I love playing partial games and trying tons of different starting strategies.
Play for about ten years, restart, play the same country for another ten years trying something entirely different....repeating endlessly until I have the ebb and flow of a given country down to a science.
Been doing that with England of late too, and I must say that of all the majors to play, I LOVE playing England with free Eire on.....makes for absolutely fantastic gaming!
Like Austria, England without her three Irish provinces in-hand is almost dishearteningly weak at the start. And, like Austria, England is blessed with good diplomacy.
Unlike Austria, England has no gold producing provinces (offset by the fact that she has MORE provs than Austria), and the fact that pretty much everybody of any importance hates your freakin' guts.
Scotland hates you (-200) and has a big army parked just across your border
France hates you (-200)
Your vassals in Eire hate you (-200),
Even your Spanish "allies" hate you (-140)
You just gotta love a start like that!
Still, despite the fact that everybody would dearly love to kick your English a**, you have a couple of really strong advantages.
* A solid military leader (Norfolk), who is every bit the equal of King James of the Scots.
* A wampum big fleet that can keep your (relatively small, and expensive to replace) army from having to do much in the way of tooth-and-nail fighting
Coupled with a couple of weights around your neck, chiefly:
* Your economy is too small to support the weight of what armies and fleets you DO have. If you do not expand almost immediately, you will bankrupt yourself trying to support your military. The only alternatives are to run chronic deficits (inflation trap), cut funding to the military (your army is smaller than almost all of your rivals....do you want to deal with that AND lesser morale?--not to mention that you blunt Norfolk's effectiveness in this manner, and so work against yourself), or wholesale disbanding (a horrifying option!).
These things combine to send one crystal clear message.
Expand now!
Be the early bad boy of Europe, cos really, what have you got to lose? Everybody already hates you, so it's not like you'll be hurting your reputation abroad....if they think you are a b@stard, then you may as well play into the role!
The good thing is that your two most likely, immediate opponents are not nearly so threatening as they might first appear, IF you make good use of the resources you have been given at start!
Here's what my repeated testing has borne out with regards to England and her weak start:
1) Gather the fleets in Lancaster/Wales, picking up the Calais regiment on the way 'round the Isle, and marching Norfolk to wherever the fleet is.
2) Once the fleet and your army is assembled, split the fleet into even halves, then split one half again (so you have three fleets in total, one being twice as large as the other two). Norfolk gets on the big fleet with the cannon and some 14,000 other troops. Divide the rest in half, and put them on the smaller fleets.
3) Sail for Eire, and as soon as Norfolk's fleet has him in position off the coast of Lienster, DoW Eire (should be 'round April, if you don't tarry). Immediately after the DoW, begin marching your 10k IN Eire toward Ulster, and unload Norfolk and the guns agains the Irish capitol whilst your fleets sail on around the island, dropping off their troops in Munster and Connaught when they get into position. The 7k Irish army will move to Meath to assault, but will lack the manpower to do more than cover the province, meanwhile, you've got sufficient manpower in all provinces to lay down a goodish siege. If the Irish have time to start conscription, they'll do it where you have Norfolk, and he's a shoo-in to beat the conscripts, prolly destroying them utterly.
4) After your fleets deliver their deadly payload, retire to Wales or some nearby port, and wait. Takes about a year, but you can bloodlessly take Ireland in this way, giving you a MUCH needed income boost (I had to run approximately three months all cash to keep from taking a loan).
5) When Ireland is annexed, bring the army home, leaving some 12k IN Eire to guard against the occassional revolt (the 7k Irish army plus 5k of your own guys should do it!)
6) Split the fleet, leaving 3 Transports and 3 Warships on the Irish side of the Island, moving the rest to Yorkshire, where they are split in half, evenly (Norfolk and company March to province as well).
7) Split your 12k Irish Defense Force in half with plans to load 6k onto your little fleet (3 warships + 3 Transports)
8) Split the army of England in half, with plans to load onto the two fleets in Yorkshire.
9) When Norfolk is in position off the coast of the Grampions, DoW Scotland, and let them come to The Marches. They have no cannon, so their siege should take quite some time, and attrition will nibble their army down to size.
10) Half of the Army of England (the half with the guns, btw) lays siege to Lothian, Norfolk lands with half the army and immediately assaults minimally fortified Grampions, before moving on to Scathclyde, while half of your Irish force pummels the Highlands.
11) Wait. Your sieges should conclude before James V's, and you can annex Scotland and snag the Scottish army to add to your collection.
Results - Unified England within the first five years of play, minimal troop losses, and the remainder of the game to work your BB rating off.
It is important to always honor your alliance with Spain, cos if you get kicked out of the alliance, you'll never get back in, and with all the wars they start, that's a permanant alliance, meaning that France is your only real worry, and then, the worst they can hope to do is get Calais from you....
Just one of many excellent starts I've uncovered with the dauntless English!
-=Vel=-
Play for about ten years, restart, play the same country for another ten years trying something entirely different....repeating endlessly until I have the ebb and flow of a given country down to a science.
Been doing that with England of late too, and I must say that of all the majors to play, I LOVE playing England with free Eire on.....makes for absolutely fantastic gaming!
Like Austria, England without her three Irish provinces in-hand is almost dishearteningly weak at the start. And, like Austria, England is blessed with good diplomacy.
Unlike Austria, England has no gold producing provinces (offset by the fact that she has MORE provs than Austria), and the fact that pretty much everybody of any importance hates your freakin' guts.
Scotland hates you (-200) and has a big army parked just across your border
France hates you (-200)
Your vassals in Eire hate you (-200),
Even your Spanish "allies" hate you (-140)
You just gotta love a start like that!
Still, despite the fact that everybody would dearly love to kick your English a**, you have a couple of really strong advantages.
* A solid military leader (Norfolk), who is every bit the equal of King James of the Scots.
* A wampum big fleet that can keep your (relatively small, and expensive to replace) army from having to do much in the way of tooth-and-nail fighting
Coupled with a couple of weights around your neck, chiefly:
* Your economy is too small to support the weight of what armies and fleets you DO have. If you do not expand almost immediately, you will bankrupt yourself trying to support your military. The only alternatives are to run chronic deficits (inflation trap), cut funding to the military (your army is smaller than almost all of your rivals....do you want to deal with that AND lesser morale?--not to mention that you blunt Norfolk's effectiveness in this manner, and so work against yourself), or wholesale disbanding (a horrifying option!).
These things combine to send one crystal clear message.
Expand now!
Be the early bad boy of Europe, cos really, what have you got to lose? Everybody already hates you, so it's not like you'll be hurting your reputation abroad....if they think you are a b@stard, then you may as well play into the role!
The good thing is that your two most likely, immediate opponents are not nearly so threatening as they might first appear, IF you make good use of the resources you have been given at start!
Here's what my repeated testing has borne out with regards to England and her weak start:
1) Gather the fleets in Lancaster/Wales, picking up the Calais regiment on the way 'round the Isle, and marching Norfolk to wherever the fleet is.
2) Once the fleet and your army is assembled, split the fleet into even halves, then split one half again (so you have three fleets in total, one being twice as large as the other two). Norfolk gets on the big fleet with the cannon and some 14,000 other troops. Divide the rest in half, and put them on the smaller fleets.
3) Sail for Eire, and as soon as Norfolk's fleet has him in position off the coast of Lienster, DoW Eire (should be 'round April, if you don't tarry). Immediately after the DoW, begin marching your 10k IN Eire toward Ulster, and unload Norfolk and the guns agains the Irish capitol whilst your fleets sail on around the island, dropping off their troops in Munster and Connaught when they get into position. The 7k Irish army will move to Meath to assault, but will lack the manpower to do more than cover the province, meanwhile, you've got sufficient manpower in all provinces to lay down a goodish siege. If the Irish have time to start conscription, they'll do it where you have Norfolk, and he's a shoo-in to beat the conscripts, prolly destroying them utterly.
4) After your fleets deliver their deadly payload, retire to Wales or some nearby port, and wait. Takes about a year, but you can bloodlessly take Ireland in this way, giving you a MUCH needed income boost (I had to run approximately three months all cash to keep from taking a loan).
5) When Ireland is annexed, bring the army home, leaving some 12k IN Eire to guard against the occassional revolt (the 7k Irish army plus 5k of your own guys should do it!)
6) Split the fleet, leaving 3 Transports and 3 Warships on the Irish side of the Island, moving the rest to Yorkshire, where they are split in half, evenly (Norfolk and company March to province as well).
7) Split your 12k Irish Defense Force in half with plans to load 6k onto your little fleet (3 warships + 3 Transports)
8) Split the army of England in half, with plans to load onto the two fleets in Yorkshire.
9) When Norfolk is in position off the coast of the Grampions, DoW Scotland, and let them come to The Marches. They have no cannon, so their siege should take quite some time, and attrition will nibble their army down to size.
10) Half of the Army of England (the half with the guns, btw) lays siege to Lothian, Norfolk lands with half the army and immediately assaults minimally fortified Grampions, before moving on to Scathclyde, while half of your Irish force pummels the Highlands.
11) Wait. Your sieges should conclude before James V's, and you can annex Scotland and snag the Scottish army to add to your collection.
Results - Unified England within the first five years of play, minimal troop losses, and the remainder of the game to work your BB rating off.
It is important to always honor your alliance with Spain, cos if you get kicked out of the alliance, you'll never get back in, and with all the wars they start, that's a permanant alliance, meaning that France is your only real worry, and then, the worst they can hope to do is get Calais from you....
Just one of many excellent starts I've uncovered with the dauntless English!
-=Vel=-
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