Originally posted by Mescalhead
What is the best way to get a strong economy and to speed up research?
There's not much to do in terms of economy other than improving trade (through research and merchants) and also researching and improving infrastructure.
As for research, I tend to put all my research efforts into one technology at a time. I always go for infrastructure first so I can improve, and make more efficient, my provinces.
But the simplest way of increasing income is increasing land.
Originally posted by Mescalhead
Is it possible to have a surplus without incurring inflation?
Make sure you have the latest patch and beta.
Your governors (I think it's governors) will battle inflation every year and reduce it by a certain percentage, though this only goes against the increase from having a surplus. But if you have a lot of them you should be able to keep inflation in check.
But to answer your question, you can't really make any money from monthly incomes without incurring large amounts of inflation. After a while, provided you're strong enough, you should be able to live off your annual income. This doesn't affect your inflation and will allow you to keep monthly income, and therefore inflation, down.
Originally posted by Mescalhead
What is the best way to gain leverage in the peace process in order to annex a single-territory nation in addition to annihilating their army and then sieging?
Well, just siege the province until you control it. Then you go can go to the peace negotiations and do whatever you like, basically. You'll have balance of war 100% in your favour so there's not much you can't get. If you offer annexation they have to accept.
