My first game was going ok for the first 50 years or so as Moscowy as i was chugging along at my goal of forming Russia, but then i had a huge war with Novgorod and soon after that Lithuanian, The Golden Horde, and a few other country's all invaded on top of rebels causing me huge issues. Im thinking my main issue is that i didn't build my military up enough during peace times, should i keep it near my force limit at all times and just turn down army maintenance while not at war, or will this also cause issues? I left it high enough up that moral was still positive but even at half it adds a ton of cash inflow per month.

Also, i was trying to figure out how the hell i convert the couple Sunni provenances i had as it said it would never finish because of issues in the province. How do i change it so i can convert the religion and culture of these heretics? They need to go as there causing me too many issues and im sick of killing rebels.

Also, i found playing as a Orthodox county to be a pain as the only only country that seems to be the same religion is Novgorod and they made me a rival which meant we were at constant war. Is there a good way to become allies with Catholic nations? I managed to improve relations with Denmark quite a bit but i could never seem to improve my own opinion of Denmark which prevented me from being there ally.

Another thing i had issues with is how do i get more diplomats? I only have 2 and it makes it hard when your trying to improve relations in one county, annex another, and then your at war and trying to negotiate peace and you have to pull a diplomat off of what hes doing to go and do that, i was mainly worried about my guy in Perm, if i pull him off annexing dose that reset the time it takes to do that? Hes in like year 6 of a 10 year annexation.

Anyways, if someone can clue me in here id be grateful, im loving the game but theirs alot of stuff that im just not sure on yet. I played for 7 hours already and even though this games a wash i already want to jump right back in to try the same county and make it work so i guess im hooked.

@sanity: I've been playing as Aragon, and things are slowly chugging along. I've been having a standing army nearish to the force limit with maintenance turned down as you suggested, and haven't had any bad effects in terms of rebels etc.

With religious conversion, you will probably have to pass some national decisions that help rebalance your tolerance for heretics / missionary effectiveness, or take up national ideas that help with this. After Protestantism comes along for instance, Aragon got a lot of national decisions to either start to counter Protestants or allow for more religious tolerance

There is also a national idea that allows at its first tier to get another diplomat; quite a few different national idea trees allow for this at different stages. And yes, if you remove a diplomat mid-annexation, I believe it does reset the timer

I have not found a way to improve your own nations opinion of another nation, which is something I really would like to do...

Hope this helps?!

@ertdaemon: Thanks, i took offensive ideas as my first tech so i'll have to deal with the 2 diplomats for awhile i suppose. Its not too bad as i keep one on annexation and the other on improving relations, then if im at war i'll pull the guy off of improving relations to do peace talks. Just basically means i cant Annex two proviences at once, but not a huge deal right now as im maily just steam rolling Novgorod and supporting rebels in Lithuania.

Im guessing if your not the same religion its impossible to have a positive opinion of another country which kinda sucks but im trying to figure out a way.

@sanity: So you want you military slider down all the way when there is no fighting. Before a war you can just increase the slider, it then takes a few weeks/months for the troops to recover morale. You do not need a full slider for many wars. e.g. when you lead in numbers, have better technology or better composition (=more cav). So do peasant revolts do not need a full slider.

To improve relations (apart from the actual "improve relations") a major thing you can do is set a common rival. You get diplomats from national ideas, and also the embassy building (diplomatic tech level 6).

Stability also reduces revolt risk. So you want to try to keep it at +1.

@wuddel: Thanks, didn't know that common rivals would help, that dose give me some possibilities. I'v been keeping maintenance around half at peave times because i'v been getting some nationalists revolts and they seem harder to purge when your silders bottomed out, but i guess if my revolt risk is low and im not making a ton of cores i can just keep it at 0% then.

I'v been keeping my stability around 0 so i'll try and up it to 1 and keep it there.

@sanity: Really you should do your best to keep your stability at 3 (the highest) cause why wouldn't you?

I was wondering if that would be the best option, but my main issue has been Administrative power as i am trying to form Russia and i need the level 10 Administrative Tech for it so i'v been really tight on points.

More stability however means more money, more money means better advisors, better advisors means more administration power.

@sanity: Stability 2 is also a solid option, random events will nuke your stability a whole bunch and rebuying up to 2 is much more efficient than buying the 3rd level repeatedly. Note if you're a crazy megalomaniac bastard and there's a Deus Vult type CB again it can be efficient to run at lower stability levels until your bloodthirst is sated.

@donkeycow: Sure, but even for a country like early russia, the cost increase for e.g. a level 3 advisor is not compensated by 10% more tax. Actually you are far better of beelining to admin level 5 (for temples, constables) -7 (for second idea group) and start spamming out buildings. That being said, I certainly aim for upgrading my admin advisor early.

@alexw00d: Well, insanely increased cost for the jump from +2 to +3, and also at +3 you can not benefit from positive events. Also you are probably not teching up as fast ast you should.

the comet event is three times as likely to hit with stability at max. You don't really need it that high either (1 is generally fine).