Playing as Castille, Need Advice

[Nicholas H.C]

Well the year is 1401 and I have already taken, Granada, Gibraltar and Almeria but I do not know where to go next. I can't attack Portugal, Navarre or Aragon because they all have an alliance.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Morocco or Algeria?

[Nicholas H.C]

I was trying to do that but I can't get my army into my Armada. (Yeah I'm a noob but I got this game less than a week ago )

[Augustus Lucifer]

You should be able to cross into Africa via Gibraltar, as long as no enemy ships are blockading the straight. Alternatively you could start colonizing. It is easier to reach Brazil after you own Africa down to Mali though. From there you want to make sure to go for the gold provinces which are Santana a little bit down the coast and then a few inland ones south of Inca, because the production income on them is insane. Don't waste more than one colonist on the coast provinces with crappy resources, since you want to get cities on the gold provinces eventually.

Also, check the allies of Portugal/Aragon. If they have multiple allies then sometimes they will have a weak ally who only has them as their ally. Then you can DoW the weak ally and they will join the war, but whatever strong nations(England?) they also associate with won't join.

[Nicholas H.C]

Unfortunetly, I dont have enough goverment points to enable quest for the new world, so africa it is. How can I raise goverment points?

[rusina]

By researching goverment tech.

[ivan_the_terrible]

About your armada, you need transport vessels to carry troops (they'll be Cogs in 1400, then they upgrade to Flytes, Merchantmen etc as you research naval tech).

Btw, techs are researched automatically, though you can adjust how much you spend on each one, proportionally. Click on your country's flag in the top left, then go to the financial tab, and the techs will be on the right.

[Nicholas H.C]

Ahh, thanks. I just took 2 Morrocan citys (I'm just going to take their coastline citys for sea trade) I am currently waiting to recruit an explorer so I can take the azores and those other Islands near africa

[Ishoss]

The Morrocans have an inland gold territory, remember to get that one as well

[Nicholas H.C]

Is there a way of taking a province without having to demand it from a nation? Like when you take a province it only "half" yours. Why can't I fully control it?

[therussian]

You have to take control of it diplomatically, by signing peace with the country you're at war with.


However, you can also annex a province immediately from pagan factions (such as the Inca, Maya, Aztec, etc). The option is available on the army box.

[Nicholas H.C]

You have to take control of it diplomatically, by signing peace with the country you're at war with.


However, you can also annex a province immediately from pagan factions (such as the Inca, Maya, Aztec, etc). The option is available on the army box.

Aww, that kinda sucks

[Celsius]

Yeap. In order to annex a non-pagan country, you have to go to war with them twice.

[Ishoss]

Yeap. In order to annex a non-pagan country, you have to go to war with them twice.

At least....

[Nicholas H.C]

Is there any mod that can fix this? That's pretty stupid....

[Augustus Lucifer]

Is there any mod that can fix this? That's pretty stupid....

It isn't stupid. Once you really get into the game and play on a setting with some difficulty and a worse off country, you'll realize how much it would bloody suck to lose all your land to the big bloke who comes in without having to accept a peace deal. The peace deal is the only way smaller nations can maneuver their way out of large wars. It's also logical because until the modern age ala HoI 2, you wouldn't have the capability and technology with which to pull a Hitler, which is about the only way you're going to get the populace of that area to sit idly by while you say you rule them.

Taking more than 4-5 provinces from a nation can be a death wish anyways, which is why I don't recommend attacking Norway since their provinces are so cheap and worthless in EU that you can get all of them in one peace deal, which means more badboy. The best peace deals give you the biggest % provinces, because those are the ones with the high capabilities. More bang for your buck, and the buck if you have high BB is nations declaring war on you the world over. Taking land from Venice/Sicily is often your best bet, because Italy has very rich provinces so your 100% war score may only get you 3 provinces, but the 3 will be strong and you'll only have 3 BB from it.

Turbo-annexing is the only way to really speed up the process, and that can be troublesome. First of all you need rebels to own more of the enemy's land than their government does. This means don't attack the rebel held areas. Once the rebels hold more, you get to keep whatever you took, but you still get BB hits for all of them which is a lot, so I only recommend you do it on nations where the provinces are really worth the BB hit. You're likely to learn about BB wars the hard way, though.

[Ishoss]

It isn't stupid. Once you really get into the game and play on a setting with some difficulty and a worse off country, you'll realize how much it would bloody suck to lose all your land to the big bloke who comes in without having to accept a peace deal. The peace deal is the only way smaller nations can maneuver their way out of large wars. It's also logical because until the modern age ala HoI 2, you wouldn't have the capability and technology with which to pull a Hitler, which is about the only way you're going to get the populace of that area to sit idly by while you say you rule them.

Taking more than 4-5 provinces from a nation can be a death wish anyways, which is why I don't recommend attacking Norway since their provinces are so cheap and worthless in EU that you can get all of them in one peace deal, which means more badboy. The best peace deals give you the biggest % provinces, because those are the ones with the high capabilities. More bang for your buck, and the buck if you have high BB is nations declaring war on you the world over. Taking land from Venice/Sicily is often your best bet, because Italy has very rich provinces so your 100% war score may only get you 3 provinces, but the 3 will be strong and you'll only have 3 BB from it.

Turbo-annexing is the only way to really speed up the process, and that can be troublesome. First of all you need rebels to own more of the enemy's land than their government does. This means don't attack the rebel held areas. Once the rebels hold more, you get to keep whatever you took, but you still get BB hits for all of them which is a lot, so I only recommend you do it on nations where the provinces are really worth the BB hit. You're likely tor learn about BB wars the hard way, though.

We all do... It's especially bad with expansions, because your war exhaustion can be hell. A band of mini states can take down a huge one.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

I don't let my BB get to that threshold until I am a regional power or superpower.