Obviously, aiming for a WC doesn't require the same DP-sliders than aiming for economic dominance.
In order, you need :
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Aristocracy : since you're gone for a late-game WC, you need to maximize the number of provinces you'll take prior to it. The full pluto-aristo difference means you can conquer one more province each decade of game : if you go WC in 1770, you've got 300 years to prepare, and going full aristo means you get 30 more provinces to adequately position yourself. For an average country (
average 'natural' DIP 4 for the monarchs), it's tripling the number of provinces you'll get if you go aristo than if you go pluto, or a total of 45 provinces gained on average whose BB is reduced, + 30-40 more provinces to approach the threshold. Then, it's around 80 provinces forcibly taken, mainly in Europe. That represents the whole HRE + Italy + France + Netherlands.
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Centralization : you're gonna be narrowminded & serfdom & aristo, so TE & PE will already be low, so you need to enhance TE&PE a bit in the other sliders. Moreover, it helps a bit for your techs, to partially offset the narrowminded penalty.
No worry for the War Exhaustion : BBWars are conducted in "rounds" of one and a half year on average with a peace of four years (
at least), so your WE doesn't have time to go through the roof.
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Narrowminded, advantages only : stabcosts decrease (
your BB'll be high, so you need to be able to reduce stabcosts of whatever manner you can so you can get to positive value in case you fall down), much more colonists (
you need to be big if you want to be successful, especially if you can colonize Siberia and/or Africa with a land connection ; from 1500 to 1750, full narrowminded represents a thousand more colonists : with a average success rate of 50%, this gives you 50 more provinces brought to colonial city size at least, or more if you let the natives join), much more missionaries (
to wipe out a religion beforehand : again, from 1500 to 1750, it's 500 more missionaries who may convert a hundred wrong-culture provinces : enough to wipe out protestantism & orthodoxism, and I'm not even counting the +1 or +2/year of catholicism/CRC).
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Free-Trade : reason is straightforward, again it's for the colonists. You'll get two more colonists every year, and so a 1550-1750 (
I take that you fix that slider later than narrowminded) makes for 400 more colonists, or 20 provinces.
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Offensive : well, this one is not obvious.
Defensive is as well-founded as Offensive, because after 1750 you don't have to worry for your battles, as your techs are way ahead those of the AI (
especially if there're no other independent european country around. See my example below), and the +1 to Siege may greatly accelerate your sieges ; but you could as well, and should often, assault the cities, so neither Siege nor Shock are as important as earlier in the campaign.
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Naval : same as narrowminded and free-trade, colonists matter. Three additional colonists per year, this makes 600 colonists in two centuries, or thirty provinces colonized. Manpower doesn't matter much, with your high tech and you big economy you may build a quantity of weapons manufactories and conscription centers, and siberian and african colonies help a lot, so your army will be big anyhow. Also, Naval helps your TE (
PE is already helped by Centralism). And as a side-note, you need many ships to ferry your armies (
ships are way faster than armies later on).
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Quality : you don't need the numbers, that's what colonies, CC and manus are for. And you'll doing a lots of assaults, so you need a high enough morale (
and as you're already losing the bonus for Land, and gaining the penalty of Serfdom). No worry for the costs, your economy can take it.
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Serfdom : there's one big advantage : stabcosts. Between Serfdom, Narrowminded, and fifty (50) FAAs, your stabcosts should stay manageable. Why that focus on stabcosts ? Because of the changes brought in 1.09, which make Civil Wars more frequent with high BB. You need to get at stab +1 as fast as possible. You even need to get at stab +3 as fast as possible, as this avoids the risk of triggering CW with just one -1 or -2 stab random event. Don't hesitate to throw money in stability to get it up : you won't get more than one random event per year, so you can count on having one year to offset the effects of a random event that brought you at +1 or +2. But "luckily" (
or "unluckily"), you probably won't get many random events, as 1°) CTDs happen more often late-game IMO, and 2°) the time it takes you to manage the BBWars leads to months of game that take you several hours of play, and you'll need to rest and sleep. So, unless you pass days-long before your computer, you should avoid many random events.
Now, what country should you play to get a really easy WC, and how to prepare for it ? I bet you're already good at EU2, and so you know how to play Byzantium and conquering all your cores for minimal BB and few inflation. So, do it. Turn catholic, and get italian culture. Stay catholic. Orthodox techgroup is not a great penalty. Prevent Russia of forming, and either conquer the russian provinces, or let a catholic conquer it (
Poland-Lithuania could, if you help it). Convert all orthodox provinces. Do the same to reformed provinces when they appear, and if possible to protestant ones. Don't let missionaries go unused, and convert muslims or other provinces (preferably muslims) if you have the possibility. Make sure England stays catholic (you'll need a war or two in the XVIth century, force-converting them and taking protestant provinces, then converting them and giving them back later). If possible, do the same with Scandinavia, but more probably you'll have to lead the other catholic powers to wage war in the north, and make Scandinavia a possession of a mix of countries.
Colonize Siberia and Africa, and get high MP. Conquer the whole of the HRE, Italy, France and the Netherlands (before the latter do any colonization). And colonize India (
you know how to get those maps as early as the mid-1420's, do you ?).
With Narro+FT+Naval+catholic+frontier bonus+shipyard, it makes you 9 colonists every year : you'll easily be able to fully colonize at least a hundred provinces. Add those to your cores and the 80-or-so provinces you conquer, this'll make you start your WC with already over 200 provinces. And the DA of your vassals will double that.
By keeping five vassals, you have four obvious : Spain and Portugal, who will colonize a lot (
you could make war to them early on to take some of their colonies and TPs) ; England, who you'll keep catholic ; Poland, whom you give the russian lands. This leaves one "slot" open, in case (
for example) you manage to have a catholic Sweden get hold on the whole of Scandinavia ; or for a (
much reduced) Austria. Between you and your five vassals, there shouldn't be any other country left in Europe. It's good for you, as all other countries will be way behind in techs, at least two or three CRTs late.
Hit the BBWars.
If you've done well earlier, your only fights should be in the east, in Arabia, in Persia, in India (
hey, don't forget to place troops enough there), in the Steppes, and in eastern Siberia. The reason for India is that you should make your WC in a minimum of steps, or rounds. Same can be done in Indonesia if you had enough colonists (
you should have had enough IMHO).
One point that is
very important : don't make peaces to early. Invent blitzkrieg (
a useful trick : military accesses ; as you don't need to DoW, you can conclude MAs beforehand, the AI won't break them, and your troops will be ready). If you receive peace offers, wait until you're in position to get peace with every enemy. Make sure you get a full load of diplomats, wait until most of the countries have sent you advantageous peace-offers, and then make peace with everyone. One word of caution : make sure that the peaces won't give you a new border with a country you weren't at war with, as it would DoW you, and the point of making "mass peaces" is to get a long and homogenous period of peace, and you're reduce that period should you have to start another war. Normally, you should be less than twenty months at war, and be able to conclude all peaces in a six-months period, so you'll get 4-1/2 years of peace. Rebuild your troops, repress eventual rebellions, and in the last year before the end of the peace place your armies in good positions. Then, let the wars start anew. Rinse, repeat.
You might be afraid of China : it's indeed a one huge country. But it's easy to take it out in just two wars, if you know when to strike it. If you have a border with them in the first BBWar (
you should), check what year it is. Trigger off the BBWar just over one year before the date of one of their huge rebellion events ; conquer all, but the capital. The rebels will take the capital, and you'll turbo-annex the whole country, except the capital (
as told in the thread on turbo-annexations). The moment this happens is also the signal you should be waiting to start to make peaces.
All-in-all, in the first round of BBWars you should have conquered the (
nearly) whole of China, the half of India that didn't belong to you, a big part of (
independent) Indonesia, and half of the provinces of the Steppes countries and Persia. In the second round, you should be starting to force-annex countries that were reduced to one-provincers in the first round, and this'll greatly ease your burden, and allow you to better hand-pick your peaces, to set up for additional force-annexations in the third round. Normally, you should be able to conclude the WC in the fourth round, and if not in the fifth.
You only have to remember to raise your stability whenever it's below +3, as a Civil War is your biggest foe.
I hope it helps.
