A Guide to Prussia

[johannlo]

Guys try playing with mods. I'm playing Imperial Splendour and let me tell you the Prussian blitzkrieg is a far slower, more tense affair. The campaign AI is super aggressive and once at war will continuously throw stacks at you whilst keeping full stack garrisons. You concentrate your troops on one front and you get stabbed in the back by a previously peaceful nation. Unless you're careful with your diplomacy you can end up in a two front war which you can't get out of diplomatically

As a rough guide, in vanilla, by 1735 I had most of western europe and was starting to sending out full stacks to americas and india. in imperial splendour I'm consolidating the borders of greater germany (ie between netherlands and poland) having grabbed scandanavia and northern italy and nowhere near sending out mass invasion fleets coz all my money has gone towards TOTAL WAR (and I have stuff all ports, and the Brits hate me so much they dominate the seas)

[TKainZero]

Great Guide

Prussia is very fun, and after a WAY TOO EASY TIME with the Brittish, i started a Prussian Campain on VH/VH, and did almost exactly what you did, in pacifying the Western Germatic states, except i took out the Dutch, and then cut South-East thru the remaing provences...

After taking out Austria, Poland revotled, and now the Polish were right in the middle of my empire... i could not stand for this...
In pure blitzcrieg fashion, i lead a 4 pronged attacked, on poland from the Black Sea, to the Baltic Sea, and took 6 territories in 2 turns, eliminating the polish before their main army could return from the Russian Front...

With Poland crushed, i made peace with Russia, and then quickly Crushed the Sweedish, and got their sea ports (and my first navel units, Steam Hosipital and 2nd rates, and i havent researched a single navy tech)

With the Sweedish controled, i have 3 full stacked, ready to attack France, and Spain... and then i read this...

"* Spain was the biggest and most heavily prepared opponent I came across. I held Paris for awhile, maybe 30 turns before I ever even Marched into Spain and only did that by nature of the fact that I had to take Lombardy, Naples and Sardinia from them. I sent five full stack armies into the Iberian with 24lb artillery etc and met reaaaaal heavy la resistance. I mean between Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar, they had at least ten full stack armies, probably a very realistic 12-15, which by my account is one of the larger concetrations I've ever happened upon in the game."

In my game it is not yet 1740, i have one Stack out East, protecting cities from the Baltic Sea, to the Black Sea, to Pruage, and the ports near Italy...

The other 3 stacks are near Amsterdam and preparing to invade Flanders, and Alsoe-Lorian. With 2 to take out Paris, and then 1 to invade Savoy from the North-West.


Now... i think i need 2 additional stacks, and an Eastern Italian Invastion of Spainish holdings


I love Prussia... I am a HUGE power, and still having fun

[Lothae]

Playing on H Campaign/N Battle difficulties I found an excellent way to have a roaring economy at the beginning with Prussia is (starting with 8000 ducats) spend 2000 on your armies/buildings/what-have-you and use the other 6000 to make Bavaria, Wurttemberg & Westphalia your protectorates (2000 per protectorate). This creates an immediate income of over 3000 ducats per turn .
You may even be able to bribe them into protectorate status with less than that if you're lucky.

[razor1952]

Interesting guide pretty much everyone took on gdansk/Poland early.

I however made almost all the small german states protectorates at turn 1 to effectively seal my west/south borders.(also anyone else like Morocco). Then invaded gdansk and took warsaw and sued for peace to get one more province from the Poles. This allowed me time to pacify Warsaw.

Quite quickly Austria and Sweden declared and I left Sweden alone to destroy the Austrians, making them a protectorate quickly , soon however they redeclared and I finished them off. Initially suing for peace got those pesky raiding troops out of my provinces.

Russia also declared. I built trade with everyone else and kept GB/France/UP/Spain happy while I developed trade nodes.

By 1738 had destroyed Sweden/denmark/Russia/Poland/Austria/Venice/Dagestan all of Ottomans down to Istanbul. had war with Maratha but so what, rump of Ottomans and Barbary(big deal!)

In 1738 moove all troops back to west europe and lightning stabbed all the german states for victory and ~45 states.

As for techs I got a lot of techs by suing for peace then soon on finishing them off, saves a lot on that clamour for reform thing by using less schools. I usually demolished schools and built churches unless they were Prots then built bawdyhouse line. Also saved wealthy spots for economic buildings while poor were reserved for churches/bawdys.

Personally I think the biggest achievement was keeping all the western powers from declaring while demolishing everything east, judicous use of state gifts/diplomacy pays good dividends.

[Paulverisor64]

I've tried the quick military conquest strategy as spelled out, and have unfortunately stalled out the economy, which impedes keeping the military machine moving. I have knocked out Saxony, taken West Prussia and the Poland regions. I am receiving only about 1000 ducats per turn which is not enough to keep up with the rioting in Poland. I've stopped to write this somewhere around the 10th turn.

Prior to trying this strategy I have gone the route of building the economy before putting money in the military. This almost works; I think Prussia's Army minister must keep the upkeep costs down, but as I have found out in prior games going military 1st stalls out the economy.

There are some things I could/should have done which would keep the rioting at bay such as dismantling the school in Poland, and constructing a government building in West Prussia. I have as always however made conquered regions exempt from taxes, and have armies garrisoned in the conquered cities. I also moved my priest into conquered West Prussia on turn 2.

Still the economic picture has been baffling to me. The economic measures I have taken so far have been improving 1 farm because that was all that was available to upgrade right away. I have upgraded most of the roads. I upgraded 1 craft shop. I've tried following the principle of putting 50 percent into military and the majority of the leftover upgrades into the economy.

My technology upgrades so far have been all military. I've upgraded bayonet's, Military Sylibus, and Canister Shot. I started getting the farm upgrade in the school in Poland's region, but it has had a lot of down time due to rioting. Normally I have started my technology upgrades with farming, but that was because I normally have gone economy 1st.

What economic upgrades should be taken care of right away to prevent the stalling of the economy? What kind of order would you go in? I know campaigns can be won by developing military 1st, hopefully someone can shed some light in how to achieve this using Astaroth's strategy.

[Astaroth]

I've tried the quick military conquest strategy as spelled out, and have unfortunately stalled out the economy, which impedes keeping the military machine moving. I have knocked out Saxony, taken West Prussia and the Poland regions. I am receiving only about 1000 ducats per turn which is not enough to keep up with the rioting in Poland. I've stopped to write this somewhere around the 10th turn.

Prior to trying this strategy I have gone the route of building the economy before putting money in the military. This almost works; I think Prussia's Army minister must keep the upkeep costs down, but as I have found out in prior games going military 1st stalls out the economy.

There are some things I could/should have done which would keep the rioting at bay such as dismantling the school in Poland, and constructing a government building in West Prussia. I have as always however made conquered regions exempt from taxes, and have armies garrisoned in the conquered cities. I also moved my priest into conquered West Prussia on turn 2.

Still the economic picture has been baffling to me. The economic measures I have taken so far have been improving 1 farm because that was all that was available to upgrade right away. I have upgraded most of the roads. I upgraded 1 craft shop. I've tried following the principle of putting 50 percent into military and the majority of the leftover upgrades into the economy.

My technology upgrades so far have been all military. I've upgraded bayonet's, Military Sylibus, and Canister Shot. I started getting the farm upgrade in the school in Poland's region, but it has had a lot of down time due to rioting. Normally I have started my technology upgrades with farming, but that was because I normally have gone economy 1st.

What economic upgrades should be taken care of right away to prevent the stalling of the economy? What kind of order would you go in? I know campaigns can be won by developing military 1st, hopefully someone can shed some light in how to achieve this using Astaroth's strategy.

I think you should try to avoid conquering Warsaw. After conquering Gdansk, make peace with Poland immediately and concentrate on Austria, Hanover and Courland. Warsaw is very rebellious and keeping it is simple not worth it in my opinion.

[Paulverisor64]

I think you should try to avoid conquering Warsaw. After conquering Gdansk, make peace with Poland immediately and concentrate on Austria, Hanover and Courland. Warsaw is very rebellious and keeping it is simple not worth it in my opinion.

I started my campaign over from scratch to avoid Warsaw's entanglement in the beginning. I have not had any rioting expense as a result. Unfortunately in 1703 I have received the message from my advisor that my upkeep is too great. The next turn would be in the red. Every turn my income dropped approximately 1000 ducats per turn, as a result of the military upkeep of the new recruits.

I have split the economy 50% military/50% other. I tried a variation this time around with burning Tannesburg to gain another school which I established the farm upgrade. (My other school is researching military).

I can get out of the red by removing Saxony from tax exempt status. (In previous turns the lower class civil disobedience level was 0, this turn it became 1 by removing the exemption). Even with this extra income I will only be able to afford a farm upgrade.

In your economy is it normal to drop that low that quickly? If not do you have an idea of what I might be doing wrong?

This is the same issue I always run into when I've put military before economy, I'd be grateful if you could help me get this concept correct.

[Kempf]

Some really great work here I am a strategy specialist over at Gamereplays but this just blows my guide to early Prussian expansion out of the water

[Paulverisor64]

Has anyone discovered how to keep 50% in military research without stalling the economy out?

It only took 6 turns for me to end up in the red.

I'd like to know how this would be done because there would be a lot of learning with the fine tuning necessary.

The order of expansion in this guide appears solid, but I think that is only part of the lesson.

I could start from scratch again and give descriptive build orders if it would help.

[Astaroth]

Could you describe what exactly you did in your campaign? You need to act and attack quickly if you want to be successful I believe. I for my part attacked both Saxony and West Prussia within the first 3 turns of my campaign. Afterwards, I quickly made peace with Poland, gained trade rights from several other factions and began training more troops to take on Austria and Courland. In order for this to work you need to win your battles comfortably and must avoid losing too many soldiers. Furthermore, your army is supposed to be fighting and on the move constantly so do not let your soldiers just sit there. The trick behind this strategy is to be very aggressive and to kill many more soldiers than you lose. That way, your armies don't become too big (and you save upkeep that way) but your enemies lose even more soldiers than you do, which ultimately weakens them and which will allow you to conquer their regions one by one.

If you lose money too quickly, you simply need to be more aggressive. An army is an investment (similar to economic buildings) which should be used to attack constantly. Otherwise it will only cost money while being completely useless.

[PrussiaForLife]

For me to handle the finances i normally max out the economics buildings as much as i possibly can, then slowly build your army turn by turn. Connect your prussian empire by taking over saxony and west prussia. Should not recruit too much to conquer them as they are pretty easy to take over with starting armies. what i did was to train armies and go to Courland. Also transfer army from saxony to the courland army to reduce upkeep costs.

[Sven788]

I played Prussia like Hitler conquered Europe.
It wasn't even my plan but I seriously did it that way because it was a good tactic.

[Paulverisor64]

I did write down my movements and expendatures but it would make for pretty boring reading. I can add this to the thread or even PM this if it would be helpful.

I went 7 moves into the campaign. I once again witnessed the economic downward spiral. (My upcoming turn I will receive less than 1000 ducats) Economically I only invested in 1 farm and roads for all 4 regions I had. I converted a Bawdy house to a school which I have not yet received Land Enclosure upgrade. After the downward spiral started I couldn't afford any of the economic building upgrades.

Astaroth: I am actually playing this on the moderate playing level, perhaps this is why I can't coax Courland to attack me. You have suggested that Prussia always needs to be on the attack to help in keeping upgrade costs down. Last time I attacked Courland without them declaring war on me and Poland swiped East Prussia from me, so I'd like to have Courland declare war against me. My rake was murdered quickly so Courland appears to be sticking at unfriendly against Prussia.

Prussia for Life: Is it true that by transferring army's you cut down upkeep costs? If so how does this work?

Thanks for your help!, I look forward to getting this concept down.

[Zetto]

I wonder how the new patch affects the viability of this guide

[Astaroth]

I for my part think that the guide is still rather viable. You might have to be a bit less aggressive and avoid attacking Courland unless it attacks you but aside from that it should work just like it did in the last patch. Feel free to post your own experiences with the new patch, though.

[PrussiaForLife]

This guide is very well still viable, except from the army massing part. As hard as i try to max out economic buildings, it is just impossible to support even 2 armies for me. For those in early game having trouble with economies, try only concentrating on maxing out revenue buildings like weaver cottages. Do not upgrade roads while conquering courland as it only takes about 3 turns to reach. Also the cities that you want to capture are only 1 or 2 turns away.

[CommissarGaunt]

Awesome guide Astaroth. Also I'm currently writing up a guide for Great Britain. Would it be okay with you if I copied your format? I just admire it's clarity and it has the touch of a storyteller as well. I'm currently replaying the British campaign since the patch has changed a lot of things. Since naval invasions have been introduced Fortress Britain is no longer possible.

[Astaroth]

Awesome guide Astaroth. Also I'm currently writing up a guide for Great Britain. Would it be okay with you if I copied your format? I just admire it's clarity and it has the touch of a storyteller as well. I'm currently replaying the British campaign since the patch has changed a lot of things. Since naval invasions have been introduced Fortress Britain is no longer possible.

I'm glad you like my guide.

Feel free to use the same structure or format if you wish.

[uzi716]

Has anyone discovered how to keep 50% in military research without stalling the economy out?

It only took 6 turns for me to end up in the red.

I'd like to know how this would be done because there would be a lot of learning with the fine tuning necessary.

The order of expansion in this guide appears solid, but I think that is only part of the lesson.

I could start from scratch again and give descriptive build orders if it would help.

I've tried to evenly spread research but, it is way to difficult. In every campaign I've played I find compromising on either philosophy, industrial, or military.

[Zphinx]

I like your guide, I started a full short campain and it was fun. At the end it got a little stressy since I had to deal with some Rebels and the Hanovers. I even took the Netherlands... nice port they have