Dealing with DoFs

[RTErk]

So, I was trying to get the "A Fine Goosestep" achievement (play as Prussia and have %125 Discipline) and I got it but I would really like to continue the run. France won a succession war against Castile over Austria and they are allied with Burgundy, they are the 2nd strongest nation on the planet (after the Ottomans, of course).

Poland claimed the DoF at one point and I beat them to death, basically. Now France claimed it and I can't declare on anybody since no matter how big of an alliance I get, they can beat it. I got Russia, Denmark and Spain (a very war-torn Spain with one colony, treat him as like Portugal), Denmark is massive with a nearly united Scandinavia with some Baltic territory, Russia has a big army but lacks on mil tech and Spain is, like I said, basically dead. Even if I call all of them for god-damn Münster (which I can't probably full-annex because HRE), they can still beat us.

How do I combat this ? How can I knock France out of DoF ?

Edit : Oh ! A minor detail, FRANCE IS THE EMPEROR. After Austria lost emperorship France became the Emperor, so I can't declare on Bremen or any Free City aswell.

 

[RTErk]

Here are some screenshots :

 

[Grab God]

Oh this is good yet tricky,
due
1st, post religious map mode (so can see on which reformed/ protestant nations you can atack).

2nd, built up to force limit and have more cannons. You have 40k manpower, put it to use

3rd try allying Ottomas, with their help you can try to beat France. Wont be easy, but challenging and fun. (ditch any other ally if it would help you)

4th good luck

 

[schaedel]

What are your idea-groups, your military set-up? With a Prussia of this size, you should be able to bitch-slap France around, they are not that big and scary, lacking Burgundy and Brittany, that French Naples should not turn the tides, IMHO.

If you really can't beat France yet, take another mil-idea like Offensive or Quality, get some fitting policies and kill them in 15-20 years, getting MIL filled should be a breeze with Prussia, I had a similar Prussia game, I was not much bigger (although developed like hell) and I slapped everyone around, stackwiping Otto and French armies like nothing (I was around 153% disc, of course)

 

[RTErk]

Oh this is good yet tricky,
due
1st, post religious map mode (so can see on which reformed/ protestant nations you can atack).

2nd, built up to force limit and have more cannons. You have 40k manpower, put it to use

3rd try allying Ottomas, with their help you can try to beat France. Wont be easy, but challenging and fun. (ditch any other ally if it would help you)

4th good luck

I am at force limit, added another 10k to my army, I have +%40 infantry combat ability so infantry is top priority for me. I should probably try allying the Ottos, you are right. So, before I post the screenshots, heres what happened : I annexed Brunswick and took Ravensburg since their allies were busy and they were not Catholic and thats pretty much it lol (I suck at the game too, so please know that before you look at these)

 

[Deliberus]

That religious map doesn't look too shaby so expanding through parts of Bavaria shouldn't be too hard unless there are some city-states in the way.

Keep unlocking further national ideas and regular ideas such as Quality+Offensive

Something I would highly recommend you do is just blitz through them when they declare a colonial war as the AI just sends most of their troops to the new world or Asia when they invade other countries. Use that to your advantage and then demand a massive amount of cash or at the very least peace them out so that they lose DoF.

 

[Grab God]

Mh before declaring finish innovative as you will get few good policies, also you can expand through HRE through protestant land (eventhough the AI is huge and it wont give much)

About infintary: you can only use around 30 inf in battle (combat width exact size depends on tech and you can see it in military tab) and having 30 or 60 inf in 1 stack wont then make a differnce, extra cannons in 2nd row will.

As prussia you usually wont need 2nd army of pure infintary to reinforce huge battles as you should stackwipe every army you fight.

Also if you have 40 inf combat ability cavalary is a bit useless for you. If you have above 60 profesionalism disband them. Otherwise consolidate them during next few war if you can and slowly replace them with infintary or cannons depending on what you need more : stronger main fight stack or siege/reinforcement stack.

Let us now if French should feel the Prussian goose

 

[magni_]

Here is how u deal with DOF:
Wind a opm with a low amlunt of allys that u border thats protected by the DOF
Get troops in to position

Declear war on OPM, stackwipe his army (thats important) barage and assult his capital) then peace out for 1 ducat.(he will accept this because he has no army amy more and his capital occupied)

All of this has to happen before the troops from the DOF reach the main fighting area

 

[RTErk]

Mh before declaring finish innovative as you will get few good policies, also you can expand through HRE through protestant land (eventhough the AI is huge and it wont give much)

About infintary: you can only use around 30 inf in battle (combat width exact size depends on tech and you can see it in military tab) and having 30 or 60 inf in 1 stack wont then make a differnce, extra cannons in 2nd row will.

As prussia you usually wont need 2nd army of pure infintary to reinforce huge battles as you should stackwipe every army you fight.

Also if you have 40 inf combat ability cavalary is a bit useless for you. If you have above 60 profesionalism disband them. Otherwise consolidate them during next few war if you can and slowly replace them with infintary or cannons depending on what you need more : stronger main fight stack or siege/reinforcement stack.

Let us now if French should feel the Prussian goose

All of my armies (have 4 stacks) have 13/3/3. Should I make them 10/3/6 ?

 

[Cancerofthehead]

All of my armies (have 4 stacks) have 13/3/3. Should I make them 10/3/6 ?

Assuming you are on current tech your combat width should be 29.

For combat your main army should have 29-32 infantry and whatever artillery you have up to 29. With 125 discipline and +40% ICA, that should be able to kill just about any enemy stack in a decent fight (ie not attacking across a river into mountains vs a much better general). You probably want to split this stack in two to minimize attrition.

The rest of you army should be infantry to reinforce your main stack in massive battles, replace depleted infantry in your main stack and siege stuff down.

 

[Dell19]

One other option is to convert back to Catholic, declare war, win it, then accept rebel demands to revert back to your religion of choice. There is a prestige cost but it can make taking down a particular nation dramatically easier.

 

[RTErk]

What are your idea-groups, your military set-up? With a Prussia of this size, you should be able to bitch-slap France around, they are not that big and scary, lacking Burgundy and Brittany, that French Naples should not turn the tides, IMHO.

If you really can't beat France yet, take another mil-idea like Offensive or Quality, get some fitting policies and kill them in 15-20 years, getting MIL filled should be a breeze with Prussia, I had a similar Prussia game, I was not much bigger (although developed like hell) and I slapped everyone around, stackwiping Otto and French armies like nothing (I was around 153% disc, of course)

I kinda waited for you to realize your mistake yet you didn't. Austria is in a PU with France and they are the emperor which means huge stacks. Nearly every catholic neighbor I have (Rhineland, which I need for my mission tree) has allied Burgundy and Poland. Poland is not that big of a problem, so is Burgundy but then add France to the mix and you'll see my problems.

I am kinda surprised that you didn't realize your mistake by now.

 

[schaedel]

Well, I only tried to help, but I couldn't care less. But I would say the mistakes are rather on your side, your army set-up is horrible and 125% disc (assuming you don't have more, but you never said it?) is really NOT much for Prussia in 1591, should be at least in the 130s

With 2 "premium stacks" you should be able to at least hold your own against enemies whoch vastly outnumber you. Also those Ottos look strong, if you can be a little bit patient it should be guaranteed that they will attack Poland sooner or later, which should be your chance to pounce on your prefered area for conquest

 

[RTErk]

Well, I only tried to help, but I couldn't care less. But I would say the mistakes are rather on your side, your army set-up is horrible and 125% disc (assuming you don't have more, but you never said it?) is really NOT much for Prussia in 1591, should be at least in the 130s

With 2 "premium stacks" you should be able to at least hold your own against enemies whoch vastly outnumber you. Also those Ottos look strong, if you can be a little bit patient it should be guaranteed that they will attack Poland sooner or later, which should be your chance to pounce on your prefered area for conquest

I already did and am planing on doing more. I just beat 2 coalitions that was basically the rest of Germany easily, both in 10 years mind you.

It's literally my first time playing Prussia so chill out a bit. I don't know how you can get more discipline cause here is all the ways you can get more :

• Increasing Militarization of Country (maximum +10%) DONE
• Increasing Absolutism (maximum +5%) Doing
• Completing Quality Ideas (+5%) DONE
• Unlocking 'Esprit de Corps' in Offensive Ideas (+5%) DONE
• Unlocking the Prussian Ambition (+5%) DONE
• Having a Commandant Advisor (+5%) Sometimes
• Having a ruler with the 'Strict' personality (+5%) Sometimes
• Converting to Protestantism and obtaining the Aspect of Faith 'Holy Sacraments' (+2.5%) DONE

These are all the ways and except the RNG-dependent ones (Strict and advisor) I have all of them. If I get into the age of absolutism, I'll get the other %5 aswell. How do you get more, do you just remove advisors until you get the Commandant ? If so, it would still be 130% !

 

[Grab God]

Another 5 can policy be for quality + economic.
And if you want to play tall Prussia Economic would ve amazing for you. But that is a big investment

Other option is to pop a mission for morale and disciplin. I am not sure if one is easily avaible for you, but I assume that Prussia has plentyfull of missions that boost their army permanently or for 15-20 years( read 2 big wars with France)

 

[schaedel]

Yeah, with Prussia I basically Always take econ and Quality, as that fits perfectly to the Prussian "restrictions" (Government capacity) and lets you play a "tall" game. So you should have a base Disc of 128%, that's alright and better than I assumed. Make sure to always have a commander as MIL-adviser to stack Disc (I feel that's just more efficient than to go for +morale, you won't reach the French morale anyway, so better let them pay with losses). With the additional policy you should then be at around 138% Disc. When your armies are well composed (full Combat width, cannons in second row, don't even need to be full cannons) you can win against superior odds, just give it a try. French armies are no toast either, so don't run into much bigger French stacks, but every Austrian stack should get wiped, even if they are bigger, Prussian space marines are just absurdly powerful.