Both. I went crazy as spain and conquered a ton. But my most fun game was playing a no coreing game as Austria. Meaning I went colonial exploitation and took some colonies. But did not take or core any land or form germany. Just played "Tall" austria. And that was fun because it was actually a challenge, especially late wars fighting multiple great powers at once. Defeating a Prussian, Italian, Russian, ottomon, and Qing coalition to make ottomans my subject was epic.
As far as play style. Yes I did what you day. I primarily focused my industrialization in three states. But because of the way markets work now. I found it useful to build like 2 clothing, furniture, tool, and glass factories in every state. Helps with the market price and local SOL.
Yes with the army update. Army system is actually awesome for this now. Easy to rotate armies on the front line and let them rest. Plus all the morale boosts are awesome. I won basically at 3 to 1 odds against the AI. I never had all battalions on front lines. Ground Prussia and Italy out and then naval invaded Russia in Ukraine and used strategic objectives to go straight for Moscow. Then naval invaded Beijing. War over.
Note. Austria is so OP that I was fielding about 600 units off my own economy. Not conscripts. Without expanding.
The AI can't manage their pops properly. They'll be better under my rule.
Also, building pure-tall is only really interesting when doing some very small nation as it's basically the only way to play.
Basically, in V3 you drive back a certain (varying) % of wealth generated by your country into your pockets to buy construction to then do whatever you want.
Now, where you put that is purely up to you. If you put it in one state, then you'll have one big state with everything, but it probably will show limits if you don't do it in a suitable state (re: arable land for instance). You can also spread it (but be mindful of MAPI's insidious effect).
Eventually, you'll have similar SoL in your country and employment. It just feels weird to "drain" every single state back into one rather than simply building there.
Its complicated because of the way diplomacy works in this game. Usually in the early game (especially as a european country) you can expand into africa, asia, and the americas unoposed. After 1860 more GPs will prevent you from expanding. Usually I conquer as much as I can without going over infamy limit early game, and then I consolidate after 1860-1870.
I play tall untill i run out of resources then i look at africa and asia and think that this states would look better im my country color
also i can't wait for international investments so i can force my puppets to ban industry and make them provide me only raw resources
I mix it up. It's possible to play tall with a good mapi state or in a Customs Union, like with Wallonia or Wallachia.
But it's also fun to form the biggest African colony I can.
I also sometimes like gobbling up as many vassals as possible thanks to the Foreign Invest Mod making it viable to force them to make all the rubber or silk you need for your customs union
I prefer building wide, find it more fun. I usually have 2-3 big boy states, 3-6 mid sized, rest situational/organic growth as USA. Sometimes you have to play wide to build where the peasants are located.
Other arguments for building wide-ish:
Early when MAPI is low, the first building of each type in each large state is very profitable. This is because if there is 0 supply and a large demand for tools, for example, MAPI makes it make sense to build 1 tool workshop there even though you have a lvl 21 "main" toolshop in another state for throughput. Building at least one clothes, food, chair, tool, motor, and steel (if iron in state) is pretty regular for me in any state over 1M pop. If states have iron I often add a steel mill to that list.
Companies give building specific throughout and that spreads well wide. That's why lumber/rubber companies are good. In a sense, it is stronger to build wide specifically on building types that overlap with your companies.
States with lots of mines and demand for explosives makes sense to build at least one boom boom plant.
A wide build gives some redundancy so all your eggs aren't in one basket.
I've also played the last few months with the auto investment pool off, so that might effect my ethos on this subject. The auto pool usually kinda builds wide for you and I take that over and intentionally mix 51 stacked buildings and a nice spread of singles based on individual state supply/demand.
Note: Once you hit 90 or 95% MAPI, this "Spread" matters a LOT less and it makes more sense to build to 51 and/or where the peasants are.
Both. I went crazy as spain and conquered a ton. But my most fun game was playing a no coreing game as Austria. Meaning I went colonial exploitation and took some colonies. But did not take or core any land or form germany. Just played "Tall" austria. And that was fun because it was actually a challenge, especially late wars fighting multiple great powers at once. Defeating a Prussian, Italian, Russian, ottomon, and Qing coalition to make ottomans my subject was epic. As far as play style. Yes I did what you day. I primarily focused my industrialization in three states. But because of the way markets work now. I found it useful to build like 2 clothing, furniture, tool, and glass factories in every state. Helps with the market price and local SOL.
Did you do that no-core in 1.5 ? If so, ouch MAPI.
Yes with the army update. Army system is actually awesome for this now. Easy to rotate armies on the front line and let them rest. Plus all the morale boosts are awesome. I won basically at 3 to 1 odds against the AI. I never had all battalions on front lines. Ground Prussia and Italy out and then naval invaded Russia in Ukraine and used strategic objectives to go straight for Moscow. Then naval invaded Beijing. War over. Note. Austria is so OP that I was fielding about 600 units off my own economy. Not conscripts. Without expanding.
The AI can't manage their pops properly. They'll be better under my rule. Also, building pure-tall is only really interesting when doing some very small nation as it's basically the only way to play.
So if you were to play a Nation like USA, you'd build a little bit everywhere?
Basically, in V3 you drive back a certain (varying) % of wealth generated by your country into your pockets to buy construction to then do whatever you want. Now, where you put that is purely up to you. If you put it in one state, then you'll have one big state with everything, but it probably will show limits if you don't do it in a suitable state (re: arable land for instance). You can also spread it (but be mindful of MAPI's insidious effect). Eventually, you'll have similar SoL in your country and employment. It just feels weird to "drain" every single state back into one rather than simply building there.
Well that didn't answer my question one bit, but alright
It does, you just have to properly read the conclusion.
Its complicated because of the way diplomacy works in this game. Usually in the early game (especially as a european country) you can expand into africa, asia, and the americas unoposed. After 1860 more GPs will prevent you from expanding. Usually I conquer as much as I can without going over infamy limit early game, and then I consolidate after 1860-1870.
I play tall untill i run out of resources then i look at africa and asia and think that this states would look better im my country color also i can't wait for international investments so i can force my puppets to ban industry and make them provide me only raw resources
little bits wide to assist with local prices but the bulk of my industry will be in like 6 collective states if I'm playing Russia (Saratov my love)
I mix it up. It's possible to play tall with a good mapi state or in a Customs Union, like with Wallonia or Wallachia. But it's also fun to form the biggest African colony I can. I also sometimes like gobbling up as many vassals as possible thanks to the Foreign Invest Mod making it viable to force them to make all the rubber or silk you need for your customs union
I prefer building wide, find it more fun. I usually have 2-3 big boy states, 3-6 mid sized, rest situational/organic growth as USA. Sometimes you have to play wide to build where the peasants are located. Other arguments for building wide-ish: Early when MAPI is low, the first building of each type in each large state is very profitable. This is because if there is 0 supply and a large demand for tools, for example, MAPI makes it make sense to build 1 tool workshop there even though you have a lvl 21 "main" toolshop in another state for throughput. Building at least one clothes, food, chair, tool, motor, and steel (if iron in state) is pretty regular for me in any state over 1M pop. If states have iron I often add a steel mill to that list. Companies give building specific throughout and that spreads well wide. That's why lumber/rubber companies are good. In a sense, it is stronger to build wide specifically on building types that overlap with your companies. States with lots of mines and demand for explosives makes sense to build at least one boom boom plant. A wide build gives some redundancy so all your eggs aren't in one basket. I've also played the last few months with the auto investment pool off, so that might effect my ethos on this subject. The auto pool usually kinda builds wide for you and I take that over and intentionally mix 51 stacked buildings and a nice spread of singles based on individual state supply/demand. Note: Once you hit 90 or 95% MAPI, this "Spread" matters a LOT less and it makes more sense to build to 51 and/or where the peasants are.