England Advice

[Fire and Ash]

Hi guys, with the new DLC I have been thinking about playing some of the bigger nations again. I don't think I've ever played England, all I know is that the AI seems to struggle since the last patch.

My overall plan is to have a similar empire as OTL Britian by the games end. I also have no intentions of holding onto my holdings in France.

That said what I really want from this game is a nicer British Empire. I would like to unify the British Isles through diplomacy not war. Any advice?

 

[tau32]

I like to keep decent relations with Scotland until the "Vassalize Scotland" mission appears. I prefer not to conquer Scotland and with the new form Great Britain diplomatically decision, you don't even need to integrate/annex them. Unfortunately they are just a bit too big to diplo vassalize, so the only way to avoid war is to hope for a PU i think.

 

[unmerged(88013)]

There should be a flavour event that unites the crowns of England and Scotland under certain circumstances, such as a female Stuart (MQOS) being on the Scottish throne, and perhaps an heirless English ruler. Unless such an event already exists.

 

[tau32]

There should be a flavour event that unites the crowns of England and Scotland under certain circumstances, such as a female Stuart (MQOS) being on the Scottish throne, and perhaps an heirless English ruler. Unless such an event already exists.

I agree 100%

 

[nAssailant]

My current game as England I've managed to unite the entire British Isles in a short time peacefully with a bit of help from the diplomacy ideas, though I did hold on to my territories in France and still have a PU with them. I did have to force vassalization on Scotland via mission, but I formed GB using the [awesome] unify diplomatically decision.

There should be a flavour event that unites the crowns of England and Scotland under certain circumstances, such as a female Stuart (MQOS) being on the Scottish throne, and perhaps an heirless English ruler. Unless such an event already exists.

I also agree with this. Something like the Iberian Wedding event for Spain would be really great.

On topic - My advice would be to secure your supremacy in the English Channel trade node as best you can. It is probably the most valuable node in the game (at least at the start), and is the prime source of income for any worthwhile British Empire. Since you will be abandoning your French territories (particularly the ones in the node), you will have to find other ways to maintain your trade power.

If you can: keep Calais as long as possible, since you can designate it as the "staple port" through decision (which will net you a really awesome bonus % in trade power for the English Channel node and some extra tax income).

Use all 'dem ducats to support your navy and beat those Iberians to the profitable colonies and you'll never have to worry about the sun setting on your empire any time soon.