After trying it out, I confirm : England LOSING the HYW is quite beneficial

[BaronNoir]

It's 1780, and England/UK have been at war with various combination of France, Sweden/Scandinavia, Portugal, Castille/Spain, Austria/Burgundy/Holy Roman Empire, Poland, Ottoman Empire pretty much constantly betwen 1500 and 1800 (there might have been 20 years of peace overall) I started the game by abandoning all continent holdings.

In three centuries, I fought ONE battle on British soil and conducted ONE siege on the continent (Britanny, for securing one colony in North America) As real history proved it, the Channel is worth hundred of thousands of troops. Whatever are the odds on army size, the AI is almost incapable to invading the british isles. (TBH, by 1750, Britain and colonies had nearly 300 ships of the line and 1500 frigates-without being even close to force limits.

I even tried one time to be at war with Portugal, Spain, France, Ottoman Empire, Scandinavia, Holy Roman Empire and Poland at the same time, and I was able after a couple of epic fleet battles to blockade them 100%. Wars are a matter of seizing ennemy islands and starving them to death (I seized during the 300 years virtually all islands in the Baltic and Med to serve as naval bases)

There is something almost, how to say, erotic about ending one war with the Holy Roman Empire (Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Bohemia, Germany, Hungary...around 1 million soldiers) with cancel treaties and Venezia, with the only army operation being the siege of Venezia by a paltry 20k army.

 

[Freudia]

But what do you do for the rest of the game after the HYW? Just go colonize and dick around with the rest of the world? Doesn't sound very fun if you ask me.

 

[hashinshin]

But what do you do for the rest of the game after the HYW? Just go colonize and dick around with the rest of the world? Doesn't sound very fun if you ask me.

Sounds very British to me.

Britain sat on it's Isles and dicked around with the rest of Europe while colonizing the world. They knew their armies didn't have the manpower to fight a European land war... so they didn't. They built up and colonized in the hopes that one day they might get enough manpower out of their colonies to finally eradicate the French.

France on the other hand spent the entirety of EU4 researching various new ways of angering everybody around them.

Europe plays EU4 in the EU4iest way. They sit there and colonize everyone else while involving themselves in European politics only to trip up and make the other countries misstep to further their colonial dreams.

 

[Freudia]

Sounds very British to me.

Britain sat on it's Isles and dicked around with the rest of Europe while colonizing the world. They knew their armies didn't have the manpower to fight a European land war... so they didn't. They built up and colonized in the hopes that one day they might get enough manpower out of their colonies to finally eradicate the French.

France on the other hand spent the entirety of EU4 researching various new ways of angering everybody around them.

Europe plays EU4 in the EU4iest way. They sit there and colonize everyone else while involving themselves in European politics only to trip up and make the other countries misstep to further their colonial dreams.

I'm aware it sounds very British, but it does not sound like an engaging way to actually play EU4. It's very hands-off and I don't think it makes for good gameplay.

 

[BaronNoir]

But what do you do for the rest of the game after the HYW? Just go colonize and dick around with the rest of the world? Doesn't sound very fun if you ask me.

Yes, this is exactly what I did. Seizing under increasingly flimsy pretexts all the colonies around, to the point that by the end of the game America will be 100% colonized by British (I let a small Portuguese colony in Argentine until recently, since it allow me to Imperialism DOW them. Rio de la Plata is a bit easier to seize as war objective than Madrid, Paris of Wien).

 

[Panzerschiffe]

There is something almost, how to say, erotic about ending one war with the Holy Roman Empire (Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Bohemia, Germany, Hungary...around 1 million soldiers) with cancel treaties and Venezia, with the only army operation being the siege of Venezia by a paltry 20k army.

Anyone else reminded of Zap Brannigan?

I agree, being attacked by phallic shaped countries sure is erotic.

 

[RobRoy3]

I'm aware it sounds very British, but it does not sound like an engaging way to actually play EU4. It's very hands-off and I don't think it makes for good gameplay.

Really depends on your objectives, I guess. Sure, the colonial game might lose it's allure after a few tries. But with the awesome new map, it's a bit of a fresh experience. I've been playing strictly colonial games recently, getting used to the new mechanics and the awesome map, and it's been quite entertaining. Better as Portugal or Hansa, IMHO, but England is fine. And getting bogged down in European wars, not of your choosing, is distracting if you're trying to stay focused abroad. Not sure getting France in a permanent PU is worth the headache of trying to maintain it, along with the initial costs of setting it up, and the opportunity cost of losing a stellar rival. Last time I won the HYW as England, I only had two possible rivals for half a century.

Did I mention how much I love the awesome new map?

 

[rmc]

Can be, but I don't have this detachment to let all those rich french lands in the hands of AI.

 

[BaronNoir]

They can be attacked by the AI....

 

[RELee]

Interesting how join dates affect strategy choices here.

I like playing England as BaronNoir does, ignoring Europe and conquering the rest of the known world while using the Channel as the greatest moat in the world. It's a role=playing choice. Nothing more.

I've also PU'd France in the HWY, so it's not like I have an exclusive strategy; but winning the HWY is fun once.

 

[Rey]

I even tried one time to be at war with Portugal, Spain, France, Ottoman Empire, Scandinavia, Holy Roman Empire and Poland at the same time, and I was able after a couple of epic fleet battles to blockade them 100%. Wars are a matter of seizing ennemy islands and starving them to death (I seized during the 300 years virtually all islands in the Baltic and Med to serve as naval bases)

Just like IRL. The British seized islands (Malta, Minorca, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Singapore ...) and other strategic positions to ensure their power projection (Gibraltar, Suez, the Cape, ...).

 

[Beagá]

If Austria inherits Burgundy early you two together can totally rip France apart. Running from the continent is for chickens.

 

[LanMisa]

This Island strategy is why I love Japan, for example. Or what I did as Cherokee to conquer both Americas.

You don't even need to be on an island. If you are in Africa and the Ottomans exist (and are friendly towards you) you are in the same situation. In that case it is usually beneficial not to call them in if you war. Just because they are siegeable...

 

[Andy578]

But what do you do for the rest of the game after the HYW? Just go colonize and dick around with the rest of the world? Doesn't sound very fun if you ask me.

actually playing historically and trying to keep a balance in Europe is quite fun. you can jump into wars to stop a growing threat and also take their colonies if they have any. with the new income England can pull in you can also spread around a ton of cash to help struggling land powers like funding Austria in a war against France. England really feels natural playing this way and it's quite historical

 

[1alexey]

Britain sat on it's Isles and dicked around with the rest of Europe while colonizing the world. They knew their armies didn't have the manpower to fight a European land war... so they didn't. They built up and colonized in the hopes that one day they might get enough manpower out of their colonies to finally eradicate the French.

They actually did fight continental wars quite a lot, mostly with cash, but a fair time with boots on the ground. it did happen more than people realize.

 

[Beagá]

Fighting the war of Spanish Sucession with a 50k stack ready to attack would make things quite easier

Also, any french province you get gives a huge boost to manpower. It´s rare to see a province with less than 100 manpower, and manpower is England´s Achilles´ heel, so...

 

[CaptinYesterday]

I've never played England before AoW so I gave it a shot after hearing about the english channel node (awesome $$). Lost the HYW, which was fine for my first go. Still managed to hang onto the 3 northern mainland territories and gained an alliance with Austria (super key). France attacked a few times but with austria and protugal, I managed to fight them back after some seriously long wars. Austria and portugal always joined me in DoW against burgandy/castille, which allowed me to expand mainland and eventually surround Ild de France as pictured below. Got the "One night in Paris" achievement 20 years later and at some point in the process the cosmopolitian culture became accepted, which helped reel in the autonomy.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=340108872

 

[BaronNoir]

The issue is that fleets, for some unfathomable reason, don't require manpower and don't need manpower to replenish. Even a very messy fleet action, when it's won, does not affect WE. Losing, say, 10 ships of the line and rebuilding then in 3 months just cost money. (This is something of an exploit, of course)

While the British Navy with good ideas will take relatively small casualties (mostly frigates fleets taking damage before a warship squadron can join them `: in my final war against Holy Empire/Spain/Portugal/Scandinavia. a 150 warships/400 frigates combined navies was smashed with losses of 20 ships of the lines and 90 frigates), in general naval warfare tends to be a LOT less ''messier'' than ground warfare. I'm not very good at it, but if a 40k army smash with a 30 ik ish stack, casualties of 5-10k range are very frequent. A 25 ships of the line fleet attacking a 20 ships ennemy formation can very well get out of battle with zero casualties

 

[tfjs]

But what do you do for the rest of the game after the HYW? Just go colonize and dick around with the rest of the world? Doesn't sound very fun if you ask me.

OP: "There is something almost, how to say, erotic about..." - sounds like Baron is having plenty of fun!

 

[BaronNoir]

Yes, some people enjoy seeing video of ''housewives having no money to pay the handyman with big tools'', some other love see the Royal Navy brutally sinking for the 9th time this game the Spanish warfleet.