States and territories
- See also: Core
All countries are internally comprised of states and territories.
Any area in which a country holds one or more provinces is classified within that country as a state or a territory.
States represent parts of a country which are more tightly integrated, while territories represent parts of a country which are more autonomous.
States can be more productive than territories, but each country is limited in the number of states it may have. This reflects the historical difficulty of fully integrating every part of a large country. The player must decide which areas to turn into states, and which areas to leave as territories.
Contents
Differences between states and territories[edit]
The table below shows key differences between states and territories:
| States | Territories | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum autonomy for provinces | 0% for full cores, 50% for territorial cores |
75%, 0% if given to trade company |
| Allows provinces to become territorial cores | N/A | 
|
| Allows provinces to become full cores | |
|
| Allows provinces to be given to estates | (full cores only) |
|
 Allows Centers of Trade to be upgraded |
|
if given to trade company
|
| Allows provinces to be given to trade company | |
|
| Allows state edicts | |
|
| May contain capital city | |
|
| May contain main trading port | |
|
| Maintenance costs | Variable | None |
| Missionary strength penalty | None | -2.0% -200% if given to trade company |
Summary[edit]
 |
This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.21. |
The following points provide a detailed summary of the system:
- A newly conquered province is considered as part of a territory (unless it already belongs to one of the nation's existing states).
- Uncored provinces (except colonies) cause
overextension regardless of whether they are in a territory or a state. - Coring provinces in a territory have reduced coring costs due to the Is territory modifier which applies
-50% Core-creation cost (coring duration is not affected). The newly cored provinces gain territorial cores and remove the overextension penalty caused by the province. - Provinces in territories have a
75% local autonomy floor.
- Centers of Trade located in territories cannot be upgraded beyond Level 1.
- Once all the owned provinces in an area have territorial cores, it is possible to turn the territory into a state (from the province interface, above the buildings section).
- Provinces in states but with only territorial cores:
- Have a 50% Local Autonomy floor.
- Can't be assigned to estates, but do count towards total state development for estates that demand control of some percentage.
- Lose their territorial cores if they are conquered and would have to be re-cored if the provinces are re-conquered.
- Have a
- To fully core state provinces requires paying the remaining 50% coring costs. This second coring phase is instantaneous and gives a 0% Local autonomy floor (LA is reduced instantaneously to the new floor only if it was not raised before (to lower unrest)).
- NB: Raising autonomy in a province not-yet fully cored will set the new autonomy floor to 100% and will annul the older "virtual" floor, not being reduced instantly after the full core anymore.
- Fully cored state provinces contribute fully to the nation and retain their cores even if conquered.
- Provinces of diplomatically annexed vassals or integrated personal union partners always get full cores. The provinces will still need to be made into states if they aren't already, but there is no
admin power cost for doing so. - A country can have a limited number of states, the maximum being partly based on
administrative technology.
- Government rank, type and reforms, along with Traditions, Ideas and Bonuses, can also affect the maximum number of states.
- Government rank, type and
- Having more territories than the max number of states gives *
+0.02% per territory over max number of states (capped at +0.8%, with 40 territories over).
Notes: Do note that [1] revoking the status of a state (back to a territory) will not refund the administrative points used for the province coring (the cores will turn into territorial cores) and they'll be lost. Re-establishing the same territory into a state again requires fully coring the provinces anew; [2] assigning states in trade company regions prevents formation of trade companies (existing ones will be removed); [3] assigning states in colonial regions will not prevent colonial nations from forming in those provinces.
State maintenance[edit]
|
|
This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.21. |
A state requires monthly monetary upkeep in the form of 
State maintenance.
The state maintenance is determined by the following:
|
Modifier |
|---|---|
| +0.007 | Per  development level
|
| +0.001 | Per unit distance from the  capital
|
| +25% |
|
| +200% | Active edict |
| -50% | Capital state |
|
|
Traditions | Ideas | Bonuses | Policies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| −25% | — |
|
— | — |
| −20% | — | — | — |
|
| −15% |
|
|
|
— |
Maximum number of states[edit]
|
|
This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.28. |
Each nation has a base value of 
10 States. Addition modifiers are then applied as follows:
When is enabled, the bonus number of states is the sum of all tiers of reforms that contribute. In Legacy mode, it simply depends on the government type.
|
Government Rank |
|---|---|
| +10 |  Empire
|
| +5 |  Kingdom
|
| 0 |  Duchy
|
|
|
Adm Tech (cumulative) |
|---|---|
| 0 | level 1 |
| +3 | level 8 |
| +6 | level 12 |
| +11 | level 17 |
| +16 | level 20 |
| +21 | level 24 |
| +26 | level 27 |
| +31 | level 31 |
|
|
Government Type (Legacy mode) |
|---|---|
| +1 |
|
| 0 |
|
|
|
Government Type (Legacy mode) |
|---|---|
| +10 |
|
| +5 |
|
| +3 |
|
| +2 |
|
|
|
Government Reforms
|
|---|---|
| +5 | |
| +3 | |
| +2 |
|
| +1 |
|
| -3 |
|
|
|
Traditions | Ideas | Bonuses | Policies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +5 |
|
|
|
— |
| +3 | — |
|
— | — |
Other sources:
Russia in Age of Revolutions can enable the "Russian Empire" splendor ability, that allows to have 20 additional States. (Requires 
Mandate of Heaven)- Completing the "Enforce a Commonwealth" mission in the
Lithuania mission tree grants a "Integrated Polish Nobility" modifier that provides 3 additional states until the end of the game. - Completing the "Conquer Bengal" mission in the
Taungu mission tree grants a "Burmese Expansionism" modifier that provides 3 additional states until the end of the game.
- Example (Maximum possible number of states in game excluding the use of custom nations
)
If Russia is an Empire rank (+10), has enacted tier 1 reform Tsardom (+5) and tier 6 reform L’etat c’est moi (+5), has completed both Expansionist and Administrative ideas (+5 each), has Administrative tech level 31 (+31) and has "Russian Empire" splendor ability (+20), then:
State edicts[edit]
 |
Available only with the Mandate of Heaven DLC enabled. |
In each state, a state edict can optionally be enacted. This applies a bonus to all owned and cored provinces in the state, including any territorial cores. All edicts cost +200% state maintenance, a penalty that is applied before any further modifier to state maintenance.
Once enacted, an edict cannot be adjusted for one year. After this time has passed, it becomes possible to remove or replace the edict.
The 'States & Territories' page on the ledger shows the current edict for each state, if any. This can be useful for keeping track of edicts in a large country with many states.
The first three ages each have a special edict associated with them. These edicts can be unlocked by spending Splendor on the relevant age ability, but such edicts will only be usable until the end of that age.
List of available edicts[edit]
| Edict | Effect |
|---|---|
| Advancement Effort |  +33% Institution spread
|
| Centralization Effort | −0.03 Monthly autonomy change
|
| Defensive Edict |  +33% Local defensiveness
|
| Encourage Development |  −10% Local development cost
|
| Feudal De Jure Law |  −5 Local unrest
|
| Religion Enforced |  +90% Resistance to reformation
|
| Edict of Absolutism |  −0.25 Monthly devastation
|
| Promote Military Recruitment |  +25% Local manpower modifier
|
| Protect Trade |  +50% Local trade power
|
| Enforce Religious Unity |  +1% Local missionary strength
|
Prosperity[edit]
|
|
Available only with the Mandate of Heaven DLC enabled. |
States in which every province has 0% devastation may become prosperous when the 
stability of owner country is positive. Prosperity gives the following benefits:
|
|
The following table may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1.28. |
|
−10% | Local development cost |
|
+25% | Local goods produced modifier |
|
−0.05 | Monthly autonomy change |
Each such state has a chance of increasing its progress towards being prosperous by +1% each month, until progress reaches 100%. The chance is 5% for each ruler skill point; for example, a ruler with 3 / 
3 / 
3 gives provinces a 45% chance of progressing. If any province in a state has devastation, it instead decays by −2 per month.
Strategy[edit]
Choosing territories to promote to states[edit]
Since each country may only have a limited number of states, it can be helpful to carefully choose which territories will be promoted to states, rather than promoting indiscriminately.
The following types of territory may be good candidates for promotion:
- Territories with high total development. The 'States & Territories' page in the ledger may be helpful for identifying such territories. Among other information, this page lists each territory and its total development, and the list may be sorted by total development.
- Territories with high total development and require religious conversion: provinces in territories and with an unaccepted population culture has a missionary strength modifier of -4%. In contrast, provinces in states can promote cultures to become acceptable and can enact "Enforce Religious Unity" for a modifier of +1%, a net difference of +5%. Also, provinces with high total development are already more difficult to convert to begin with.
- Territories with valuable trade goods (especially gold). States allow the full production potential of such provinces to be tapped.
- Territories with high tax provinces may be particularly good candidates in the early game, when tax may account for a larger proportion of a country's income.
- Territories with a center of trade and cannot be added to a trade company, as Centers of Trade cannot be upgraded beyond level 1 when they are located in territories.
Temporary states[edit]
Even if the player does not plan on turning a territory into a permanent state (e.g. because the territory has low total development), it can be useful to turn such territories into 'temporary states'. This is achieved by promoting to state as normal, but leaving all provinces as territorial cores rather than fully coring then.
Such 'temporary' states will not be as productive as fully-cored states, but they will still receive useful benefits, such as a free reduction to minimum autonomy and the ability to apply state edicts.
Temporary states can be demoted back to territories at any time, to allow more valuable areas to become states. It is worth noting the following downsides of demoting a state to a territory:
- All full cores in the temporary state will revert to territorial cores. This is generally not a problem if the player refrains from full-coring the provinces in the temporary states. However, it can result in the unexpected loss of full cores from integrated subjects.
- If autonomy was manually increased after forming the temporary state, the effects of this autonomy increase will be lost.
Reducing devastation in states[edit]
The benefits from a state becoming prosperous can be quite valuable. Since states may only become prosperous if their provinces contain no devastation, it can be worthwhile to check on the devastation level of recently conquered states.
Devastation ticks down naturally in unoccupied provinces. However, if devastation is particularly high in a province, it may take years or even decades for the devastation to tick down to zero. In such cases, it may be useful to manually reduce the devastation in that province, e.g. by developing that province.
Culture switching[edit]
Only provinces in states are counted when determining the majority culture. In order to switch primary cultures, you can convert states of your old culture to territories, and convert territories having the culture you want to switch to to states. By switching cultures, one can form any nation as long as they hold the required provinces as cores and the nation they start as isn't an end game tag. This can be advantageous, especially in forming a nation to move your capital into Europe to create trade companies in Africa and Asia. A notable example is if you start as the Mamluks, conquer some lands with Turkish culture, convert your states with Egyptian and Syrian culture to territories, and convert the newly conquered Turkish land into states, you can switch your primary culture to Turkish, allowing you to form 
Rûm for their powerful ideas and Ottoman Government form (after you eliminate the Ottomans). This also comes with the added benefit of moving your capital into Europe, which lets you use your close proximity to India and ease of controlling the Gulf of Aden to make a lot of ducats from trade from India.
Forming Trade Companies[edit]
Expanding towards trade company regions is a good way to (eventually) reduce territories which contribute to corruption, as the nation forms trade companies. This strategy works best for nations with capitals which are not located in Asia or Africa (16 trade regions to choose from); nations with capitals located in Africa still have 13 trade regions to choose from.
| Management | Capital • Core • Culture • Religion • Rebellion • Autonomy • List of provinces |
| Economy | Development • Tax • Production • Buildings • Manpower • Sailors |
