Advice for next move

[Byzan]

So Hi guys, I've just started my Burgundy game and I want ya'lls advice on how I should move next.

Currently the situation is as follows-

(All of Europa)



So Far Poland and Austria are attempting to eat Bohemia (Hungary kicked Austria in the rum because of my war against Barbant or Holland), Ottomans already took out the Byzantines, Britanny is just...Wow, and everything else is the same for the moment.

I've taken over the Hollands, Barbant and Balois. And Belgium is in a personal Union with me.

Luxembourg, Lorraine, and Haniut are my vassals/allies.



For the borders - I have Phillipe II de Bourgogne leading my 25,000 army near the border of Il-de-France.

My strategy game is with taking Vermandois, Nemour and Champagne so I can begin to take bits and pieces of France.

However France is not only allied with all its buddies, but it also has Switzerland as an ally.

Furthermore they have three armies of 20k troops. Which puts a thorn in my side.

And for my allies/vassals here is the Europa-map.



Just wondering what you guys would do. Since in my attempted scenarios France ROLFSTOMPS me very quickly - before a Year of the War has even passed due to their expanded armies. (My first idea is also Army Drill)

[MrQwerty]

Do you have historical lucky nations? You'll be suprised how mediocre France becomes without it. Otherwise, you better hope that England or Castille are a match; if so, you have a good chance of stabbing France in the back. Just keep as large an army as you can, and with good morale, discipline, and generals.

[Maginor]

Edit: never mind.

[CyberEagle]

Oh, Burgundy. Fun Nation.
Have you done all your missions? If not, do them. You might also think about connecting your provinces, if you can, without pissing the emperor off. But first, we'll need to focus on the blue guys next to you. Sure, people say they have been nerfed, but as direct neighbours, they are still terrifying.

You want to forge alliances with other strong nations close to them. Aragon or Castille are preferable, England is still okay, but Brettagne isn't use for much beyond sieging their provinces while you fight their doomstacks. Next, you wait for them to either show weakness or attack you. If it's the former, jump them with any Casus Belli you can get, if it's the latter, use attrition and the AIs tentdency to storm the walls to even the battlefield a bit (the wiki nicely explains how to do that). Anyway, if it's possible, don't stop until ever province of France is taken, then dismantle them by forcing them to cancel Vassals and Release Nations. You might also want to try to isolate Paris, because I think you can get a Mission for a Core on it.

While you are waiting for that moment, though, make sure that your allies actually like you enough to consider going to war with France and try to get that delicious Imperial Crown.
But really, you are playing Burgundy, the Nation with the most warlike Sliders in Europe. Just take a bit of care and you'll be able to annihilate those Pretenders to YOUR crown.

[Byzan]

Well for the moment my current mission is to take over Luxembourg with a conquest Casus Belli.

Annexation comes around 1373 -so I'd have to wait three years to go annex it.

For the moment I notice Castille (every time they join) typically doesn't come to my aid much or they're stuck in the south and get beat.

[CyberEagle]

I'm actually not that much of a great EU3-player, but I've played Burgundy a few times and I can't stress it enough: You need to beat France while it's still weak and you CAN do it. I advise you to search for strong allies (in my experience, if Bohemia is emperor and hasn't been pissed of by you, they are happy to help and actualy send their troops all over Europe) and, if the time seems right... just attack. You don't actualy want to take their lands, you want to fracture them.. So... just focus on defending your lands from their doomstacks while your allies take care of the sieges. You still can besige and conquer provinces yourself in later wars.

Edit
Actually, let me show you something. As I said, I'm actually a pretty average EU3 player, but:

Here, I was just minding my own business, when I saw France getting into a war with England. I immediatly attacked them and called Bohemia to war. France sent two Doomstacks, bigger then anything I had to offer into my lands, so I focused on taking out their reinforcements and the armies of their Vassals, pulling back my own main army if they got the attention of the Doomstacks, but rushing in to retake conquerd provinces while the French were busy with the next one. Then, by pulling together all my troops and attacking directly after they tried to storm a provinces fortifications, I managed to destroy one of France's doomstacks. For the second doomstack, Bohemia actualy helped me attack. And once you have a nation so weak and defenseless, it's likely that their neighbours will try to profit from it too. In that case, Brittany joined on its own and was hunting down their new armies while I was to busy getting the Scots out of my lands. No, I have no idea why they joined against me, but not against the English.

Anyway. It was one war. There were a few close situations and my WE got awfully high at the end, but as you can see, they are slightly weakened. They might seem to be on my level, but Burgundys vastly superior military sliders mean that I'll win the next conflict with ease.
And the best part? That's a war that almost went wrong and that I had to end early and where I, on top of that, wanted to try forming D&Ts Lotharingia really bad.
After one with a bit more luck you'd have seen a France with lots of released parts and only a TINY bit of lands under its own control.

[Byzan]

For now I actually WON against France (because England and Castille helped in the South while I crushed the Northern divisions)

This is my current situation -

The only non-core regions are basically the three territories I took from France. However France also took some Savoy territory and such..