Großdeutschland in 1.3

[Lord Cain]

is it just me or has it gotten far easier to form Greater Germany in 1.3. it used to be struggling in 1.2 but first try in 1.3 and I formed it as early as five years into the game.(I'm not bragging of course no no too humble for that)

and upon "inheriting" Austria, I discovered they had hundreds of thousands of unemployed craftsmen whereas i had very few workers and lots of empty factories. How could they have managed such a feat in just five years time?

 

[rorlegion]

How did you get everything in your sphere in just five years? I'm asking because I would like to do it.

 

[Minchandre]

How did you get everything in your sphere in just five years? I'm asking because I would like to do it.

Admit Hegemony war goal causes all German culture nations to join your sphere. Then all you need is a quick war with Denmark and with France (really easy and moderately hard, respectively) to form Germany. I have no idea how he managed to get Austria, though. Maybe they were anomolously wracked by revolts or fighting another GP?

 

[Phalanxia]

Gah, this is precisely why the Admit Hegemony war goal should only become possible after the Springtime of Nations has passed!

 

[Reqinald]

Maybe they were anomolously wracked by revolts or fighting another GP?

I'm going to say this looks extremely possible entirely because of this:

 

[Freebot]

Ah ha! The "unification" is incomplete!

 

[Alerias]

I'm going to say this looks extremely possible entirely because of this:

The absorption of Austria as Prussia requires that 1. Hungary be independent and 2. Austria be knocked out of GP status.

#1 could likely be the player forcing Austria to release a 1-state Hungary for this. #2 is quite a bit harder to do, though, on par with Austria knocking Prussia out of the same. IMO its marginally easier to get Greater Germany as Austria than Prussia, though simple unification is much simpler as Prussia.

This player, if he did it legit in 5 years, knows a trick I dont about knocking Austria down a peg.

 

[Lord Cain]

The absorption of Austria as Prussia requires that 1. Hungary be independent and 2. Austria be knocked out of GP status.

#1 could likely be the player forcing Austria to release a 1-state Hungary for this. #2 is quite a bit harder to do, though, on par with Austria knocking Prussia out of the same. IMO its marginally easier to get Greater Germany as Austria than Prussia, though simple unification is much simpler as Prussia.

This player, if he did it legit in 5 years, knows a trick I dont about knocking Austria down a peg.

I assure you no trick is included ok here is what happened in short: i start the game as usual building 10 brand new brigades and allying with denmark(influencing them along with holstein), then again as usual Austria jumps on Denmark, Denmark ask for my help and I start waiting austrian troops near my borders(leaving one province between)

When Austrians(or rather sheeps) started occupying my border provinces I attacked them choosing battles wisely and most importantly in crushing odds and they started suffering heavy losses(thanks to my "+attack" generals) and began retreating in disarray(love the word) and soon they were all but destroyed. I'd already added "assert hegemony" war goal after that i also added "free people-hungary"

then started a long but fairly easy occupation of austria and i called all my german minor allies and after almost 2 years occupation was completed but the problem was that Austria was still the 7th GP but only a few points above the Ottomans and Spain approximately six months later they dropped to 9th place and another six months saw them dropped to secondary power status THEN I added "ADD to SPHERE" war goal and they accepted the peace.

Now denmark was already in my sphere and I formed NGF built another 10 new brigades and declared war on France and applied the same tactic which was wait for them to come-defend-beat them-chase-beat them again and again and again and again with superior numbers(don't worry if they occupy luxemburg etc.) while your allies(bavaria, baden and wurttemberg) occupies france and then after a short while they offered peace giving me alsace-lorraine

and then came the hardest part:with austria safely in my sphere, hungary free, got in politics, clicked on the tick next to three hurrah for germany and Großdeutschland

 

[Tormodius]

This player, if he did it legit in 5 years, knows a trick I dont about knocking Austria down a peg.

Yeah, i wish he could tell how to do it. Austria starts as a GP. I knocked a few GPs down, but it took me time. Many wars. This must be done in 1 war, if not breaking truce.

 

[Lord Cain]

Yeah, i wish he could tell how to do it. Austria starts as a GP. I knocked a few GPs down, but it took me time. Many wars. This must be done in 1 war, if not breaking truce.

just told it but to add something to my post above, "assert hegemony goal made it extremely easier for me get all the german minors in my sphere and form NGF.I'd already added denmark,holstein and i either added hannover too or just removed them from UKs sphere or assert hegemony goal took care of that for me too can't really remember(perhaps after i removed it from UK then the assert hegemony kicked in for hanover i don't recall) but all i'm saying is that it shouldn't be that easy

 

[Freebot]

So basically, he used a lenghty occupation to kill Austria's industry. Or, rather, considering how early this is, prevent Austria from building industry in the first place, causing it to inevitabily fall behind. Really gutsy to do that and take on France with only 45 brigades. Or 115 if you count his mobilization pool, but that may already be inflated by the unification.

 

[Lord Cain]

So basically, he used a lenghty occupation to kill Austria's industry. Or, rather, considering how early this is, prevent Austria from building industry in the first place, causing it to inevitabily fall behind. Really gutsy to do that and take on France with only 45 brigades. Or 115 if you count his mobilization pool, but that may already be inflated by the unification.

exactly! and i attacked france with 60 brigades against their somewhat 180 brigades and i didn't mobilize(i just dont like mobilizing seems to me it would hurt the country's fledgling economy) but i only managed to defeat them because AI like to throw itself at you and after successfully defending I just kept chasing them from one end of france to another and with my allies' help it wasn't that hard

 

[wanzerfaust]

The absorption of Austria as Prussia requires that 1. Hungary be independent and 2. Austria be knocked out of GP status.

#1 could likely be the player forcing Austria to release a 1-state Hungary for this. #2 is quite a bit harder to do, though, on par with Austria knocking Prussia out of the same. IMO its marginally easier to get Greater Germany as Austria than Prussia, though simple unification is much simpler as Prussia.

This player, if he did it legit in 5 years, knows a trick I dont about knocking Austria down a peg.

If you use the Three Hurrahs event, you actually don't need to have an independent Hungary. That's only necessary if you're already the German Empire and want to get the random event for Austria to join you.

I have actually gotten a Germany with Luxembourg and a completely intact Austria, but certainly not as early as this. It was around the 1850s. I took Bohemia and Moldova to cripple their early industrial development and tossed in a humiliate. That brought them just low enough to be dropped out of GP status while others developed faster. Since they lost all their influence when they fell out of GP, it removed the need for the Humiliate CB, which is what allowed me to foreshorten the war. After that it was Denmark, a couple wars with France (taking Alsace-Lorraine and defending it thereafter), and carefully managing the heated bidding war for influence over Austria. It was a near thing but just barely got out of war with France in time to get the big unification.

 

[heliostellar]

I've actually found it quite difficult to knock Austria out of the GP club and keep them out with the new patch. Maybe the secret is to take A-L before warring Austria. Austria will fall to #9 if they are completely occupied and all of their Industry gets shut down, but they bounce right back up after the war is over. I've actually noticed that they industrialize really well now. Also, I think the the new Assert Hegemony will automatically put Austria in your SOI if they fall out of the GP club since they are also German culture. I know this was happening in the beta patch before the latest.

 

[Rockingluke]

and upon "inheriting" Austria, I discovered they had hundreds of thousands of unemployed craftsmen whereas i had very few workers and lots of empty factories. How could they have managed such a feat in just five years time?

For some reason, if a nation is occupied, it encourages massive growth of craftsmen.

 

[Freebot]

For some reason, if a nation is occupied, it encourages massive growth of craftsmen.

Farmers/laborers are unemployed in occupied provinces, causing them to "demote" to craftsmen. One of the notes for one of the 1.3 betas claims that this problem was fixed, but some bugs can prove stubborn.

 

[Achab]

As for 1.3b-17-03:
The referred feat of forming the Greater Germany is doable in early '40ies even without Hungary released independent, but you can expext serious dificulties the decades coming later. Austria retains its GP status from '50ies on because of its industrialization score, even if one cuts it to half of its original size. Also Bavaria rockets to the GP rank often, which fact further hampers ones "early&easy" GG unification attemps.

Also in 1.3b the day you win a war for hegemony you have all the German (S/N) countries in your sphere of influence, regardless of their GP rank. So on the day of victory you can unite Germany without any further difficulties. A Figure of illustration.

 

[Thracian]

if you want to go aggressive, it is best to do it early in the game. because supply limit is very low and attrition is very high at that point. do a defensive war and you may easily destroy all their soldier and mobilized pops. that's the trick

 

[Vainglory]

Doing that in five years is impressive, IMO. The method used is about as efficient as one can get. But I think Cain's point about how easy it is is well made. Doing it in 5 years is neat. I've done it in 10 as Austria. Doing it in 20 is an absolute breeze and that's still much sooner than in reality.

 

[Freebot]

It all comes down to if you design the game such that the AI can achieve historical outcomes most of the time, it will be trivial for a human player to achieve those outcomes. That being said, I've only seen AI Prussia achieve NGF even though it isn't all that hard for a human player to create greater Germany as Prussia.