Brandenburg strategy
From EU3 Wiki
Brandenburg is in an excellent position to attempt the German unification. Germany is weak and divided, awaiting strong leadership. The small German states should pose little threat, while larger powers will generally not be reached until your borders expand to make you even more powerful than them.
Forget exploration early on--focus your national ideas on expanding your military manpower and might. Conscription is a good start. All early slider adjustments should be directed towards military strength--keep increasing focus towards land forces, quality over quantity, offensive doctrine, and freer subjects. With no initial ports, Brandenburg should be transformed into a pure killing machine.
Start with your small German neighbors. Pick out the ones without allies and make them pay. Every war initiated should never cost more than one or two stability hits (same religious group and possibly no Casus Belli). Avoid royal marriages with your immediate targets, accepting them with future conquests to gain a few provinces without war. Insult nations to bring relations below 100 and avoid further stability hits following your DoW.
Focus all of your trade on Lubeck. Your merchants are too limited to be trading in the vicious global market. Lubeck will provide all of the trading income you will need, and will become increasingly less competitve as you absorb more and more competitors through conquest.
As the Reich expands, your first major threat will be Poland. Fear not, for you are Germany--history dictates that Poles will soon fear you. An alliance with the Teuotonic Order is key to slowly conquering Poland while keeping their Lithuanian allies out of sight and out of mind. They constantly go to war, and the Teutons will split Polish forces to leave you less to conquer. Manage your wars wisely--you should be the head of the alliance if you've annexed even a few German minors. Do not allow the Teutons to get too much Polish land. If you are not ready for a follow-up war with Poland, dissolve your alliance with the Teutonic Order. They are all but guarenteed to drag you into war. You do not need to conquer all of Poland initially; just push them further east and shift your focus towards consolidating the Reich.
Your land forces should initially be divided into medium-sized armies of no more than 7 or so regiments. Larger armies will suffer attrition in many provinces. These super-brigades/mini-divisions can serve you early in your expansion. As manpower and wealth increase, keep adding more of them. Your combat brigades can team up to overcome larger units with relative ease. They should consist almost entirely of infantry units, whose firepower can whittle down the manpower of exhausted foes and who can storm fortresses when necessary. Add a cavalry and artillery unit or two for good measure. Early on, aim to recruit special cavalry units from southeastern provinces in lieu of the weaker Latin Knights.
As the game develops, regimental camps will come into play. They are crucial for Brandenburg/Germany. Adding +10 to the supportable units in their province, they will permit a permanent German military expansion. As finances improve through expansion, mercenaries can begin to play a crucial role in wartime; recruit hordes of infantry in border provinces to quickly storm fortresses and preserve your professional armies for battles.
Keep a constant eye on manpower, and never declare war without enough of it. You need maximum reinforcements for success, and these are tough to come by early on.
Diplomatically, strive to be Holy Roman Emperor for its stability bonus. Use the time between wars to increase manpower, recover your reputation, and bolster relations within the HRE.
As you gain wealth and coastal provinces, begin a limited colonization with an eye to the future. Establish strategic military outposts around the world, relying on the discoveries of others. Get the 1000 colonists necessary in each province, and immediately increase fortifications to the maximum level. As your wealth increases, build conscription centers and shipyards in your forward bases for rapid military escalation. You are a killing machine, not a colonizer. Steal the colonies of lesser nations through force of arms; the same super-brigades that can be used against Europe can march through the colonial world at ease. With a combination along the lines of Manhattan, Bermuda, St. Helena, Diego Garcia, and Hawaii, you will have strong outposts to wage future wars in every corner of the globe.
For cash, get the Caribbean. The sugar is highly valued, and can fund military expansion around the world.
Continental expansion will bring you to the borders of your first real competitors. Fortunately, you will now have the power to crush anyone you face.
Brandenburg will, in fact, become Germany in the game if you conquer enough (or all?) of the German minors/provinces. The exact criteria are unknown to me, but a pop-up window will emerge asking if you would like to change nations. The benefits are solid, and there is no reason to choose otherwise. The flag will change, and the political map will make Germany gray rather than off-red. As of version 1.1, there are some slight bugs to this that don't really impact game-play. Military units' icons will disappear from the map, but reappear as German when moved to another province. And Germany will remain red on the political map until the game is saved and loaded again. Neither is too bad.
With a united Germany, especially while France and Russia remain divided, the world is your playground.
The best part of massive expansion is, perhaps, the technological benefit. The game assesses technological costs based on provinces, setting you technologically behind in early stages of conquest. This penalty is capped, however, at a certain number (60?) of provinces, meaning that further expansion (even of poor provinces) only boosts technological investments while not boosting costs. In extreme cases of global expansion, the German military will leap ahead the rest of the world a generation in military arms, facilitating an exponential expansion on all fronts. The game engine truly allows for a massive German empire by the game's conclusion.
A good first start in overseas conquest is India. As a divided subcontinent, it is easily subjugated through a lengthy and constant series of wars. The wealth and manpower it provides can truly serve as Germany's crown jewel.
The key to remember in constant expansion is the game's checks on such a strategy. Stability will always be a problem. Fortunately, as a member of the Holy Roman Empire, you are in the position to become Emperor, giving a massive boost to stability investments. As Germany expands, however, stability becomes increasingly expensive to boost. To counter this, cease costly European expansion, declare Deus Vult as a national idea, and attack non-Christian nations overseas.
Your reputation (or "badboy") is the real kicker to global domination. As you grow larger and more dishonorable (to the point of being "hated around the entire world"), your neighbors will constantly declare war on you. The only real threat here is likely to be France. If you keep sufficient forces, fortresses, and regimental camps along and near the border, however, every war can garner a few wealthy provinces. As Germany's strength becomes truly epic, European nations will no longer feel so emboldened.
German Country Event Trigger starts with:
One of the following primary cultures: Hannoverian Pommerian Hessian Saxon Bavarian Rheinlaender
owns all of the following Provinces: Mecklenburg Brandenburg Altmark Lüneburg Hannover Anhalt Dresden Leipzig Erfurt Franken
And must be at peace.
The event is triggered after 996 month (of the earliest game time?) adjusted by 5% for owning any of the following provinces: Lübeck Mecklenburg Vorpommern Hinterpommern Neumark Brandenburg Ruppin Altmark Lüneburg Bremen Oldenburg Osnabruck Hannover Anhalt Meissen Lausitz Dresden Leipzig Erfurt Niederbayern München Bamberg Franken Schwaben Konstanz Wurtemberg Leiningen Breisgau Tirol Baden Elsass Salzburg Pfalz Mainz Wurzburg Trier Hessen Lippe Nassau Berg Koln Münster Luxemburg Kärnten Steiermark Linz Wien
