First off, apologies if what I'm going to outline is obvious - it only just occurred to my yesterday!
The objective is to form the Netherlands. I've done this with the OPMs, and they have always been extremely rough playthroughs for me, and was looking to try something a bit different. As is obvious, Burgundy can easily form the Netherlands, but up until now the thought of jettisoning territories to France made it unappealing to me as having a strong France just to your south with territories you gave it just sounds bleh. This is easily countered though by making a pair of vassals to absorb your French region provinces prior to the tag change.
Step 1. Take the mission to save the Burgundians in Barrois, and declare war straight away before Provence can get any allies. Barrois is going to be your vassal to absorb your Burgundian home provinces + Rethel that are in the French region. As a note, there is a region mapmode that will show you which provinces are in danger of loss.
Step 2. Prepare for a fight with the French. Assuming that France wins the HYW, they are likely to attack you next - well at least that is what happened to me. When they declare war on you, your objective is to have them release Normandy. Depending on the circumstances, i.e. if they have both Normandy and Caux you might just want to take 1 province yourself and release it manually, but in my playthrough England was still holding onto Caux and Calais at this point. Your manpower is not that high this early in the game, so try and get this objective and peace out.
Step 3. Prepare for Netherlandsification! Finish taking Gelre, Utrecht and Friesland. If you can setup a situation where you have a truce with Austria by assisting an ally, that would be the perfect time to pounce. Otherwise wait until Ze Emperor is at war with some other larger powers and make your play. Also finish your borders on the western part of your nation by finishing off any missing piece of Normandy and taking Calais. Depending on how strong you feel, I would probably wait on taking Liege until after switching tags.
Step 4. Vassals prep. Normandy is going to consist of Normandy, Caux, Picardie and Calais. Barrois should get Barrois, Rethel, and your core Burgundian provinces Bourgogne, Nevers, etc. Unfortunately, since Franche-Comte is imperial territory, Barrois will not purchase it from you so this is the 1 province you will lose to France. Also note, you can't sell everything to Barrois in 1 batch as you will have to give it some time to core before selling it the rest of your Burgundian lands - I made this error in my playthrough.
Step 5. Hit the form the Netherlands decision! As a note, if you reincorporate Barrois, Burgundian will NOT be an accepted culture in your nation. Addidionally, you will be a member of the empire now, which actually turned out advantageous as you get the Imperial Integrity bonus and in my playthrough I united the various Rhineland minors under my banner without having to fight the emporer as well - though I did manage to create some megaCoalitions against me.
Notes:
For my idea groups I chose 1. Offensive 2. Exploration. Colonization is great as with this megaNetherlands as you completely own the Antwerp trade node and have a direct connection to the Chesapeake. Not having diplomacy is a huge annoyance though as having only 4 diplomatic relations is very confining. You could easily to choose to forgo colonization and just be a European power, in which case I would say go 1. Diplomacy, 2. Offensive (or whichever military idea suits your playstyle), 3. Economics.
Hope this helps my fellow Netherlands fans!
The objective is to form the Netherlands. I've done this with the OPMs, and they have always been extremely rough playthroughs for me, and was looking to try something a bit different. As is obvious, Burgundy can easily form the Netherlands, but up until now the thought of jettisoning territories to France made it unappealing to me as having a strong France just to your south with territories you gave it just sounds bleh. This is easily countered though by making a pair of vassals to absorb your French region provinces prior to the tag change.
Step 1. Take the mission to save the Burgundians in Barrois, and declare war straight away before Provence can get any allies. Barrois is going to be your vassal to absorb your Burgundian home provinces + Rethel that are in the French region. As a note, there is a region mapmode that will show you which provinces are in danger of loss.
Step 2. Prepare for a fight with the French. Assuming that France wins the HYW, they are likely to attack you next - well at least that is what happened to me. When they declare war on you, your objective is to have them release Normandy. Depending on the circumstances, i.e. if they have both Normandy and Caux you might just want to take 1 province yourself and release it manually, but in my playthrough England was still holding onto Caux and Calais at this point. Your manpower is not that high this early in the game, so try and get this objective and peace out.
Step 3. Prepare for Netherlandsification! Finish taking Gelre, Utrecht and Friesland. If you can setup a situation where you have a truce with Austria by assisting an ally, that would be the perfect time to pounce. Otherwise wait until Ze Emperor is at war with some other larger powers and make your play. Also finish your borders on the western part of your nation by finishing off any missing piece of Normandy and taking Calais. Depending on how strong you feel, I would probably wait on taking Liege until after switching tags.
Step 4. Vassals prep. Normandy is going to consist of Normandy, Caux, Picardie and Calais. Barrois should get Barrois, Rethel, and your core Burgundian provinces Bourgogne, Nevers, etc. Unfortunately, since Franche-Comte is imperial territory, Barrois will not purchase it from you so this is the 1 province you will lose to France. Also note, you can't sell everything to Barrois in 1 batch as you will have to give it some time to core before selling it the rest of your Burgundian lands - I made this error in my playthrough.
Step 5. Hit the form the Netherlands decision! As a note, if you reincorporate Barrois, Burgundian will NOT be an accepted culture in your nation. Addidionally, you will be a member of the empire now, which actually turned out advantageous as you get the Imperial Integrity bonus and in my playthrough I united the various Rhineland minors under my banner without having to fight the emporer as well - though I did manage to create some megaCoalitions against me.
Notes:
For my idea groups I chose 1. Offensive 2. Exploration. Colonization is great as with this megaNetherlands as you completely own the Antwerp trade node and have a direct connection to the Chesapeake. Not having diplomacy is a huge annoyance though as having only 4 diplomatic relations is very confining. You could easily to choose to forgo colonization and just be a European power, in which case I would say go 1. Diplomacy, 2. Offensive (or whichever military idea suits your playstyle), 3. Economics.
Hope this helps my fellow Netherlands fans!
