It seems that Westernization for many Eastern nations is pretty easy (simply done through a 'Western Focus' decision that merely requires having certain cored provinces). They will be able to diplo-annex, and will be able to make more effective use of the Expansion CB. So basically, Eastern countries seem far superior for expanding into Asia. Eastern countries do not have this problem, because their presence does not allow westernization. If you're Western, this allows your neighbors to Westernize their way out of your CB, making it harder to take their territory. But the problem is that you can't use it against a Westernized nation. This is invaluable even better than the Imperialism CB that you will later get. Specifically, you get 50% warscore cost, 50% aggressive expansion, and 0 diplomatic points for taking provinces against every Asian country in an Asian tech group. But the key issue here is Expansion, which has an incredible CB for expansion in Asia. It merely seems to make neighboring nations more powerful if you leave them alone for a while and allow them to tech up. Of course, since the units aren't better, this isn't a huge deal on its face. On the flipside, when you are Western, your expansionary presence in Asia allows those countries to Westernize. So all the diplo-annexation strategies work for Eastern countries in Asia but not for Western countries.Ģ.

Eastern countries can vassalize these countries. Their tech level is considered too high, so they can only have protectorates. Western tech group nations cannot vassalize Asian countries. Meanwhile, Eastern tech group seems far better suited for expansion into Asia, for a couple reasons:ġ. They'd probably get very low piety from attacking other Muslim nations in the area, and suddenly there's no tech gap at all.Īll that is to say that the benefit of Western tech group over Eastern is minimal. And Eastern countries that expand into the middle east could even convert to Islam. Meanwhile, eastern countries can now fairly easily get 'Western Arms Trade,' for a 10% bonus. The Western tech group of course also has an advantage in tech costs. But the differences are small, and your units don't change when you Westernize anyways. The units are roughly the same, with Eastern units being better early, and Western units better later. So it was unquestionable that the Western tech group was the best to be in.

It used to be that Western units were far superior to other units, and when you westernized, you got those better units. I'm coming back to the game after a while.

Eu4 best tech group