Succession Game discussion thread

Don't know what happend, but since 16.00 I was unable to access the forums.

@ Emperor_krk -> I always disliked the idea of "optimal" DP settings. But it seems I'm minority in here, so I'm not going to be a fanatic. Still, don't expect me to follow your serfdom policy

As for objectives - KoI is a must indeed. There are three ways to become one; either by having good relationship with Austria, Papal States or by having them both vassalised. Needless to say, the third option is the hardest one. Additional conditions are having high stability (no problem) and being either catholic or counter-reform. The deadline for the event is the Edict of Tolerance.

One we become KoI, turning reformed seems the best option. We should ASAP forge an alliance with other reformed/protestant countries (England and Switzerland sound nice) and decide what to do. I'd vote for aiding the Hugenots during the religious wars, or even invading France and releasing them as vassals if Henry IV event sequence takes place. FRA is NOT invincible, remember

As catholic, we should limit our conquests to North Italy. Interferring with Austria or Papal States is hardly acceptable, since good relations with them are essential to grab the crown. Unless, of course, someone attempts to vassalise them both. Good luck.

Once we become Italy (if done before the Reformation), I think we should try to do some roleplay, supporting the side that gave us the crown. While involved in Italian Wars, we can try to grab Savoy and create a base to expand into France. Then, with the first monarch change after the Reformation, we change religion and get postal

Removing Savoy is a must as well - IIRC, after the MLO monarchs run out, the game replaces them with SAV ones ;p Correct me if you made some changes there, Yoda.

And BTW, what does AI aggressiveness exactly change? I tried playing on furious, but the game got even easier; huge blobs have been instatly consumed after being formed, AIs failed to form stable alliances and so on...

EDIT: Colonisation? Not again, please

Some good goals there, Jedrek.

The House of Savoy was the line that historically came to be kings of Italy, so it does make sense for them to take over. Granted it was through land and prestige gained during the war of the Spanish Succession, but I suppose if Italy came about a couple centuries before that, they'd find their way to the top somehow. Its been a while since I've played as Savoy, but I think they have some pretty decent monarchs in the mix.

Moving into France is all to worthwhile to avoid as well, and could be a good mid-game challenge. Certainly they aren't invincible. We need to remember that in case Louis XII comes knocking on our door.

Yoda might explain more thoroughly than I could, if necessary, but my understanding is that Weakling is the preferred setting specifically because of the conditions that you described under furious. There are no stable alliances, Europe is constantly at war, and with the crazy belligerent AI nations weakened by the steady warfare the game is entirely too easy and ridiculously ahistorical.

Olav said:

Even if choose Protestant or Reformed, I think we should secure the neighbouring mountain provinces (the Alps), that is Provence, Savoie, the two Swiss provinces, Tirol, Steiermark and Krain. That could create some interesting mountain wars against France and Austria.

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Definitely. These will be an excellent bulwark in the event of BB wars or mid-high pseudo BB wars. We could just build the forts to medium and let the AI attrition themselves out. (Especially Krain. Who here doesn't know what a bastard Krain can be to siege...)

My dream KoI consists of Savoy, Northern Italy, Switzerland and Tirol, with two vassals (Hugenots and Pope/Neapol) guarding our flanks. To protects out seazones, I'd reccomend setting up a strong base on Corsica and Sardinia, plus invading Spain to create a reformed Catalunya (a move which turned out to be very successful during my BYZ AGCEEP Nappy campaign). With Mediterraean dominated and Tirol fortified as the main line of defence against the Big White Blob, we could either move to colonisation (not again...) or to painting the Big White Blob Green (forward, protestant Hungary!)

And to hell with Louis XII. The patched and updated 14.0 version is much more pain in the ass

Good points everyone. I like Jedrek's reformed Catalunya idea, it sounds really fun.

About our future borders - I'd stick with taking all Italian cultured provinces. Afterwards, as I am - like Jedrek - not a huge fan of colonial expansion (I mean, right, a few colonies here and there don't hurt anyone, they are even profitable, just... I find colonizing one of the more boring aspects of the game), I'd try to take as many reformed provinces as possible - especially southern France (of course) and Switzerland. Plus Tirol, for obvious reasons I guess. If that's still not enough, we might want to recreate this yellow 843 thing seen here ():

Krk also touches on an interesting question regarding our goals. Do we want to seek the new world or focus on our conquering in the old? It really could direct our DP moves early on (as Olav indicated, we may actually want to go naval), and we may want to get friendly with Portugal early on if we're looking to go overseas.

If we're worth a damn in our game play, it shouldn't be all that long before we get ourselves a port, though. (Let's be realistic) DP moves during our early landlocked time will probably be mostly toward Centralization.

Click to expand...

I didn't express correctly what I had intended: We will be too busy fighting wars, establishing the KoI, repelling the rampant French, Spanish and Austrians to be able to do any exploration/colonization attempts before about 1550-1600.

About possible vassals/buffer zones after creating Italy: I'd say Bavaria for Germany, some Slavonic minor or, preferably, Hungary - against Austria, maybe Navarra against the Spanish and French, if possible?
Though, these goals above are a bit far-fetched and optimistic .

When it comes to fighting against the BWB (aka Austria), I'd prefer using Hungary. Should we conquer Venice and establish strong naval presence on the Adriatic, an invasion on Dalmatia and Croatia should take place. Then, using the gained powerbase, we should move into Hungary and establish a reformed vassal state.

I know this plan is very risky (the Turks aren't sleeping), so I guess it should be executed only if Austria becomes too powerful for the Turkish to handle. But it has one advantage over Bavaria or Styria - it gives us already reformed provinces to liberate.

I assume that we need quick naval connection with our buffer states - this means that Catalunya (or Aragon) have advantage over Navarra. Should we attempt to seize continental hegemony, a strong state in the North (perhaps a Czech-Polish union?) should be present to counter Russia.

Everyone interested may want to know that Jedrek has already posted the first report for out new succession game, Serpents in Lombardian Heaven!

Wow. Thanks for adding the link, actually. I don't know if I'd have seen it, as I now work entirely too much from my subscribed threads list now that we are without dots on this forum. /griping

hehehe back
As for my my way of acting, well I am The Conqueror, I will expand as much and plausibly as possible and always take the event choices that throw me into wars never caring for safety or stability