Beginning Strategy for Castile World Conquest + True Faith

[Vulkandrache]

I usually prefer to start as Portugal and eat Castille right away.
As Portugal i go heavy duty on the colonization as they need money more than most nations, since they have not much else going for them,
and their NI are kinda second tier one-trick-pony.

Starting as Castille as would do things differently.
Mr yellow has some massive advantages over most nations in the game.
You get two PUs to feed, one with a free integration.
You have a Colonist without having to pick Exploration.
You NI are frontloaded for combat.


Go Religious, Influence.
Dont bother colonizing myself, vassalize Portugal and let them set up the CNs.
Take their CoT so they dont take much money from you. Feed them land in America so they create CNs if they go full retard with colonizing.

Full annex release Granada, feed them the Berber coast. Start annexing so they finish around 1520, as they otherwise block inheriting Aragon.
Use Deus Vult to go around and through the Mamluks to reach East-Africa from the North.

 

[ElGranCapitan]

The way I started my last Castille game worked pretty well:
Ally France
Best cb Burgundy, promise land to France (Note: if anything goes wrong, like no inheritance, inheritance for Austria or France separate peacing and breaking pus - restart, if France just takes land it doesn't matter, they only take what they'd get anyway)
By Mil 4 (stay mil focused till Mil 5), attack England for the 2 Gascon provinces, in my attempt the Surrender of Maine fired during the Burgundy war and France backed down thus having a truce that gave me enough time to snatch the 2 provinces I wanted - with Mil 4 vs Mil 3 beating England and Portugal isn't hard
Release Gascony as a vassal, now France will hate you - switch them for Austria as an ally.
Attack granada with the reconquista mission, don't fight in North Africa, just full occupy and wait, just navy prevents landings anyway - after a few years the allies don't count anymore and you can annex without a single battle against tunis etc
Now declare reconquest for gascon cores on france (with +30% morale, 15 from NIs and 15 from reconquista + a morale or disc advisor) you should have the upper hand
Without Gascony the balance of power has shifted in your favour, France is dead

All this happens before 1460, now some random stuff

Get a Habsburg (also you might want to savescum for Austria getting the Hungary PU) and ally Poland
Feed North Africa to Aragon post wedding (just keep in mind that they don't get too big for the decision), except leave one of the target provinces for Continue the Reconquista mission (yeah there 2 Reconquista missions) in enemy hands (Tangiers, Ceuta and a few more are targets - needs to be Muslim, so Portugal doesn't count)
Improve relations with all electors, make sure you are number 2 after Austria with some advantage after number 3, then declare for the Austrian throne, thus upon winning the war you get Austria, Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire (= a lot of Force limit)
When you are ready to take on the Ottomans (= have a larger fleet and the Spanish tercio buff) than attack the North Africans first, for the Continue the Reconquista mission (which like the first Reconquista gives a temporary 15% morale buff. Don't run for Egypt, keep the Mamluks around as a buffer state
You should now have all of Spain, southern France, parts of italy, the low lands, a PU over Austria and Hungary and the HRE crown and your troops have 30% Morale (Ni+reconquista) 10% disc (NI + advisor) and -20% shock damage received (tercio). Assemble your host in Hungary and declare with Poland's help, keep them from landing with a superior fleet
No matter how much the Ottomans have blobbed - nobody resists the Spanish Inquisition!

Edit: bonus points if your Emperor is named Charles

 

[Jaapje]

I had a rather interesting start as Aragon. Rivaled genoa and took the mission to take Corsica. Declared asap, the HRE was called in but his alliance lacks ships. Becaus the AI does AI things it suicided onto Sicily, over and over again. My ally France kept his borders shut. After everyone was tired of looting Naples while I sat on my Islands, I was allowed to take Corsica and Chios.

Next steps were vassalize byz and pretend to be Greek.

 

[Virupaksha]

I usually prefer to start as Portugal and eat Castille right away.
As Portugal i go heavy duty on the colonization as they need money more than most nations, since they have not much else going for them,
and their NI are kinda second tier one-trick-pony.

Starting as Castille as would do things differently.
Mr yellow has some massive advantages over most nations in the game.
You get two PUs to feed, one with a free integration.
You have a Colonist without having to pick Exploration.
You NI are frontloaded for combat.


Go Religious, Influence.
Dont bother colonizing myself, vassalize Portugal and let them set up the CNs.
Take their CoT so they dont take much money from you. Feed them land in America so they create CNs if they go full retard with colonizing.

Full annex release Granada, feed them the Berber coast. Start annexing so they finish around 1520, as they otherwise block inheriting Aragon.
Use Deus Vult to go around and through the Mamluks to reach East-Africa from the North.

This is very nice, it's the irony of Castile that it doesn't actually need to colonise as Portugal does it for them. Just have a couple of questions. Is it not still better to leave Portugal alone so they colonise more quickly? And when would you take exploration? Do you not have problems uncovering the map without it?

 

[Dominion]

Portugal colonizes just as quickly as a vassal as they do on their own.

It only seems slower because people take the CoT and therefor their money and AI nations usually avoid negative income so they stop sending colonists.

Can work around that by subsidizing them a bit. Speed is the same and since they put it into colonies it's effectively the same price as if you'd do it yourself except their settler growth is better and you spare yourself the micro from colony setup.

Taking Portugal's CoT is really a matter of being able to micro the cash in Sevilla better.

If you really need cash, take it for yourself. When there's downtime you can give it to Portugal to colonize again, etc.
After a while their colonies net them enough so they don't even need subsidies anymore.
Improves general efficiency by a lot.

 

[Vulkandrache]

And when would you take exploration?

Potentially never.
You are not necesseraly looking to have Portugal colonize alot, you can just feed them Native land so they core it and form a CN.
The main benefit of leaving colonization to a Vassal is that they will target the spread out and annoying islands everwhere.
I did this in my Aztec game and i didnt even realize how many islands they had worked through until after i annexed them.

Do you not have problems uncovering the map without it?

Your initial targets can either be seen already, or will be so weak (Mali, etc.) that you can just walk into the FoW to uncover them.
The stuff slightly farther away you can steal a map or two.
And the stuff far away will be revealed quite quickly because Portugal knows about it.

The odd province here and there can be revealed by finishing a colony next to it.
This allows things like accesing Central-Northafrica through the Fezzan corridor or getting to the great lakes sooner.

Additionaly Portugal can get the Goa event even as a subject.
This gives you very easy acces to India.

After a while their colonies net them enough so they don't even need subsidies anymore.

Unlikely. The screenshot above 9/10 CNs have 100% LD.
Portugal just cant keep up with how much land you can feed their CNs so they get jack Tariffs.

 

[Virupaksha]

Potentially never.

Your initial targets can either be seen already, or will be so weak (Mali, etc.) that you can just walk into the FoW to uncover them.
The stuff slightly farther away you can steal a map or two.
And the stuff far away will be revealed quite quickly because Portugal knows about it.

The odd province here and there can be revealed by finishing a colony next to it.
This allows things like accesing Central-Northafrica through the Fezzan corridor or getting to the great lakes sooner.

Additionaly Portugal can get the Goa event even as a subject.
This gives you very easy acces to India.

How can you wander into the FoW without a conquistador? Am I missing something here?

It's the conquistadors rather than the ability to colonise which seems to me to make exploration essential.

 

[Vulkandrache]

If you are at war with someone you can walk into their land and uncover it.
It just takes longer.

 

[Lordkaiser]

Many people suggested the idea of taking Labourd and releasing it as Gascony and then use the claims of Gascony to take away stuff from france.

I have heavy doubts about this idea: Should I really piss of England by taking something from them and also France by having something they want at the same time??
And maybe even also fight the moors in the south, all at the same time?? I would piss off everybody around me.

 

[Vulkandrache]

That is kind of up to you.
I personally prefer to leave Europe alone for a while and gather strength elsewhere.


And while i dont doubt that its possible to pull all this of and more i wouldnt overstretch myself as a less experienced player.
That said, you shouldnt only stay with what you know will succed. Playing until say 1500 several times and comparing your progress with different approaches makes sense.

the claims of Gascony to take away stuff from france.

The cores.
It would be a reconquest war on behalf of your subjects cores.

You dont care about England. They cant do much more than sit on the island and look red.

If you managed to pull this of without loosing pace in the south you have crippled France severely, as the Reconquest CV allowes 33% more land to be taken for almost no AE.
And the Gascony area is quite good.

Its mainly a question of how effective and experienced you are at waging wars.

 

[ElGranCapitan]

Many people suggested the idea of taking Labourd and releasing it as Gascony and then use the claims of Gascony to take away stuff from france.

I have heavy doubts about this idea: Should I really piss of England by taking something from them and also France by having something they want at the same time??
And maybe even also fight the moors in the south, all at the same time?? I would piss off everybody around me.

The reason is France is like the Ottomans, the longer they live (and blob) the more dangerous they get..except unlike the Ottomans their units never get worse and they only get better and better generals (and lvl 8 forts). I've never seen France killed by the AI unless it was before 1500. Releasing Gascony from England is just the easiest way to take massive amounts of land from France without much AE

And neither England nor the Moors are a threat to you, your troops are better, you will have better mil tech and they all need to do a naval invasion

 

[Sinuous]

The way I started my last Castille game worked pretty well:
Ally France
Best cb Burgundy, promise land to France (Note: if anything goes wrong, like no inheritance, inheritance for Austria or France separate peacing and breaking pus - restart, if France just takes land it doesn't matter, they only take what they'd get anyway)
By Mil 4 (stay mil focused till Mil 5), attack England for the 2 Gascon provinces, in my attempt the Surrender of Maine fired during the Burgundy war and France backed down thus having a truce that gave me enough time to snatch the 2 provinces I wanted - with Mil 4 vs Mil 3 beating England and Portugal isn't hard
Release Gascony as a vassal, now France will hate you - switch them for Austria as an ally.
Attack granada with the reconquista mission, don't fight in North Africa, just full occupy and wait, just navy prevents landings anyway - after a few years the allies don't count anymore and you can annex without a single battle against tunis etc
Now declare reconquest for gascon cores on france (with +30% morale, 15 from NIs and 15 from reconquista + a morale or disc advisor) you should have the upper hand
Without Gascony the balance of power has shifted in your favour, France is dead

All this happens before 1460, now some random stuff

Get a Habsburg (also you might want to savescum for Austria getting the Hungary PU) and ally Poland
Feed North Africa to Aragon post wedding (just keep in mind that they don't get too big for the decision), except leave one of the target provinces for Continue the Reconquista mission (yeah there 2 Reconquista missions) in enemy hands (Tangiers, Ceuta and a few more are targets - needs to be Muslim, so Portugal doesn't count)
Improve relations with all electors, make sure you are number 2 after Austria with some advantage after number 3, then declare for the Austrian throne, thus upon winning the war you get Austria, Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire (= a lot of Force limit)
When you are ready to take on the Ottomans (= have a larger fleet and the Spanish tercio buff) than attack the North Africans first, for the Continue the Reconquista mission (which like the first Reconquista gives a temporary 15% morale buff. Don't run for Egypt, keep the Mamluks around as a buffer state
You should now have all of Spain, southern France, parts of italy, the low lands, a PU over Austria and Hungary and the HRE crown and your troops have 30% Morale (Ni+reconquista) 10% disc (NI + advisor) and -20% shock damage received (tercio). Assemble your host in Hungary and declare with Poland's help, keep them from landing with a superior fleet
No matter how much the Ottomans have blobbed - nobody resists the Spanish Inquisition!

Edit: bonus points if your Emperor is named Charles

Is it possible to get a Habsburg that early as Castile? Seems like getting an Austria PU in the first 50 years or so is an unreliable strategy. And do you have enough strength to fight Austria and her allies during the war to get the throne?

I saw a Castile video where they declared war on England near the start of the game promising land to france and co-belligerent Portugal. He separate peaced Portugal for the centers of trade and then let England "win" the war by giving some of France's land to him. Thought that was hilarious. Did the same thing with the war with Aragon. Let Aragon win by letting him have France's Mediterranean coastal provinces, which I thought was pretty clever since he'd get them under a PU later. When not starting as France or Ottomans, my least favorite countries to fight are France and Ottomans, so I kind of like this strategy of crippling France at the beginning without the AE.

And of course you can always go after England later for the Gascogny provinces + Pale

 

[ElGranCapitan]

Is it possible to get a Habsburg that early as Castile? Seems like getting an Austria PU in the first 50 years or so is an unreliable strategy. And do you have enough strength to fight Austria and her allies during the war to get the throne?

Yep, 99% reliable

When Castile/Spain and Austria have a RM, France rivals both and Castile/Spain has no heir they get a Habsburg with a MTTH of 6 months

France has 5 typical rivals (England, Burgundy, Austria, Castile and Aragon), most of the time it's England, Burgundy and either Austria or Castile. Since you restart for a friendly France their rivals will be England, Burgundy and Austria most likely

After the burgundy war you break the alliance thus giving them a chance to rival you as well, if they don't, after taking gascony you break all their rivalries except for Austria (and you). They'll have 2 rival slots and you just took 1/3 of their land. They'll rival you

Regarding the war: It's you, your PUs/vassals (at that point Aragon, Naples and Gascony at least) and any alliance you got vs Austria, Hungary and 4 others (some OPM, some medium sized like Savoy or Milan). Just let them run against the forts and smash them, no need to fight offensively. At some point you can separate peace all the allies

But a Habsburg heir at ~1460-1470, thus a ruler by 1490 and a PU by 1500-1550 (depending on when Austria has no heir) should be definitly possible

 

[Lordkaiser]

Who would be the most promising Vasal to feed North Africa to? (But I would like to take the Gold mine and some Sugar from Morocco for myself. So the vasall shouldnt block that.

 

[Virupaksha]

Who would be the most promising Vasal to feed North Africa to? (But I would like to take the Gold mine and some Sugar from Morocco for myself. So the vasall shouldnt block that.

Berber countries have coring cost penalties so do not make good vassals. Better to make them territorial cores directly. Grenada doesn't have this but needs to be annexed before you can form Spain.

 

[Lordkaiser]

Berber countries have coring cost penalties so do not make good vassals. Better to make them territorial cores directly. Grenada doesn't have this but needs to be annexed before you can form Spain.

what? its exactly the other way around! making the cores yourself is too expensive, thats why you feed north africa to a vasall and let them pay the admin points for coring.

 

[Virupaksha]

what? its exactly the other way around! making the cores yourself is too expensive, thats why you feed north africa to a vasall and let them pay the admin points for coring.

Until you want to annex them and realise the diplo point cost.

 

[Dominion]

Because integrating is cheaper than coring and dip points are abundant anyways throughout most of the game. Not too bad, but still abundant. Never core ICC, always integrate it when possible. Or even better, give it a non-ICC tag and wait for the original core to run out.

 

[Virupaksha]

what? its exactly the other way around! making the cores yourself is too expensive, thats why you feed north africa to a vasall and let them pay the admin points for coring.

It works like this. To make a territorial core costs 50% of a full core. To annex a vassal costs about 80% of a full core. Core penalty applies whether you are coring directly or annexing a vassal. Therefore it is very inefficient to vassalise countries with increased coring costs as you will pay 60% more monarch points to do so.

Of course diplo points are somewhat less valuable than admin points which is why you release vassals in the first place but unless you intend to make the north African land full cores, which aside from gold mines it doesn't merit, these berber countries are the worst vassals to pick.

 

[Virupaksha]

Because integrating is cheaper than coring and dip points are abundant anyways throughout most of the game. Not too bad, but still abundant. Never core ICC, always integrate it when possible. Or even better, give it a non-ICC tag and wait for the original core to run out.

Diplo points abundant?

I would suggest you are making too few vassals. Diplo should be at the limit in balance with admin.