Take Gascony, or take North American provinces?

[lord of the mark]

well Im not quite at that point yet - im still trying to beat England. Its about 1616, and after 6 years of peace, Spain is again at war - this time against England its lesser Protestant allies - Denmark, Pommern, and Saxony. It started when our ally Austria went to war with Saxony. Portugal and the Papal States are also part of the Catholic alliance. France is neutral.

While Austria principally fights in Germany, I fight England around the Atlantic world. Unfortunately much of my army started the war in the wrong places. I have troops in Italy, watching for revolt in Sienna and Naples. I have troops in South America, keeping watch on the Incas, and on the provinces being converted. I have a large army in Flanders - unfortunately by the time i reconned England sufficiently to feel a landing would be possible, they got locked in by a superior Protestant fleet - Im still far too weak at sea.

OTOH an army from Spain is now besieging Gascony, Englands last province in France. Ive gathered my forces in North America, and have retaken Roanoke, defeating an english army (earlier we killed John Smith - sorry Pocahontas ) Am now advancing into Chesapeake.


Their landing forces have taken Trinidad from me, and St Martin. They have a large army under Dudley on St Martin, but its attriting away. its down to 19k from at least 25k. They have also taken the Canaries and Bermuda. but have left only modest garrisons.

Im getting a force ready in Spain to go after the Canaries, etc. OTOH I have only about 24 ships in Spain ready to go, and they have lots of superior (if smaller) fleets running around all over. Portugal helps sometimes, but not consistently.

My inclination is too build ships, since i have enough troops now that Gascony is in hand and I have superiority in N. Amer. The problem is moving them around in large numbers, and safely.


I expect I will soon get enough victories for a favorable peace. What should I prioritize? On the one had, Gascony will be far richer, far more developed than any new world provinces i can take. On the other hand nationalism and wrong culture is a pain, and English Gascony probably helps keep France and England on bad terms. I understand i can change the culture of a new world province thats under 5k population - how many colonists do i need to send to do that?

Note - England only has one Carib province - Barbados - I presume thats the first one to take.

[CerberusIV]

Re: Take Gascony, or take North American provinces?

Originally posted by lord of the mark
OTOH an army from Spain is now besieging Gascony, Englands last province in France. Ive gathered my forces in North America, and have retaken Roanoke, defeating an english army (earlier we killed John Smith - sorry Pocahontas ) Am now advancing into Chesapeake.

Overrun all the N American colonies you can. You need to take as much territory as possible to get a decent peace offer from them.

Their landing forces have taken Trinidad from me, and St Martin. They have a large army under Dudley on St Martin, but its attriting away. its down to 19k from at least 25k. They have also taken the Canaries and Bermuda. but have left only modest garrisons.

I take it you didn't build fortresses on these islands? Many people will say never build fortresses but I generally build level one, especially on islands. Otherwise you are vulnerable to this kind of thing (not to mention that rebels on islands are a complete pain!).

Im getting a force ready in Spain to go after the Canaries, etc. OTOH I have only about 24 ships in Spain ready to go, and they have lots of superior (if smaller) fleets running around all over. Portugal helps sometimes, but not consistently.

Retaking your territory where easy is generally good but if you can grab something from them do so. Check their naval tech level. If they have a CRT on you, or worse still they have galleons and you don't, you are in trouble. The AI "knows" when you are trying to land troops and will interfere. Each time their fleet attacks your landing is stopped. The only consolation is that AI fleets can contain a proportion of transports that are not much use in battle.

My inclination is too build ships, since i have enough troops now that Gascony is in hand and I have superiority in N. Amer. The problem is moving them around in large numbers, and safely.

Ships take months to build. If you are going to get peace within a year you don't have time to build a fleet of warships. Next time make sure you have comparable naval tech, then concentrate a killer fleet of 35-40 warships and wipe them out one fleet at a time.

I expect I will soon get enough victories for a favorable peace. What should I prioritize? On the one had, Gascony will be far richer, far more developed than any new world provinces i can take. On the other hand nationalism and wrong culture is a pain, and English Gascony probably helps keep France and England on bad terms. I understand i can change the culture of a new world province thats under 5k population - how many colonists do i need to send to do that?

Note - England only has one Carib province - Barbados - I presume thats the first one to take.

Gascony will only give you problems with France (isn't Gascony Reformed and therefore wrong religion?) I'd go for the colonies. Barbados would be nice to keep them out of the Caribbean if you can capture it. As a colonial power I prefer to control as much overseas as possible and only worry about my cores in Europe. Especially as the real money is to be made in overseas CoT's.

Colonies will change to your culture (and religion) if they are under 1000 population and you successfully send one colonist. If they are over 1000 population sending colonists won't change culture (or religion). Provided the population is still under 5000 when nationalism RR disappears (after 30 years) such provinces will change to your culture. However you will still have to send a missionary to change their religion (higher success rate once the culture has changed).

[lord of the mark]

I finally did win the war (against England - Im still at war with Denmark), by building ships, and by my fleet in Flanders finally escaping at an opportune moment. (also brought my fleet from the Pacific all the way around Cape Horn)

Couldnt take Barbados, as Portugal had grabbed it first. Ended up getting Chesapeake and 120 ducats.

Chesapeake is anglo-saxon and protestant. it has about 2300 pop (the siege and looting brought it down some) but now it has, I think, a 7% growth rate. I need it to not grow past 5000 in 30 years (in order to get culture change) ? How can I keep growth down? build a tax collector to increase revolt risk? anything else?

[Gamecube64]

The growth rate is by century, so you should be fine unless you get a pop increasing event or something.

[Jonny]

Originally posted by Gamecube64
The growth rate is by century, so you should be fine unless you get a pop increasing event or something.

Actually, I think it's per decade, not per century... but I'm not completely sure.

[Gamecube64]

Oh yes it is decade, my brain wasn't working.

You still don't need to worry though

[Qilue]

I tend to build far too many ships, but then again, I'm almost never invaded by sea. I also only build warships as transports are a waste of time and galleys are too slow and too useless above tech 11. In fact, if I'm playing England, I usually have more ships than the rest of the world combined.

40?!? Pfah, build 200 or more.

[ravagon]

Playing as England/Britain I tend too build a lot of ships too but disperse most of the fleet into anti-piracy patrols off the NA coast.
You probably want to maintain a reserve though of 20-30 ships in each major region in which you have a presense.
In case of a war breaking out it can be invaluable to be able to hit and crush small enemysquadrons quickly and massively before they have time to deploy anything more substantial.
Those +1% WS victories can really add up mighty quickly.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by ravagon
Playing as England/Britain I tend too build a lot of ships too but disperse most of the fleet into anti-piracy patrols off the NA coast.

That would work in peacetime - you can then concentrate them as needed in the event of war, or to move troops around.