Austria hard, going for combined hre and europe, what ideas and how to fix trade?

[raahoj]

Austria hard, going for combined hre and europe, what ideas and how to fix trade?

I want humanist and exploration to kill the religious problems and to put a colonist on each continent. I am going for geneve and venice and will gather for those 2, but to finish the missions tree and get lots of gold where should I put my other merchants, and should I pick specifik ideas? 1 diplo idea is enough for me, last game I didnt even finish that one because of many allies etc.

thx for your time hope to get good advice.

 

[atwix]

If you get BI then move trade capital to channel when marie dies. Get marriage and alliance with scotland and invade england. From there colonise znd conquer stuff upstream. Bonus for colonisation would be to tzke ceuta from portugal in first english war.. then azores and cape verde in second. Colonize caribbean and try qualifying for habsburg heir event in spain. Force pu. After england died try getting channel land from france. Once that is done go for denmark and trade power in lubeck and north sea.

In long run make sevilla second node to collect.. genoa third.

Happu to help further if you want.

 

[csward53]

Expanding on the prior comment, England tends to fall into PU at a higher than average rate as well, so even if you miss the Burgundian Succession, you might get lucky if you ally England.

 

[raahoj]

Thx for your replies but there are a few things I dont understand. First what is BI and moving trade capital , I dont play with expansions etc ?
I never ally with scotland not even with france, why is that and how should I get english things, and win vs them I have no navy compared to theirs and they are super strong, before 1500 I have little money and armies to do alot of things.
What do you mean by colonice and conquer stuff upstream? Ceuta and portugal seems like a stretch I never gotten that far that early. What am I missing plz?

 

[atwix]

Thx for your replies but there are a few things I dont understand. First what is BI and moving trade capital , I dont play with expansions etc ?
I never ally with scotland not even with france, why is that and how should I get english things, and win vs them I have no navy compared to theirs and they are super strong, before 1500 I have little money and armies to do alot of things.
What do you mean by colonice and conquer stuff upstream? Ceuta and portugal seems like a stretch I never gotten that far that early. What am I missing plz?

1. BI is Burgundy inheritance. If you see that Burgundy rivalled France and is not hostile.. marry them. Not sure how it works without dlc though. Point is thzt you can get lit of land in nw hre for free in channel node.

2.if you get the above an alliance with scotland allows to start the war from their terrain without getting blackflagged at the start. This bypasses their navy completely. Ideal for this start is alliance with castille and promise land. But that is also dlc feature.. don't know if castille would join without.

3. Conquer upstream means get all land in trade nodes that feed into the node you collect in. For example.. lubeck, north sea, champagne... they all feed into channel. The idea is to focus on conquering the center of trade.. get 50% trade power in thzt trade node.. and tgen get the bonus merchant for that. Use those extra merchants to steer trade into channel.

4.ceuta and cape verde and azores are good provinces to extended your coring and colonize range with. From your Port you should be able to core ceuta hopefully. Then core cape verde abd azores and use thise islands as jump spots into colonial territory in caribean ir east america.

All in all.. playing without dlc complicates things as most players here will advise from situation where you got all dlc.. mainly cause they own them and because they do not remember how to play without..

Hope this helps.

 

[Steel_atlas]

The channel trade node is not good for Austria people.

Your not in a good position to get to west Africa.

The venice trade node is better and now you can trade company the balkans Syria anatolia and Alexandria.

Basically take out venice and move your trade center to Venice and start eating up the Balkans and anatolia turning it into TC.

For the HRE focus on breaking up France and Britain and adding the small nations to the HRE.

Basically take land that will allow you to release a vassal. Make that land part of the HRE the released vassal will be part of the HRE and retake their cores and take another piece of land rinse and repeat. Once you want to release the vassal put your dynasty on their throne and get their Liberty desire up so they wont be pissed at you when you release them.

When it comes to keeping the princes in check just demand land then call in their allies as co belligerants and make everyone release land and renounce claims.

When it comes to the reformation you can control land strategically to force convert centers of reformation but its random where they spawn and it will just keep coming.

My personal strategy is to let it go so the leagues form as quickly as possible so I can trigger the war and win so I can start force converting princes which also lets you break up princes easier.

Poland and Spain are your natural allies and you can end up getting pus on them pretty easily

One other note once france is small enough force them into them empire. If there is no France the French minors can form france which removes them from the empire.

You dont want to rush to internal peace until you have gotten a catholic empire and killed the reformation.

Take your time on reforming the empire, its better to force convert through war then diplomacy because of the malus gained through the force convert option.