There’s more to success in EU4 than defeating armies and setting cities ablaze. Managing your cities and steering them in the right direction is essential to dominate the game. Therefore, knowing how to increase governing capacity in Europa Universalis 4 is integral to enjoying continued success.
We will tell you all about governing capacity, how to increase it, even for smaller nations, and how to balance your governing capacity with your income. Let’s dive in.
Contents…
- What is Governing Capacity
- How to Increase Governing Capacity
- How to Increase Governing Capacity for Smaller Nations
- How to Balance Governing Capacity and Income
What is Governing Capacity in EU4?
Governing capacity in EU4 is the ability of a country or an overlord to manage its states, provinces, and territories. An Overlord with a good governing capacity will have a high income and increase the government’s rank.
The governing power of a country is based on administrative ideas, technologies, and government reforms. Hence, there are limits to the provinces or territories a country can govern.
Governing power either adds to your country’s strength or contributes to its weakness, depending on how you handle your government.
Each territory has its management cost based on important developments like buildings, doctrines, and the government type. Therefore, a regional maintenance cost is incomparable to the state maintenance cost. Countries controlling territories higher than their governing capacity will incur a penalty. Therefore, it is essential to control provinces and territories less than your country’s governing capacity.
How to Increase Governing Capacity
The best ways to increase governing capacity are through provinces, buildings and mandates, and vassals. Each country or nation has a governing capacity base value of 200. However, there is room to upgrade the governing capacity.
How to Increase Governing Capacity through Provinces
Nothing beats having a good governing capacity to help boost your income. Here are a few ways to increase governing capacity through provinces:
- You can decrease the governing power of your province, which you can achieve by increasing or changing your region’s governing cost. This, in turn, increases your governing capacity significantly.
- Your province’s governing cost depends on its development; hence, as a country or overlord, you should focus on developing the regions, like expanding infrastructural actions and developing trade companies.
- Another way to increase governing capacity through sections is by adding flat and percentage modifiers to the base value of the area. It will increase the governing capacity with the representation below:
(base value + flat modifiers) * Percentage modifiers.
For example, a province has a base value of 100, a significant modifier (celestial empire – 500 or empire rank – 400), and a percentage modifier being 20% (economic hegemon max power bonus). If a celestial kingdom is implemented, the governing capacity of such a country would be 200% and 180% for the empire rank, and these are high governing capacities.
How to Increase Governing Capacity Through Buildings and Edicts
Building and edicts are a great way to contribute to the growth of your governing capacity in EU4. Buildings such as the state house, town hall, and courthouse enable players to maximize their governing capacity by reducing governing cost. As of the most recent EU4 update, there are no edicts that lower governing capacity.
How to Increase Governing Capacity for Smaller Nations
Government ideas and reform affect a governing capacity significantly. Therefore, reformation is a great way to increase small nations’ governing capacity. One reformation idea is implementing a pirate republic to modify the governing power with a +75% value.
Also, implementing a merchant republic in smaller nations would significantly increase the governing capacity by +25%. These are proven and effective ways to improve the governing power of smaller countries.
How to Balance Governing Capacity and Income in EU4?
Increasing your governing capacity comes at a cost that might affect your income in Europa Universalis 4. Hence, you need to balance your income while increasing your governing capacity. Here are two ways to balance these two factors:
Diversification of Income
There are several methods to raise money for EU4, and one of them includes diversifying income. This requires you to effectively allocate generated funds, invest in activities to increase revenue, and reduce expenses on irrelevant activities.
Some of these methods include:
- Raising war tax.
- Developing more provinces.
- Protecting the trade routes to avoid an enemy attack.
- Reducing state maintenance.
- Taking loans.
Reducing the Cost of Increasing Governing Capacity
Though increasing your governing capacity is a great idea. However, there is a need to reduce the cost while at it. This way, you will attain growth and yet manage your income.
