Want to play a france PU style game...is it viable?

[heroforhirerob]

I'm basically wanting to play a game as a dominating France but without a WC. Basically expand to their historical borders and then PU as many other majors as I can. Is this viable? If so, any particular ideas or strategies that will make this easier?

 

[Blust]

Very viable, I've seen a video of someone doing it with Burgundy. You can have a ton of PUs as long as you stay on your toes. Early game you can secure PUs on Bohemia, Poland, Milan (via event), Burgundy (via RNG), and probably the Iberian countries (and Naples if it becomes free).

 

[Titanius Puffin]

Hmm.
I'm not an expert on the royal marriage/claim-throne game, and there are some guides on the forums if you dig for them - they won't have aged badly - but I can point out some basics...

Prestige, diplomatic reputation, and high relations help when getting a spontaneous inheritance. You're of course going to have quite a lot of vassals, so in addition to holding onto your 'French strong vassals' privilege for the Aristocracy, Influence and Diplomatic idea groups are going to be pretty valuable.

One of the perks I remember from an old PU guide was that changing the notifications options is good so you get to know whenever new monarchs pop up on 'interesting' thrones.

Here is one of the Master guides on personal unions by @atwix . It's detailed enough to melt brain-cells (programming/maths level detail).
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ages-personal-unions-and-claim-throne.788829/

 

[Battlex]

I'm basically wanting to play a game as a dominating France but without a WC. Basically expand to their historical borders and then PU as many other majors as I can. Is this viable? If so, any particular ideas or strategies that will make this easier?

Yeah it's easy, French strong duchies gives +3 dip relations when requiring 1 subject. Remember that you can use consort Regencies to push PUs as you're same dynasty briefly

 

[holyvigil]

France is the second best country in the world to play a PU game.

They get 4 pus via event/missions and +diplo rep.

 

[Blust]

Yeah it's easy, French strong duchies gives +3 dip relations when requiring 1 subject.

No, you still need 2 subjects (vassals or marches only).

 

[Battlex]

No, you still need 2 subjects (vassals or marches only).

To gain it yes, but you can keep it with only 1 vassal

 

[heroforhirerob]

How do I deal with England? They'll probably hate me so I probably won't be able to get a PU over them. And should I stay Catholic or go Protestant?

 

[viale]

In the beginning England is going to hate you yes, but if you can kick them out of the continent, and then just leave them alone, eventually you're going to eclipse them and they'll find other rivals. And they're gonna lose their cores eventually, so just give it time. Rivaling them might also make castille, auatria and Burgundy like you more

 

[Battlex]

How do I deal with England? They'll probably hate me so I probably won't be able to get a PU over them. And should I stay Catholic or go Protestant?

If you take all continental possessions they lose their cores via event, just have a young king so you have time to improve relations, wrong religion isn't too much unless Trent happens

 

[raikaria]

France is a strong enough start in 1444 you can play it however you want. I've literally played until 1821 with France without declareing war.

Through sheer development, size and baseline strength France can totally play a diplomatic/game of thrones game. In fact, with +1 relation and +1 Diplo Rep; France is actually well-poised to do so.

 

[jdavis86]

Provence is good for this too if you'd like a more challenging start. It's +2 diplo relations is great and it has good PU missions in Emperor. France will have an equal amount of relations with strong duchies (1 +3 vs Provence 2 + 2) and I believe they have a late game +diplo from missions.

But if the goal is to do only PUs then I think strong duchies will expire as soon as your last vassal is integrated, in which case Provence comes out on top for diplo slots.

 

[Monumentiumerongraphataquesqly]

How do I deal with England? They'll probably hate me so I probably won't be able to get a PU over them. And should I stay Catholic or go Protestant?

I had a very powerful France run a few months back, Hard/Ironman and I was no.1 by mid-late 1500s. Part of the reason why I became so powerful so soon is because I dealt with England very easily. After the 100 Years War which you should win very easily, keep your alliance with Scotland, When your truce with England is nearly over, ferry all your troops over to Scotland. Your vassals will deal with Portugal on the continent. Declare war. Your bigger and better quality armies, backed with Scotland and England's lack of good forts, means you should steamroll England. At least I did. Sounds way too easy to be true but that's what I thought too. I made a back up save just in case things went really poorly but I didn't even have to reload...

Take as much money and provinces as AE allows. England will essentially be neutered after this war. It will take 2-3 more wars to fully absorb them but after this point they will no longer be a threat. For the record I went Reformed, not sure why in retrospect. In between my wars with England I made sure I was expanding into Italy and the HRE, bit by bit, always careful not to trigger a coalition.