Industrial Powerhouse Achievement - Conquering Colonial Nations?

[Aybara978NE]

I am trying to get the Industrial Powerhouse Achievement, which requires you to have 10 coal furnaces. I am playing as Great Britain, and I currently have 6 furnaces (5 in the UK and 1 in Cagliari). I am trying to decide how and where to acquire the last 4.

I think the easiest play would be to get control of the 6 latent coal provinces held by my three colonial nations (4 in the Thirteen Colonies, 1 in Newfoundland, and 1 in British Colombia). The achievement does not count furnaces owned by any type of subject nation, so I would need to get control of these provinces directly. Is there a way to do this?

Unlike with vassal states, I cannot demand specific provinces from my colonial nations,. so the only way forward seems to be through conquest. My thought is to release Thirteen Colonies and possibly either Newfoundland or British Colombia and then acquire the necessary provinces through war. However, I am not entirely sure what will happen if I try that.

Will conquering provinces from a released Colonial Nation simply create a new Colonial Nation? For example, would conquering territory from a newly release United States simply create a new Thirteen Colonies Colonial Nation? Or can I take territory from a released Colonial Nation as I would any other country?

If I have to worry about the creation of a new Colonial Nation, do I avoid this problem by not coring the conquered territory (or staying under 5 cores) and dealing with the overextension until the furnaces are completed? Alternatively, should I core one province and move my capital to the New World to avoid the formation of a new Colonial Nation?

If I don't secure these sources of coal from my Colonial Nations, my only other option seems to be disrupting the hornet's nest of some combination of the HRE, Russia, and the Ottomans. I think I can do it, but it will be harder and take a lot more of my time.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Greenskyguy]

The game will always try to create new colonial nations if a country has five provinces in a colonial region. (The only way around would be if 99 colonial nations have existed). Your best bet would be to snipe the coal provinces using regular vassals (do the Native Americans still have their cores) to snake your way through the colonial nations and to the interior coal provinces.

Now while this map may be outdated, there seem to be several good coal contenders outside of Europe.
https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/images/f/f4/Coalmap.png

 

[Aybara978NE]

Your best bet would be to snipe the coal provinces using regular vassals (do the Native Americans still have their cores) to snake your way through the colonial nations and to the interior coal provinces.

Just to be clear, are you suggesting that I somehow get these provinces into the hands of a vassal and then demand the provinces (as opposed to releasing the colonial nations and beating them in a war)? Is it even possible to release tags as vassals through cores owned by a Colonial Nation? And assuming I understand your suggestion, wouldn't these provinces immediately revert to the control of the Colonial Nation once I gained control?

 

[grotaclas]

You could build the furnaces while the provinces are owned by your colonial nations. Then you don't have to wait till they are built after conquering them from your former colonial nations. When you conquer provinces from your former colonial nations, you can try to mostly take provinces which give no overextension(provinces which were colonized and not conquered from a native tribe). Then you can easily prevent colonial nations by only coring less than 5 provinces in each of the colonial regions which you conquer

 

[Aybara978NE]

You could build the furnaces while the provinces are owned by your colonial nations. Then you don't have to wait till they are built after conquering them from your former colonial nations. When you conquer provinces from your former colonial nations, you can try to mostly take provinces which give no overextension(provinces which were colonized and not conquered from a native tribe). Then you can easily prevent colonial nations by only coring less than 5 provinces in each of the colonial regions which you conquer

This is good advice. I already built one furnace in British Colombia to test whether or not it would count towards the achievement (it doesn't), and I am funding development edicts in North America to push the Enlightenment further inland. Based on the above, it seems that I do need to be mindful of forming a new Colonial Nation once I pull this trigger.

My Thirteen Colonies is quite large (I think it has over 100k troops at the moment), so I may limit this "colonial strategy" to releasing Newfoundland and British Colombia and snagging their coal. I should also be able to snag the coal province in France fairly easily, which will leave me only one furnace short. I might try to snag the province in Georgia south of the Caucasus mountains or one of the provinces in the East Indies.

 

[Greenskyguy]

Just to be clear, are you suggesting that I somehow get these provinces into the hands of a vassal and then demand the provinces (as opposed to releasing the colonial nations and beating them in a war)? Is it even possible to release tags as vassals through cores owned by a Colonial Nation? And assuming I understand your suggestion, wouldn't these provinces immediately revert to the control of the Colonial Nation once I gained control?

Vassals give coring range even if the province is landlocked. So to get a landlocked, coal province in Virginia, you'd need to reconstitute any Native tribes in the area (possibly Powhatan spawns there), and you can core the landlocked province through the coastal, native American tribe. Although since you plan to focus on British Columbia and Newfoundland, this may not be necessary.

 

[Aybara978NE]

Vassals give coring range even if the province is landlocked.

This is good to know. I am looking at this now, but I don't see any way to force Thirteen colonies to release any of the local tribes, and I don't seem to have the option to do so myself. Either way, this looks like it involves granting Thirteen Colonies independence and then going to war with them, just with the added benefit of a vassal to provide coring range. Ichisi is still around, is close to the coal, and would be willing to be my vassal, so it could serve as an alternative to releasing a vassal.

Interestingly, I just noticed that I can apparently use the new favor system to have Thirteen Colonies "Return Cores" to me. It doesn't say that I have cores on any of these provinces in the individual province screen, but the favors interface suggests that I have cores along the entire eastern seaboard. Does a parent nation always have cores on colonial nation's territory? Is that why there is no overextension for those provinces @grotaclas?

In any event, what would happen if I used the favor system to have the colonial nation return cores to me? Presumably the provinces would revert to my control? But wouldn't the colonial mechanics just revert control right back to the colonial nation?

 

[Sidolowka]

I might be too late, but you could charter coal provinces off of countries in the rest of the world.

There are coastal coal provinces in Japan, China, Borneo, Sumatra and the Philippines, meaning you could charter a province from each region and have more than enough.

 

[Aybara978NE]

I might be too late, but you could charter coal provinces off of countries in the rest of the world.

There are coastal coal provinces in Japan, China, Borneo, Sumatra and the Philippines, meaning you could charter a province from each region and still have enough.

Oh, that is another good tip. Thanks

 

[Nwaij]

Or whack some german minors/more france/iberia. Plenty of coal there, too.

 

[Aybara978NE]

Or whack some german minors/more france/iberia. Plenty of coal there, too.

I want to avoid that if possible, as it would involve facing alliances of close to a million men.

 

[RobbieAB]

Do you have much on the continent that can’t be protected by the wooden wall? If not, you could potentially deal with the alliance by staring it out for 5 years until all the allies white peace out.

 

[Aybara978NE]

Do you have much on the continent that can’t be protected by the wooden wall? If not, you could potentially deal with the alliance by staring it out for 5 years until all the allies white peace out.

I have all of Brittany and half of France, so I wouldn’t want to hide behind the wall.

At this point though I am up to 9 furnaces. I grabbed one in Bengal and two in Japan (plus the 6 I started this thread with). I also have a native vassal with a latent coal province in the Pacific Northwest of North America, so worst case scenario I annex them and put the last furnace there.

Just in case, I am also in the process of currying favors with Newfoundland to see what happens when I ask them to return their coal producing core to me. Finally, there is a relatively accessible coal province in the near Manchuria that I should be able to take easily using Japan as a base.

I will see how it goes.

 

[grotaclas]

Vassals give coring range even if the province is landlocked. So to get a landlocked, coal province in Virginia, you'd need to reconstitute any Native tribes in the area (possibly Powhatan spawns there), and you can core the landlocked province through the coastal, native American tribe. Although since you plan to focus on British Columbia and Newfoundland, this may not be necessary.

Did you test this in America? Normally vassals only allow you to core provinces next to them if the province is on the same continent as your capital. But colonial nations create some special coring rules and I don't know if that extends to vassals in some way.

Does a parent nation always have cores on colonial nation's territory? Is that why there is no overextension for those provinces @grotaclas?

No, a parent nation doesn't have a core on a CN. I think it is a bug in the favors interaction that you can take other provinces in some cases, but I don't know the specifics about that bug. The provinces which cause no overextension are provinces which were colonized. This applies to anyone who conquers the provinces and it applies anywhere in the world(e.g. siberian frontier provinces also cause no overextension). Provinces which were conquered from the natives do cause overextension. But I don't know how the new tribal land is handled in that regard.

 

[Aybara978NE]

Just finished the achievement. I was able to purchase a charter company province in the East Indies after France lost the territory in a war they started. Lucky me!

Notably, the furnace didn't need to be finished for the achievement to fire.

For kicks, I decided to see what would happen if I used the "return core" favor mechanic against my colonial nation Newfoundland. The favor cost scaled based on the development present in the territory. For whatever reason, pressing the button caused Newfoundland to lose its own core on the province, but the province did not revert to my control. So I think that @grotaclas might be right about it being a bug.