The Prussian empire needs YOU.
- Thread starter Chelomo
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I thought I'd say something. Austria is allied with a few of the electors, right? If so, declare a revoke electorate on one said ally. War leader doesn't change, so you'll be able to knock Austria into submission without Portugal getting involved.
You can always use more manpower. When the game starts to move into the later stages, you'll need it. Sweden becomes the single biggest threat to a Prussian player, since their bonuses rival your own, and the biggest advantage you can really get is more staying power. Plus, if you end up say... getting a few bad military kings in a row, you'll find that your invincible Prussian armies start to really struggle.
Plus, while you can take anyone individually, once all the lesser powers disappear, you'll tend to find yourself with fewer and fewer opportunities for strong allies. Ultimately, the world ends up looking bleak:
The best armies (And even biggest) in the world doesn't mean much when you can barely reinforce and are stretched thin on all fronts.
EDIT: The above screenshot, I have a max manpower higher than Russia, quickly approaching 500,000.
Plus, while you can take anyone individually, once all the lesser powers disappear, you'll tend to find yourself with fewer and fewer opportunities for strong allies. Ultimately, the world ends up looking bleak:
The best armies (And even biggest) in the world doesn't mean much when you can barely reinforce and are stretched thin on all fronts.
EDIT: The above screenshot, I have a max manpower higher than Russia, quickly approaching 500,000.
Wow Historybuff, I didn't think about that, even though I knew about the warleader shenanigan thing with the elector haha, clever! I ended up doing just like Frederick, and it was truely a 7 years war, but I'll do a state of the union in my next post. Also, I didn't want to upset the electors who back me, since my whole system is dependent on catholic Cologne, who, if they stop backing me, vote for another of my supporter, thus screwing me over. Let's say my control of the electors is somewhat thin.
Tyrannis, that's a sad sad world you got there.
EDIT: Also, Sweden is basically irrelevant now, they got screwed by Denmark in the begining. The only reason they have their starting borders is because Russia helped them out.
Tyrannis, that's a sad sad world you got there.
EDIT: Also, Sweden is basically irrelevant now, they got screwed by Denmark in the begining. The only reason they have their starting borders is because Russia helped them out.
My advise? Grow strong and do it fast and early. Here is my BRA > Prussia game in 1664. I pretty much expanded by diplo annex every HRE member possible either by force or diplo vassal. I dissolved the HRE in the 1500s and with the Prussian military ideals, there really isn't challenge. This game started with 1.4 so AE was probably negated a little but with 1.4, HRE members themselves tended to blob so it actually made them easier targets.
State of the Union
Here is how Europe looks now:
Not that many big changes, but thanks to some of your advice (And going against some of it, I'll admit haha), I was able to win a war against both Austria and Portugal! It lasted a long time, mostly because I wanted to milk as much as possible, which in this case was the release of Aragon from Portugal, and the annulment of their treaties. I also snagged Niederbayern from the Austrians, with the purpose of making claims from it, in order to get easy CB's.
I was lucky in that Austria got dragged into a war with the Ottomans over their alliance with Lithuania. Even though I took out most of the Austrian forces myself, the blockades and occasional battles helped out, not to mention the fact that Poland-Lithuania were basically even more of a non factor.
In true Frederickian fashion I started by destroying Saxony. The war ended up being France vs Portugal and Me vs Austria. France was able to fight off the Portuguese stacks mostly by themselves, though I helped them with some of the dicier battles. That's probably because many of the Portuguese troops came from overseas, so once we defeated their mainland stacks, they could only bring limited reinforcements to bear, and France started sieging their provinces, which ultimately gave me most of the necessary warscore, along with the wargoal (Niederbayern).
My post war situation
-0 Manpower, and my armies are depleted.
-Good cash reserve
-I took 3 provinces from Poland right after the big war, in order to stagger the truces (And expand a bit)
-The Austrians were recovering fast, their manpower grows back easily it seems, but they just got dragged into yet another Ottoman war.
My plans for the future
-After another war, Austria will pretty much be irrelevant, so I will have to look at the elephant in the room: How to deal with the Ottomans and Portugal.
-France is also growing, even though we're staunch allies for now. They attacked the newly re-formed Kingdom of Aragon, snagging two provinces. But since they hold some imperial territory, I will have to face them one day or another.
-I plan on going to war with now isolated Portugal and get them to release colonies (I hope you can do that!), or perhaps Castille. That should finish them off nicely.
-As far as the Ottomans go...it'll probably be a long and painful process, but I expect my higher quality units will help me pull ahead against their 260 000 standing troops -.-
-For expansion, I plan on eating up what's left of Poland, and maybe a bit of Lithuania, since they had weird Protestant conversions. However, this is likely to bring me into conflict with the Ottoman Empire sooner than later, unless they decide to go for Russia, or Russia goes for them.
Here is how Europe looks now:
Not that many big changes, but thanks to some of your advice (And going against some of it, I'll admit haha), I was able to win a war against both Austria and Portugal! It lasted a long time, mostly because I wanted to milk as much as possible, which in this case was the release of Aragon from Portugal, and the annulment of their treaties. I also snagged Niederbayern from the Austrians, with the purpose of making claims from it, in order to get easy CB's.
I was lucky in that Austria got dragged into a war with the Ottomans over their alliance with Lithuania. Even though I took out most of the Austrian forces myself, the blockades and occasional battles helped out, not to mention the fact that Poland-Lithuania were basically even more of a non factor.
In true Frederickian fashion I started by destroying Saxony. The war ended up being France vs Portugal and Me vs Austria. France was able to fight off the Portuguese stacks mostly by themselves, though I helped them with some of the dicier battles. That's probably because many of the Portuguese troops came from overseas, so once we defeated their mainland stacks, they could only bring limited reinforcements to bear, and France started sieging their provinces, which ultimately gave me most of the necessary warscore, along with the wargoal (Niederbayern).
My post war situation
-0 Manpower, and my armies are depleted.
-Good cash reserve
-I took 3 provinces from Poland right after the big war, in order to stagger the truces (And expand a bit)
-The Austrians were recovering fast, their manpower grows back easily it seems, but they just got dragged into yet another Ottoman war.
My plans for the future
-After another war, Austria will pretty much be irrelevant, so I will have to look at the elephant in the room: How to deal with the Ottomans and Portugal.
-France is also growing, even though we're staunch allies for now. They attacked the newly re-formed Kingdom of Aragon, snagging two provinces. But since they hold some imperial territory, I will have to face them one day or another.
-I plan on going to war with now isolated Portugal and get them to release colonies (I hope you can do that!), or perhaps Castille. That should finish them off nicely.
-As far as the Ottomans go...it'll probably be a long and painful process, but I expect my higher quality units will help me pull ahead against their 260 000 standing troops -.-
-For expansion, I plan on eating up what's left of Poland, and maybe a bit of Lithuania, since they had weird Protestant conversions. However, this is likely to bring me into conflict with the Ottoman Empire sooner than later, unless they decide to go for Russia, or Russia goes for them.
Actually, as long as you don't revoke the electorate, there is no revoking electorate penalty for just declaring war using the casus belli. Of course, you would need to dismantle Austria, and that will probably entail AE.
Yeah, I'm aware that rapid expansion is the way to go, but I try to play thematic games. I already have a game as Sweden/Scandinavia where I dominate everything, so growing slowly is sometimes a bit more fun haha. I also went the imperial route, since I got unexpectedly elected emperor in the 16th century, so I couldn't annex too many HRE members if I wanted to keep my support amongst the electors.
@Historybuff: Huh, true dat. I might use that strategy for the second Austrian war then. Especially since screw Saxony. They gotta die.
Ha, yeah, I triggered that because I basically said, "I only have 40 years left, I need to take as much as I can get ASAP!" I won in the end, but it was rough going.
Also: Sweden is always relevant! Even if they're behind now, by 1700 they'll be sporting armies just as strong as yours.
One thing worth noting, another reason why high manpower is amazing is because with a high manpower, you get faster regeneration in absolute numbers. So if you have 80,000 max manpower, you'll gain 667 per month. If you have 200,000 you'll gain 1667 per month! It makes recovering from war much, much quicker.