poor as Ottomans in circa 1550?!

[Lor360]

OK, what I used forts for:
- blocking rebels (as I cannot be everywhere with my army)
- blocking in coalition wars

Army true, again, overspent on army due to rebels and multiple front wars...
One more push in India and will do the cost cutting...

Why would you care about rebels? So what if they get to be unblocked for a few extra months? They will occupy 2 extra provinces? That's not worth stationing a fort there forever.
And there is a progress counter for rebels, you can see when they are at 70 - 90% and not start a big war far away.

As far as "slowing down coalitions" goes, you shouldn't get attacked by a coalition in the first place. Two thirds of a successful war are won before you declare it, using diplomacy. As the Ottomans every war should be you declaring it on a weaker enemy.


I also see most of the advice is focused on "build manufactories and conquer India". Manufactories are great long term, but they won't help someone already in loans. And conquering will only help on the margins if you get new lands along with new forts.

 

[Mrkew]

How did you manage to conquer so much without triggering a huge coalition? Are you a Ming tributary?

No, I wasn't a Ming tributary - you can see the golden shield meaning I'm a great power. They were my rival. India was split into just 5 tags - Multan, Malwa, Bahmanis, Bengal and Jaunpur. At first I was allied to Jaunpur, but they broke the alliance once the AE was too much. I just attacked everyone with the religious CB (I went protestant to lead the protestant league). Truce juggling is really easy. It got me into a coalition with all the other muslims in the world, but they would never declare when I have so many troops and I'm allied to Russia. The coalition simply disappears after a while. Each of them had like 100k troops due to VH, but I took at most 2 on at the same time.

 

[Viadro]

I really dont get these power runs, when I try to do the same, even on normal lvl difficulty I either get rivaled by Russia or get a huge coalition against me. It doesnt make any sense.. =/
What ideas did you go for?

And Im not some newbie, I have like 2k hours played and I think I knoe most of the tricks, yet I cant get similar results.

 

[Viadro]

I know wonder if I should go back to Hungary patch and become a Ming tributary. This way I could eat Asia without problems and ignore Asian coalitions.

 

[PhoenixG]

I really dont get these power runs, when I try to do the same, even on normal lvl difficulty I either get rivaled by Russia or get a huge coalition against me. It doesnt make any sense.. =/
What ideas did you go for?

And Im not some newbie, I have like 2k hours played and I think I knoe most of the tricks, yet I cant get similar results.

If you get coalitioned means you didn't truce cycle it correctly.

I know wonder if I should go back to Hungary patch and become a Ming tributary. This way I could eat Asia without problems and ignore Asian coalitions.

If you become a Ming tributary, you'll still can get coalitioned by Asia. Since lot of them are also Ming tributary.

 

[KubiG37]

High inflation, debt - 7g interest, too many forts... Also something seems wrong with your trade, trade power in Constantinople to be precise, aren't there pirates stealing your income? You should have more than 80% tradepower there.

Production income is really low too (are you building workshops?) -> that lowers trade income too.

Edit: Since I saw you conquered quite a lot of land quickly, maybe it is just overally too much autonomy as well , that will simply drop over time.

 

[Bibor]

I love blobbing as Ottos, so inspired by this thread I did a test run today, currently at around 1520.
I have no issues with economy whatsoever. True, I field half as many troops as I could (100k out of 200k possible), but I'm in the black for about 40 ducats per month.

I also conquered all of Arabia, Anatolia and around a third of India, compared to the OP.
(Unfortunalely Persia is sitting at +1791568491346715% from rebel-gained provinces, so nothing I can do about that (even wanted to get rid of the rebels in Timurid lands myself, but for some curious reason they told me to f-off)).

As per previous experience, I just confirmed that focusing all efforts on getting to India for those tasty trade companies (while grabbing all trade nodes on the way there) is the optimal way to go. The trick to India is always the same: its religion is diverse enough that it's enough to ally the biggest dog around (Bahmanis in my case) and breaking that alliance once small stuff is conquered.

 

[Benghi Bon]

You appear to have a really big mothballed navy. Are those heavies? Also you probably have a load of autonomy in a lot of your provinces.

 

[Mismangaement]

I love blobbing as Ottos, so inspired by this thread I did a test run today, currently at around 1520.
I have no issues with economy whatsoever. True, I field half as many troops as I could (100k out of 200k possible), but I'm in the black for about 40 ducats per month.

I also conquered all of Arabia, Anatolia and around a third of India, compared to the OP.
(Unfortunalely Persia is sitting at +1791568491346715% from rebel-gained provinces, so nothing I can do about that (even wanted to get rid of the rebels in Timurid lands myself, but for some curious reason they told me to f-off)).

As per previous experience, I just confirmed that focusing all efforts on getting to India for those tasty trade companies (while grabbing all trade nodes on the way there) is the optimal way to go. The trick to India is always the same: its religion is diverse enough that it's enough to ally the biggest dog around (Bahmanis in my case) and breaking that alliance once small stuff is conquered.

If it is from rebels defecting, you can march them and revoke, i heard that will reset the liberty desire from defections.

 

[neaiskink]

I deleted the forts, deleted the navy, disbanded 40k troops, had a nasty war with Malwa+Yarkand+Delhi+some minors.
Now sit at 20% manpower, but making money finally

Still, manufactories have spawned and now I will take 2 loans to grab printing press and THEN wait and take more to grab manufactories.

Either way I am in a financial hole

 

[PhoenixG]

well africa, india, indochina and siberia are famous for manpower killer. Long live increase attrition.

 

[bly08]

You disbanded troops that you'll have to build again soon. I don't know where all your forts were but keeping forts in newly conquered areas is usually a good idea for the reason you stated. Could've mothballed navies instead of disbanding. You're basically getting rid of assets that you'll have to pay for again when your income multiplies, which it will as you blob in India.

 

[Bibor]

I deleted the forts, deleted the navy, disbanded 40k troops, had a nasty war with Malwa+Yarkand+Delhi+some minors.
Now sit at 20% manpower, but making money finally

Still, manufactories have spawned and now I will take 2 loans to grab printing press and THEN wait and take more to grab manufactories.

Either way I am in a financial hole

I could take a look at your game if you want. We can have a spectate mode/voice chat in Steam EU4. PM me on steam if you're interested (username: Bibor)

 

[theJalden]

Delete every single fort. Yes, I'm serious.

What would be the point of them? Delaying? Getting the bonus for defending in mountains twice in the entire game?

Without forts and the interest you're paying on loans you have +21 ducats per month extra.

But prosperity in Thrace is soooo good.

 

[Lor360]

But prosperity in Thrace is soooo good.

Doesn't the basic capital fort work just as good?

 

[Vulkandrache]

But prosperity in Thrace is soooo good.

You have all of Anatolia in prosperity.
And it should never go away behind the straight.
That one state doesnt matter.