what you can't see in the 1741 commonwealth image is the PU with austria as commonwealth. already integrated them. (also, about to remove france alliance in the 1640 italy game).
basically at this point, 3 million man standing+reserve army (700k+300k from vassals/allies), plus 2 million in reserves.
guide? (ideas): humanist, quantity, diplomatic, influence, offense, naval/defense, trade, quality (allows you to maintain 8-10 relationships).
edit: venice needs republican ideas before forming italy for the extra culture bonus, or they start dropping cultures early and cannot absorb commonwealth. probably exchange for influence ideas.
plus, control silk trade for the extra 10% culture bonus (another thing not pictured, are that all cultures in my provinces are accepted, hence the vassals to contain the non-accepted cultures). also, enact 'multilingual diplomats' policy for further 10% culture bonus.
there's the accepted cultures map. still working on converting the silk producing provinces in persia/azerbaijan to lombard now (already converted in poland game).
btw, around the time that silk fabrics/trading becomes popular/valuable in europe, early 1600s, you should have 20% silk bonus.
after this point, the first cultures to drop acceptance will be: croatian, lithuanian, pomeranian, serbian, mishar, bulgarian, romanian, crimean, mashriqi, kurdish, in that order. so convert them, when they do, or release vassals in their place, and incorporate larger cultures like persian, russian, turkish, etc... instead.
also, avoid absorbing large culture early game, they will skew you acceptance rations. instead, just leave them as failed states, or vassalize large portions of them until late game.
oh and the trick to getting a PU with austria as poland, or PU with commonwealth as italy are as follows:
poland, just ally austria, they will usually support a candidate in your elections. same dynasty. just keep them busy fighting ottomans, teutonic/hungary, and muscovy so they don't meddle in HRE/euro affairs (although do allow them to take some territory), if done properly, bohemia will inherit burgundy, and not austria (whoever does goes to war with france). and don't start any wars in the HRE yourself unless emperor is at war, and only with bohemia. then use ally with sweden/scandinavia to claim austrian throne. support sweden in their independence war if possible, not denmark. also, don't form the commonwealth until you have plenty of vassals and 120% religious unity, lithuania is mostly orthodox.
venice, crucial to form italy before 1600, then poland has their rebellions (early 1600s), and converts to absolute monarchy. it should be easy to get a PU due to the extra turmoil they are facing (get a marriage with commonwealth only and noone else), and then they usually start a war with muscovy/scandinavia. when they do, claim their throne, and break alliance, watch them fight rebels and muscovy/scandinavia (which they can technically win), wait until no heir or low legitimacy, claim throne/declare war (use france or scandinavia as allies if help required), easy PU ;p
also, i recommend you play poland before you play venice. the latter is more challenging. although key to early game venice is ally poland+france, and have a BIG navy (vs ottomans). always over your unit cap, always with inflation, loans, mercs (keep to a minimum)... lmao, but once trade picks up it gets slightly easier. i even had to go 1500 in debt to bankroll scandinavia. after their war with commonwealth, they had 1250 in loans, suffering mass rebellions, close to norway/denmark declaring independence. had to send 2 stacks up there too. help your allies ;o when playing as poland, subsidize scandinavia. they need it. also, guarantee scandinavia, since theyre one of the weaker large powers, it will deter attacks vs them. don't guarantee larger allies like france/commonwealth.
Last edited:
