Best Austria --> Germany strategy?

[James_Manring]

Or perhaps we realize there is more than one way to do things and that if used in a certain fashion Russia can be of far greater value than you are willing to give credit. You are not the only person that has ever spent significant portions of time with this title. To insult several of us as being obviously new and unfamiliar or having not even played at all is not necessary. In my case it is quite the ridiculous assertion, albeit I will concede that like qwertzuiop I have spent more time with mods than vanilla in recent memory.

 

[ozyhuboi]

You guys must not play the game a lot or you guys must not play the game into the late game. ozyhuboi, ally France, not Russia.
qwertzuiop, At least Britain doesn't cause you to lose warscore. Late game, they actually conduct amphibious landings so they aren't terrible.

>Britain
>Actually conduct amphibious landings

Ha, like the British will ever figure out what a boat is, even in late game. I've seen them fight a 5 year war over one damn province because they didn't want to move a single one of their 50 transports to drop some troops to actually fight a war. They lost by the way. The naval AI is absolutely atrocious and should not be relied upon, plus Britain has a weird tendency to bunch up its troops in Ireland which makes it extremely easy to isolate and destroy them. As for France, once Alsace-Lorraine conflict hits, they'll never be your ally ever again and cannot be relied upon, only as a metric to judge the strength of your united Germany. Strangely enough, the most reliable ally to have influence in Germanic region ends to be Austria itself, so long as a it manages to stay together, especially after the Dual Monarchy decision. Also by late game, you should not rely on any other great powers to do the heavy lifting for you, and should be prepared to take them all on at once, thus making allies pointless at that stage.

 

[austrianemporer]

Or perhaps we realize there is more than one way to do things and that if used in a certain fashion Russia can be of far greater value than you are willing to give credit. You are not the only person that has ever spent significant portions of time with this title. To insult several of us as being obviously new and unfamiliar or having not even played at all is not necessary. In my case it is quite the ridiculous assertion, albeit I will concede that like qwertzuiop I have spent more time with mods than vanilla in recent memory.

Having played over a thousand hours and experienced around 60 campaigns to the late game with Russia, I have concluded that Russia is a horrible ally. If Russia is a human, they can actually have okay technology and be a great ally but not with an AI as the ally just completely messed up with technology.

>Britain
>Actually conduct amphibious landings

Ha, like the British will ever figure out what a boat is, even in late game. I've seen them fight a 5 year war over one damn province because they didn't want to move a single one of their 50 transports to drop some troops to actually fight a war. They lost by the way. The naval AI is absolutely atrocious and should not be relied upon, plus Britain has a weird tendency to bunch up its troops in Ireland which makes it extremely easy to isolate and destroy them. As for France, once Alsace-Lorraine conflict hits, they'll never be your ally ever again and cannot be relied upon, only as a metric to judge the strength of your united Germany. Strangely enough, the most reliable ally to have influence in Germanic region ends to be Austria itself, so long as a it manages to stay together, especially after the Dual Monarchy decision. Also by late game, you should not rely on any other great powers to do the heavy lifting for you, and should be prepared to take them all on at once, thus making allies pointless at that stage.

I am sorry, I forgot that PDM doesn't have a strait crossing for Britain into France. You are right but I am talking about vanilla GB as this forum is about instead of PDM GB which should be in the PDM forums.

Use France until SP breaks you up or you attack them for Alsace Lorraine. The last Greater Germany game I played with Austria, I beat up Prussia 4 times. I prevented SP from attacking me so preventing France from attacking me. I suddenly broke my alliance with France and attacked. After that, I formed Greater Germany. I sphered numerous nations, my ally was Japan. Eventually, I also allied China and Spain, my sphereling, became a great power. After two great wars, France lost their cores on A- L(which will not happen in vanilla). They became my ally, albeit a weak one cause Occitania was independent. Russia had been massively dismantled. Britain was dismantled too. The Balkans was stable thanks to my intervention. The only problem I found in this arrangement was that the Taiping (China) kept getting invaded by the technologically superior Japanese and getting beat up.

 

[James_Manring]

Having played over a thousand hours and experienced around 60 campaigns to the late game with Russia, I have concluded that Russia is a horrible ally. If Russia is a human, they can actually have okay technology and be a great ally but not with an AI as the ally just completely messed up with technology.

That means nothing to someone that has spent about twice as much time on this game as you, yes in excess of 2000 hours easily, and knows better. Your assertions indicate you think you are the end all, be all for Victoria and that nobody can have done more, spent as much if not more time, or experienced things on a scale you have experienced. I know for a fact that myself and many others had as much time on the game as you before you could have ever even had access to it. You are clearly and unmistakably wrong about Russia. Yes, using France and all the things you suggest are options, but that isn't the point here. Your inability to turn Russia into a worthwhile ally for Austria to use forming Germany after so much time only speaks volumes to your lack of actual mastery of the game. Stop gloating and attempting to condescend to others with your misplaced confidence. You are in no position to do so simply because you cannot accept that they have appraised a strategy as worthwhile inconsistently with your misgivings.

 

[austrianemporer]

That means nothing to someone that has spent about twice as much time on this game as you, yes in excess of 2000 hours easily, and knows better. Your assertions indicate you think you are the end all, be all for Victoria and that nobody can have done more, spent as much if not more time, or experienced things on a scale you have experienced. I know for a fact that myself and many others had as much time on the game as you before you could have ever even had access to it. You are clearly and unmistakably wrong about Russia. Yes, using France and all the things you suggest are options, but that isn't the point here. Your inability to turn Russia into a worthwhile ally for Austria to use forming Germany after so much time only speaks volumes to your lack of actual mastery of the game. Stop gloating and attempting to condescend to others with your misplaced confidence. You are in no position to do so simply because you cannot accept that they have appraised a strategy as worthwhile inconsistently with your misgivings.

I have tried using Russia multiple times. They are a good ally early game but around the time you form Germany, they begin to fail greatly militarily. Just because you're sensitive doesn't mean that your right. At least my hours were used wisely.

The austrianemperor apologizes for nothing.

Also, let us stop argueing and cluttering up the forum. The OP may choose either path. If he is a good player, he can do great things by following either path or none at all.

 

[philjd]

In my experience, Russia is a soft squishy target in the mid game for western powers (standard nations), UK is useful, for blockades and naval victories if nothing else.

I'm currently playing Austria, aiming for Germany, fought 3 wars against the Prussians to date, won 2 easily (taking Prussian south germany and Upper Silesia in the first, the Rhineland and Palatinate in the third, with cut down to size, the middle war white peaced out as it was caused by the Oriental crisis, I supported Egypt and all the other powers supported the ottomans... ouch.

I've just researched State and Governance, so looking to Brothers War Prussia when the truce expires.

In both the 1st and the 3rd, my Austria fought against both the Prussians and Russians (plus minors) with only my minors on my side - they were both easy wars to win.

(This is using the Concert Of Europe Mod)

 

[austrianemporer]

In my experience, Russia is a soft squishy target in the mid game for western powers (standard nations), UK is useful, for blockades and naval victories if nothing else.

I'm currently playing Austria, aiming for Germany, fought 3 wars against the Prussians to date, won 2 easily (taking Prussian south germany and Upper Silesia in the first, the Rhineland and Palatinate in the third, with cut down to size, the middle war white peaced out as it was caused by the Oriental crisis, I supported Egypt and all the other powers supported the ottomans... ouch.

I've just researched State and Governance, so looking to Brothers War Prussia when the truce expires.

In both the 1st and the 3rd, my Austria fought against both the Prussians and Russians (plus minors) with only my minors on my side - they were both easy wars to win.

(This is using the Concert Of Europe Mod)

Thank you. You are talking sense!

 

[mbrasher1]

You can certainly do well with an ally against Prussia. They have the hordes of smaller German states, but even so, the only war where the Prussians have a chance is the first one. IIRC, I took Silesia, and Nordhrein first and then Posen in the 2nd war. It did take me 3 wars. If you delay too long, Prussia's industrial score tends to keep them afloat. I had to humiliate, grab states, repeatedly. Bavaria also attained GP status which delayed Germany. It is definitely slower than Prussia>Germany but still fun. The only thing is that I felt constrained in the race for Africa since Austria's coast is so small, it has a small navy and not many colonial points. By the time Germany formed, I was building low level Batlic/North Sea ports to support a larger German African Empire. I was happy to get a small sliver of Africa.

 

[austrianemporer]

You can certainly do well with an ally against Prussia. They have the hordes of smaller German states, but even so, the only war where the Prussians have a chance is the first one. IIRC, I took Silesia, and Nordhrein first and then Posen in the 2nd war. It did take me 3 wars. If you delay too long, Prussia's industrial score tends to keep them afloat. I had to humiliate, grab states, repeatedly. Bavaria also attained GP status which delayed Germany. It is definitely slower than Prussia>Germany but still fun. The only thing is that I felt constrained in the race for Africa since Austria's coast is so small, it has a small navy and not many colonial points. By the time Germany formed, I was building low level Batlic/North Sea ports to support a larger German African Empire. I was happy to get a small sliver of Africa.

I don't know how but in one game, I saw Austria- Hungary grab half of Africa.

 

[mbrasher1]

I don't know how but in one game, I saw Austria- Hungary grab half of Africa.

I suppose if every other state was in a crisis war Austria could do ok in Africa. But it has to get bases in east and west Africa and cannot afford any colonial competitions. I haven't seen AI Austria get anywhere on Africa.

 

[austrianemporer]

I suppose if every other state was in a crisis war Austria could do ok in Africa. But it has to get bases in east and west Africa and cannot afford any colonial competitions. I haven't seen AI Austria get anywhere on Africa.

It is rare to see Austria or Austria- Hungary colonizing Africa.

 

[TheExecuter]

I don't know how but in one game, I saw Austria- Hungary grab half of Africa.

Best is to use a crisis war against France (when allied with prussia) to rack up some warscore and demand a place in the sun colony in africa relatively early. I earned my africa hegemony by attacking France / Italy as part of a NGF unification of Germany war.

Grabbed french west africa colony. Built naval base, moved corps down and systematically took out strategic local natives.

That gave enough of a power base to launch a full out colonization once the treaty of Berlin fired.

 

[austrianemporer]

Best is to use a crisis war against France (when allied with prussia) to rack up some warscore and demand a place in the sun colony in africa relatively early. I earned my africa hegemony by attacking France / Italy as part of a NGF unification of Germany war.

Grabbed french west africa colony. Built naval base, moved corps down and systematically took out strategic local natives.

That gave enough of a power base to launch a full out colonization once the treaty of Berlin fired.

I was talking about the AI Austria, not me.

I know what to do with Austria.