Poland strategy
From EU3 Wiki
Poland is one of many countries which disappeared from the map during or shortly after the period that is presented in the game. Poland was attacked by Austria, Russia and Prussia at the same time in late 18th centuries in what is known as 'Partitions of Poland'. Those powers divided Polish teritory between themselves and in three short wars put an end to the long and glorious history of Poland for the next 123 years. But in 1453 she is an emerging power in the region - Poland's Golden Age was in real history took place in 16th and early 17th centuries. There aren't many countries that would like to be in conflict with her at that time. The player has all the tools necessary to change the history.
[edit] Starting position
You have extremaly long borders. That is your biggest pain at the beginning. Every revolt takes months of marching before you can kill it. Your country is extremaly difficult to defend. You can't station your troops farther in the country to aid your border army while it is attacked and so on. The bad news is that it will look like that for most of the time and will be even worse after you conquer certain countries.
[edit] Religion
You are catholic and it will stay like that for ages. Lithuania is also catholic but it has many provinces that are orthodox. That hurts your little sister a lot causing much disturbance, revolts and lowering their tax income significantly. Learn from that lesson and convert any non-catholic province you ever have in your game. You have too many other problems to be forced to fight religious wars...
[edit] Countries around you
There are not many countries in the region that would pose any danger to you at the time. You can win with everybody. You are endangered only when a few of your neighbours unite to give you some beating. Due to long borders, you will have to divide your armies and that can be deadly. So you have to avoid stupid and random wars and try to make peace at one end to fight off invasion on another one. Be careful with whom you ally, avoid troublemakers like Austria that attack everything around them dragging you into thousands of stupid wars you can't take any advantage from.
Let's discuss the countries now.
[edit] Lithuania
Your great asset is your younger but bigger and stronger sister, Lithuania. You are in a personal union with them until your monarch dies (ahistorical, but well...) and allied with them even after that. It is important to stay friends with Lithuania and to help her whenever she's in trouble. Lithuania will grow and prosper and her numerous armies will be always to your aid. After personal union ends, your task is to vassalize Lithuania and stay allied and friends with her for the rest of the game. Lithuania usually does a great job at holding russian countries away from Europe and this allows you to focus more on the west than you could if you wasn't so friendly towards Lithuania. You don't ever want to fight a war with Lithuania. Help them with Russians whenever they need it, help them kill revolts. The stronger they are, the safer from Asia you are.
After you grow stronger and stronger, a window opens to vassalize Lithuania and then diplo-annex her. It will bring a lot of trouble on your shoulders (religious and cultural mostly but financial too) but is historical and quite tempting for everybody who does know polish and lithuanian history.
[edit] Teutonic Order
To the north there is your great enemy of recent 200 years, Teutonic Order. One of your first tasks is to put an end to this annoyance. It is a good idea to attack them at the beginning. Beat their weak armies with your cavalry, occupy most of their land (Lithuania can help here with their northern provinces) and vassalize them without taking any land (ask them for 50 ducats though, they should pay after a try or two). When you have them vassalized do not ally with them, you don't want to loose a vassal after it refuses to join your war. Instead you want to stay friends with them. After that you can leave them where they lie or annex them diplomatically. Your choice. After you have them annexed it is really hard to find a longer country on the map...
[edit] Holy Roman Empire
To the west you border with the Holy Roman Empire with the emperor himself. Provided you don't anger too many countries at the same time, you shouldn't expect many problems here.
HRE can be a danger but it also is an opportunity. First of all, there is some land that you could take:
- Bohemia
You have a core province there. After you have dealt with Teutonic Order and everybody else causing early annoyances it is your next target. You can wage a war against them easily using this core province as a reason. They are easy to beat provided you occupy all their provinces quickly denying them from building more troops. So try to get military access from their neighbours and strike from all sides at once. Also, remember to vassalize or annex their ally, Silesia, before you make peace with Bohemia. What you can take from Bohemia is: 1. Your core province 2. Vassalization deal. 3. Some money. 4. Their other land if your reputation is good and you can afford those 8 or so BB points.
- Pommerania
You don't have a casus belli on this one and they are an early target of Denmark, Brandenburg or Mecklemburg. Sometimes even all of them at once. One course of action is to attack them after they are beaten by others and take their land. Second and much better way is to ally with them and vassalize them early after. They are very likely to ask you for an alliance but don't hesitate to send an offer yourself if they neglect that. Having good relations with them is crucial if you want to...
- Become the Holy Roman Emperor himself
It is not that hard as many would think. You have around 6 diplomats per year, you also have a nice income if you have already vassalized or annexed Bohemia, Teutonic Order and Lithuania. That's all you need to become the emperor, money and diplomats. Check who the elector are in the empire and try to befriend them. If you are lucky you will have two votes already. One of them coming from Bohemia (if you have good relations with them, send gifts to your vassals!) and second one from Pommerania.
There are easier and harder to convince countries. Silesia, Bohemia, Pommerania, all will be happy to vote on you if you have +200 relations with them. Try to find out who is your competitor here and steal votes from him rather than convincing others. Sometimes you can become the emperor with only two votes if your opponents are divided, sometimes you need four. There is a strong coalition around Brandenburg that can hurt you if you haven't secured Pommerania. Just keep sending money, asking for and giving military access and arranging royal marriages (if you have 100 and more relations). Sooner or later you will succeed, because nobody else is putting any effort into becoming the emperor.
One last thing. Why would one spend so much of his resources on becoming the emperor? Well, having it secured once means it is yours for a long time if you are not rampaging in Europe. It gives you a great bonus to your stability investment and since you are in the eastern group, you want to spend your money on research instead of pumping them into stability. Also, being the emperor gives you both manpower and land force limit bonuses. That helps you in every war you would like to wage in future. It is a thousand times easier to conquer being the emperor.
- Brandenburg and Saxony
They pose a threat. They are allied to each other most of the time, share the same culture (Saxon) so can join together into one country easily and are strong enough to hurt you or your Bohemian or Pommeranian vassals. If you want to dominate Germany, you will have to deal with those two sooner or later and this won't be an easy war. But after having them vassalized there will be little inside the HRE that can beat you. Help yourself and don't arrange any Royal Marriages with them, don't ally to them and send them both a warning. What you need is to be able to beat them at the moment that is favourable to you, not to them. So if you see them in struggle with Denmark or anybody else that is big enough to hold back their armies for a while, strike without hesitating. After having them occupied, vassalize and befriend with gifts. Two more votes will secure your emperorship forever.
[edit] Moldavia and Crimea
Weak and poor. Great target of early conquest if you are bored. A lot of converting needed here to squeeze any profit out of them so even after you beat them it's better to vassalize than to take provinces. Be free to annex Moldavia early if you want to play historically.
[edit] Austria and Hungary
Those two love to fight each other. They will leave you alone for most of the time if don't provoke any boundary dispute or attack their ally. Early in the game there is not much you can do here. Try not to ally with any side, they will sooner or later drag you into a conflict with the Ottoman Empire and you don't really want to participate in this one for now. A conflict with any of those two will be bloody and costy so is important to avoid.
Hungarians are in the same culture group as Poles, so it's one of your potential allies, vassals and a target for diplo-annexation. Provided you want to have some fun with the Ottomans, Austria and extend your extremaly long border even farther. After you have them, you have an opportunity to go to Italy as you will get a port in Croatia. Take your chance to snap a university or two if you don't mind having an overseas province.
[edit] The Ottoman Empire
It was Poland that stopped their expansion to the north and it may happen they you will have to play such a role in your game. If you see them winning with Hungary, Austria and Venice, taking a lot of land and coming closer and closer to you, you have to act before it is too late. With your aid Hungary and Austria will be able to fight them back to a position where they do not pose a danger. In history it was polish cavalry that kicked besieging Wien Ottomans out back to Asia. Gives a lot of pleasure to do that in the game.
[edit] Sweden and Denmark
Those two are also busy with themselves for most of the time. It is not advised to go on war there, attrition in Scandivia is too high and the land is too poor to be worth your time. So try to avoid any alliances here. Especially that your fleet (if you have any) is usually weaker than theirs.
[edit] Mazovia
Joined Poland in the XVI century. A target of early alliance, vassalization and diplomatic annexation, nothing more. You can ally with them and drag them into your early conflict with Teutonic Order. Teutons will annex them quickly if you leave them enough space in the region and you will have one country less to befriend. Just make sure that "giving enough space to conquer Mazovia" won't mean Teutonic Order winning the war with you.
[edit] Riga
If you have annexed Teutonic Order, Riga will divide your territory into two parts, not a good thing, hurting your income from northern provinces a lot. Warn them, warn their allies. Wage a war after you have a reason and annex them by force or diplomatically, depending on your playing style.
[edit] Muscowy, Novgorod and the likes
Not much to worry about. Lithuania will cope with them. You don't even have to send any armies here for most of the time as Lithuania is a monster in EU3. But if you see that your brothers are in serious trouble, end all the wars in the west and help them as quickly as you can. The weaker the Lithuania is, the more difficult for you it will be to focus on the west.
[edit] Research
You are an eastern country. This means 0.9 of the normal research rate. That's why you have to choose carefully what to invest your money into. First priority here is Land Tech. Better troops in your numerous wars can be more than helpful. Second priority is Production. Having level two allows you to build workshops all over your land raising your incomes significantly. Third priority is Goverment. You need new National Ideas if you want to compete with western powers. Set the rest to 0. Try to become the emperor, being one means you can ignore investing into stability and spend those money elswhere. Forget trade, it is costy and Italians will eat all your merchants alive anyway. Hire your advisors accordingly.
[edit] National Ideas
Military Drill is something you should have if you want to win any war. If you are the emperor, you don't need additional manpower or land force limit. You also don't need any ideas connected with fleets. If you plan to fight Orthodox and Muslim, Deus Vult can help you keeping your stability high. If you don't plan that, you want to aid your poor research with Scientific Revolution or improve your incomes with Smithian Economics.
[edit] Armies
Early in the game should consist only of cavalry. Try to outnumber your enemies and pursue them with your cavalry after they run away. As an Eastern tech group country, your calvary will be far superior to those of your western rivals, who will be stuck with Latin Knights for a long time as your land technology provides with you with plenty of increasingly stronger cavalry units. Hire generals for that purpose provided you have at leat 20% of land tradition. When you have dealt with enemy army, you can hire mercenary Yaya infantry in 1000 or 2000 stacks to siege their cities while your cavalry keeps chasing their troops. Try to siege as many cities at once as you can afford. This prevents your enemies from building more troops and makes wars much shorter.
[edit] Westernization
Is a process that allows you to leave your miserable eastern research group and to join the best, latin group. We have a separate article on Westernisation in our wiki.
