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I may end up doing just that. Or at least West Africa, and deal with Congo otherwise.
As soon as I break Japan, I can move the 100K or so I have East asia to Africa . I need the rest of my armies to break France.
IT will likely be France before Muscovy since Muscovy is still an ally . Since British truce is up in a few months, I'm thinking I;ll hit them first, feed the remnant to Gaeldom who I will then integrate. Then move on France .
My plan was : war , then annex. repeat as needed. The emperor ( Austria) is pretty weak. IS there any pitfalls I need to watch for ?
Annoying rules about not being able to declare on an HRE member while already at war with the Emperor are one thing. I'd look to dismantle it ASAP. If you can't easily get the right combination of nations at war together, you can separate peace the Emperor, then DOW another elector which will pull the Emperor back in, repeat until at war with all electors and the Emperor.
Alternatively, if the emperor is large and would take a lot of wars to full annex, it can be advisable to keep the HRE around, since whenever you DOW a member of the HRE, the emperor can be called in as a cobelligerant, even if you have a truce with them. And you don't really need to worry about AE, since at this point, AE is just a number, so long as you do proper truce cycling.
Nothing in the HRE looks like it needs more than 1 war to eat. France might take a few, that's where I'd be turning my attention.
other then truce cycling? no, not really.
what I usually do is do seperate peaces left and right and rack up 200+% overextension in HRE, and then release 2-3 DEAD hre nations (look for cores, plan ahead). Then feed it all t your vassals with grant province, integrate, repeat.
I think France is the only thing on map that is NOT dull war till the end.
And, you can still true one tag this, if you vassal feed and integrate lot. put focus on diplo, and get integraing. you should USE the combined plutocratic and influence policy
you can release your cn and immediatly dow them if you wanna go for it.
Well I did war France. Was not an exciting war , but not completely dull. Update coming up soon ( I'm at 1760).
GOod to hear this. I am actually still worried about doing a WC in time. I'll explain in next chapter, but I am having trouble keeping my coring queue full.
The 1750's: Soldiering on
The previous decade saw the annexation of my 2 big vassals, Catalonia and Yemen. And wars against Scandinavia and Persia. That left France and Muscovy as the only unscathed Great Power. And my plan was to attack at least one of them in this decade. But first, I wanted to finish off a previous Great Power, the nation of Great Britain:
(screenshot of DOW on Great Britain, inset shows I had started the annexation of Gaeldom before the war, second inset shows the invasion of Japan underway)
Prior to the war, I started the annexation of Gaeldom, to take advantage of my annexation discount policies before I retire them . I anticipated a quick war against the British and hoped to feed land to Gaeldom before the integration is completed.
But the war drags on due to the level 8 forts, and to the fact that I forgot to siege Holland right away, which was part of Great Britain :
(screenshot of fall of 2 out of 4 forts in Great Britain - note war score only at 30%. Inset shows annexation of a good chunk of Japan to keep coring queue full)
And so by the time Holland falls, Gaeldom was already integrated:
(screenshot of fall of Holland followed soon after by integration of Gaeldom).
At that point I decide to conclude peace with Britain. I cannot remember why I did not continue the war to get 100 WS , but I think it had to do with the time needed to transport troops to Italy ( to knock out Aragon) and the time needed to occupy British posessions in the New World.
(screenshot of peace with Britain, I take a chunk Mexico alongside the fortified provinces in Europe and Holland , inset shows releasing HOlland the day after the peace to keep my OE under 100%, second inset shows a rushed end to a Bahmani cleanup war so that I can release Holland)
After the peace, I release Holland who takes the place of Gaeldom in my vassal lineup. I will be using them to ear western Germany and NOrthern France. In the peace, I also make sure to grab Navarra giving me an additional way to invade southern France . Now I take advantage of my troops being in Holland and Britain, and prepare for invading France. Since Flanders stood between my new posessions in Holland and France, they had to go :
(screenshot of DOW on Flanders, which resumes the war with Great Britain )
Flanders had a lot of holdings in the New World ( they had 3 colonial nations - West Indies, COlombia and Mexico), and they make a heroic effort there. But I focus the war on their European homeland and it is an easy matter of stackwiping their army and sieging their forts:
After the fall of their capital, I am able to annex their mainland provinces ( minus the Capital) which I feed to Holland:
(screenshot of peace with Flanders - I highlighted French forts )
Although I could have dragged the war on longer ( to annex North American land), I concluded the peace once I had what I really wanted: a straight shot road to Paris without any forts in the way.
And so , without further ado, I declare on France :
(DOW on France, note French fleet blocking Channel)
The aim of the war was to break France. Strategy was to attack Paris from the North ( an early version of the Schlieffen plan), while simultaneously drawing out a diversion through attacks in the South from Spain on both sides of the Pyrenees. I also intended to supplement the land invasion with a naval landing from Britain, once I figured out the location of the French armies.
But as they say, the best laid plans do not survive contact with the enemy. And the US navy suffers an unexpected defeat at the hands of a smaller, but technologically superior, French fleet:
ANd to make matters worse , the DOW on France had caused the coalition to reappear. Although the coalition was not powerful, this meant that I cannot start easy quick cleanup wars with previously vanquished foes. And so , once I conclude the current cleanup war with Jaunpur, I end up having trouble keeping the coring queue full.
The land war, on the other hand, goes well. Paris falls rather quickly ( 331 days), while the French armies are busy sieging ROussilon:
Then I exchange a couple for fort captures on the Southern front, followed by a stackwipe of a large French force:
After that engagement, French resistance quickly collapses as their forts fall one by one. With the fall of Poitou in 1757, the northern army links up with the Southern army:
Notice in the screenshot that I am now at maxiumum Diplo points, and so I end up taking a tech level .
By 1758, most of France is overrun, and only their forts on the periphery ( Calais, Barrois, Finisterre, Provence) remain in their hands. At that point the truce with Ottomans expires:
To avoid the Ottomans joining the coalition, I had to declare on them immediately. I consider at this point making peace with France. But they would only give a 43 WS peace. So I decide to continue the fight, and DOW Ottomans anyways:
( screenshot of DOW on ottomans. Inset in red shows possible peace with France at this juncture . I refuse to take it )
The problem with this situation, however, is that my coring queue is now empty. I have zero OE, and I am accumulating ADM points and not coring anything.
A year and a half later, I had taken the remaining French forts, and now they are willing to sign a harsh peace:
(screenshot of peace with France, taking 95WS of land)
In the peace, I make sure to grab as many forts as possible ( I counted 8 of 11). This is to facilitate the next war. I also strip France of her mediterranean coast and most of her Atlantic coast, which should take care of their bothersome fleet.
The peace with France causes most of the coalition members to leave:
(screenshot of Liege leaving coalition right after peace with France. Other members of coalition then follow)
But then , a month later, I start to see countries *join* the coalition , starting with Frankfurt. SO I decide to hurry up and declare on Tuscany, who I can attack quickly ( my armies being in nearby France) and has enough territory to keep my coring queue full once I finish the French provinces:
This brings us up to date and to 1760. I am currently at war with Ottomans and Tuscany. As soon as my fleet brings my exiled troops from northern France and Britain to the Ottoman theatre, that war should quickly move into my favor. Tuscany should be straightforward to defeat. This leaves 2 issues to tackle: Muscovy and the coalition.
(screenshot of coalition map mode and my current tech levels).
Although I'd like to hit Muscovy soon as they are very large and will need multiple wars to absorb, I think I may have to focus on taking the coalition apart and preventing it from growing. Hopefully it will disband on its own once I peace out the Ottomans. I may not tackle Muscovy till the 1770s. We shall see.
thanks for reading. And to my American readers, happy Super Bowl Sunday. What an exciting 4th qtr.
The previous decade saw the annexation of my 2 big vassals, Catalonia and Yemen. And wars against Scandinavia and Persia. That left France and Muscovy as the only unscathed Great Power. And my plan was to attack at least one of them in this decade. But first, I wanted to finish off a previous Great Power, the nation of Great Britain:
(screenshot of DOW on Great Britain, inset shows I had started the annexation of Gaeldom before the war, second inset shows the invasion of Japan underway)
Prior to the war, I started the annexation of Gaeldom, to take advantage of my annexation discount policies before I retire them . I anticipated a quick war against the British and hoped to feed land to Gaeldom before the integration is completed.
But the war drags on due to the level 8 forts, and to the fact that I forgot to siege Holland right away, which was part of Great Britain :
(screenshot of fall of 2 out of 4 forts in Great Britain - note war score only at 30%. Inset shows annexation of a good chunk of Japan to keep coring queue full)
And so by the time Holland falls, Gaeldom was already integrated:
(screenshot of fall of Holland followed soon after by integration of Gaeldom).
At that point I decide to conclude peace with Britain. I cannot remember why I did not continue the war to get 100 WS , but I think it had to do with the time needed to transport troops to Italy ( to knock out Aragon) and the time needed to occupy British posessions in the New World.
(screenshot of peace with Britain, I take a chunk Mexico alongside the fortified provinces in Europe and Holland , inset shows releasing HOlland the day after the peace to keep my OE under 100%, second inset shows a rushed end to a Bahmani cleanup war so that I can release Holland)
After the peace, I release Holland who takes the place of Gaeldom in my vassal lineup. I will be using them to ear western Germany and NOrthern France. In the peace, I also make sure to grab Navarra giving me an additional way to invade southern France . Now I take advantage of my troops being in Holland and Britain, and prepare for invading France. Since Flanders stood between my new posessions in Holland and France, they had to go :
(screenshot of DOW on Flanders, which resumes the war with Great Britain )
Flanders had a lot of holdings in the New World ( they had 3 colonial nations - West Indies, COlombia and Mexico), and they make a heroic effort there. But I focus the war on their European homeland and it is an easy matter of stackwiping their army and sieging their forts:
After the fall of their capital, I am able to annex their mainland provinces ( minus the Capital) which I feed to Holland:
(screenshot of peace with Flanders - I highlighted French forts )
Although I could have dragged the war on longer ( to annex North American land), I concluded the peace once I had what I really wanted: a straight shot road to Paris without any forts in the way.
And so , without further ado, I declare on France :
(DOW on France, note French fleet blocking Channel)
The aim of the war was to break France. Strategy was to attack Paris from the North ( an early version of the Schlieffen plan), while simultaneously drawing out a diversion through attacks in the South from Spain on both sides of the Pyrenees. I also intended to supplement the land invasion with a naval landing from Britain, once I figured out the location of the French armies.
But as they say, the best laid plans do not survive contact with the enemy. And the US navy suffers an unexpected defeat at the hands of a smaller, but technologically superior, French fleet:
ANd to make matters worse , the DOW on France had caused the coalition to reappear. Although the coalition was not powerful, this meant that I cannot start easy quick cleanup wars with previously vanquished foes. And so , once I conclude the current cleanup war with Jaunpur, I end up having trouble keeping the coring queue full.
The land war, on the other hand, goes well. Paris falls rather quickly ( 331 days), while the French armies are busy sieging ROussilon:
Then I exchange a couple for fort captures on the Southern front, followed by a stackwipe of a large French force:
After that engagement, French resistance quickly collapses as their forts fall one by one. With the fall of Poitou in 1757, the northern army links up with the Southern army:
Notice in the screenshot that I am now at maxiumum Diplo points, and so I end up taking a tech level .
By 1758, most of France is overrun, and only their forts on the periphery ( Calais, Barrois, Finisterre, Provence) remain in their hands. At that point the truce with Ottomans expires:
To avoid the Ottomans joining the coalition, I had to declare on them immediately. I consider at this point making peace with France. But they would only give a 43 WS peace. So I decide to continue the fight, and DOW Ottomans anyways:
( screenshot of DOW on ottomans. Inset in red shows possible peace with France at this juncture . I refuse to take it )
The problem with this situation, however, is that my coring queue is now empty. I have zero OE, and I am accumulating ADM points and not coring anything.
A year and a half later, I had taken the remaining French forts, and now they are willing to sign a harsh peace:
(screenshot of peace with France, taking 95WS of land)
In the peace, I make sure to grab as many forts as possible ( I counted 8 of 11). This is to facilitate the next war. I also strip France of her mediterranean coast and most of her Atlantic coast, which should take care of their bothersome fleet.
The peace with France causes most of the coalition members to leave:
(screenshot of Liege leaving coalition right after peace with France. Other members of coalition then follow)
But then , a month later, I start to see countries *join* the coalition , starting with Frankfurt. SO I decide to hurry up and declare on Tuscany, who I can attack quickly ( my armies being in nearby France) and has enough territory to keep my coring queue full once I finish the French provinces:
This brings us up to date and to 1760. I am currently at war with Ottomans and Tuscany. As soon as my fleet brings my exiled troops from northern France and Britain to the Ottoman theatre, that war should quickly move into my favor. Tuscany should be straightforward to defeat. This leaves 2 issues to tackle: Muscovy and the coalition.
(screenshot of coalition map mode and my current tech levels).
Although I'd like to hit Muscovy soon as they are very large and will need multiple wars to absorb, I think I may have to focus on taking the coalition apart and preventing it from growing. Hopefully it will disband on its own once I peace out the Ottomans. I may not tackle Muscovy till the 1770s. We shall see.
thanks for reading. And to my American readers, happy Super Bowl Sunday. What an exciting 4th qtr
.
you really need to focus on ONE religious group, and wipe them out completely, before invading Europe.
You got to wipe everything east of Mediterenerean NOW, and link up Syria with India.
And improve relations to avoid coalition next time, rather then making spy networks. Offensive is also good to shorten siege time (and 25k artillery on a fort )
You could DECLARE on coalition, offer 100% warscore in ducats, truce break like there is NO tomorrow.
Up to you.
But you need to juggle coalition and truce timers better.
I wouldn't have declared on France, if nations are eglible to join coalition. The ai sees that and forms a coalition then, due to YOU being at war with big nation.
Ideally, you KILL entire sunni in Europe/asia, and THEN invade the Christians, to avoid coalition across many religious groups. Like I advised to eat entire India before you invade buddhist (indo) china.
If you don't do this, you might see giant coalition endgame. There are still ways to solve that (as described above) but you want to avoid it if possible
You got to wipe everything east of Mediterenerean NOW, and link up Syria with India.
And improve relations to avoid coalition next time, rather then making spy networks. Offensive is also good to shorten siege time
(and 25k artillery on a fort )You could DECLARE on coalition, offer 100% warscore in ducats, truce break like there is NO tomorrow.
Up to you.
But you need to juggle coalition and truce timers better.
I wouldn't have declared on France, if nations are eglible to join coalition. The ai sees that and forms a coalition then, due to YOU being at war with big nation.
Ideally, you KILL entire sunni in Europe/asia, and THEN invade the Christians, to avoid coalition across many religious groups. Like I advised to eat entire India before you invade buddhist (indo) china.
If you don't do this, you might see giant coalition endgame. There are still ways to solve that (as described above) but you want to avoid it if possible
@mackwolfe I nominated you for WritAAR (AAR writer of the week) in thread below. You are herbey encouraged to accept the award in the thread.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-week-mackwolfe.166110/page-396#post-22414102
keep up the good work, and I'm awaiting the next update as usual
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-week-mackwolfe.166110/page-396#post-22414102
keep up the good work, and I'm awaiting the next update as usual
I might be a bit late with this advice, but if you want to reduce AE gains you can take advantage of cross-religion alliances. Let's say nations A and B are allied, but follow different religion. If you DoW A and take provinces from B when signing peace with A, they will generate AE as if they are taken from someone with religion of A.
Great war there against France, didn't expect it would go that smoothly (although you probably had to be careful anyway).
Good trick to know.
ALthough, at this point, I am not too worried about AE , as I have enough power to steamroll everyone . Having a coalition is more annoyance than threat now. I will certainly save Africa and America for later though, to avoid racking up AE there . Finish Asia and Europe first.
Than you very much for the nomination. And thanks for the ongoing advice.
I am at 1768 now, so a new update will be this weekend for sure. I am hitting the "boring" part of eu4 campaigns, so I am playing less, but no doubt this is one campaign I will finish.keep up the good work, and I'm awaiting the next update as usual
I haven't played with coalitions for a long time,but I remember the main issue with coalitions was not that they were dangerous, but that you couldn't take land from the coalition members in separate peace (or was it that you had to pay DIP to do that)? I guess it's not the case now?
Welcome to the real challenge of doing WC in EU4 ;-)
The 1760s: Death of an Empire
I ended the last decade with a resounding victory over France , and with fresh wars against Ottomans and Tuscany .
The wars are really dull affairs, mostly sieges . The Ottoman war is helped by the Muscovites piling on the Turks. During that war, my current president (Nunez De Balboa) , who had just reached 6/6/6 status, dies:
This dude saw the annexation of Catalonia and Yemen in the 1740s, as well as the defeat of France in the 1750s. So he will likely be my 4th - and last - president for the virtual Mt Rushmore . Thanks to his 6/6/6 status, I am facing the "problem" of having 900+ ADM and DIP points. Since I am not teching up Admin and Diplo , I find it hard to use up the points. Especially that I am not going over 100 Over-extension most of the time.
On the Tuscan front, it is also a matter of sieges. Their capital Firenze falls just as I finish the cores from France:
(screenshot of fall of Firenze and core completions in France, note new war started with Japan)
With space open in my coring queue, I peace out the ottomans and their allies the Tunisians :
In the peace with Ottomans I take mostly Turkish culture provinces in the center, in the hope that they would lose peripheral land to rebels or other powers. I also target provinces with forts, which is my policy from now on, to facilitate later wars ( I used same tactic on France in last chapter, and Persia 2 chapters ago) . I decide to take a rare separate peace with Tunis , since I appear to have excess Diplo points for now .
The peace with the Ottomans convinces Austria to leave the coalition. I expected more countries to follow suit, but instead I see new members *join* the coalition, ending with Great Britain:
What I *think* happened here is peacing out the Ottomans made my active enemies list smaller , prompting Austria to leave. But then the expiration of the GB truce made my potential enemies list bigger, encouraging others to join. Although the dates do not completely line up, that is the only explanation I have. Either that, or the algorithm for coalitions has some randomness in it .
In any case, I decide not to wait for the coalition to grow and DOW immediately on Austria, who is emperor at the moment:
(screenshot of DOW on Austria, note that Japan has been defeated and waiting to be annexed, inset shows Hungary piling on Ottomans )
My aim in the AUstrian war is to take land ( of course), but also to dismantle the HRE. THe current electors are Oldenburg , Wurttemberg and Aachen. Oldenburg is part of the Tuscany war and I have him already occupied. Wurttemberg and Aachen are allied to Austria in the new war and I plan to occupy them.
Advancing from my fort at Karnten, I am able to take Wien without having to fight the Austrian army:
(screenshot of the fall of the Imperial capital at Wien, insets show fall of Aachen and tiny Najd dogpiling the once mighty Ottomans)
A few months later, Wuttemberg's capital falls and it is dismantle time:
Bye bye fake empire.
With my main aim achieved, I decide to sit on Austria to grab more WS and eventually take land . Tuscany was already defeated to 99%WS, and I had troops to spare, so I DOW on Persia as their truce expires:
(screenshot of DOW on Persia, note Ottomans losing to Najd and Muscovy - bye bye real empire?)
Aim of the Persian war is to feed everything to Iraq and Mamluks, as I expect my coring queue to fill up with Japanese and Tuscan land.
A few months later, I have to peace out Tuscany due to call for peace triggering and hitting 999 ADM points again. So I am forced to go over 100% OE for a little bit:
(screenshot of TUscan peace- I am over 100% OE , despite feeding some land to Holland)
The next 2 years are uneventful, as I wait on cores to finish:
(screenshot of Ottomans losing lots of land to Muscovy, as my Tuscan cores near completion). I did not start any new wars in those years, because my aim now is to start the annexation of Denmark and Holland, and for that I needed peace. SO I start with Japan:
(peace with Japan , despite having 99% WS, I cannot annex completely due to not taking their southernmost fort. I had plenty of time to take that fort, but I just assumed I had enough WS for complete annexation , and I never bothered to take the fort)
Then it is Persia's turn:
and finally Austria:
Out of the Austrian land I release Switzerland, and then I grant them all the new provinces to keep my over-extension under 100%.
With a new vassal to eat German land, I now commence the annexation of Denmark and Holland:
(screenshot of annexation start for Denmark and Holland , inset shows Ottomans being seriously dogpiled )
The total cost of DEnmark and Holland is about 1850 DIP. This includes the 25% discount from influence , but not the 20% discount from admin-influence policy or the 10% discount from plutocratic-influence policies. So I think they will end up costing just over 1000 DIP or so ( I am counting on badesumofu to double check my math).
With all the peace-time work of releasing and annexing vassals done, I can resume fighting. I DOW on Scandinavia, who is currently at war with Poland+Muscovy. Thanks to having a border province with their capital, I quickly stackwipe an army and capture stockholm 2 months later:
(screenshot of DOW on Scandinavia and an auspicious start to the war)
The hardest part of the war is actually knocking out Brandenburg, who I peace out for just money to keep their truce short ( at this point , I am draining -11 DIP per month from the annexations , so I really want to avoid spending DIP on separate peace treaties).
Once my cores from Japan are completed, I make peace with Scandinavia:
In the peace, I take Stockholm and a land bridge all the way to Koenigsberg on the Polish border. I am hoping I will also get a border with Muscovy for the next war.
This brings us to 1770. Muscovy is the last Great Power standing :
Not quite the bipolar world of the cold war, but a fitting last rival for the USA . Our alliance had broken long ago and so I will be declaring on them in next decade.
I have 6 vassals: Denmark , Holland, Mamluks, Iraq, Switzerland and Tlemcen.
Because of the Berber traditions, Tlemcen has been the black sheep of the family and I have not fed them any land, I have just activated the annexation policies, bringing Holland and Denmark closer to completion. I am thinking of releasing Novgorod either now , or after the war with Muscovy.
The coalition is a non-issue now, and has mostly disbanded as soon as I made peace with Scandinavia. Maybe having a force limit of over 1000 had something to do with it:
So my plan for the remaining 50 years is to DOW Muscovy soon, and simultaneously work on France, Poland and Central Europe as truces expire. Annex Mamluks and Iraq once I had fed them muscovite land. Then move massive armies to Africa and America while I cleanup the Asia and Europe remnants. I should be able to finish before 1821, I think. Going over 100% OE from now on will certainly help that.
I ended the last decade with a resounding victory over France , and with fresh wars against Ottomans and Tuscany .
The wars are really dull affairs, mostly sieges . The Ottoman war is helped by the Muscovites piling on the Turks. During that war, my current president (Nunez De Balboa) , who had just reached 6/6/6 status, dies:
This dude saw the annexation of Catalonia and Yemen in the 1740s, as well as the defeat of France in the 1750s. So he will likely be my 4th - and last - president for the virtual Mt Rushmore . Thanks to his 6/6/6 status, I am facing the "problem" of having 900+ ADM and DIP points. Since I am not teching up Admin and Diplo , I find it hard to use up the points. Especially that I am not going over 100 Over-extension most of the time.
On the Tuscan front, it is also a matter of sieges. Their capital Firenze falls just as I finish the cores from France:
(screenshot of fall of Firenze and core completions in France, note new war started with Japan)
With space open in my coring queue, I peace out the ottomans and their allies the Tunisians :
In the peace with Ottomans I take mostly Turkish culture provinces in the center, in the hope that they would lose peripheral land to rebels or other powers. I also target provinces with forts, which is my policy from now on, to facilitate later wars ( I used same tactic on France in last chapter, and Persia 2 chapters ago) . I decide to take a rare separate peace with Tunis , since I appear to have excess Diplo points for now .
The peace with the Ottomans convinces Austria to leave the coalition. I expected more countries to follow suit, but instead I see new members *join* the coalition, ending with Great Britain:
What I *think* happened here is peacing out the Ottomans made my active enemies list smaller , prompting Austria to leave. But then the expiration of the GB truce made my potential enemies list bigger, encouraging others to join. Although the dates do not completely line up, that is the only explanation I have. Either that, or the algorithm for coalitions has some randomness in it .
In any case, I decide not to wait for the coalition to grow and DOW immediately on Austria, who is emperor at the moment:
(screenshot of DOW on Austria, note that Japan has been defeated and waiting to be annexed, inset shows Hungary piling on Ottomans )
My aim in the AUstrian war is to take land ( of course), but also to dismantle the HRE. THe current electors are Oldenburg , Wurttemberg and Aachen. Oldenburg is part of the Tuscany war and I have him already occupied. Wurttemberg and Aachen are allied to Austria in the new war and I plan to occupy them.
Advancing from my fort at Karnten, I am able to take Wien without having to fight the Austrian army:
(screenshot of the fall of the Imperial capital at Wien, insets show fall of Aachen and tiny Najd dogpiling the once mighty Ottomans)
A few months later, Wuttemberg's capital falls and it is dismantle time:
Bye bye fake empire.
With my main aim achieved, I decide to sit on Austria to grab more WS and eventually take land . Tuscany was already defeated to 99%WS, and I had troops to spare, so I DOW on Persia as their truce expires:
(screenshot of DOW on Persia, note Ottomans losing to Najd and Muscovy - bye bye real empire?)
Aim of the Persian war is to feed everything to Iraq and Mamluks, as I expect my coring queue to fill up with Japanese and Tuscan land.
A few months later, I have to peace out Tuscany due to call for peace triggering and hitting 999 ADM points again. So I am forced to go over 100% OE for a little bit:
(screenshot of TUscan peace- I am over 100% OE , despite feeding some land to Holland)
The next 2 years are uneventful, as I wait on cores to finish:
(screenshot of Ottomans losing lots of land to Muscovy, as my Tuscan cores near completion). I did not start any new wars in those years, because my aim now is to start the annexation of Denmark and Holland, and for that I needed peace. SO I start with Japan:
(peace with Japan , despite having 99% WS, I cannot annex completely due to not taking their southernmost fort
. I had plenty of time to take that fort, but I just assumed I had enough WS for complete annexation , and I never bothered to take the fort)Then it is Persia's turn:
and finally Austria:
Out of the Austrian land I release Switzerland, and then I grant them all the new provinces to keep my over-extension under 100%.
With a new vassal to eat German land, I now commence the annexation of Denmark and Holland:
(screenshot of annexation start for Denmark and Holland , inset shows Ottomans being seriously dogpiled )
The total cost of DEnmark and Holland is about 1850 DIP. This includes the 25% discount from influence , but not the 20% discount from admin-influence policy or the 10% discount from plutocratic-influence policies. So I think they will end up costing just over 1000 DIP or so ( I am counting on badesumofu to double check my math
).With all the peace-time work of releasing and annexing vassals done, I can resume fighting. I DOW on Scandinavia, who is currently at war with Poland+Muscovy. Thanks to having a border province with their capital, I quickly stackwipe an army and capture stockholm 2 months later:
(screenshot of DOW on Scandinavia and an auspicious start to the war)
The hardest part of the war is actually knocking out Brandenburg, who I peace out for just money to keep their truce short ( at this point , I am draining -11 DIP per month from the annexations , so I really want to avoid spending DIP on separate peace treaties).
Once my cores from Japan are completed, I make peace with Scandinavia:
In the peace, I take Stockholm and a land bridge all the way to Koenigsberg on the Polish border. I am hoping I will also get a border with Muscovy for the next war.
This brings us to 1770. Muscovy is the last Great Power standing :
Not quite the bipolar world of the cold war, but a fitting last rival for the USA
. Our alliance had broken long ago and so I will be declaring on them in next decade. I have 6 vassals: Denmark , Holland, Mamluks, Iraq, Switzerland and Tlemcen.
Because of the Berber traditions, Tlemcen has been the black sheep of the family and I have not fed them any land, I have just activated the annexation policies, bringing Holland and Denmark closer to completion. I am thinking of releasing Novgorod either now , or after the war with Muscovy.
The coalition is a non-issue now, and has mostly disbanded as soon as I made peace with Scandinavia. Maybe having a force limit of over 1000 had something to do with it
:
So my plan for the remaining 50 years is to DOW Muscovy soon, and simultaneously work on France, Poland and Central Europe as truces expire. Annex Mamluks and Iraq once I had fed them muscovite land. Then move massive armies to Africa and America while I cleanup the Asia and Europe remnants. I should be able to finish before 1821, I think. Going over 100% OE from now on will certainly help that.
Yup. Also making their leader agree to give up land is hard, because of a coalition war malus , and having "ally in war". Which is why delcaring on coalition as a co-belligerent in a separate war is such a neat trick ( and I used it twice in this run).
He he. so true.
Although for me now, time left till 1821 is still a challenge.
nice progress. but you really should be coring 100% after admin efficiency 3, no matter what, and using all diplo points after tech 25 (threedeckers) on integration, and nothing else.
glad to see coalition woes are over. and disbanding HRE will make things easier.
glad to see coalition woes are over. and disbanding HRE will make things easier.