I have already played the game though as Poland and managed to win by over 2000 points. Just played the standard game with the download. This is how I did it.
After several false starts in manuvering through the maze of Central European politics I finnally devised a plan which I hoped would get me through the early years. That plan, simply and basically was to attack Russian until I no longer has to worry about the Bear. Once my east flank was purged of my most dangerous enemy, I had a chance to survive.
I was well stocked with armies in the field so i immediately marched them to the border of Russia. As soon as my war crazy monster neighbor sets his sights on Kazan to his southeast and marched is armies off to war I wasted no time in attacking. I immediately took a serious hit in stability to a +1 but Russia was unprepared and I took Tyver, Novgorod, Vladimir and Onega in a hurried campaign of assaults. The kicker was that my attacks made Russia so weak she failed in her war with Kazan and soon the Moscow province had fallen. I then made my demands of Tyver, Novgorod and Vladmir. Russia had no choice and submitted. Part one of my plan had succeeded.
I ignored all the revolts in my orthadox provinces and immediately build up as many armies as I could scrape up and once more put them to the Russian border. In just two years time, I once more made war on Russia with the sole object of taking Vologda province and thus surrounding my enemy leaving him with only his meager three far northern provinces. I dared not swamp him, although I had the power as the three little provinces were undefended, as it would bring a rain of armies in from the west from those testy kings who dislike such doings. It took several years and my stability was at rock bottom with the -7 penalty and I had to take the little three as pressure points put at last Russia submitted and I had Moscow surrounded. With only one province, she would not provide any serious trouble for me again. My plan succeeded.
The serious trouble was that my whole country was in revolt. Luckily my victory pushed stability up to 0 and Bohemia made a half hearted effort to support the Bear but enede up losing Silesia to me. Now I neede time to prepare myself for the other, more dangerous enemy: Turkey. I moved from revolt to revolt, twice had to reconquer a nationalistic Ukraine but at last I once more had my country in good order with my stability moving up.
My next plan was to grow my country and its infastructure but a great monster lay to the south in Turkey which could wreck the plan. We each had causa bella on each other and she could mount a 100,000 man army against which I had no hope of defeating. So, with gritted teeth I began to funnel money southwards and managed to bribe my way into the good graces of the ruler in Thrace. (Why they put the capital province on my side of the Bospherus I do not know!) Eventually, a 100 ducats here and 25 more there and I could even join the monster as an ally! All the while I am promoting tax collectors and judges and governors and building fortresses to make Poland strong. I have no dreams of being a sea power so I cut back naval research to the minimum and puch for land research.
So, for about a hundred years I am fighting on the tail end of Turkey;s many wars. She is always attacking Austria and the other countries of Central Europe so I join in from behind and pick up a province here and province there. Along the way I attack and annex Kazan and the Golden Horde. I use Courland and a bait to lure her allies into war with me as with my many provinces and religions, I cannot afford to lose stability. I have a permanent causa bella against the single province state Courland and a measily 20,000 man army with a few cannon can take her out as she can never raise more than that. In a hundred years I probably go to war with Couland 5 times and gain Eastern and Western Pommerania, Prussia, Pskow, Bohemia, Carpathia and a few other Protestant provinces that come and go with the fortunes of war. However, at the end of the 100 years there are no more little countries between me and Turkey. This part of the plan went well. I am universally hated by everyone but the Turks as I can see no point in bribing these little countries just to be liked. It is now time for another plan.
If I am to attack Turkey, (the only other option is to attack Sweden and her provinces are mostly very poor and a good navy is required so Sweden is out) I must proteck my north. No more wasting money on bribes to Turkey. they now go to Sweden as well as a new alliance whcih often includes both Austia and Venice who are both players in the land war I am going to wage. I plan on waging a lot of war with Turkey so I know I have to keep my aim at just two provinces at a time. If I take three I can lose my causa bella. But they cannot just be any two provinces. They must be rich so as to hurt Turkey where it hurts most: In her treasury.
My first war in 1615 took three years or so but I enede up with Magyar and Moldavia. I found I had to take four provinces usually to get the two I wanted. I do not want to bore everyone with the detail but I ended up fighting Turkey 10 times in the next 110 years. Sometimes she attacked me so I did not have to wait until the treaty ran out. In all that time never once did my stability go below +3. My greatest victory was when I crossed the Bospherus straits and took Anatolia and Symrna. These are two rich provinces from which most of her soldiers crossed over into Europe to battle me. Once I had them, Turkey was never a real threat. I had to be sure to keep large standing armies in those provinces as I had no navy in case of a rebellion. I always kept Sweden happy as her armies and able generals were key to a lot of victories. Hell, little ole Sweden finished fourth in the game thanks to me.
By 1730 or so, I was ahead of Spain in the game. I had driven the Turk from Europe except for his capital of Thrace. I had annexed Crimea, Astralkhan, Courland, Heseatic League, all of Austrai but her capital province, all of Venice but her capital province. By the end of the game I had colonies almost to China. My treasury was pulling in 1500 ducats year and earning 300 a month. Twice I had to work through widespread rebellions when the rest of Europe ganged up on me because I did not through money around as I needed it for armies. I found assaults cheaper even though I lost a lot of men because time works against a country in war. War exhaustion causes too many rebellions.
Once I got ahead in the game I just set the time at its fastest speed and stopped every now and then to build manufactories and bribe countries so they would not attack me.
I won't say I did not backtrack over an error in judgement but that is what save game is for. I learned to be ready for a big war at every annexation. I made a lot a treaties outside the leadership of the alliance against me to pick up and extra province or two. I decided which provinces I wanted before any war and took a lot of easy ones to insure I got them. I kept several armies in reserve at all times and always needed them.
It really helps to start big with lots of armies.
After several false starts in manuvering through the maze of Central European politics I finnally devised a plan which I hoped would get me through the early years. That plan, simply and basically was to attack Russian until I no longer has to worry about the Bear. Once my east flank was purged of my most dangerous enemy, I had a chance to survive.
I was well stocked with armies in the field so i immediately marched them to the border of Russia. As soon as my war crazy monster neighbor sets his sights on Kazan to his southeast and marched is armies off to war I wasted no time in attacking. I immediately took a serious hit in stability to a +1 but Russia was unprepared and I took Tyver, Novgorod, Vladimir and Onega in a hurried campaign of assaults. The kicker was that my attacks made Russia so weak she failed in her war with Kazan and soon the Moscow province had fallen. I then made my demands of Tyver, Novgorod and Vladmir. Russia had no choice and submitted. Part one of my plan had succeeded.
I ignored all the revolts in my orthadox provinces and immediately build up as many armies as I could scrape up and once more put them to the Russian border. In just two years time, I once more made war on Russia with the sole object of taking Vologda province and thus surrounding my enemy leaving him with only his meager three far northern provinces. I dared not swamp him, although I had the power as the three little provinces were undefended, as it would bring a rain of armies in from the west from those testy kings who dislike such doings. It took several years and my stability was at rock bottom with the -7 penalty and I had to take the little three as pressure points put at last Russia submitted and I had Moscow surrounded. With only one province, she would not provide any serious trouble for me again. My plan succeeded.
The serious trouble was that my whole country was in revolt. Luckily my victory pushed stability up to 0 and Bohemia made a half hearted effort to support the Bear but enede up losing Silesia to me. Now I neede time to prepare myself for the other, more dangerous enemy: Turkey. I moved from revolt to revolt, twice had to reconquer a nationalistic Ukraine but at last I once more had my country in good order with my stability moving up.
My next plan was to grow my country and its infastructure but a great monster lay to the south in Turkey which could wreck the plan. We each had causa bella on each other and she could mount a 100,000 man army against which I had no hope of defeating. So, with gritted teeth I began to funnel money southwards and managed to bribe my way into the good graces of the ruler in Thrace. (Why they put the capital province on my side of the Bospherus I do not know!) Eventually, a 100 ducats here and 25 more there and I could even join the monster as an ally! All the while I am promoting tax collectors and judges and governors and building fortresses to make Poland strong. I have no dreams of being a sea power so I cut back naval research to the minimum and puch for land research.
So, for about a hundred years I am fighting on the tail end of Turkey;s many wars. She is always attacking Austria and the other countries of Central Europe so I join in from behind and pick up a province here and province there. Along the way I attack and annex Kazan and the Golden Horde. I use Courland and a bait to lure her allies into war with me as with my many provinces and religions, I cannot afford to lose stability. I have a permanent causa bella against the single province state Courland and a measily 20,000 man army with a few cannon can take her out as she can never raise more than that. In a hundred years I probably go to war with Couland 5 times and gain Eastern and Western Pommerania, Prussia, Pskow, Bohemia, Carpathia and a few other Protestant provinces that come and go with the fortunes of war. However, at the end of the 100 years there are no more little countries between me and Turkey. This part of the plan went well. I am universally hated by everyone but the Turks as I can see no point in bribing these little countries just to be liked. It is now time for another plan.
If I am to attack Turkey, (the only other option is to attack Sweden and her provinces are mostly very poor and a good navy is required so Sweden is out) I must proteck my north. No more wasting money on bribes to Turkey. they now go to Sweden as well as a new alliance whcih often includes both Austia and Venice who are both players in the land war I am going to wage. I plan on waging a lot of war with Turkey so I know I have to keep my aim at just two provinces at a time. If I take three I can lose my causa bella. But they cannot just be any two provinces. They must be rich so as to hurt Turkey where it hurts most: In her treasury.
My first war in 1615 took three years or so but I enede up with Magyar and Moldavia. I found I had to take four provinces usually to get the two I wanted. I do not want to bore everyone with the detail but I ended up fighting Turkey 10 times in the next 110 years. Sometimes she attacked me so I did not have to wait until the treaty ran out. In all that time never once did my stability go below +3. My greatest victory was when I crossed the Bospherus straits and took Anatolia and Symrna. These are two rich provinces from which most of her soldiers crossed over into Europe to battle me. Once I had them, Turkey was never a real threat. I had to be sure to keep large standing armies in those provinces as I had no navy in case of a rebellion. I always kept Sweden happy as her armies and able generals were key to a lot of victories. Hell, little ole Sweden finished fourth in the game thanks to me.
By 1730 or so, I was ahead of Spain in the game. I had driven the Turk from Europe except for his capital of Thrace. I had annexed Crimea, Astralkhan, Courland, Heseatic League, all of Austrai but her capital province, all of Venice but her capital province. By the end of the game I had colonies almost to China. My treasury was pulling in 1500 ducats year and earning 300 a month. Twice I had to work through widespread rebellions when the rest of Europe ganged up on me because I did not through money around as I needed it for armies. I found assaults cheaper even though I lost a lot of men because time works against a country in war. War exhaustion causes too many rebellions.
Once I got ahead in the game I just set the time at its fastest speed and stopped every now and then to build manufactories and bribe countries so they would not attack me.
I won't say I did not backtrack over an error in judgement but that is what save game is for. I learned to be ready for a big war at every annexation. I made a lot a treaties outside the leadership of the alliance against me to pick up and extra province or two. I decided which provinces I wanted before any war and took a lot of easy ones to insure I got them. I kept several armies in reserve at all times and always needed them.
It really helps to start big with lots of armies.
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