How to Increase Control (& Reduce Proximity Cost) in Europa Universalis 5

In Europa Universalis 5, control is a key factor for success. Players should always focus on increasing their control over the provinces they own. Higher control means more taxes, faster population growth and conversion, and greater royal authority. This guide will show you how to boost your control in Europa Universalis 5 and get the most out of your territories.

You can check what’s influencing your control of an area by clicking on it, then hovering over the key icon and the percentage next to ‘Maximum Control’. Also, remember that control expands outwards from your capital city, and you can easily see this on the control map filter.

Proximity & Control in Europa Universalis 5

Several things affect how much control an area has in the EU5, but its distance from the capital city is the most complicated. Essentially, proximity measures how easy it is to travel from a location to the capital. The closer a location is to the capital, the more control it has.

Essentially, we want to make locations seem closer together, and we achieve this by lowering the ‘proximity cost’ between them. For instance, imagine a place within Hungary to help illustrate what we mean by proximity cost:

Győr is located west of Budapest, Hungary’s capital city. The town of Tata lies directly between them. Traveling from Budapest to Győr therefore involves two segments: first from Budapest to Tata, and then from Tata to Győr. Each segment has a ‘cost’ associated with how easy it is to traverse, considering things like the landscape and plant life.

To understand how much extra it costs to travel to a location, hover your mouse over the star and sign icon in its details panel. Then, move your mouse over the movement numbers to see a breakdown of the costs.

To reduce the costs associated with being near something, players need to find ways to move more easily between their location and that thing. Here are three methods to achieve this:

Roads

In Europa Universalis V, if your units travel between locations overland, you can construct roads to lower the cost of movement. The first roads available, gravel roads, reduce movement costs by 20 for each space traveled. You’ll unlock better road types as you progress. This guide will help new players understand how to build roads, and here’s a quick overview:

Select the capital.
Click on Roads on the left side of the location pane.
Click on the location that you want to connect with a road.

Harbor Capacity & Maritime Presence

When moving units between sea zones, players can reduce movement costs by improving their harbors and increasing their naval strength. Harbor capacity, found at every coastal location, affects how expensive it is to move from that location into a neighboring sea zone. For instance, consider Denmark as an example to illustrate this concept:

Traveling from Roskilde to Odense involves three stages: first, from Roskilde to the Oresund strait; second, through the Oresund strait to the Storebaelt strait; and finally, from the Storebaelt strait to Odense. The initial part of the journey is limited by how much traffic Roskilde’s harbor can handle, while the final leg is limited by Odense’s harbor capacity.

To see how many ships a location can hold, click on it. Then, move your mouse over the anchor icon at the bottom of the information box that appears.

A location’s harbor capacity is largely determined by its natural features, but you can improve it by building port structures like Wharfs. These buildings make it cheaper to move into nearby sea zones and also create sailors, who are essential for building up your naval power.

You can only build wharfs in towns. To upgrade a rural settlement into a town, simply click the town icon in its information panel. If you want to build a town with a good harbor, focus on rural settlements that are naturally well-suited for harbors – you can find these easily by using the natural harbor suitability filter on the map.

Once you’ve gathered enough sailors, you can build ships to expand your naval power in different coastal areas. These areas, called provinces, are grouped together just like land regions, and you can view them on the map. Having a strong naval presence in a sea area makes it cheaper and easier to move ships between those areas, helping you control the waters.

Following the previous example, traveling between the Oresund and Storebaelt sea zones is affected by how many ships are already there. Sending ships into the Danish Sea, which includes these zones, will increase the naval presence and make that travel less costly in terms of distance.

Development

How built-up an area is affects how expensive it is to move through. This ‘development’ level shows how much the land has been cultivated, and you can increase it quickly for a province by using a special order. The order you’ll want to use is called ‘Develop Province,’ and here’s how to start it:

Navigate to the Government tab.
Select the Cabinet tab.
Assign Develop Province to one of the cabinet action slots.
Select a province you want to target.
Appoint a cabinet member to the action (preferably one with a high administrative ability stat).

Other Ways to Increase Control in Europa Universalis 5

You can gain control over an area without being physically close to it. Here are a couple of methods for doing so:

Increase Province Control Cabinet Action

Players can gain more control over their territories by using the Increase Province Control action. This action works just like the Develop Province action and is a good way to quickly take ownership of multiple locations.

Provinces contain several locations, and the ‘Increase Province Control’ action impacts all of them. When you start this action and choose a province, you’ll see a list of the locations within it. You can also view the map grouped by provinces using the province map filter.

Average Satisfaction

How happy people are in a certain area affects how well you control it. Players in EU5 should focus on keeping their populations content by ensuring things like high estate satisfaction and meeting their needs. You can check the overall happiness of an area and understand what’s influencing it by taking these steps:

Click on a location.
Hover over the green mask near the top-left corner of the information pane. This will bring up a tooltip that shows all the different pops in the location, the satisfaction of those individual pops, and the overall average satisfaction.
Hover over the percentage associated with one of the pops. This will give you a look at the factors that are influencing their satisfaction, allowing you to understand their needs.

2025-11-05 20:07