Planning on Attempting a One Faith with Catholic Spain

[Big Bad France]

I have never completed a One Faith run and would appreciate some advice. I am planning on starting with Castile. My thoughts are that for the first 50 years or so, I will work toward annexing Granada and Navarra, putting Naples under a PU, getting the Iberian wedding, and getting Portugal under a PU. I'm thinking I will order ideas:

1. Exploration
2. Religious
3. Diplomatic
4. Administrative
5. Offensive
6. Influence

I'm thinking I will feed Aragon all of the provinces in northern Italy that I get claims on through the mission tree before forming Spain to get high development land for no monarch points. Once I get an extra relations slot through diplomatic ideas, I will release Gascony from France and use reconquest wars to expand northward. A few questions:

Is it better to convert trade company land before adding it to the company, or should I take the extra income early and then come back later to convert it?

Is north Africa worth conquering before it can be converted since I can make it a trade company now?

If I use the mission tree to get a PU over Great Britain, I will have to integrate them before I can convert any of their colonies. I'm thinking that if I inherit the lowlands and can get the PU early, it's worth it, but otherwise, I probably should just conquer and core them. Does that sound right?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RobbieAB]

Always have the missionaries working. What is your plan to deal with separatism? How fast are you expecting to be expanding? If you are chain warring to keep OE around 99% you would be delaying coring if you convert first (bad) or you are sucking up coring time of tolerance penalties before you convert.

Personally I would TC the land immediately after the peace treaty and would remove it from the TC only when I have a missionary ready to covert it.

 

[Big Bad France]

Always have the missionaries working. What is your plan to deal with separatism? How fast are you expecting to be expanding? If you are chain warring to keep OE around 99% you would be delaying coring if you convert first (bad) or you are sucking up coring time of tolerance penalties before you convert.

Personally I would TC the land immediately after the peace treaty and would remove it from the TC only when I have a missionary ready to covert it.

When I go with religious ideas, I generally core first, then convert. The only exception is when I don't have enough admin points to core everything and I can finish a conversion in less than 12 months. I've never bothered with converting TC land, though. That part is going to be new to me, and there are also a lot more options as to what I can TC on the current patch than I am used to dealing with. I don't typically stay anywhere near 99% OE before absolutism. Maybe it's better to convert early colonies and TC conquests before creating the TC, and to add everything to the TC and then convert later when absolutism hits and I am conquering faster than converting?

 

[RobbieAB]

Well, my take is... During the immediate post-conquest period when you are dealing with separatism, you want to get the provinces cored ASAP, and you don't really want to carry the penalties of poor tolerance. So TC+core immediately would be my strategy.

As you are planning to take Portugal as a subject, is there any urgent need to rush colonization? I have been contemplating religious into North Africa as an early exercise. Set up a vassal, while grabbing the CoTs for a TC.

For GB, PU+Integrate is likely cheaper than straight up conquest once you have admin+influence, if you plan to state the land. 4.4 dip per dev instead of 7.5 admin.

 

[Maxxie42]

You mentioned you want to feed Northern Italy to Aragon and then annex it for free by forming Spain, but do note that you can only take that decision if Aragon has 37 provinces or fewer. So you won't be able to feed much if anything, as they already have 25 provinces at game start - and that number goes up to 36 if they happen to keep and integrate Naples.

 

[Big Bad France]

You mentioned you want to feed Northern Italy to Aragon and then annex it for free by forming Spain, but do note that you can only take that decision if Aragon has 37 provinces or fewer. So you won't be able to feed much if anything, as they already have 25 provinces at game start - and that number goes up to 36 if they happen to keep and integrate Naples.

That's true, but they rarely keep Naples on the current patch, and can't start integrating before 1494, so that seems like a strange occurrence. Also, 12 provinces in northern Italy/southern France is a ton of development. Feeding Aragon would save somewhere around 1000 admin points if you are also stating the land. My old strategy was to feed them northern Africa to get around the increased coring cost, but that has since been removed, and I think that if I fed them northern Africa on the current patch, they would put it into a trade company and I wouldn't even be able to get a jump start on converting it.

 

[Big Bad France]

Well, my take is... During the immediate post-conquest period when you are dealing with separatism, you want to get the provinces cored ASAP, and you don't really want to carry the penalties of poor tolerance. So TC+core immediately would be my strategy.

As you are planning to take Portugal as a subject, is there any urgent need to rush colonization? I have been contemplating religious into North Africa as an early exercise. Set up a vassal, while grabbing the CoTs for a TC.

For GB, PU+Integrate is likely cheaper than straight up conquest once you have admin+influence, if you plan to state the land. 4.4 dip per dev instead of 7.5 admin.

That's a good point about colonization. I'm sort of wondering if it would be worth it myself. I was thinking that I would get a CN in the Caribbean to help spawn colonialism and get claims all over Mexico from the mission tree, and then use the colonists to get footholds in Zanzibar and the Spice Islands. Otherwise, my routes of expansion are France, Italy, and northern Africa.

I agree that PU+Integrating GB would save points. My only concern is time, really. If I don't inherit the lowlands, it would probably be 1600 before I'm able to conquer them. Then I still have to get the PU and wait 50 years to start integration. You are probably right, though. I will be able to convert mainland Great Britain in the meantime, and it's not like I'll run out of things to task my missionaries with in the meantime. I am also going to have to integrate Portugal to convert their trade companies. Maybe I should take influence before diplomatic?

 

[Maxxie42]

That's true, but they rarely keep Naples on the current patch, and can't start integrating before 1494, so that seems like a strange occurrence

Aragon losing Naples is indeed quite frequent. On the topic of them not being able to integrate them before 1494 though, it really doesn't matter since as Castille you can't press the button until tech 10 anyway, giving them ample time to integrate Naples if they still have them. Also, the Iberian wedding can take a while to trigger, and before it does Aragon can do a number of annoying things like conquering parts of Tunis or Tlemcen.

Regardless, I was only mentioning it in case OP hadn't noticed that restriciton, otherwise I do agree that you should definitely try to get as much as you can from the free integration of Aragon.

 

[Big Bad France]

Aragon losing Naples is indeed quite frequent. On the topic of them not being able to integrate them before 1494 though, it really doesn't matter since as Castille you can't press the button until tech 10 anyway, giving them ample time to integrate Naples if they still have them. Also, the Iberian wedding can take a while to trigger, and before it does Aragon can do a number of annoying things like conquering parts of Tunis or Tlemcen.

Regardless, I was only mentioning it in case OP hadn't noticed that restriciton, otherwise I do agree that you should definitely try to get as much as you can from the free integration of Aragon.

With the Iberian wedding, I believe Castile gains Naples when Aragon still has them. They used to get them as a vassal, but I think the PU carries over now. Does Aragon keep them on this patch?

 

[Maxxie42]

With the Iberian wedding, I believe Castile gains Naples when Aragon still has them. They used to get them as a vassal, but I think the PU carries over now. Does Aragon keep them on this patch?

I actually don't know, as you mentioned they usually lose Naples now so I haven't seen it happen, but if Naples went to Castille in 1.29, I have no reason to think that anything changed. I assumed Aragon kept Naples because I can remember seeing the south of Italy colored Aragonese red many times, but thinking about it it's probably just from all the times the Iberian wedding doesn't happen at all.

 

[EarlKonrad]

If you own Rule Britannia than you might want to consider turn it off. The main reason for that is to not have to deal with Anglicanism.

 

[Blizzrd33]

Plan your conquests to get to the maximum number of Missionaries ASAP.

 

[swagmeister]

I actually don't know, as you mentioned they usually lose Naples now so I haven't seen it happen, but if Naples went to Castille in 1.29, I have no reason to think that anything changed. I assumed Aragon kept Naples because I can remember seeing the south of Italy colored Aragonese red many times, but thinking about it it's probably just from all the times the Iberian wedding doesn't happen at all.

Aragon got a new event where the AI will most likely allow Naples to go free. So now Naples often just gets excommunicated and gets carved up by the pope and Venice.

 

[iClipse]

I'm actually currently doing a Castile -> Spain One faith run. Going sort of smoothly so far. I'm at around 1550.

Some observations and thoughts in random order:
- Obviously keep Castile's ideas
- Regarding Naples: they break free, but they get a trastamara as dynasty (at least in my game). Forcing a union afterwards was quite easy. RM -> Claim Throne -> Declare immediately. Don't ally. They were allied with Genoa, Mantua and (a big) Burgundy. However with all your subjects the war was quite easy. Peace out one participant at a time.
- Colonisation first seems optimal. Castile has both the proper ideas for it as it has the mission tree for it. Don't take expansion though. Castile has +25 settlers and a colonist. So exploration only would work. You can ditch the group later and still continue to colonise. Try and follow your mission tree as much as possible. Colonise only where you can form colonial nations quickly. I colonised 2 provinces in Brasil and conquered 3 OPM's there to form a colonial nation. Same for New Granada. Then Mexico en Peru are also free real estate. After that (or at the same time) colonise cape and gold coast. Getting into SE Asia can be done by using charter trade companies. You have dip rep from ideas, papal interaction and maybe an advisor, so chartering is easy.
- Expanding into northern Africa is great. However, governing capacity is a thing. You can't conquer the entire north africa region without running into trouble with it. Using vasals is kind of hard too, since you have Aragon + Portugal + Naples as unions + an ally or two. The nobility edict works well though, but you need to have 2 vasals for that first.
- If you can, slow down the Ottomans a bit. Or at least, try to beat them to Jerusalem and Mecca for the extra missionaries. You don't want to fight the ottomans too early (don't make the mistake I did).
- I went for a weird strat where I formed Spain (on admin tech 12) with Mongol as primary culture. This gives access to the Mongol mission tree. This helps in conquering more stuff quicker and reduces admin cost on vast Asian territories. After forming Spain, culture switch back to Iberian (or not) for access to Holy Orders and a better culture group. This is useful because Spain does not have CCR and absolutism was nerfed in this patch. It gives access to -15 war score cost however by conquering Russia, which helps in conquering stuff more quickly.
- Idea groups are Explo -> Religious -> Quant (in that order). Next group will be admin. Either diplo or quality afterwards, depending on current issues, probably diplo.
- I'm planning to switch to a Theocracy. Theocracy has access to an extra missionary from government reforms, as well as extra TOTTF, more missionary strength (see Militarists vs Theocratist) or just parliament and fish for the extra missionary there. For this reason I'm focusing on not losing government reform progress. I'd take the -1 stab over -15 government reform progress (and ofcourse that corresponding event has to fire 4 times in the first 50 years). You can get the stab back with papal interactions. The extra Tolerance will also be useful when going over 150% overextension.
- I'm a bit torn on Catholic as religion. You have the advantage of it being your starting religion. This means that the new world will be catholic, which is what my bottleneck was last attempt. However, you're missing out on 2 missionaries and +2% conversion strength as opposed to Orthodox (or 1,5% strength as Coptic) or even Sunni/Shia with Caliphate decision for more conversion power. I'm probably gonna keep my religion at this point though.

Currently going to focus on completing both of my mission trees and fragment Ming while conquering the Netherlands slowly.

 

[Buub]

Or use exploit and do One Faith with Custom Ideas as any tag presented as interesting in the time period menu (crest with the flag). You can find guides on how to do it on yt. At least you could do that on 1.29 patch. I wonder if it works now.
+2 colonists +2 missionaries +2% missionary strength and -20% core creation cost and let's go! To me, it was more fun and less time consuming so don't judge

 

[Big Bad France]

Well, my start was not ideal, but I'm pretty much back on track. Naples broke free before I had enough prestige to claim their throne, then they got a strong heir. So I will probably just use my claims and conquer them. Navarra fell into a PU with Aragon before I could diplo-vassalize them. Then France won a war against Aragon and took 2 of the provinces I need to PU Portugal, but also released Navarra, which I was able to quickly gobble up. I was able to call Austria and Burgundy into war with France shortly after the Iberian wedding, and I took back Aragon's cores, plus the rest of France's Mediterranean coast. The plan now is to go to war with Portugal for the PU. I plan on taking their territory in Africa for myself to get a morale boost from missions plus more claims in North Africa. I also plan on releasing Gascony from England as a vassal, using the estates to gain diplo relations. It's about 1480 right now. I'm a little behind on tech, but I have a halfway decent ruler and I should be able to catch up fairly soon, especially if I spawn Colonialism.

As an aside, it looks like the BI is unlikely to happen this run. I will probably stick with Burgundy for 1 more war with France and then dissolve that alliance. Does the mission tree still give PUs over Austria and GB if I steal a vassal from Burgundy and feed them instead of controlling the Lowlands myself? That seems like the quickest and easiest way to take it. Also, do vassals holding imperial land still give back unlawful territory if they are a vassal to someone who isn't in the HRE? That might be a bit of a snag down the line if they do.

 

[Maxxie42]

Also, do vassals holding imperial land still give back unlawful territory if they are a vassal to someone who isn't in the HRE?

1.30 was supposed to change things so that vassals no longer returned unlawful territory, but this still happens - there was a thread about it shortly after Emperor's release. When it happened to me I was in the HRE, but I don't think it would be any different in your case.

If you see any opportunity, like Austria having weak allies or even losing the election, you might want to consider outright dismantling the HRE. It's a bit of a hassle, but it'll save you a lot of trouble down the line. Alternatively, you can try getting elected yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it. As Spain, it won't be easy and you'll need to ally at least three, if not four electors, which along with all your PUs will put you well above your diplo capacity - and even if you do get elected, in 1.30 you can't just add a bunch of provinces at once and immediately make the title hereditary, so you may struggle to keep the title.

 

[miskoTheConquistador]

@ trade companies:
definitely I would add North Africa immediately to charter, you can convert later if you want (then remove it to be able to convert)
(though not sure about gold mine - I will ask in separate thread)
- you don't suffer religious unity penalties, intolerance... + **institutiuons are not spread to African natives**
I even increasse autonomy at early game to work around separatism - every ducat saved from rebel wars can be used against other enemies and conquest


@ ideas
I play colonial Spain first so I go
- exploration
- expansion

but if you your main focus is Spanish inquisition I think yr order of ideas is wise and religious as second is a must

 

[TheSpider]

FYI, you get an event giving you a Restore Union (or Force Union, can't remember which) on Naples after you form Spain, assuming they are still a monarchy - they can go republic via rebels, may be worth getting mil access to kill them if you see them spawn. My current Castile/Spain game, I allied them and helped them take land in northern Italy then PU'd them later.

 

[iClipse]

FYI, you get an event giving you a Restore Union (or Force Union, can't remember which) on Naples after you form Spain, assuming they are still a monarchy - they can go republic via rebels, may be worth getting mil access to kill them if you see them spawn. My current Castile/Spain game, I allied them and helped them take land in northern Italy then PU'd them later.

Just started replaying my Spain campaign and realised that the easiest way to have Naples as PU is the following:
- Improve relations with Naples as Castile. Keep your prestige positive.
- Naples usually gets independence.
- The moment Naples gets independence they have no allies, no heir and a trastamara ruling. Royal Marriage -> Claim Throne -> Declare war immediately.
- Naples in PU with no problems

That's how I did it this run. It was really smooth sailing and super consistent. Naples staying in the Union is not something I've seen often. Maybe 1/10 times.