Poland 1.8 Hints (Achievement Run-Through)?

[Alsark]

So I think my first 1.8 game is going to be Poland. I'd like to nail out all three achievements for Poland in one-go: One King to Rule!, Poland Can Into Space, and Winged Hussars.

So first question: Is Poland Can Into Space still manageable with the Res Publica expansion, since the Elective Monarchy seems to considerably slow down Poland? Or would I be better off trying these in two goes, one with and one without Res Publica? It looks like there are a number of events from Res Publica that provide a technology cost malus...

Second: How hard is Poland Can Into Space? I've never actually played a game out to completion... is this something I'm going to have to actively try for or just something that will sort of come naturally? I'm assuming I'll need to take Innovative at the least.

Third: Is Winged Hussar achievement pretty much guaranteed when I take Aristocratic, or is there anything special I need to do?



Any other tips in general? Should I do that thing where I take two Prussian provinces, sell off my other provinces to vassals, culture shift to Prussian, and then join the HRE for protection? Or should I not worry about joining the HRE? I also saw somebody say to try to become Sunni... but that just sounds like it'd slow me down too much to try to accomplish?

 

[MathewPerth]

Youll want to change to prussian culture and join the HRE for the tech boost early to mid game, but dont form prussia after the commonwealth due to national idea change. But im sure you already knew that.

 

[Xara]

since the Elective Monarchy seems to considerably slow down Poland?

You got it backwards, it makes them even more powerful if you use it right.

Yeah, it has downsides, and they certainly suck, but being able to change dynasties and PU nations makes up for it.

How hard is Poland Can Into Space?

It's easy, just save up points near the end for tech.

Is Winged Hussar achievement pretty much guaranteed when I take Aristocratic

I think you need quality, too, but I forget.

Should I do that thing

No.

Or should I not worry about joining the HRE? I

Join when you become Emperor.

 

[oblio-]

1. Get Humanism early on. Very good with the Elective Monarchy and during the Reformation.
2. Get Aristocracy and later Quality to ensure the Winged Hussars achievement.
3. Poland Can Into Space requires just a bit of patience and a bit of attention around 1810 to make sure you have the spare points to tech ahead of time.
4. Forming Prussia is just a gimmick, you don't really need it.
5. Joining the HRE is another gimmick, again, you don't really need it.
1, 2, 3 are kind of obvious while 4 & 5 are personal preferences.

 

[PAnZuRiEL]

Join when you become Emperor.

Don't. It's useful to still be able to declare war on states inside the empire after declaring Landfriede, so you can keep splitting up the ones that have eaten other minors.

 

[Alsark]

I don't even think you can make the Commonwealth if you're in the HRE? So I'd need to just stay Poland if I do join the HRE.

The Prussian idea group actually doesn't look too bad, though? I mean I'd want to wait to get Winged Hussars for the cavalry bonus for that achievement, but that doesn't seem like it'd be a bad switch? Unless that messes up my other achievements somehow.

:Edit: Multiple cuts. Alright, so it looks like this should all be pretty doable in one go, then.

I do like the look of Humanism. I haven't actually played any of the expansions so this will be my first time picking up that idea. The reduction of the revolt risk sounds really nice since I have pretty bad luck and if a country has even 1% rebel risk they will rebel for me. A lot. Although I'm thinking Humanism will be quite a bit different in 1.8 due to the rebellion changes... and for the reformation, I guess it may depend where the reformation movements start?

 

[Rinso]

1) Elective monarchy is not so bad and you can switch from it very quickly. Most every run you will receive an event before 1500 which spawn noble rebels. Let them occupy province and accept their demands and you'll become republic.
2) Poland can into space. You may westernize, take admin, diplo and aristocratic ideas to lower tech cost but it's rather easy to do even without them. Just save and spent monarch points only on techs in late game.
3) Vasa or Wettin. This is not Poland achievement.
4) "One King to Rule!" - abolish the Sejm and become absolute monarchy. This is one more achievement for Poland.

All this achievements are easy to get. But nobody knows what awaits you in grim dark of 1.8 patch.

 

[afb]

Poland is a powerhouse even without any Prussian shenanigans, and their acheievements are pretty easy. Like you I didn't know how tough Can into Space would be so I westernized and collected every idea group with a tech bonus as well and that was overkill. However, those tech groups are pretty good anyway, at least for a landbased power with strong cavalry so I think it's ok. You can do without westernizing, but it is pretty effortless if you just dump diplo tech early on by using you National Focus elsewhere and picking up a diplomatic idea group to start with (either Influence or Diplomacy).

 

[Alsark]

1) Elective monarchy is not so bad and you can switch from it very quickly. Most every run you will receive an event before 1500 which spawn noble rebels. Let them occupy province and accept their demands and you'll become republic.
2) Poland can into space. You may westernize, take admin, diplo and aristocratic ideas to lower tech cost but it's rather easy to do even without them. Just save and spent monarch points only on techs in late game.
3) Vasa or Wettin. This is not Poland achievement.
4) "One King to Rule!" - abolish the Sejm and become absolute monarchy. This is one more achievement for Poland.

All this achievements are easy to get. But nobody knows what awaits you in grim dark of 1.8 patch.

Oops. I had meant One King to Rule. Gonna edit that.

So Westernizing... if I Westernize, can I still make Winged Hussars?

 

[oblio-]

Oops. I had meant One King to Rule. Gonna edit that.

So Westernizing... if I Westernize, can I still make Winged Hussars?

Yes, you still keep the Eastern units. However westernization isn't really worth the hassle anymore, at least not for Poland. Your call.

 

[gothos]

You can get Can Into Space without westernizing or joining the HRE, no problem. For Winged Hussars you need Aristocracy and Quality (which you should be taking anyway). All in all, enjoy forcing PUs with elective and then rolling into an Absolute Monarchy in early 1600s.

 

[Alsark]

Thanks!

Okay so last question I think... I've heard when you choose to abolish the Sejm a stack of like 70k rebels spawns, which doesn't sound fun. So I have two options: either let noble rebels convert me early and then just convert to Absolute Monarchy the normal way (to both avoid that rebel stack and the Sejm), or through the abolish Sejm event.

Xara stated that the Sejm is a good thing if used correctly - so would general consensus say to stick with the Sejm until I get the event to abolish it?

 

[Nesus]

I think it is the easiest country to do the new March achievement, i mean you just got a march at techlvl 4

 

[Gajus]

Thanks!

Okay so last question I think... I've heard when you choose to abolish the Sejm a stack of like 70k rebels spawns, which doesn't sound fun. So I have two options: either let noble rebels convert me early and then just convert to Absolute Monarchy the normal way (to both avoid that rebel stack and the Sejm), or through the abolish Sejm event.

Xara stated that the Sejm is a good thing if used correctly - so would general consensus say to stick with the Sejm until I get the event to abolish it?

Yeah, keep the sejm. You can easily get a few PU's with it. In my last game I pu'd Sweden, a mega strong Brandenburg and Hungary until the abolish the sejm event came. You dont need to westernize, just keep Brandenburg friendly so you get Western Arms and get the ideas which give you -10% tech cost on adm/mil/dip and you will be easily ahead of all the western nations.

 

[Alsark]

Ohhh... Innovative is the reason why I was getting the "Dangerous ideas are spreading!" -1 stability event in my trial run last night. Stupid event triggered like 4 times in 100 years. I mean the early -5% technology cost is nice but probably not worth it if I'm averaging -1 stability semi-regularly. Conversely the Humanism ideas offer very few negative events and quite a few good events.

I don't really feel like Innovative is very good anyway. I guess whether I pick up Humanism may depend on what Humanism looks like after the patch... the 1.8 full patch notes don't mention what it'll be like; but it'd have to change because there won't be any such thing as "revolt risk" anymore, right?

Yeah, keep the sejm. You can easily get a few PU's with it. In my last game I pu'd Sweden, a mega strong Brandenburg and Hungary until the abolish the sejm event came. You dont need to westernize, just keep Brandenburg friendly so you get Western Arms and get the ideas which give you -10% tech cost on adm/mil/dip and you will be easily ahead of all the western nations.

What's the best way to go about utilizing the Sejm for personal unions? Am I wanting foreign rulers to take over? So let's say I have an Australian ruler... does that then allow me to PU Austria? To get PUs do I do claim thread and then go to war for the throne?

 

[Cossack_PL]

I recently played Poland with intention of getting all the achievements, my observations:
1. NIs: Humanism, Diplomatic, Aristocratic, Innovative, Quality (then I stopped playing ). They all are good for Poland, Humanism and Legitimacy policy are both very very useful. It's good to pick Humanism ASAP as with lower total base tax it's easier to get more accepted cultures, I had Prussian, Ruthenian, Byelorussian, Russian, Hungarian and Romanian. Don't remember, Bohemian also could be accepted.
2. Events: do not accept the Nieszawa Privileges, 20% stab cost reduction is not worth it and tech cost increase is not good Also refusing them blocks any further privileges, so you won't have more problems with them.
3. Find a useful ally to make use of Western Arms Trade. Generally Austria is the best choice. I went with Brandenburg before I bordered Austria, with AoW Brandenburg is a perfect country to form a March (irony is that for a long time it was acutally a march ).
4. Convert to Protestant, with a tolerant state you have no chances for a stable curia control and idea cost reduction is useful.
5. Contain Russia early. There are several ways to do it. Make sure they do not eat Novgorod completely, either ally/guarantee it right from the start or wait after Muscovy takes some provinces and then force-vassalize them to feed them back. If Muscovy takes Religious Ideas first, you are quite safe in terms of Siberia, if they take Expansion then make sure that Perm is independent as it blocks them from colonizing then. Before I formed PLC I focused on releasing Perm and feeding back Novgorod. Once they diplovassalized Perm and annexed it again, so I had to release it one more time, then it got eaten by Kazan, so no more troubles
5. You can also try to contain Ottomans, starting with a guarantee to Byzantium from the start, which later you can try to vassalize and feed. In my case Ottomans attacked Byzantium very early, I succeded in defending Constantinople, but my manpower was almost empty, so it may be risky.
6. Try to split Crimea from Ottomans. They ally almost all time and in my game Crimea conquered whole Golden Horde, so they became a problem for my eastern expansion because of their alliance with Ottomans.

 

[pgroves]

I'm planning on Poland for my first game with AoW too (although Bosnia tempts me too), don't want to join the HRE, though, nor will I westernise, but still want to try to get all those achievements.

BTW one thing to bear in mind is that apparently Moldavia now starts as a March Vassal in AoW - which is both good and bad, you can't integrate them, but will get more MP and they will get more troops (also their National Ideas have been given a buff and now pretty good, especially for a March)

 

[Gajus]

Ohhh... Innovative is the reason why I was getting the "Dangerous ideas are spreading!" -1 stability event in my trial run last night. Stupid event triggered like 4 times in 100 years. I mean the early -5% technology cost is nice but probably not worth it if I'm averaging -1 stability semi-regularly. Conversely the Humanism ideas offer very few negative events and quite a few good events.

I don't really feel like Innovative is very good anyway. I guess whether I pick up Humanism may depend on what Humanism looks like after the patch... the 1.8 full patch notes don't mention what it'll be like; but it'd have to change because there won't be any such thing as "revolt risk" anymore, right?



What's the best way to go about utilizing the Sejm for personal unions? Am I wanting foreign rulers to take over? So let's say I have an Australian ruler... does that then allow me to PU Austria? To get PUs do I do claim thread and then go to war for the throne?

Exactly, if you get an Austrian ruler you wait until you can claim the throne and declare war for the PU. Most of the time you get Scandinavian, Austrian or Brandenburgian kings so it's quite easy to pick up few useful PU's, but sometimes you also get some shitty HRE minor ruler...

 

[Aminti]

Oops. I had meant One King to Rule. Gonna edit that.

So Westernizing... if I Westernize, can I still make Winged Hussars?

Yes. Unlike EU3, unit groups are the same throughout the game, bar a horde reforming or some other crazy things I don't know about. For a regular Poland or Poland --> Commonwealth game, that shouldn't be a problem. You need Aristocracy + Quality or Aristocracy + Offensive policy for enough of a combat strength modifier (though I heard rumours that same-tree policies are gone? Idunno).

One King to Rule can fire from 1600 onwards if you have Pacta Conventa (elect foreign ruler with <2 in a stat gets you that modifier, I think), so be prepared. It's a lot of rebels - I think I went through about 200-225k manpower in four years (including regen) in my Commonwealth game, though I was doing a bit of map painting as well. Not sure how the new unrest/LA system will affect it, though.

Tech is easy, just make sure that you keep up with everything starting from ~1750 onwards. Getting a border with and allying Austria (if you're not PUing them) will give you a pretty guaranteed 10 % off tech costs (so a 10 % malus to Western tech) and an easy ally vs Russia and the Ottomans, at the cost of running afoul of the BBB at times.

Other things: if you take Kolm and Danzig in the first war with the Teutonic Order, you'll get Prussian accepted without Humanism (which is excellent for Poland, highly recommend it). Again, 1.7 - this might get you coalitioned against in 1,8 if the AE modifiers are high. I moved my trade to the Baltic Sea once I had Danzig, Ostpreussen and Riga - it's a lot easier to get lots of Trade Power there, since all the HRE minors are going to swarm into Krakow to push on to Wien. Lastly, something I ran into: having a Polish King (with kick-ass stats, which is why I took him) and taking Serfdom (Aristocracy-3) as your 9th (or 8th/10th if you get another idea soon after/before) idea can lead to a Peasant War pretty easily if your manpower was already low. Try to avoid that.

 

[hwoosh]

I don't really feel like Innovative is very good anyway. I guess whether I pick up Humanism may depend on what Humanism looks like after the patch...

Innovative has always been one of the strongest idea groups in the game, to my mind, and I think it still will be. "Knowledge Transfer" on its own is reason enough to take the entire idea group. Of course, if you're looking at brute number of monarch points saved, Humanism's -10% idea cost will be a bigger bonus over the course of the game, yeah?

So let's say I have an Australian ruler... does that then allow me to PU Austria?

I'd love to see that actually happen in a game