I started a game as England in IN. I have no particular desire to battle France on the continent (there is a thread on that topic somewhere, but no thread on a more Island based strategy) I have several thoughts - the basic strategy absent a serious early effort to expand the foothold on the continent seems to be trade plus colonization - but still some questions:
(1) Annexing Scotland as a prelude to forming GB has the unfortunate effect of slowing down research (adding several poor, non-core, provinces really hurts there - no increase in income to speak of, but higher research costs). I tried vassalizing them, but they DOWed on me soon after! I assume that was mission related (I haven't checked yet), but the question is, how to deal with Scotland?
(1b) Or are the advantages of forming the UK enough to justify the slower research?
(2) To pursue the above strategy, it seems to me the best bet is the good old boring (a) focus trade till level 7, (b) get QFTNW, switch idea to QFTNW, taking the stability hit, (c) get the Azores (obviously hoping Portugal doesn't get the mission), then (d) focus on government for your second idea and naval for colonization range while waiting 50 years for the core on the Azores, (e) get one of the trade ideas for your second idea, and so on. Is that basically correct or am I missing something?
(3) France. (a) what about the 3 provinces on the continent? They really aren't defendable absent a really aggressive military strategy. France tends to DOW every 5 years or so. They seem to offer white peaces pretty readily, but the wars are still a bit of a PITA. Yet I don't want to just give the provinces to France, as they are a long term enemy and I don't want to help them. Maybe give Calais to Burgundy and the other two to Brittany? If I keep the provinces, someone suggested a "raiding" strategy to keep France weak. What are people's thoughts on these issues?
(4) Ireland - is there really much point to conquering Ireland? Obviously not without the mission. With the mission, there are cores in the offing, very tempting. But again we're talking 4 very poor provinces. Thoughts?
(1) Annexing Scotland as a prelude to forming GB has the unfortunate effect of slowing down research (adding several poor, non-core, provinces really hurts there - no increase in income to speak of, but higher research costs). I tried vassalizing them, but they DOWed on me soon after! I assume that was mission related (I haven't checked yet), but the question is, how to deal with Scotland?
(1b) Or are the advantages of forming the UK enough to justify the slower research?
(2) To pursue the above strategy, it seems to me the best bet is the good old boring (a) focus trade till level 7, (b) get QFTNW, switch idea to QFTNW, taking the stability hit, (c) get the Azores (obviously hoping Portugal doesn't get the mission), then (d) focus on government for your second idea and naval for colonization range while waiting 50 years for the core on the Azores, (e) get one of the trade ideas for your second idea, and so on. Is that basically correct or am I missing something?
(3) France. (a) what about the 3 provinces on the continent? They really aren't defendable absent a really aggressive military strategy. France tends to DOW every 5 years or so. They seem to offer white peaces pretty readily, but the wars are still a bit of a PITA. Yet I don't want to just give the provinces to France, as they are a long term enemy and I don't want to help them. Maybe give Calais to Burgundy and the other two to Brittany? If I keep the provinces, someone suggested a "raiding" strategy to keep France weak. What are people's thoughts on these issues?
(4) Ireland - is there really much point to conquering Ireland? Obviously not without the mission. With the mission, there are cores in the offing, very tempting. But again we're talking 4 very poor provinces. Thoughts?
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