User Guide

26
PROVINCE
MANAGEMENT
Overview
As we said in the previous chapter, the map of
the world is divided into approximately 1700
provinces. Approximately 450 of these are wa-
ter provinces, while the balance of them will
contain at least some amount of land. Land
provinces are the building blocks of countries.
Every country must own at least one province
in order to survive, and only land provinces
can be owned. When the game begins, there
are usually more than 200 countries that ex-
ist somewhere in the world, although the exact
number will depend on the starting date you
have chosen. Each individual province con-
tributes a number of things to the country that
owns it, so before we can look at things on a
national scale we must first take a close look at
this critical component of your realm.
Province Ownership
and Control
Land provinces will always either be owned by
a country, or be “vacant” and available for colo-
nization. There is a very important distinction
we must stress between ownership and control.
• Province Ownership:
Unless it has not yet
been colonized, every land province (in-
cluding islands) will be owned by a coun-
try. Provinces that are owned by your realm
will contribute income to your country in
the form of monthly tax revenues. They are
also the source of the manpower you will
need to recruit regiments, build ships, and
replace any combat or attrition losses you
suffer. The residents of the province are
effectively the population of your country.
Other nations’ armies are prohibited from
entering provinces that you own unless they
are at war with you or have diplomatically
obtained your permission to allow them
“military access.”
• Province Control:
Under normal circum-
stances, the country that owns a province
will also control it. However, during times
of war or rebellion, an enemy army may
move into a province and overcome its
defences. When this happens, the control
of the province will change, but the own-
ership does not. Ownership can only be
transferred as a result of a peace agreement,
a diplomatic purchase of land, or outright
rebellion of a province’s population. Unless
a province is owned and controlled by the
same country, it will not contribute in any
way to either country’s economy or mili-
tary.
• Un-owned Provinces:
Depending on the
starting date you have chosen, some prov-
inces may not be owned by any country at
the beginning of the game. Any country
is free to move its army into that province,
and any country may send a colonist to the
province in an attempt to establish a basic
settlement. Ownership is not established
until a settlement attempt has been success-
ful, at which point it becomes part of that
country.
Province control may seesaw back and forth be-
tween antagonists during a war, but ownership
of a province can only change when it is ceded
to another country as part of a peace negotia-
tion. If a country is forced to cede its very last
province to an enemy, it will cease to exist and
is eliminated from play. Control of a province
is immediately and automatically returned to
the country that owns it at the end of a war.
We’ll talk about the details of this in the Di-
plomacy chapter.
The one exception to this rule involves a colony
that has not yet grown large enough to become
a full-fledged colonial city. During war, owner-
ship can be transferred immediately if an ene-
my gains control of the province, although this
does not happen automatically. We provide de-
tails of this in the chapter on Colonisation.
Province ownership can only change in
three other ways: