Strong Marches

[AffenPower]

Hi,

which Nations are strong marches?

 

[Octavius Antony]

I like making any nation with strong military ideas or nice trade zones into a march. Things like Sweden into the entirety of Scandinavia or Brandenburg holding most of Lubeck can be pretty useful. Scotland is not bad as well. It's also important to note that you can leave subjects in important nodes upsteam and just divert trade from them. It costs quite a lot liberty desire, but it isn't that hard to offset.

 

[TenshiN]

Anything with good mil. ideas. Stuff like attrition/fort defense helps too.
So, for Europe:
Obviously Brandenburg, Teutons, Sweden, Finland (release from Sweden), Smolensk (release from Lithuania), Poland and Muscovy (if you somehow manage to make a march off them), Scotland (good built-in quantity bonuses, above-average generals), perhaps someone else i've forgotten.

Steppes/Middle East/Persian region: Basically every reformed nation with Horde ideas, Rassids, Ardabil (its first idea, along with +10 morale, gurantees it will always has full Mysticism with its additional 10% morale and extra Fort Defense), Aq Qoyunlu, Transoxiana (decently hard to make it a march), Luristan, Mushasha (same reason as Ardabil+good for converting religion)

India: Nepal, Mewar (or anything with Rajput ideas), Andhra (because great Fort bonuses to stall your enemies), Vijay (large nation = hard to march), Nations with Indian Sultanate ideas (great for religious stability along with some military bonuses)

East-Asia: Japanese Daimyos (specifically Uesugi, Shimazu, Oda), Dai Viet (great defensive bonuses+decent military), reformed Manchu-idea nations.

Africa (heads up to @Horn and Ivory): Air, Songhai, Benin, Butua, Imerina


Edit: Added Africa and Mushasha

 

[Egodeus]

In my game as Russia I managed to force vassalize a protestant Teutonic order I had released in an earlier war. After feeding them enough provinces to get them to Königsberg, they promptly formed Prussia, which I made into a march and started sending them officers and pay a part of their army upkeep.

At the moment I have an extra stack of 20 thousand men with a discipline somewhere around 125, because they haven't yet started boosting their discipline too much. It is a nice addition to hold the line while my artillery blasts the enemy from the back row.

 

[puddingkip]

Oda, Shimazu, Nepal, Rassids and a reformed Manchu/Jurchen (BUT NOT A HORDE. HORDE SUBJECTS ARE AWFUL) are some decent ones apart from the obvious ones like the Orders and such

 

[Horn and Ivory]

@TenshiN gives a pretty solid list. I'd add

Europe: Albania, Ryazan.

Persia/India: Afghanistan and Baluchistan have some solid military bonuses mutiplied by their natural terrain - either (or both) can make an extremely tough border. Yi is a good releasable from Ming.

Africa: Butua, Air (don't underestimate that movement speed), Benin (bonus: amazing flag).

Any nation that has 5 or more military bonuses (not counting ones that won't make a big difference, such as cavalry combat) will make a solid march. Unrest reduction and coring efficiency is also good if you plan to feed it a lot.

 

[TenshiN]

@TenshiN gives a pretty solid list. I'd add

Europe: Albania, Ryazan.

Persia/India: Afghanistan and Baluchistan have some solid military bonuses mutiplied by their natural terrain - either (or both) can make an extremely tough border. Yi is a good releasable from Ming.

Africa: Butua, Air (don't underestimate that movement speed), Benin (bonus: amazing flag).

Any nation that has 5 or more military bonuses (not counting ones that won't make a big difference, such as cavalry combat) will make a solid march. Unrest reduction and coring efficiency is also good if you plan to feed it a lot.

Dang, forgot to add Africa to my list
Thank you for reminding, i hope you don't mind if i edit it in my post

Also, i won't say Baluchistan as it only has +attrition and +10% morale from what i remember. Might as well just feed it to Afghanistan march, which is better at March-stuff IMO

 

[ForschungsFüchse]

Ideas matter allot, but I do also really consider geography.

When playing Western or Southern Europe, I usually make Tlemcen a march to watch that approach to Europe, esp. useful when I attack Otto and he sends armies through North Africa to hit me. Their army ideas are not great, but they do build a sizable navy.

Same applies for Georgia, with some NIs (fort and infantry), mountain terrain, and several already built forts in the area. Prevents Otto flanking you around the Black Sea.

Lots of options in the Balkans (Serbia, Wallachia, Moldovia): I usually go Serbia, but depends on which direction you are coming from and which trade node I want more land in.

Current game just got Teutonic order as Egodeus mentioned and can't wait to start feeding them.

I hate hordes as vassals and marches: okay if you are big and have only a couple subjects, but if you are small, or big and have many vassals, the horde liberty desire modified means I always need to placate them and waste e.g. prestige. But sometimes it is useful anyhow, e.g. as Russia, somebody to gaurd and eat the eastern muslim horde areas.

 

[Horn and Ivory]

Also, i won't say Baluchistan as it only has +attrition and +10% morale from what i remember. Might as well just feed it to Afghanistan march, which is better at March-stuff IMO

It doesn't have morale, but it has +attrition, - shock damage recieved, +15% manpower, army tradition, and forcelimit. It's not the greatest march ever, but similar caliber to Afghanistan (though you lose the fort defence), and can be easier to vassalise depending on circimstances.

Imerina is a good shout, not one I've spotted before (I guess becuase Madagascar is such an odd place to want a march).

 

[TenshiN]

It doesn't have morale, but it has +attrition, - shock damage recieved, +15% manpower, army tradition, and forcelimit. It's not the greatest march ever, but similar caliber to Afghanistan (though you lose the fort defence), and can be easier to vassalise depending on circimstances.

Imerina is a good shout, not one I've spotted before (I guess becuase Madagascar is such an odd place to want a march).

Ah, so they changed the morale to -shockdamage. Also yes, thinking on that again, i agree that "easier to vassalize" is a serious advantage, considering Afghanistan is now an independent nation since the start, compared to before, when you could just take a few provinces off Timurids and release Afghanistan from them