Burgundy strategy
From EU3 Wiki
Burgundy is a little brother of France. It has all the potential necessary to dominate Europe. The start is very easy, they have a nice colour on the map and outstanding wine. They are a nation of warriors, ready to conquer and rule. Historically Burgundy was unlucky, her last duke Charles the Bold died on swiss pikes and the country was divided between Austria and France. The game gives you all the tools to change that.
[edit] Strategy
Buy yourself a bottle of Chardonnay (only if you are old enough, if it's still illegal for you to drink alcohol in your country, go for milk instead!).
Open up your country's screen. You have three advisors, all giving you a bonus to your stability investment, how nice. Try to change the oldest of them into a person that researches Land or Goverment tech. Leave the other two, you will need them soon. Your king is a general and thus will die soon. Pray for his son to be as capable as he is. If you want to extend your king's life, do not make him lead an army. Believe me, he is too much of an asset to die in a stupid war with a German minor. You really want him to stay alive as long as possible - as you may not get such a genius ever again in your game. At least I never was lucky enough for that. There are kings you send to fight Russian 20k big stacks with 500 cavalry and there are kings you would like to live forever. That was the case in history too.
Set your treasury to 1.0 ducat per month and invest all the money into researching Goverment Tech. Move your slider one step towards Innovative. Burgundy has so much to do in Europe that thinking about colonization is just too much. You can take others' fully developed colonies later in the game anyway.
Now realize one crucial for your future game thing:
Burgundy is a predator. It is made to be a killer. Its future is conquest. Why do I think that? Look at your sliders, offensive (100%!), land oriented, free subjects, quality instead of quantity. It all is set for two things. One: Boost your research. Two: Make your armies deadly. With this set, if you don't break anything, in 50 years you will have very modern and very strong army, probably the strongest in Europe and very strong economy supporting it. With such an army, there aren't many things you could worry about. In fact, there are only two. One of them is blue, another one is red. Yes, France and England. Both will compete with you for european dominance. With both you have disputes. England owns Calais, your core province. A big part of your starting teritory is core for France. You will have to fight England and France sooner or later and it won't be an easy war.
Being aware of what is going to happen in future is a big asset. You can prepare.
Your first goal is to connect two pieces of your land together. You can do it in two ways. One of them is costy, lengthy and more difficult but doesn't destroy your reputation. Second one is quick and easy but you will have to wait many years for your reputation and stability to recover.
If you prefer the first way, you ask Lorraine for all types of alliances, military access, give them money and politely ask them to become your vassal and after ten years to join your mighty empire. You have to do all of that before you start your conquest of German minors, as your badboy hurts your reputation and diplomacy a lot.
If you are more like a killer, you go for a Royal Marriage with Lorraine, then claim their throne and with such Casus Belli, for -2 stability hit strike them, take their two provinces, then wait 5 years and annex them completely in second war.
After doing either, you proceed to thinking which of German minors you want to annex first. Move to the diplomatic view of the map, check which ones are your cores. There are three of them: Liege, Gerle and Friesland. Check their alliances carefully. Take those with weak friends first. If you get lucky they will be allied to each other, making things much easier. Your next goal is to take them all. And also this time you can go two ways. You can either take them diplomatically or forcefully.
This is your call, and your type of strategy.
After you take them by force or step on the long and complicated diplomatic way, warn every single German minor bordering you. No, i'm not joking, warn all of them. Build up your armies up to the limit, research heavily. And wait for occasions to add new countries to your territory. They will fight each other a lot, you just have to figure out a proper moment to take some land from them. In the early stage of the game don't mess with France nor with England. They may seem exhausted and easy to fight, especially if they are still at war with each other but this is only an illusion. They are so strong that taking even one province from them in a peace deal is impossible. If France takes Calais it will make your things easier, only one enemy to focus on and a nice permanent Casus Belli on France, that's helpful.
There are two choices for conquering German minors. Just as with anybody else. You either annex them after taking their terriotory, advised for smaller ones like Utrech, or force vassalize them after the war, then improve your mutual relations for 10 years and ask them to become your vassal and diploannex them when ready.
Next chapter, potential friends. There are not many. Both Portugal and Castille are far away and more focused on colonization than on wars in Europe. Don't count on them to help you. Maybe if Castille took Navarra thus having border with French vassals... France will sooner or later backstab you so is not a good ally to rely on. England holds Calais you will want back so no point in making them your friends. Of course if it looses Calais to either Brittany or France, you're lucky and should ally with them as soon as possible. Brittany is weak and France will eat them soon. If Brittany manages to take Calais in its early war with England, take your core from them by force and force vassalize them. Denmark and Sweden don't have enough manpower to help you with France. Italy is not formed, HRE is full of little boys who don't stand a chance in a war with big guys. Austria is far away and busy with Hungary, Ottomans and Venice. You are pretty much alone all the time. If you plan smashing France (you do if you ever want to feel safe) you should choose Aragon as your friend. If you plan going deep inside HRE, make friends with Austria or Poland. If Denmark manages to beat Sweden in their early wars and take a lot of land, you can go for an alliance with them, at least they send some fleet to help you defend your coast should England decide to expand into the continent.
Last chapter, fighting France. You have extremaly long borders with them. That's not helping. Many people station their troops on the border, this is wrong. Station them deeper in your country. When France invades, let them siege for half a year or so, allow their morale to fade away, their numbers to reduce. Then outnumber them with your cavalry led by strong generals. And don't stop chasing bastards till Paris!!! After you have all their armies out of your mighty empire move on to their territory. Leave 1000 or 2000 of infantry in each province and don't, DON'T!, stop chasing their armies, don't allow them to regroup. Kill every unit they build. Use mercenary cavalry to help you. Depending on how successful you are, you may get Calais (if they have it) and force them to renounce their claims on your territory. You could even vassalize them, if you are a strategical genius, but it would spoil the rest of your game as no real competition means no real fun.
One more thing to add. If France attacks Lorraine, you have to defend it with all the force you have. Don't allow France to separate two pieces of your territory. If that happens you can as well restart the game.
Second remark. Station your troops near the border with France during peace. It will make France keep a large number of their troops on your border too. This way you weaken them in their wars with countries like Aragon or Castille. I just saw much weaker Aragon conquer all their southern vassals and taking three their southern provinces. France couldn't match Aragon army because they kept 50k troops on our border. Fools. Use that observation to your advantage. Also, when you see somebody capable fighting France (Sweden, Austria, England, Castille, Aragon), keep sending them money. 20-40 ducats is nothing really for you when you sit down and wait for your BB to go down piling up all those yearly incomes...
