How to defeat the France/Spain alliance?

[Inhuman One]

I am playing as the dutch and ever since I took Brussels I am at war with France and Spain.

Both of them are quite strong though and I do have a full stack near Paris garrisoned in a french fortress that they left empty.

But, Paris is fully garrisoned. mostly with mobs which I can handle, but there is a full stack of Spanish standing next to Paris. And I cant afford to train another full stack.

The french have a large navy that likes to blocade my trade routes so keeping my navy big does drain my money quite a bit as well.

Would it be possible to cause their alliance to break? When they are divided it would be a whole lot easier since I am often fighting both of them when they send small armies to raid my belgian villages.

[Freelancer_UK]

I am currently playing as the 'Brits'. When attacking France I also had to take on Spain since they were allies of each other. In my game France is less-than-considerate to the British Empire, arrogance come to mind. Anyway, what I did to break Spain and France's alliance was to send Spain a State Gift a couple of turns after War being declared and then Request Peace with them. With Spain out of the War it was easy then to demolish the few Capitals France had in Europe.


Not sure if this has been mentioned but I found that once you remove France from Europe they also dissapear in the America's too, leaving behind Rebel held Capitals instead. Taking out Paris was not the trigger for this alone. It was taking out ALL their held regions in Europe. As it happened I did capture New France (part of the 13 Colonies mission) before this happened so would need to re-start this campaign to see if just wiping out France's Capitals in Europe also means they lose all their American regions too.

[J. Fishman]

But, Paris is fully garrisoned. mostly with mobs which I can handle, but there is a full stack of Spanish standing next to Paris. And I cant afford to train another full stack.

Then I guess you're going to have to jump!

Would it be possible to cause their alliance to break? When they are divided it would be a whole lot easier since I am often fighting both of them when they send small armies to raid my belgian villages.

It's possible, but in the same sense that total existence failure is possible. There doesn't appear to be any diplomatic option to request such a thing, and honestly, YOU are reason they need that alliance to begin with!

Besides, it's just your stack vs. the Spanish stack, really. The mob troops are worthless...I'm not even sure they'll assist if you attack the Spanish stack first. But mob troops are totally worthless. I wiped out an 800+ man mob with nothing but a single unit of line infantry, my general, and 2 12-pounder batteries. It took like three hours and I cannoned the entire town to smoking rubble, but I did it without losing a single man.

[twisted]

What i did as britain:
I took Flanders. Made peace with spain. sended 2 armies to Paris. 1 to counter the army that tries to keep your army from their gates. And 1 to actually attack Paris. Then the army that i used to take Paris i'll let them attack the province on the east occupied by France. Meanwhile building up a new army. When that army is complete i put them into the ships and let them land in the Basque-province(thus declaring war on spain again). And the next turn i attack Madrid. From there, i'll let my forces take italy and remaining occupied Spain-territory.

Do note, that when you defeat the French, they tent to get a big rebel army near Paris. So it's wise to keep a large army in the city for a while.

[Boris616]

As Britain, invade Flanders then Alsace then hit Paris; this totally wiped out France.

[v0rtex]

As United Provinces I gave a state gift (5k) to spain, made them my ally, with full military access, then declared war against france.

Spain took my side in the war

[Inhuman One]

I doubt Spain will ever want to ally with me, I got more against Spain than against France though. The spanish opressed the dutch for quite some time.

And I kind of took some islands from Spain at the americas.

[Lupu]

Get an ally, and show your political map(other factions' dispositions to you)

[Grifman]

I am playing as the dutch and ever since I took Brussels I am at war with France and Spain.

Both of them are quite strong though and I do have a full stack near Paris garrisoned in a french fortress that they left empty.

But, Paris is fully garrisoned. mostly with mobs which I can handle, but there is a full stack of Spanish standing next to Paris. And I cant afford to train another full stack.

The french have a large navy that likes to blocade my trade routes so keeping my navy big does drain my money quite a bit as well.

Would it be possible to cause their alliance to break? When they are divided it would be a whole lot easier since I am often fighting both of them when they send small armies to raid my belgian villages.

Ignore Europe, they're too strong there. Strip their colonies from them and use the money from your overseas empire to take them on later.

[Redbadd]

I'm playing as the Dutch aswell, at war with the French and Spanians. I didn't go to that empty fort but just had my army in the Field on the Border with France. Twice a spanian army came, near that little town in France, wich i defeted, then i went on to Paris.
It was surpisingly easy, didn't have any harresment attacks.

The French and Spanish navy was handlet with help from England within 2/3 rounds.

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Another way to not worry about the alliance is to coax one of them to attack you. I have noticed that the AI tends to not ask for help in wars, so whenever either France or Spain attacked me, the other didn't do jack.

[Hebrew_Hero]

Charge head first into france, take paris, then flanders and alsec lorrine. If your out gunned, use regiments to pull, armies away from where you want to attack, then what evers left of those "dummy" armies put them back to gather and reform your army, for the next or main assault. Try to be the defender.

[Snoopy]

Well, if you have a large enough army/navy, hit one of them in the balls to make em give up, then the other should be easy pickings.

So, for example, if you want to make France say "uncle", take over some colonies in North America, maybe raid France a bit, inflict a couple defeats, then offer peace (maybe offer some of the colonies back for extra effect). 9/10 times they will buckle. From there, dealing with Spain should be a piece of cake, just raid its colonies (hitting its homeland is a bother, since then you need to deal with revolts, insurrections, and crappy relations with all your neighbors).

Or other way around. To get Spain to give in, it is a matter of hitting its richest provinces, then offering them back in exchange of peace. Alternatively, sneak into Spain, take a capital, and offer it back.

[Aetius]

1) Snatch Paris
2) Steal Madrid
3) ?????
4) PROFIT!

[Chaoticfist]

One plan i have found works wonders is, when they prepare to attack me, i try to position my self near hills, as i always keep at least 3 cannons around, they can make short work of most armies. The artillery helps a lot to take out the enemy general, as well if they are placed on a hill, you can hit most of the map.

A little cheap but it works

[Pahoo]

One plan i have found works wonders is, when they prepare to attack me, i try to position my self near hills, as i always keep at least 3 cannons around, they can make short work of most armies. The artillery helps a lot to take out the enemy general, as well if they are placed on a hill, you can hit most of the map.

A little cheap but it works

I don't think its cheap, I'd call it smart tactics.

[DarkMagi]

well I'm with Portugal.
I managed to kick Spain's butt, but not totally (hahaha) Took out Madrid and later Gibraltar... they accepted the peace treaty. As with France, my fellow Britains managed to have some decent naval battles with the pommes de terre haha
Its great... now I have a good territory in India, Gibraltar, Madrid

[Zadjehuty]

Simple strategy: get together whatever troops you can, and invade Spain (either by sea or by land)--keeping your full stack near Paris. Chances are the Spanish won't have Madrid very defended, and even if they have a decent number of troops there, I can guarantee there won't be a French army standing next to it. Take it if you can, besiege it if you can't, raid if you're really outgunned. There's a good chance the Spanish army will pull back, allowing you to take on Paris with better odds.

[Valantine]

I've always found Madrid to be heavily defended even if the Spanish are completely destitute.
Paris on the other hand is relatively easy to take if you have already riled up Spain a few times.
V

[Irishmafia2020]

You should have held off and been opportunistic in capturing Brussels rather than aggressive... I tried the same thing with the same result (war against the combined Spansh/French alliance in 1706). In a second game, i waited until France and Austria went to war, and I supported the Austrians. Somehow I remained at Peace with France (who fought my Austrian allies) while Britain and myself (UP) went to war with Spain. I was able to capture Brussels and several new world provinces without having to fear the French.... I eventually signed a separate peace with Spain while they continued to fight the British, and I came out the winner. Lesson: with decent diplomatic a.i. it is actually better to be patient than imperialistic...