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I'm playing the IGC. Granted I had a few bad random events early on. I had an entire army of 10K+ desert about two months before the Hansa declared war on me. As for taking Denmark, I couldn't even manage to take a province in the beginning. I'd send in thousands of troops and the siege would say '12 months', even after 12 months it still said 12 months. I eventually had to withdraw. If things don't pick up in the 1600's I'm done for I think.
The things I wrote above are played with the GC, I thought Sweden was more powerful in the IGC ?
I think Sweden is more powerful in EU than it really was, at least they get a bunch of generals
My 2cents on sweden. I have a small field army 25k in/near Skane. A 12k siege army near Norway and a 15k siege relief force in Finland.
The approach: clear Norway to elminate any land based competition for Scandinavia. For this the siege army does most of the work. Keep it small to minimze your attrition. Move as soon as winter ends and open the siege. Pray the fort falls pre-winter. If not, have a few smallish infantry forces adjacent to move in to keep the siege force up to size. It is scritical to take the Small fort at Oslo. Minimal forts are not big deal but any fort being upgraded is almost always a CB for me. I try and get as good a deal as possible as fast as possible. The game will give up the colonies up north so snag them early otherwise the dman AI will keep trying to give them to you.
On the Russian front: don't expand. Period. I've seen no percentage in fighitng the Russians. I max out my forst inFinaland and let the winters do most of my dirty work. I have the 15k army in Finaldn to fight off any siegers. Whereevere the Russians lay siege I move up next to them and when they start and assault...I move the 15k army in. They will normally arrive as the assault fails and drive the attackers off and force them to start the whole attrition process over.
Expansion: I generally go for the Danes, Pommeranians and Hanse. I wanmt nothing to do with the Russians so I stay away from the Order. Colonial expanions also works quite nicely. Grab Iceland from the Danes and you have a nice staging point for expansion into America.
The approach: clear Norway to elminate any land based competition for Scandinavia. For this the siege army does most of the work. Keep it small to minimze your attrition. Move as soon as winter ends and open the siege. Pray the fort falls pre-winter. If not, have a few smallish infantry forces adjacent to move in to keep the siege force up to size. It is scritical to take the Small fort at Oslo. Minimal forts are not big deal but any fort being upgraded is almost always a CB for me. I try and get as good a deal as possible as fast as possible. The game will give up the colonies up north so snag them early otherwise the dman AI will keep trying to give them to you.
On the Russian front: don't expand. Period. I've seen no percentage in fighitng the Russians. I max out my forst inFinaland and let the winters do most of my dirty work. I have the 15k army in Finaldn to fight off any siegers. Whereevere the Russians lay siege I move up next to them and when they start and assault...I move the 15k army in. They will normally arrive as the assault fails and drive the attackers off and force them to start the whole attrition process over.
Expansion: I generally go for the Danes, Pommeranians and Hanse. I wanmt nothing to do with the Russians so I stay away from the Order. Colonial expanions also works quite nicely. Grab Iceland from the Danes and you have a nice staging point for expansion into America.
Here is my strategy while playing Sweden, believe me I have refined it during many many many GC's and IGC's. 
Grab land from Denmark and Russia, maybe get some Baltic land too early on. Make sure you have muskets when G2A shows up, you'll whack the world easily.
I then expand into Germany, annex Denmark and try to take some of the Northern CoT's, Danzig, the Hansa one etc.
Then, I might fight some BB wars, not many though. You have to choose whom to attack, maybe the one you are gonna annex isnt the one you should DoW, etc.
Build up trade and Infra, keep up the research is the big thing for almost 60 years. Colonize some, make sure to keep them well fortified.
When Karl XII comes along, you get new armies, new leaders.
Whack the world, no mercy thistime.
Expand into Holland and why not give France a go too??
Just grab as much land as you can during 20 years or so, go to peace, build up armies and whack the world again and again and again.
Works for me, grab the most of Europe, without havingmany BBwars and maxes tech easily in 1740.
Grab land from Denmark and Russia, maybe get some Baltic land too early on. Make sure you have muskets when G2A shows up, you'll whack the world easily.
I then expand into Germany, annex Denmark and try to take some of the Northern CoT's, Danzig, the Hansa one etc.
Then, I might fight some BB wars, not many though. You have to choose whom to attack, maybe the one you are gonna annex isnt the one you should DoW, etc.
Build up trade and Infra, keep up the research is the big thing for almost 60 years. Colonize some, make sure to keep them well fortified.
When Karl XII comes along, you get new armies, new leaders.
Whack the world, no mercy thistime.
Expand into Holland and why not give France a go too??
Just grab as much land as you can during 20 years or so, go to peace, build up armies and whack the world again and again and again.
Works for me, grab the most of Europe, without havingmany BBwars and maxes tech easily in 1740.
I never found the "whack the whole world" the amusing thing about the game. You get your fair amount of warfare and landwinnings even if you play as less aggressive. If you just go around "colouring the world blue", I think there's no time to enjoy the other aspects of the game. (Like having a 40k army in your single South American province and claiming the crown of Spain).
Wait a month or two than assault. The province of Ostlandet (sp?) is not affected by winter so you attack this one first. Than when springs kicks in, you move to all of the other provinces. Depending on how many losses you had (Denmark's armies are weak at the beginning compared to Sweden) you could probably annex the whole countries, since there is no need to capture their colonies (Iceland and the two up north). I couldn't annexe Denmark at my first try because I wasted my armies on those unuseful colonies. If I play another game, that's what I'll do.
And pay attention to you monarchs
One of them comes with "Civil War" as a description. Believe me, it will be bloody. I had both Normway and Brandenburg declared independance on me and my BB went to the roof when I reconquered them. Russia was then DoWing me every 5 years (I suspected it was sooner than that, but they never lost stability) with everyone ratting on me. My allies deserted me one after another and I was finally left alone against the world. Tough game. I had to make a lot of white peaces. So: beware of independance movements!
I offer 2 battle-tested strategies for Swedish players.
1. The key to survival is to take out Denmark (or Norway and Denmark) before they can do ANYTHING. DOW them on 1/1/1492. Begin building a 10,000 man army in your capital province (forget the name). March your existing army into Skane. After getting Skane, use the big army to take down the 4 provinces on the peninsula. Use the 10k army to sack Gotland. Combine them and (avoiding naval combat through retreating) get them into Jylland. Take Jylland, grab their capital, Recapture Skane if they got it back yet, ANNEX. Split your forces into 2 20-25k armies and place one in Jylland and the other in Ostlandet. Put down rebellions for thirty years while you build internal improvements. Your BB will be big, but stay out of war and you should be fine. By 1530s, you can turn on your non-Scandinavian enemies with vigor.
2. Beware civil war. One way I found to avoid serious problems is to split your armies into a bunch of small groups and spread them out when you get the CIVIL WAR monarch. About half will turn rebel. Use the rest to take them out one by one (they usually wont stack into big armies if you are quick). Retake the rebel cities and return to conquest.
Using these tactics, I have taken all non-Moslem provinces east of HRE by 1650. No more Russia, No more P-L. No more T-O. I think I can take the HRE, Italy, France, and most of the Moslem world out by 1700. Then bring down big old England, Spain, and the rest of the Moslem world by 1750 or so. I think if I bust a move, I can own every province in the world by game end. GO SWEDEN!!!
1. The key to survival is to take out Denmark (or Norway and Denmark) before they can do ANYTHING. DOW them on 1/1/1492. Begin building a 10,000 man army in your capital province (forget the name). March your existing army into Skane. After getting Skane, use the big army to take down the 4 provinces on the peninsula. Use the 10k army to sack Gotland. Combine them and (avoiding naval combat through retreating) get them into Jylland. Take Jylland, grab their capital, Recapture Skane if they got it back yet, ANNEX. Split your forces into 2 20-25k armies and place one in Jylland and the other in Ostlandet. Put down rebellions for thirty years while you build internal improvements. Your BB will be big, but stay out of war and you should be fine. By 1530s, you can turn on your non-Scandinavian enemies with vigor.
2. Beware civil war. One way I found to avoid serious problems is to split your armies into a bunch of small groups and spread them out when you get the CIVIL WAR monarch. About half will turn rebel. Use the rest to take them out one by one (they usually wont stack into big armies if you are quick). Retake the rebel cities and return to conquest.
Using these tactics, I have taken all non-Moslem provinces east of HRE by 1650. No more Russia, No more P-L. No more T-O. I think I can take the HRE, Italy, France, and most of the Moslem world out by 1700. Then bring down big old England, Spain, and the rest of the Moslem world by 1750 or so. I think if I bust a move, I can own every province in the world by game end. GO SWEDEN!!!
hehe Sweden can be fun and powerful no doubt,,,since i have been using 2 self imposed limitations the game gets a lot more challenging and fun...1> never go over 10 baboy..<or 6 as im limiting myself to now> 2> never have more troops then doulbe my max manpower
these 2 limiations make it a lot harder to try world conquest which really isnt a historical reality lol..dont get me wrong once in while im in the mood to do it..but it makes the game flow better and aboids the easy badboy wars people abuse...all powers like the badboy pretty much because the computer ai behaves badly oiften dowing without standing armies or whens its too weak tot ake you on...we run out gobble a few provs and or annex then white peace thsoe we dotn want or pay off others and we keep growing without cariung about bb anymore..its too easy to survive the bb wars espcially sicne we build huger armies overall then the computer and we use strategy to outflank out seige them..by limiting troops we are forced to fight on more equal grounds..i recommend playing with the 6bb max and 2xmanpower max it really does make the game more fun i find i finish a lot more games then i used to <the games tned to get over real fast obviously that it isnt worth going out of the 1600's to finish them>
these 2 limiations make it a lot harder to try world conquest which really isnt a historical reality lol..dont get me wrong once in while im in the mood to do it..but it makes the game flow better and aboids the easy badboy wars people abuse...all powers like the badboy pretty much because the computer ai behaves badly oiften dowing without standing armies or whens its too weak tot ake you on...we run out gobble a few provs and or annex then white peace thsoe we dotn want or pay off others and we keep growing without cariung about bb anymore..its too easy to survive the bb wars espcially sicne we build huger armies overall then the computer and we use strategy to outflank out seige them..by limiting troops we are forced to fight on more equal grounds..i recommend playing with the 6bb max and 2xmanpower max it really does make the game more fun i find i finish a lot more games then i used to <the games tned to get over real fast obviously that it isnt worth going out of the 1600's to finish them>
Here is a pic of one of my games with Sweden... Here what i did..
First off i attacked denmark in 1492 grabbing Skåne and Östlandet from Denmark.. after that i waited for some years then i attacked the Teutonic Order and annexed them. After that i had some wars with Russia and Poland.. But managed to eat myself down to Danzig and take it.. From there i expanded into the gemran states, first grabbing Pommern after that Hannsa and Hannover.. And now i have a shitload of BB wars but by year 1600 i have taken every german state except Brandenburg and managed to annex the dutch when they declared independence.. After that i attacked Austria and Bohemia approx 1610 i think. then i attacked poland and annexed them around 1620.. Now i have lots of rebellions everywhere but manage to conquer Italy before 1660. And yes i almost forgot.. i annexed denmark after poland (don't know why)
After this picture i annexed pretty much everything but Russia,England and Spain.. I gave up on this game when i couldn't find Spains last province
btw i love BB wars espicially if you end up annexing a shitload of countries
If you cant find your enemys last province, just go in to the file and check the list of provinces they got.
Originally posted by maekh
Here is a pic of one of my games with Sweden... Here what i did..
First off i attacked denmark in 1492 grabbing Skåne and Östlandet
<snip>
btw i love BB wars espicially if you end up annexing a shitload of countries
Yikes! Göran Persson would be constant chairman of the EU with this history. Good grief!!!
Just some thougths on playing Sweden and being able to colonize N. and S. America. In my recent game, I took on Denmark immidiately (as already mentioned) before they allied with Russia, this is extremely important since Sweden is to weak to handle a two front war. However, I only took Skane and Østlandet, but since they lose the income from Skane, this is a real cut into the throat of Denmark. After this I focused on Russia, took Novgorod around 1510. This boost the income substantially. Around 1530 I DOW Denamr again and annected them. By that time, Denmark had sailed around entire America (they had reached Monterey on the west coast. Since I also get Iceland when annexing Denmark, I could use Iceland as a middle harbour on the way over the Atlantic. Before going to the sea I established a colony in the middle of Northern america and one in Surinam. Thereby I could sail all the way down S. America without an explorer. Thus my advice is, let Denamrk to the hard work finding America and establishing the sailing route, then annex them, instead of annexing them very early in the game.
I don't think it was Denamrk that had done the work. They probably stole the maps from someone else.