 5 forts and Stock Exchanges all over Italy shot my income and defensive capability through the roof, and I was able to make enough money through production and taxation that trade didn't much matter (though by the end I was pulling in 80 ducats a month in trade because my provinces were so rich).

By the way, ally Russia. They'll be your best friend, and unless something goes horribly wrong they should never get close enough to you to desire your provinces and break the alliance (unless you meet in the Balkans of course).

Anyway, I'm playing an England colonial game at the moment and enjoying it immensely. Almost 1500 and I've united the Isles and beaten everyone to the Caribbean. I have a couple of colonies in Greenland and northeastern Canada and a couple in the Caribbean and along the West African coast, so no colonial nations have formed yet, but they will soon. I'm aiming to recreate the historical bounds of the British Empire, so I've taken most of the west African coast from Sierra Leone to Cameroon, though I've made a few exceptions just so I can have prettified borders and to stick it to France for whupping my ass in the HYW and taking all my continental possessions. The Cote d'Ivoire seems a fair trade for Aquitaine I feel.

[Gothos]

MTS, on 15 January 2014 - 05:00 PM, said:

Anyway, I'm playing an England colonial game at the moment and enjoying it immensely. Almost 1500 and I've united the Isles and beaten everyone to the Caribbean. I have a couple of colonies in Greenland and northeastern Canada and a couple in the Caribbean and along the West African coast, so no colonial nations have formed yet, but they will soon. I'm aiming to recreate the historical bounds of the British Empire, so I've taken most of the west African coast from Sierra Leone to Cameroon, though I've made a few exceptions just so I can have prettified borders and to stick it to France for whupping my ass in the HYW and taking all my continental possessions. The Cote d'Ivoire seems a fair trade for Aquitaine I feel.

Make sure you retain some province to retain your colonial range as colonial nations you form don't extend your "nearest core" range. You may end up being stuck 1000 range from your closest core to closest next colony.
In any case, don't count on colonial nations bringing you monies. You'll want trade though. You can steer from St. Lawrence Bay to North Sea bypassing the new Western Europe trade node the rest of the guys will be killing each other over. From the south the new routes would be difficult to steer towards London, I'm not sure about how to make them work.

Personally the whole shit with Colonial Nations made me disinclined to rely on colonization in future games, unless for fun with a powerhouse base like my wendish empire imports. Which is kind of ironic since this patch/DLC were supposed to enhance colonialism gameplay...

[MTS]

Gothos, on 16 January 2014 - 07:24 AM, said:

MTS, on 15 January 2014 - 05:00 PM, said:

Anyway, I'm playing an England colonial game at the moment and enjoying it immensely. Almost 1500 and I've united the Isles and beaten everyone to the Caribbean. I have a couple of colonies in Greenland and northeastern Canada and a couple in the Caribbean and along the West African coast, so no colonial nations have formed yet, but they will soon. I'm aiming to recreate the historical bounds of the British Empire, so I've taken most of the west African coast from Sierra Leone to Cameroon, though I've made a few exceptions just so I can have prettified borders and to stick it to France for whupping my ass in the HYW and taking all my continental possessions. The Cote d'Ivoire seems a fair trade for Aquitaine I feel.

Make sure you retain some province to retain your colonial range as colonial nations you form don't extend your "nearest core" range. You may end up being stuck 1000 range from your closest core to closest next colony.
In any case, don't count on colonial nations bringing you monies. You'll want trade though. You can steer from St. Lawrence Bay to North Sea bypassing the new Western Europe trade node the rest of the guys will be killing each other over. From the south the new routes would be difficult to steer towards London, I'm not sure about how to make them work.

Personally the whole shit with Colonial Nations made me disinclined to rely on colonization in future games, unless for fun with a powerhouse base like my wendish empire imports. Which is kind of ironic since this patch/DLC were supposed to enhance colonialism gameplay...

Because I have Trade Ideas I have enough merchants to go Caribbean -> Chesapeake Bay -> Gulf of St. Lawrence -> North Sea -> London, but to be honest it's much easier to dominate Western Europe and steer all non-Canadian trade from there, because I can get around 70% of the trade share with my light ships. Of course that may change when Portugal and Brazil really start to ratchet up their colonising (they've been engaged in a lot of European wars so their colonising has been slower than usual). As for colonial nations and range, the upside of not taking half of their tax/production money is that they are rich enough to start colonising for me now so the only colonising I'm doing in the Americas right now is in the Caribbean so as to lock out any other power from that region (West Indies will be too slow to do it all on its own). I'm mainly focusing on Africa and India right now, while my three colonial nations (Newfoundland, New England and the West Indies) are all focused on their respective zones. I may decide to take an active role in the Bay of Mexico though so France doesn't get its hands on Louisiana, but it's a ways away from that yet.

Anyway I like the new colonial nation dynamic, it makes for much more realistic warring between colonial powers, and it's much easier to gut the colonisers as well, so they're not always mega-blobs due to their overseas possessions. Playing the France to Spanish Brazil's USA has proven entertaining enough so far too.

That said, my one disappointment is that with the new modifiers for colonisation it's made island-hopping a pain in the ass for a Japanese coloniser.

[Gothos]

You just won't experience the overwhelming power of colonial blob. Not in the Americas at least. You can still go for a colonial empire in the Pacific as Japan or Malaya, but island hopping to Mexico just doesn't seem feasible anymore. I'll have to actually hop back into that game and see how I do financially at my forcelimits and not 40% beyond. Ah well.

I'd kill for an active way of making a culture accepted, 20% mark is annoying as hell when importing games. Like, instead let us go through some sort of chain event that would make a culture that's 10%+ of your base tax into accepted, or make cultures accepted after, say, 100 years, or 50 years after old cores are lost... In my imported Wendish latest version, I've had Pomeranian main and Germanic accepted, the rest didn't quite make the mark because of how madly rich german provinces are. So I've got a huge swath of Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ruthenia and Hungary with non-accepted cultures. it would take a metric fuckton of diplo pts to convert.

This post has been edited by Gothos: 16 January 2014 - 01:49 PM

[MTS]

Gothos, on 16 January 2014 - 12:57 PM, said:

You just won't experience the overwhelming power of colonial blob. Not in the Americas at least. You can still go for a colonial empire in the Pacific as Japan or Malaya, but island hopping to Mexico just doesn't seem feasible anymore. I'll have to actually hop back into that game and see how I do financially at my forcelimits and not 40% beyond. Ah well.

There's a point where you just don't have enough shit to spend money on though, and all you can do is build more regiments. When you outnumber your biggest competitor by 30 regiments anyway, that's just overkill, and so the money piles up, which is why that never really appealed to me. That won't happen in this iteration of the game, but you can still get pretty powerful: my three nations are still pretty small fry (about 10 provinces each) and I'm pushing 100 in force limits and making a gross income of the same. Now infrastructure in the Americas can actually have an impact as well, and makes for some pretty formidable vassals. If you tax them highly you can still squeeze plenty of money out of them too, you're just going to be paying for it later. It does make it more hands off, but simulates the logistical realities of the time better in my mind. Only problem for me is that it becomes much more difficult to get the production bonuses for trade goods like Tobacco when you can't actually own the provinces, but overall I like it way more than I dislike it.

Quote

I'd kill for an active way of making a culture accepted, 20% mark is annoying as hell when importing games. Like, instead let us go through some sort of chain event that would make a culture that's 10%+ of your base tax into accepted, or make cultures accepted after, say, 100 years, or 50 years after old cores are lost... In my imported Wendish latest version, I've had Pomeranian main and Germanic accepted, the rest didn't quite make the mark because of how madly rich german provinces are. So I've got a huge swath of Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ruthenia and Hungary with non-accepted cultures. it would take a metric fuckton of diplo pts to convert.

A more detailed handling of culture (and by extension religion) is the biggest thing missing from EUIV in my opinion. The accepted culture mechanic as it stands doesn't really make all that much sense. What I would kill for is a way for the player to make decisions about minority cultures in the game (for example, decisions for them to provide less manpower but higher taxes or vice versa). Hell, I'd love for there even to be minority cultures within provinces, as one province is either X culture or Y culture, nothing inbetween. There's a mod called Dei Gratia that includes religious minorities in provinces (Catholic provinces can have a small/large tolerated/oppressed Protestant minority for instance), I would love it if something similar could be included for culture as well.

[Gothos]

MTS, on 16 January 2014 - 03:32 PM, said:

There's a point where you just don't have enough shit to spend money on though, and all you can do is build more regiments. When you outnumber your biggest competitor by 30 regiments anyway, that's just overkill, and so the money piles up, which is why that never really appealed to me. That won't happen in this iteration of the game, but you can still get pretty powerful: my three nations are still pretty small fry (about 10 provinces each) and I'm pushing 100 in force limits and making a gross income of the same. Now infrastructure in the Americas can actually have an impact as well, and makes for some pretty formidable vassals. If you tax them highly you can still squeeze plenty of money out of them too, you're just going to be paying for it later. It does make it more hands off, but simulates the logistical realities of the time better in my mind. Only problem for me is that it becomes much more difficult to get the production bonuses for trade goods like Tobacco when you can't actually own the provinces, but overall I like it way more than I dislike it.

100 Forcelimits isn't much. Wait for the Big Blue Blob to raise 240k troops, or Russia with 370k, Ottomans with 240k, HRE with 340k... 100 isn't enough. Then again as GB you only need a superior navy as long as you're fine with staying off continental Europe.

Quote

A more detailed handling of culture (and by extension religion) is the biggest thing missing from EUIV in my opinion. The accepted culture mechanic as it stands doesn't really make all that much sense. What I would kill for is a way for the player to make decisions about minority cultures in the game (for example, decisions for them to provide less manpower but higher taxes or vice versa). Hell, I'd love for there even to be minority cultures within provinces, as one province is either X culture or Y culture, nothing inbetween. There's a mod called Dei Gratia that includes religious minorities in provinces (Catholic provinces can have a small/large tolerated/oppressed Protestant minority for instance), I would love it if something similar could be included for culture as well.

I'd go for a process like a mini-westernization to bring cultures together. Or at least some, any form of passive conversion. The current system is just so severely lacking... maybe in a future expansion!

[MTS]

Gothos, on 16 January 2014 - 03:46 PM, said:

MTS, on 16 January 2014 - 03:32 PM, said:

There's a point where you just don't have enough shit to spend money on though, and all you can do is build more regiments. When you outnumber your biggest competitor by 30 regiments anyway, that's just overkill, and so the money piles up, which is why that never really appealed to me. That won't happen in this iteration of the game, but you can still get pretty powerful: my three nations are still pretty small fry (about 10 provinces each) and I'm pushing 100 in force limits and making a gross income of the same. Now infrastructure in the Americas can actually have an impact as well, and makes for some pretty formidable vassals. If you tax them highly you can still squeeze plenty of money out of them too, you're just going to be paying for it later. It does make it more hands off, but simulates the logistical realities of the time better in my mind. Only problem for me is that it becomes much more difficult to get the production bonuses for trade goods like Tobacco when you can't actually own the provinces, but overall I like it way more than I dislike it.

100 Forcelimits isn't much. Wait for the Big Blue Blob to raise 240k troops, or Russia with 370k, Ottomans with 240k, HRE with 340k... 100 isn't enough. Then again as GB you only need a superior navy as long as you're fine with staying off continental Europe.

This is early-mid 1500s, nobody is posting those numbers yet. My point was that even with small colonial nations you can still punch pretty hard as an individual, as they contribute to your force limits, and you can rake in the trade income with them. I have the largest force limit in the game at the moment, I just don't have the army because I don't have the manpower to support 100k troops (sitting on about 60k). If I did that would be a different story.

[Morgoth]

Well, I've reached the end of the 1400s, and now control a sizeable part of central italy. Sienna, Urbion and the Papal states are now fully integrated territories. I also hold the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. My income is starting to become something akin to acceptable, though it's still far away from what I'll need to transform Tuscany into a world power.

Furthermore I am the undisputed leader in tech, and I have also invested more in ideas than any other power.

I am allied with Savoy, Austria and Modena. I used to be allied to Naples as well, but they recently broke the alliance. Once the royal marriage is broken I'll start eating their territories. Not being a member of the HRE makes them very vunerable indeed.

As for ideas, I picked quality as my nr 2. Not so much because I disagree with MTS, but rather because it fits much better, I think, with the idea of reneissance Tuscany. An enlightened state with a highly professional army. Eventually I'll pick offensive too, which will leave my total discipline at 135 %. Not sure what I'll go for as nr 3. I need a way to kick my economy into gear, which means that trade is attractive. However, the boost I'd get from being able to build more light ships makes Naval an attractive choice too.

Aragon won the inevitable war with Spain, which I think surprised everyone. So, as of now I do not need to fear the yellow blob, though this does make the west ripe for the great evil blue blob. Also, Austria have grown large very fast, much more so than normal. It has reached the point where I felt I had no choice but to ally with them. Might be I need to leave the HRE sooner than I had hoped.

What are the actuall consequences of leaving the HRE, and at which point do I lose that choice?

[Gothos]

If you leave the HRE the Emperor will be very, very angry with you, and gain CB on your ex-HRE provinces. You will lose all bonuses and penalties coming from the current state of reform. You'd better start making friends with France and Ottomans.
The last point where you can choose is the penultimate reform which makes HRE members vassals - you can then opt out of the Empire. The more powerful members (like Tuscany, Bohemia, Brandenburg and Bavaria) usually pick this, you might be working together with them at that point as you'll all be in the Emperor's sights.

[MTS]

Gothos, on 17 January 2014 - 11:14 AM, said:

The last point where you can choose is the penultimate reform which makes HRE members vassals - you can then opt out of the Empire. The more powerful members (like Tuscany, Bohemia, Brandenburg and Bavaria) usually pick this, you might be working together with them at that point as you'll all be in the Emperor's sights.

You're not choosing there I don't think - because human players don't have the option to vote for reforms you'll automatically say no to the penultimate reform which I believe removes you from the Empire by default. I'm pretty sure it's to stop players from instantly losing if the AI ends up uniting the Empire (though if you're playing in Europe nobody should be uniting it unless you let them).

This post has been edited by MTS: 19 January 2014 - 04:23 AM

[Morgoth]

So, it's now the year 1560 and Tuscany is doing well. We've become a recogniced world power With almost all of Italy under our control. We lack Venize and its surroundings, mainly because they're allied to Austria and France, whom also happen to be my most important allies. Aragon finally collapsed to Castill- English agression, giving me the opportunity to snatch Sicilly.

I chose Naval as my third idea, which turned out to be an excellent choice later on. First of all, the extra light ships have given me control of the Genoa, Venice and Alexandria trade nodes. That alas sparked a war with the Ottomans, who from what I can tell own all of the middle east, though their incursions into Europe have been rather feeble. They consider me their rival, and a great power, which is flattering. They quickly conceded when my navy (with help from France and Austria), destroyed their 70 ship strong fleet of caravels and galleys. The prestige and tradition gain was impressive.

The Ottomans are allied with Algeria, whom took the opportunity to swallow Morocco when the latter chose to westernize. They also ate Tunisia. So a sizeable power in their own right. A helping hand from my loyal pope (the curia system; whomever designed that need to be smacked), truce with the now fleet-less Ottoman and a sizeable Tech advantage made me confident that I would win either way though. So off I went on a crusade to North Africa. Which is where I am right now.

Europe is otherwise a strange place in this game. Pommerania has taken all the provinces bordering the Baltic sea on the Southern shore. Sweden lost the war against Denmark and remain a junior member of the union. Norway, however, managed to break free. Muscowy lost their war with Novgorod, and have slowly been succumbing to the ever growing Kazan Khanate, though the fortunes seem to be changing now that the tech advantage is starting to take hold. Novgorod Controls everything North of Moscow, more or less.

Burgundy have not succumbed, and control all of Belgium, the Netherlands, and everything bordering the Rhine. If it hadn't been for my help, France would have lost their most recent war.

Portugal is actually bigger than normal, controlling the territories north of their de jure borders. Brittany is still going strong.

To the South east, Hungary is bigger than normal, as is Bosnia, whom somehow beat the Ottomans back and now control most of the balkans.

Most of this stuff happened without any involvement by Tuscany. It's only recently that I've had the resources and strenght to participate in any of the big wars. The fight against Burgundy was the first time my armies crossed the Alps.

Now, to find some way to become Protestant. Romagna has converted, but that's the only one of my provinces to do so.

[Tapper]

Finally got the game and started playing.

Toyed around a bit with Castile to get a feeling for the mechanics and am now considering an Iron Man - either as Sweden, Brandenburg or Poland (to try a military game) or Hansa, Norway or Ragusa for a naval/trade scheme.

Just a general question - what's preferable, firing up Ideas as soon as you can to get those bonuses, or focus more on getting tech up with the occassional idea pick-up?

With Castile, Exploration as a first Idea followed by quickly expanding to idea 3 of the line (expanded colony-range) seemed a no-brainer to be able to colonize Brazil (which I started doing by 1460), but as a result, my technology lagged, which dragged my trade power down and made minor conflicts (Marocco) tough and major wars a near auto-loss (France).

[Morgoth]

The answer is yes... You should always be carefull not to be more than 1 or perhaps 2 military techs behind your rivals though.

[Gothos]

Well, with patch 1.04 every Idea you take reduces tech cost in that category slightly, so they're not a complete dump of your points anymore. And as Spain/Castille you really, really want to colonize. Mind the colonial nation mechanics and don't get into too much spending, once your colonies start converting to colonial nations you'll lose a TON of income. It's all in the trade now, controlling the Western Europe node and steering to your home province (iirc Madrid is in Bordeaux, kek). Since exploration, naval, expansion and trade ideas all take Diplo pts, you will be able to stay up to date on military tech np.
As Portugal I focused exclusively on colonial expansion and disregarded european politics and North Africa. Allied/RMed Castille, France and England and as such my back was covered. Worst thing that can happen is they go to war and you'll be drawn into it - keep a sizable fleet at home/Western Europe node. England always has a very scary navy, you're probably not going to be able to stand up to them for quite a while without allies.
Anyway, Castille ain't what it used to be. Colonial Nations < owning 2/3 of the americas yourself.

[Tapper]

Thanks for the answers, guys

@ Gothos: Castile starts with Toledo as capitol, which is in the underused but valuable Sevilla node, amplified by pushing trade from Genoa - and I guess later from Mauritania. I think the capital city may move to Madrid after the unification of Spain.

[Gothos]

Well I' just saying from my Portugal game and the AI didn't form Spain yet, but they have the "collecting at non-home node" trade power malus in Sevilla. Which I don't much mind. Then again I'd rather the armada was transferring trade to Sevilla with me rather than to Bordeaux. I'm barely at 55% trade power in WE.
I need more ships.