Simply abandoning the continent as England ?

[BaronNoir]

I'm still able to win the Hundred Years War, but as time go, I'm really wondering if keeping France is not somewhat counterproductive in the long run.

PRO : France is rich and give you large income

CON : France is on the land and if you embark in one major colonial war with European powers, you might get swamped very easily. (For an unfathomable reason, Spain had in my last game well over 100k soldiers available)

What I mean here is that an England without land possessions in Europe is not ''virtually'' unassailable, but utterly unassailable : an Austria-Spain-Poland-Burgundy-Portugal alliance (something that plagued me for my whole previous game) is an utter nightmare to fight with France and a joke with England alone, since their 250k coalized armies can be sunk with a vengeance....

 

[TheSamsa]

hmm maybe conquer France and keep their main land. Release it again as march and grant it a belt around your mainland counties

 

[Mr. Capiatlist]

Perhaps you should switch your attention to France. IIRC many of the Kings of England at the time saw France as more valuable than England and really never set foot in England. Move your capital to Paris and essentially reduce England to one big colony.

 

[BaronNoir]

I meant that the HUGE historical advantage of England(being an island)is negated by having large possessions in Europe.

 

[Saint Gwynllyw]

you have basically just explained British historic strategy

 

[chrnno]

I would say having both the french region and the lowlands under you are a greater advantage than being an island every could be. Really by that point rest of Europe would have to band together to pose a challenge and they won't do that.

That said abandoning everything is a valid strategy. Bonus points if you manage to set things so that the region is too busy at war to do anything about you.

 

[G_Morgan]

These days if you don't want to take the French crown you could do something like take Guyenne, release->march and use them as a European launch pad and attack dog. You don't care if your vassal gets sieged down in the end. You can do the same in the north. Maybe take Brittany and hand your northern territory to them as a northern march.

I'm actually tempted to do this now. Slowly eat France into my marches while I focus on the colonial game. Then you can use the French marches to help you out when you take on the Iberians for America.

 

[Hiram_Maxim]

I would also recommend abandoning Europe altogether. Once you have four provinces in North America (ONLY four so a colonial nation doesn't form) sell your provinces to Scotland or the Irish minors and move your capital to NA. Yes, autonomy is capped at 50% for colonized provinces but NA has so many provinces that you will overcome this.

 

[rohirrimelf]

In my first game as England the war of the roses killed me. Diddnt have enough manpower and a swedish/denish invasion finished me off.

What happens if you ship your 0-0-0 king into a transport ship and let him die. What are the penaltys for making him a general and kill him?

 

[PanH]

In my first game as England the war of the roses killed me. Diddnt have enough manpower and a swedish/denish invasion finished me off.

What happens if you ship your 0-0-0 king into a transport ship and let him die. What are the penaltys for making him a general and kill him?

Generals in a sinking boat don't die.

 

[BaronNoir]

These days if you don't want to take the French crown you could do something like take Guyenne, release->march and use them as a European launch pad and attack dog. You don't care if your vassal gets sieged down in the end. You can do the same in the north. Maybe take Brittany and hand your northern territory to them as a northern march.

I'm actually tempted to do this now. Slowly eat France into my marches while I focus on the colonial game. Then you can use the French marches to help you out when you take on the Iberians for America.

There is not even a need for marches to defeat the Iberians powers once you have seized a couple of islands (canarias, baleares) :no navy in game is a match for the Royal Navy, even without naval ideas. (With naval ideas, it's an exercice on how quickly you can sink their fleets)

 

[flavioso20]

Shipping off doesn't kill him. Making him a general have a chance of killing him, but it seems unlikely, especially with bad leaders, those live forever, but it happens sometimes.

I got lucky in my 1st Castile game in 1.8, Enrique died in less than 2 years, but it took sometime to make a new heir, which was troubling.

 

[RobRoy3]

Shipping off doesn't kill him. Making him a general have a chance of killing him, but it seems unlikely, especially with bad leaders, those live forever, but it happens sometimes.

I got lucky in my 1st Castile game in 1.8, Enrique died in less than 2 years, but it took sometime to make a new heir, which was troubling.

Always make him a leader, anyway and send him off with some mercs to siege someplace. There's a chance of death just for existing as a leader, IIRC, and an increased chance when he's in a conflict. Sometimes you get lucky and he's decent, in which case, he WILL die early. I once had 0/0/0/2 Henry, which was quite useful for the year before he died (leaving me with a lovely Trastamara King). I've gotten 3 shock a few times, too, who also tend to die early. Coincidence, you say? Observer bias? Probably. But sometimes I wonder...

But, yeah, abandoning the Continent is a perfectly viable strategy. More fun, really, if your objective is the colonial game.

 

[Pugman]

I don't think doing what it takes to win the HYW is worth it. Let it go, then come back once you've consolidated the British Isles. Start with Holland and Antwerp.

 

[BaronNoir]

I tried this new approach. Income is a bit low initially, but there is truly nothing that can oppose England (even if forces limits are a bit low...like really low)

 

[Beagá]

White Peace or giving one province is acceptable. It´s not hard to retake stuff later, through you better hope France and Burgundy fight each other a lot Then it´s all a matter of allying Austria, which is VERY easy.

Once the Burgundian inheritance fires, it´s payback time. I found the biggest annoyance really are the bloody lollards.

 

[BaronNoir]

Abandoning the mainland does make colonial wars way more easy. 1530, the first big colonial war is in it's fifth year and the Royal Navy is litteraly choking to death Portugal and Spain while their colonies are taken one by one by minuscule armies. I even took Madeira and the Baléares to secure more choke (future) choke points. The war is not exactly going swiftly, but it's an extremely economic war for England thus far....

(In my games with France-UK, 60k or even 80k were not enough to cope with Spain/Portugal. In this game, the home defence is limited to ONE 20 k army, and the front is so secure that I can afford to ship it to the New World for destroying colonial armies.)

 

[Tijean]

Annexing France is really hard for England. Since you are small, France is going to try to break free several time. It gonna be a really hard time for you. You also have to count the diplo point you need to annex France. When it finally done you have France with 75% autonomy, even more annoying. At least England are very good for culture acceptance so you won't have the rebellion problem in the south of France.
In general for a world domination : France > BG annexing France.
By the time you stabilise France and annex it, a player with France would be able to annex half of France, Castille and might even took Perm from Muscovite just to be sure no one is going to colonise.

 

[Beagá]

Abandoning the mainland does make colonial wars way more easy. 1530, the first big colonial war is in it's fifth year and the Royal Navy is litteraly choking to death Portugal and Spain while their colonies are taken one by one by minuscule armies. I even took Madeira and the Baléares to secure more choke (future) choke points. The war is not exactly going swiftly, but it's an extremely economic war for England thus far....

(In my games with France-UK, 60k or even 80k were not enough to cope with Spain/Portugal. In this game, the home defence is limited to ONE 20 k army, and the front is so secure that I can afford to ship it to the New World for destroying colonial armies.)

Sure it does, but the point of the game is trying to do better than your historical counterpart, and thus who wouldn´t want to spank France

And having a base in the continent does make things easier once you want to do stuff like claim thrones, or bash Austria once it try to becomes too powerful. Reformed HRE >>>> threat than France will ever be in Europe.

 

[Aries666]

In my first game as England the war of the roses killed me. Diddnt have enough manpower and a swedish/denish invasion finished me off.

What happens if you ship your 0-0-0 king into a transport ship and let him die. What are the penaltys for making him a general and kill him?

Henry is a world renowned marathon swimmer who even at the age of 70 can still make it back to England from the mid atlantic.