Peace?

[Xanthippus]

I've been playing with Austria and I had annexed Hungary, Bavaria and Wallachia. I stopped there, but I got continuously attacked by Venice, which would in turn provoke France to attack, then England. With these three, they would bring their allies against me, so I'd be attacked on all sides. The biggest problem was Poland-Lithuania with their huge armies. I would drag my allies into it, and soon more countries would attack me, including Helvetia, Savoy, Parma, Tuscany and the Papal States. I annexed all these, save Savoy and the Papal States, to stop them from attacking me again.

So I ended the wars, and after about ten years, Venice attacks me again, then France, then England. After ending the wars, again, I decide to start being more diplomatic. I improve my relations with all three countries to over +150, even have royal marriages with them, but again, Venice attacks me, then France, then England. All the while my provinces at home are in turmoil. I have three stability, most of the provinces are the same religion as the state (catholic), but they're constantly in rebellion. Whenever I am at war, I've always got one army purely for putting down rebellions, and that army is never still for long. I get so many rebellions that it's hard to stay on top, and when I'm at war it becomes impossible. My provinces liberate themselves to their former countries, and I have to go annex them again.

Sick of getting attacked, I decided to ally myself with France. As soon as I did, Poland-Lithuania left the alliance, and eventually Venice attacked me. This time France was on my side, but I was still under attack from all directions, especially from the German duchies, whom I had ditched to ally with France.

Why am I always under attack? I haven't annexed a country in about 50 years and I am still constantly under fire. I can't stop the rebellions and no matter how well my relations are with a country, it doesn't stop them from attacking me. What do I do?

 

[unmerged(9094)]

I am not an expert yet, but I guess you've been a really bad boy right in the beggining
You are sufferring BB wars now, I never played Austria so I cant give you any specific tips. The generall tip would be : you must be strong enough to fight them all
For reference see my Polish AAR (funny enough - in my polish game Austria is the only pain in the a...)

 

[unmerged(11600)]

Why am I always under attack? I haven't annexed a country in about 50 years and I am still constantly under fire. I can't stop the rebellions and no matter how well my relations are with a country, it doesn't stop them from attacking me. What do I do?

I'll ditto what czerpak said, and add that you may want to alter the difficulty/aggression settings in your game. My guess is that Aggression at least is high, if Venice is constantly staring wars with your otherwise neutral Austria. And don't forget, (again depending on settings) most countries that declare war against you for purely BB reasons will settle for a quick peace: go to peace quickly and the wars won't get out of hand.

-Pat

 

[unmerged(21523)]

You're definitely suffering BB wars from all those annexations. Venice is a real warmonger againt BB Austria (I know from experience) and when your BB is high and you're at war, all your neighbors that aren't your allies will DOW you. You'll need to keep a big army handy (or preferably several armies) to expand as a centrally located BB country. As for the BB wars themselves, you can minimize them by a) buying your enemies off. Many BB attackers will settle for peace if you offer them enough money, b) focus on the alliance leader. If you can get the alliance leader to take peace, all his allies will be at peace with you as well. i.e. if Poland and France are in an alliance and Poland DOWs you, if you can make the Poles take peace, all provinces conquered by France will automatically be returned to you (unless you gave them to get peace), and c) go for the capital. Take the enemy's capital and they will almost certainly take at least a WP.

The other bad news about bad boy is that its virtually impossible to work it off once you've built it up. Assuming you stay at peace, I believe you lose 1 point every 4 years (I'm not sure about that, it should be in another thread somewhere.). Either way, that's awfully slow.

If you really want peace as Austria, build yourself a navy and take those Venetians!

 

[unmerged(22939)]

The other bad news about bad boy is that its virtually impossible to work it off once you've built it up. Assuming you stay at peace, I believe you lose 1 point every 4 years (I'm not sure about that, it should be in another thread somewhere.). Either way, that's awfully slow.

Won't the monarch is adm. skill influenciate it.

 

[Nikolai II]

Won't the monarch is adm. skill influenciate it.

Only in EU2's later patches, EU1 and early EU2 used set times, and I'm pretty sure EU1 used a flat 1/4 years. (Else 1/6 at hard and 1/8 at very hard)

 

[Morlac]

Only in EU2's later patches, EU1 and early EU2 used set times, and I'm pretty sure EU1 used a flat 1/4 years. (Else 1/6 at hard and 1/8 at very hard)

yes, the normal is definitely 1/4 years.

There are lots of ways to work within the BB mechanics and still have a satisfying conquest game, but you have to understand how they work, how to make them work for you, and how to -- when the time is right -- take on the entire world.

Some of the biggest points to keep in mind --

• 
  militarily annexing the entire country is almost always a bad idea, and you pay the heaviest BB penalty for it. get used to taking them apart in chunks and let their capital remain as a 1-province nation in the midst of your empire.
  
  diplomatic annexation is much better, especially for 1-province nations like the various smaller european states
  
  if you are the aggressor, it's much better to take provinces that are outside of Europe
  
  taking provinces in Europe is best done when you are the defender rather than the attacker
  
  making separate peaces with different members of an enemy alliance can convert your nice defensive war into an offensive war

In my current spanish IGC world conquest game, I've been trying to keep BB down (as opposed to my previous one, where I let it go sky-high about 50 years in). I stayed below BB 10 until the mid 1500s, almost always at least 1 or 2 points below the biggest BB nation. Then I let it get as high as 19 before slowly letting it drop back down, just to provoke a few rounds of wars with the angriest of my neighbors. By 1615 I've got almost all of the non-European countries down to being 1-province states (China and Japan are both at 2), France has been halved in size, and several of my small european neighbors have been diploannexed.

 

[Nikolai II]

militarily annexing the entire country is almost always a bad idea, and you pay the heaviest BB penalty for it. get used to taking them apart in chunks and let their capital remain as a 1-province nation in the midst of your empire.

If you are the defender you pick them apart as chunks, same when it concerns nations with many provinces outside of europe.

But if you attack the nation, expect to want to annex it later, and it is all or mostly within europe, then annex away

All your other points I agree with fully