1.8 Albania?

[Clownie]

The only way I've made it work so far is clunky and very, very painful.

I request military access from Hungary and start hiring mercenaries on day 0, wait for the day tick, then declare war on Serbia. Request access from Bosnia and improve relations with Brandenburg -> declare war on East Frisia on the 12th of December. Then start marching. Occupy EF's ally, lose war against Ottomans and Serbia, wait for Venice to declare war or rebels to spawn. Venice declares war, annex imperial prince and cede Albania to Venice. Now Imperial Albania. Annex East Frisia.

Net gain: one province, -3 stability, 5 WE, probably loads of inflation. It's... not very good. Back in 1.7.x, I'd trick the Turks' AI and just walk past them and through Wallachia, but I haven't been able to make that work in 1.8.

In my current game, I own Lauenburg and East Frisia, and am allied with Burgundy and Bohemia. Sure, it looks good on paper, but the situation is awfully precarious and I am unable to core my land.

Does anyone have better strategies?

 

[atwix]

Escape to Urbino? I really need to give yhem shot aswell

 

[Opiu18]

Go forward in the timeline, then go back to the 1444 start, and your war with the Ottomans is gone. Use the bug before it is fixed for these sort of starts.

 

[defendurname]

Declare war on Serbia and then declare war on Bosnia to take a province not cononected to Serbia. Once you siege it the Turks should give u a peace deal, accept, then take Bosnia as a vassal. Declare war on Ragusa, core it, then you can move your capital there or you can try to move if you want.

 

[Clownie]

^

The Turks get access to anyone in the Balkans and then just slam you. I'm also interested in finding a way to survive without needing to DoW twice — the stability and WE really hurts.

Go forward in the timeline, then go back to the 1444 start, and your war with the Ottomans is gone. Use the bug before it is fixed for these sort of starts.

Not interested in cheating! I'm aware of the bug, but it ruins the point.

 

[atwix]

theorycrafting again. Declare on any nation that would accept you as a vassal. Offer yourself as vassal in the peace deal. Your overlord will be dragged in the war with ottomans, and HE can call in all his allies. Let them stomp the ottomans, and then find support for your indepedance. If this works it would be brilliant.

Thinking as i write this: if france would accept you as a vassal, you could ask support for independance from three greater powers if you are lucky, and ally them when you declare. Reminds me of my (stopped short due to 1.8) foix run.

I'm gonna test this now, i wonder if *any* nation would accept you as a vassal as albania. If France accepts, well, my next game will be albania. Gonna finish my yaroslavl world domination attempt first.

Gotta love crazy strategies.

 

[ctp]

Scorch Albania, dow Bosnia, access from Serbia worked just fine for me. Ottos entered Serbia at some point but didn't really unsiege the Bosnian provinces. They take ages doing so anyway with your new defensiveness bonus. Ottos peaced out for concede defeat, I vassalised Bosnia and off we rolled.

@1650

Spoiler

 

[atwix]

Scorch Albania, dow Bosnia, access from Serbia worked just fine for me. Ottos entered Serbia at some point but didn't really unsiege the Bosnian provinces. They take ages doing so anyway with your new defensiveness bonus. Ottos peaced out for concede defeat, I vassalised Bosnia and off we rolled.

@1650

Spoiler

/blink

Saruhan? Gotta love new tag nations

Seems you used austria to get a go at france. Anyways, getting alliance with austria at some point is vital for any albania strat.

 

[ctp]

/blink

Saruhan? Gotta love new tag nations

Seems you used austria to get a go at france. Anyways, getting alliance with austria at some point is vital for any albania strat.

Saruhan isn't new, they're just a dead core inside the Ottos. They even lost their cool white hand of Saruhan flag in this version.

Austria and lucky Poland are very strong allies for a budding Albania.

 

[atwix]

Saruhan isn't new, they're just a dead core inside the Ottos. They even lost their cool white hand of Saruhan flag in this version.

Austria and lucky Poland are very strong allies for a budding Albania.

i learn something every day... Where is that core?

 

[Clownie]

Scorch Albania, dow Bosnia, access from Serbia worked just fine for me. Ottos entered Serbia at some point but didn't really unsiege the Bosnian provinces. They take ages doing so anyway with your new defensiveness bonus. Ottos peaced out for concede defeat, I vassalised Bosnia and off we rolled.

@1650

Spoiler

Works like a charm! I didn't think Bosnia would work — I've tried Serbia and Ragusa, and got slammed by the Turks both times. Maybe Bosnia doesn't have the threatened attitude, or something. You got access from Serbia because of the +100 modifier from being at war with their rival (Bosnia).

Here's my game — had a great start, but was cursed with horrifically bad rulers after Gjon's death. The regency is for a 1/1/2. As a result, I suffered from a technological deficit, which put me in rather a bad way when Poland broke alliance and declared war while I was fighting Hungary and Portugal. I also made the mistake of converting to Protestantism, which I will definitely not repeat in my next run.

So yeah, thanks a ton for your input, ctp. This is a lot better than the Frisia/Navarra tactics.

 

[IIWW]

i learn something every day... Where is that core?

Izmir

 

[Nikolaz72]

Invading Bosnia worked indeed.

One tiny problem.

EVERYONE HATES THE ALBANIA

Once I finished escaping the Ottomans, actually keeping Albania. Venice attacked, I narrowly avoided doom by peacing out and giving them Albania.

Then, Austria attacked. I defended my shores and waited for a white peace, they are still domineering.

Then Hungary attacked, I had aid from Poland but was unable to get a good peace since I needed all my troops to defend my shores when.

ARAGON ATTACKED.

I waited until White peace and manage to prepare my troops just in time, I had just secured an alliance with Austria who dragged me into a war for Crimea with the Ottomans.

the Austrians white-peaced out and broke their alliance to me and that was when THE OTTOMANS INVADED.

I scorched Serbia and watched the Ottoman armies burn as the gold I had saved up got burnt hiring mercenaries and pushing them back into the Balkans and Greece both of which I thoroughly looted.

I'm spending my time constantly at war.. Everyone hates Albania ;_;

And for those curious, no. I didn't annex Serbia/Bosnia. They were diploannexed, it was clean. I only annexed a claimed Ragusa.

 

[roy_d_merkel]

theorycrafting again. Declare on any nation that would accept you as a vassal. Offer yourself as vassal in the peace deal. Your overlord will be dragged in the war with ottomans, and HE can call in all his allies. Let them stomp the ottomans, and then find support for your indepedance. If this works it would be brilliant.

Thinking as i write this: if france would accept you as a vassal, you could ask support for independance from three greater powers if you are lucky, and ally them when you declare. Reminds me of my (stopped short due to 1.8) foix run.

I'm gonna test this now, i wonder if *any* nation would accept you as a vassal as albania. If France accepts, well, my next game will be albania. Gonna finish my yaroslavl world domination attempt first.

Gotta love crazy strategies.

a good strategy. sadly I haven't found any factions it works on yet. France, Austria, Poland, Lithuania, Qara Qum, the Mameluks Spain, Moscow, Aragon, and the Timmurids (who you can't technically see at game start without a console cheat) all won't accept vasselization.
I tried forcing them to accept it using tag switching and the console, but then France, Austria, Aragon, the Mamelucks, Qara Qum, and the Timmurids would just sit in their territories, and watch me burn (until ticking war score forces them to give me a game over by them giving my territory to the Ottos).

If someone finds a faction this works on let me know, because it sounds like a really fun strategy.

 

[atwix]

a good strategy. sadly I haven't found any factions it works on yet. France, Austria, Poland, Lithuania, Qara Qum, the Mameluks Spain, Moscow, Aragon, and the Timmurids (who you can't technically see at game start without a console cheat) all won't accept vasselization.
I tried forcing them to accept it using tag switching and the console, but then France, Austria, Aragon, the Mamelucks, Qara Qum, and the Timmurids would just sit in their territories, and watch me burn (until ticking war score forces them to give me a game over by them giving my territory to the Ottos).

If someone finds a faction this works on let me know, because it sounds like a really fun strategy.

Venice? They always declare on albania. Hungary? Austria wil surely support your independance then. God forbid, if austria doesn't rival france, you might be able to get support independance from austria and france at once.

Austria and Castille combo is best i bet. With Venice too..

Maybe the ai just won't accept offer vassalisation, ever?

 

[Fionnix]

I'm pretty sure the AI will accept a vassalisation offer. I think someone like Castile would accept the offer from Navara. They probably just need to have a reason to want you as a vassal. If I am right Venice would be a good choice since they have a core on Albania and they are usually able to ally at least 1 great power so they would be the best choice if no great powers will help you directly.

 

[atwix]

sounds like a plan then. I have been breeding on a run like this since they installed the support independance.

But.. It would be an easier game then Foix then and likely just boring. Especially since the entire Balkan area is just fruit waiting to be plucked.

 

[roy_d_merkel]

I'm pretty sure the AI will accept a vassalisation offer. I think someone like Castile would accept the offer from Navara. They probably just need to have a reason to want you as a vassal. If I am right Venice would be a good choice since they have a core on Albania and they are usually able to ally at least 1 great power so they would be the best choice if no great powers will help you directly.

You might be right. I'll try Venice and Hungry next. I poo-pooed them because I didn't think they would be big enough to win that first war. Especially after Austria left me to burn (got vasselization using console cheats). I'll try them next, and let you know how it works.

 

[atwix]

You might be right. I'll try Venice and Hungry next. I poo-pooed them because I didn't think they would be big enough to win that first war. Especially after Austria left me to burn (got vasselization using console cheats). I'll try them next, and let you know how it works.

don't forget they can make alliances and call them in after the war started. If Austria and France like Venice, well, who knows what happens.