Being a player of Europa Universalis, I'm already justifiably bothered with France. But in my Victoria 2 games as Brazil, they always decide to expand their colony in South America into Brazilian lands, and I have no way to stop them. Trying to defend against them just annihilates my military. Doing a preemptive strike to send them out of the continent has me win for a while, but Russia, the war leader never accepts anything more than a white peace, and this gives France years to build up a huge navy and army to crush me. Maybe the best thing to do would be to just accept defeat, try for a crisis when I'm not a great power, and strike at them when they enter a large war if I am strong enough. What strategy do you think would be best?
Dealing with the French as Brazil
- Thread starter Br0f1st
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I would try allying with another one of the GP's, ideally the UK or the USA. I've tried to have good relations with them in my current Brazil game but time will tell if I can maintain my GP status with them, the Dutch and the British still neighbouring me.
You can focus on use of attrition, and small but sharp strikes with your navy. You're not able (unless you have UK support) actually mount an effective assault on the French navy, but you can make it difficult for them to drop troops off.
When they attack, don't try and immediately meet their armies; a partially depleted army is much weaker than a fully-supplied and manned, but smaller, army. Make sure your stacks are efficient, and don't be afraid to use your territory as a buffer to weaken French stacks before their eventual destruction. You have lots of land, and most of it is difficult to travel through. You should make the most of it. You will never be fighting the entire French force at once, so you can bring greater arms to bear against them. Isolate their forces, concentrate your own.
As for GP allies, the UK is a good defensive pick, as their navy will do wonders for stopping France's invasion. With ticking warscore, you can just occupy their colonies and eventually get your way.
When they attack, don't try and immediately meet their armies; a partially depleted army is much weaker than a fully-supplied and manned, but smaller, army. Make sure your stacks are efficient, and don't be afraid to use your territory as a buffer to weaken French stacks before their eventual destruction. You have lots of land, and most of it is difficult to travel through. You should make the most of it. You will never be fighting the entire French force at once, so you can bring greater arms to bear against them. Isolate their forces, concentrate your own.
As for GP allies, the UK is a good defensive pick, as their navy will do wonders for stopping France's invasion. With ticking warscore, you can just occupy their colonies and eventually get your way.
Alternatively, ally with the Americans at the start and the French will probably leave you alone.
I find that just raising relations works. If you bring relations up to 200 they just ignore you.
I play as Britain a lot, and I find the easiest way to deal with France is to mercilessly blockade the them and trap their armies in Europe. Maybe, if you can get your naval tech/supply high enough as Brazil, you can do a "reverse blockade" and keep the French reinforcements out while doing the attrition strategy mentioned by Icendoan above.
Buddy up to them. They can't justify a war against you if your relations are at 100 or higher, and in my experience France is more than happy to sphere Brazil.
Really though, once you have relations maxxed you can effectively ignore France (and the rest of the GPs when you're in South America) for as long as you like. It's only when if you become a GP and/or get involved with Africa will they really be a major factor to you again.
Really though, once you have relations maxxed you can effectively ignore France (and the rest of the GPs when you're in South America) for as long as you like. It's only when if you become a GP and/or get involved with Africa will they really be a major factor to you again.
The problem with buddy-ing up to them is that you cannot take Guyana until you become a GP yourself.
Not necessarily.
There's no guarantee Brazil will sphere you (I've seen them get bogged down by everyone competing over Brazil, and other secondary powers, to the point no one gets them in their sphere), and even if they do you can always lower relations back to the point where you can use the decision to leave their sphere so long as you're a secondary power (which, as Brazil, is very, very plausible).
Considering the alternative is a potential French invasion, I'd say it's worth it.