How to get one province from France

[Talar]

I play as Gelre with the goal to form Netherlands. I got all the provinces except Breda. While I was waiting for the truce with Burgundy to expire to get this last province France declared war on them. In the peace they took exactly the one province I needed and already had a claim on despite having better/closer options to choose. I was hoping for it to revolt or be demanded back by the emperor, but no luck. It's now around 1515 and France recently won a war against England & Castille. I considered jumping in there as it was likely the best chance I would get, but realized there was no point as France was completely dominant. After this they also declared war and annexed what was left of Burgundy.

France is friendly to me, allied to Austria (emperor) and rivals with England/Castille. I'm currently allied to Castille and some small german states. England has one continental province left, they also declared me their rival out of the blue. Does anyone have an idea how I could get Breda from France in this scenario?

I have good cashflow from trade, but I'm short on manpower. The only plan I can think of is to just continue growing east until I'm eventually strong enough to jump France at a good opportunity and get my province - even if it takes hundreds of years and is not the Netherlands trading game I was aiming for.

 

[Lancelot du lac]

Wait the relations beween France and Austria become bad, it will happen, then allied Austria, and eventually Castille, go for a seperate peace if a war goes on, or declare war as soon as France is in danger (Protestant rebellions...).

 

[FrosT37]

France is allied with Austria?

Things are not looking good mate.

 

[Panzerschiffe]

France is allied with Austria?

Things are not looking good mate.

I guess Burgundy stuck around and both France and Austria hated them so they had a mutual enemy. All is well with the world when the Emperor and France are allied.

It sounds like praying and waiting is pretty much the only option. If relations between France and Austria sour, try to take advantage of it when France is in a vulnerable position. Not much you can control.

 

[Talar]

I'm a bit scared after seeing France beat down both England/Castille without even breaking a sweat and I think they could take Austria equally easy. I will look for opportunities if anything comes up, but is there anything I could do to create such opportunities? Would it help going espionage idea and try to indirectly weaken France by rebel support?

 

[FrosT37]

I'm a bit scared after seeing France beat down both England/Castille without even breaking a sweat and I think they could take Austria equally easy. I will look for opportunities if anything comes up, but is there anything I could do to create such opportunities? Would it help going espionage idea and try to indirectly weaken France by rebel support?

First you need to break that French-Austrian alliance.

You'll need to ally Austria and wait for an opportunity to strike, like a civil war in France.

If that opportunity happens, declare a war on an ally of France and invite Austria, Castile and England. You can't declare war directly on France because Austria will join the war on their side...

When at war with France, focus your efforts on (from the most important to the less important):
1) Avoiding French doomstacks (obviously);
2) Systematic looting of France. This is VERY important. Play at speed 1 if necessary;
3) Wiping out isolated French stacks;
4) Occupying the province(s) you want (including wargoal) and their capital province.

Wars against France need to be carefully planned and well executed. There is not much room for mistakes. Don't be too greedy because your allies may peace out sooner than you expect.

 

[Lancelot du lac]

I'm a bit scared after seeing France beat down both England/Castille without even breaking a sweat and I think they could take Austria equally easy. I will look for opportunities if anything comes up, but is there anything I could do to create such opportunities? Would it help going espionage idea and try to indirectly weaken France by rebel support?

At this date Castille and England are usually not such good power nations. Austria is, and is really able to challenge France. Supporting rebells is useless if there is not already a lot of rebellions in France. The best thing to do is focus yourself to military tech and the possibility to have a better army, man power...and wait the opportunity for allied Austria and going to war.

 

[Talar]

Year 1752. Gelre finally get Breda from France in a peace deal. It was the only focus of my whole nation for over 200 years.

I have been growing into north Germany just to increase my manpower, focusing on military ideas and aiming to one day challenge France in a land war for this one province. I tried and failed a number of times already. They have been allied to Austria for almost the whole game. Finally the opportunity came to fight only France together with my ally - the new emperor Brandenburg. The moment I could get a separate peace for Breda I did. Now I just have to core it and form Netherlands.

Lessons learned - alliance with Spain was pointless. I need an ally with good (5/6) generals and get one of them into the major battles because my own generals suck. If I get him to the right place I can provide the manpower needed - a lot of this from hiring mercenaries using my 30K or so warchest of trade gold. But without a good general numbers doesn't matter.

I will play this game out to the end, but after I form Netherlands I will consider it won.

 

[melvin85]

gratz hahahaha. I played Brandenburg and try from purisa than germany