Turbo-annex

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The fastest way to annex a country with many provinces.

[edit] What

In patch 1.2, the AI became much more stubborn at accepting peace terms that cede many regions to the conquering nation. Thus, a new method had to be found for those impatient players who didn't want to slowly eat a large nation via multiple wars and multiyear truces.

That method was found by Breaking a nation.

[edit] How

When rebels control more provinces than the current government controls, the nation breaks. All wars end in truces and the current leader is deposed for a new leader. But more importantly, all provinces except the capital are ceded to their occupiers.

• Use this to your advantage by conquering every province the country owns except the capital. This method maximizes the provinces you gain, but it is harder to cause rebellion on a country's capital, as it is the most stable. ALTERNATIVE: An easier method is: Conquer the capital but leave a different culture, different religion (ideally) province free for them. That is the province that you target for rebellion. You'll find it is MUCH easier, but will leave the country with two provinces (the capital and your target for rebellion) rather than just the capital.
• Surround the capital so the mercenaries they raise don't cause too much trouble.
• Now bring out the spies! If they aren't already, do spy ring infiltration. This helps alot on the next step as it is very expensive and you don't want to fail.
• Now sow discontent until they are at -3 stability. Ouch! A hundred ducats a try!
• Now finish them by sending a spy to support revolt.
• And finally, wait until the rebels spawn and siege the capital. This can take several months if the revolt risk is only 10%.

After they win, at the end of the month all the provinces are annexed to you! The only downside is that each province comes at a +1 higher BB cost (unless you have a core on that province, then it's 0) than just ceding as part of a Peace negotiation. You also don't get the benefit of making the capital your vassal. But how many one-province enemies have caused you much harm? Plus you have a 5 year truce with them.

The higher BB cost for doing this is actually a good thing for people who like to win the game via badboy wars. This strategy is called Diplo-Annexing for victory because it used to be done by diplo-annex but now you can also use this Turbo-annexing strategy too!

Note: A nation cannot turbo-annex in version 2.1.