While I find it a rather boring approach, it is undoubtedly one of the most common endgame goals for most. To achieve that, you will have to conquer the world. Conquering the entire world after a certain point in the game is less of a difficult and more of a tedious task. Even the most well-equipped computers can experience lag in the very late game! The tedious nature of this task can be alleviated by picking certain idea groups. The idea groups discussed in this list are excellent for world conquest campaigns (or blobbing campaigns in general). They both make the task easier and less tedious in the later stages.
5. Offensive
Offensive ideas offer excellent military bonuses, especially regarding your, well, offensive capabilities. Who would have thought, huh? An increase to discipline along with a slightly larger force limit will make your armies stronger on the field of battle. T he extra siege ability is a scarce bonus; while not immediately obvious, it allows you to close wars earlier, which is invaluable when trying to conquer the globe. The bonuses to your generals’ pips are also awesome. They find more value the earlier you pick them, although unlocking the group very early isn’t always ideal, depending on your campaign. However, if your goal is simply to have the world fully conquered before the end date (meaning that you aren’t speedrunning), picking the group early is a valid course of action. Even if you eventually give up on the idea of world conquest, offensive will be helpful early on against your enemies!
4. Quantity
Quantity gives you everything you want military-wise to conduct large scale and simultaneous wars in the late game. Quantity’s spot on the lower half of the list along with offensive is due to military ideas being less important in singleplayer campaigns. Since all world conquest campaigns are singleplayer, you can always cheese and outsmart the AI. Simply snowballing out of control with a strong nation in the early game can render all military opposition moot. However, picking quantity will certainly make your life easier. Handling large scale, multi-front wars becomes much easier when your manpower is significantly pumped up. The cheaper troops can also come in handy if you find yourself short on money. While these military idea groups are not a necessity, they are a significant improvement on quality of life when trying to paint the entire map in your nation’s color.
3. Humanist
The humanist idea group provides all the tools necessary for pacifying a large, multi-ethnic, and religiously diverse empire. If you are aiming for world dominance, your empire is bound to be just that. Of course, if you want to also go for a one-faith achievement, religious ideas should be picked instead. You can also consider religious ideas if your nation has buffs to provinces with the state religion (e.g., any orthodox country, Byzantium). In all other cases, humanist ideas are exactly what you are looking for when you start going ham after absolutism kicks in. Tired of constant rebels due to separatism? Well you‘ll have to suffer none of that anymore. The improve relations modifier can make it slightly easier to avoid coalitions, although coalitions in the late game tend to be a non-factor. You are just too strong by that point.
2. Administrative
Administrative ideas get the second place on the list, and for good reason. They’re the idea group aimed at empires that want to expand a lot. The main reasons for picking it are the reduction to core creation (which you are going to do a lot of, trust me) and the extra governing capacity. Back in the day, the reduction to core creation would’ve been a must. A necessity for any nation wanting to conquer the world that didn’t have access to it through their own national ideas. Nowadays, with the territories and states mechanic, the modifier is less important. The same is true for the mercenary buffs. While not as strong as back in the day, mercenaries are still useful, and the administrative ideas buffs make fielding more of them a consideration. With the change making core creation less valuable, administrative ideas are no longer a necessity for world conquests, which is good. Variety and options are always something positive. The group is still strong enough though, and I encourage all aspiring world conquerors to pick it!
1. Diplomatic
Diplomatic ideas have cemented themselves as the top choice in world conquest campaigns. Their bonuses come into play both early and late game. Boy, where to even begin? Let’s start with the extra diplomatic relation and reputation. If you’re going for vassals, which you should if trying to optimize, these two bonuses simply make your life easier. Next, you have two extra diplomats and an improve relations bonus. These help with vassals, sure, but their power lies elsewhere. You can have more diplomats improving relations with nations that are close to joining coalitions against you! With a high enough opinion, they will never join. Then, there’s the reduction to warscore cost for provinces. Plain and simple, this allows you to conquer more land in each war. It scales with administrative efficiency and can lead to ridiculous landgrabs in the very late game. The cherry on top of all this is the bonus for unlocking all ideas in the group. This provides “reduced stability cost for diplomatic actions”. What this means is that you can break royal marriages and truces for a significantly reduced cost on your stability. It can come in handy against large nations if you’re short on time in the late game! Easy annulment of marriages allows you to fish for personal unions in the early game.
Honorable Mention: Horde
Hordes are a prime candidate when considering nations for world conquest campaigns. In fact, the most powerful nation in-game for that purpose is the Oirat confederation, a horde! Naturally, this idea group is only available to steppe nomads. That’s why I decided against including this inside the actual ranking itself – but it still deserves a mention here. The idea set its tailored to the typical horde gameplay. It buffs your cavalry and gives you the tools to keep a large multi-ethnic, religious diverse empire in check. The horde idea group combos extremely well with the humanist idea group. They provide similar bonuses that stack on top of each other, ensuring you’ll never lay eyes on a rebellion again.
