Playing as the English

[Andrew4250]

So I have a few questions about my game and I didn’t see a better place to put it so I started this thread here.


Currently I am playing as England in 1475. The One Hundred Years War is finished with France having retook all of it’s land back. I own Ireland, Scotland is my vassal. I have a Personal Union with Portugal, Cyprus and Brittany. (I don’t know how I got them to do that)

My plan to beat France is two-fold. Wait until I can perform Naval blockades, so I can drive up their war exhaustion without taking attrition. Build a large colonial empire to supply manpower for the eventual landings. Though I don’t want to have any mainland european holdings I would like to deblob them.

I was wondering what ideal National ideas and decisions I should enact to achieve this as fast as possible. So far I have military drill (Which was essential in the first two wars, maybe not so much now) and press gangs. I’m thinking my third idea should be Church Attendance Duty as this will help stop the protestant reformation.

What are helpful decisions that I should enact? Are there any decisions that are bad but lead to a good one?

Because I intend to create a colonial empire, should I also get Grand Navy, SeaHawks and Superior Seamanship so I get all of the English special decisions?

I’ve read through the forums and many people seem to suggest that Gilded Iconography is good decision. Is the tax hit worth it?

When should I get Quest for the New World? (I’m ok with owning historical boundaries)

Thanks for the help.

(btw I found the National Idea review on the wiki to be really helpful, Is there one for decisions that you can enact? I can never tell if they are a net benefit or not.)

 

[smellymummy]

keep military drill. you probably ought to get battlefield commission so you can get some decent generals. you need a way to generate more land tradition. enact militia act, hire a commandant and max out quality. discipline is going to be important fighting the french. all of these are things i would make sure ive done if the goal was to deblob france. press gang's contribution to achieving your goal is going to be very minor and i would switch it out

superior seamanship is worth it early, the others can wait. the english special decisions aren't that high priority IMO. they will not contribute to defeat france, and their use for huge colonial empire comes a bit to late. eventually though, for the sake of completion, might as well get them. first defeat france and colonize.

gilded iconography is worth the tax hit, but not always worth the upfront cost i think. i find it much easier to enact this decision as a small nation, not that you can't with england. you know, sometimes you might get free gold random events that pad your coffers, and other times you won't

getting quest for the new world depends. did you start in 1399 or 1453? castille and portugal already out exploring and are they busy in holy wars in europe or free to colonize? if you want to 'try' to keep to historical colonial borders you might be okay waiting to get it for your 4th or 5th idea, but it all can change based off a simple thing the AI does early in the game. you might cross the atlantic only to find a giant green portuguese north american blob, or not.

 

[unmerged(463662)]

When playing England, rather a strong France than a strong Spain.

De-blobbing causes power vacuums.

 

[JesterCorp1990]

When playing England, rather a strong France than a strong Spain.

De-blobbing causes power vacuums.

This. So this. In my experience as England, I find even Scandinavia, Venice, and the Hansaa as more of a threat than France. Frankly, the French will never have a real fleet and will never be a threat to England. Spain is a much, much more viable threat.

 

[Laurwin]

England's French cores are almost too juicy to lose. And even though Burgundy becomes a great continental enemy, once you're done with it you will probably do ok.

If spain becomes annoying, just blitz the Iberian peninsula with massive invasion and they tend to lose the war eventually (weak manpower). Austria can become mildly annoying but that's about it. In single player that is.


OK for war tips against France, have they unified entire france and conquered Burgundy or whats the deal on that? Having a coalition against France helps, but I think its mostly in the sense to distract their armies around different fronts. Blockade obviously raises their war exhaustion but you will eventually have to invade and kill their forces, to raise their WE to unbearable, raise revolts, lower their war capacity, and ultimately start capturing their territories.

I'd say that beating French is almost easier in the beginning compared to letting them grow big. If it doesn't play out in your favour decisively, don't panic, start withdrawing forces and kick spain to the curb and take the New World.

 

[unmerged(463662)]

They are almost too juicy to lose; yet once you've got them, you can't ignore the continental wars.

 

[unmerged(384536)]

They are almost too juicy to lose; yet once you've got them, you can't ignore the continental wars.

But on the flip side, if you decide to forfiet your french posessions and be a purely naval/colonial power, your game will be very easy. I just finished a game as England -> UK where I did just that (all normal settings, except random lucky nations) and it was a breeze. I had a little tiny bit of trouble near the end with colonial unrest, but by that point I was a constitutional republic with great NIs and an unlimited bankroll anyway.

 

[unmerged(463662)]

In which case you're probably already not in the target audience for the game...

 

[Andrew4250]

Thank you guys for the advice.

I forfeited my French positions as I couldn't hold them. A few years later Austria came in and de-blobbed France big time. It took them many many years to rebuild, and I was able to steal their colonial possessions as soon as they started them. I remained Catholic and I only had one province convert which was nice.

I own most of North America after a successful war against the Huron. I finally inherited Portugal, at which point I promptly took their colonial holdings and then released them as my vassal.

Bohemia inheirited Castille so i'm somewhat at a loss for how to stop them, but it doesn't seem that they are interested in settling the globe, and with France out of the picture it seems that I will be able to expand fairly peacefully.

So I plan on continuing my westward American expansion, i'm going to take out the Creek right after my revolt risk and infamy go down to zero. I plan on having a base in Africa so I can stage an conquering of India. Then I will continue to peddle on eastward taking large chunks of land if possible.

Are their any NI that I will need in order to pull this off? Any decisions that I should aim for?

Thanks!

 

[Crater122]

Colonial Ventures, which gives an extra colonist per year, is useful for grabbing land quickly.

 

[unmerged(180647)]

If you plan to go to East Asia, you could conquer Ceylon as soon as possible. This allows you to found an "Indian Trade Company" (naval tech 20 needed). Also, you could "Enlist Privateers" at naval tech 15 (also needed: leader mil at least 6, privateer advisor present and navy size at least 50% of force limit).

 

[unmerged(463662)]

Build a big big navy, ignore but contain Europe. Bohemia will run in to problems eventually, imperial overstretch.

 

[Andrew4250]

So I got Colonial Ventures as you suggested and it's helping quite a bit.

Right now I get 8 Magistrates a year and I am building up my American Continent quite quickly.

Savoy turned itself into the HRE (Which included a Muscowy that almost stretched to the Pacific) It soon had a thousand revolts and broke up. I used this as an excuse to start making a foothold on the mainland. I have 3 NIs left to choose as the game goes on.

Is there a way to extend the life of the game on a current save? I'm at the year 1746 and it's saddening watching the ticker count up towards 1821. It'd be nice to be able to extend it to 1850s or something like that without having to download a mod or something.

 

[sprites]

8 magistrates a year !? that requires serious building .

The problem is if you pursue your french cores you'll end up unstoppable , and if you forfeit them the game is easy anyway ...

 

[unmerged(200028)]

8 magistrates a year !? that requires serious building .

The problem is if you pursue your french cores you'll end up unstoppable , and if you forfeit them the game is easy anyway ...

Why not quit when you are unstoppable?