Fighting France

[SandStar]

I'm ****ed in my current game.
Started as Burgundy with the aim of forming "The Netherlands". After fiddling around with the Emperor (Austria) I managed to get all of the low countries.
Then France attacked to get Picardie.

My manpower is already destroyed due to previous wars and my army of 40K is still rebuilding (+/-25K at the moment).
I'm allied to Brunswick (6 provinces sized), Venice, Castille and England. They will always join the war.
600 gold available.

What to do? One on one I'm loosing battles and France can easily regain troops with their current 40k manpower.
Any tips?

 

[lordelenath]

Spam mercs. In my Burgundy game I attacked France while they were still in the HYW, my only ally being Castille. I lost about 20-30 battles in the beginning, but I simply kept on spamming mercs until I got them down, took me half a dozen loans. I took one core of Champagne, Normandy and Guyenne each, released them and beat up France for their cores in the next war (which was a lot easier). There're probably more effective ways of doing it, but I gotta admit: I underestimated France a lot. I dunno what year it is in your campaign, best case you took the defensive idea group first (+25% morale). If you can manage to be ahead in military tech by one level that would be the perfect timing.

 

[Iduakil]

Get a Military acces with country France can`t reach, put there your main stack, while some 1k regiments scorch earth in provnices France will siege. Wait for manpower and reaction of allies. Good luck!

 

[Adonnus]

You'll want to span mercs, as has been stated, especially since you only need gold to reinforce them properly. Be sure to make careful use of France's attrition problems to your advantage, and finally try to negotiate their allies one by one out of the war.

 

[PedroVargas]

The tips above are all valid, with 600 ducats you can buy some nice mercs. In my last Burgundy game I relied heavily on mercs as the manpower drains rapidly.

Your allies seem quite ok (don't count on England, they'll sit on their island) - they probably deliver another 30-40 K of troops, right? Who is France allied to beat that?

 

[SandStar]

Thanks for the tips!

France is allied only to Tuscany and ofcourse their vassal states.

I've tried the merc option and after shitting myself multiple times I was able to get a victory out of it.
France's stack was almost invincible due to them leading in military tech and it took all of Spain, Venice and my mercs to slow them down just enough to get the upper hand in seized provinces.

I forced them to release a vassal and cancel 2 other vassals. Few years later France just attacked them and assimilated them.
It seems I'm in for another battle with them. Now however my manpower is growing again, army at full strength and 1000 gold to buy my way into merc-land
I might just be able to pull this off....