Need help post-Germany

[Clowncar]

Hi,
So I search the forums for the answer and found nothing relating to my question. So I formed Germany with Prussia around the late 1860s and obviously took Alsace-Lorraine. For the next decade every so often France would declare war in me to get it back, how on earth do I get them to stop? I assume they have a CB on me for the cores, but is there a way to make sure they won't declare on me, cuz it's getting annoying

 

[KOTSM]

The simple answer is to completely and utterly squash them, you are the German Empire after all and as such *should* have a larger army. At any rate whenever I play Germany, I just make sure to crush France the first time so I never have to do it again. Just leaving a couple of doom stacks on your border should keep them out

 

[MondoPotato]

Any country that has a CB for core territory will declare war on you if the AI thinks it can win. For a great power like France, this will likely be a regular five year event, immediately after the truce expires. Because of the strength of France in general, they'll be more than happy to declare war until you either A.) destroy them completely, or B.) eclipse them in military power, or C.) Give up the core land

If you're not keen to deal with the wars, and don't want to destroy France completely, an alternative is just removing the cores from those provinces in the save file (if you don't mind editing them). Just find the province and remove the CORE=FRA bits, and they'll leave you alone. It's a little gamey, but it will stop the constant wars.

 

[Clowncar]

Thank you, both of you, I'm not one for diverting from history too much, so I wasn't gonna take so much from them. I have a stack of 66 in colmar, 63 in Metz, and 72 in Strasbourg. Oh an 57 in Luxembourg (I sphered them) also I allied and sphered Belgium. Shouldn't this be enough though?

 

[grommile]

I have a feeling AI France overestimates the value of its humongous waves of conscript infantry.

 

[Milith]

It's a little gamey, but it will stop the constant wars.

That's not gamey, that's straight up cheating.

 

[Jorlaan]

Honestly just take a few states and stretch yourself to the Channel coast, cut France off from Belgium then you'll be able to easily sphere them. Taking those states plus making them lose a regional ally will go a long way to discouraging them from attacking. It is not super historically inaccurate to take that land, hell if Germany won WW1 vs France it is reasonable to assume they'd have taken something.
This game is about making your own history, so turn Germany in to the true ruler of Europe it deserves to be.

 

[Mikalos]

Honestly just take a few states and stretch yourself to the Channel coast, cut France off from Belgium then you'll be able to easily sphere them. Taking those states plus making them lose a regional ally will go a long way to discouraging them from attacking. It is not super historically inaccurate to take that land, hell if Germany won WW1 vs France it is reasonable to assume they'd have taken something.
This game is about making your own history, so turn Germany in to the true ruler of Europe it deserves to be.

such map gore is irresponsible

 

[heliostellar]

I always take Franche-Comte from them too... remember, it was once part of the HRE!

 

[KOTSM]

Map gore as Germany in Northern France is temporarily permissible, so long as it is followed up by completely eating them at a later date

Anywho, 60K should do the trick, for me I always keep ten armies manning the western border from Switzerland all the way up to the coast line, each around 30 - 50 K each, consisting of a fair balance of units as the AI always hits me with infantry stacks and very little else. You should easily be able to maintain a larger army as Germany has the potential for a stupidly huge population base (especially if you eat Austria), plus with the industrial base and high literacy your armies should always be better supplied and more advanced. More often than not, I rush towards military and industry as Prussia/Germany so I get access to things like gass and machine guns before every one else.

Another thing that tends to help in a small way is building as many forts along the border as possible. I always make it a personal aim in German games to turn the entire country into an inpenetrable fortress, walling off any vulnerable borders with whatever is at my disposal. Get that plus an early military tech lead and the French AI won't be able to touch you. In my latest PDM playthrough as Prussia/Germany, I found that this works suprisingly well such that whilst at war with Italy, Britain and Russia, I could easily afford to keep just three medium sized armies on the border to scare off the French - I'll give that I had around 250 brigades spread accross 18 armies and an extra 200 from conscripts which definately helped

 

[Kapitalisti]

I have a feeling AI France overestimates the value of its humongous waves of conscript infantry.

Not just the AI France...

 

[Clowncar]

Any country that has a CB for core territory will declare war on you if the AI thinks it can win. For a great power like France, this will likely be a regular five year event, immediately after the truce expires. Because of the strength of France in general, they'll be more than happy to declare war until you either A.) destroy them completely, or B.) eclipse them in military power, or C.) Give up the core land

If you're not keen to deal with the wars, and don't want to destroy France completely, an alternative is just removing the cores from those provinces in the save file (if you don't mind editing them). Just find the province and remove the CORE=FRA bits, and they'll leave you alone. It's a little gamey, but it will stop the constant wars.

The problem is though, I have steam, and I have the expansions, and can't find the AHD folder. Yeah I'm a cheater, but who isn't?

 

[grommile]

The problem is though, I have steam, and I have the expansions, and can't find the AHD folder. Yeah I'm a cheater, but who isn't?

Paradox expansion content, with the exception of HoI3:TFH, doesn't get put in a separate folder; it gets folded into the main game installation.

 

[Trickrs]

They'll attack as long as your Military power and theirs (which include alliances) are even, just make a big ass army (piss easy as Germany) and make strong alliances.

 

[Clowncar]

Paradox expansion content, with the exception of HoI3:TFH, doesn't get put in a separate folder; it gets folded into the main game installation.

My HoI2 was split between doomsday and Vanilla. But that's beside the point. My "save games" (steamapps/common/Victoria 2) folder is empty. Idk where else it could be

 

[Clowncar]

They'll attack as long as your Military power and theirs (which include alliances) are even, just make a big ass army (piss easy as Germany) and make strong alliances.

They have Russia, a non GP Ottoman Empire Sardinia-pediment and Papal States. I have Austria and Belgium. So this is un-balanced I guess? Should I try to sphere/ally Spain, who also is not a GP?

 

[AdeptusM]

who says you have to take more land to crush them? your allies, like italy or (pugh) Spain would be interested in some lands for themselves.

 

[Clowncar]

who says you have to take more land to crush them? your allies, like italy or (pugh) Spain would be interested in some lands for themselves.

Italy hasn't formed yet, there either in France or Austria's sphere.

 

[Jorlaan]

My HoI2 was split between doomsday and Vanilla. But that's beside the point. My "save games" (steamapps/common/Victoria 2) folder is empty. Idk where else it could be

Most games send save files to your "My Documents" folder, look under your personal profile if your computer has multiple profiles.

 

[Owl Raider]

They have Russia, a non GP Ottoman Empire Sardinia-pediment and Papal States. I have Austria and Belgium. So this is un-balanced I guess? Should I try to sphere/ally Spain, who also is not a GP?

Why do you have Austria as an ally rather than as a part of you? Declare war on them with the Free People CB to release Hungary as a single province nation, than annex Austria via decision. Than you can get yourself a proper GP ally, I guess the UK from the information you've given. Although UK is pretty crap at actually helping you out as the AI sucks at naval combat and invasions its sheer strength should still be a powerful deterrent for France to attack you. Even if not with GB as your ally you can easily crush France as the UK doesn't need to use a naval landing, it can simply walk from the UK to France via Dunkirk.