Winning a succession war without the war goal

[Balinkay]

Hey guys,

sorry if this has been discussed already, but is there a way to actually win the war without controlling the wargoal?

This is the situation:

I am a fully formed Russia in 1728 and am fighting Spain (which has eaten Morocco and about 3/5 of Italy) + 2/3 of the new world + a colony-less GB for the British throne. The war is now 10 years old and I have occupied all of Spain's continental holdings bar Sicily, Sardinia, the Baleares and Galicia, which is currently under siege (what a slog that was, considering most of my forces were in SE Asia at the start of the war and I was fighting BRA + a few minors plus Cologne the emperor with the idea of dismantling the HRE). Each side has given 1.5m + casualties and they've got 8-9 loans + 20 war exhaustion.

I myself am sitting pretty on 9k ducats and 1.1 WE even after a lot of merc spam and fighting for six years down a tech level.

My truce with Austria (who is their ally) will soon end and I'm wondering if they can be called into the same war again (I sieged Vienna a decade or so ago and got them out after slaughtering some 300k of their men). I had France on my side, but they white peaced a while back.

I'm currently building a transport fleet to hopefully land a single stack on the islands from Calais and siege down London. Is it doable, considering I'll never actually be able to fight their fleet?

Once my continental sieges finish, I recon I'll have about 6 war score.

Their colonial nations have more than 50% LD.

A couple of screenshots:

 

[netherlink]

hm only way i can imagine would be to let spain and great britain fight so long until you have enough WS.
Don't siege all of Spain, so they can build more troops.

Or keep fighting until you built a proper fleet

 

[Balinkay]

Them Castillians still have a bunch just chilling in North Africa. In a few months I'll try to bait them to come in and siege Granada where I can properly demolish them.

The thing is, I was kind of planning this is how it would go back when I started the war, but I was hoping all of these sieges would amount to more than the puny 27 WS I'm currently getting. Was counting on more like 50.

I was thinking about building a fleet of heavies, but I'd never be able to construct the minimum of ~50 or so I'd need to pull off a landing. Once I get to Britatn I'm confident I'll be able to at least make a dent.

 

[blusarge27]

Maybe build a transport fleet around Arkhangelisk, or try and move yours there if you can, and then try make a landing at the top of GB, in Scotland? Do you know where his fleet is?Would take a while to siege your way down to London, but might work.

 

[Balinkay]

Hmm, not a bad idea. Will try to give it a go.

I've also thought of just white peace-ing him at 20 WE and laughing maniacally as the rebels break his country, but I'm not sure I've weakened him enough. And idea how many loans it would take for him to start having some serious issues?

Would also like to know if his colonial nations would declare independence during our war.

 

[blusarge27]

Hmm, not a bad idea. Will try to give it a go.

Bear in mind, this is coming from a HoI player, no idea whether it would work in EU . I even thought about having two sacrificial small fleets of heavies with a few light ships to flank your transport fleet and distract GB's fleet if he spotted you. Anyway...

I've also thought of just white peace-ing him at 20 WE and laughing maniacally as the rebels break his country, but I'm not sure I've weakened him enough. And idea how many loans it would take for him to start having some serious issues?

Would also like to know if his colonial nations would declare independence during our war.

Well, as long as you keep occupying his land particularists will eventually spawn. But if he still has his armies that won't cause any problems for him. You'd need to wipe his armies. And as netherlink said, leave him a few provinces so he keeps recruiting mercs, then wipe them and let him recruit more, etc. Eventually he'll get into debt. It really depends on whether he has reserves of cash or not. But it's late game and if he's built a decent empire he could probably merc up for years.

As far as I know, colonial nations, like normal subjects, can't declare independence war if they and their overlord are at war. They might after the war though.

 

[Balinkay]

Small update: Landed 51k in Scotland. He's blocked them in now and has like 100k on the isle, so I'm not sure how exactly I'll reinforce.

Managed to beat Spain's entire 100k army once or twice in Granada, no wipes sadly, but he's stopped attacking the fort now. Clever f****r. Will probably let some more rebels spawn and white peace him, if he wipes my stack. God, in the same time I'd have got like 500 development in India and SE Asia. Bah, roleplay is more fun .

 

[Dominion]

You don't reinforce. You siege down a province and queue up 100k mercs.

 

[Balinkay]

You don't reinforce. You siege down a province and queue up 100k mercs.

Hehe, I like the way you think. Wellp, guess I didn't need that 9k gold I have in the bank.

 

[kente]

anyway, if you want to reinforce your troops in GB, you can always build a bait-fleet, which will engage the british fleet (probably losing and being destroyed), while your transport fleet land your army safely

 

[atwix]

My truce with Austria (who is their ally) will soon end and I'm wondering if they can be called into the same war again (

no, they can't.

I'm currently building a transport fleet to hopefully land a single stack on the islands from Calais and siege down London. Is it doable, considering I'll never actually be able to fight their fleet?

you can't get britain as PU if you don't full occupy GB.

your way WILL work, but fleet access from france, a fast general, loads of transports and a fleet to stall english fleet harassing the transports will be needed.

use battle fleet to pinpoint the english main fleet, let it chase you, and position/fight your fleet in a way that it can delay GB from killing your transports.

with forced march, fleet acccess and fast general, you will only need two weeks to land/occupy a province in GB. then you move out transports, and ship all troops over with entire fleet. use rout into occupied province port if GB is in the way.

 

[Balinkay]

Managed to land another 45k and he somehow came up with 170, barely beat me in a battle or two before I managed to merc up so I white peaced. Such a waste of 10 years.

 

[Dominion]

What I don't understand is, if you have 10 years, why not just build up a full row of heavies?

The AI never gets a full CW of them and you can spec percentages. You will lose a few fights, maybe more than a dozen, but in the end they will lose ships and you won't since you'll always back out, minimizing your losses (or not having any at all).

Heck, half the time I forget to use an Admiral because it's so linear.

I've broken into England once with 0 fleets at the start of the war and finished sieging down London 6 years later. Naval combat is really just about sending in heavies, backing out, repairing, rinse and repeat until you won.

 

[Balinkay]

Yeah, should have gone that route in hindsight. Just never really play naval nations (and the few times I do I'm obscenely rich anyway so I just spam the crap out of heavies) and as a result of that have no idea how naval combat works.

 

[brifbates]

To answer one of your questions, no the ai won't declare an independence war while they are at war.

 

[Balinkay]

Ah, thanks! Is that a new thing? Could have sworn it was possible at one point.