Comments/suggestion about my standard start with England as a colonizing power

[Masquerouge]

I think I have a decent starting strategy with England and I would like to share it to see what other people think. My goal is to give up all continental ambitions in Europe and focus on a massive colonial empire. so:
Day 1: Accept the mission "vassalize Scotland". Peace out with France, giving them Gascogne, Labourd and either Caux or Normandy. At the same time, move your stack in England towards Scotland, the stack in Gascogne towards the Channel, have your light ships protect London, and split your heavy ships and your transports: heavy ships will patrol, transports will go in the channel to pick up your stacks in the continent and bring them to Scotland.
Day 2: When the peace is accepted, sell Calais to Burgundy. This should give you around 120-140 gold, which will be much needed since cash is going to be tight.
Whenever your big stack reaches Scotland: declare war. The goal is to get a high enough warscore to vassalize them. It will be very easy, your big stack will crush the scots. They will raise mercenaries, but you have two more stacks coming over from France. Vassalize Scotland.
A month after you signed the peace with France: sell them your last French province. You will get a meager 40-60 gold, but you won't have to worry about wars on the European continent. Also, the end of teh 100 year war will trigger soon, giving you much needed +1 stab boost.

Once Scotland is vassalized, I kill a stack (9k troops) to stop the money bleeding. I send one over to Ireland, and keep the 2 other stacks in England. Then I usually tend to go for Papal controller, and ally/royal marriage with the three Irish provinces before I vassalize them. I like to keep them as vassals to improve the chances of getting a heir. They tend to keep very quiet and nobody declares war on them, so they make very good puppets
EDIT: Portugal. I tend to break my alliance with them, and if I get Papal controller my RM with them. First, Portugal will drag you in annoying wars with Morocco/Algiers, and sometimes Castile/Ottomans come into play, which is not good. Also, England only has 4 diplomatic relations at the start of the game, and I will save them for vassalizing Scotland+2 Irish minors+1 native american nation. Then when I integrate Scotland I vassalize the last Irish nation.

Now I prepare for the colonization game. I save all my admin power to reach my first idea, which will be exploration, and I save all my diplomatic power to get explorers as fast as possible. Lollards/king dying will get you stab hits (though I tend to tolerate Lollards as I don't really care about the relation hits), which will slow down your admin tech progress, so be prepared to deal with that.
As soon as I get the explorer I cut 3 light ships from my London patrol, and my explorer rotates between them to rush towards Canada. I explore down the coast until I find a native coastal province (usually Cherokee). Then as soon as I hit 200 admin power, I declare war on them with the -2 stab bonus, and bring one of the stacks in England over. I annex then release them as vassals (so they do the conversion to christian for me), and get them to 190+ relation in time to start the diplo-annexion in 10 years. This is where my first advisor will come into play: +5 to diplomatic relations. I usually wait at the last minute to hire him, it will take around 10 years to integrate Cherokee. In the meantime I use all my diplo points on exploration ideas, and all my admin points on tech to get another idea - I usually pick expansion. At this point the cash starts to flow in and I slowly expand my fleet, and build temples in England.

And then I'm set, with nice little cored provinces in North America by the 1490s, and colonies ready to be popped. I explore down the coast to get to the aztecs, and my prestige usually skyrockets to 100 pretty fast. I annex/release as vassals/diploannex the other indian tribes, and my colonies blob up and north the american coast, trying to prevent Castile and Portugal from getting a foothold (I have not managed so far to prevent Castile from colonizing in Canada. I don't even understand how they can get the colonial range to reach there from the caribbean, but whatever). I avoid getting in the caribbean because I find it a pain in the ass to protect. Once I reach the aztecs with my colonies I straight-up annex them, they are quite easy to convert/core if you are the papal controller.

Then once Aztec provinces are settled, I expand my colonies towards the Inca. I usually reach them in the mid 1500, and I also straight up annex them.

And that's my start. What do you thin? Anything I should change/improve? Any questions?

 

[unmerged(184583)]

I'd say its sounds pretty good. Only thing I would do different is maybe vassal, then diploannex some of the american tribes to save on adm points, depends though can you do that and still keep up, and construct buildings? If so then maybe your strategy is just fine, I usually diplo annex, well if I have a statesman available. Don't forget once you get exploration maxed out you can declare war just for ducats on the pagans. Most of my colonial games i end up stealing a few thousand ducats off of them before I finally put them out of their misery.

Also you might consider getting some of the caribbean (most of the nodes in the area feed it) though I suppose if you totally dominate panama you could just collect there.

 

[Masquerouge]

I actually do vassalize and diplo-annex the other american tribes, I think I mention it in my post. They're small enough to make it fast enough, and usually I can still use my +5 diplo advisor.

And yes, by focusing only on continental american colonies, and conquering the aztecs, I tend to own all of mexico and 90%+ of Panama.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I like it. I hate the idea of giving up Bordeaux though... Great wine.

 

[unmerged(184583)]

well you said you annexed released, i mean just make them a vassal, then diplo annex. Two different things. Then you get to convert the provinces yourself = at least a few hundred papal points.

 

[TheBloke]

You've done pretty good. You said your objective was to give up Continental holdings, so yeah I expect what you've done is the best way to achieve that.

Can I ask though why you want to give them up? Because the alternative for England is, far from giving them up, is to maximise them - by taking France.

You can vassalise Scotland, then you can go on to win the HYW against France, and get them into a PU with 84% WS. That gives you an enormous Continental attack-dog, France, who will join all your wars and keep you safe. England's existing Continental holdings will be safe, because France will be a buffer. You don't care about Brittany, and your only other border is with Navarra until they get eaten by Castile, then Castile/Spain: but it's easy to keep Castile/Spain as allies for a long time.

So why give up Europe? Take France, use them for 50+ years, and eventually integrate them, and now you have most of Western Europe and a perfect launching board into the HRE and into Asia.

If you're worried about becoming too large, e.g. for AE purposes, then a) that won't matter any more as soon as 1.4 is out, in 12 days time; b) you don't actually have to integrate France, as long as you keep your relations up you can keep them safely in a PU at least until the mid 1600s, and they will be very useful as a military ally; you can keep a minimal army of your own, to keep costs down, but France will spam 30k stacks and your enemies will tremble.

In case you've not seen it, here's a great thread on the optimal strategy for vassalising Scotland and beating France in the HYW: The Hundred Years War, England 1.3.

 

[Masquerouge]

well you said you annexed released, i mean just make them a vassal, then diplo annex. Two different things. Then you get to convert the provinces yourself = at least a few hundred papal points.

Mmmmmh. Yeah, I can see the papal points being useful, but usually at this point I'm more worried about revolts, though maybe they could be easily manageable. Good tip, thanks!

 

[Masquerouge]

Can I ask though why you want to give them up?

My feeling is that if I keep them and PU France then I will spend time/troops/money/admin/diplo points towards things that are not colonizing. It's most likely the case that in the long run, England is much stronger by winning the 100YW, but I like being the first in NA and having half of it colonized by the time Portugal and Castile wake up.

I just want to maximize the colonization game.

Actually my biggest issue right now is how to get to Asia. I am about to colonize Hawaii, I don't know if I will be able to reach colonies near Japan from there. But I would like to avoid going through Africa as I don't want to get in a war with Castile or Portugal over some dumb ass bridgehead colony there...

In case you've not seen it, here's a great thread on the optimal strategy for vassalising Scotland and beating France in the HYW: The Hundred Years War, England 1.3.

I definitely want to try that in the future, so thanks for the link!

Also, what will be the change in 1.4 with the AE?

 

[TheBloke]

Regarding New World:

- You're absolutely right to just annex the tribes initially. No question. But I wouldn't then Release anyone as vassal, and especially not for the reason of a quick conversion to Catholic. You want to do that conversion yourself!

If you're Catholic, you get 5 Papal Influence per province converted. If you thus annex and convert the whole of the New World tribes, this totals an extra 250 or so PI overall. That's something like 7 years worth at this stage in the game, and is enough to secure more Cardinals and so sew up the Papacy for decades/centuries to come. I often get all 7 cardinals under my control (giving me -7% tech bonus plus some other bonuses, on top of Curia Controller bonus), and usually have 4 - 5 of the waiting ones as well.

And the conversion is so easy with those Pagan tribes - usually about 7 months per province; a small fraction of what it takes elsewhere in the world. I usually take the Counter-Reformation Decision, which gives me +2 Missionaries and means I have three missionaries total by this point. I can burn through those conversions in no time!

The only reason I would vassalise any New World nations in the current game is to use the exploit of selling them colonies, allowing you to grow many parallel colonies at zero cost to yourself (bankrupting your vassal every other month, but that doesn't really matter.) It's a pretty big, gamey exploit though, so I've not actually done it yet in a real game. (Let me know if you want a link to more details on it.)

Besides that, I simply annex and keep annexed all those New World nations. I want the PI for converting every one of them. I want the gold mines. I want 100% Trade Power to sew up the Chesapeake node in particular: one of my big sources of income. I want Tariffs from Tobacco and Coffee, and the Trade Bonuses for Fur, Sugar and Cotton are worth having, and Coffee and Tobacco aren't terrible either.

- You mentioned you're DOWing the Cherokee's at a stab hit. What I always do is plonk a colony down next to them, so I can Fabricate Claim. There's usually a province that both borders a tribe, and is a province I'd want to colonise anyway. For example, Unami is Base Tax 5, and borders Lenape for Iroquis/Huron. Santee is the colony I usually make to get Creek and then Shawnee and Cherokee - also Base Tax 5.

That'll save you a couple of hundred admin points each time you do it, and you more than likely want those colonies long term anyway.

My number one colony in that area is Manhattan, for the Centre of Trade bonus in Chesapeake. But I won't take Manhattan until I've put down at least Unami or Santee and already annexed the appropriate tribes. Because there's no risk of another European power coming along and taking Manhattan before I get it - at least based on my current experience, and doubly so as you're doing all this in the 1490s/early 1500s.

Stadcoma is another colony I prioritise, usually taking that after I've done Santee, Unami, and Manhattan. Again because it's a Centre of Trade in Chesapeake.

 

[TheBloke]

Also, what will be the change in 1.4 with the AE?

AE will no longer scale with nation size. At the moment, a nation that has 100 or more provinces will incur 3.5 times more AE versus an OPM, and about 50% more than a 40-province nation.

The bigger you get, the more everyone cares about what you do and the more coalitions you get. To the point where a large, later-game nation will get 15 nations join a coalition if it annexes just one or two provinces.

That's all going away:

- You will no longer get increase AE from actions just because you are a bigger country.
- All impact on AE from war & peace now scale, there are no fixed values there anymore.

For the announcement and following discussion, see: 1.4 - World Conquest and Achievements

 

[Masquerouge]

Regarding New World:

- You're absolutely right to just annex the tribes initially. No question. But I wouldn't then Release anyone as vassal, and especially not for the reason of a quick conversion to Catholic. You want to do that conversion yourself!

Yes. I've just realized that, you and Shiggs713 are right. Stupid me

- You mentioned you're DOWing the Cherokee's at a stab hit. What I always do is plonk a colony down next to them, so I can Fabricate Claim. There's usually a province that bother borders a tribe, and is a province I'd want to colonise anyway. For example, Unami is Base Tax 5, and borders Lenape for Iroquis/Huron. Santee is the colony I usually make to get Creek and then Shawnee and Cherokee.

But how do you get your colonial range high enough that early? The reason I take the stab hit is to get cores in NA as fast as possible. I used to try to wait for my colonial range to go up, but it would usually take me until the 1500s...

My number one colony in that area is Manhattan, for the Centre of Trade bonus in Chesapeake. But I won't take Manhattan until I've put down at least Unami or Santee and already annexed the appropriate tribes. Because there's no risk of another European power coming along and taking Manhattan before I get it - at least based on my current experience, and doubly so as you're doing all this in the 1490s/early 1500s.

Stadcoma is another colony I prioritise, usually taking that after I've done Santee, Unami, and Manhattan. Again because it's a Centre of Trade in Chesapeake.

Ok, I need to read more about CoT... what exactly are those CoT Provinces and what do they do?

 

[TheBloke]

My feeling is that if I keep them and PU France then I will spend time/troops/money/admin/diplo points towards things that are not colonizing. It's most likely the case that in the long run, England is much stronger by winning the 100YW, but I like being the first in NA and having half of it colonized by the time Portugal and Castile wake up.

I just want to maximize the colonization game.

OK fair enough. But be aware that you'll finish the Scotland+France-in-PU strategy by 1452. There's no reason why you can't do all that, AND be in the New World on the same timescale as you just described. That's what I've done in previous games - when I took Exploration, I was in the New World on the same timescale as you, despite also having beaten France.

If you carefully follow Parallel Pain's guides in the thread I linked, you'll finish the war in great shape: no loans, decent Manpower, 10+k troops, 200-300 gold in the bank. Even if you follow it less carefully, you'll still be in fine shape.

There's no reason why you can't be in the New World as soon as you have the technology - the only question is, besides PUing France, what else do you do until it's time? In my case, in the last England game I played where I took Exploration, I also took most of Burgundy, and all of Ireland. If I hadn't taken France, maybe I'd have been able to do a bit more before I reached the New World. Or maybe not - of course, having France helped a lot with those conquests.

So if at the moment you're basically doing nothing in Europe, then taking France really isn't going to impact your strategy much at all, besides meaning you'll be at war until 1452, which is really early still. Your only risk is Burgundy, who will be pissed at you: worst case you need to fight one war with them to put them in their place. But if you focus on diplomacy with them during the HYW, you can likely avoid that; and anyway there's a decent chance they'll get Burgundy Inheritance anyway and get split between other nations.

Basically, the costs and risk of taking France and vastly outweighed by the benefits - at least if you follow a decent strategy. If you don't want to do it for roleplaying or whatever that's cool; but I don't see it as any practical block to any colonisation-focused strategy. Indeed, it could be a big boon: don't integrate France and they will start colonising for you.

 

[TheBloke]

But how do you get your colonial range high enough that early? The reason I take the stab hit is to get cores in NA as fast as possible. I used to try to wait for my colonial range to go up, but it would usually take me until the 1500s...

It's called "Taking Creek for a fool", or "Trust me once, shame on you.." or, "Backstabbing Bastard!" Take your pick

1. Discover Creek
2. Use the usual Diplomatic methods to boost relations with them
   1. Improve Relations
   2. Gift
   3. Guarantee
   4. Rival their Rival
3. Until you have enough relations to ask, and get, Fleet Basing from them
4. This gives you the Colonial Range to put a colony anywhere in that area - so put one down next to them, nice and friendly, so you can be neighbours and properly thank them for their kind generosity in giving you access to their ports...
5. As soon as you have the colony, Fabricate Claim on Creek
6. Once you have the claim cancel the FB and then DOW them with the CB.
7. Full Annex.
8. Bathe in the tears of a nation's shattered innocence and broken dreams

Once you Full Annex you'll lose the Colonial Range until you've cored one of the new provinces you've taken, so factor that in - for example you might want to found two colonies using that range, one next to Creek, one next to Iroquis, and only then cancel the FB.

Coring those Native provinces is pretty cheap, but does still take the usual number of years.

Incidentally - you are coring those provinces, right? Unless you play with my Cores Never Expire mod (see signature), you are going to be hit by a major bug: in 1644, all the cores of (EDIT Aztec, Maya, Inca will just disappear; regardless of when you Full Annexed them. If you haven't cored them yourself by then, you'll instantly (as of 1st December 1644) be getting full OE, like provinces elsewhere in the world.

So always annex those provinces well before 1644 so that you have time core them yourself before 1644. I always core them anyway, even though I'm playing with my Cores Never Expire mod; because it's cheap (extra cheap as I often take Administrative Ideas with a -25% discount), it stops the rebellions freeing up 2 x 8k stacks (one for North America, one for South, that I leave on Hunt Rebels); and it maximises the Tariff and Tax incomes you get.

Ok, I need to read more about CoT... what exactly are those CoT Provinces and what do they do?

Very simple - they just add an extra, static +5 Trade Power per CoT province, and +1 Naval Forcelimits.

No new features or mechanics, just those flat bonuses. The Trade Power bonus isn't actually that huge in Chesapeake because you're going to have loads of provinces and huge amounts of TP anyway, and there won't be much competition. But you may as well take the provinces that give you the biggest bonuses first, and that's the CoT provinces - because they're also high Base Tax.

 

[Masquerouge]

Basically, the costs and risk of taking France and vastly outweighed by the benefits - at least if you follow a decent strategy. If you don't want to do it for roleplaying or whatever that's cool; but I don't see it as any practical block to any colonisation-focused strategy. Indeed, it could be a big boon: don't integrate France and they will start colonising for you.

Fair enough. I'll try that next game... I usually restart anyway because I do a stupid, inexperienced mistake, so that will probably happen this game

This standard start was built upon many such mistakes
So far I've learned:
1. Don't ally with a European power unless you're ready to get dragged in their stupid wars (yay for Portugal DOW Morocco and then the Ottomans coming to their help, I got carpet-sieged in England by Algerian and Ottomans troops, that was fun)
2. Build up your navy and your heavy ships (or else Castile is going to destroy you, especially if they ally with Venice)
3. Caribbean islands are annoying to protect (need transports, little stacks everywhere, and lots of micromanagement), much easier to have one big continental blob of colonies roamed by two-three stacks of armies
4. especially in the 1400s, you want an heir, so you want royal marriages, so Ireland minors should not be annexed straight away
5. Money is toight like a toiger early on. So selling provinces is cool. Just don't wait too long and do it before your truce with France runs out or you will be at war again
6. You need a core in NA to start colonizing early on. So don't annex the Cherokee, but diplo-annex them (cos if you straight up annex them, you won't be able to core their provinces since they're too far away)

In this thread I learned about actually not diplo-annexing the other Native American nations, to get the conversion papal point. So obvious...
And try to PU France.
EDIT: and now, get fleet basing rights to pop up a colony, fabricate a claim and save up on precious admin points!

 

[Masquerouge]

It's called "Taking Creek for a fool", or "Trust me once, shame on you.." or, "Backstabbing Bastard!" Take your pick

1. Discover Creek
2. Use the usual Diplomatic methods to boost relations with them
   1. Improve Relations
   2. Gift
   3. Guarantee
   4. Rival their Rival
3. Until you have enough relations to ask, and get, Fleet Basing from them
4. This gives you the Colonial Range to put a colony anywhere in that area - so put one down next to them, nice and friendly, so you can be neighbours and properly thank them for their kind generosity in giving you access to their ports...
5. As soon as you have the colony, Fabricate Claim on Creek
6. Once you have the claim cancel the FB and then DOW them with the CB.
7. Full Annex.
8. Bathe in the tears of a nation's shattered innocence and broken dreams

Once you Full Annex you'll lose the Colonial Range until you've cored one of the new provinces you've taken, so factor that in - for example you might want to found two colonies using that range, one next to Creek, one next to Iroquis, and only then cancel the FB.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh... Fleet basing right allow you to do that?!?! Holy crap

Incidentally - you are coring those provinces, right? Unless you play with my Cores Never Expire mod (see signature), you are going to be hit by a major bug: in 1644, all the cores of Creek, Cherokee, Inca, and maybe some of the other nations will just disappear; regardless of when you Full Annexed them. If you haven't cored them yourself by then, you'll instantly (as of 1st December 1644) be getting full OE, like provinces elsewhere in the world.

So always annex those provinces well before 1644 so that you have time core them yourself before 1644. I always core them anyway, even though I'm playing with my Cores Never Expire mod; because it's cheap (extra cheap as I often take Administrative Ideas with a -25% discount), it stops the rebellions freeing up 2 x 8k stacks (one for North America, one for South, that I leave on Hunt Rebels); and it maximises the Tariff and Tax incomes you get.

Yeah, I core everything. Didn't know about the bug, though!

So far I've learned a lot already on how to improve on my next game, so thanks a lot for that

 

[TheBloke]

Yeah, I core everything. Didn't know about the bug, though!

So far I've learned a lot already on how to improve on my next game, so thanks a lot for that

Np

I was wrong when I said Creek and Cherokee were nations that would expire in 1644. It's any nation that is not the Primary for its culture.

That is all the South/Central American nations:

• Aztec
• Maya
• Inca

All of the North American nations are Primary for their culture, meaning their default expiry time (once they no longer exist) is 500 years, and will thus never expire in a normal timeframe game. Unless you later Release them as a Vassal, when you don't own all their cores; which is not going to happen in the Americas.

See this thread, in particular the first post, for more details on this issue: 1.3.2: IMPORTANT Core expiry timers behaviour - new changes, bugs, design issues.

 

[TheBloke]

Fair enough. I'll try that next game... I usually restart anyway because I do a stupid, inexperienced mistake, so that will probably happen this game

This standard start was built upon many such mistakes

Yup, mine too! Are you playing Ironman? Because I never have, so far. So for me my "restarting" is never actually restarting completely. I go back a few years in saves. I prefer that because I feel I learn better from it when I'm repeating a scenario from the same base point - I can then see exactly how my differing actions affect the game from a known, understood starting point.

What I've often done is fight a big war, doing OK or so-so, then gone back as far as 10 years to do it all over again with a better understanding of how to play it.

Sometimes I've gone back twenty years, because I've realised that there was a far better strategy available.

For example in my second England game, I went headlong into Africa, intent on annexing Mali bit by bit in multiple wars. After fighting a war against them and their ally Kanem Bornu, I realised only at the end, at the Peace Treaty, that Mali had cores on Jolof, whom I could Release Nation on. So I reloaded before the war, fought again now with the expectation that I'd get Jolof as a vassal afterwards. Released them in the peace, but then realised that meant they didn't have my religion and I could never Dip-Vassalise. Then, via experimentation, I realised that the AE was so low from Africa to Europe that I could just annex Mali provinces, then do Release as Vassal on Jolof - and in fact, that would actually reduce my AE in Europe, because the AE I took from annexation was tiny but I got a flat -2 AE per province released as Vassal.

So I reloaded again, fought all over again on that basis. Then I realised that Songhai was right there too, and maybe I could do that to Songhai as well? But I couldn't do that unless a) I took a province to border them so I could Fabricate or Crusade (and I hadn't taken an Eastern Mali province this time), b) I had to get in there fast before Songhai joined the coalition again.

Reload , fight again on that basis. OK, that worked, but oh dear, now I'm Full Annexing Kanem, Songhai, and half of Mali, and although that doesn't matter for European AE it does push Algiers, Tunisia and Morocco into coalition against me. Plus, I've just spent several game years fighting a war during which my diplomats were idle, and wouldn't I rather do some work on my European coalition enemies too? Not to mention that all the Release as Vassal I'm going to do is going to cut my AE in Europe, so shouldn't I combine that with some diplo work to push out as many coalition enemies as possible?

So, reload again, again (again), this time even further back, and do the whole thing over - this time with a strong focus on diplomacy, constantly using my diplomats to boost relations, gift, rival of rival, etc on the European coalition enemies, while also getting Morocco, Tunisia and Algiers in an Alliance to soak up the African AE. Finally this time I complete the perfect strategy, getting new vassals Jolof, Songhai and Kanem Bornu, with four provinces taken from Mali and immediately sold (fed) to Songhai and Jolof, which are now both bordering Mali and perfectly placed to eat her from either side until I can eventually vassalise her. And as soon as I ended my last war, I had eight out of the 10 European coalition enemies leave the coalition, because of the reduced AE and all the diplomatic work I'd done on them. A little later I then dumped Algiers, Tunisia and Morocco as Alliance partners, to save DipRel slots, but leaving them with +positive relations despite the Broken Alliance.

So in total I played the period of around 1520 - 1530 something like five times, over tens of hours, until I got the perfect result. And learnt a hell of a lot in the process, such that next time I faced a similar situation, I knew all the things to check for before I went into it and could do all that (pretty much) on a single play through.

I do plan to play Ironman sometime, because it will be a whole different and exciting experience. But in the meantime I'm very happy with my 'savescumming' strategy. I don't reload just because I lost a battle. But I do reload if I work out a much better way to do something, then I play the whole period again - even a decade or more if necessary, which takes a while on Speed 2 - to achieve it.

 

[TheBloke]

So far I've learned:
1. Don't ally with a European power unless you're ready to get dragged in their stupid wars (yay for Portugal DOW Morocco and then the Ottomans coming to their help, I got carpet-sieged in England by Algerian and Ottomans troops, that was fun)

Or just don't fight in the war. I've kept Portugal as an ally for a long time, and been called into those Morocco wars several times. I either just ignore them, or I just fight locally in Morocco itself. I must admit I never got so unlucky as to be fighting Ottomans too, and that does sound like a different kettle of fish.

But if you put all your ships in port, I wouldn't think the risk would be too great? Did Ottomans actually do sea-based invasions? Where were you fighting them?

I'd definitely stay home if Ottomans were involved - accept the CtA but just not participate.

2. Build up your navy and your heavy ships (or else Castile is going to destroy you, especially if they ally with Venice)

Hmm, I never have. When/why are you fighting Castile? They're another nation that I keep as an ally pretty much from day 1, at least until around 1540 when I'm big enough to crush them.

In my latest game, my opportunity to do so was in 1540 when both Portugal and Spain got my dynasty, and I then Claimed Throne and DOW'd Spain to force them into PU with me. In the game before that, I waited a bit longer, until around 1580 I think, which was the port where my relations with Portugal and Spain had eroded to the point of nearly negative, because of our competing Colonial interests.

But thus far I've never had to fight them except when I wanted to, on my own terms - because I kept them as allies and kept them sweet.

3. Caribbean islands are annoying to protect (need transports, little stacks everywhere, and lots of micromanagement), much easier to have one big continental blob of colonies roamed by two-three stacks of armies

True. Although it was the Caribbean that, in my first England game, eventually brought me into conflict with Portugal (and thus Spain too, their ally.) I completely dominated Chesapeake, but I had only one colony/province in Caribbean, Havana. As a result of that single colony I was able to Steer Trade from Caribbean to Chesapeake, and that added something like 10 gold a month to my income : a 50% increase over Chesapeake alone. So I wanted more, and to take the rest of the islands.

But yeah, they are a pain, especially when you have rebellions. You have to factor in leaving a few stacks there. And when you go to war it does get much worse, as the AI will target them regularly.

4. especially in the 1400s, you want an heir, so you want royal marriages, so Ireland minors should not be annexed straight away

Absolutely vital for England - if you don't get an heir pretty quickly, you'll get drawn into the War of the Roses which is a major pain.

My Day 1 strategy is to get an alliance and RM with Castile, RM from Portugal, and usually at least one RM from someone else too.

Never done that with Ireland, I usually conquer them. Austria is another one I go for sometimes, or else it'll be someone I plan to DipVassalise - like Ferrara in Italy, to give me a vassal to feed land to in that area.

5. Money is toight like a toiger early on. So selling provinces is cool. Just don't wait too long and do it before your truce with France runs out or you will be at war again

The general consensus is charge money for Selling Provinces to your vassals; you'll always be richer than the vassal, and they can use that money for building buildings that you'll later inherit when you Annex.

I've never sold provinces to any non-vassal. I guess that might help in a tight spot. But I can't imagine needing to do it as England

Money is a bit tight to start with. Consider dumping some of your Heavy Ships - I've never found that I need them, and England starts with a lot
. Make sure you're building enough Light Ships to get good trade returns, and planning/testing with your Merchants to make sure they're in the right place to make the most money.

With two merchants, I've found it most profitable having one collecting in Chesapeake, and the other Steering in Bordeaux, up to London. At least after 1500 or so once Chesapeake is a big thing. Of course that's with me having France integrated, so Bordeaux is profitable for me.

In my most recent game, I pushed into Burgundy too, and annexed Antwerpen and some other provinces in the Antwerpen node. I then moved my Capital to Antwerpen to auto collect there, and when I had three merchants they were: Collect in London, Collect in Chesapeake, Steer in Bordeaux to London. And about 75 light ships spread between Antwerpen, London and Bordeaux.

Other money tips, at early game: keep your army maintenance slider low when possible; just remember to increase it a few months before war! Don't take advisers you can't afford, 3 x level 1 is usually all you can afford early on. Don't use mercenaries until you can afford them; if you have to use them in a tight spot, remember to delete them again later.

Annexing those gold mines in North America will help a lot with funds.

6. You need a core in NA to start colonizing early on. So don't annex the Cherokee, but diplo-annex them (cos if you straight up annex them, you won't be able to core their provinces since they're too far away)

No you don't, but we've discussed that already now: Fleet Basing

 

[Masquerouge]

I do play Ironman. I used to be a savescummer in EU1, 2 and 3, and I like the tension Ironman brings - except that fatal mistakes are, well, fatal.

Or just don't fight in the war. I've kept Portugal as an ally for a long time, and been called into those Morocco wars several times. I either just ignore them, or I just fight locally in Morocco itself. I must admit I never got so unlucky as to be fighting Ottomans too, and that does sound like a different kettle of fish.

But if you put all your ships in port, I wouldn't think the risk would be too great? Did Ottomans actually do sea-based invasions? Where were you fighting them?

In England. Ottomans and Algiers carpet-sieged me in England. It was in the 1400s so my navy was still shit, they defeated my 12-heavy ship patrol, killed my stacks in England, and my manpower was really low due to nasty revolts, so yeah.

Hmm, I never have. When/why are you fighting Castile? They're another nation that I keep as an ally pretty much from day 1, at least until around 1540 when I'm big enough to crush them.

Things went down like this: trying to save on diplo power for those expansion ideas. So I'm not allied with any Continental powers. Spain gets a colonial casus belli on me, DOW a couple of months after. At that point I had less that 20 heavy ships, Spain had 30, Venice around 15. I manage to invade a couple of Caribbean colonies but a stack of 75 ships of doom shows up in the area and completely obliterates my navy - as in, all ships destroyed. It was a smart move on Spain's part, they probably saw my navy was weak and just pounced.
Since then, I build a lot more heavy ships and they never dowed me. I've tried the alliance thing only to have them rival me and break the alliance a couple of months after that, which sucks because it's a diplomatic relation that's wasted (since we also had a royal marriage).

True. Although it was the Caribbean that, in my first England game, eventually brought me into conflict with Portugal (and thus Spain too, their ally.) I completely dominated Chesapeake, but I had only one colony/province in Caribbean, Havana. As a result of that single colony I was able to Steer Trade from Caribbean to Chesapeake, and that added something like 10 gold a month to my income : a 50% increase over Chesapeake alone. So I wanted more, and to take the rest of the islands.

But yeah, they are a pain, especially when you have rebellions. You have to factor in leaving a few stacks there. And when you go to war it does get much worse, as the AI will target them regularly.

Yeah, it's really whack-a-mole.

The general consensus is charge money for Selling Provinces to your vassals; you'll always be richer than the vassal, and they can use that money for building buildings that you'll later inherit when you Annex.

It's much easier to sell them to countries with core on them, so since I want to end the 100yw, France and Burgundy are my targets of choice to sell the provinces.

. Make sure you're building enough Light Ships to get good trade returns, and planning/testing with your Merchants to make sure they're in the right place to make the most money.

Is there a rule of thumbs on how many ships to have per trade node? Because right now I have 15+ protecting London (which I assume is totally inefficient), and 3-4 on each other (Chesapeake, Mexico, Mississipi, Panama, etc.) My merchants are collecting in Chesapeake, Mexico (where I own pretty much everthing) and Panama.

 

[Viking]

1 - day 1 you pick vassalize scotland, dow scotland
2 - day 2 you offer france a peace for everything except calais
3 - keep calais until you get staple port decision, then sell to burgundy/france or keep as port for hijacking the antwerp trade node
4 - diplo vassalize munster, get claims on other irish minors, sell provinces to munster diploannex
5 - get explo2 and explore to newfoundland, send over merc stack with conquistador, take stab hit and annex creek. Release diploannex.
6 - get gotland (by hook or by crook), then spam the baltic with LS for thalassocracy.

When at war you will be invaded in ireland, since the ai calculates that you don't have a defense there. Having forces available to pop over to ireland and smack the mini-stacks the opm's allied to your enemy land in ireland can be a quick source of prestige, wars score and tradition.

When chasing the enemy fleets which ALWAYS keep sailing around britain just escaping your HS killer fleet each zone split your fleet into two halves. Send one in pursuit clockwise and the other to go counter-clockwise around britain, you will catch the fleet and the second half of your fleet will usually show up in time to finish the battle.

When fighting nasty colonial enemies occupy to do not seize their colonies. Once you occupy the AI will usually start a new colony right next to the old one. Occupy that one too. Soon enough the enemy will be funding 10 colonies and going backrupt pretty quickly. Time it so you only seize the colony when it as big as possible but you still have time to send one colonist before it reaches full size.

Remember the AI doesn't suffer from naval attrition so algiers can invade california with galleys and ming can invade cyprus with galleys.