Late early game directions...

licker · 13-02-2007, 19:10

Not sure how to phrase the time period of the game susinctly, but its around the time when most minors have been gobbled up and you are dealing with mostly the resulting majors.

Seems to happen around the same time as many nations hit land9...

I'm not so interested in strategies or directions for majors, but more for the minor nation you carefully crafted into a wannabe world power...

My example is (as always) Bavaria, who I managed to grow north and west, due to never having an opportunity to do anything significant to Bohemia/Hungary/Austria, and constantly having France DOWing on either my vassals or just on me.

The state of the game now is that Lithuania annexed Poland and Austria annexed Hungary (who had annexed Bohemia). Northern Germany is a 4 province Saxony (my vassal), a couple of 1prov minors who keep on breaking away from England, England, Austria, and Denmark. France isn't doing great, but is still dangerous due to their land tech being 2-3 higher than anyone else. Iberia is a mess due to Portugal, Aragon, and Spain all holding portions of it and constantly bickering with each other and France or England.

So I'm just humming along, but kinda in a 'where to go next' phase.

Anyway, some questions...

I'm catholic, but Saxony (my last vassal) is protestant. I cannot diploannex them right? What can I do with them given the religious differences?

Is it worth using missionaries (who are pretty expensive for <60% conversion rates) on any of my current protestant provences?

I do have 2 refineries and 1 arts academy I'm still working towards infra5 (though should be there within a decade) and have made a few justices in a few provinces (TCs are everywhere already). I can try to hunker and let the BB drop lower (its 15ish now due to a round of diplo annexing) while getting my economy up, but what direction to go? Refineries in all my vinyards? More justices? Spend on missionaries?

Anyway, I'm sure I'll think of some other questions, but that seems like enough for now.

CatKnight · 13-02-2007, 20:43

First the easy question: What can you do with Saxony?

Until the Edict of Tolerance, absolutely nothing. Keep them around though. Eventually you'll get your shot.

At this stage you're really entering a mega-alliance stage. Pick someone you want to go after - France or Austria are your main choices. (How's Italy doing?) Build up or join an alliance positioned to deal with them. Chomp.

I really can't help with missionaries: I hate them for the reasons you cited - expensive and not guaranteed. Still, some players swear by them. The added RR is annoying and wrong religion cuts into your profits.

The main purpose of Justices is to reduce RR by one. I'd put them in your wrong religion provinces, but nowhere else...at least initially.

GOVERNORS on the other hand (- Inflation) should go EVERYWHERE.

licker · 13-02-2007, 21:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by CatKnight

First the easy question: What can you do with Saxony?

Until the Edict of Tolerance, absolutely nothing. Keep them around though. Eventually you'll get your shot.

At this stage you're really entering a mega-alliance stage. Pick someone you want to go after - France or Austria are your main choices. (How's Italy doing?) Build up or join an alliance positioned to deal with them. Chomp.

I really can't help with missionaries: I hate them for the reasons you cited - expensive and not guaranteed. Still, some players swear by them. The added RR is annoying and wrong religion cuts into your profits.

The main purpose of Justices is to reduce RR by one. I'd put them in your wrong religion provinces, but nowhere else...at least initially.

GOVERNORS on the other hand (- Inflation) should go EVERYWHERE.

Yeah, I'm still waiting on the governers. In some earliers attempts with Bavaria I rushed to governers, but wound up too far behind in landtech, and got whomped on, of course I also screwed my BB up too high, but this game I resolved to not lag in landtech too much. I did have a scare when a LT9 France DOWed me while i was at 7, but I fought very defensivly, and I think France was too hassled with England to really go after me, so eventually I was able to pay him off for 100d and get out.

I put the justices first in 'safe' provences, but do need to start looking at the rr a little more. I think I need to try a few missionaries in a couple of otherwise nice provences, but honestly my income is ~150d/year census so I do ok. I kept my inflation very low through the first 70 years or so, and right now its only ~6%, and that's with me minting 5d/month to buy all the fancy toys I want, though maybe I should just plow infra to 5 and then mint, but meh... I'm keeping a big enough army (~120k) around to keep the bad guys away since my BB is still highish.

As a side question, I assume I should even help saxony grow since I should still be able to eventually diplo annex them and the BB hit would be lower than if I took those provences myself right?

Oh, Italy is still somewhat fractured. Papal in the middle, Austria up top with Genoa, and Aragon annexed Napoli. Tuscany might even still be around as a vassal to someone. But the alliance situation there means dealing sure with austria. Austria is probably a better target since they hold more 'german' provences than does France. However, that means dealing with the LituPoland beast as well. Biding my time for that alliance to fracture, or for Russia/OE to jump someone would probably also work.

Thanks for the input though, I appreciate it.

Dr Bob · 13-02-2007, 22:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by licker

I put the justices first in 'safe' provences, but do need to start looking at the rr a little more.

As a side question, I assume I should even help saxony grow since I should still be able to eventually diplo annex them and the BB hit would be lower than if I took those provences myself right?

Justices pay for themselves in about 50 years, and I'd generally recommend missionaries before spending money on justices, especially if you have a monarch with good administration stats as this makes conversions more likely to suceed.

And yeah, you want Saxony to grow as big as possible, it is much cheaper BB wise for them to do the dirty work, then you can annex them around 1650.

licker · 13-02-2007, 22:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Bob

Justices pay for themselves in about 50 years, and I'd generally recommend missionaries before spending money on justices, especially if you have a monarch with good administration stats as this makes conversions more likely to suceed.

And yeah, you want Saxony to grow as big as possible, it is much cheaper BB wise for them to do the dirty work, then you can annex them around 1650.

Ok, good to know. I don't think Bavaria gets really good monarchs, but I havn't looked anywhere either. Just seems like the one's I've gotten have been mostly mediocre/poor.

I will probably try a few missionaries in some higher tax provences though just to see how it works out.

Thanks for the input.

Minarchist · 13-02-2007, 23:07

Quote:

Originally posted by [b]licker[B/]
I'm keeping a big enough army (~120k) around to keep the bad guys away since my BB is still highish.

Now, exactly what is your support limit? For the first ~70 years of the game that seems very excessive--even for a minor with a badboy problem. But, with your Bavaria in the precarious position between the spheres of influence of Austria and France, I can understand, but that sounds like a bit much. What seems like an important thing to do is you need some good allies. What exactly is happening in northern Germany besides your Saxony? To me, getting some german minors on your side would vastly better your situation. Now, I dont know what is happening in the north, but if you got your Saxony, Brandenburg and some minors in between in an alliance, it would form a sufficient bulwark against any outside aggression. They can build up a very large army. After that, just contently sit tight. I would put missionaries very high on my list of things to do. Quite frankly, I would put them right after governors. Just be sure that any war you fight has very specific objectives and you only fight wars that are to your benefit. If Austria pulls you into a war with France or something, back out. France can be your worst enemy.
Also, what version are you running?
Finally, try your best to only take right culture provinces, with so many German provinces to choose from, well, just dont waste that advantage

CatKnight · 14-02-2007, 03:47

I'm also a little surprised by the size of your army. It's not excessive if that's your true support limit. (Personally I advocate always being as near it as possible to scare off aggressive AIs.)

Saxony...I have mixed feelings. Yes, ideally if they grow THEY take the BB, and it's cheaper for you BB wise to take those provinces later on by DAing Saxony...but just be careful they don't get so big they tell you to get lost when you ask!

licker · 14-02-2007, 13:43

I'm playing Vannila 109. There are no more german minors. It's me, Saxony and a couple 1 province guys up by Denmark who are -200 with me and in an alliance with each other, and not worth bothering with. Brandenburg is part of Austria, and everything else east is lithuania until you get a few Teuronics and then Russia.

England has a couple of isolated provences, france has a few, Aragon has a couple, and the Netherlands just broke away (Austria is completely out of the northwest now).

There really is no buffer for me between France and Austria. However, I did make some progress last night...

Austria DOWed me, and I brought in Saxony on my side to hopefully tie down lithuania in the north (that actually worked, they just smashed each other with neitherside gaining any significant advantage). I was eventually able to beat down Austria and they gave up Ostmark, Saltzburg, Lombardia, Bohemia, Munster, and some other isolated province in France (though I have a border with it, French Compte I think it is). Of course that put my BB back over 25 which was terrifying, but as I had a large military and equivalent LT to france (and france was still going at it with Aragon and England somewhat perpetually) I wasn't too worried.

Infra5 came in shortly after the war, and I got busy making Mayors pretty much everywhere (I'm about 75% done, but have to shuttle some money to keeping my army up since even the rebels seem to cause some damage). I've managed to essentially monoplize Holland, Tago, and Paris, though Venice keeps on banning me (b@st@rds).

My army was never over my support limit, other than occasionally durning a war when I overbuilt at the start of a year knowing that losses would prune it back down. As Catnight said, I try to keep my mil at about 90% of my support limit (or build to that depending on how trashed I got during a war) to hopefully disuade any major agression against me. It seems to work pretty well, and my support limit has been over 140k for some time now, its around 190k right now, and that's even with me moving hard to quality.

My plan now is to try to keep peace (though stupid papal states keeps on declaring on me, though I just smash them 4-5x and then get Aragon to take a quick peace sending me a few d usually), but I've wound up with negative relations to EVERYONE... So that worries me... Also people are starting to go reformed catholic now too, along with the protestants, kinda straining relations further. I've not done any missionaries since I've been working on my governers (inflation is down to ~6% after an exceptional year event, so I moved up my minting), but the majority of my provences are still catholic (got a few of the random conversion events). I can't see how it makes sense economically to switch to protestant or reformed since I assume I'll take a major tax hit, and I'm uncertain as to the benefits diplomatically.

Is it worth trying to buy myself back into favor with one of the majors to get into an alliance? Is it worth spreading the wealth just to get relations back positive with a few majors? Or should I just assume that so long as the majors don't wind up in a big alliance I can probably win any defensive war against them and continue to work on my economy? Its late 1500s now and I'm at LT parity with everyone who matters. Is it worth keeping the navy I 'inherited' from Savoy? Its 11 ships total, and just sits in port all day since I can't explore with it, and can't get mil access from Portugal or Aragon anyway

bagoj · 14-02-2007, 21:19

nice going so far. I would not bother to bribe majors. You have just proven that you can tackle Austria. I am sure you can do as well againts France. The worst case is when you are attacked by both at the same time, but in this casee you simply give up a province for peace on one side and then you can concentrate on fighting the other. Furthermore if I understand well, both HAB and FRA have a permanent CB on you so your relations would soon deteriorate anyway.

As next step I would further expand into Italy. You are now powerful enough to diplovassalize the Italians, including Venice. Just find a way to get them into your alliance.

Now, that you have a port you can send your merchants to overseas COTs. To locate them, you may consider visiting the Lisboa Library.

so don't disband your ships. OTOH I would not go for monopolies in Europe at this stage. Just 5 merchants in every COT.

Do you plan to do some colonizing?

licker · 14-02-2007, 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by bagoj

nice going so far. I would not bother to bribe majors. You have just proven that you can tackle Austria. I am sure you can do as well againts France. The worst case is when you are attacked by both at the same time, but in this casee you simply give up a province for peace on one side and then you can concentrate on fighting the other. Furthermore if I understand well, both HAB and FRA have a permanent CB on you so your relations would soon deteriorate anyway.

As next step I would further expand into Italy. You are now powerful enough to diplovassalize the Italians, including Venice. Just find a way to get them into your alliance.

Now, that you have a port you can send your merchants to overseas COTs. To locate them, you may consider visiting the Lisboa Library.

so don't disband your ships. OTOH I would not go for monopolies in Europe at this stage. Just 5 merchants in every COT.

Do you plan to do some colonizing?

Ahh, yeah, permanent CBs.. have to check who doesn't have one on me I guess

Getting Venice into my alliance looks problamatic, but I'll see what I can do, have to spend a little on that relation I suppose. Can I diplovassalize the Papal States too?

I have nothing against colonizing, but I have no colonists

I have no conqestadors, and I have no explorers, so it would seem as though I might as well not bother worrying about that

I'll keep the navy around just incase I need to conquor Genoa or take some troops to some other islands to visit the beaches.

It sounds like I just need to bide my time and wait for someone else to get into trouble elsewhere then pounce on them. Or just pound the papists into the ground and get them off my back

Oh is there anyway to see what another nations cores are? From inside the game that is...

bagoj · 15-02-2007, 10:02

The popes are not that marrying kind of people (at least not in EU2), so DV is not possible. Be opportunistic with Venice. Sooner or later they will dishonour an alliance or their alliance will expire. Keep track with this info. And time your gifts just before expiry, so you can immediatelly offer your alliance. I think it is still an easier way to go than besieging their islands.

As for Genova beware that they start with two provinces by the Black Sea. Check that they still own them before you attempt a FW.

Unfortunatelly you can only see your cores.

licker · 15-02-2007, 18:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by bagoj

The popes are not that marrying kind of people (at least not in EU2), so DV is not possible. Be opportunistic with Venice. Sooner or later they will dishonour an alliance or their alliance will expire. Keep track with this info. And time your gifts just before expiry, so you can immediatelly offer your alliance. I think it is still an easier way to go than besieging their islands.

As for Genova beware that they start with two provinces by the Black Sea. Check that they still own them before you attempt a FW.

Unfortunatelly you can only see your cores.

Genoa somehow became a part of Lithuania...

So I guess if I want to deal with the pope I have to FA them? Or just buy them into my alliance somehow?

I'll keep closer tabs on Venince though, unfortunately their allices seems to war alot, so the 10year experation doesn't hit often.

bagoj · 16-02-2007, 16:27

To FV you need a royal marriage and this is impossible with the Papal States. (okay some countries have events resulting in RM with the Papal States and also the Pope can make offers of RM, but other than these you can not enter into RM with them).
To FA you don't need RM, only same or compatible religions (like catholic-orthodox) that basicly allow RM.

So once you have forcevassallized the Pope, you can later DA. When they are your vassal, they cannot enter into alliance with any other country than yours, so if you bribe them, they will accept you alliance proposal. Beware that owning Rome gives CB for all catholic nations. But since most of the europeans seem to have a CB on you anyway, this is not much of concern.

I really wish to avoid writing you facts that are obvious to you, but I don't know how deep is your understanding of the game. If you have not yet done so, read the diplomacy FAQ. If fact read all of the FAQs. Even veteran players can find new info in them.

Some screenshots would be nice.

licker · 21-02-2007, 15:04

A little update for those who helped me out!

I got into a spat with France over the netherlands and someone else who revolted away from Aragon up there (flanders I think). By the end of that 7 year war I gained another 6 provinces from France and shot my BB up over 30 (max is ~45). I managed to annex Mecklenburg and Austria created the CoT in Bohemia.

So I was able to gain 2 CoTs without bothering with Genoa or Venice. Anyway, Venice is now part of Austria, and Genoa is still Lithuanian. I got a conquestador and some colonists and nabbed Massachusetts and eventually Conneticut rebeled to me. I then followed up with another colony next to both of them (I don't recall the name right now though). I get .4col a year and am not really worried about upping that, so I've just been slowly developing what I do have over there. I also tried to grab some colony in south africa, but the growth rate is negative, so I gather its rather pointless to continue? It looks like I can get about a +11 or 12, but face a -14 due to distance. Oh well, like I said, I'm not that worried about colonizing anything anyway...

I spent some quality time building some goods manus and finishing off my refineries in all my wine producing areas. LT18 is around the corner so I'm saving for some weapons manus just for fun. I got my BB back down in the low 20s, but then decided I needed to FA a one prove minor on the baltic who was a vassal of sweden, so that took me back up to 32. I have a large standing army (190k inf, 60k cav, handful of art) and with my beaucoup mayors and luck with exceptional years my inflation is zero, and I mint a tad just to keep the money rolling in for colonists/missionaries/manus.

All in all it looks pretty good at this point, just waiting for the ability to DA protestants and I'll have all of germany less the eastern part which is solidly in Austrias hands.

I could probably take Austria on though, but for the time being I figure I don't need to rush into anything, however, given my military superiority (and I have 3 leaders right now...) I think they wouldn't be too hard to smash.

I really feel as though I've gone past the rookie stage with this game and all your answers to my questions. I look forward to finishing this thing up by gaining control of all the german culture provinces and then paying some retribution on France for their earlier hasseling of me.

13-02-2007, 19:10	#1
licker Sergeant Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 51	Late early game directions... Not sure how to phrase the time period of the game susinctly, but its around the time when most minors have been gobbled up and you are dealing with mostly the resulting majors. Seems to happen around the same time as many nations hit land9... I'm not so interested in strategies or directions for majors, but more for the minor nation you carefully crafted into a wannabe world power... My example is (as always) Bavaria, who I managed to grow north and west, due to never having an opportunity to do anything significant to Bohemia/Hungary/Austria, and constantly having France DOWing on either my vassals or just on me. The state of the game now is that Lithuania annexed Poland and Austria annexed Hungary (who had annexed Bohemia). Northern Germany is a 4 province Saxony (my vassal), a couple of 1prov minors who keep on breaking away from England, England, Austria, and Denmark. France isn't doing great, but is still dangerous due to their land tech being 2-3 higher than anyone else. Iberia is a mess due to Portugal, Aragon, and Spain all holding portions of it and constantly bickering with each other and France or England. So I'm just humming along, but kinda in a 'where to go next' phase. Anyway, some questions... I'm catholic, but Saxony (my last vassal) is protestant. I cannot diploannex them right? What can I do with them given the religious differences? Is it worth using missionaries (who are pretty expensive for <60% conversion rates) on any of my current protestant provences? I do have 2 refineries and 1 arts academy I'm still working towards infra5 (though should be there within a decade) and have made a few justices in a few provinces (TCs are everywhere already). I can try to hunker and let the BB drop lower (its 15ish now due to a round of diplo annexing) while getting my economy up, but what direction to go? Refineries in all my vinyards? More justices? Spend on missionaries? Anyway, I'm sure I'll think of some other questions, but that seems like enough for now.

13-02-2007, 20:43	#2
CatKnight Disciple of Peperna Join Date: May 2004 Location: In Service to the Holy Cow Posts: 3,594	First the easy question: What can you do with Saxony? Until the Edict of Tolerance, absolutely nothing. Keep them around though. Eventually you'll get your shot. At this stage you're really entering a mega-alliance stage. Pick someone you want to go after - France or Austria are your main choices. (How's Italy doing?) Build up or join an alliance positioned to deal with them. Chomp. I really can't help with missionaries: I hate them for the reasons you cited - expensive and not guaranteed. Still, some players swear by them. The added RR is annoying and wrong religion cuts into your profits. The main purpose of Justices is to reduce RR by one. I'd put them in your wrong religion provinces, but nowhere else...at least initially. GOVERNORS on the other hand (- Inflation) should go EVERYWHERE. __________________ Have you seen the Weekly AAR Showcase lately? ***** Beyond Tannenberg III: The Last Crusade (EU3, Teutonic Order, Ongoing) Resurrection: Rebirth of the United States COMPLETED!! ***** CatKnight's Inkwell

14-02-2007, 03:47	#7
CatKnight Disciple of Peperna Join Date: May 2004 Location: In Service to the Holy Cow Posts: 3,594	I'm also a little surprised by the size of your army. It's not excessive if that's your true support limit. (Personally I advocate always being as near it as possible to scare off aggressive AIs.) Saxony...I have mixed feelings. Yes, ideally if they grow THEY take the BB, and it's cheaper for you BB wise to take those provinces later on by DAing Saxony...but just be careful they don't get so big they tell you to get lost when you ask! __________________ Have you seen the Weekly AAR Showcase lately? ***** Beyond Tannenberg III: The Last Crusade (EU3, Teutonic Order, Ongoing) Resurrection: Rebirth of the United States COMPLETED!! ***** CatKnight's Inkwell

14-02-2007, 13:43	#8
licker Sergeant Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 51	I'm playing Vannila 109. There are no more german minors. It's me, Saxony and a couple 1 province guys up by Denmark who are -200 with me and in an alliance with each other, and not worth bothering with. Brandenburg is part of Austria, and everything else east is lithuania until you get a few Teuronics and then Russia. England has a couple of isolated provences, france has a few, Aragon has a couple, and the Netherlands just broke away (Austria is completely out of the northwest now). There really is no buffer for me between France and Austria. However, I did make some progress last night... Austria DOWed me, and I brought in Saxony on my side to hopefully tie down lithuania in the north (that actually worked, they just smashed each other with neitherside gaining any significant advantage). I was eventually able to beat down Austria and they gave up Ostmark, Saltzburg, Lombardia, Bohemia, Munster, and some other isolated province in France (though I have a border with it, French Compte I think it is). Of course that put my BB back over 25 which was terrifying, but as I had a large military and equivalent LT to france (and france was still going at it with Aragon and England somewhat perpetually) I wasn't too worried. Infra5 came in shortly after the war, and I got busy making Mayors pretty much everywhere (I'm about 75% done, but have to shuttle some money to keeping my army up since even the rebels seem to cause some damage). I've managed to essentially monoplize Holland, Tago, and Paris, though Venice keeps on banning me (b@st@rds). My army was never over my support limit, other than occasionally durning a war when I overbuilt at the start of a year knowing that losses would prune it back down. As Catnight said, I try to keep my mil at about 90% of my support limit (or build to that depending on how trashed I got during a war) to hopefully disuade any major agression against me. It seems to work pretty well, and my support limit has been over 140k for some time now, its around 190k right now, and that's even with me moving hard to quality. My plan now is to try to keep peace (though stupid papal states keeps on declaring on me, though I just smash them 4-5x and then get Aragon to take a quick peace sending me a few d usually), but I've wound up with negative relations to EVERYONE... So that worries me... Also people are starting to go reformed catholic now too, along with the protestants, kinda straining relations further. I've not done any missionaries since I've been working on my governers (inflation is down to ~6% after an exceptional year event, so I moved up my minting), but the majority of my provences are still catholic (got a few of the random conversion events). I can't see how it makes sense economically to switch to protestant or reformed since I assume I'll take a major tax hit, and I'm uncertain as to the benefits diplomatically. Is it worth trying to buy myself back into favor with one of the majors to get into an alliance? Is it worth spreading the wealth just to get relations back positive with a few majors? Or should I just assume that so long as the majors don't wind up in a big alliance I can probably win any defensive war against them and continue to work on my economy? Its late 1500s now and I'm at LT parity with everyone who matters. Is it worth keeping the navy I 'inherited' from Savoy? Its 11 ships total, and just sits in port all day since I can't explore with it, and can't get mil access from Portugal or Aragon anyway

14-02-2007, 21:19	#9
bagoj Captain Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Budapest, Hungary Posts: 309	nice going so far. I would not bother to bribe majors. You have just proven that you can tackle Austria. I am sure you can do as well againts France. The worst case is when you are attacked by both at the same time, but in this casee you simply give up a province for peace on one side and then you can concentrate on fighting the other. Furthermore if I understand well, both HAB and FRA have a permanent CB on you so your relations would soon deteriorate anyway. As next step I would further expand into Italy. You are now powerful enough to diplovassalize the Italians, including Venice. Just find a way to get them into your alliance. Now, that you have a port you can send your merchants to overseas COTs. To locate them, you may consider visiting the Lisboa Library. so don't disband your ships. OTOH I would not go for monopolies in Europe at this stage. Just 5 merchants in every COT. Do you plan to do some colonizing?

15-02-2007, 10:02	#11
bagoj Captain Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Budapest, Hungary Posts: 309	The popes are not that marrying kind of people (at least not in EU2), so DV is not possible. Be opportunistic with Venice. Sooner or later they will dishonour an alliance or their alliance will expire. Keep track with this info. And time your gifts just before expiry, so you can immediatelly offer your alliance. I think it is still an easier way to go than besieging their islands. As for Genova beware that they start with two provinces by the Black Sea. Check that they still own them before you attempt a FW. Unfortunatelly you can only see your cores.

16-02-2007, 16:27	#13
bagoj Captain Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Budapest, Hungary Posts: 309	To FV you need a royal marriage and this is impossible with the Papal States. (okay some countries have events resulting in RM with the Papal States and also the Pope can make offers of RM, but other than these you can not enter into RM with them). To FA you don't need RM, only same or compatible religions (like catholic-orthodox) that basicly allow RM. So once you have forcevassallized the Pope, you can later DA. When they are your vassal, they cannot enter into alliance with any other country than yours, so if you bribe them, they will accept you alliance proposal. Beware that owning Rome gives CB for all catholic nations. But since most of the europeans seem to have a CB on you anyway, this is not much of concern. I really wish to avoid writing you facts that are obvious to you, but I don't know how deep is your understanding of the game. If you have not yet done so, read the diplomacy FAQ. If fact read all of the FAQs. Even veteran players can find new info in them. Some screenshots would be nice.

21-02-2007, 15:04	#14
licker Sergeant Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 51	A little update for those who helped me out! I got into a spat with France over the netherlands and someone else who revolted away from Aragon up there (flanders I think). By the end of that 7 year war I gained another 6 provinces from France and shot my BB up over 30 (max is ~45). I managed to annex Mecklenburg and Austria created the CoT in Bohemia. So I was able to gain 2 CoTs without bothering with Genoa or Venice. Anyway, Venice is now part of Austria, and Genoa is still Lithuanian. I got a conquestador and some colonists and nabbed Massachusetts and eventually Conneticut rebeled to me. I then followed up with another colony next to both of them (I don't recall the name right now though). I get .4col a year and am not really worried about upping that, so I've just been slowly developing what I do have over there. I also tried to grab some colony in south africa, but the growth rate is negative, so I gather its rather pointless to continue? It looks like I can get about a +11 or 12, but face a -14 due to distance. Oh well, like I said, I'm not that worried about colonizing anything anyway... I spent some quality time building some goods manus and finishing off my refineries in all my wine producing areas. LT18 is around the corner so I'm saving for some weapons manus just for fun. I got my BB back down in the low 20s, but then decided I needed to FA a one prove minor on the baltic who was a vassal of sweden, so that took me back up to 32. I have a large standing army (190k inf, 60k cav, handful of art) and with my beaucoup mayors and luck with exceptional years my inflation is zero, and I mint a tad just to keep the money rolling in for colonists/missionaries/manus. All in all it looks pretty good at this point, just waiting for the ability to DA protestants and I'll have all of germany less the eastern part which is solidly in Austrias hands. I could probably take Austria on though, but for the time being I figure I don't need to rush into anything, however, given my military superiority (and I have 3 leaders right now...) I think they wouldn't be too hard to smash. I really feel as though I've gone past the rookie stage with this game and all your answers to my questions. I look forward to finishing this thing up by gaining control of all the german culture provinces and then paying some retribution on France for their earlier hasseling of me.