Strategies for Norway in 1.8

[Alech]

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Norway

This is up to date per 1.6. Is there anything in particular that has changed in the latest version that should be incorporated into the wiki?

Edit:
Ok, I read all this and decided to try Norway for my-self. Feel free to comment and critique as you see fit

[video=youtube_share;9UPKry9be3s]http://youtu.be/9UPKry9be3s?list=PL1y7Yd_hIe7-GGQ_udJACoO4XJRDuKqYK[/video]

 

[Alech]

So not that many Norway fans around eh?

 

[Gaamel]

I just started a game with Norway in 1.8. Day one I asked the hansa to support my independence + sweden as ally. I declared on denmark, he managed to have lithuania with him...We destroyed the enemy fleet nonetheless, with 8k danish troops trapped in gotland :laugh: The hansa got raped by lithuania+holstein+denmark and peaced out separately but at least I managed to break free and earn war reparations (I should have fabricated a claim in nordjylland or halland before the dow, now that I think of it...but my king is 4-6-3 so I don't want to restart this).

1 month later sweden broke the alliance and rivaled me (because he wants his core järmtland back), I am now allied with denmark (lol) and the hansa against sweden+the teutonics. I might be able to ally england but what I really need right now is land power to contain sweden's might. Poland and lithuania are too far away to be reliable allies, novgorod is weak and useless as usual. Stripping denmark of gotland and holstein would have been a terrible choice actually.

Right now I need to take 3 provinces from sweden : the one with big copper production, and 2 other ones to make swedish accepted. Then I plan to start the colonization in chesapeake/st lawrence (carribean are useless now because the trade node goes to seville or bordeaux only).

 

[Eldorian]

Then I plan to start the colonization in chesapeake/st lawrence (caraïbes are useless now because the trade node goes to seville or bordeaux only).

Actually you can steer trade from the Caribbean to Chesapeake Bay.

 

[Gaamel]

Actually you can steer trade from the Caribbean to Chesapeake Bay.

What I meant is that there is no DIRECT route from the Caribbean to the North Sea where I plan to collect. To receive the trade value from the Caribbean I would need to control Chesapeake too, but I can't own both nodes. That's too much to colonize and I lose 50%*50% of the trade value because of the CN.

edit : in fact I also need to own St Lawrence because Chesapeake doesn't flow to North Sea, so I leave the Spanish have fun with the Caribbean.

 

[Phalanx300]

Just focus on dominating the North Sea trade node. So conquering Scotland and Ireland and even England if oppertunity arrises. Then colonise with your NI to steer even more trade from the New World into the North Sea.

 

[Gaamel]

Just focus on dominating the North Sea trade node. So conquering Scotland and Ireland and even England if oppertunity arrises. Then colonise with your NI to steer even more trade from the New World into the North Sea.

Unfortunately Sweden has a grudge against me right now, I don't plan to pick early military ideas (but rather explo/expansion/quantity) so if I don't crush him right now he'll become too powerful to be stopped.

 

[Carmilla]

So not that many Norway fans around eh?

That would require people to know that it exists in the first place.

 

[Gaamel]

That would require people to know that it exists in the first place.

To be honest, the devs pay more attention to long-forgotten states like Livonian Order and some tiny HRE minors which get their own provinces, rather than some "insignificant" parts of Central Africa or Asia which are not even on the map...

PS : when I say "insignificant" I'm talking about the millions of people living in some remote parts of the world whose descendants are not PC games developpers...

 

[Phalanx300]

Unfortunately Sweden has a grudge against me right now, I don't plan to pick early military ideas (but rather explo/expansion/quantity) so if I don't crush him right now he'll become too powerful to be stopped.

Hmm well isn't Scandinavia filled with mountains? Should be able to hold them off. Maybe hope to ally a Moscovy should they rise to power.

 

[Gaamel]

I RM/allied Moscovy but the ruskies broke the alliance 2 months later and went with sweden, thanks to that I lost a diplo slot, ty vladimir... I hope the king of Muscovy dies soon. I managed to ally hansa/denmark/poland/austria, I attacked Sweden with denmark and the hansa as soon as I could, Muscovy was busy bullying Novgorod and didn't join to defend thanks to the absurd WE modifier. I managed to win the war against their stupid 5-6-3-2 general (!!! in 1465) by trapping his 12k stack in the island of Aland I blockaded both sides of the Baltic, he couldn't move. I asked 7BT worth of Swedish provinces, just enough to make Swedish accepted, now I can go to Canada in peace :sleep:

 

[Alech]

Ok, ally Sweden and Hansa for early independence, check.
Try to get a land ally to deal with Sweden, check.
Colonize in NA/Canada, check.

Seems straight forward enough...

 

[hitchens]

Norways NI's are in the wrong order. By the time you unlock the range or explorer bonus you already reach NA on your own so they become pointless.

 

[jrgen3]

Norways NI's are in the wrong order. By the time you unlock the range or explorer bonus you already reach NA on your own so they become pointless.

Not for ai Norway which, if I recall correctly, does not take exploration ideas.

 

[hitchens]

Not for ai Norway which, if I recall correctly, does not take exploration ideas.

True but AI Norway gets integrated/annexed in 90% of the cases, and when they dont they never colonize.

 

[MiniaAr]

If I recall correctly, you can also enter the HRE as Norway, if you take Nordjylland from Denmark during the independence war and nothing else. This should give you the land ally you need in case of a Swedish attack (namely, Austria). This was 1.7 however so I don't know if this is still possible.

Also, I wanted to know if it's not possible to skip the Exploration group altogether, and instead use Norwegian ideas for Explorers and 1 Colonist. Maybe using Expansion instead would suffice? If such a strategy is taken, what groups would be indicated?

 

[hwoosh]

True but AI Norway gets integrated/annexed in 90% of the cases, and when they dont they never colonize.

Not strictly true. I ran an observer game when 1.8 was released in which Norway colonized much of northern Canada. The CN then revolted in the 1700s, became "Canada" with Norwegian culture, and proceeded to set up its own colonies in South America, resulting in "Norwegian Guyana", a CN of Canada. Pretty cool.

(Brittany also moved its capital to Virginia, and ended up falling into a PU under westernized Cusco. It was a pretty weird observer game.)

 

[Gaamel]

Also, I wanted to know if it's not possible to skip the Exploration group altogether, and instead use Norwegian ideas for Explorers and 1 Colonist. Maybe using Expansion instead would suffice? If such a strategy is taken, what groups would be indicated?

You could replace explo by expansion, and then follow with quantity. That way you choose the colonial settlement act (+1 colonist +10 growth) and have 3 colonists. Expansion gives +1 merchant and trade power, whereas explo gives naval forcelimit (which is really important with norway, because early game the lübeck node has 40 trade value which is insane. Just spam light ships and steal the trade).

I don't see the point of expansion first, unless you plan to invade asia and crush moscovy.

 

[Carmilla]

To be honest, the devs pay more attention to long-forgotten states like Livonian Order and some tiny HRE minors which get their own provinces, rather than some "insignificant" parts of Central Africa or Asia which are not even on the map...

PS : when I say "insignificant" I'm talking about the millions of people living in some remote parts of the world whose descendants are not PC games developpers...

Any attention spent on Norway in any game surprises me, but I'm used to Norway being the nation that people either don't know about or don't care about. Different people, different views, different tastes and all that.

If I recall correctly, you can also enter the HRE as Norway, if you take Nordjylland from Denmark during the independence war and nothing else. This should give you the land ally you need in case of a Swedish attack (namely, Austria). This was 1.7 however so I don't know if this is still possible.

Also, I wanted to know if it's not possible to skip the Exploration group altogether, and instead use Norwegian ideas for Explorers and 1 Colonist. Maybe using Expansion instead would suffice? If such a strategy is taken, what groups would be indicated?

I love entering the HRE as Norway after I found out that one of our kings managed to be nominated as a potential emperor by one of the popes. Though I took skåne to accomplish and not jylland myself. Though maybe I'll try it that way instead next time I do a Norway run.

 

[Alech]

I love entering the HRE as Norway after I found out that one of our kings managed to be nominated as a potential emperor by one of the popes. Though I took skåne to accomplish and not jylland myself. Though maybe I'll try it that way instead next time I do a Norway run.

So that still works huh? Hmmm...