Hey all, just looking to get some advice here, I'm so far along in this ironman game I don't to mess it up. Basic scenario is I'm going for the sunset invasion achievement. Its almost 1718, so about 100 years to go and I'm not nearly as close as I'd like to be, but it is what it is. Almost have Lisboa isolated, and I've helped Aragon capture madrid to help with castile as well but I'm really starting to feel the heat with only so much time left.
I was hoping to get some advise or tactics that some of you might use to isolate some capitols and hopefully avoid coalitions because it seems almost impossible to get territory once they do that.
My military tech is just starting to match most of western Europe, I am actually ahead of a great many of them, including Great Britain. Also I am using absolute monarchy for the discipline bonus, as well as a partially fleshed out idea group of defensive and quality.
Also, obviously naval superiority over castile and portugal, at one point about 2 wars ago their entire fleets (both) were completely erased. I am not sure how they still have money and manpower to keep raising armies and naval vessels without a severe spike in inflation, because I have been steadily driving their trade income down with embargoes and massive trading fleets, as well as significant trade infrastructure in chesapeake and the caribbean. I also moved my capitol to Conoy (washington dc) just for giggles.
GB is somewhat unknown except they park about 50k crappy, low morale troops in london all the time. I think I can take them militarily except that they are allied to Russia (my ally as well), so I'll have to siege all of proper england to get a province.
France is without a doubt the biggest paper tiger in the game, and my current ally. They've lost countless wars to burgundy/castile with superior numbers. They just do not understand to not attack the enemy in navarra or burgos during winter. Biggest problem with them will be the sheer amount of provinces needed to take to isolate their capitol.
Papal states still holds Rome (i've been curia controller for ~120 yrs btw), and a weakened Burgundy holds Amsterdam, it is isolated from the rest of their territory.
Biggest problem overall will probably be coalitions and getting legitimate reasons for war (no stab hits), not really sure if that is unavoidable, and if not I doubt I can get there in time. I could certainly use some advise on avoiding coalitions, with a goal of only isolating the provinces i need. Castile and Portugal just formed one on me again, so I may have to wait or something not sure. Also its too late in the game for releasing vassals, there are nearly no cores to be released anywhere, except soon in the new world.
oh, and also another problem will be manpower. As you can see from the picture, my manpower is in the crapper. I think it is around a maximum of 60 or 70k, but I am having some troubles particularly because castile is defensive as well. Do you think it would be worth it to fall a bit behind again in tech in return for a bunch of barracks and other manpower increasing infrastructure? Or possibly even just fill out the defensive/quality idea trees some more?
I was hoping to get some advise or tactics that some of you might use to isolate some capitols and hopefully avoid coalitions because it seems almost impossible to get territory once they do that.
My military tech is just starting to match most of western Europe, I am actually ahead of a great many of them, including Great Britain. Also I am using absolute monarchy for the discipline bonus, as well as a partially fleshed out idea group of defensive and quality.
Also, obviously naval superiority over castile and portugal, at one point about 2 wars ago their entire fleets (both) were completely erased. I am not sure how they still have money and manpower to keep raising armies and naval vessels without a severe spike in inflation, because I have been steadily driving their trade income down with embargoes and massive trading fleets, as well as significant trade infrastructure in chesapeake and the caribbean. I also moved my capitol to Conoy (washington dc) just for giggles.
GB is somewhat unknown except they park about 50k crappy, low morale troops in london all the time. I think I can take them militarily except that they are allied to Russia (my ally as well), so I'll have to siege all of proper england to get a province.
France is without a doubt the biggest paper tiger in the game, and my current ally. They've lost countless wars to burgundy/castile with superior numbers. They just do not understand to not attack the enemy in navarra or burgos during winter. Biggest problem with them will be the sheer amount of provinces needed to take to isolate their capitol.
Papal states still holds Rome (i've been curia controller for ~120 yrs btw), and a weakened Burgundy holds Amsterdam, it is isolated from the rest of their territory.
Biggest problem overall will probably be coalitions and getting legitimate reasons for war (no stab hits), not really sure if that is unavoidable, and if not I doubt I can get there in time. I could certainly use some advise on avoiding coalitions, with a goal of only isolating the provinces i need. Castile and Portugal just formed one on me again, so I may have to wait or something not sure. Also its too late in the game for releasing vassals, there are nearly no cores to be released anywhere, except soon in the new world.
oh, and also another problem will be manpower. As you can see from the picture, my manpower is in the crapper. I think it is around a maximum of 60 or 70k, but I am having some troubles particularly because castile is defensive as well. Do you think it would be worth it to fall a bit behind again in tech in return for a bunch of barracks and other manpower increasing infrastructure? Or possibly even just fill out the defensive/quality idea trees some more?
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