Expansion

[Jon Shafer]

Okay, so I'm playing Austria in the Grand Campaign game. How is it that I can go about expanding? Vassilizing Bohemia and Hungary are good places to start (which is what I'm aiming for), but I want to expand in other areas as well (northern Italy). Is there any way to expand and obtain land by annexation without getting the whole world mad at you? Once I declared war on Mantua (who had an alliance with Milan, Papal States and Naples), and subsequently crushed the entire Italian peninsula, annexed most of it. Soon afterwards, I found myself at war with about half the countries of Europe and lost everything.

[Sandman]

Is there any way to expand and obtain land by annexation without getting the whole world mad at you?

Well, you could try force-vassalizing and then diplo-annexing, for much less reputation damage.

Bear in mind that as long as you are at war with the Papal states, every Catholic country gains a casus belli against you. If you own Rome, all Catholic countries will have a permanent casus belli on you.

Austria gets a large number of inheritance events for Hungary, Bohemia, Milan and Burgundy. Plus you can try to diplo-annex other German and Italian minors.

I think that gaining provinces after your enemies government has collapsed doesn't give any badboy points, could be wrong though.

Capturing provinces from a country that is about to be inherited also give badboy-free conquests, you get the provinces you control when the inheritence event occurs.

[Havard]

Originally posted by Sandman
I think that gaining provinces after your enemies government has collapsed doesn't give any badboy points, could be wrong though.

Definitely wrong So-called "turbo-annexing" give more badboy points than anything else...

As Austria you have a great advantage in diplomacy - use it! Give out gifts to your neighbours, offer royal marriages and vassalization and eventually you can annex them peacefully (But remember for northern Germany - that plan will go down the drain when that Luther dude comes around )

You will most likely get events to inherit Hungary, Bohemia, Milan and Burgundy - no need to make war on them (at least not until after the inheritance eventually failed).

[Jon Shafer]

Okay, sounds good.

I was playing as France in one game, and smacked the snot out of everyone. Took all provinces of England, Brittany, Burgundy, and others in mainland France, and force-vassilized Baden, Mainz, Brittany, Burgundy, Savoy, and others. However, I annexed that little country in northern Holland, so that got everyond mad at me, which is what led to the 2nd war with England, Denmark, Sweden, and plenty of others (and the rest of the countries which I ended up force-annexing). Good thing I beat them all off too.

How is it that you can go about annexing countries that you've force-vassilized? It seems to me they wouldn't want to be controlled by you since you just spanked them.

And another thing. Any suggestions for playing Brandenburg or Prussia in the Grand Campaign game? I tried playing them, and got crushed by my neighbors quite frequently. Especially as Prussia... no where to expand at all, except against Poland, but they have an alliance with Lithuania, and there's no way Prussia stands a chance against them. I tried making good alliances, but Prussia makes no money which makes things hard... Any suggestions on how to play them? I'm anxious to try and play a game as one of the German states.

[Sandman]

How is it that you can go about annexing countries that you've force-vassilized? It seems to me they wouldn't want to be controlled by you since you just spanked them.

Step one: Give them lots of gifts to get your relations up.

Step three: Enter a military alliance with them.

Step four: You've already vassalised them, so you don't need to do it again.

Step five: Wait ten years.

Step six: The diplomatic option, annex, will appear. Use it. The country may join your realm, reject your offer, or reject your offer and cancel the vassalization (very bad). What decides whether they will join is a bit of a mystery, but having a monarch with good diplomatic ability helps.

[St Leo]

BTW, waiting more than ten years increases your chances quite a bit.

[Jon Shafer]

Any suggestions on how to wrest minors away from alliances? Seems as though every country is in an alliance (actually, every one probably is) which makes it hard to add them to your own. I'm playing Prussia at the moment, beat up on the Teutonic Order, have good relations and an alliance with Poland and Brandenburg, so hopefully I'll be able to vassalize/annex them before things get tricky with Luther and whatnot.

[St Leo]

Any suggestions on how to wrest minors away from alliances? Seems as though every country is in an alliance (actually, every one probably is) which makes it hard to add them to your own.

1. Go into the Options screen and turn on several notification options (including the one that tells you when your alliance expires).
2. Unfortunately, there is no message option for enemy alliance expirations. If you are desperate to get someone into your alliance, you need to check their alliance expiration by either hovering your mouth over their alliance icon in their diplo listing or by looking over the list of current alliances in the ledger and invite them into yours the minute theirs ends.
3. Sometimes, it's easier to finish up with your current alliance and join theirs instead.

I'm playing Prussia at the moment, beat up on the Teutonic Order, have good relations and an alliance with Poland and Brandenburg, so hopefully I'll be able to vassalize/annex them before things get tricky with Luther and whatnot.

BTW, countries aren't particularly enthusiastic about vassalisation proposals from smaller countries with small armies.

[uh Clem]

2. Unfortunately, there is no message option for enemy alliance expirations. If you are desperate to get someone into your alliance, you need to check their alliance expiration by either hovering your mouth over their alliance icon in their diplo listing...

I'm usually not that desperate...

[Seeker]

Really, really annoying thing with Austria:

Abdication of Karl V/Charles V

You get to give away half the empire, but bonus!, you get to choose which half!