First Humble Odin Guy Help

[Cuenca Guy]

I'm playing a First Come, First Serve, Humble Origins, For Odin, Ideas Guy achievements run, and I think I'm falling behind and could use some help. I'm just over 200 years in with about 170 years to go and the world looks like this.

More images

I'm sure I have plenty of time, but I'm concerned about how and when to get to Europe. The first 100+ years went easy. I conquered most of the native nations and let the colonizers do their thing in order to get all of the Americas colonized in time. However, in the late 1500s, France started after me a couple of times, and I got out of it mostly unscathed, but I learned I can't handle them. I got an alliance with a huge Aragon, and the French left me alone, but now Spain (formerly Aragon) decided they wanted all of my provinces. I boosted trust to 80 but still lost the alliance.

I've been getting big quickly to keep the Europeans scared, but I need to take a fair chunk to get the For Odin achievement. I've been the 2nd ranked Great Power for a while, but only recently have I been able to build the army (finished Quantity) to match. My original plan was to wait until 1687 and the Imperialism CB to go after England, Scotland, Denmark, and Sweden, but now I'm unsure. My army has been too weak to handle France, I have almost no army tradition (18.4), and I'm worried France or Spain will attack while I'm at war.

The nations I need to conquer have no big allies and Russia barely exists. I'm thinking I need a military idea next, but I don't have a great heir (too late to disinherit), and I'm not sure which one. I'm sure I have plenty of time to get this done, but I've only played about 6 games before this one, so I'm still learning all of the tricks. I'm also a little concerned about finishing Ideas Guy as I have almost half of the Americas and most of the big development provinces, but I only have 134 ducats income. This leaves me about 50 profit a month (I have one mothballed level 2 fort and no others), but that 500 income looks a long way away. Also, three objectives in the Age of Revolutions looks a tough ask, so I was considering starting my Golden Age around 1710, right before the Age of Absolutism ends. (This is my first MoH game.)

1. Should I wait for Dip 23 or No-CB now for a foothold?
2. How do I get strong enough to take on the European powers when 1700 development gets me the same force limit as 788-development Spain?
3. How long will it take to conquer and convert what I need?
4. Should I take out the rest of the colonial nations now or let them keep colonizing? (There are around 250 uncolonized provinces left by my best guess.)
5. Do I need any non-colony provinces besides the Galapagos, Falklands, South Georgia, and Bermuda? (I already screwed up there because I'll have to declare on Portugal to get Bermuda.)
6. Should I take Offensive, Defensive, or Quality?
7. Am I on track for Ideas Guy?
8. When to start my Golden Age?

 

[PhoenixG]

I'm bit worried you're not able to get 3 lvl 3 advisor. Is it due not strong enough economy or it's because you want that advisor? Also next also give us a screenshot of your income.
in your position imo humanist is kinda a bit of waste. It's not that you have lots of rebels problem.

1. Waiting for dip 23 is the better option. No-CB is for if you want to rush.
2. This is more the problem of America itself. They got lots of low dev states. So compare to spain your dev after autonomy reduction is quite similar. But force limit doesn't tell the whole story.
3. Since you didn't take religious, converting will be slow. (you should pick religious over humanist in this situation). About the conquering part you don't need to worry. Plenty of time for that.
4. imo it's better let them live a bit longer, since you don't really colonize fast.
5. yes need all province colonized.
6. offensive
7. can't tell without seeing your income.
8. when you feel needed. Like when you decide to fight Sweden.

 

[Cuenca Guy]

I'm bit worried you're not able to get 3 lvl 3 advisor. Is it due not strong enough economy or it's because you want that advisor? Also next also give us a screenshot of your income.
in your position imo humanist is kinda a bit of waste. It's not that you have lots of rebels problem.

1. Waiting for dip 23 is the better option. No-CB is for if you want to rush.
2. This is more the problem of America itself. They got lots of low dev states. So compare to spain your dev after autonomy reduction is quite similar. But force limit doesn't tell the whole story.
3. Since you didn't take religious, converting will be slow. (you should pick religious over humanist in this situation). About the conquering part you don't need to worry. Plenty of time for that.
4. imo it's better let them live a bit longer, since you don't really colonize fast.
5. yes need all province colonized.
6. offensive
7. can't tell without seeing your income.
8. when you feel needed. Like when you decide to fight Sweden.

1. I realized I have a CB on Scotland which also gets me England.
3. I'll get Religious later when I need to convert. Humanist helps until then.
5. The question on colonies is if there are others besides what I listed that are islands that stay with overlord
6. No image, but I mentioned my income is 130 ducats

The military advisor is a combo of only decent one when I was at war and saving ducats for buildings. I have plenty to hire a level 3 and am supporting four colonies at a time with lots of ducats to spare.

 

[Sian]

I'd be a bit concerned about your colonization efforts ... specially the fact that you've neatly blocked out most of Europe from colonizing 'for you' ... I recall that when I did FirstCome/Odin, i napkin mathed that you'd need somewhere around 175-200 provinces to be colonized by OldWorld nations to get it in time, and that was if you pushed for colonizing as much as possible yourself

 

[Cuenca Guy]

I'd be a bit concerned about your colonization efforts ... specially the fact that you've neatly blocked out most of Europe from colonizing 'for you' ... I recall that when I did FirstCome/Odin, i napkin mathed that you'd need somewhere around 175-200 provinces to be colonized by OldWorld nations to get it in time, and that was if you pushed for colonizing as much as possible yourself

I know I haven't done the best at maximizing that, but I have thought about it, and a lot of that is conquering I've done to connect my empire. The one potential mistake I've made was conquering French Canada completely to grow quickly. Florida was a colonial nation that stopped colonizing, and I conquered along the Gulf of Mexico to have access. There is a colonial nation there still colonizing. Right now (1655), there are 11 colonies being built outside of the 5 I'm building myself, so I should be okay.

 

[Fenrirwolf]

you only really need to colonize the carribean yourself in america, excluding maybe some important centers of trade, you can take the rest from natives and other colonial nations. its far more important that you get to africa and asia, secure the cape, east and west africa and malaysia for money. quantity will net you a good bit of manpower and forcelimit from your trade companies, while the trade will allow you to fill said fl out.

 

[Fenrirwolf]

Besides, as norse you might want to think about becoming a tributary of ming, eat up asia and then become the emperor of china yourself.

 

[Cuenca Guy]

I might make a brief AAR for this, but it was a piece of cake, and I was worried for no reason at all. While going to Africa and Asia could have got me more ducats, for nearly the last 80 years, I was running 5 colonies at a time (two over limit) while bringing in a net of over 100 ducats a month. The only time I took loans was after two wars I lost against France because of terrible diplomacy and when I embraced institutions. I finished around 1750 and did almost nothing fancy with trade. Getting all of the provinces colonized was super easy as well.

My capital ended up in Louisiana because of a difficult war with France, but the 500 income was a cinch. I stressed about what is essentially a very easy run. I didn't really believe that when TMIT told me that before I started this game, but it was. The only times the game really required any skill at all was conquering Central America at the very beginning and during a couple of wars with France before I thought to acquire a decent ally. At the end, I had to go in against Portugal, Austria, and a great power Papal State because Austria PUed the Portuguese, and I didn't think about the importance of colonizing Bermuda when I started, but that was nothing either. If I had to do it again, I could probably eliminate any challenge at all with a little bit more thought. Still, it was a fun game.