Breaking a PU and demolishing Castile while at it

[unmerged(739896)]

Hi there,

as the Netherlands I had to wage war on Castile in order to break a toxic PU with Portugal that would have created a colonial juggernaut.

I managed to crash their prestige from 98 to 21 in a series of battles. The whole country has been ultimately occupied, along with most of its colonial empire (free colonies, woop).


Everyone hates the Netherlands, for obvious reasons.

Here's Castile.

Dutch Americas. I also annexed Mexico on a separate war and own a ton of islands in the Caribbean.

This is my most successful ironman game so far and really don't want to throw everything away with a stupid mistake. Have two questions for you:

-What is the best way of making 100% sure that they will never recover enough prestige to save the union? The wiki page on prestige doesn't explain how much will be lost in a negative peace deal.

-How do I cripple them permanently so that they don't come back in 10 years? Not as much to have them eaten alive by France, just have them degraded to a secondary world power.


edit: the Queen of Castile is 51 years old by the way

 

[lordelenath]

I'm not 100% sure but I think they lose an equal amount of Prestige to what you would gain in the peace deal.

I don't know how good the AI manages Prestige, but if they understand the potential thread (losing the PU), Castille is probably the hardest target to break it, since they can just hire some explorers and get their Prestige back up with unlocking Terra Incognita.

 

[Incompetent]

They'll lose prestige from battles as well as from peace treaties. Also, make them give up provinces on which they have cores, as uncontested cores drain prestige.

It could be quite difficult to keep them down though, as AI Castile can generate a lot of prestige: +1 from NIs, +1 from Religious ideas if they have it, +some from cardinals/curia control, and a constant stream of prestige from exploration and colonisation. You may need to administer repeated punishments.

Trying to weaken France and Castile in such a way that one doesn't eat the other is a delicate balancing act. Your best bet may be to try to acquire a weakened Aragon as your vassal, then build it back up at the expense of France/Castile to form a buffer between the two. There is a danger that France and Castile will ally with one another, though.

 

[unmerged(739896)]

Managed to collapse their prestige to -20 thanks to several other countries joining the party.

Then Portugal was absorbed into Castile.

Two months later, the queen died.

Sometimes I really hate the AI.

 

[Demusch]

You can always declare on them again and force them to release Portugal in a peace deal... does require you to be able to beat them again though