Unifying Germany Quickly

[Ica-kyun]

Hi, I've played alot of countries and unified Italy in 1465, is it possible and with who, to quickly unify germany because im not really great at being a passive little 1-5 province minor sitting in the HRE waiting to make germany, what country is it most easily done with?

 

[Aethis]

Hi, I've played alot of countries and unified Italy in 1465, is it possible and with who, to quickly unify germany because im not really great at being a passive little 1-5 province minor sitting in the HRE waiting to make germany, what country is it most easily done with?

Brandenburg.

 

[xcrissxcrossx]

Hi, I've played alot of countries and unified Italy in 1465, is it possible and with who, to quickly unify germany because im not really great at being a passive little 1-5 province minor sitting in the HRE waiting to make germany, what country is it most easily done with?

In my opinion it's very hard to do until protestantism appears, then you can use Holy War CB's with the right idea. Even after that, it can be pretty tough. I think the best countries to unite Germany would be Brandenburg or the Hansa. If you don't mind a culture shift, you can unite the Netherlands with Holland, then unite Germany after a culture shift.

 

[vcgetdown]

I just can't see why anybody would ever skip up on forming prussia, it has the best decision in the game. For that, I'd recommend TO, they are outside of the HRE so you don't have to worry about that, and they get to form prussia without any difficulty.

 

[unmerged(297342)]

Because Land Tech 30 takes a long time.

Brandenburg, Bavaria or the Palatinate can form Germany by about 1525.

 

[EndlessWaves]

What about switzerland now that it's no longer a 2PM?

Any of the german countries except Austria can form germany, so it's just a case of picking the one you feel most comfortable with.

 

[Moltke]

Hansa-->Prussia. You will inevitably be in war with the Teutons, so just conquer them since they are outside of the HRE and move your capital there. Then culture shift to Prussian and wait until the decision appears. Prussia to Germany just feels right, mostly because "Prussian military reforms" is so fun.

The nice thing about conquering the TO is you get cores on their crappy northern provinces. Kurland is Prussian I believe so you can move your capital and culture shift as soon as you have that province, provided you have 1000 ducats.

 

[Nephrahim]

What event does Prussia get? I've never played them.

Either way, I always hear Brandenburg, but like others have said, just pick a German country and go. The only real obstacle in your way is the HRE.

It WILL probably be a little harder then Italy, just because you will either be taking way too much BB for holding imperial Providences, or have to constantly be at war with whoever is the HRE.

 

[SacredDatura]

Doesn't Brandenburg start under a PU in 1399? Is this not a major obstacle, or are there better start dates?

 

[Bebo1026]

Unification of Germany is not as quick/easy as the others honestly.

It's more of a mid-late game goal.

 

[safferli]

I think that a culture-shifted Bohemia might be the quickest to unify Germany. Lots of potential, and you start off as HRE.

 

[Nephrahim]

Unification of Germany is not as quick/easy as the others honestly.

It's more of a mid-late game goal.

Which is only fair with the absurd bonuses it gets.

 

[TAMBOURINESNAKE]

What about switzerland now that it's no longer a 2PM?

Switzerland is still pretty poor. Wool + 3 base tax + 126 base manpower provinces.

 

[EndlessWaves]

Kurland is Prussian

Kurland is Old Prussian, a completely different culture in the Baltic Group rather than the Germanic one.

 

[Moltke]

Kurland is Old Prussian, a completely different culture in the Baltic Group rather than the Germanic one.

Oh ok, thanks. Well then you have to wait the 50 years to get a core on a Prussian provinces. Still worth the wait.

You could form Germany with Burgundy since culture shift is so easy for them, what with only a handful of Burgundian lands. Burgundy->Netherlands->Prussia->Germany sounds good.

 

[Aethis]

Hey if you conquer the Teutons HRE provinces as a HRE nation you get free cores on them.

 

[delra]

is_core = 46 # Mecklenburg
is_core = 50 # Brandenburg
is_core = 52 # Altmark
is_core = 53 # Lüneburg
is_core = 57 # Hannover
is_core = 58 # Anhalt
is_core = 61 # Dresden
is_core = 62 # Leipzig
is_core = 63 # Erfurt
is_core = 67 # Franken

Take into account that Brandenburg starts in a PU with Luxemburg so by 1415 they are bound to have a ruler with weak claims on the throne once their union breaks - allowing you to PU and inherit them. Brunswick, Luneburg, Mecklemburg and Hesse start with weak claims so they can be PU-ed right away.

I'd say this early amount of possible PUs premiums Bohemia heavily to do earliest possible Germany (they have the troops to enforce all the unions without getting annexed) but it leaves the problem of cultural shift in your hands. They also have +1 diplomat which makes all the RM/claim throne/declare war sequences much faster for them.

I say you start the game, start marching north on day one, RM Brunswick, Luneburg, Mecklemburg and Hesse right away, claim them all and PU as many as you can. Then wait until you can do the same to Brandenburg. Then you have to take Altmark and Franken by force from their masters and sit on 0.5 BB for 50 years waiting to inherit the rest.

Rush Gov 6 and build an embassy to mitigate it. Think you can just move capital to Berlin and flip culture once you inherit all of the above.

It's a shame you can't make Germany Vicky2-style if you have all the correct provinces PU-ed or vassalized...

 

[Retrograde]

While it takes longer for land tech 30, going Prussia and enacting Military Reforms gives you +20% discipline, enough to make your army into lightsaber-swinging badasses. Definitely worth the wait.

 

[unmerged(179469)]

Bohemia, by far, is your best bet from a 1399 start date.

 

[lordkestrel]

I think that a culture-shifted Bohemia might be the quickest to unify Germany. Lots of potential, and you start off as HRE.

They are. If you're doing Bohemia, the proper way of doing it is claiming Hungary's throne at the start of the game, and then forcing the union in a war. Claim Poland as well, start the war as soon as Hungary is pacified (or if Poland gets a proper heir, immediately so the CB doesn't expire). Once you've inherited those two, swap to Saxon culture (you nearly have enough Saxon provinces at the start to do so, if you take over Brandenburg you do have enough provinces).

Once Saxon culture, take out the TO and form Prussia if you want to do those decisions, otherwise just PU/vassal/outright annex Saxony, Meissen, Magdeburg, and Thuringia. PU is best, but vassal is good if you can get the missions to annex (and core) them, but it'll take probably 50 years until you can anyway (10 years between each vassal annex). Just flatout annexing them works as well, the Infamy gain isn't that bad. A decent leader with a 4-6 star diplomat should let you have 4 uncored provinces without gaining infamy.