Editing Europa Universalis (section)

==Basic concepts==
This will cover the basic concepts and mechanics of EU4. 

===Picking your State===
So have booted up your game and are overwhelmed by the world map with its myriad of nations. The game reflects the political situation of the world in the closing days of the year 1444 AD. From here you can choose any one of the nations that are on the map, doesn't matter if it is a fiefdom in the Holy Roman Empire roughly the size of a stamp or the (at the start at least) gigantic Chinese Empire of the Ming Dynasty. Every Nation has a primary culture, state religion and technology group assigned to it. The first two can be changed (although it is usually not the best of ideas for beginners), the third cannot. Your technology group determines what technology level you start at and if you get penalties for institutions (more on those later). The "beginner-friendly" nations that you get presented with when you look at the world map is deceptive; only Castile, Portugal and France would reasonably qualify for that label. What you really look for when starting a new game is not that important, as your starting monarch will likely be already be pretty old and the game itself tends to favor very heavy snowbally gamestyles anyway. More on recommended nations later. 

===Monarch Points===
These things are what drive your game. Your income of these basically determines if you will become a global empire or remain a swampy, insignificant backwater. There are three kinds of Monarch Points: Administration, Diplomacy and Miliary. Administration serves as a representative of your Nations bureaucratic efficiency, mainly how good your pencil pushers are at collecting taxes and expanding the administration of newly, erm aquired territory. Diplomacy is a representation of your nations diplomatic and mercantile esteem and is involved in everything related to Naval, Colonial and matters of trade and of course, Diplomacy. Diplomacy also is a vital resource in warfare, as you need to spend points to force your opponent to sign the conditions of peace. Military is not as straightforward as you might think, as it mainly serves as a representation of the ability of the state to wage war, rather than strengthening your military directly. You generally spend military points to increase the amount of Manpower you have available, raise war taxes and subdue rebellions before they become a problem. 

The basic rate of income of Monarch Points is determined by the abilites of your current ruler, be it a monarchy, a theocracy or a republic. By opening the "court" ledger, you can see your ruler, his spouse and your heir and their stats. The game tends to give smaller nations better rulers and vice versa. So for example, your King, let's call him Friedrich, King of Saxony has a statline of 4/2/3, that means he will generate 4 administrative, 2 diplomatic and 3 military points per months. The income from your monarch merely determines your baseline income that can be modified in a number of ways, mainly by employing advisors to the court that will basically turn money into additional monarch points. 

So what are the specific usecases of monarch points then? This article will only go into the most common things you will be using them for, as listing them all would take up too much space. 
*Development: You can spend monarch points to develop one of your provinces, to increase its wealth and value for your nation. This basically represents the level of population density and industry that is accumulating in that province. Provinces that are highly developed have multiple benefits; they are harder to conquer because they demand a higher diplomatic cost from any attacker to annex them, they produce more goods that can be sold to the world market and they provide more manpower for your armies. Development however generally tends to be on the low end of priorities you should get sorted, as spending too many MP on development tends you leave you broke for other things that need your attention. 
*Technology: Your #1 priority is to stay up-to-date with the technological development of your neighbors. For that, you need to spend monarch points of the kind of technology you want to invest in. Administrative Technology provides new idea groups, diplomatic technology ship types, factories and colonial range and military everything you would want for your army. 
*Ideas: Ideas are unlocked via administrative technology and represents general cultural ideals your nations strives towards. Ideas are also what determines your playstyle much more than your general location or the nation you play as. They are, just like technology, sorted into the three kinds of monarch points. Ideas provide general, usually pretty powerful bonuses for your nation (not to mention that you need Exploration to even unlock Colonialism as a mechanic). 
*Events: It's in the name. The game triggers certain events in your nation when the prerequisites are met; some are positive, many are negative and add a certain amount of randomness to your playthrough. Most of the negative events can be circumvented by paying a price in Monarch points; avoid this if the consequences aren't too severe (i.e. spending 100 Dip to prevent your ships costing 50% more money for 12 months is a bad choice when you only have a small navy). 

===Money=== 
Where monarch points are abstract to the max, money is very simple. You get money through taxes, trade, looting and industry, you lose money by spending it on buildings or soldiers, to maintain the upkeep of your state or being forced to pay reparations. Money only represents the general state of your treasury, not the actual treasury in itself and as such, is very superflous. Taking on loans is a common way to fight wars (and in turn, use the money you pressed out of your opponent to pay back said loans) and only becomes a problem when you have too much of it, although its of course always better to avoid loans. There is also the possibility of devaluing your currency, which gives you a lot of money instantly, but increases your nations corruption, which is to be avoided at all costs (Corruption inceases MP costs across the board and is ridiculously costly to get rid of). Finally, if your nation is so broke either option is not available, you can declare your bankruptcy, which clears all your loans but gives nations you have lent money from a casus belli, fucks your nation sideways in every respect and should therefore be even harder avoided than corruption.

===Provinces===
What your nation is made of. Provinces are your territory and as such provide the basis for your nation. The most important factors of a province are the level of its development, buildings and if its a core province or not. When you annex new provinces from an opposing nation, usually through a war, they start out as territories, meaning that they are merely de jure part of your Nation and your administration doesn't actually cover it yet. You spend administration points to core provinces you aquired in a war; if you gain provinces through colonization, annexing vassals, junior partners or inheriting them, this isn't necessesary. Every province has a trade good assigned to it, representing its primary export, and trade goods have a value assigned to them that changes over the course of a game. 

===Trade goods===
Trade goods are a representation of the primary export of any one province. How much of the trade good is produced is determined by production, increased by developing a province with Diplomatic points, Prduction efficiency, which is increased through diplomatic technology and if a Manufactory is present or not. The trade value of these goods is vital to securing a strong economy, so there are better and worse goods whose values change at historical dates when certain triggers are met, although some goods remain good exports throughout the entirety of a campaign. Generally speaking, exotic trade goods like spices and silk are highly valueable and remain so until the end of the game and agricultural products like Grain, Livestock and Fish are pretty terrible. There are two trade goods that have their own unique mechanics: Gold and coal. Gold by itself doesn't generate any trade value and will not be traded on the world market like the other goods, a gold producing province will instead directly generate money in your treasury. This comes at a price though: Overreliance on gold for income causes inflation to rise, which makes everything in your nation more expensive and developing your Gold producing provinces risks the gold mines running dry, which HALVES the income of the province affected by this, cumulatively. The second is coal. Coal will start spawning in the late game (1700s onwards) once you crossed techological thresholds and then become the single most valueable trade good in the game. Coal is also special in that it is the only trade good tied to a building, the Blast Furnace which will crank up the production rates of all goods in your nation by 5% per Furnace built.