France - Need Advice

[Natz]

Hey guys, so quick run down:

Playing France, just planning on an enjoyable game, expanding and warring in Europe, with maybe some colonizing latter on, no particular achievement in mind. I started by taking my cores from england, as well as their province in Ireland and Kent (Makes it easy to transfer troups to England from Caux for latter wars). I also took Ceuta and Porto from Portugal to get the ¨land on 2 continents¨ ticking, and to be able to latter make claims on Portugal and eventually force vassalize.

After that the Burgundian inheritance popped with Castille taking the low lands. Aragon lost its ruler and got my dinasty so I was able to force a PU over Aragon and Naples. Provence got excommunicated so I took their stuff.
Scotland was getting rekt by England, so I declared on an allied Irish minor and managed to force vassalize Scotland, and declared on England to reclaim Scotish land. It's 1480.
I took Influence into Admin.

So that's where the game stands so far. Now I have a few options and I´m not sure how to proceed:

- Try to become emperor of the HRE. I´m not experienced with the whole HRE politics, so not sure if it will be worth to try it as a foreign power. I´ve allied 3 electors, and currently would barely win the election, but I´m paying 3 diplo points due to exceeding relations... Also already behind in Diplo tech.
- Chill and integrate Scotland, vasalizing an Irish minor and feeding them the rest. Waiting for the Shadow Kingdom to expand into Italy. Maybe take Britany by making claims in the mean time.
- Try to force vasalize Portugal? Not sure if it would be better to let them colonize for a while. I could also return Ceuta and feed them Morocco.
- Use the Scotish cv on Norway to war Denmark and get them to transfer subject Norway. Opens Scandinavia for latter expansion, but they have a few allies, and my navy is horrible, so I´m not sure I´ll be able to cross into Scandinavia during the war.
- Break my Alliance with Castille and start feeding Aragon? Would love to get that diplo relation out of the way. But they have a 41 y/o ruler with no heir. So I'm hoping for a PU.

I would love to do all of the above but I´m afraid I´ll fall way too far behind on diplo. Also should I take Exploration as a 3rd idea, or just let other people colonize and take over their stuff?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Orkonkel]

Disband the HRE so you can take the german clay without the immense aggressive expansion.

To disband the HRE, ally all electors that are not allied to the emperor, then war the emperor (a humiliation war vs Austria would be fine), siege the Emperor's and the
electors' capitols and press the 'Disband the HRE' button.

 

[Natz]

Disband the HRE so you can take the german clay without the immense aggressive expansion.

To disband the HRE, ally all electors that are not allied to the emperor, then war the emperor (a humiliation war vs Austria would be fine), siege the Emperor's and the
electors' capitols and press the 'Disband the HRE' button.

Thanks for the advice! So after I disband it, do I just make claims on German states? Or should I vasalize/release someone specific to vassal feed?

 

[Sfan]

Well you got plenty of opportunities and you sum them up pretty nicely. If you just want to relax and chase no achievement, you might think about getting all of the British Isles and just go colonial, and expanding into Italy after the Shadow Kingdom. But there are more agressive options, especially as you have Ceuta. Getting religious enables a fast conquest of Africa, and that's excellent because that also opens the Ottomans. Playing the HRE game is a possibility, by allying electors and stacking diplomatic reputation. Or disbanding it by saying what Orkankel said.

Edit: Go for normal conquest in that case, with admin and influence for instance. Some vassal feeding on dead nations, and some claims.

 

[Natz]

Well you got plenty of opportunities and you sum them up pretty nicely. If you just want to relax and chase no achievement, you might think about getting all of the British Isles and just go colonial, and expanding into Italy after the Shadow Kingdom. But there are more agressive options, especially as you have Ceuta. Getting religious enables a fast conquest of Africa, and that's excellent because that also opens the Ottomans. Playing the HRE game is a possibility, by allying electors and stacking diplomatic reputation. Or disbanding it by saying what Orkankel said.

Edit: Go for normal conquest in that case, with admin and influence for instance. Some vassal feeding on dead nations, and some claims.

Thanks! I like the idea of going after the Ottomans and having something to do while AE ticks down in Europe, plus it would probably allow me to collect a ton of trade in genoa if I eventually take control of india through the Arabian Peninsula. However wouldn´t the increased coring cost in North Africa be a pain? How would you deal with it?

 

[Sfan]

That's a pain, yes. You can either release a vassal like Algiers, feed them most of the land, and ignore it until later on, or only take coastal provinces which decreases the amount of land to core. When you reach the Mamluks there is no ICC anymore. You don't even have to own every coastal province, you just need some to fabricate claims and have coring range.