Poland stategy 1.24.1

[dude1252]

I want to do my first real game as Poland. Last time i tried i was beaten after 50 years.
I want to know which ideas are best for Poland. I wanted to take:
1. Diplomacy. 2. Religious 3. Aristocracy. 4. Economic 5. Innovative 6. Quality
Boost local rulers or let foreign rulers PLC throne?
What should be my tactic? I know I need to get rid of TO and LO ASAP but what after that?

 

[Brynjar]

It probably depends on what is happening in the rest of Europe and what your goals is, but the Novgorodian and Muscovite land is a good choice for most northern European nations. In addition to securing some rich provinces it also prevents them from protecting trade in the Baltic/Novgorod trade node, which can potentially eat a lot of your trade income.
Since they are orthodox no one important will care too much about it either.

 

[Viktor Vaughn]

I've never boosted local nobles. Seemed like a waste of monarch points. Poland's ambition is +3 tolerance to heretics, so I'm not sure you need religious. Might make more sense to take humanist, unless you plan on steamrolling all the way to India. Aristocracy and Quality are definitely good to stack with your cavalry. Not sure if you really need Innovative, but if you prefer to Administrative then power to you.

Hit Novgorod as early as you can, if possible. The less of that land that Muscovy has, the better (especially if you can grab the eponymous province). If you have Cossacks DLC, set Muscovy to a rival and set their provinces as vital interest, so Lithuania will fabricate claims for you. Otherwise, make sure to grab some of LO's land for yourself so you can fabricate. Don't ignore the Ottomans, they will be very nasty once they decide they have to have Bessarabia, so don't be afraid to DOW when they're at war with Mamlukes or Austria/Hungary or any other time they look weak. Even if you can't take a bunch of land from them, cripple them as much as possible. Crimea can be a good target, letting you expand east without having to drill through the whole of Muscovy first. If you're feeling stuck, don't be afraid to go after the Baltic. The trade you can get from monopolising Novgorod will be really good. Avoid HRE, there's nothing for you there (yet).

 

[Dakka]

I would suggest humanist in lieu of religious. Religious is good for the CB, but your national ideas mesh much better with humanist. In fact, combining the two makes you arguably the most stable country in the game. You will never see another rebel. Also, why did you choose innovative? I know there is a really good policy for cavalry combat ability, but I think it is a combination of quality and espionage… I don’t remember off the top my head. You basically want to stack cavalry caught that and shock for your generals. If you do that, enemy army is just melt away with the shocj phase rolls around.

 

[IIWBIIMars]

I want to do my first real game with Poland. Last time i tried i was beaten after 50 years.
I want to know which ideas are best for Poland. I wanted to take:
1. Diplomacy. 2. Religious 3. Aristocracy. 4. Economic 5. Innovative 6. Quality
Boost local rulers or let foreign rulers PLC throne?
What should be my tactic? I know I need to get rid of TO and LO ASAP but what after that?

In short:

- Try to get the Bohemia and Lithuania PUs.

- Annihilate the Baltic nations.

- Kill Muscovy.

- Eat your way through Central Asia to India, grab all the centers of trade on your way and create trade companies in India for free merchants.

- Bonus points for getting a border with Ming to tank their mandate and eat them later.

- Shuffle the Indian riches to Europe.

- Jump on Ottos whenever a good situation arises and make Constantinople your home trade node.

- Drown in ducats.

 

[Horn and Ivory]

I'd advise against picking Religious - Poland has heathen tolerance in their traditions, so it's not playing to your strengths so much as Humanist would. Likewise I'm not sure that Innovative is optimal - it'll provide little in the way of immediate benefit, and you won't be able to make really good use of its most powerful policies. If you're having real difficulty in wars, consider taking a military group as your first pick. Aristocratic as first pick can work out for Poland maybe better than any other nation so I'd maybe say that, but other military picks could work out nicely as well.

Try to get whatever ruler has the best stats - you could try to do some dynastic meddling but if this is your first proper game, good stats are more important.

Rest between wars and make sure you're not going to eat a bunch of rebellions at an inconvenient time. You may be fine at dealing with rebellions but your PU buddy Lithuania is notoriously bad at it. When making peace check to make sure you're not going to get coalitioned.

Once Winged Hussars kicks in, put plenty of cavalry in your armies, but not so much that you get insufficient support. When you get a choice of cavalry unit types, always pick the cavalry with the most fire defense pips.

Don't fight with the german states. It isn't worth your time. If you like, you may want to keep an eye on HRE politics and ally an elector or two - you'll benefit greatly if you can become the Emperor if Austria cocks it up. Learning how the HRE works and how to control it will improve your play.

Until you can take on the Ottomans, expanding into Russia and Scandinavia helps to keep the aggressive expansion down and solidifies your control over the Baltic trade. Expanding into the steppes can be valuable but be wary of the amount of rebels you produce doing so.

If it's something you can manage, making sure the Ottomans don't grow crazily out of control should be a high priority.

 

[dude1252]

What is better go for 6,6,5 ruler (21 years old) of Jagiellon dynasty and hope I'll get a union on Lithuania (making saves and loading them) or 4,4,1 ruler (17 years old) PU and elective monarchy.

 

[Ironside121]

Poland is easy. I don't know why the heck you'd choose diplomatic ideas if I'm being honest..

 

[gia257]

Poland is easy. I don't know why the heck you'd choose diplomatic ideas if I'm being honest..

emperor opener

 

[Viktor Vaughn]

What is better go for 6,6,5 ruler (21 years old) of Jagiellon dynasty and hope I'll get a union on Lithuania (making saves and loading them) or 4,4,1 ruler (17 years old) PU and elective monarchy.

...as Poland? Shouldn't you already have the union on Lithuania?

edit: nevermind I see what you're saying now. Take the PU.

 

[mhaell42]

The plan with Poland is simple.

Expand east into russian land and maybe going around Otto to reach India until you can beat the rest of the world.

 

[holyvigil]

I'd advise a little bit differently than everyone. Ally Hungary and declare on the Ottomans before anyone else. Wreck them and keep wrecking them until they are gone. Then focus on Novgorod. with Muscovy as your last goal. Once those two are gone you have no real competition.

 

[Viktor Vaughn]

Not sure I like that. There's a truce with Ottomans so you have to wait and do nothing for a while, and by the time you finish that war and get ready for the Novgorod war, they could be gone to Denmark and Muscovy. You'd have to do TO before Ottomans, otherwise Pomerania could eat them, and although it's not a hard war, it definitely hurts you (and certainly hurts Lithuania) going into an Ottoman war. It could definitely work, but it seems a bit more risky than necessary to me for a first serious Poland play-through. That's a lot of war early on when Poland and Lithuania are already susceptible to rebels that in the early game are frustrating to deal with.

 

[holyvigil]

Not sure I like that. There's a truce with Ottomans so you have to wait and do nothing for a while, and by the time you finish that war and get ready for the Novgorod war, they could be gone to Denmark and Muscovy. You'd have to do TO before Ottomans, otherwise Pomerania could eat them, and although it's not a hard war, it definitely hurts you (and certainly hurts Lithuania) going into an Ottoman war. It could definitely work, but it seems a bit more risky than necessary to me for a first serious Poland play-through. That's a lot of war early on when Poland and Lithuania are already susceptible to rebels that in the early game are frustrating to deal with.

They have a lot of rebels through the whole game. The Ottomans gain in power much quicker than Poland early game so it's important to cut them off from doing that. If Pomerania can eat them then that means they allied no one. Which then yeah attacking the TO makes sense. But TO rarely has no allies. It's much more common to see them with Bohemia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Hungary, LO, and so on. They will be nice and safe waiting for you once the Ottomans and Novgorod are dealt with. You can sit and recover once you have no rivals on your border.

 

[gia257]

They have a lot of rebels through the whole game. The Ottomans gain in power much quicker than Poland early game so it's important to cut them off from doing that. If Pomerania can eat them then that means they allied no one. Which then yeah attacking the TO makes sense. But TO rarely has no allies. It's much more common to see them with Bohemia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Hungary, LO, and so on. They will be nice and safe waiting for you once the Ottomans and Novgorod are dealt with. You can sit and recover once you have no rivals on your border.

you dont nee to deal with novgorod, all you need is a single core. Ottomans for a bulgarian core and such works for me though

 

[mag_zbc]

TO almost always allies LO, which in turn, allies no one else, aside from Riga. So, if TO has too strong allies, just attack LO - make Lithuania fabricate on LO(set their provinces as provinces of interest and attitude to hostile), or if they don't, just swallow stabhit and no-CB them. From TO take just provinces bordering Pomerania (to avoid high AE and prevent Pomerania from taking them later) and make them break alliances.

To prevent Muscovy from growing too powerful, fight them early on - wait until they've just finished exhausting war with Novogrod, Great Horde or Kazan. They'll have low manpower and hight war exhaustion, which will just grow since AI never buys it down with bird mana.

If TO allied Hungary, it's a good idea to not make them break this alliance - after first war make TO break all alliances except Hungary, so in second war you'll be able to take that sweet gold mine without angering Austria. Take hungarian provinces bordering Bohemia to prevent bohemian expansion there, Austria almost never fights Hungary.

 

[schondetta]

The most difficult thing with Poland is working with Lithuania AI .seeing as they are the brunt of your force its frustrating when they do stupid things like chill in there capital while your at war with the Ottomans.

Nevertheless taking down Ottomans is a solid strategy and opens a new direction to expand and eliminates a big problem later in the game