The Dynamic Duo are are attempting to restore the Holy See

[chgrogers]

So I was working on waiting my last 3 years in my Venice Merchant republic game and Castille and France decide that the Holy See needs to be freed. Right before I am to leave for work :/. Epic battle for later.

What are my goal to Hamstring both powers? Sus is core. 3 North American Castillian colonies and somehow France lost Normandy but nothing else.

Off to work. I'll look at the suggestions later.

 

[Junuxx]

Hard to say without army/navy size and tech info. It would also be useful to know the CB.

But it looks like your navy should outnumber theirs. So sink their navies, blockade everything, fight defensively. Make separate peaces, grab a few rich provinces from France and make both release a bunch of minors.
Don't take Sus, it might be useful to have a reconquest CB if you want to take them down another notch when the truce expires.

 

[blsteen]

Crush them!!
Like Junuxx says, use your fleet and once you have their naval forces corralled in port land your army take the province and force their fleets to sea to be sunk!

 

[marty99]

Agree with junuxx that we'd really need to know more details, especially if you have naval superiority and if so how much. Basically, I would fight defensively in Europe, offensively in North Africa and their colonies (try to get Spain to move the bulk of their army over to their mainland first so you'll have little trouble sieging north africa) until Spain is crippled by WE, peace them out then take down France. And blockade as much as you can, France particularly.

 

[Casiru]

If you can establish naval superiority and crush Castille's north african forces you can create a choke point in savoy. If you leave a few mega stacks with your best commanders in the pass and some reinforcement stacks they will suicide all their troops until they run out of manpower and probably look for a white peace. If your feeling particularly nasty just sit troops on all their home territory and force them to release states like morocco, preferably ones they wont be marching their 100000000 stacks out into in the next war.

If you manage to lose the fights in the pass your pretty much screwed but look for any smaller stacks that break off for siege and try to get numbers advantage in a defensive battle.

Your Venice empire looks a lot like my venice-italy where i swapped to a monarchy and became the emperor. Only difference is colonized the hordes instead of breaking up the nearby
majors. AUS was my ally the whole game and my main aggressor was Burgundy who had split France. Sending all their troops into a -5 province against my 6shock commander pretty
much screwed them over no matter how many times they tried tho.

 

[chgrogers]

The Casual Belli used is the conquest of Roma from the Restore the Holy See mission.

I have Naval Superiority, GB and Castille just ended a colonial war.

GB finally recovered after taking Denmark, Aragon, Algeria, and some other random North Germany provinces. Then got into a never ending war with Castille France and Sweden.

A little worried about boots on the ground they have more and are concentrated and I'm nowhere near my force limit.

 

[Junuxx]

A little worried about boots on the ground they have more and are concentrated and I'm nowhere near my force limit.

You do have plenty of money though. Build some armies quick. Use mercenaries too, their reinforcements don't cost you any manpower.

 

[chgrogers]

A little worried about boots on the ground they have more and are concentrated and I'm nowhere near my force limit.

So this may be been a slight understatement now that I have seen the true numbers.

In northern Italy I have 45k troops + 15k in Italy. Then rebels stacks in Greece and Crimea. 3 Stacks in Turkey and Asia. 12-16k each. 24k in West Africa and 30k stationed across Venetian South America.

188k total troops.

Castille Fields 15k in North Africa and 80k are in Iberia and France. France has 85k troops and only has Land 21. Both Castille and Venice have Land 22.

Building 16k in Northern Italy now + setting up another troop factory in .... West Africa, Turkey and South America. Realized all my troops have been built in the same 4-5 provinces.

 

[War_lord]

Destroy their fleets and blockade those long coastlines to get the war exhaustion up. Go on the offensive in Africa and those Colonies. Get big stacks together to block France at Nice.

Honestly your position isn't that bad, you have a large Empire and Castille and France aren't nearly as strong as they can be.

 

[unmerged(399969)]

Well, the way I'd play it is to blockade the hell out of them and let them smash their troops into yours in those delicious delicious Alps you own. I'd only take in the war Castille's colonies, maybe a few provinces in Africa and maybe one province from France. I don't like dismantling big powers in one war like it's easy to do to france here. It's both unfair and makes for a boring game going forward.

 

[Junuxx]

Is Savoy involved in the war?

 

[chgrogers]

Savoy is my vassal.

The Plan is sieze the American colonies. Blockade Castille and turn Savoy into a meatgrinder. Take Sardinia, maybe Delta. Release Aragon and force Castillian WE so high most of North Africa has a chance to revolt away.

France release Southeastern Nations to vassalize later.

Leave France weak enough that a France Burgundy war seems interesting again.

 

[chgrogers]

Well the war went as planned and I was making great progress across Southern France but I had to use mega stacks to push the 25k-40k stacks back causing me to get quite a bit of attrition. Portugal Attempted to recover her lost cores but I was still bogged down in France. Austria declared war then Bohemia Declared war. With 35% Warscore against France and 56% Warscore against Castille I took my money and ran.

The plan to use Savoy as a meatgrinder worked mostly they managed to grab the high ground first so I went and killed the Stacks on flat land in Cuneo and Nice then waited until Savoie was lost then trapped them on ground of my choosing.

I started to spread out and assualt the various province and I had all of southern France. I could have continued on but I felt my goal where accomplished.

France Released Nevers and 5 province Dauphine.

Castille gave up Sardinia and Released Aragon. Doesn't destroy them but sets them back for a few years.