England, Oh England...

[unmerged(68110)]

Hey. After playing a few games with different nations, I decided to go for a "Swiss Army Knife" approach: Play the game with a country which is a bit of a powerhouse and has great potential in multiple areas...So I chose glorious England.

However, things aren't being quite what I hoped for. Sure, I am fighting a lot more now (proving that EU3 can get a good pacing for us newbs), which is great...But I can't seem to handle things very well. For example, I am a weak naval power and my trade capability is close to crap...Which sucks. Freaking FRANCE is ahead of me in the naval technology, proving my failure as an English ruler.

So folks, I ask for some general advice on all things English of EU3. Any tips and strategies are welcome.

PS: Some questions I have from my experience as England:

1-Should I focus on local affairs or go for the New World, or something else? My strategy revolved on getting Bureaucracy as first NI and aim for unification of the Isles, but the plan went under because I was being constantly DoWed by France or Burgundy whenever I lowered my military maintenance.

2-Diplo-annexation or "STOMP-OVER-THEM" strategy in regards to Ireland and Scotland?

3-One of my starting goals was to eventually become a trading power in Europe...Which, by reasons stated above, I failed miserably in doing so. Anyway, should I focus early on trade?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[OutsiderSubtype]

This plan may seem outlandish, but . . . lose the Hundred Years War as soon as possible. Seriously. Drop Gascony and Calais like a bad habit. They don't make that much for you and only provoke France and Burgundy. Then just sit back behind your wooden walls and colonize to your heart's content.

 

[blizz]

I agree with the top post, drop calais and gascony oherwise you need to get your relations up with either france or burgandy and try to make an alliance. Either go to the new world or try to pick off weaker powers in europe ie. denmark / norwary/ sweden/ portugal/. Getting on friendly terms with france and burgandy is a good idea if you want to focus on creating the UK since their interference just delays this.
Goodluck

 

[unmerged(71040)]

Firstly, don't bother with Bureaucracy - take Quest for the New World as your first NI instead, so you can get an early start on the colonization of N. America. Your next two National Ideas might be National Trade Policy and Shrewd Commerce Practice. Once you take these, trading will be a piece of cake, and it shouldn't be a problem getting 5 merchants in every CoT you know of. With your colonies and merchants, your income should be one of the highest in the game, enabling you to pour more money into research and thus keeping up with France in tech. Thing is it's hard to focus on more than one thing at a time in the early game. I'd recommend going colonial first, simply because colonizing provinces in the Americas early on means you don't have to get into potentially costly colonial wars with other nations (who settled on 'your' land before you got there!) later on. Once you have the New World, you can feel free to intervene in mainland Europe politics once again. You'll be powerful enough to do so, in any case.

As for Ireland and Scotland: I'd diplo-annex, but that's just my personal taste. I never like going below slighty tarnished reputation.

 

[Graymane]

Deus Irae has given the best advice so far. My sequence of events for England is something along the lines of:

1. Open advisor screen and try to get +colonize or +merchant placement chance. But also try to get 1 or more 5-6 star guys for the +3 stab events.
2. Full gov't tech spending and balance budget (I don't freemint).
3. Send peace treaty to France and give up Gascogne to end the war.
4. Release or sell Calais to France or Burgundy. Do this at the start of the year when they have money.
5. Send diplomat to Portugal and Castille for military access.

I then unpause the game and play. A couple of things will happen. First, Portugal will usually attack Morocco, go ahead and join that war and take a few places down there including the gold province. This will give you a base to explore from.

Next, at some point in the next few years, Scotland will usually attack you. Vassalize them and then diplo-annex them. That will give you the Great Britian event. Ignore Ireland. It is poor, you don't need it.

Start exploring the moment you get QFTNW as your first idea. This will be fast as you are dumping all research into Govt 1. Put all your efforts to trade and colonization by going after +compete chance NIs. Stake out claims in strategic colonies but focus more on building them up to 10 rather than a bunch of level 1 colonies.

 

[unmerged(11600)]

If you want to get into trade early, your initial two NI have to be the trade ones. You'll never be able to stay in the CoTs without it (at least in my experience). QftNW is nice, but not strictly necessary early. And with two Universities, England will get a third NI fairly quickly.

If you don't want to be dragged into constant wars with France and Burgundy, get off the continent as quickly as you can. Until the colonial wars start up, the only reason to be at war with France is so you can be at war with Scotland and force-vassalize them. If you want to trade, you want your BB to be as low as possible. Go ahead and force-vassalize the rest of the Isles (easier than diplovassalizing), and dipannex later at your leisure.

Do what they did historically; get your own house in order, and then play the balance of power game on the continent while picking off a colony here, a colony there.

-Pat

 

[ulmont]

This plan may seem outlandish, but . . . lose the Hundred Years War as soon as possible. Seriously. Drop Gascony and Calais like a bad habit. They don't make that much for you and only provoke France and Burgundy. Then just sit back behind your wooden walls and colonize to your heart's content.

I take a different approach. Win the Hundred Years War and vassalize Brittany and France. Don't bother sieging*, and accept that Gascogne will be taken forever. Just take a 5K cavalry stack with a leader and pick off France's 1-2K stacks, while avoiding the death stack, until you rack up 99% war score just in battles.

*Actually, you can seige Brittany, sort of. Take the infantry stack, and when you see France move towards you, move the stack away. If you aren't actually seiging, France's stacks wander off. What you do, then, is make sure you're in a target province on the last day of the month, so that the garrison doesn't get new men, assault on the first day of the month, move away whenever a stack gets close, and repeat.

This does take quite a while (took me 13 years last start), but if you can vassalize Brittany and France in the HYW, the world is your oyster.

 

[unmerged(74985)]

This is a strange discussion. I'm playing England and having no problems. I am also not at war with France and do not start with Gascony. Instead, I pick up a few decent advisors and pick up some of the key techs. First is Govt (for the national idea) then probably Production (for workshops).

I then decided to go to war with Granada and followed this up with Morocco and Algeria taking advantage of my generals, the more advanced military tech, and a decent sized military. Military access to Portugal makes this a lot easier.

This does leave you with a lot of relatively poor muslim provinces but this does not seem to have slowed the general level of tech advancement. Certainly in military terms I am comfortably ahead though lagging somewhat in Govt, Prod and Trade.

 

[unmerged(72911)]

Colonize!

Just build North American colonies - keep out of Europe until 1650. By then you will (easily) have 400 pcm & 1000 pa income, zero inflation (with 45+ merchants in 9 or more centres of trade.)

Make sure you get a monopoly in the COT served by your US colonies. Don't go into the prairie land - stick with the East coast (sugar, tobacco, furs) and the sugary islands.

Keep everyone peaceful and try to maintain killer merchant-compete stats. I get about 10 - 15 manufactories (of varying types) going. Maybe 6 refineries (an extra 30 trade research is always handy).

Towards the mid-1650s start building your military. Put aside a huge stockpile of money for a land-grab war. (If you go 100% treasury for 2 years, you have 8 -10k.)

Go nuts! :wacko:

Probably would have been the way the world went if those damn colonials hadn't decided to try ruling themselves in the late 18th century. Still, we're having the last laugh now - eh? :rofl:

 

[Profane]

north american colonies may be cheaper and quicker for the colonists, But its way more effective to hunt down gold provinces and colonies that become trade centers+taking trade centers from pagans and sending missionary.

best boost to monthly income at start are gold provinces, best boost to yearly income are high base tax provinces, that means the caribbean islands and south africa are the best to take at start, and dont underestimate the 8 tax provinces in south america though they may be grain.

 

[unmerged(68110)]

Thanks for all the replies people.

Indeed, I have managed to fare much better now - Raised some hell in Burgundy and released the Netherlands just for my own personal enjoyment. It feels good to be the boot and not the arse this time.

Now, since I am taking a more universalist approach, what NIs should I have? My current plan is:

1-National Trade Policy;
2-QftNW;
3-Shrewd Commerce Practice(These first ideas are meant to estabilish a powerful economic base from the beginning).
4- ?

Now, what should I go for? Bureaucracy, for GB? Colonial Ventures, in order to get the most from my colonies? Any tips are welcome.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

Why do some player's say that it's better to get a colony up to 1000 inhabitants instead of claiming lots of level one provinces? I know that there are benefits for building up a colonial province, but surely claiming all that land before your colonial rivals can is better in the long run. It's actually a double benefit as in addition to owning the province, you also keep it out of your colonial rival's possession. Once you've claimed all the best land, then you should send more colonist to existing colonies to increase their population.

I think that EU3 should perhaps penalise the player more for spreading out so many level one/level two colonies instead of building up existing colonies to city size. I think that it might give the AI a better chance in the colonial race. Does EU3, as it is now, have any rules to discourage colonial spamming? Thanks in advance

 

[rahlus]

I haven't actually tested it out, but I believe the manual implies (or states outright) that the cost of sending each colonist increases in relation to the number of non-city colonies you already have.

 

[unmerged(64675)]

I love playing with England. Playing with them currently and hold almost all of North America, Africa from Mali to Somalia and a lot of islands in Asia in the early 18th century.

When it comes to NI I usually choice these:

1. Quest for the New World
2. Viceroys
3. National Bank
4. Smithsonian economics
5. Casus belli
6. Colonial ventures
7. Military drill

the last three vary more.
With this combo I can have rather small land based armies that can easily protect my colonial empire. To encourage peace I have many large navies around the world ready to terrorize anyone who gets too defiant. With casus belli you can ensure that the British empire gets it way one way or the other.

 

[unmerged(72659)]

Many little colonies

The problem with having many little colonies is that they can be siezed by any wandering army. If one person has a city (size 10 with a wall) and the other person has 10 size one colonies and they get in a war, the one city will win. He will seize all 10 colonies or burn them to the ground before you could possibly siege his city. Also, the bad boy penalty could be horrendous in a situation where you are taking colonies from each other back and forth, gaining BB with each seizure.

 

[unmerged(70767)]

I love playing with England. Playing with them currently and hold almost all of North America, Africa from Mali to Somalia and a lot of islands in Asia in the early 18th century.

When it comes to NI I usually choice these:

1. Quest for the New World
2. Viceroys
3. National Bank
4. Smithsonian economics
5. Casus belli
6. Colonial ventures
7. Military drill

the last three vary more.
With this combo I can have rather small land based armies that can easily protect my colonial empire. To encourage peace I have many large navies around the world ready to terrorize anyone who gets too defiant. With casus belli you can ensure that the British empire gets it way one way or the other.

What casaus belli idea dont you mean deus vult

 

[unmerged(11600)]

Why do some player's say that it's better to get a colony up to 1000 inhabitants instead of claiming lots of level one provinces?

The reason (besides the ease of losing them) is that your research costs are based on the number of provinces owned, without regard to any issues of population nor income from those provinces. A 5 province country which adds 10 level 1 colonies has tripled their research costs for a gain of, say 10% extra income. If instead they have added 1 colonial city, they've increased both cost and income by 20%.

-Pat

 

[unmerged(64675)]

What casaus belli idea dont you mean deus vult

Yeah. o, I got them mixed up.

 

[Darkrenown]

Indeed, I have managed to fare much better now - Raised some hell in Burgundy and released the Netherlands just for my own personal enjoyment. It feels good to be the boot and not the arse this time.

I did that to Burgundy once, but since Burgundy and most of their provinces had went protestant the Netherlands promptly changed religion too. This broke their alliance with me and they signed up with Burgundy instead!

 

[unmerged(66921)]

I did that to Burgundy once, but since Burgundy and most of their provinces had went protestant the Netherlands promptly changed religion too. This broke their alliance with me and they signed up with Burgundy instead!

My approach to playing as england is unify gb as soon as possible, lose the colonioes on the mainland if you have to, then raise a huge fleet and army and take over morocco, they are relatively weak and allow a foothold in the region for you to later take over the entire north african coast, worked great for me, using this strategy i controlle much of the middle east by 1600ad