I some how suck on using the search, I only find random stuff about hansa. Can some one point me into a hansa-hannover-germany stategy something landbased, but ofc some trade 
thanks!
thanks!
Hansa strategy
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Wait for them to annex Holstein, build as big a fleet of galleys as you can, blockade Denmark and prevent their troops from crossing, occupy the provinces needed to end the sound toll, conquer the Holstein provinces in the name of the HRE, once you have 5+ provinces, boost relations with the nearby minors to gain Subjugation mission for AE-free vassalization. When you get a 30-year old elected ruler, re-elect him until you collapse into a monarchy, but make sure you pick up Plutocracy first. Non-Irish/Novgorod republics blow. Expand south when you can avoid coalition, continue crushing Denmark and force Norway/Sweden to splinter away from their yoke
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I've just begun a Hansa game myself currently at about 1530, my opening was ending Riga/Bremen Alliance and fabricating claim on Bremen, (Riga was just a useless alliance) dismissing cogs/galleys, grabbed Brandenburg/Bohemia as some early substantial alliances to protect against near AE and get better allies, I then vassalized Brunswick/Oldenburg/East Frisia which Brunswick was OK, but the other two were poor choices having never played a republic I didn't realize you took -10Tradition hits for each diplo annex which put me behind a bit. I grabbed an alliance with France at this time which I still maintain as they keep any Austrian intervention off my back (they don't really prevent it, they just crush him in the ensuing battle) Austria then inherited Burgundy which allowed me to grab Holland>Antwerpen and 1-2 other places nearby in the ensuing war. I took, "Control the Sound" mission (or whatever it's called) right from go which was a mistake as it took about 50 years to do so, however to complete it you merely have to occupy Skane or Skaelland(SP?) in a siege temporarily you do not need to annex or core it. Denmark had allied France but I pulled France into some trivial war with Cologne before I DOW'd Denmark so France couldn't aid them after that you can merely move your fleet into the crossing and freely siege 5-7 places if their army is in the north (they had a much bigger army than me) after taking 4-5 provinces off Denmark they took the nobility +100% core cost idea so will probably focus on Antwerpen and the coast towards Pomenaria/Teutonic going forward. I took Innovative, Plutocratic, Religious in that order to get a massive -25% tech cost boost, and religious to help me convert to protestant easier and the relation recovery boost. I will probably grab naval, trade, defensive ideas next to keep strengthening my current strategy. Most of my income is from trade (75%) with my fleet split in 2 between Baltic/Antwerpen trade node the -25% tech along with republican rulers (have chosen bureaucratic exclusively letting them serve extra terms if they are under 40) has given me a big advantage. I can form Hannover but have decided not to as I have played a Germany game and prefer the Hansa ideas/merchant republic right now, but I believe you can form Hannover pretty quick generally doing what I did.
I'm sure none of this is the best strategy possible, but merely what I have done and it has worked well and been an enjoyable game thus far with the goal of obtaining the Thalassocracy National decision. Anyways hope that helped let me know what you do/how it goes they are a pretty enjoyable nation.
I'm sure none of this is the best strategy possible, but merely what I have done and it has worked well and been an enjoyable game thus far with the goal of obtaining the Thalassocracy National decision. Anyways hope that helped let me know what you do/how it goes they are a pretty enjoyable nation.
I tend to ditch the alliance with Riga and then get cores on the surrounding Germany minors. I take those that enable me to move my troops around freely, Bremen and... I forget the other. By this time I've usually enough troops and ships to lock down Novgorod for a cash and/or prestige boost. Since you're both merchant republics you get the "Trade superiority" CB. Quite handy to raid them now and again if they survive. Check the ledger to see much they've got in cash, so that you know it's worthwhile fighting them. I've gotten upwards of 400 off them from one brief war. Best of all, it's AE free.
Both/either Brandenburg and Pomerania can make decent allies at this stage. I've seen the latter muster 12k troops from just its starting provinces. Only issue is that both will likely end up fighting one another. Keeping your AE down will be key throughout the early game. Avoid the temptation to conquer everything at once and, instead, take your time. You can take all the nearby minors up to East Frisia without upsetting anybody within the first few years as long as you spread out the wars.
Eventually you will want to take on Denmark, and ideally this will be when they've lost control over Norway and Sweden. They're surprisingly easy to beat - all you have to do is have a fleet bigger enough to fend off theirs (and typically Norway's) while yours block the nearby straits. They only keep about 10k-12k troops on mainland Europe. Big issue is if they ally to Poland or Lithuania. Both can stomp you pretty easily unless you've some big nearby friends yourself and they target them first - hardly happens though. Still, timing is everything and often most of the major Eastern Europe powers will have bled themselves dry fighting amongst themselves.
After that, it is really up to you about where you want to expand. Depending on my game, I tend to either consume the rest of mainland Denmark (and the North minors if I'm interested in forming Germany) before I look elsewhere. By this stage you're more than likely big enough to fight off any single European power besides France or Spain. Pushing into the Low Countries to grab Antwerpen is one route to take, another is to keep going West and take America and move all its trade home via the North Sea. Or do both since there's little the AI can do to stop you if you've managed to get your AE low.
Idea-wise, I go with Plutocratic/Trade/Quality/Innovative/and then whatever I'm feeling after that. I always stay a Republic because it's very easy to build up great leaders. Low tradition means nothing, and once you hit the 30 mark an event fires that will give you 20 or 30 for the cost of 1 stability.
Both/either Brandenburg and Pomerania can make decent allies at this stage. I've seen the latter muster 12k troops from just its starting provinces. Only issue is that both will likely end up fighting one another. Keeping your AE down will be key throughout the early game. Avoid the temptation to conquer everything at once and, instead, take your time. You can take all the nearby minors up to East Frisia without upsetting anybody within the first few years as long as you spread out the wars.
Eventually you will want to take on Denmark, and ideally this will be when they've lost control over Norway and Sweden. They're surprisingly easy to beat - all you have to do is have a fleet bigger enough to fend off theirs (and typically Norway's) while yours block the nearby straits. They only keep about 10k-12k troops on mainland Europe. Big issue is if they ally to Poland or Lithuania. Both can stomp you pretty easily unless you've some big nearby friends yourself and they target them first - hardly happens though. Still, timing is everything and often most of the major Eastern Europe powers will have bled themselves dry fighting amongst themselves.
After that, it is really up to you about where you want to expand. Depending on my game, I tend to either consume the rest of mainland Denmark (and the North minors if I'm interested in forming Germany) before I look elsewhere. By this stage you're more than likely big enough to fight off any single European power besides France or Spain. Pushing into the Low Countries to grab Antwerpen is one route to take, another is to keep going West and take America and move all its trade home via the North Sea. Or do both since there's little the AI can do to stop you if you've managed to get your AE low.
Idea-wise, I go with Plutocratic/Trade/Quality/Innovative/and then whatever I'm feeling after that. I always stay a Republic because it's very easy to build up great leaders. Low tradition means nothing, and once you hit the 30 mark an event fires that will give you 20 or 30 for the cost of 1 stability.
Another great use for that CB is to DOW Novgorod as soon as you finish a war in which you captured an HRE core. That way, the Emperor cannot demand unlawful territory from you - as long as you finish coring it before ending the trade war - because that demand cannot be made of a nation at war.
Ditch the Riga alliance, as others have said. They're too far away for them to be of any use to you. If you don't mind pissing off your German neighbors, snag an alliance with someone to your west like Munster and try fabricating claims on Mecklenburg. When I did this and attacked Mecklenburg, Pommerania was dragged in. I vassalized both (going over my diplomatic relations cap, but worth it IMO.) With the German Baltic coast under your grip, turn your eye towards Denmark - come up with a CB to attack them with, try annexing Fyn or Lolland and make them cancel the vassalizaiton of Holstein. Once your truce with Holstein expires, move in to vassalize them (or annex, if you don't mind pissing off the Emperor due to Holstein being in the Empire.) Afterwards, Denmark is crippled and you can finish eating them up. By the time Denmark is well and finished with, Mecklenburg and Pommerania should be annexed and you can start either eying up Sweden or the rest of Northern Germany - up to you. But the point is that, after all of this, you'll be the regional power and you'll probably want to look to secure some better alliances with someone like France or Poland.
Just make Holstein a vassal from your war vs. Denmark. No need for two wars.
day 1: claim east friesland
day x: when you get ruler, declare war on friesland, they should be in alliance with holand opm. Annex both.
day x+1: claim antwerpen, holland... from burgundy, join coalition agianst them, and eat provinces.
day x+2: eat more of the burgundy coast, eat german coast., start bloobing like crazy.
day x: when you get ruler, declare war on friesland, they should be in alliance with holand opm. Annex both.
day x+1: claim antwerpen, holland... from burgundy, join coalition agianst them, and eat provinces.
day x+2: eat more of the burgundy coast, eat german coast., start bloobing like crazy.
Avoid fighting your own wars, because your army is gonna stink.
You cant form hannover as Hansa, need to be a monarchy. So if you must form Hannover, play a monarchy that can fight.
You cant form hannover as Hansa, need to be a monarchy. So if you must form Hannover, play a monarchy that can fight.
Nothing's stopping Hansa from becoming a monarchy. Once you grab plutocracy and a young leader, you're good to go. Republic events and tradition regen are garbage, I'll take legitimacy resets so I can annex vassals easier tyvm!
Wondering what you mean by "low tradition means nothing". I've currently got a nice, cozy Hansa game going in the 1540's. What with multiple diplo-annexations, my RT has been in the shitter for decades now, and as a result, with that ridiculous 100-RT stability modifier, I'm usually at -1 or 0 stab. That sucks. Insight, please.
So pace yourself? You get one RT/year, right? Annex a vassal every ten years if you're worried about losing a bunch due to diplo-annexations. The main point is to avoid going below 50, IMO, because that's when you start getting negative events that can hit your stability.
Well, sure. And whenever I play a republic, I try to stay over 50 as well (in this game, lowest was around 67 or so). But still, even at 70 RT, that stab modifier is a brutal +60%. Hence the usual 0 or -1 (for a decade or two in my current game, -2) stability.
Ahhh, see, in situations like that, I just go heavy on Bureaucratic candidates and try to keep them down to one term a piece. Sure, it might set me back slightly in other fields, but +4 Admin from my ruler, plus whatever from my Admin adviser usually results in an overabundance of admin points
That works when you take non-Admin NIs, but I took Economic as my 3rd NI group, and I'll be damned if I piss away an excellent perk or two (there are no duds in that group, IMO) just to fight the stability monster.
Low stability as an HRE republic is hardly a big deal. Not like you bleed legitimacy from it. About the only nation that can give less a crap about revolt risk is the Papacy
My current Hansa game.
Allied to France and Poland, cant keep stable long term alliances other than those two as no royal marriages hurts. Able to keep Poland and france Because they are also protestant. Bohemia could be an ally if he'd stop eating austria and let his AE die down. But he also leads a union with denmark so I gotta goto war with him sooner or later, I want those Islands.
All in all I'm not that impressed with the trade game. The 1.2 nerfs just killed it. I'd be richer at this point as brandenburg because I'd conquer more stuffs!
Allied to France and Poland, cant keep stable long term alliances other than those two as no royal marriages hurts. Able to keep Poland and france Because they are also protestant. Bohemia could be an ally if he'd stop eating austria and let his AE die down. But he also leads a union with denmark so I gotta goto war with him sooner or later, I want those Islands.
All in all I'm not that impressed with the trade game. The 1.2 nerfs just killed it. I'd be richer at this point as brandenburg because I'd conquer more stuffs!
Wow, thanks for all the inputs, did not quite understand how I whould change to a monarch, I also like to add I play with AI bonus, and on hard (ofc lucky nations)
I'm playing a Hansa game right now. I put claims on the Bishopric of Bremen and the little Saxe-Luneberg that Denmark likes to diplo-annex. When I DoW'd Bremen, I got to force-vassalize Magdaburg as well. When dealing with Denmark, the key is having a navy that can outlast the Danes. If you can control the water, you can block the Danish army. Its easy (too easy) to use your fleet to trap the Danish army and defeat without possibility of retreat means total destruction. This can easily be a rinse and repeat scenario in which you can munch on Denmark at your leisure.
In part to make friends with Sweden, and in part to justify some of these exploits, I chose to divide Denmark with Sweden. Sweden has cores on four Danish provinces, and throwing in the island south of Sweden, I would take everything else, and we'd leave the capital as a rump Denmark. As war leader I could take a province and give one to Sweden for +40 relations every time I did it.
During one of my wars with Denmark I took Faroes from Norway as a staging area for the New World. I took Plutocracy first and Exploration second. By 1493, I had explored the eastern waters off Canada and New England. With either a +20% colonial range advisor or the +50% colonial range exploration idea, you can reach Labrador and Newfoundland, and from there you can go where you want. I started with low tax base locations so converting to Protestant would be easy when the time came.
I allied early with Brandenburg, but after a while, and before I could do much to help Brandenburg, Sweden allied with Pommerania. Brandenburg is still a 3 province guy, with Pommerania holding Neumark, and at one point Anhalt took one of Brandeburg's provinces. Fortunatly, Bohemia asked me to join a war against Anhalt and Bohemia ended up restoring Anhalt conquests to Brandenburg and Saxony, restoring the usual look of things somewhat.
My third idea was quality, I went Protestant, was able to take Danzig from Poland, to insure some feeding of Lubeck. I have an army twice as big as my imperial neighbors. I have the biggest navy in the Baltic. Now that I have started taking Danish islands (Fyn and Lolland) I have a safe refuge as long as I have a fleet that can keep the waters under my control. I am keeping the naval facilities in Lubeck modern so I can repair my ships faster than any rival.
I find the merchant republic to be pretty good. You can get better kings than you get stadtholders, but you can also get worse, and no matter what you get, you can make a change in 4 years, allowing you to concentrate on the techs and ideas you want now. In my recent England game I was getting monarchs with good stats, often 5 or 6, in Adm and Mil, but it seems like I couldn't do better than 0 and 1 in Dip. 2 was outstanding and I had a single monarch with a 4 dip. There are no bad runs like that if you stay a republic. As England, I wanted trade, colonization, and navies, and my monarchs offered no help.
You get a bonus merchant with Plutocracy and another from Hanseatic ideas, so I'm in no hurry to get the Trade Idea. For the time being I will send my trade from Chesapeake through North Sea, but at some point, England will put a million smugglers, pirates, and monopolists in the North Sea, and I'll just end up collecting in Chesapeake.
I think if Sweden wants to eat Norway, I'll want some North Sea coastal provinces, for the trade value. Hopefully, they won't get the handy subjugation CB. I am allied with Sweden, Prussia, Bohemia, and Luneburg is a vassal.
In part to make friends with Sweden, and in part to justify some of these exploits, I chose to divide Denmark with Sweden. Sweden has cores on four Danish provinces, and throwing in the island south of Sweden, I would take everything else, and we'd leave the capital as a rump Denmark. As war leader I could take a province and give one to Sweden for +40 relations every time I did it.
During one of my wars with Denmark I took Faroes from Norway as a staging area for the New World. I took Plutocracy first and Exploration second. By 1493, I had explored the eastern waters off Canada and New England. With either a +20% colonial range advisor or the +50% colonial range exploration idea, you can reach Labrador and Newfoundland, and from there you can go where you want. I started with low tax base locations so converting to Protestant would be easy when the time came.
I allied early with Brandenburg, but after a while, and before I could do much to help Brandenburg, Sweden allied with Pommerania. Brandenburg is still a 3 province guy, with Pommerania holding Neumark, and at one point Anhalt took one of Brandeburg's provinces. Fortunatly, Bohemia asked me to join a war against Anhalt and Bohemia ended up restoring Anhalt conquests to Brandenburg and Saxony, restoring the usual look of things somewhat.
My third idea was quality, I went Protestant, was able to take Danzig from Poland, to insure some feeding of Lubeck. I have an army twice as big as my imperial neighbors. I have the biggest navy in the Baltic. Now that I have started taking Danish islands (Fyn and Lolland) I have a safe refuge as long as I have a fleet that can keep the waters under my control. I am keeping the naval facilities in Lubeck modern so I can repair my ships faster than any rival.
I find the merchant republic to be pretty good. You can get better kings than you get stadtholders, but you can also get worse, and no matter what you get, you can make a change in 4 years, allowing you to concentrate on the techs and ideas you want now. In my recent England game I was getting monarchs with good stats, often 5 or 6, in Adm and Mil, but it seems like I couldn't do better than 0 and 1 in Dip. 2 was outstanding and I had a single monarch with a 4 dip. There are no bad runs like that if you stay a republic. As England, I wanted trade, colonization, and navies, and my monarchs offered no help.
You get a bonus merchant with Plutocracy and another from Hanseatic ideas, so I'm in no hurry to get the Trade Idea. For the time being I will send my trade from Chesapeake through North Sea, but at some point, England will put a million smugglers, pirates, and monopolists in the North Sea, and I'll just end up collecting in Chesapeake.
I think if Sweden wants to eat Norway, I'll want some North Sea coastal provinces, for the trade value. Hopefully, they won't get the handy subjugation CB. I am allied with Sweden, Prussia, Bohemia, and Luneburg is a vassal.