Starting a TO campaign

[unmerged(648529)]

The TO starts at high serfdom in 1399, but in all my games I always slide that over to free subjects for the morale bonus. But is the TO in a particularly special location where high serfdom is better? or should I not have been sliding over to free subjects at all...

 

[unmerged(204522)]

its that or go full innovative or lag behind in tech-if you focus on aristocracy/offensive/centalisation to begin with, the random events should give you 3 or 4 free moves to free subjects....

 

[Conch]

you dont Need to rush free subjects early on. Focus on the sliders that you Need the most - for TO that is aristocracy, offensive and centralisation. Everything that boosts your Military power early on is needed, so go for aristocracy and then offensive first. Centralisation is self explanatory. Anything else can wait.

 

[Hiram_Maxim]

Serfdom vs free subjects is mostly irrelevant for Teutonic Order. What you actually want to do is go naval, build a fleet and conquer Sweden to the north. Sweden's provinces are very wealthy and produce valuable trade goods. Wait until they are distracted by a war with Denmark and then pounce by landing a doomstack in Stockholm.

 

[Lord Curlyton]

Or just slowly eat your way through Poland and the fringes of the HRE, get a vassal swarm, laugh at all comers. Then form Prussia followed by Germany and break the HRE once and for all (becoming the HRE instead just being the trivial matter of vassalizing electors).

As mentioned, Free Subjects are not necessary for TO. Some nations benefit by keeping the serfs in their place. Massive colonial empire Spain or expansionist Russia comes to mind. Narrowminded + Serfdom = dominating New World and then laughing at people a few techs ahead due to the fact that your army is quintuple their size, or eating through Hordes at breakneck speed.

For the TO, I'd choose Serfdom and go Innovative, at least early on. Once you become HRE or Germany feel free to go Narrowminded and roflstomp everyone in your path.

 

[noz]

you dont Need to rush free subjects early on. Focus on the sliders that you Need the most - for TO that is aristocracy, offensive and centralisation. Everything that boosts your Military power early on is needed, so go for aristocracy and then offensive first. Centralisation is self explanatory. Anything else can wait.

You can easily defeat AI Poland-Lithuania without any slider moves. Also offensive isn't always good for offensive, morale boost is nice, but bonus siege really helps with forts in XV century and defensiveness is always good.

Serfdom vs free subjects is mostly irrelevant for Teutonic Order. What you actually want to do is go naval, build a fleet and conquer Sweden to the north. Sweden's provinces are very wealthy and produce valuable trade goods. Wait until they are distracted by a war with Denmark and then pounce by landing a doomstack in Stockholm.

Sweden provinces are trash level, it's better to take Polish textiles or some German provinces. Also Denmark/Norway military access is cheaper than naval dominance.

Or just slowly eat your way through Poland and the fringes of the HRE, get a vassal swarm, laugh at all comers. Then form Prussia followed by Germany and break the HRE once and for all (becoming the HRE instead just being the trivial matter of vassalizing electors).

As mentioned, Free Subjects are not necessary for TO. Some nations benefit by keeping the serfs in their place. Massive colonial empire Spain or expansionist Russia comes to mind. Narrowminded + Serfdom = dominating New World and then laughing at people a few techs ahead due to the fact that your army is quintuple their size, or eating through Hordes at breakneck speed.

For the TO, I'd choose Serfdom and go Innovative, at least early on. Once you become HRE or Germany feel free to go Narrowminded and roflstomp everyone in your path.

Narrowminded is good for converting and colonizing, but it's still possible to do this without it.
Serfdom is just bad. Cheaper units for morale and tech penalty? It's only good if you have too much MP, and in 5.2 you don't.

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

Being neither innovative nor narrowminded puts you in a good position to still get the curia and missionaries but not have the tech malus. Take a couple religious NIs like Church Attendance and Unam Sanctam, and you should be getting the curia a lot.

My generic Catholic strategy usually involves Military Drill, followed by Church Attendance, followed by Unam Sanctam while being max centralization, neither innovative or narrowminded, and everything else varying. For TO-Prussia, I usually go max quality and max offensive, the latter being because I don't care much about the siege bonus from defensive.

The AI usually kills itself with minting and narrowminded, so if you go free subjects, you're looking at an even bigger tech gap that would pay off in the long-run.

 

[unmerged(204522)]

grab a muslim province for their military units.