Leaving the Continent strategy for England, what to do with provinces in France?

[tantaluss12]

Hello, I am planning to play a game as England and focus on colonising, but what is the best strategy I can go with in terms of my opening situation and continental holdings?

1) should I try to win the HYW just to try to make France release vassels/ weaken them in other ways, or should I just save money and manpower and immediately concede defeat and give the standard two provinces?

2) what should i do with my french holdings? Sell them to France? Sell them to Brittany as a way to deny France access to the channel? Sell them to burgundy? Mkae them client states so they can fight france with me in any future wars? Or should I be releasing them as independent states

 

[Mikalos]

If you have no intrerest in the continent, Day 1 peace giving up everything but calais.

calais you sell to burgundy.

then you just dont care anymore

 

[tantaluss12]

If you have no intrerest in the continent, Day 1 peace giving up everything but calais.

calais you sell to burgundy.

then you just dont care anymore

But what if by defeating france i could hobble a potential colonial rival or create problems for it by boosting brittany, or at least get more money from provinces by owning more of them then I would by surrendering?

 

[FloatingOrb]

France rarely does serious colonizing. Worry more about Spain. If you really want to dominate the colonies, win the hundred year war and use france to conquer the Iberean. Then quit the game cuz you just won.

 

[tytan88]

I find the continental holdings a huge distraction as you will be fighting France and others for the rest of the game to keep them. I usually dump them and make for the new world. I usually grab ideas for exploration, ship forcelimits and trade:exploration, expansion, trade, maritime, quantity ideas. this gives me a lot of merchants and a huge fleet of 200+ to protect my trade routes. Get to the Caribbean and dominate it, then West and South Africa. With a 200+ ship fleet, you will decide who colonizes and who doesn't.

Portugal and Spain are your main foes.

 

[tantaluss12]

I find the continental holdings a huge distraction as you will be fighting France and others for the rest of the game to keep them. I usually dump them and make for the new world. I usually grab ideas for exploration, ship forcelimits and trade:exploration, expansion, trade, maritime, quantity ideas. this gives me a lot of merchants and a huge fleet of 200+ to protect my trade routes. Get to the Caribbean and dominate it, then West and South Africa. With a 200+ ship fleet, you will decide who colonizes and who doesn't.

Portugal and Spain are your main foes.

That is what I want to do, but my question is; is it better to try to hobble France to some degree by winning the HYW, making them release nations, and the boosting other countries like Britany to create a buffer zone by giving them my provinces?

 

[Mikalos]

That is what I want to do, but my question is; is it better to try to hobble France to some degree by winning the HYW, making them release nations, and the boosting other countries like Britany to create a buffer zone by giving them my provinces?

no

the timesink of winning the HYW isn't worth whatever benefits you might gain from doing so. Just abandon the provinces and let france go beat the crap out of it's neighbors.

Or did you just ignore the poster who said "france doesnt colonize, go focus on hurting spain and portugal"

Foul language removed - Seelmeister

 

[MiniaAr]

Why wouldn't you keep Calais at all cost? Don't you get a center of trade there with the decision "Designate Calais as The Staple Port"?

I would think that having another COT in your home node is not something you want to give away.:unsure:

 

[ChildeR]

Why wouldn't you keep Calais at all cost? Don't you get a center of trade there with the decision "Designate Calais as The Staple Port"?

I would think that having another COT in your home node is not something you want to give away.:unsure:

It adds only +5 TP so holding Calais is not that important. However, the decision is still worth it if you lose the province, since you get an immediate +10 mercantilism.

 

[Cossack_PL]

Get rid of all French provinces apart from Calais, but don't sell Calais to Burgundy. Get alliance with Austria in case Burgundy attacks and keep Calais until you get a ruler with at least 4 ADM (hopefully won't take long). Then you can make Calais a staple port by decision, which gives you tasty 10 mercantilism. After that you can drop that province as well, but don't do it earlier.

 

[MiniaAr]

It adds only +5 TP so holding Calais is not that important. However, the decision is still worth it if you lose the province, since you get an immediate +10 mercantilism.

+5TP before any modifier, it can still help you increase your share by building trade buildings. And the +10% mercantilism is awesome and should be taken anyway.

 

[Katarian]

I find the continental holdings a huge distraction as you will be fighting France and others for the rest of the game to keep them. I usually dump them and make for the new world. I usually grab ideas for exploration, ship forcelimits and trade:exploration, expansion, trade, maritime, quantity ideas. this gives me a lot of merchants and a huge fleet of 200+ to protect my trade routes. Get to the Caribbean and dominate it, then West and South Africa. With a 200+ ship fleet, you will decide who colonizes and who doesn't.

Portugal and Spain are your main foes.

Unless you are playing MP Trade and Maritime are wasted idea slots. Trade companies can give you more merchants then you need, and naval force limits are a joke I think at one point in my current game I was 200 ships over my force limit and it costs less then being 10 over your land force limit. Once you can build Manufacturies in every province in the Biritish Isles and got a few colonies going your Naval force limit will explode.

I normally take Admin first as England desperately needs Mercs to fight early wars and revolts and then Exploration. It gives Spain and Portugal a head start but a player using armies to stop native attacks can colonise much more efficienctly then the AI. I don't find there is any need to be aggressive with Spain and Portugal early on, your CN (once they get going) and any expansion in India will cause them to turn hostile and by then you can do whatever you want to them as the AI is hopeless at defending a colonial empire. That is providing you have built a large enough navy to fight them both at once.

 

[unmerged(350419)]

last time i played england i just released cornwall and wales at start of the game, not sure did i give them any money or anything else, but consider it anyways. cornwall and wales are ez to retake, while in peace time u must look for strong aliances against the french, thus u can keep your french provinces, as for the cornwall and wales, they'll be yours sooner or later anyways.

 

[ChildeR]

+5TP before any modifier, it can still help you increase your share by building trade buildings. And the +10% mercantilism is awesome and should be taken anyway.

I'm not saying it isn't useful, it's just not as big a deal as London (+30), Holland (+30), Antwerp (+20) or even Caux (+10). The mercantilism is very good and well worth the price even if you end up losing/selling the province.

 

[Jorous]

I think you can sell your southmost continent province to navarra. If you are lucky Castille vassalizes navarra. When france want its core back it will lead to a war between france and castille. Giving you more time for colonizing.

 

[AurochsAway]

That is what I want to do, but my question is; is it better to try to hobble France to some degree by winning the HYW, making them release nations, and the boosting other countries like Britany to create a buffer zone by giving them my provinces?

If you want to damage France the most, you properly win the HYW, establish the PU, and then throw their army into waves of Iberians while you hit the Iberians at sea. This gives you complete and utter control of the New World. It's definitely the most powerful strategy, but in essence it takes all challenge from the mid+late game and compresses it into that initial war.

If you don't want to have the PU, just abandon the mainland. France isn't a big colonising power, and if they ever become an issue, just declare a colonial war and blockade all their ports with your fleets so troops can't even get to you, and deal with whatever small forces they already have in the New World. In this circumstance, the main issue will be the Iberians who unlike France will have significant forces in the Americas, and will also have navies.

 

[Mikalos]

last time i played england i just released cornwall and wales at start of the game, not sure did i give them any money or anything else, but consider it anyways. cornwall and wales are ez to retake, while in peace time u must look for strong aliances against the french, thus u can keep your french provinces, as for the cornwall and wales, they'll be yours sooner or later anyways.

why the hell would that ever be a useful move

 

[kralex]

I think you can sell your southmost continent province to navarra. If you are lucky Castille vassalizes navarra. When france want its core back it will lead to a war between france and castille. Giving you more time for colonizing.

I meant to try that approach some time, but haven't gotten around to it yet - (edit: )Labourd as a poisoned gift to Spain. Can anyone who's done that report on whether this is effective for getting some France vs. Spain action on?

 

[oblio-]

I meant to try that approach some time, but haven't gotten around to it yet - Navarra as a poisoned gift to Spain. Can anyone who's done that report on whether this is effective for getting some France vs. Spain action on?

In general giving someone cores of another nation is a sure fire way to make them break alliances and potentially turn them into long term enemies. The same trick usually works for Portugal/Spain or Poland/Lithuania.

About the actual province, you probably mean Labourd/Lapurdi?

 

[Artyom87]

day 1 fabricate claims on scotland. WHen the claim is finished, DOW scotland and then peace out with the french