Since Prussia is a rather small kingdom to begin with, expansion is a must. Two regions aren't enough if you ever want to establish a power base in Europe. The real question isn't what to do but rather how to do it. After all, Prussia is surrounded by many countries which could all be targetted. And while it is obvious that expansion is necessary, we still haven't established when to expand or whether anything else should be done beforehand. There are basically two paths which one can go, both of them having their pros and cons. Option 1 would be to play more defensively early on while building up your economy, sending sloops to the different trade theaters and slowly preparing for war. The other possibility would be to focus on building up a military while striking at your neighbors and expanding quickly. Both ways are viable and it mainly comes down to your personal preference. In the end, you're the one who has to make the choice. However, in this guide I will focus on option 2 as I'm generally more of an aggressive player who loves to fight and conquer!
Since the main direction of our strategy is now clear we should have a look at the details. What are our short-term goals? What do we want to achieve in the long run? What are the campaign's victory conditions? Colonies or not? If yes, when should we go for them? Who do we want to fight, which nations should be our targets?
Before we move on to the actual short-term planning, deciding on our main objectives is a necessity. No good general goes around conquering before he has made a plan! Anyway, Prussia has so many different options and it would be impossible to list all of them here. Therefore, I'll simply focus on one of them in this guide. I'll try to conquer most of central Europe down to the Alps, in order to recreate the Holy Roman Empire. This will of course sooner or later result in massive wars with Poland, Austria and all of the small German states. Later on, you are free to expand wherever you want to. Once you've succeeded in building a huge German Empire, you might well attempt to recreate Napoleon's campaign into Russia, to punish France for... well, for being France or to grab some colonies in India or the Americas. But now let's finally move on to the actual campaign.
As Prussia, you are surrounded by many different nations so there are naturally lots of different directions into which you could expand. Let's examine them in order to decide on the easiest target.
Denmark: While you could invade Denmark it is probably not a wise thing to do. You do not share a border with them, you have great relations with them and their capital isn't easy to reach. Furthermore, Sweden lies close to them and will annex them sooner or later. As a result, capturing Copenhagen will most likely result in a war with the Swedish kingdom. Prussia has enough enemies so it would be a good idea to avoid this war. Thus, you should stay out of Denmark for the time being. The effort simply isn't worth it.
Hanover: You could declare war on Hanover and would probably be able to beat the small country quickly but it's not really a good idea anyhow. Just like Denmark, Hanover is very friendly towards you so by attacking them you'd take on a possible friend while ignoring other, much more hostile neighbors. Furthermore, taking Hanover would expand your empire a good deal to the west which would increase the lenght of its southern border even more. As a result, your army would likely be overstretched. Last but not least, the small nation is a close ally of England, a country which has good relations with you as well. Conquering Hanover would upset the English and would thus result in the loss of a possible good trade partner and ally. Therefore, it's obviously not a great idea to go down this road.
Courland: Courland lies too far up north and isn't worth taking on at the beginning. It's too strong to take out quickly and the town would be too hard to hold against possible invasions from Sweden, Poland and possibly Russia. Courland will have to be faced sooner or later anyway but the time for that hasn't come yet.
Saxony: Now here we have a good victim finally! Saxony is small, rather weak and very close to your moderately strong starting army and your troop production center in Berlin. The ideal target! The only problem is Saxony's protector, Poland. Declaring war on the Saxons will inevitably result in war with the Polish. But is that really a bad thing? Poland surrounds Prussia and you'll have to face them sooner or later anyway. If you ever want to connect your two starting regions, East Prussia and Brandenburg, you have to conquer Polish land. Therefore, taking on Saxony is the perfect opportunity to force a war against Poland without actually declaring war on them. The best thing is that this way neither Poland's protectorate Courland nor the Polish ally Russia will get involved - at least for now. While you will have to face both Saxony and Poland, this should be doable as the former is rather weak and the latter has an overstretched army and won't be able to counter a strong assault.
Since Saxony is a rather small fiefdom, you should be able to take it out pretty quickly. Your starting army in Berlin is strong enough to take Dresden, Saxony by itself so you can simply use it to seize the city straight away. However, you can of course also wait one or two turns and train a few more troops if that makes you more comfortable. Leave maybe one or two units of infantry (you may also let the city be defended by citizen militia only if you want to take the risk, though) in Berlin and use the rest to conquer Dresden. Use your remaining money to repair the buildings in the captured town and to train a few more troops in Berlin and possibly East Prussia if you can afford it.
1) Conquer Dresden, Saxony with Berlin's starting garrison. 2) Take Gdansk, West Prussia with your starting field army in East Prussia.
After the city has fallen, Poland will be at war with you as well. However, luckily you start the game with a sizeable field army in East Prussia already. Simply use it to conquer Poland's Gdanks, West Prussia right after taking Dresden. Gdansk is poorly defended and it should fall easily. Now, your first goal has been accomplished! Brandenburg and East Prussia are finally linked to each other and will now be much easier to defend. However, Poland is still at war with you. Now there are two things which you can do:
Attack Poland's capital Warsaw and conquer it or
Make peace with Poland and be happy about capturing Gdansk and Saxony
In the end, it's really up to you. If you decide to go for Warsaw, you'll inevitably have to fight many battles and it will make the campaign more challenging. Therefore, if you're an experienced Total War veteran and if you aren't afraid of taking risks, go for it! But be prepared to fight on many fronts at once. Option 2 is much easier. Poland will be glad that you don't want to continue the war and will accept the loss of its protectorate and Gdansk. Actually, it's quite surprising how easily Poland gives up its territory and how quickly they are willing to sign a peace treaty.
Anyway, no matter what you do, it's likely that Courland will stab you in the back soon, even if you're at peace with its protector Poland. Therefore, you should definitely prepare for that. If you leave Königsberg almost unprotected, the Courlanders will happily take it. If you decided to go for Warsaw, this will be quite a problem for you. Warsaw will be rebellious, Poland will keep trying to get it back and Courland will possibly conquer Königsberg as you do not have the troops to defend it. In that case, all you can do is constantly move around your armies in order to counter the many threats. Also move your army from Dresden to the eastern parts of your empire to help out. That way, it might be possible to appease the rebellious citizens of Warsaw, while holding off both Courland and Poland. However, often Austria will now declare war on you as well, seeing how quickly you are expanding and how overstretched your troops are. Austrian raids are quite likely and they might even attempt to conquer Gdansk or Dresden. I have to admit that in my last VH/VH campaign as Prussia, I had to pull out of Warsaw eventually, as I couldn't defend against Courland, the Polish rebels, Poland and Austria at once anymore. Therefore, in the end it might be safer to avoid taking on Poland so early. You'll have plenty of opportunities to conquer it later on anyway! But it's up to you, if you are ready for the challange, go for it.
In these early stages of the campaign, you should definitely focus on training as many military units as possible. I personally try to avoid building cannons at that stage as they are rather ineffective and train mainly line infantry instead. Your starting cannons should be fully sufficient for sieging artillery forts. A few units of militia from the towns which cannot build line infantry yet and some units of cavalry for flanking will supplement your army well.
However, try to have save some money which you can spend on repairing towns and cities. Otherwise, your income will drop drastically and will in turn weaken your military capabilities. Expanding your economy isn't a priority but you should still invest some money into improved farms and the likes every turn. Generally, at least 50% of your income should be spent on building troops, though. That way, your army will be large enough to deal with the many different wars going on.
It isn't enough to simply garrison your cities, though. Your enemies will raid your schools, farms, docks and churches so you have to keep moving constantly. Furthermore, you do not have the funds to afford massive stacks on every single of your many fronts. As a result, a few armies will have to handle the fighting on all fronts. The only way to do this is to keep marching from corner to corner of your empire. Move to the west to counter an Austrian invasion, then hurry to the northeast to deal with a raid by Courland. Oh, and Warsaw will probably be revolting again, unless you have made the (wise?) decision either not to conquer it at all or to give it back to Poland.
Another thing to keep in mind when conquering is to avoid riots and rebellions. Whenever you take a new city, disable taxes for it in order to improve the public order. Also repair all buildings, especially the ones that make the people happy. If necessary, keep your whole army in the city for a few turns so new riots don't break out. After a while, the public order should improve again so use this opportunity to slowly move your army out of the town. Eventually, only a few units of militia should stay there as a cheap garrison. After waiting yet another few turns, enable taxes for the region again. The people will now pay taxes without rioting.
While this way you obviously lose some money in form of taxes, you actually win money in the greater picture as you don't have to spend as much money on repairing buildings multiple times and on troops to deal with rebels. One last thing to keep in mind is that you should always try to destroy rebels immediately. Not only will you hinder the destruction of your nearby towns but I believe destroying rebels also improves the public order in your province.
Either way, as mentioned above, in your campaign Courland will become pretty annoying soon. Austria isn't really much of a problem but Courland will refuse to make peace while constantly raiding your towns in East Prussia. That leads us to the second part of our strategy.
Part 2: Appeasing the eastern front and focussing on Germany
Courland is becoming more annoying than ever and simply destroying their armies one by one is no solution. The only way to deal with the problem permanently is to remove them from the game as they'll literally never accept peace. But how can we afford such a war while fighting on so many fronts at once? There is only one way: peace treaties have to be signed. To begin with, you must make peace with Poland. At pretty much any cost. If you didn't take Warsaw, you should already have signed a ceasefire with them anyway. If you did conquer Warsaw, don't hesitate to give it back if there is no other way to achieve peace. Either way, one of your many enemies should now no longer annoy you.
But that leaves at least two others, namely Courland and Austria. If you are especially unlucky, Hanover might take the opportunity to declare war on you. Since you are quite busy fighting against Courland's troops and Austrian armies, it is possible that Hanover will join the mess to gain an advantage for itself. Constant raids on your towns in Brandenburg and possibly even an assault on Berlin itself would be the result. On top of that, Bavaria will probably declare war on you sooner or later as well. With so many enemies in Germany, you have to focus on your western and southwestern borders, otherwise they'll be overrun. That means that the war in the east has to be ended immediately. Making peace with Poland is possible, but the Courlanders will refuse to sign any treaties. As long as the small country poses a threat to you in the east, a considerable part of your army will be bound there. Therefore, you have to crush them as quickly as possible. Focus your attention on the west and concentrate on defending your towns and borders against Austria and Hanover. Whilst, build up an army in Königsberg to deal with Courland. Eventually, move north with it and push the invaders back. Do not hesitate to raid their towns but don't take on Courland's capital yet as it is usually guarded by a large army. Instead, use your army to block the way to East Prussia, while reinforcing it with new men every turn. Eventually, it will be strong enough to take on Courland's capital so go ahead and finally put an end to this extremely annoying faction's existence.
Move towards Courland's capital and destroy the towns on the way. Wait until you have a sufficiently strong army before assaulting the capital itself, though.
All the while, you'll have hopefully managed to defend your lands against Hanover, Austria, Bavaria and whoever else decided to make the mistake to attack you. Now the time has come to strike back. The eastern front is finally peaceful, Courland is gone once and for all and Poland has enough problems of its own and won't annoy you anymore. After rebuilding Courland's capital and once the public order there has improved again, move your northern army to help out in the western parts of your empire. Keep upgrading your economic buildings now while also building as many troops as possible. Now you have to decide where to strike next. The best target is probably Silesia (unless Poland has taken it in the meantime). It lies close to your troop production centers and shouldn't be too hard to conquer. Not to mention that Austria has to be punished for its dastardly attack on our towns and cities!
Simply amass an army in Berlin, Königsberg and Gdansk, combine it with your troops from Courland and march southwards. After taking Silesia, there are again two main possible targets: Hanover and Prague. Hanover is clearly a thorn in your side and its constant raids on Brandenburg are very annoying. Furthermore, by conquering Hanover, you'd secure your western flank once and for all. However, Prague is a much more important city than Hanover and is Austria's main power base aside from Vienna. On the other hand you will not be able to defend the towns in the east of the region from Austrian raids. Also, Bavaria will most likely take the opportunity to raid you as well.
However, I personally think that Prague is too important to ignore. It's also a great troop production center so taking it is a priority. Therefore, I'd amass an army in Berlin and your other regions, combine it with your troops from the invasion of Silesia and send the majority of this army to take Prague. Whilst, take the remaining part of the army and move it to Berlin. From there it will counter Hanover's raids (and possibly Bavaria's as well) and protect your capital. Simply keep training a few units in Berlin every turn to slowly build up a army there. Dresden, Saxony and Silesia should be used to produce troops for your war against Austria in the meantime. Prague shouldn't be impossible to take but you won't be able to claim the whole region. That isn't a big problem, though as you'll use the region mainly to train many units for now. Upgrade your barracks in Prague and mainly protect the city itself against Bavarian and Austrian attacks.
You won't be able to defend Bohemia & Moravia's eastern towns against Austria's raids so you should simply focus on holding Prague itself.
But what to do next? You seem to be caught up in a war on multiple fronts and you cannot protect your borders against enemy raids. Should we try to take out Austria completely? Or rather focus on Bavaria? What about Hanover? That leads us to the next part of the strategy.
Part 3: Taking out Hanover and Bavaria, conquering Germany
Your wars with your neighbors are seemingly nothing more than a Sisyphean task. You can defend Prague itself but the region isn't really under your control. Same goes for Brandenburg. However, appearances are deceiving. During your constant wars, you have built up a strong economy everywhere. Furthermore, your army is ever growing. While your enemies keep wasting their armies to hurt you, your strength increases almost exponentially. Eventually, the time will come to repay everything to your hostile neighbors - with interest. Your army in Berlin will hopefully have grown enough by now. Simply move across the border and begin raiding Hanover's villages. Hopefully, they will send a part of their army to deal with you. That way, you avoid sieging and don't have to face artillery forts and citizen militia units. If you're extremely lucky, they won't send their whole army which makes dealing with them even easier. After beating the army, taking Hanover itself will be a cakewalk. And we did it! Yet another enemy is down.
Train an army at Berlin and move towards Hanover. Raid the nearby town and wait for Hanover to send an army to deal with your invasion.
As soon as Hanover is yours, the remainders of your army should march to Bohemia & Moravia quickly to reinforce your southern troops. Whilst, keep improving your economy everywhere, while researching many military and a few economic technologies. Also expand the barracks in Berlin and Prague in order to get access to even stronger troops. All the while, keep spamming line infantry and some cavalry in your troop production center. The big war for supremacy in Germany will take place soon!
After repelling a few Austrian armies that dared to come close to Prague, prepare for the invasion of Bavaria. I believe you need around 2 1/2 to 3 stacks in total. A half to one stack to guard Prague and the two others to take out Bavaria. The German kingdom has probably amassed a quite huge army in its capital so invading with 2 stacks is preferable. With Dresden, Berlin, Prague and Silesia building troops constantly it shouldn't be too hard to assemble such a force. Eventually, take your two stacks and move into Bavaria proper. Raid their towns and always keep your armies close to each other so they can help each other. Austria should be weakened by the constant destruction of its raiding forces so your stack in Prague should keep them at bay without problems. Simply move towards Munich, Bavaria now and take it quickly. And yet another enemy is gone! Rejoice!
Amass an army in Prague, conquer Bavaria, then move on to Wurttemberg and Westphalia.
Where do we go from here? Should we take out Austria once and for all? I for my part don't think so. The other small German states - Westphalia and Wurttemberg - will probably declare war on you and raid your towns soon. Austria doesn't pose a threat currently so they can be dealt with later on. This is a good opportunity to unite Germany and to remove any possible trouble-makers. Before we face Wurttemberg and Westphalia, we should do something about Austria's raids into Bohemia, though. Simply take your army from Prague and move it towards the Austrian border (it helps a lot if you kept increasing its size while dealing with Bavaria). Crush the raiding parties, repair your towns and simply camp on the border to Austria, close to Vienna. This should prevent them from doing anything silly and it will allow your economy to grow. Whilst, don't hesitate to train new troops in Munich and Prague for your invasion of the rest of Germany.
Eventually, merge the newly trained troops with the army which you used to conquer Bavaria and march towards Wurttemberg's border. If they already declared war (that's what happened in my campaign), all the better. Otherwise, simply attack them anyway. Their capital Stuttgart should fall within one turn. Be prepared to face around one to one and a half stacks but their troops are generally nothing special. It should be a cakewalk, especially if you already have access to some of your stronger troops. Repair Stuttgart's buildings, keep the local population happy and train a few more units, then march north towards Westphalia. Now the time has come to train a few troops in Hanover which can then be used to reinforce your army from the north.
Westphalia tends to have a sizeable part of its army stationed in one of its towns so simply crush it beforehand. Often, Westphalia will then send the majority of its army from its capital to face you as well. That makes taking them out even easier as you'll never have to face their whole army at once. As long as you trained a sufficient amount of soldiers and didn't just keep attacking with your exhausted troops, conquering the region shouldn't be hard. And now you finally did it: All of Germany is under Prussia's iron grip! But as you know, there is one last major enemy left. An old Prussian opponent and rival. You guessed right: Austria.
Part 4: Conquering Austria and consolidating your empire
Austria is a mere shadow of its former self. Its armies have been beaten by yours repeatedly and the empire has lost Silesia and Prague. However, despite that it is still a force to be reckoned with. Vienna is heavily fortified and usually defended by a whole stack of troops. So what should we do? Exactly, we'll need lots of soldiers. Simply train units everywhere - Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Munich etc - and also bring the remainders of the army which you used to conquer Germany along. Eventually, the old army from Prague (stationed at Austria's border) should be reinformed by at least another one to two stacks. Use these forces to take on Vienna. As it is generally rather fortified, bringing along a few cannons can help.
But the big problem isn't conquering Austria but holding it. Even when garrisoned by a full stack, the people will be extremely unhappy for the first few turns after the conquest. Riots will take place and a rebellion is almost inevitable. Therefore, you'll most likely have to deal with a few Austrian rebels. That shouldn't be such an issue though, considering the strenght of your army. As Vienna was the Austrian Empire's heart, the rest is basically up for grabs. Preßburg, Hungary lies next to Vienna, right across the river Danube. Zagreb, Croatia isn't far away, either. Simply stay in Vienna with your army for a few turns until the people have calmed down, then go and conquer the remaining Austrian regions. The main problem won't be Austria's pathetic remaining troops but rather avoiding riots in the newly conquered cities. Repairing buildings, exempting the cities from taxes for a few turns and keeping large garrisons there should solve the problem easily, though.
Now what's left? To fulfill the victory conditions, we need Warsaw in any case. Also, Poland has (at least in my campaign) been expanding into Russia so weakening them might be a good idea. Therefore, simply amass an army (that really shouldn't be a problem at this stage of the game), march to Warsaw and take it. Afterwards, simply make peace with Poland. Their other regions serve as a good buffer against Russia and aren't profitable anyway. As the Netherlands are poorly defended, you might conquer that region as well if you wish. Either way, your empire has become extremely large now. Large, wealthy and powerful! Prussia is now undoubtedly the dominant power in Europe and nobody can rival its power. However, there are many possible ways to make the once small kingdom even more powerful and dominating!
Fortify your empire. You won't be expanding into southern or eastern Europe probably so building several star forts near river crossings and around your border cities would certainly strengthen your empire. You might also fortify the paths to Italy, France and Denmark, unless you want to expand into those directions.
Improve your economy. Your empire has become extremely large so there will most likely be dozens of farms and mines that need upgrading. Expanding a few of your ports cannot hurt, either.
Research more technologies. Now that you have probably researched most military technologies, you might want to focus on naval or economic ones.
Expand even more. You still haven't reached the victory conditions so you might well expand beyond your borders. The Ottoman Empire is very weak and would be an easy target. Alternatively, you could recreate Napoleon's invasion of Russia or take out Germany's old rival France.
Found colonies. Prussia doesn't have any colonies yet but now that its position in Europe has been established, the time might be ripe for conquering lands in India or America. If you take out the United Provinces, their colonies will be an easy target. Same goes for France. Alternatively, you could of course try to take on the Native Americans or Indians.
Spread your faith. Prussia is Protestant but most of the conquered Germany and Austria isn't. This would be the perfect opportunity to spread Protestantism in your lands. Build churches and send your priests everywhere!
Last but not least, you could also change your type of government. Being a republic can be really helpful at this stage of the game as the people will be much less likely to riot and cause trouble. Especially if you want to invest into new technologies being a republic helps a lot. Alternatively, you could also become a republic first, then turn into a constitutional monarchy later on. The people will still be happy and you can avoid having crappy ministers.
As you can see, there are still endless possibilities. Expand militarily, improve your economy, conquer colonies, defend and fortify your homeland or simply try to get the most advanced armies in the world - nothing is impossible. You now have a great power base and nobody will be able to stop you anymore, no matter what you are going for!
The Prussian republic owns most of central and Eastern Europe.
In conclusion, Prussia is certainly one of the most exciting and enjoyable factions in the game. It has lots of potential, many enemies and offers a great gameplay experience. Recreate the kingdom's rise to power and fight your way up from a small country to a dominant empire. Achieve dominance over Germany and become the predominant nation in Europe.
Prussia has lots of possibilities so playing with this faction never gets boring. You might conquer Sweden, march to Moscow, colonize India, grab lands in the Americas or simply take on the French. Nothing is impossible and your imagination is the only limit!
As long as you utilize the country's strenghts and combine the power of your army, economy and strategic genius you will be successful. Follow in King Frederick's footsteps, lead Prussia's proud armies to victory and finally establish its dominance over the whole known world. At a time when the name Rome has long been forgotten, Prussia shall still be omnipresent!