Not good enough, need help!

[ScaryRhinoNoodles]

I have done some of the harder low hanging fruit achievements, like Bengal Tiger.

Yet, I cannot understand a few things that would lead me to being a simply great player.

I have seen Reman's WC guides, watched Sui-Kings, and still cannot get most of my games past 1550 without getting stomped.

I've been trying for the HRE achievement for about 3 months now, and I simply can't do it. Now, with the nerf, playing as Austria is just painful.

Here is what usually happens in my games.

I can reliably Reign in Northern Italy, if the Pope isn't allied to France. That's with or without the PUs.

Example of my last game - was 90% manpower with maxed force limit of like 50+. Getting ready to finish of Venice. Burg Declares on me even with a Royal Marriage and relations at 200. I said to hell with that, I was pissed! Sat on him until the Inheritance fired. France then immediately goes on Cambray.

I'm kicking Frances ass, when suddenly the Ottomans decides to help France. So I'm fighting 2 fronts, one in Hungary one in France. I white peace France.

Then immediately after the White Peace, Demark CBs Lubeck.

It's like that game, after game. I either get maulsed into the ground or anytime I have an advantage the AI will go all in on me.

It doesn't matter what Nation I play.

If I lose one battle, then it's usually a restart because the AI will take any advantage and stack it.

I'm at a loss. I feel I'm ready for my first WC, I just can't do some of these Achievements and don't understand why.

I just want to clarify, I know I'm not stellar at the game. But with 1000 hours and no WC, I feel I am missing something.

 

[True_Heir_of_Rome]

There are a lot of ways to go about uniting the HRE(I assume that's what you mean by the "HRE Achievement".) I played as France and used brute force to make myself the Emperor. Around 1700 I started vassalizing electors and I curb stomped Austria. It took some juggling but eventually the AE cools down, you can integrate electors and replace them with friendly non vassals. One you have made the HRE hereditary it's just a matter of time, conquest, and forcing religion. I imagine this process could be begun earlier but I set my goal late since I realized I had never done it before.

As far as WC...Honestly it's not all it's cracked up to be IMO(Although I'm sure others would say I'm wrong.) I've had far more games well on pace for WC than I've ever actually bothered to complete. Take the same three idea groups, release the same vassals, once you reach a certain size it's just a slog and remembering to bother spending your cash...It's like data entry after a while.

I was at about 1000 hours when I first did mine with the Ottomans. Even with the nerf they are still a great nation to do this with.

 

[Bouchart]

It may feel like Austria is in the best position to unite the HRE but they are not the easiest. The easiest way to unite the HRE is to be some other major Catholic power, typically England, France, Spain, Poland, or Ottomans, and conquer a lot of European land. Then later in the game you can become emperor and add enough land to the HRE to pass the needed reforms. Austria can unite the HRE fairly quickly if you are lucky bu that takes a lot of skill.

When possible you should spend the first two thirds of the game going after valuable trade nodes and land, and conquering weaker powers, not going after the majors. You want to open up a lot of fronts as possible so late in the game you can wage multiple wars in multiple locations easily.

Also, in the last 100 years of the game you can conquer massive amounts of land, between your admin efficiency, Imperialism CB and possibly becoming a revolutionary government. You need to spend the first 250 years or so building up the power base to pull that off.

 

[ywxiao]

It sounds like you are not playing the diplomatic game right. AI nations should be used to shield yourself until you are ready to eat them.

 

[atwix]

Burg Declares on me even with a Royal Marriage and relations at 200. I said to hell with that, I was pissed! Sat on him until the Inheritance fired. France then immediately goes on Cambray.

It sounds like you are not playing the diplomatic game right. AI nations should be used to shield yourself until you are ready to eat them.

i think your diplomatic game is indeed lacking.

you should learn to watch rival patterns, and ally people after setting THEIR rivals as rival.

for example, as austria, i'd watch if france rivaled YOU and/or burgundy, and what burgundy rivalled. from that knowledge, you can get france, burgundy, or the rivals of france and burgundy as allies.

so basically, england, spain, burgundy and france are likely to accept alliance if you play it right.

to the east, i'd always go for polish alliance. if poland rivalled brandenburg/hungary, then consider rivalling them to get them to accept alliance.

You are the nation with tons of dip reputation etc, so you should focus on getting greater powers as allies early on. Then get the unions over brandenburg and hungary (with o without those allies). and then hope burgundy does stupid declare on HRE, force inheritance.

then play personal union game on all allies (hope for habsburg on spain if ally), before 1600 get your dynasty on poland with support heir AFTER you help Poland secure the provinces of TO that are needed to form PLC, and force a union on PLC after they tumble down into monarchy.

etcetc.

especially on very hard mode, diplomatic play is KEY to survival. Without it, AI *will* take advantage of your weakness (aka no manpower etc)