[1.8] Bohemia/Brandenburg Next-Game-Plotting

[Landwalker]

Silesia has a Piast. They get a Jagiellon from Poland.

Whoops, I misread my own Diplomacy screen... they got the Jagiellon from Lithuania. No less sadface, though.

In my Austrian misadventures, I've kept looking at Influence as an idea group, but never ended up taking it... Mostly because I've been trying to stay on the princes' good sides and avoid too much internal expansion (which may be part of my problem). Looking at it now, I do like that -25% Diplomatic Annexation cost and -20% Aggressive Expansion impact. I can see that being a very valuable tool for a "Take misplaced rage-vengeance out on all of central and western Europe" game. A couple of its ideas don't strike me as very useful unless you're going vassal-mongering, but I do like me some vassals, so it could be worse; even more reason I should have taken it as Austria, considering that I'm running around with seven of the buggers.

Considering that Brandenburg has militarily strong national ideas, I suppose I could delay a military idea until the third group is unlocked and go with something like Influence > Administrative > Aristocratic/Offensive. Bonus points if I can get Albrecht Achilles von Hohenzollern and his 2/2/1 monarch attributes killed in battle before King Friedrich II kicks the bucket.

All that said, I'm still really liking the possibilities with Bohemia, too. Might have to start a second game and give them both a try.

 

[DicRoNero]

Bohemia is kind of bad, because it is not of German culture, and it`s lack of sea access doesn`t help.

Sea access can be sorted out in like 10 years, the most tricky part is taking Neumark (which is rightfully yours) before pesky Brandenburg annexes it, which in turn depends on getting a king quickly. If he doesn't come in due time, simply restart v0v

 

[Landwalker]

Early sea access is overrated when I can pump all my DIP points into Influence ideas instead of caring about naval tech.

Starting a game up as Bohemia, but unfortunately Austria's not my fan. Going to require liberal sucking up in order to get a marriage out of them... Halfway considering just marrying Brandenburg to get into the Hohenzollern family that much more easily.

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Edit: Got mad at Austria's unfriendliness, married Brandenburg, now have a 3/4/4 Hohenzollern on the throne.

Thinking of starting off with Influence > Aristocratic. The plan after that is probably Humanist > Administrative > Offensive. I don't like putting off Offensive that late, though, and might even switch Offensive and Administrative.

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Edit 2: For people who are as ignorant as I am, starting diplomatic opinions (e.g. "Hostile," "Neutral," "Friendly") seem to be at least partly randomized. I started another game as Bohemia, and this time Austria was neutral while Hungary had rivaled me, so I was able to get a royal marriage with Austria after all.

Also, it seems like Hungary's interregnum is almost always replaced by a regency for Ladislaus Postumus von Habsburg. So if you get a "Hostile Austria" start and don't want to restart the game, I imagine you can delay marrying until Hungary's interregnum ends, then marry into the Hungarian Habsburgs to achieve effectively the same result.

Of course, then your dynasty name will be "Habsburg" instead of something fun-sounding like "Hohenzollern," but sometimes these are the prices that have to be paid.

 

[DicRoNero]

Early sea access is overrated when I can pump all my DIP points into Influence ideas instead of caring about naval tech.

Sea access has no direct corelation with dip tech; it's more about being able to project your land power to distant areas, where you otherwise need to gain military access to, wasting dip relation slots and/or time to bump relations high enough.

For instance, you may try forming Spain before Castile does that (why the hell not? ) and chewing though half of Europe will slow you down; simply establishing yourself in that peninsula for a future conquest or colonization of the new world is a valid goal as well. Once you gain sea access, the possibilities are endless - and that applies to any country, not just Bohemia.

 

[dav77-b]

1. For Brandenburg: Ally Poland(+marry+increase relation) , Bohemia(+marry ), Austria.
Rival Teutonic Order, Pommern and Mecklenburg ( they are likly allied with teutonic order, you can get easy 30 pp here )

2. Declar war to Teutonic Order
3. Take Hinterpomern , Danzig , Money
4. raise autonomy in danzig
5. declar war to pommern together with allies
6. vassalize pommern
7. sell danzig to pommern.
8. Rival Hansa and go for them

Ideas: Many ideas are nice: Diplomatic, Humanism ( if you go for the east ),Administrative , All military ideas except the naval one.

 

[Sandmann]

1. For Brandenburg: Ally Poland(+marry+increase relation) , Bohemia(+marry ), Austria.
Rival Teutonic Order, Pommern and Mecklenburg ( they are likly allied with teutonic order, you can get easy 30 pp here )

2. Declar war to Teutonic Order
3. Take Hinterpomern , Danzig , Money
4. raise autonomy in danzig
5. declar war to pommern together with allies
6. vassalize pommern
7. sell danzig to pommern.
8. Rival Hansa and go for them

Ideas: Many ideas are nice: Diplomatic, Humanism ( if you go for the east ),Administrative , All military ideas except the naval one.

I think it's better to take Meckenburg than heavy AE Danzig in the first war as you wanna vassalize Pommerania after the first TO-war and dont want too much coalition against you. Help Poland to eat and annex TO, Denmark will also jump in most likely. Then you can release TO from 1 province and feed it Danzig and like 10 other provinces. Much cheaper AE and MP wise.

 

[Landwalker]

As an update, because I'm a narcissist like that:

Went with a Bohemia game. Took the recommended route of marrying Austria, although that hasn't really panned out for me (no opportunity to claim their throne yet), but it's still lurking in the background. Meanwhile, I've expanded to encompass virtually all of northwestern Germany. Only Brandenburg, which I recently vassalized (after a long and unpleasant war with Austria) remains among the provinces necessary to form Germany.

Unfortunately, Austria (who had been my ally the whole game and done me no good at all for it except in the first decade) then decided it was time to set me as a rival, so we're in a sticky situation with that right now, as I am "rivaled" by Austria, Hungary, Denmark, Poland, and Lithuania (who is a bottomless pit of manpower. Dear God.). My only allies are Sweden, England, and, recently, Burgundy; I haven't been able to ally with France, although I'm maintaining good relations and am considering abandoning England in favor of the Blue Terror. My reservation with that is that I foresee a future conflict with France, and I don't want England to get bent out of shape and rival me in the interim, so they're basically "locked down" in an alliance. England is also the only other significant Protestant power (aside from myself and Denmark. Sweden has remained staunchly Catholic.)

My first three national ideas have been Administrative (which lived up to its billing; excellent suggestion), Influence (same), and Humanist. I'm a couple of techs away from unlocking the fourth idea, but it's time for me to start pouring it into Military pursuits if I'm going to be able to compete with Poland and Lithuania anytime soon.

Current objectives are to assimilate Brandenburg and form Germany. Once that's done, I'll likely do a bit of expansion in the German region, but I also want to start exerting some power eastwards into Poland and potentially south to Austria.

Spoiler

 

[Freudia]

Yeah, I've found that getting the claim throne over Austria is annoying to do because they seem to infinitely sit at max prestige; you might have to beat them around a bit before you enforce your rightful ownership of the Austrian throne on them. Who's the emperor? If it's still Austria, then if Sweden doesn't hate Austria, they'll likely side with them during the League Wars stuff. I would suggest maintaining that relation with Burgundy, by the way; the only thing I think is more scary than a consolidated France in this game is a Burgundy that beats France (and the Inheritance never firing).

And yeah, you definitely should start revving up the military idea sets at this point. Aside from that, looks good for 1544.

 

[Landwalker]

Yep, Austria is still firmly entrenched as the emperor. Every once in a great while someone will vote for Bavaria, but that's about it. Austria just got pasted in a war by Venice, but they're still a threat.

Right now I'm focusing on some internal development... I need to let my own manpower regenerate substantially, and am also doing some construction projects while I wait for my ADM tech to get up high enough for a fourth idea (probably Aristocratic). Just finished annexing Brandenburg, but I don't want to culture-shift yet (don't want to spend the ADM on recovering from the -5 stability hit until I've unlocked a new idea), so no Germany for a while.

I'm trying to lay the groundwork for a beating-down of Poland and Lithuania, but that's a project that's already been a so-far-fruitless century in the making. Hopefully getting some military buildings up and running, and eventually starting into the Aristocratic tech group (combined with general tech superiority) will turn that tide more Bohemia's way.

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Edit: Sweden just got ruined by Denmark in a war they started over Halland. Denmark took six provinces from them (Blekinge, Osel, Reval, Vastergotland, Smaland, and Narke). The anti-Bohemian alliance grows in power.

 

[Freudia]

and am also doing some construction projects while I wait for my ADM tech to get up high enough for a fourth idea (probably Aristocratic).

At that stage in the game I'd be more inclined to go Offensive instead, to be honest. Aristocratic is good though, so you can probably be fine with either.

 

[Landwalker]

At that stage in the game I'd be more inclined to go Offensive instead, to be honest. Aristocratic is good though, so you can probably be fine with either.

Offensive was (is) my competing option. The early +1 to both Leader Shock and Fire is very nice, and getting to the +5% Discipline at the end would be great. On the other hand, I only can manage one leader without upkeep at present, so finishing the Aristocratic line (between +25% Manpower, +1 Leader Shock, and +1 Free Leader) is also mighty appealing. I don't know of any other way to get an extra leader, since I can't seem to keep my Power Projection anywhere close to over 25.