Advice on playing as Brittany

[WhiskyGlen]

It seems to me that Brittany has to have one of the worst starting positions possible. I don't want a complete walk through as I like to figure things out on my own, but I do have a question. Do you all prefer to ally with England and try to destroy France (which I feel also needs an alliance with Austria) or do you prefer to ally with France and take the easy English provinces on the coast?

The latter option is what I have mostly tried and have had some good success with it. Problem is, in order to expand, you have only one direction as England's navy is so powerful. You can expand east on the coast. This leads to eventual coalitions. The former option I tried about 10-15 starts trying to get it to work. The goal is to start a game where England does not start out hostile (if so, then restart the game) and then ally with them. The hope then is that Burgundy and England do not go to war. The other hope is Austria does not either. Then ally with Austria as soon as possible. Only two times have I got even that far without another war starting. Anyways, at that point you can declare war on France. But both times as soon as I knocked France's allies out (once Hungary and once Denmark and it's union members) and turned the tide, my allies would begin to peace out with France. Which is odd since we clearly had the upper hand and both nations were at medium war enthusiasm. That itself almost seems buggy. But anyways, it seems that if I had won that war and got a couple French provinces, the long-term expansion would be better.

What do you all think? Which route do you all try to go? Or is there somehow a third and better route?

 

[xetios]

Vassalise Provence, ally England/France (England is probably a more stable allie since France will want your provinces) and Austria, from that you should be able to go both colonising and into Italy once you've annexed Provence and Italy left the Empire, This is theorical, I've done a similar thing two patches ago. Vassalising Provence is probably one of the best moves you can do, since it will give you much land in different places that lets you expand in many directions.

 

[Cragspyder]

The AI seems to like forming colonial nations with Brittany. Im playing a Siak ----> Malaya game where Brittany has Madagascar and Paupa New Guinea as well. Made it convenient to take a core for westernization from them and instead of a giant like Portugal or Spain!

So you could expand overseas instead i guess.

 

[Parapluman]

I would try to get some big allies (say austria and castille), eat Provence and try to cripple France in a big war. So you don't have to keep watching over your shoulder.

 

[Moah]

What I did was to ally Castille, England and Austria, and colonize as soon as possible. I was never really able to expand in Europe, but i had enough allies and power from my colonies to survive.

 

[talilu]

I did a Brittany when Breton was a Celtic culture.

Ally France and Scotland.
Eat one Irish minor (or more if they aren't allied to Scotland or England) to use as a stepping stone to England.
Invade England and peace out quickly while he has rebels. Pretenders can totally wreck you and your warscore if not careful. Try to take at least a Welsh or Northumbrian core to feed later.
Keep doing this until you own the isles.

I was lucky and after my second conquest, Scotland fell under a union with me and France got my dnasty, so I never needed to attack Scotland. If you ever need to attack Scotland while he is allied to France, try to get the Spanish or Austrian on your side. Many nations will start admiring you because of the power you acquired anyways by sending green hearts around.

Best of luck!

Also this is important! If you don't like colonizing or want a partner in crime, keep Scotland around as a vassal as long as possible. They are really good at colonization when not bothered with long wars and enough economic support.