Returning to EU3 as Austria. Tips?

[thelettuceman]

Greetings.

My cat and I decided to pick EU3 back up, between Grad work. By listening to him, I am now the ruler of Austria, 1399 start. I had tried unsuccessfully for a number of smaller, tougher states in my previous attempt. I previously made a fair Byzantium for a first timer, but I've been lax in playing. So.

Other than listening to a 12 year old war-mongering American (Austrian?) Domestic Shorthair and getting myself involved in a war with Venice because the Pope said so, I haven't been doing much for the first decade or so. I beat Venice down, took the province above Venice proper for a port (But won't core until 1450, so I can't use it), and had them release their Serbian states. I have some spies, but I cannot fabricate claims for CB for some reason. I was making fairly decent income, about 80/annual, which has dropped to 23. Took National Bank as my first NI. I have an almost 20,000 man army split between my home territory and a smaller group in a province cut off from me. Burgundy is blobbing. Bavaria is also starting to grow. I don't want to start going crazy on OPMs in the HRE because I don't want to deal with it, so I have been waiting for an intrigue/subterfuge game to start. But I hate waiting.

So I pose the question: What now? It is early enough I can do whatever I need to. Can anyone give me some pointers or tips for how I should proceed for the next handful of decades?

 

[TeutoDraeger]

Greetings.

My cat and I decided to pick EU3 back up, between Grad work. By listening to him, I am now the ruler of Austria, 1399 start. I had tried unsuccessfully for a number of smaller, tougher states in my previous attempt. I previously made a fair Byzantium for a first timer, but I've been lax in playing. So.

Other than listening to a 12 year old war-mongering American (Austrian?) Domestic Shorthair and getting myself involved in a war with Venice because the Pope said so, I haven't been doing much for the first decade or so. I beat Venice down, took the province above Venice proper for a port (But won't core until 1450, so I can't use it), and had them release their Serbian states. I have some spies, but I cannot fabricate claims for CB for some reason. I was making fairly decent income, about 80/annual, which has dropped to 23. Took National Bank as my first NI. I have an almost 20,000 man army split between my home territory and a smaller group in a province cut off from me. Burgundy is blobbing. Bavaria is also starting to grow. I don't want to start going crazy on OPMs in the HRE because I don't want to deal with it, so I have been waiting for an intrigue/subterfuge game to start. But I hate waiting.

So I pose the question: What now? It is early enough I can do whatever I need to. Can anyone give me some pointers or tips for how I should proceed for the next handful of decades?

first, go ahead and register your game here on the paradox forums.

second, are you playing divine wind patched to 5.1? (checksum should say bjlt)

third, if you're returning then i honestly recommend picking an easier nation. austria's a bit tough if you a) just started playing or b) haven't played in a while. there's a lot of micromanaging, and the 1399 start is crap because bohemia's the emperor of the HRE.

a couple things to answer your question:

-war with venice wasn't a bad idea and you seem to have gotten through fairly well.
-fabricate claims requires the target to have either no heir or an heir with a really weak claim. same goes for claiming thrones.
-you said you were making 80 annually, which dropped to 23?? i dunno how that could happen short of having hugely high revolt risk, which lowers your provincial tax income.
-let burgundy blob, try to ally with bavaria (i usually do this before i unpause, they're a hassle to have sitting right next to you, esp. if they're allied with your enemies), and look into forcing a PU on hungary---this is the historical route that austria took to eventually become austria-hungary
-your major priority should be getting the imperial crown back from bohemia. once you've got it, go ahead and force a PU on them, too, for good measure.
-stop listening to your cat. that seems to be getting you nowhere.

 

[Oogh]

Follow the missions, that should give you stuff to do fow a while. Until the "Make Bohemia vote for us" mission comes up, that is...

 

[Lord Curlyton]

If you beat Bohemia down far enough, they stop being a candidate and you can actually make the mission work...also, once they are PU'd/vassalized by you, I believe their candidacy ends as well.

 

[Lord Curlyton]

But more to the point:
RM EVERYONE you can, and I mean everyone. Beat up bigger nations to make them release smaller ones, giving you more RM targets. Use the law of averages to start getting PU's or auto-inherits (I got Friesland and Oldenburg by auto-inheritance sans the PU), and whenever a claim shows up, take it and enforce the PU. Watch your dynasty grow and your various von Habsburgs take the thrones of nations. Drive back the Turk (preferably BEFORE they take Thrace, or you're looking at multiple wars to get that territory). My only *regret* as Austria is that I've made so many vassals that I can't PU as they never seem to have legitamacy issues and I have mostly stopped getting "Incorporate X into our territory" missions (for the core). My crowning triumph to date has been placing a von Habsburg on the Spanish throne and then eventually forcing a PU on Spain when poor Charles von Habsburg failed to produce a legitimate heir...incidentally that happened not long before the historical War of Spanish Succession broke out.
As an alternative, forget all this HRE stuff, become a republic, and leave the Empire, then disband it!
EDIT: Even more coincidentally, I checked on a save from that time and my King was...Leopold I, also acting as the Holy Roman Emperor.

 

[herrhals]

Conquer India and enact settlement policy on all of it, and turn them all into Austrians.
Historically accurate.

 

[jdrou]

-stop listening to your cat. that seems to be getting you nowhere.

Keep in mind that cats secretly enjoy seeing humans suffer.

 

[Gpeterse]

It appears that your cat is a one or two star adviser. Build up your cultural tradition a bit and trade it in for a five or six star cat.

 

[thelettuceman]

I do the RM route as much as I can, except I'm not sure how much larger of an army I can keep. I'm waiting for Hungary to get into a position for me to be able to deal with it, but both Hungary and Bavaria are allies and both have larger armies than I do. We'll see though. I also attempted to claim Bavaria's crown. I'm still not sure on how the RM mechanic works. Does it automatically go into effect if they die with no heir, or do I have to press the claim and enact the CB I get for it?

Also, on the cat. He was the one that was pressing to go to war with Venice. We extracted a province, and released Montenegro and Albania from them. I wasn't able to get much more, because I don't have sea access. Once the province cores, I will. But once we removed ourselves from the war, he lost interest. We'll have to see how many stars he truly has.

 

[Gpeterse]

Also, on the cat. He was the one that was pressing to go to war with Venice. We extracted a province, and released Montenegro and Albania from them. I wasn't able to get much more, because I don't have sea access. Once the province cores, I will. But once we removed ourselves from the war, he lost interest. We'll have to see how many stars he truly has.

I suppose that is fair just remember...a cat's (land dwelling creature with an average weight of 10.9 pounds) favorite food is tuna (sea dwelling creature with an average weight of 550 pounds)...their (the cat's) greatest fear is water. So I would be weary of the logic of a cat...especially when convincing you to attack a naval power. They obviously have an agenda. Don't be a pawn in their tuna agenda!

 

[Uebergold]

Conquer India and enact settlement policy on all of it, and turn them all into Austrians.
Historically accurate.

Hmm, Curry-Strudels, sounds delicious.


@OP:

Austria is easy, they got some nice missions and it is not hard to get elected as Emperor in a short time. After that you can do what you want.

 

[unmerged(204522)]

i suspect the cat would be happier with aragon-picking a country that shares a border with alsations is just cruel......just as well you dont have a port, as you would probably want to explore labrador or the dalmatian coast....