Forming Germany as Bradenburg

[Michaelp]

I am trying to form Germany as Bradenburg and Am running into troubles on being able to fund a decent-sized army,as any losses I take bleed my money to zero. I usually ally with Austria and Bohemia,then go to war with the Teutonic Order for Neumark and full-annex Mecklenburg at the same time,but this doesn't generate enough income that I can fund a decent enough army to compete with the Hansa,as they love to take all the one-province minors before I can get to them,and vassalize them,as that's seemd to be the best way to go about it. The one time I did manage to do well enough,my conquered provinces from Pomerania revolted despite my attempts to suppress them with a 34 stack army,which I was unable to suppress with what I had. I did try taking more provinces from the Teutonic Order but that resulted in a massive coalition consisting of Poland and half the HRE,so what's the best way to do this?

 

[spinoza013]

Get an Alliance with Denmark too. Sounds like you're trying to go too fast.
I take Diplomacy to keep alliances, Aristocratic to discourage countries from pressing claims and Humanist ideas to reduce unrest in conquered areas.
Ignore teching your military up and finish Aristocrat ideas first because that gives you -10% MIL Tech cost which means you'll soon catch up.

 

[dav77-b]

You should structure your posts. Awful to read,

Brandenburg Mini Guide:

1. Ally Bohemia and Poland ( + Austria )
2. Take neumark + money + war reparations of all enemies.
3. Vassalize Pommern + money + war reparations of all enemies.
4. Vassalize random german minor or take one province + money + war reparations of all enemies.
5. repeat step 4.

- Dont conquer the teutonic order/prussia until you can afford loosing poland as ally.
- Raise autonomy in Provinces with revolt risk.
- Use vassals to expand. Unlawfull territory in the HRE increases revolt risk and lowers your relations.
- Always demand money and war reparations
- Use your diplomats to increase relation with all bigger nations around you.
- Taking Diplomatic Idea group early is very important.
Edit:
Either feed your vassals or make new ones depending which way creates less AE

 

[spinoza013]

4. Vassalize random german minor or take one province + money + war reparations of all enemies.
.

I tend to go for Saxe-Launeburg then vassal feed them their claims in wars.

 

[V1ribus]

Your money problems will go away once you've:

• Taken control of the Lubeck trade node
• Made regular withdrawals from the Bank of Frank(furt)

 

[ringhloth]

Ally Austria and Poland, DoW Teutonic Order, let Poland do the heavy lifting. Maybe throw them a bone and abandon Prussia because why do you want Prussia, really? Just take it when you don't have anymore real Germans to conquer. Improve relations with everyone and anyone. Fabricate claims on people. Conquer if Austria is at war and you can afford the core costs, otherwise vassallize. You can afford to conquer territory, and it means more money and more force limit right away. Plus, the less diplo slots you use on war vassals, the more diplo slots for peace vassals! Don't worry about unlawful territory. You can eat it every now and then. If Austria starts to get uppity, support another elector (besides Bohemia) for the throne. They'll start supporting themselves, and that's two less electors for Austria, which is sometimes just enough to get someone elected. Anyway, just balance relations, keep the powerful people happy, and let other people fight your wars until you have some military ideas under your belt.

 

[Malefidus]

I'm doing this now and have currently formed Prussia. Setting the stage to form Germany but want to make sure I do it at the right time to take advantage on the claims across the whole German region that comes with its formation. I had alliances with Poland, Bohemia and Austria and they did the heavy lifting in the early game before all abandoning me. Bohemia is now my vassal and will use to feed the same culture Polish provinces. France and Muscovy are my allies and the obvious enemies in the long run will be Austria and Poland/Commonwealth.

As others have said, while you and Austria are friends, take advantage of annexing some OPMs as once you fall out, Austria will always demand unlawful territory and while not too bad it is a pain for those ten years. I've tried to avoid vassalizing anyone too small as diplo annexing also hurts relations.

I've focused my entire Naval force limits on protecting trade in Lubeck and my income is respectable now after taking some of the key provinces and steering trade from the Baltic.

Poland initiated a hell of a war due to a coalition that resulted from my vassalization of Bohemia, my manpower and ducats were running low so settled for a White Peace but it was a great decade long slug fest with all the major powers involved.

 

[SknerusMck]

Hmmm i think that i am late, but at start of game there is a chance of getting pu over Bohemia as BB. Just rm them and be careful ;p. I could get my dynasty there and defeat them [with Austria]. In my game this PU was reeaaally helpful.

 

[josh127]

Merge units to cut losses from reinforcements. It'll save you a lot of money and early on you can usually rebuild faster than you can reinforce anyway. If you have 5 units at 990 troops, as the month ticks you pay for 5 units to reinforce. If you have 4 units at 1000 and 1 at 950 you pay for one unit to reinforce. If you're out of manpower, buy mercs. They're more expensive but cheaper than reinforcing with no manpower.

Ally Austria and Poland early so you don't take AE with them. This also means most countries won't declare on you because no one wants to fight those guys. If Sweden goes free, you can get them too and they'll be of some use against Denmark. Not the most important though, they'll take the Pommerania mission and hate you before long anyway.

For ideas, Influence first. This will do a world on keeping the coalition from going crazy, but at some point if they're not attacking you, you need to find a way to attack into it preferably using someone outside the HRE so Austria will join. Of course, you can also wait for some infighting and only take on part of the coalition that way as well.

Second idea is Quantity. You should have more MIL points than you can handle now, and need a MIL tech. Being western you don't need the tech discount and your alliances are already deterring most anyone from declaring on you. Your Prussian Ideas then give you a built-in offensive group so now you want lots of units and lots of manpower recovery to maximize that benefit.

Luebeck is the crown jewel, but the Hansa is harder to crack since they can afford a ton of units. Not to mention Austria won't help you declare on another HRE member. They'll get tied up in another war at some time that you can dogpile either with the other minors or with Denmark. If they coalition you it might be even better should the coalition decide to declare on you. In the meantime, take advantage of missions and other opportunities. I slowly ate Bohemia while peace vassaling a few members that did like me.

Keep your relations with France as high as possible though. You might not get an alliance with them and Austria at the same time, but you'll want to backstab Austria at some point.

 

[yerm]

There's a few things to keep in mind:

- AE/relations are much worse going west/south than going east. If you don't touch Danzig you can usually keep Denmark and Poland as BFFs, but you're stuck expanding almost exclusively into a coalition hellhole. If you take Danzig AND Lubeck while Denmark has the mission "Danish Trade" I find it completely impossible to stay friends, and likewise almost impossible to buddy Poland if you go too many provinces into Prussian turf.

- The areas needed to form Germany are southwest, right into the heart of the HRE. The places that give you tons of money are going to be along the coast, into the knights for Baltic estuaries or into the Hansa for Lubeck node control. If you want to form Germany asap, you may need to be careful about money, while if you just go right for the big prizes, it may take you some time to be able to get down to Bavaria to form it, but you'll be rich.

- In my opinion the easiest way to form Germany is an alliance with Poland, Austria, and either Bohemia or Denmark. I full annex Mecklenburg in the first war vs TO (fastest sea access), don't touch Danzig, and usually use Saxony or Thuringia, situation depending, as my to-feed vassal. I strongly dislike annexing multiple HRE vassals; I don't annex a single member until I'm ready to form the country - heavy diplomat micro is usually not even enough to stave off coalitions, I can't handle another -30 hit on top of warfare.

- If you want to form Prussia, expect Poland to hate you. If Bohemia starts a rival, you really need to make Denmark a friend, which should mean not taking both Danzig AND Lubeck. Sweden is a garbage ally for Brandenburg in most cases; they often can't get the access to help your wars, and end up hating you over Pomerania. They're great basically if and only if you're pushing into Muscovy or into Denmark. If you can balance a friendship with France and Austria, awesome, but don't lose Austria even for France.

- Finally, and probably most importantly, expansion into the HRE is generally capped (barring expert coalition management and play) by your relations. If you take places you didn't need, or even just at inflated price, you probably slow yourself down. Getting caught fabricating hurts, and taking without a claim hurts, so you don't really want to take unclaimed land but you also don't want to fabricate unless you ARE going to take it. Anything you can possibly take through personal union without an AE hit is the best possible outcome.

Being a greedy jerk myself, I usually don't end up getting to Nurenburg for a while, unless I'm starting down there (not Brandenburg), because I want to carve my way towards Riga, Sjaeland and Antwerp!