1600, how do I slow down France?

[mbulloc]

I am playing Castile and have conquered almost all of Portugal and Aaragon. I also have made huge gains in colonization (well into S America nearing Carribean). While I have been doing this, France has progressed unchecked and now controls a huge swatch of land. What can I do to cause France to implode or slow France down?

Year=1600

 

[drake000666]

I am playing Castile and have conquered almost all of Portugal and Aaragon. I also have made huge gains in colonization (well into S America nearing Carribean). While I have been doing this, France has progressed unchecked and now controls a huge swatch of land. What can I do to cause France to implode or slow France down?

Year=1600

Now that you let them go unchecked your only hope is they get into a big war with HRE and when you see their Army and manpower low jump them and release nations and that will work best

 

[XT6Wagon]

start over and kick them in the southern provinces while they are in the 100yrs war. Never letting France take off is the key. Also you should have the aragon/Portugal issue settled before 1500. If you want to be really min/max about it a PU with Portugal is seriously broken as they can colonize and core for you, on their gold and admin points.

 

[ck2plusdlacc]

The idea that a large AI nation, regardless of difficulty or settings, can't be dealt with by a similarly large player nation is a bit silly.

Drag the AI armies into view by sieging a province or two, be sure to have a scout stack on look out and be ready to move if you're genuinely worried about a defeat.
Create an army with a 10-12 regiment advantage to face them and feel free to go over force limits, obviously you'll have sorted your income before you go to war right?
Create a second stack at about half their size.
Lure the AI into an offensive battle, to get any defensive bonus you can, have the second stack move a few provinces into their territory.
Win battle, AI retreats, get to AI retreat destination with second stack before AI get there. Crush AI.

If its France you're dealing with then they have dozens of small nations that you can have them release, all of which will be an immediate drain from their power. For extra effect see if you can find provinces where the AI has invested in buildings, as releasing the nations that take those provinces should destroy the buildings.

 

[l3ol3o]

This started happening in my game. France was becoming threatening. I was playing as Spain so I declared war with the intent of keeping France in check. I focused on wrecking it's Navy and whittling their manpower down. It was a long war but in the end I won. I didn't take any land I just took a ton of gold, broke up all alliances, stole their trade, and made them release some vassals. It slowed France down some but she pulled herself together in a few decades. Now it's the UK that is the problem. Their fleet is huge and threatening my trade and they are colonizing in areas I want.

 

[Melric]

You declare war on France with a war goal being a colony in the New World. Take and occupy the colony so that you get a ticking war goal score. Then on your border, you bait France into attacking a stack on a great defensive territory (e.g., Bearn) and then quickly reinforce with 2x the number of men from neighboring territories. That shatters their army, which marches back to the other side of the map. Rinse and repeat. Once you get to about 20% warscore, you have them release 4-5 countries. Rinse and repeat. You just need the manpower pool to replace your own casualties after the battle on your own territory. This is where mercs can help out as they will not deplete your manpower pool. Also, before you declare war on France, you ally as many countries on the other side of France that you can (even though you get above your diplo amount). That causes France not to focus all its armies on your border. Releasing French countries does not require much warscore. Just remember to cancel your alliances after the war and revoke the guarantees. I usually go after the release countries right away and vassalize them or sell them off to vassals.

 

[unmerged(343149)]

I got a royal marriage with them(as Brandenburg) and waited for them to get a weak leader so I could claim their throne and put them in a PU. I built up alliances with all of their enemies beforehand. and saved money to use mercs for the costliest battles(so you don't lose manpower). Don't be afraid to take a couple loans and fire all your advisors, if you win that war you'll have France as your right hand man forever, allowing you to take on most other enemies without difficulty. They've been my minion for 50 years now

 

[Al.Bindy]

You don't. The blue blob is upon you. Despair and die.