Yikes. So much for forming Italy anytime soon

[Meridian235]

It's going to be a while before that vassal's AE burns off. Should have annexed and released.

So my Tuscany => Italy Ironman has been going fairly well. I took France and Hungary as my allies to start, and we've been fast friends ever since. Here's the problem. Poland never formed a PU with Lithuania, so The Commonwealth isn't going to be a factor. The Hapsburgs died off in Austria and now they are under PU with Hungary. France is blobbing as usual. Hesse got the Burgundian Inheritance, and Bavaria is the emperor. It's time to start whittling down my allies, so they don't become a problem later.



Here's the problem. France and Hungary-Austro are allied. I can't form Italy anytime soon and become Emperor because of the insane AE in Milan. France, Poland, and Hungary-Austria are going to start chewing into the weak HRE soon. France and H/A only have one other ally, both to Switzerland. I have Diplomatic/Plutocratic and now Defensive. Not sure why I took Defensive, it was a late night run and seemed like a good idea at the time.

What's my next move?

 

[Tacticus101]

Keep relelecting the same leader, lower your republican tradition, you will become a despotic monarchy at low RT, then you can become emperor. If you are really desperate to form Italy then release Milan and conquer them.

Alternatively make some new alliances and start fighting either Poland or Hungary. Allying the emperor might work, then help them defend the emperor.

As a note though, Hungary probably wont expand into the HRE, their border is blocked by Austria and Poland. Until they annex Austria they will probably be more likely to fight Poland or Ottomans.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

If you gouge prestige keeping it near 100, you can form Italy in 50-80 years most likely. If you want emperor sooner, you have to leave the good government form for the bad, but going Italy is going to do that anyway so it stings less.

Depending on your ideas, you can load up on galleys and tear up the Ottomans to kill time.

 

[Panzerschiffe]

View attachment 119805

It's going to be a while before that vassal's AE burns off. Should have annexed and released.

I'm quite certain you keep the AE or at least some AE when you release.

 

[Ricox]

That's the problem with Italy region - you're in the middle of it all and slight obstacles can be really annoying. I formed Italy out of Milan, at some point I had strong Austria that ended up rivaling me & allying Venice, and a strong France that didn't want me as an ally, I didn't have any major allies for decades and Savoy was bullying me with their French ally. What helped me was the League War - I converted Protestant (always do with any country, really) and managed to become the League leader. France and several other strong countries joined my side, so I struck Austria immediately. After the war, I gained dominance in the Italian region (and, for like the first time ever, I saw Hungary eat the other half of Austria, survive and become actually strong, for Hungary standards).

So I'm suggesting to look forward to that and maybe try to lead your league so you can cripple some rivals or destroy some alliances.

 

[Meridian235]

Well the first thing I did was drop Defensive and take Religious. Only plugged two ideas into it, so it wasn't a huge mistake.

While I figure out what the heck to do in Europe, I'm going to start getting North Africa under my boot.

 

[slv]

What's wrong with defensive?

It's still one among the best military idea. In case you will be fighting France/Hungary it will help.

 

[viale]

Yeah defensive is really strong, especially paired with the mountains in northern Italy and high level forts.

 

[DKinator]

It's going to be a while before that vassal's AE burns off. Should have annexed and released.

So my Tuscany => Italy Ironman has been going fairly well. I took France and Hungary as my allies to start, and we've been fast friends ever since. Here's the problem. Poland never formed a PU with Lithuania, so The Commonwealth isn't going to be a factor. The Hapsburgs died off in Austria and now they are under PU with Hungary. France is blobbing as usual. Hesse got the Burgundian Inheritance, and Bavaria is the emperor. It's time to start whittling down my allies, so they don't become a problem later.

Here's the problem. France and Hungary-Austro are allied. I can't form Italy anytime soon and become Emperor because of the insane AE in Milan. France, Poland, and Hungary-Austria are going to start chewing into the weak HRE soon. France and H/A only have one other ally, both to Switzerland. I have Diplomatic/Plutocratic and now Defensive. Not sure why I took Defensive, it was a late night run and seemed like a good idea at the time.

What's my next move?

If you really want to form Italy fast, you can break milan's vassalization and take the truce-penalty war against them. EDIT: Sorry, my mistake. You'd have to do two wars. Not as feasible.

What's wrong with defensive?

It's still one among the best military idea. In case you will be fighting France/Hungary it will help.

I've actually been favoring Defensive as my first military idea of late as morale seems to be much more important this patch.

 

[Fionnix]

View attachment 119805

Stuff like this makes me feel so much better about my EU4 games.

 

[Meridian235]

There's nothing wrong with defensive. In fact, Plutocratic + Defensive is pretty great.

In this game, however... the goal is to take the Mediterranean. I'm going to need religious to slog through the Muslims.

It's now 1551. Need about 130 more AE decay to absorb Milan. Something I should have planned ahead for to be sure.

 

[Atlanteax]

I'm quite certain you keep the AE or at least some AE when you release.

iirc, if you 'release' same-day after annex, the AE will be retained...

but if you wait for the month-end tick, to 'cleanse' the variables, and then do the 'release' ... the AE should be null

I recall multiple statements by players elaborating to do the later.

 

[BionkeSmalls]

who else is Hungary allied with beside France? can you DoW on them to bring France in on your side while they bring Hungary/Aus in on their? this will break the French/Hung/Aus alliance (for a time being).

Nothing is wrong with Defensive at all...in my current Savoy-> Sardinia-Peidmont game i took it first because of a French Neighbor obviously, BUT then i took Quantity which i never have before, and simply outnumbered France once the group was done. Great idea if you ask me. I highly recommend it for you in the region you are in, you're going to need more troops.

 

[Pilot00]

Italy...I hate Italy...Not the formation decision but the very fact that pretty much as an outsider you have to beat the HRE every freaking time to take one province out of it....

 

[anomanderus]

Getting quantity and offensive would be good. Letting the other countries eat the empire is fine because when you have massive forcelimits and become emperor you can push them back anyway one at a time.

 

[hauptman]

Restart.

You did it wrong. First off tuscany's ideas are not for war, they are for gearing up for war. Use your tuscan start to get ahead in techs, and get only the provinces that are needed for italy. I usually take Milan as a vassal first, then use his armies to annex siena, modena, and possibly ferrara. Then I settle down and fill up ideas. As long as you're catholic, might as well take a papal vassal as well. makes it easier to control the curia. Then of course, annex when you convert for the nice bonus holding Rome.

Once you have all your NI's filled then you can form Italy and the cheap core costs to annex the remainder in one big gulp, as you should be well ahead in mil tech against Spain and Venice. Coring Naples prior to forming Italy is a huge waste of points and AE.

 

[TheAtreides84]

Yesterday I tried to form the Kingdom of God before 1500, hoping it would disable the curia and stop the reformation. After countless tries I managed it: ally with aragon, declare on urbino, sell avignon, join the empire, ally with austria, declare on siena/florence/milan and vassal feed from there, fight coalitions and break truce with venice... only to discover that the decision is bugged, the curia is still there, I'm not the controller and virtual Luther isn't impressed one bit.