Lübeck

Primary culture

Lower Saxon (Germanic)

Capital province

Lübeck (45)

Government

Plutocracy

State religion

Catholic

Technology group

Western

Lübeck ideas

Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.33.

Traditions:

+15% Trade range

+10% Trade steering

The End of the Victual Brothers

+10% Global trade power

Strong League Obligations

+1 Merchant

Improved Shipbuilding

+15% National sailors modifier

−20% Light ship cost

Reformed Hanstag

−10% Stability cost modifier

−10% Cost to justify trade conflict

Hanseatic Levy System

+15% Manpower recovery speed

Regularized Contributions

+20% Provincial trade power modifier

The Hansa Bank

−0.5 Interest per annum

Ambition:

+10% Trade efficiency

Lübeck(Hansa) ideas

Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.34.

Notes:

Gained by :

Is Lübeck
has completed Mission "Queen of the Hansa" or
was formed via the "Declare the Hanseatic League" Decision

Traditions:

+20% Trade efficiency

+1 Merchant

Foreign Kontors

+15% Global trade power

The Handelsmarine

+25% Ship trade power

−5% Ship cost

Reform the Queen's Army

+5% Discipline

Adler von Lubeck

+10% Heavy ship combat ability

Merchants with a State

+10% Goods produced modifier

−5% Development cost

Spread the Northern Style

−10% Idea cost

Regularized Contributions

+20% Provincial trade power modifier

Ambition:

+20% Trade steering

The cities of Lübeck,

Bremen, and

Hamburg are all members of the venerable Hanseatic League, a once-mighty confederation of trade interests along the Baltic Sea which has since fallen on hard times. Although these Hanseatic cities do not enjoy the majesty and riches they once had, they still have considerable mercantile power at their disposal, and their treasuries are nothing to scoff at.

Although the Hanseatic cities still have some muscle, they have much to do if they wish to restore the old glory of the Hansa. Denmark introduced tolls on use of the Sound between Sjaelland and Scania in 1429, and these Sound Tolls are throttling the last remnants of Hanseatic trade in and out of the Baltic. If commerce is to prosper once more, the Danes must learn the error of their trade policies. Further east, the city of Visby on the island of Gotland was once a formidable and rich Hanseatic town, but a Danish attack on Visby in 1361 and various following depredations by Danes and pirates ruined the city's wealth and autonomy. The recovery of Visby and conquest of Gotland would be a key moment in the revitalization of the Hanseatic League.

The Hanseatic Cities cannot ignore German affairs, either. The free cities of the League owe their allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor and enjoy “Imperial Immediacy”, able to deal directly with the Imperial court rather than working through various regional organs. Although the

Holy Roman Empire guarantees the independence of the Hanseatic cities for now, any effort to centralize the Empire could become a dire threat to the future of the cities and to the League.

Lübeck is a trading nation located in northern Germany, bordering the Baltic Sea.

Missions[edit | edit source]

Main article: Lübeckian missions

Events[edit | edit source]

Main article: Hanseatic events

Formation[edit | edit source]

Lübeck can be formed with the decision “Declare the Hanseatic League”, but the country name will be “The Hanseatic League”.

id

Declare the Hanseatic League

The wealth nested within the ports of the Baltic and North Germany must be harnessed by able and meticulous merchants. It is up to us to improve upon the old legacies of trade, commerce and ample coin. The institutions of old were rotten to their core, their merchants pleased with mediocrity and corruption. The time has come for us to wipe the slate clean, undo and burn down the status quo! And from its ashes a new Hansa will be born, evolved but untamed!

Potential requirements Playing with normal or historical nations The country was never an end-game tag None of: Country flag `formed_hsa_flag` is set At least one of: Is player-controlled Is not playing a custom nation At least one of: Is independent or a tributary Is player-controlled None of: Is Lübeck None of: Is Holy Roman Empire None of: Is The Papal State None of: Is Great Britain At least one of: Culture is in Germanic group Is Gotland Is Riga Is Danzig Is not a colonial nation At least one of: Is not a former colonial nation All of: Is a former colonial nation Is player-controlled Owns province Lübeck (45) None of: Owns at least 20 non-colony provinces	Allow Is not at war Is independent or a tributary Is not a steppe horde None of: Lübeck exists Owns core province Hamburg (44) Owns core province Lübeck (45) Owns core province Bremen (1874) Province Lübeck (45): Is in a state Is not the Holy Roman Emperor None of: Owns at least 25 non-colony provinces At least one of: Mercantilism is at least 40 Government is republic Burghers has at least 90 influence Lübeck trade node: Our country is the strongest trade power in this node

Effects Province Lübeck (45): Province becomes the new capital. If it was in the empire and the country isn't, it is removed from the empire. Hidden effect: Country becomes Lübeck Set country flag `hsa_proclaimed_queen_of_the_hansa_flag` Country's name changes to “The Hanseatic League” Tooltip: “We shall proclaim the founding of a new Hanseatic League” Gets new missions If: Limited to: At least one of: Is not part of the Holy Roman Empire Is an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire None of: Government rank is Kingdom or Empire Set government rank to Kingdom If: Limited to: At least one of: None of: Government is republic None of: Has enacted the “Merchant Republic” government reform Tooltip: “Enact Merchant Republic Government Reform” Hidden effect: Change government to republic Enact government reform Plutocracy Gain 100 republican tradition Gain country modifier “Increased Centralization” for 20 years, giving the following effects: −0.05 Monthly autonomy change +1 National unrest Gain 25 prestige Set country flag `formed_hsa_flag` If: Limited to: The country does not have custom ideas Trigger country event “New Traditions & Ambitions”

AI decision factors:

Base weight: 1
Base weight * 0 if the following are true:
- None of:
  - Government is republic
Base weight * 0 if the following is true: Has enacted the “Free City” government reform
Base weight * 0 if the following is true: Lübeck exists

Decisions[edit | edit source]

These decisions can be found in TheHansa.txt.

id

The Lübeck Krantor

With wealth pouring into Lübeck, the port facilities are starting to look under-dimensioned. While it would cost nearly a whole year's income, a Krantor (a massive harbor crane) could greatly improve our trading potential.

Potential requirements

The country:

Is Lübeck.
Owns Lübeck (45).
Uses the “Merchant Republic” mechanic.
If AI-controlled:
- Is not a custom nation
- is not a subject nation other than a tributary state.

Province Lübeck (45):

Does not have “The Lübeck Krantor” modifier

The game:

Playing with normal or historical nations
DLC 'Emperor' is not active

Allow

Lübeck:

has at least 4 merchants
has at least 1 years worth of income .
has at least 20 administrative power.

Effects

Lübeck:

loses 1 years worth of income.
loses 20 administrative power.

Province Lübeck (45) gains “The Lübeck Krantor” for the rest of the game, giving:

+5% global trade power,
+10% trade efficiency,
−1% diplomatic technology cost.

id

The 'Adler von Lübeck'

On account of the ongoing war in the region, our shipwrights have presented plans for a new warship: The 'Adler von Lübeck'. The ship is massive, with more gunports than any other ship afloat in the Western world. Building it would be expensive, but our navy would be unrivaled in the Baltic for quite some time.

Potential requirements

The country:

Is Lübeck, Bremen or Hamburg.
Owns and controls Lübeck (45).
Has not enacted this decision before.
If AI-controlled:
- Is not a custom nation

Playing with normal or historical nations

Allow

The country:

Has a flagship
Neighbors any country at war with a port.

Effects

The country:

Gains “The 'Adler von Lübeck'” for 30 years, giving:
- −15% Heavy ship cost
- −10% Diplomatic technology cost
- +50% Number of cannons on flagship
- −1% Navy tradition decay
If DLC 'Golden Century' is not active:
- Loses 1 years worth of income.
- Loses 30 administrative power.
- Gains 5 heavy ships in Lübeck (45).

Strategy[edit | edit source]

The below is one of many player suggested strategies for Lübeck. Bear in mind, due to the dynamic nature of the game, it may unfold differently for other players.

Although possible, Merchant Republics are typically not good to do world conquests as they are constrained by their reduced administrative efficiency, specifically −50 Maximum absolutism, which makes it nearly impossible to offset with the Court & Country disaster that requires absolutism above 65% to gain the maximum bonuses +20 maximum absolutism or at least 30%-65% to gain +10 maximum absolutism.

Yet, a world conquest can be done - albeit possible but very difficult - by smartly using vassals and would certainly require influence ideas as well as administrative ideas and becoming an economic hegemon for the increased governing capacity.

Regardless of the above, the power of Lubeck lies in it being (1) a merchant republic (2) located in one of the two most powerful trade nodes (the other being the English Channel) and (3) endowed with powerful trade boosts in its National Ideas.

Surprisingly the key to understanding Lubeck lies in its dominance in Trade Steering which is the aggregation of all its other trade boosts. The mathematics work as follows:

Members of a trade league provide 50% of their trade power to the leader of the league as well as provide an extra +2.5% trade steering to the leader of the league. This means for example that 10 league members would provide +25% trade steering power to the merchant republic leading the league
It becomes progressively more difficult to convince each additional country above 5 members to join a league (as Size of Trade League penalty is −10 per existing members over 5) but league leaders can create Trade Cities that automatically join the league and therefore a league comprising say 20 members would provide +50% trade steering power (+2.5% x 20)
Lubeck's powerful national ideas allow it to dominate the Trade power in any trade node by owning only a few Trade Centers in that node. The Trade Centers it owns have their trade power boosted by its national idea of +20% provincial trade power modifier, if the center is within a Trade Company then it gains a further +100% boost, all topped off by Lubeck's national idea of +10% global trade power.
Then, being a merchant republic, this total trade power boosts production in the entire node by allowing all non-owned provinces to produce bonus goods proportional to the percentage of trade controlled by that merchant republic (that is, non-owned provinces produce +50% bonus goods if the republic controls 100% of trade in the node).
Lubeck's Trade Power in the node would "capture" the majority of all this production in the node as outgoing trade
Since a country receives +1 merchant for each trade company where its directly owned provinces make up more than 50% trade power (ignoring bonuses) Lubeck's trade power boosts will allow it to be flooded with additional merchants to help steer trade
This total trade captured in a node is then steered by these bonus merchants to Lubeck's targeted nodes upstream
Therefore, given all the above, even the marginal ownership of a Trade Center in a node will allow Lubeck to transfer a substantial portion or most of the trade in any node
Then finally when all this trade arrives in Lubeck's home node its national idea (ambition) of +10% trade efficiency adds an extra 10% to all of it.

Given the intrinsic value of Lubeck as a merchant republic coupled to its powerful national ideas, the strategy for Lubeck is therefore as follows:

Consolidate the home node. Expand and dominate the trade power in its home node of Lubeck by either having others such as Hamburg join its trade league or by attacking them and taking all the Trade Centers. Obtaining the three Danish Trade Centres especially Sjaeland is key. Typically England will rival Denmark and hence they can be an opportunistic short-term ally to help in the war to gain the Danish Centers of Trade.
Gain powerful allies. Try and ally Austria, the emperor, as soon as possible to avoid their demanding the return of unlawful territory (alternatively start the next war while coring the unlawful HRE province - as the emperor can only force the return of uncored provinces during peace time). One can typically ally Austria after gaining a few provinces, especially the Danish ones.
Dominate the upstream end node. After consolidating trade power in its home node, its advisable to target the upstream Trade Centers of the English Channel, before England becomes too powerful and forms Great Britain. This would typically mean to betray England by breaking any alliance with them; taking London first and then the four other Trade Centers including Calais. One should also target the two French Trade Centers if politics allow. East Frisia is typically easy to get early on since they do not start as a member of the Empire. It is not advisable to take more than four (4) of the Dutch/Flemish/Frisian Trade Centers until after 1650 when there are no more Dutch revolts (until then owning 5 or more such provinces will trigger the revolts). Until that time it is best to win wars against Holland, Flanders and Brabant (assuming they are freed of their overlord Burgundy) and forcing them to transfer 50% of their trade power in the peace deals.
Home trade node repositioning. Owning the majority of Trade Centres in the upstream English Channel node would mean less siphoning of trade from the Lubeck node (that is less "transfers from traders downstream" whereby an amount equivalent to 20% of the nation's provincial trade power is added to the total trade power of that nation in every immediate upstream node). Better yet, one can move one's home trade node to the English Channel and transfer the Lubeckian trade. However, do this move only once Lubeck's trade power in the English Channel is larger than its power in the Lubeck node.
Downstream trade steering. On consolidating power in the English and Lubeck trade nodes, one is ready to steer trade to these two nodes. The English Channel would capture any trade steered from West Africa (which comes from Asia) as well as the trade from the colonies, while the Lubeck node would be able to capture any trade steered from within the HRE and from the Baltic and Novgorod.
Scale one's forces using colonial nations. It may be easier to use Exploration to set up a base in New England or the Caribbean and form one's first Colonial Nations there. Apart from the 50% trade power they normally transfer to their overlord, each Colonial Nation comprising 10 or more provinces will provide their overlord with +10 naval force limit, +5 land force limit, +5% global trade power, and an extra merchant. This trade power is boosted by Lubeck's trade steering power as explained earlier. Most importantly, given Lubeck's small development footprint it would need these unit boosts from the Colonial Nations to build a powerful army and fleet.
European steering routes. Another easy path is taking Stockholm and the Baltic nodes and moving towards Novgorod. Taking Novgorod early will prevent Muscovy from ever forming Russia.
The most difficult is transferring from the HRE which really would require dismantling the HRE as early as possible in order to take Trade Centres with as little Aggressive Expansion as possible.
True European dominance comes from dismantling the HRE. It is best to dismantle the HRE either early on while being Catholic or late game after the religious league wars when one is powerful. Early on one can ally most of the electors meaning that only the Emperor and a few others may have to be sieged down to dismantle. This is the route of least resistance. Later on once Protestantism spawns it may be more difficult to ally the electors as Lubeck frequently becomes Protestant and the catholic electors have their intolerance/hatred for heretics grow. Most importantly it is near impossible to do when the leagues have fired since at that time all league members would have to be fought and it is unlikely to personally siege and control all the independent electors and the emperor to trigger the dismantling.
Strategic trade hub. West Africa is extremely valuable and dominating the node would require taking Benin as quickly as possible as well as settling as many of the Trade Centers there as possible. Placing a merchant there to transfer all this trade to the English Channel is critical. Portugal and Spain will be the biggest competitors as their "transfers from traders downstream" bonuses will be huge. The only way to drastically reduce this power is to attack them and own Lisbon, Seville and Cadiz. However, Lubeck's powerful trade steering bonuses (boosted by Trade Company investments in West Africa) would counter-act this power until one is able to gain those Iberian provinces.
Global trade dominance. After settling West Africa and preferably Cape Town the three key downstream nodes to beeline for are (1) Malacca - the most valuable node in Asia (2) Gujarat - as it generally already captures a large part of trade on the Indian subcontinent and with Lubeck's trade steering this can be directed to Cape Town and (3) East Africa for the ivory and its +2 boost to diplomatic reputation.

It is very feasible and highly probable that by following the strategy as outlined above Lubeck will be the highest income generating country in the world within the first 100 years. Moreover, it is likely to be one of the three great powers within that same time period.

By the time Lubeck reaches China it will be a global super power. Yet, if one's goal is a world conquest, Lubeck - which most likely will still be a merchant republic - will start straining from the lack of administrative efficiency to core all the necessary provinces.

Country guides

Western technology group