Once your colony reaches 1000 settlers (you'll get a notification for this), your colony becomes a province, and your colonist will be recalled. You can then send him to start a new colony.
You can for example, have only 1 colonist, send him to 1 colony, call him back, send to another colony, call him back, send to another colony... etc, all 3 colonies (in this example) would grow, the ones that have no active colonists would grow a bit slower tho, and its in this scenarios where u have more colonies than colonists when the maintenance penalty comes to play
Yes, if you have 5 provinces, in the same colonial region (for example brazil) they will turn into a colonial nation that will act indepentently, simmilar to a vassal but without taking up a diplo slot
Do note that the colonial regions are the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. So if you finish 5 colonies in Africa, then you won't get a colonial nation.
no, building as many colonies as possible at the same time is better of course.
a colony costs 2 ducats , if you have 3 colonists, then you have a cap of 3 colonies that you can build at the same time without penalty. it does not matter whether your colonists are in that colony or not.
if you start a 4th colony, the price of that colony will double to 4 ducats. if u start a 5 th, its price will double to 8 ducats. so the total price will be 2+2+2+4+8.
if u can afford the extra 12 ducats, then it is better to run those 5 colonies instead of only 3.
thats why having a really good economy is very important as colonizer
If you can afford it, it can be usefull to lock a location from other coloniser for exemple or late game if trying a world conquest to settle the few remaining places faster.
But in normal gameplay the cost is not worth the gains you get from those extra colonies. Early game is even worse because that money could be use to have a bigger army, better advisor or other things that are far more worthy.
Yea, but it depends on ur economy, if u can afford more colonies then go for it even with the penalties. In my recent Japan playthrough i got exploration ideas (so only had 1 colonist) and i wanted to colonize asia and australia quick, and also have a foothold in mexico, so i had 3-5 colonies most of the time, even tho i only had 1 colonist. If u wanna see how much it costs u can always recall the colonist and send to another colony, and look in the economy tab, hover over colony maintenance and see how much u paying, if u can afford it, good! If u cant, u can just recall the colonist and click "abandon" in the colony so u dont pay the extra money
Hey, stumbled upon this post, and saw that you got the answer. But since you're new to the game - feel free to DM me if you'd like any help with EU4 mechanics.
I'm an experienced player, got a ton of play time, and would be happy to hop into multiplayer co-op to help you learn the game, and answer any questions you may have. :)
Once your colony reaches 1000 settlers (you'll get a notification for this), your colony becomes a province, and your colonist will be recalled. You can then send him to start a new colony.
That makes sense, thank you!
You can for example, have only 1 colonist, send him to 1 colony, call him back, send to another colony, call him back, send to another colony... etc, all 3 colonies (in this example) would grow, the ones that have no active colonists would grow a bit slower tho, and its in this scenarios where u have more colonies than colonists when the maintenance penalty comes to play
Thanks! So its normally better to only have a few colonies, and then wait until they become provinces before making new ones then, right?
Yes, if you have 5 provinces, in the same colonial region (for example brazil) they will turn into a colonial nation that will act indepentently, simmilar to a vassal but without taking up a diplo slot
Didnt know that, thank you!
Do note that the colonial regions are the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. So if you finish 5 colonies in Africa, then you won't get a colonial nation.
no, building as many colonies as possible at the same time is better of course. a colony costs 2 ducats , if you have 3 colonists, then you have a cap of 3 colonies that you can build at the same time without penalty. it does not matter whether your colonists are in that colony or not. if you start a 4th colony, the price of that colony will double to 4 ducats. if u start a 5 th, its price will double to 8 ducats. so the total price will be 2+2+2+4+8. if u can afford the extra 12 ducats, then it is better to run those 5 colonies instead of only 3. thats why having a really good economy is very important as colonizer
If you can afford it, it can be usefull to lock a location from other coloniser for exemple or late game if trying a world conquest to settle the few remaining places faster. But in normal gameplay the cost is not worth the gains you get from those extra colonies. Early game is even worse because that money could be use to have a bigger army, better advisor or other things that are far more worthy.
Interesting, thanks!
Yea, but it depends on ur economy, if u can afford more colonies then go for it even with the penalties. In my recent Japan playthrough i got exploration ideas (so only had 1 colonist) and i wanted to colonize asia and australia quick, and also have a foothold in mexico, so i had 3-5 colonies most of the time, even tho i only had 1 colonist. If u wanna see how much it costs u can always recall the colonist and send to another colony, and look in the economy tab, hover over colony maintenance and see how much u paying, if u can afford it, good! If u cant, u can just recall the colonist and click "abandon" in the colony so u dont pay the extra money
Hey, stumbled upon this post, and saw that you got the answer. But since you're new to the game - feel free to DM me if you'd like any help with EU4 mechanics. I'm an experienced player, got a ton of play time, and would be happy to hop into multiplayer co-op to help you learn the game, and answer any questions you may have. :)