Spain Strategy

[Riot16]

So I'm trying to figure out my strategy with Spain and I'm looking for some opinions.

I figure that I'll leave Portugal alone at least to start because they're allied with the UK and like all Total War games I'm guessing they'll be tough to control for invaders. I'm thinking about moving up the Italian peninsula from Naples because the Italians don't have any allies to start with.

The problem I'm having with Spain is that they're involved in 4 different places, having territories in Spain, Flanders, Italy, and the Americas. I don't want to overextend myself early so I was thinking about selling/gifting Florida to avoid the Natives there and just limiting myself to the islands they start with.

I could also go for the barbary states but I wouldn't want to mess with the Ottoman Empire.


What do you guys think the best way to go would be?

[Cynik]

I would either build up a sizeable colony in the Americas and perhaps create a couple servant states from the native factions then use it to develop your army and invade Italy, then take it from it there

[dmar]

So I'm trying to figure out my strategy with Spain and I'm looking for some opinions.

I figure that I'll leave Portugal alone at least to start because they're allied with the UK and like all Total War games I'm guessing they'll be tough to control for invaders. I'm thinking about moving up the Italian peninsula from Naples because the Italians don't have any allies to start with.

The problem I'm having with Spain is that they're involved in 4 different places, having territories in Spain, Flanders, Italy, and the Americas. I don't want to overextend myself early so I was thinking about selling/gifting Florida to avoid the Natives there and just limiting myself to the islands they start with.

I could also go for the barbary states but I wouldn't want to mess with the Ottoman Empire.


What do you guys think the best way to go would be?

I wouldn't sell Florida; Flanders is a lot tougher to defend, try to get some good tech for it.

If you want to go the historical way, go to Italy and try to conquer Louisiana from the French.

[Mef]

I found trading provinces to be a good tactic!
Depending on what you want to focus on, you could trade Flanders (easy choice, the Dutch want it and it's not especially useful - you can recieve Curacao for it which is needed for the mission you get), Lombardy (I don't think it's very useful.. no port, no towns... can be used to make an important trade happen), Florida, Hispaniola, Gibraltar, Sardinia... there are many options.

For example, if you want to do the mission, if you aren't interested in North America and don't want to keep Florida, if you want to expand to India and if you want to send out many trade ships to get you lots of resources, you could trade away:
Flanders, Florida, Lombardy, Sardinia, Hispaniola and Kuba
for
Curacao, Dutch Guyana, French Guyana, Ceylon and Goa

Then take the Pirate settlements and Texas to get rid of the pirates and finish your mission.
Build ships in the Guyanan ports and send them to Brazil/West Africa.
In India, build trade ships and build armies to take more provinces there.
Take Morocco and invade Rome... or do something totally different.
You have many options as Spain!

[Xylez]

If the UK is such an problem, why don't try taking that first since it won't be as strong as it later in the game, and portugal, as an ally, shouldn't prove that much of a problem since they aint at strong. I never tried it before but by taking over the UK you well have the advantages they have there, and take it from there.

[Kennylz]

I didn't have much choice in my Spanish campaign. I was ganged up on by the Italian Nations (Not just Rome, all of them). So I ended up having all of Italy in my first 20 turns thanks to some huge battles. Then Portugal and Austria attacked me. I took Portugal, but ignored Austria until now. I've taken the first city, and will proceed to take another couple before trying to bribe for peace. I don't feel like going that far east yet.

Oh, and Florida getting bum rushed so constantly is so annoying. I sent a proper army from Europe to America to 'handle' the situation. It should be arriving shortly.

On another note, Portugal devastated my navy before I killed them off. Expensive as hell to rebuild it.

[carlisimo]

My experience is similar to some of yours - Florida gets attacked by Cherokees on steroids, and at least one of the Italian factions declares war on you (but may or may not actually attack). Also, the sea is a scary place full of surprisingly strong pirate/Barbary fleets.

I'll post something useful when I get somewhere in my campaign!

[MRSMURF]

what i have done so far is:
completed the mission thus reciving new spain and basically controlling tha carabien. the dutch attacked the french so i sided with my french allies and took over ther are in the carabien. traded flanders for some $ and tech to france. then genoa and venice declared war on me. not wanting to disapoint them i procided to take control of them 1 at a time, along with saxony. some how the french lost paris to the dutch and i took it back and dont know if i wanna give it back yet haha.i control all of italy and am getting ready to take over the rest of whatever the dutch have left.
its only 1725 and i make a profit of 15-17k a turn with my milatary expense comming in around 20k. ill begin to attack england next then give france back paris and begin to work on the rest of europe/north america.
as far as tech is concerned i am mostly milatary for right know withh all my fights going on. but will begin to focus on economy ass i forsee my army cost to sky rocket as i try and take over europe.

[Kennylz]

I'm about to take France. I have all of Italy and Iberia, and Vienna. I'm thinking that if my final effort in America doesn't work out I'm going to abandon Florida and just keep a tiny foothold with my Islands. New Spain can stay new Spain until I get around to it late game.

Pretty much, I'm going the Napoleon route with Spain. Clamor for reform is getting pretty bad too. Might even have a revolution before it is all said and done. I'm still very very early on though. Only in 1720 something. I was essentially forced into war too fast by greedy Italians thinking I'd fall over. I'm also only taking France because somehow it was conquered by little Savoy. Or maybe Savoy was part of a British alliance and was able to seize a crippled Paris was the Brits gave them a clobbering. Who knows. Better for me though.

[Vaasconcellos]

Having just hit 1722, I have firm holdings in both North America and Europe. What has been described previously regarding the aggressive Cherokees, Dutch, and Italians has also been my experience. The Cherokees were too much trouble for me so I ended up throwing away Florida for a minor sum of coin, as I did with the Dutch and their apparent interest in Flanders. The Italian states made early advancements upon my holdings in Naples, so I repelled their attack and set myself on the path of retaliation. I took Rome shortly thereafter.

At the same time I decided to risk the attention of the English by taking Portugal. The Portuguese had been pirating the trade routes I had set up on the Ivory Coast, despite having fought them off on a number of occasions, so I really didn't see that I had much of a choice. Naturally, however, the English began pressing me. They blockaded a port here and there, but nothing major. Nonetheless, they were beginning to cost me money so I rallied an army together on a strong fleet and set sail for Ireland. I took Dublin, then Edinburgh, and finally London. That was the end of the English, which gave rise to the United States, whose sovereignty I decided to support. Not sure if it's going to come back to bite me in the butt later on, but whatever.

For the time being I'm making my way through New Spain. I started by taking Mexico, then traveling south for Guatemala. Panama will be next. I'm also amassing forces in Spain to go south for Morocco. The Moroccans seemingly only have one settlement, which is heavily defended, and are, like the Portuguese before them, constantly pirating trade routes that belong both to myself and France. After that I'll travel east, systematically taking the Barbary settlements -- a matter of revenge for the countless times they've caused me troubles at sea in the past.

Setting up those trade routes in the Ivory Coast early on coupled with establishing trade agreements with some of the larger factions has ensured a constant flow of money to support my conquests. My advice is that you be sure not to neglect the importance of trade; the earlier you establish trade routes and agreements the better.

[coman]

I haven't tried playing it yet. Was the nation I went back to so many times in M2TW and used almost exclusively in MP.

I haven't seen a lot of notes go through here on the faction. Any words of wisdom, love or other anecdotes?

[themoob]

I liked my campaign as them until a CTD ended my campaign.

They are as powerful as France or Britain, but their guerrilla light infantry add a new dimension to their tactics and are great fun to use.

[coman]

I found the Spanish dimension interesting in M2TW as well. I think I'll save this one, since I can't play France for the same reason. Whatever I try, whichever campaign script, it always seems to want to crash to desktop every turn or two.

[Gators1]

Forget the Barbary states unless you convert them to Catholicism first. I sent my army down and crushed them, but had rebellions in all the towns and had to keep sending my army back and forth crushing them. My people are pissed in general about industrialization, so you may have a different experience if you take them earlier in the tech tree. But you will still have to deal with the religion issue on top of the ones pissed about being occupied.

I crushed the Italians early but left Vienna alone as a buffer state so I wouldn't get in it with Austria. I conquored the Cherokee first in the Americas because they kept attacking and it was either get rid of them or get rid of Florida. Then I worked on the mission because of the free regions.

[Grislok]

Here is my Spain story at turn 32/1716. Cherokee attacks in Florida were constant like everyone else. Moroccans and barbary states navies have kept me tradeless and poor until about 1711. I spent my paltry money on repairing Florida units and trying to build a decent enough navy to take on the 5 Moroccan ships that had my only trading port in Spain blockaded for most of the early game. I kept the Cherokees out with many awesome fort defense battles and open field intercept jobs. Unlike many people, I have thought the Cherokees fought well but were not overpowerful. Also, I had success getting my fort stuff to work well. Cannons were fired off walls and my irregular units(frontiersmen and guerillas) were very lethal from the walls, racking up 30 -50 kills each. My sorry pikemen were solid on any Indians that made it to the fort floor. Also had success using calvary outside walls to disrupt Indian bowmen units and others grappling. Finally had six ships to face Moroccans five(have been not great in naval battles) and attacked. Sadly, I found out they were all five ships of two guns. I spent 10 years in poverty because I assumed they were many gun ships. The no knowledge of your enemy feature of this game is cool I think. Once I got trading port back money situation turned. I have now taken the region north of Florida and have Cherokee on run. I traded Flanders to Dutch for 1 tech and 4500 bucks. No Italian state has messed with me and I plan to expand in the New World and defend Italy and the islands better, and build up Spain. This is my only campaign I have played and I am in heaven. I do have the CTD caused when pushing Grand Campaign button but I know how to fix it. I slaver when I envision and realize the modding possibilities. Viva Espana!

[coman]

Viva Espana!

Appreciated that. Keep pushing!

[Nyarlathotep]

I traded florida, naples, lombardy and flanders for cacao, jamaica, the bahamas, the windward isles and french guianna, made morocco a protectorate and focused on acquiring new spain. It's best to go for texas first because they'll eventually burst out and attack mexico.

[Nack]

This campaign gave some serious trouble at the beggining because I didn't know getting alliances was so easy. Now I got some allies and most of the factions leave me alone so I can choose who to fight.

[ToussaintL'Ouverture]

I followed a European route for my spanish conquests.

First, I allied with Portugal and Venice to shore up borders. I traded away Flanders for French Guiana, and then my holdings in Florida and the Caribbean Islands for Dutch Guyana (they are rich in mines and resources).

Then I consolidated the Mediterranean by seizing Genoa, Corsica, Saxony. At this point Rome declared war upon me and I seized Rome, leaving only Venice to my allies.

Spent time building techs (I have four colleges now, two in Spain, two in italy) and economy by tax exempting territories to spur population growth. Then I moved into Morocco, and around the Barbary States. They do have high unrest, but if you tax exempt, maintain moderate garrisons, and then build church schools on the first towns that open up, its not crippling. No I'm going to build an invasion force to seize New Spain from the Pueblo Indians. I make about 8-10k a turn. 1720.

[carlisimo]

It's 1725. I'm still trying to get New Spain to join me - it took me a long time to amass a navy capable of getting through the pirate fleets, to take Trinidad and Tobago. I took Texas by giving up Florida and using that army. Now I'm about to land a fresh army on Curaçao - my first attempt was annihilated by the gigantic Dutch army there.

I can only afford to have one large fleet anywhere in the world, so right now it's in the Americas. As soon as I'm done there, it'll be heading over to the Mediterranean to protect my shipping lanes. I have one large army en route to Curaçao and one in Venice. I'm at war with Genoa and Austria. Savoy just took France.