How to get rid of these stupid coalitions?

[Jay916]

Playing a game as France and I've taken about 20 provinces in 100 years-which is apparently way to much. Everyone is in a coalition against me (England, Castille, Austria, etc) and I'm just waiting for the next time they declare a coalition war (which will be the 3rd time)

I understand as France with the commonwealth as my ally I've been able to win all these wars-but now it's just getting annoying. Is there any tricks to get rid of some this aggressive expansion modifiers? I mean castille has like -170 against me. Which I sort of understand since I ate Portugal and a some of castille...

Anyways I was just wondering if theres any tips for getting rid of these or do I simply have to set the speed to 5 and wait a really really long time for the AE to melt away? Is that my only choice?

 

[AP85]

I actually find the best way to get rid of coalitions is to lay a smackdown on them. Keep your manpower up and make sure you recruit generals at the end of wars to take advantage of Mil tradition. When the coalitions come after you, bait them into mountain forts and reinforce, rinse and repeat. A lot of times it seems they leave the coalition if they attack you and lose (or maybe this is just coincidence?). It's fine to grab a bunch of land, but if you're letting your manpower drain down to nothing in order to make it happen, expect to get walloped by a coalition in the very near future.

A lot of people would probably tell you to feed those provinces to vassals to keep your AE down (use Deus Vult and transfer occupation to do this for 0 DIP points per province), but I think that's lame. Napoleon beat the stuffing out of 5 different coalitions before they finally took him down; finding ways to blob in the face of coalitions is half the fun.

 

[Autoclave]

Good topic, i got same problem as burgundy after eating france. I know that you get less AE with allies and that better relations over time alse make AE decay faster. Then there is influence ideas that decrease AE. Oh, and prestige helps lowering that and being curia controller.

I believe there must be an optimal amount of base tax of land you can grab, so that the AE will expire at the time of truce. The problem with grabbing less land is the length of war warscore penalty. If you take less land per war, then you will have more wars to fight, and the total length of wars might be too long.

So definetely there must be an optimal way.

 

[VampireBoot]

Countries can't join a coalition while they have a truce with you, so if you intend to go crazy with AE, you're best bet is to stagger truce timers so that major countries won't be in the coalition at the same time. Also, don't forget that truce breaking is an option.

 

[MrConsideration]

Improve relations with some countries. It might make them drop out.

A defeated coalition will dissolve, too.

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

In 1.8, if you defeat coalition members in a war, they automatically drop out of the coalition, and can't rejoin until the truce is up.

 

[Rey]

Ally with big countries next to you before you start grabbing provinces. The AE impact in your allies is reduced. Also, improve relations with the countries around you beforehand, so they don't get 'outraged' with the AE penalty (don't let relations go negative), thus preventing them from joining coalitions.

 

[Hakuromatsu]

Improve relations with some countries. It might make them drop out.

I think nations are far less likely to drop out since 1.8, to balance out the truce change. In my experience in 1.8, you can count on fighting the major members of your coalition at least one time.

At any rate, preventive alliance-forming is still the best strategy for a nation like France with lots of untapped potential in 1444, but large neighbors that won't take kindly to tapping that potential. Playing as France, an alliance with two of Portugal/Castile/Austria before expanding could have prevented most of that AE in the first place.

 

[Prom_STar]

It's about truce juggling now. You either halt expansion long enough for AE to tick down, or you wage near constant war and keep powers on different truce timers so they can't all come at you at once.

 

[Jay916]

It's so much fun waiting for AE to burn off. GG Paradox.

Anyways I thought if they had positive relations they would automatically leave the coalition? Is that not the case anymore?

 

[bbqftw]

Coalitions were so much worse in 1.7.

You're France - fight all of Europe, get a white peace or concede defeat out of the coalition, then trucebreak at will to pick off the weaker members.

 

[Rey]

It's so much fun waiting for AE to burn off. GG Paradox.

Get Influence (State Propaganda) or Humanist (Benevolence) ideas, or the Diplomat advisor (better rel over time bonus). It will help.

 

[Sorellis]

Another tactic is to rotate through fighting in different theatres. England doesn't care if you eat Sunni North Africa and likewise Tunis doesn't give a stuff if you chomp down on Burgundy.

 

[SerFishy]

Conquer some other direction while AE burns off and if you can handle the coalition, just attack it regardless...

 

[Freudia]

Attack into it, break it, then devour randoms while the big coalition is on the truce timer.

 

[pgroves]

Without coalitions the game would be far too easy, you just need to learn how to manage things so they don't get out of control

 

[Fiddler6291]

Best 2 tips I would have:
1. Don't take any HRE lands if you have other options, AE multipliers are just ridiculous for that region. a 20ish basetax grab will make sure half of the members will join a coaltion vs you the coming century or so.
The fact that the coalition gets dissolved after you beat it doesn't make much difference, since they'll just join it again as soon as the truce is up. And unless you gonna truce break (which adds 5-7 more years AE just by doing so) truce timers for the members will be the same.

2. make coalitions work in your favor: (assuming you'll be playing western/eastern/muslim tech country, but works for other tech to a lesser degree) have some weak, tech backward country, preferably far away from the other members join the coalition, declare on the coalition through that guy so he is the warleader, wreck the weak guy while avoiding fighting the stronger ones if possible, get a lot of warscore that way; siege the provinces you want from the strong members as quickly as possible, peace out taking the "high value provinces from the strong guys.

 

[Evanescent]

While many clever options have been presented thus far, only one truth remains: the best way to deal with coalitions is by punching it right in the face until it is no more.

 

[Camtheman]

This is not possible in multiplayer (as I have tried it and failed) unless you want to piss off your mates by pausing, but

When fighting in a coalition war, be sure to peace out toward the end of the month, 20th or later.

After defeating the coalition, (they drop out) wait until a few days before the truce timer expires and they inevitably rejoin.

Single out a member you want to attack that you know would otherwise join the coalition as the truce timer expires.

Pause the day before the truce timer expires, unpause, (sometimes the -5 stab thing from trucebreaking still appears even if the truce is over)

Wait untill you no longer see that -5 stab on the declare war screen, and bring the hammer down. Usually you can beat the AI before they rejoin the coalition. I have done it numerous times in my Orleans game.

 

[Chlodio]

Criple their armies before they have a chance to unite their forces or face Waterloo.