How to deal with coalitions in Europe

[XELANAMYT]

Pretty much what the title says.

I'm trying to conquer as much of Europe as possible as England, I have all of the British Isles, integrating France and about 20 provinces that were from Burgundy, minor HRE nations and northern Italy. The year is 1520, and there is a coalition which contains all of the European nations that border me in central Europe.

While I can beat the coalition, it takes ages just to get 3 or 4 provinces. So what is a good strategy for European domination? Is it even possible as England?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Coalitions are garbage and they're only going to get worse in 1.5. IMO get whatever allies you can, which won't rack up AE with those guys then.

 

[Wolfeson]

If you've got a massive coalition against you, stop conquering for a while. Focus on diplo-annexing for a bit, colonize in N. America, upgrade your navy, something that won't rack up more AE. In the meantime, take advantage of peacetime to let your manpower recover, and to make sure your forces are ready if you do end up in a big war. Keep your diplomats busy improving relations with some of the major coalition members. If you go a few years without doing anything more to make people mad, they'll start dropping out of the coalition.

 

[rebelde]

It's not that easy, it will take decades to get AE down if he has so many of them in a coalition. You should try to become emperor and revoke the privilegia rather than directly conquering every single province. Paradox has made clear that kind of approach is impossible in this game.

 

[XELANAMYT]

I never seem to get the opportunity to diplo-annex anyone outside Scotland and France. How would I go about becoming emperor as England? Didn't think it was possible.

 

[Wolfeson]

The formula for becoming emperor is pretty much the same for any major non-HRE nation. Vassalize 3-4 of the electors, max out relations with them, and wait for the current emperor to die. If they're part of the coalition, that will be tough, since you probably won't be able to vassalize all of them in one war. What you really want to look for (in general) is a nation that's allied to multiple electors and declare war on them. That way it will hopefully pull in all those electors and allow you to vassalize each of them in a separate peace. Obviously, don't count electors that are too big to vassalize (Bohemia, usually Brandenburg, and any of the others that have blobbed too much). Vassalizing a few electors will cause muchless AE than trying to conquer large numbers of provinces outright.

But, for any of that to work in your case, you've got to get that coalition out of the way. So like I said earlier, refrain from more conquest, build up your forces, and prepare for the next war once people start dropping out of the coalition. At worst, penalties like aggressive expansion will disappear completely after 20 years as long as you don't do anything else during that time to cause more.

 

[XELANAMYT]

I think I will restart the game and try to be a bit more diplomatic in my conquests. How would you suggest I go about vassalising electors as I can see getting reasons to goto war with them being difficult.

 

[rebelde]

I think I will restart the game and try to be a bit more diplomatic in my conquests. How would you suggest I go about vassalising electors as I can see getting reasons to goto war with them being difficult.

Grant them loans, if they default you gain a CB. Sending warnings might also help, or try to go to war with their allies if you can get a CB more easily that way.

 

[saetep]

The easiest way to get multiple electors quickly is usually to DOW Austria. They usually ally 3-4 electors and you can just peace them out individually. Other than that, look at who electors have as allies and try to get a CB on one of them. If all else fails just get a CB on someone in the HRE, annex a province from them in HRE lands, fabricate claims on neighbors, then sell it back. You can basically province hop next to electors and fabricate claims this way.

 

[rebelde]

If all else fails just get a CB on someone in the HRE, annex a province from them in HRE lands, fabricate claims on neighbors, then sell it back. You can basically province hop next to electors and fabricate claims this way.

That's not gonna help with the goal of keeping AE low though.

 

[Chimerae]

Lol I have this too with my ottoman game. I have conquered all Asia and I've conquered and colonized EVERY province in Africa, but i can´t conquer Europe because of these stupid coalitions. I own the Iberian peninsula, and on the eastern side I have annexed all of the polish lands. But the entire HRE area is in coalition against me. Exept France, Denmark (integrated sweden and norway), Liege (they managed to conquere all of modern day belgium somehow) and the netherlands are not in the coalition.

 

[rebelde]

Lol I have this too with my ottoman game. I have conquered all Asia and I've conquered and colonized EVERY province in Africa, but i can´t conquer Europe because of these stupid coalitions. I own the Iberian peninsula, and on the eastern side I have annexed all of the polish lands. But the entire HRE area is in coalition against me. Exept France, Denmark (integrated sweden and norway), Liege (they managed to conquere all of modern day belgium somehow) and the netherlands are not in the coalition.

Honestly you should have the entire world in a coalition against you, if coalitions actually worked and made sense.

 

[XELANAMYT]

The easiest way to get multiple electors quickly is usually to DOW Austria. They usually ally 3-4 electors and you can just peace them out individually. Other than that, look at who electors have as allies and try to get a CB on one of them. If all else fails just get a CB on someone in the HRE, annex a province from them in HRE lands, fabricate claims on neighbors, then sell it back. You can basically province hop next to electors and fabricate claims this way.

Does this mean that you can become the emperor without actually being part of the HRE or having any land there yourself?

 

[Wolfeson]

Yes, however it is more difficult. You get an automatic penalty to the electors' votes for "non-HRE nation", which basicly requires you to vassalize any electors you want to vote for you. Once you become emperor, the first thing you want to do is usually to add a chain of provinces to the HRE leading to your capitol so you can get rid of that penalty (if possible).

 

[gaius valerius]

If you've got a massive coalition against you, stop conquering for a while. Focus on diplo-annexing for a bit, colonize in N. America, upgrade your navy, something that won't rack up more AE. In the meantime, take advantage of peacetime to let your manpower recover, and to make sure your forces are ready if you do end up in a big war. Keep your diplomats busy improving relations with some of the major coalition members. If you go a few years without doing anything more to make people mad, they'll start dropping out of the coalition.

Reading however on how the OP has set his goals for the game, that's probably beyond the scope of action (going for outright full on territorial mainland conquest). The game mechanics are on the whole working fine even if they need tweaking, when however you push them over their intended edges... well yeah, happy coalition-till-eternity time. Perhaps the only way is the rush forward XD like a BB EU3 style

 

[unmerged(26764)]

You have four choices:

1. Steal some colonies. Go to war with a colonizer who isn't in the coalition and take a ton of his colonies from him. You'll only get significat AE with the person you took them from.

2. Bash natives. Take some land in Africa or India as you wait for the AI to go down.

3. Take land somewhere strange. Take the stab hit and declare war on some minor on the other side of Europe. Use that as a base to expand in Crimea, or Greece, or Egypt, or wherever.

4. Take one province with a core for a nation, release it as a vassal, and then declare wars to take all its other cores back. You don't get AE for this. You can take huge patches of land this way for zero AE, then annex the vassal. Aragon, Denmark, Burgundy, Bavaria, and the Netherlands (once they get their cores) are all great candidates if they no longer exist.