Help with a possible Spain WC

[freedavebrown]

Hi all,

Never had the patience to do a WC before but was screwing around with Castille and got the wedding and the entire inheritance so wondering if I should give it a shot. Here is the world in 1519. As you can see, Portugal and England are both entirely dead. France is basically dead. One more easy war and I will take most of their coast. So the main colonizers have been dealt with.

My first two ideas were admin and explo. Thinking either influence or religious next. I guess my question is: what should I be doing from here? Going into North Africa and giving that land to Aragon to get for free when I form Spain? Trying to get around the Cape so I can start attacking India? Trying to take out the ottomans? I don't think I want to mess with the HRE particularly given how messed up it is in this patch.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[Vulkandrache]

So the main colonizers have been dealt with.

Which means very little for a WC.
Infact, with your position with the Sevilla tradenode you would want some extra people to colonize for the quicker trade buildup from the west.

Trying to get around the Cape so I can start attacking India?

The fact that you have to ask that in 1519 makes me worry about the whole WC thing.
You can and should already be down there.
If you used your colonists actively you can easily reach around the Cape by now.

France is basically dead

All im seeing is that you spend much of your AE limit to aquire not much land.
The fact that Morocco owns Ceuta is a joke the fact that you own no land in Northafrica is worrying.

There are some good goldmines down near Mali, you should own atleast those already.

Going into North Africa and giving that land to Aragon to get for free when I form Spain?

Want to know what i would do if i was going for efficency?
1518 you form Spain to integrate Aragon.
After that you release Granade, still as Sunni, and feed them the entire Berber land over the next few decades.

Trying to take out the ottomans

No-Cb someone in the Cacasus to get coring range from a Vassal.
That way you have a more direct acces to the Ottomans.
Bumrush the Asian side of the Bosporus, once that is sieged down the Ottomans are dead.

But that is something to be done 50 years earlier. Now you want to build up elsewhere.
Taking the rest of England is nice to keep you warmed up inbetween truces all around Africa.

If you just focused your colonization on America you messed up.
Pure colonies take way to long to pay for themselves early on.
You want one Colonist working around Africa while the other 1-2 create a CN in every area so that those also start their own colonies.

The big money early on is in the goldmines southwards and in the trademoney once you reach around the Cape.
You want to take the east African coast and Madagascar fast.

Your screenshot looks like you just played around a bit, waging a few wars here and there and then noticed that you got lucky.
You can do WC from that. But i would start another game, actually work on achieving stuff and then compare your progress.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...or-castile-world-conquest-true-faith.1042026/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...quest-true-faith.1042026/page-2#post-23241079

 

[freedavebrown]

Thanks, that makes sense. Yeah I was really just screwing around with the new mechanics in the patch and then realized I had gotten pretty lucky. I imagine I still have time to do it but agree I would be better off re-starting.

From 1444 what do you think the best way to deal with Portugal/France/England is?

What about No-CBing Byzantium?

 

[freedavebrown]

Or for that matter. Who is the easiest to WC with this days? Used to be ottos or Habs I would think but now that Ottos are nerfed and HRE is broken I'm not sure

 

[Vulkandrache]

From 1444 what do you think the best way to deal with Portugal

Vassalize them once the have take Explo/Expa.
Dont take Exploration yourself, you have a Colonist for them important places.
Leave the rest to the AI.

France

Ignore them.
Their provinces are nice but not worth the difficulty of the early wars.
Outgrow them, conquer them later.
Maybe take Englands land and release Gascony for reconquest.

England

Ignore them unless a really good opportunity opens up for a foodhold on the island.

What about No-CBing Byzantium?

Not a fan personaly.
"Can you get something out of it" is the question.

Who is the easiest to WC with this days? Used to be ottos or Habs

I havent finished a WC since the patch and i havent played Otto either.
Dont know how much they got nerved but people are overreacting to it.
Austria with their HRE game have always been a clusterfuck

The changes to the AI behavior on normal are a much bigger deal than some numbers fluctuating.

 

[PhoenixG]

Eh, Ottoman is still a good country to WC. He's not nerfed that much as many people claim only thing that got chanced is he got a slower start. I think timi in to Mughals is also good contender.

 

[SaucyBaron]

Best WC countries are still Hordes > Ottomans > Austria/HRE > Timmy/Mughals.

Ottoman "nerfs" have almost no effect on a player nation, the AI Otto's suiciding into a Albania/Venice/Hungary alliance is a much bigger thing than losing like 150 Admin of cores.

 

[Orkonkel]

Mughals are bananzas, and I think Ottomen might be really stronk this patch too. The permanent -10% aggressive expansion from the school is really good, esp if you stack bonuses (100% prestige is -10%, then Influence is another -20%, events will get you more if lucky). In my experience, AE buildup is the biggest bottlegap to expansion (land can be fed to vasasls if needed so paper mana shouldn't be the issue).

 

[rinehime]

Thanks, that makes sense. Yeah I was really just screwing around with the new mechanics in the patch and then realized I had gotten pretty lucky. I imagine I still have time to do it but agree I would be better off re-starting.

From 1444 what do you think the best way to deal with Portugal/France/England is?

What about No-CBing Byzantium?

While I agree with nearly all of Vulkandranche's comments (as Castile, I'd go after France sooner rather than later, and release Gascony, as suggested, for the sweet reconquest CB), I don't think you should restart. WC is possible from most positions in 1519 and, given that you're asking, implies you probably don't have much experience with the late game.

I'd play this out until at least imperialism, and maybe a bit into the final age, to get some more experience with how ridiculous blobbing becomes at that point. Prioritize conquering TC land in Africa / SE Asia / China first and then have fun dismantling Ming and beating the Ottos. Learn how to juggle truces to prevent coalitions, determine when AE becomes "just a number," and how to declare on allies/tributaries/guarantees to reset the truce timer and get more land faster. While not required for a Castile WC, learning how to trigger Court & Country for max absolutism and maybe even the Revolution will give good late-game experience that will pay off even if you don't end up getting the WC.

If it doesn't work, restart, follow the early-game advice here and try again.

 

[rinehime]

Best WC countries are still Hordes > Ottomans > Austria/HRE > Timmy/Mughals.

True re: the Hordes, but that's a whole different ballgame...

 

[ElGranCapitan]

I don't think Spain is a bad choice, you just need to know how to play them

Start with Religious, Influence and Admin, ignore Europe. Go for Northern Africa first with the goal of blocking Ottos from Egypt. With the colonist you start colonies around africa next to someone and holy war them. Abandon the colony, core the land and repeat to get around Africa, you should colonize Cape though. Same thing with America. You need to finish one colony to get coring range to Mexico. Then just go on a holy war trip and conquer them all, if your colony suffers >100%OE it doesn't matter, their rebels are weak and you need to fight them some time anyway
Conquest should give you Mexico, Peru and Colombia. Either colonize or conquer (from England/Portugal) the carribean because you need it to control the trade flow

After the Shadow Kingdom you might want to conquer the Genoa node, to increase your trade

Fire your dynasty and get the french one, France as a PU subject is always nice. If you go Diplo 4th going for Poland is also a nice idea. Basicly PUs are one of the most effective ways to get huge amounts of land in Europe

DO NOT no cb byzantium..that is for nations that start with a better ruler and cannot block the Ottomans from interfering with your trade through conquest alone (Spain should be able to reach the Hormuz and Aden nodes before the Ottomans). -2 stab at the beginning really sucks, especially with the civil war disaster that might fire as well.