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.) I dont claim to be an absolute expert on the issue, so if im mistaken someone correct me, but heres how i see it: In the early game smaller u are (less provinces u own) faster u research. Every province u conquer after will only slow ur res. down, adding some other penalties like different culture in prov and stuff. The difference between 1/2/3 and 5/6/7-10 provinces in the 1400-1500 is rather large, but after ur empire grows beyond certain point, every province u add will increase res. by something like 0.5% - theres the actual math table somewhere if u want exact numbers, browse FAQ or w/e. Bottom line is, grow expand, take EVERY single province early on as u possibly can, later on with some buildings and techs, as well as population growth, every province, even with 2 base tax will be well worth res. penalties, ull have bugger army support, buildings will add tax, population growth, and more trade as well as base production. In the 1600s no matter how many provinces u have, i guarantee that ull be having easy time with money and u should completely catch up with everyone else tech wise.
1b.) 1.) pretty much covers it, but to be exact, YES imo, its worth it.
2.) The strategy u described might work on paper, but in reality it might prove to be very difficult. First, 50 years is alot, so from the point u colonize Azores till the moment u can continue colonizing the rest of the Americas ull waste alot of time doing, well, nothing. If ure the kind of player that likes to oversee trading and do nothing for 50 years, this might not seem like much of a problem, but have one thing in mind: France will attack u, and keep attacking you. Even if u get rid of those provinces with French cores, and dont meddle with them, they will eventually make entire France blue, theyll take every single lowland province (Holland etc.) half of the German minores, and quite possibly entire Spain eventually. After theyre done with that, its just a matter of time till they hit u, since ull be the only rival in the area, and having a huge overseas empire might prove too much of a logistical task. If u let Frenchies build fleet, ull have to concentrate all your ships somewhere at one point to take them out, which will spawn loads of pirates everywhere, which is bad idea all in all. On top of that, i guarantee, Frenchies will still hit u before u get core in Azores, unless u protect the entire route, or keep them blockaded.
3.) Even tho most of the people argue for selling those 3 provinces to Fra or Bur or w/e str8 from the beginning, i say dont do it. If u wanna dominate the Europe, so u can colonize properly, heres what u should do: Keep those provinces, dont give anything to anyone. Shoot for 4 gov right away, and keep the idea point open, or take w/e u want if u dont mind 3 stab hit for switching idea later. After 4 gov, go for 9 navy, with minor focus on 7 trade. 9 navy is higher priority, but if u can same somehow manage 7 trade same time its nice. During this time, France will, like u said, attack u every 5 years or so. Let them. Even if they occupy all 3 provinces, which is somewhat hard since Calais is shielded by Bur, it will takes YEARS for them to increase ur WE to the point where it will hurt u. First time they do attack u tho, it is VERY likely that Scots will join in with them. So, the only thing army wise u need for the first 50 years or so is basically 10 X Cav, this should be more than enough to destroy the Scottish army after like 2-3 ping pong battles, after that, simply divide them into 1-2 units armies and siege whole Scotland. After u capture every single city they own, which should take more than a year or 2, ull actually have a positive war score with France, and that gives u more options. What i do is just take as much of Scotland as i can in a separate peace, and then sighn a white peace with BBB. Now my argument for doing business like this is simple: France will attack u, and it will keep attacking u, so u might as well make most of this situation. Every time they attack someone else, like Bur, or minors, they will get WE. If ure in a continuous war, ur WE will drop only based on ur leader stats (unless im mistaken) which is like -0.08 WE each month (if ur king has good stats)- while during the peace its about doubled.
Soooo, if u keep Frenchies in war, for as long as u can, say 20 years, and having in mind that they will attack other countries meanwhile, you might easily end up with them having 20+ WE that wont drop at all. Thats great, cuz it will spawn crap loads of rebels all over the place, and will slow down their expansion ALOT. Then, all u have to do is for them to go to war with Bur, land 20k infantry army in Normandy, start taking cities which will build up ur war score, and voila, ull take them piece by piece. If u dont like to do this like this, the hard way, theres another way. Get 9 navy ASAP, and simply blockade them. This will surely destroy them in 50 years. Their income will be crippled, their WE will hit the sky, and wont drop at all, and u can bet that they will start falling behind in techs. After u hit 9 navy go for 11 land, get those gallog-whatever infantry with alot of good stats, make 20k inf stack, land, and u can assault any lvl 1 or 2 fort in 2-3 days.
4.) Its pretty much the same as 1.) and 1b.). The only time when i wouldnt take Ireland is if were a European country, so i couldnt be bothered to land 10k troops every time those pesky rebels pop up. Apart from that, if ure not lazy like me TAKE IT ALL
