What are some of your "galaxy brain" strats to give any campaign a good start?

[Leivve]

My contribution is, if you're a strong power in the early game, no CB Byzantium as soon as you can and vassalize them. Then go about your normal plan till you can hit tech 6 super early, and smash the ottomans by returning all of Byzantium's cores. Effectively killing them, and neutralizing their threat.

 

[deathbypie]

Get the discovery age ability to steal subjects at half cost, and get diplomatic ideas first. Then steal Sweden, Norway and Naples. Though Naples doesn't work well anymore due to Aragon giving up on it most games.
Anyway, with Sweden and/or Norway as your marches, the ai will spend most of its time travelling across the world to siege them.

 

[Livigy]

For my Portugal migrate to the new world game I liked releasing Leon from Castile to feed it my Iberian cores so I can successfully move my capital. It also typically becomes a coloniser and has a colonist in its national ideas so makes a great vassal to help colonise along with you. I also like having a chunky purple 'Portugal'.

For my Dithmarschen game I did like something I saw on a Florryworry vid with a no cb of Riga to be able to grab Bremen/Hamburg which are free cities so declaring directly on them will involve the emperor but declaring on Riga will not. Also the major AE hit from the no cb is mostly at the Baltics and is minimal ae in the hre.

One strategy thats sorta obvious I like with playing a Holland into Netherlands game is to abuse a French alliance, and by abuse I mean I direct most of their wars which syncs up our truce timers, determine what lands they get and make sure they stay solvent.

Essentially I get an independence war ASAP to prevent the French/English war over Maine, as it won't trigger while they are at war with Burgandy (also don't take any land in the independence war so you maintain French trust.). Then as soon as the French English truce expires I declare on Calis and feed France the cores it was going to take anyway. But because I take only one province in the war and give the rest to France you get soo many favours that you can keep calling France into all your HRE/Burgandy wars. I would even have further wars with England just to revoke English cores on French land and feed it more land just for the favours and trust so there is no 'desires your land' once our borders finally touch. Also determining the allocation of lands can help prevent France from taking some rightful Dutch clay in the lowlands if you leave them to act independently.

 

[Travis_Bickle]

My contribution is, if you're a strong power in the early game, no CB Byzantium as soon as you can and vassalize them. Then go about your normal plan till you can hit tech 6 super early, and smash the ottomans by returning all of Byzantium's cores. Effectively killing them, and neutralizing their threat.

There's a more efficient way to do this imo.

After no-CBing Byz, If you have the fleet, wait until the Ottomans move all their troops east to attack Candar/Dulkadir. As soon as you see them cross, and I mean the absolute second, move all your men to Constantinople, declare and barrage Gallipoli then assault. It often has no garrison (you can almost guarantee this by ensuring you have no men or boats in Constantinople) and you'll have it down instantly. If you see it has some garrison, as long as it is under 500, it's fine, but if it is more than that you may want to hire a merc company and make sure you have highest morale possible. The Ottomans won't attack as long as you have 24k + sitting on that fort.

Then you siege Edirne/Saloniki and carpet siege the rest of the Ottomans, and let ticking warscore ride up. That alone will be enough for 70% warscore (Byz cores + money or an extra province or two) but if you want more, do the usual thing of allowing smaller Ottoman stacks across the strait and then stack wipe them by temporarily unblocking the strait to give them the illusion they can cross again, then block it just before they cross for the easy wipe. That'll get you up to 85-90%. You can often peace out his ally too especially if it's Tunis or AQ since they might end up in another war.

The only thing you have to worry about is if either the Ottomans have allied Crimea or if Ottomans have already declared on Candar, who is allied to Crimea. The reason for this is he'll get military access around Crimea, but honestly the Crimean - Ottoman alliance doesn't happen too often and if you're quick Ottomans won't have declared on Candar yet.

Aragon or Venice are the best nations for this because they have the fleet, they just need a few extra cannons (I usually get 9 extra galleys for Aragon to totally wreck the Ottoman fleet. I'm way over the naval forcelimit but it is 100% worth it).

There are no allies needed, it's pretty reliable and the only RNG is that the Ottomans don't have a relation with Crimea. You can get this done by 1450 at the latest.

You could do it as Castile or France but for Castile, the stab hit is brutal, and the French fleet is 50/50 to beat Byzantium let alone the Ottomans.

This start as Aragon is one of the best starts in the game imo because you can expand east with ease.

 

[Travis_Bickle]

A second Aragon based one from me.

The starting Aragon ruler inevitably dies within the first 2 years, sometimes the first few months. For this reason, I always disinherit my starting heir (who is a 4/1/0 so who cares).

There are two advantages to this:

1) You can pick which dynasty you want to flip to. I always RM France and get their dynasty on my throne. I've PU'd them quite frequently when their starting ruler dies because of this.

2) Because the Aragon heir is fairly old, there's a good chance you end up in an early regency and get the Iberian Wedding early. I don't want this because I want to postpone it until Castile have taken exploration.

Usually works for me at least .

 

[Methuen of Melnibone]

A slight twist on 'wreck the Ottomans' - either proactively wreck them as described above, or make sure to ally the Mamluks, and use them as your hammer to attack them when they're busy in other wars. The Mamluks don't get the magic Otto-bonuses, (or at least I haven't noticed them) so even when they're big, they'll die like a normal country would in a large war. I did this as part of my Commonwealth campaign, and it reduced the Ottomans to a rump state in Anatolia without having the hassle of actually governing the Balkans directly. That rump state then spent the rest of the game sparring with the Mamluks, so the Mid-East was kept happily fractured and zero threat.

My actual every-campaign tip - always establish a protected 'core' zone that has high dev, production buildings, trade buildings, merchants, and trade state policies. Start working on this from year 1. Keep out enemies with an outer ring of defensive state edicts (eventually) supporting top-level forts, with ramparts & defensive bonuses. Exploit dev in border regions. This way you'll have a stable core economy that will pay for your adventures, you don't lose masses of warscore in border regions, and anything else is a bonus. This works well if you're in Italy or East Prussia - It's a little OP if you're in India or GB. If you work on it from the get-go, you'll also notice the incremental gold increases, and how much easier it is to deal with merc spam / bottomless AI manpower states as a result.

The new mechanic about centralising dev should actually make that strategy even better.

My other every-campaign tip - play the naval game early. I don't mean try to fight GB for supremacy, but always have loads of transports and some ships to protect them - being able to move armies about by sea is really powerful, especially combined with good land-based allies / armies. Build this up from the start and you don't notice the expense. Don't be afraid to lean on nations like Venice to do the heavy lifting in naval warfare - they make an amazing Naval March with all of their provinces provided with the dock buildings.

 

[Battlex]

A slight twist on 'wreck the Ottomans' - either proactively wreck them as described above, or make sure to ally the Mamluks, and use them as your hammer to attack them when they're busy in other wars. The Mamluks don't get the magic Otto-bonuses, (or at least I haven't noticed them) so even when they're big, they'll die like a normal country would in a large war. I did this as part of my Commonwealth campaign, and it reduced the Ottomans to a rump state in Anatolia without having the hassle of actually governing the Balkans directly. That rump state then spent the rest of the game sparring with the Mamluks, so the Mid-East was kept happily fractured and zero threat.

My actual every-campaign tip - always establish a protected 'core' zone that has high dev, production buildings, trade buildings, merchants, and trade state policies. Start working on this from year 1. Keep out enemies with an outer ring of defensive state edicts (eventually) supporting top-level forts, with ramparts & defensive bonuses. Exploit dev in border regions. This way you'll have a stable core economy that will pay for your adventures, you don't lose masses of warscore in border regions, and anything else is a bonus. This works well if you're in Italy or East Prussia - It's a little OP if you're in India or GB. If you work on it from the get-go, you'll also notice the incremental gold increases, and how much easier it is to deal with merc spam / bottomless AI manpower states as a result.

The new mechanic about centralising dev should actually make that strategy even better.

My other every-campaign tip - play the naval game early. I don't mean try to fight GB for supremacy, but always have loads of transports and some ships to protect them - being able to move armies about by sea is really powerful, especially combined with good land-based allies / armies. Build this up from the start and you don't notice the expense. Don't be afraid to lean on nations like Venice to do the heavy lifting in naval warfare - they make an amazing Naval March with all of their provinces provided with the dock buildings.

Papal states as an ally is also really useful for having an additional fleet to help with blockades

There's a more efficient way to do this imo.

After no-CBing Byz, If you have the fleet, wait until the Ottomans move all their troops east to attack Candar/Dulkadir. As soon as you see them cross, and I mean the absolute second, move all your men to Constantinople, declare and barrage Gallipoli then assault. It often has no garrison (you can almost guarantee this by ensuring you have no men or boats in Constantinople) and you'll have it down instantly. If you see it has some garrison, as long as it is under 500, it's fine, but if it is more than that you may want to hire a merc company and make sure you have highest morale possible. The Ottomans won't attack as long as you have 24k + sitting on that fort.

Then you siege Edirne/Saloniki and carpet siege the rest of the Ottomans, and let ticking warscore ride up. That alone will be enough for 70% warscore (Byz cores + money or an extra province or two) but if you want more, do the usual thing of allowing smaller Ottoman stacks across the strait and then stack wipe them by temporarily unblocking the strait to give them the illusion they can cross again, then block it just before they cross for the easy wipe. That'll get you up to 85-90%. You can often peace out his ally too especially if it's Tunis or AQ since they might end up in another war.

The only thing you have to worry about is if either the Ottomans have allied Crimea or if Ottomans have already declared on Candar, who is allied to Crimea. The reason for this is he'll get military access around Crimea, but honestly the Crimean - Ottoman alliance doesn't happen too often and if you're quick Ottomans won't have declared on Candar yet.

Aragon or Venice are the best nations for this because they have the fleet, they just need a few extra cannons (I usually get 9 extra galleys for Aragon to totally wreck the Ottoman fleet. I'm way over the naval forcelimit but it is 100% worth it).

There are no allies needed, it's pretty reliable and the only RNG is that the Ottomans don't have a relation with Crimea. You can get this done by 1450 at the latest.

You could do it as Castile or France but for Castile, the stab hit is brutal, and the French fleet is 50/50 to beat Byzantium let alone the Ottomans.

This start as Aragon is one of the best starts in the game imo because you can expand east with ease.

With Venice another tip is to use the timeline exploit, as this will add all your land to the HRE at game start, whilst keeping you at kingdom rank. You can then jump out the empire by 1500 as you should have protected yourself from Ottos by then, and be on an even footing with Mamlukes

 

[k4sp3r00]

It is not my strategy and it's not as effective or showy as instagibbing Ottomans but the ordering of what idea groups you should take is some galaxy brain shit imo.

First idea group: DIP idea group, MIL tech is more valuable than MIL ideas at this point on so no point taking a idea group to waste points on or leave hanging and by taking DIP first you get to ADM tech 7 in no time and get to have 2 idea groups running at the same time instead of the one that you'd have if you got an ADM idea group first.

Second idea group ADM idea group, MIL tech still more valuable and taking another DIP idea group isn't possible so ADM it is.

Third idea group MIL idea group, need to catch up in both ADM and DIP tech and MIL tech around this time has some of the least valuable techs so this is the best time to fill out a MIL idea group

 

[Travis_Bickle]

It is not my strategy and it's not as effective or showy as instagibbing Ottomans but the ordering of what idea groups you should take is some galaxy brain shit imo.

First idea group: DIP idea group, MIL tech is more valuable than MIL ideas at this point on so no point taking a idea group to waste points on or leave hanging and by taking DIP first you get to ADM tech 7 in no time and get to have 2 idea groups running at the same time instead of the one that you'd have if you got an ADM idea group first.

Second idea group ADM idea group, MIL tech still more valuable and taking another DIP idea group isn't possible so ADM it is.

Third idea group MIL idea group, need to catch up in both ADM and DIP tech and MIL tech around this time has some of the least valuable techs so this is the best time to fill out a MIL idea group

I would suggest taking Admin first in nearly every start if you plan to blob. It'll save you a lot more Admin in the long-run.

Same thinking with either taking Diplomatic or Influence second.

 

[EarlKonrad]

I would suggest taking Admin first in nearly every start if you plan to blob. It'll save you a lot more Admin in the long-run.

Same thinking with either taking Diplomatic or Influence second.

The only issue with taking ADM as a first idea is that is slows you getting tech 7 and 10 as not only you have to spend ADM on tech but also on the first 3 ideas before you start saving ADM with the CCR. Granted, some nations have an easier time going ADM first than others.

 

[Maxxie42]

If you're starting as an OPM, on the first day develop once and grab the three privileges for mana. This will take you close to 0% crownland. After a few months you get an event that gives you 30% free crownland in exchange for a nasty 30% autonomy in all of your provinces. But since you're an OPM, you only have your capital province and it can never have more than 0% autonomy.

So there you go, a bunch of extra mana and 30% free crownland.

 

[BlazeKnight_]

If you're starting as an OPM, on the first day develop once and grab the three privileges for mana. This will take you close to 0% crownland. After a few months you get an event that gives you 30% free crownland in exchange for a nasty 30% autonomy in all of your provinces. But since you're an OPM, you only have your capital province and it can never have more than 0% autonomy.

So there you go, a bunch of extra mana and 30% free crownland.

holy hell

On a side note, I would recommend taking the 3 mana privs regardless of crownland if you intend on expanding quickly early game. Or at least take them until you hit 20% crownland, since the penalties for that are not severe.

 

[Travis_Bickle]

The only issue with taking ADM as a first idea is that is slows you getting tech 7 and 10 as not only you have to spend ADM on tech but also on the first 3 ideas before you start saving ADM with the CCR. Granted, some nations have an easier time going ADM first than others.

This is a fair argument, but I'd still argue for taking it in most cases of a blob heavy game.

Sure, your initial wars will probably be for cores/claims which have an inherent or complete coring reduction, but even by taking just the first 2 Admin ideas you're saving a solid amount of Admin, especially if you're coring in higher dev regions or have a starting/first idea CCR like the Mughals or Ottomans you're basically never worrying about coring costs.

With the Admin tech reduction and governing capacity increase, you're saving even more admin over time.

I usually prioritise the first two Admin ideas then balance trying to hit Admin tech 7 and finishing Admin ideas.

 

[Cpt.Cross]

Get the discovery age ability to steal subjects at half cost, and get diplomatic ideas first. Then steal Sweden, Norway and Naples. Though Naples doesn't work well anymore due to Aragon giving up on it most games.
Anyway, with Sweden and/or Norway as your marches, the ai will spend most of its time travelling across the world to siege them.

Never done a steal subject CB. Whats the AE like?

 

[Livigy]

Just to add to the crownland discussion. For many countries at the start you can give all three privileges for mana and end up at 0% crownland, you should dev once to get like 0.01% crownland as you are above 0% crownland you can sell crown land as though it was worth 10% crownland which can be a nice day one ducat boost.

Be warned though only do this if you have a way to revoke the estate statutory right privilege such as having a monopoly or two in the estate that gets that privilege (monarchies it is nobles and republics it is burghers).

 

[Guibou]

I have a big brain mid game strat. Once i've blobed out in my home region and get about 200 ducats income i like to take loans up to a mental limit of 100 ducats income. I get about 20k ducats that way. Buy all the manufactories, workshop and trade compagny investment i can. Once i paid it back i do it again. But the second time my income is now 350 so to the same 100 ducats limit ill get around 50k ducats. Do the investment again. I try to time that in a peaceful moment of the campaign like during court and country or if i have to wait out a coalition. After those few years of eating bread crumbs i can afford all the mercs i want and don't have to think about economy at all for when the real blobing start.

 

[holyvigil]

My strat is to buy a powerful computer. Leave the task manager open and know the hot keys to the task manager and restarting the game. So that all your OPM starts go super quick and smooth.

 

[Big Bad France]

I would suggest taking Admin first in nearly every start if you plan to blob. It'll save you a lot more Admin in the long-run.

Same thinking with either taking Diplomatic or Influence second.

I agree with this. If I have a starting ruler that generates 2 or less ADM, then I might take diplomatic first, admin second, but the vast majority of the time, admin is my first pick. There are also special cases where I might take exploration or religious first.

 

[uberjedi]

One of my favorite Muscovy starts is when you attack Novgorod, you take all the land that borders PLC and Kalmar Union. Real border gore style.
This means that you will likely be the only one eating up Novgorod.

 

[Battlex]

One of my favorite Muscovy starts is when you attack Novgorod, you take all the land that borders PLC and Kalmar Union. Real border gore style.
This means that you will likely be the only one eating up Novgorod.

Is that galaxy brain? Also you want to outflank Livonians too so that they don't push into western novgorod