New England strategy for 1.5?

[glennbob]

Personally I love 1.5 now and it's increased AE and such, but what is the plan now for England as you can't call in Austria and Spain to the HYW anymore. I tried using hundreds of loans, planting merc in Bearn, baiting the enemy, reinforcing and repeating, but its a race to 0 manpower really. In the end, we were at a stalemate, but they had occupied my French territories and kept Paris, I had so many mercs that I was losing 30 ducats a month. Maybe it might finally be positively impossible to defeat France at gamestart now?

 

[MadDjinn]

It's the same as it's always been...

beat France alone and do it with style

the 'north south' strategy still seems to work, but just ensure not to get into a 'big' fight until after you've managed to reduce your war exhaustion once.

 

[glennbob]

I must have got some bad rolls then I guess. Oh well, I shall persevere and win what is rightfully the throne of Henry the Retard

 

[Blastaz]

Same as always:

Go after Scotland first
then snipe French armies on the coast till you are more even in size,
fluke the first couple of big battles and destroy their standing army
then blanket siege while wiping out their reinforcements.

 

[MadDjinn]

rng is a big factor.

Even the starting strategy of killing the two armies in the south is very rng.

You can --

a) be able to kill both armies and leave on time
b) kill the first army and then have a couple other small armies join up when you take on the 2nd army (thereby either making you lose that fight, or delaying long enough for the 17 stack to get there)
c) get wiped on the first fight when 3 small armies all jump into it rather than wandering around at first


there's more chance of failing to win the HYW than there is to actually win it.

 

[glennbob]

Same as always:

Go after Scotland first
then snipe French armies on the coast till you are more even in size,
fluke the first couple of big battles and destroy their standing army
then blanket siege while wiping out their reinforcements.

You cannot vassalise Scotland during this first war any longer, so I feel like going after them and eating highland winter attrition is a massively unnecessary thing to be doing during a war with France. You don't get the vassalise mission until you are at peace, and even then they've set a limit on those missions so you have to take Ayrshire before the mission even appears.