Colonial nation, but not the common once

[Flammehav]

I would like to play a colonial nation, but I'm tired of Portugal, Castille/Spain, France and England, also already did Norway. I'm thinking of someone that would be good to colonize other parts than the new world, like Africa, Oceania and maybee the Siberian corridor. It should not be one of the nations above, but someone that has the ability to colonize ok anyway.

Anyone got an idea?

 

[sebas379]

Holland Netherlands is an option. wealthy trader and good coloniser. Aim for the historical colonies instead of the New World. AKA go for Indonesia.
Or play a Japanese Daimyo, unify Japan and start colonising from the other side of the world.

How's that?

 

[DABegley]

One time I ran Brunei as a colonizing power and colonized all the way across the Pacific into the West coast of N. America. I had a big war with France over who would get to annex the natives in North America but grabbed the Aztecs and Incas before anyone else got there. I colonized every available island in the Indian and Pacific oceans and some African coastal provinces as well. It was quite a challenge racing the European powers to the west coats of the Americas. I even put up a short AAR on it, http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...-Brunei-the-Sultan-of-Colonization&highlight=. It was a fun game and I recommend it.

 

[1anrs]

Try something like the Two Sicilies as an unusual nation to go colonising with.

As said above, countries such as Brunei and Japan might be quite interesting and unusual choices too if you like the colonial game.

 

[Restless Native]

Papal states, Byzantium and even the Ottomans are a good nation to move into Africa and Asia with.

 

[DABegley]

As the Byz, if you can beat the Golden Horde before Lithuania or Poland does and beat the Timurids before Persia forms you can colonize your way all the way to India in the south and the Sea of Japan in the north without any infamy gain. The secret is colonizing far enough north to cut off the other European powers lines of communication and then your off to the races. Last time I did this I ran into French colonies on the coast of the sea of Japan and we had a rollicking war encompassing Europe, Asia, India and North America. It was a grand old time.

 

[Daedwartin]

Holland is actually a extremely good choice for really quickly starting it all.

You can actually have conquered Mexico by the 1430's. Start maxing out as many COTs as possible, research to Govt4, take Shrewd Commerce Practices, then research to Trade7. Then switch to QFTNE, get a explorer, get militarry access from portugol. put in one a carrak, and follow the course below, except sttart from Algrave.

Now...other interesting one is the Inca. why? Being so lonely, they require lots of care to grow. get to govt 4(takes half a century, get a 6 star statesmen, nonoptional), get your COT to the coast(for that extremely slow colonist trickle), and just colonize towards the Mesoamericans. Then conquer them, as you will have a far larger army by then. Also, take colonial ventures, so you can get no matter what at least a single colonist a year. And always start a new colony before the old one is finished, as you want to use the Turn X into a City for extra tax and manpower.

This can actually give you a considerably large army. If you can get forts, you are actually going to be able to fend off at this point most attacks. Your main goal becomes finding a way to border the Europeans, and getting westernized. Once you do that, you will then need to reserch land til you have parity. Then focus on the rest. Now exploit your solid new world position, get a fleet, get those Northen Natives to accept they are just another Region, in the Incan 7 regions(now 11 to 14, roleplay it), and get in on that africa and asia game. The Quecha already rule one of the largest empires on the planet.

 

[Streletz]

I've play a fun colonial game with Naples: Get the Sinai early, and you are the only occidental power with access to east Africa, India, for a century at least. The only problem was Austria who steamrolled me, and I had to move my capital to India.

I did the same trick with Poland: After I had cored the northen rivage of black sea I've taken Sinai. As long as the GH remain alive you have billions of extra colonist fot the neighbours nomads. But that's a little gamey.

 

[awesomenessofme]

I have a quite out-of-the-ordinary suggestion, inspired by a recent vassalize-most-of-the-world game as France: The KOJ. As a major Catholic nation, conquer the Levant, release Jerusalem and sell them the land. You'll have a hectic 50 years, but then you'll have uncontested access to East Africa and the Indian Ocean by about 1500. You'll also (hopefully) have an ally to protect you from the holy wars until the cores come in.

 

[Kovax]

In one game playing Hungary, I "accidentally" inherited Sweden in the mid-late 1400's. That gave me a base to start sending exploratory fleets, and I eventually settled a sizable portion of northern Canada, although I was a bit too late to claim any of the choice bits further south. Problems were, the land I inherited was all low value, and I was way behind in Naval techs, which put a serious crimp in my overall situation, not to mention my ability to colonize and actually keep it. Knowing that now, I'd have passed on the "opportunity" to add Sweden to my growing "blob". I would assume that playing Sweden would give you a much earlier start at it than Hungary did, if you made it a priority from the beginning.

In another game, playing Byzantines, I was able to get a fairly early foothold on the Persian Gulf, and sent ships and colonists all across the Indian Ocean.

 

[Pacius Ferox]

Genoa could be cool, forget the forming of Italy but gain control of the world trade and colonize.

 

[cacra]

Im suprised nobody has mentioned Morocco. It has some really good sliders and can get QFTNW pretty quickly, not only that but it is the same religion as much of Asia/Africa.

 

[unmerged(20077)]

The problem with Morocco is that you spend much of your time trying to fight off Spain and Portugal.

 

[cacra]

You can build a bigger navy than them in a few years.

 

[Cyrus_The_Great]

I once had a game where I started as Milan, unified Italy, and then took Alexandria and some lands from the Mameluks, thus giving me access to the red sea. I expanded into India from this port, and once I had cores in Egypt, went directly into Africa and the Indies.

Should work with any Italian nation, and also is a strategy for Hungary or Austria I imagine, having secured Adriatic ports.

 

[chankeen]

Morocco is a great alternative colonizer. A few tricks though, break alliance with Granada day 1 and attack Algiers. It will be some time before the inevitably attack by Castille or Portugal and by then you should have enough to hold them back.