punitive war cb defense?

[Jojojay]

whenever i take a large chunk of land, a♥♥♥♥♥♥ton of nations join a coalition against me and attack me using the punitive war cb. my armies and allies are already devestated, so they don't stand a chance. i end up having to give back all the terrotory i took and more to end the war. this ruined my last two games. any tips?

playing as bohemia in the HRE btw. i annexed 4/5 provinces of saxony

in the other game playing as england, i grabbed 3 provinces in burgandy and half of the hre in addition to franc and scotland attacked me

[Yotz]

While you wont like what you have to do, it's quite simple. Don't take as much land. This is even more true when dealing with the HRE. While in the HRE area you will experince much higher AE then normal, and even taking just three provinces can get them all coming after you. When doing a peace deal on the bottem left you are able to see how much AE you'll be getting from the peace deal. Mouse over it, and it'll show nations who might join in a colation.

[Kapika96]

Check the amount of AE you get. It shows you from each individual country's diplomacy screen (or coalition mapmode). It also tells you how much you will get when signing a peace treaty based on how much land you are taking as well as which nations (if any) will form a coalition against you. If at least 3 nations have a -50 AE or greater relations modifier with you (and they think they can beat you) they will form a coalition and most likely declare war on you.

As for your specific circumstances, in both cases it's probably due to HRE. Saxony is all HRE provinces, as is much of Burgundy. Taking any HRE provinces gives double the regular AE, it's also modified by religion and distance. Basically any expansion in the HRE needs to be slow, limited to 1 or 2 provinces at max, before waiting a decade or two for AE to die down otherwise you'll have coalitions to deal with. If you force vassalise instead of annex that gives reduced AE so you can use that instead.

[Jojojay]

so i should prioritize vassalize, get war reperations, and get money over taking provinces?

[Kapika96]

Originally posted by jojojay.martin:

so i should prioritize vassalize, get war reperations, and get money over taking provinces?

To reduce AE, yes. Sometimes that's not necessary though. Since it's based on distance & religion etc even if you're close to getting a coalition in say Italy or the HRE you could still take land from muslims in north Africa or something with very little risk, if any, of those HRE/Italian countries forming a coalition.

Also, using reconquest CB massively reduces AE. So if you have a vassal (or can release one) with cores on enemy territory, use that as your CB and give the provinces to your vassal instead of taking them yourself.

[Rabob]

Originally posted by jojojay.martin:

so i should prioritize vassalize, get war reperations, and get money over taking provinces?

Also, don't forget to improve relations. Especially with big countries. AI nations will only be able to join/form a coalition when their opinion is negative.

[brian_va]

you can also get bigger friends. if the coalition wants to go to war, make sure you have some friends and can take some of their toys.

[Jojojay]

i loaded an autosave. vassalizing all 5 provinces of saxon cost 64 agressive expansion.

[brian_va]

yep, thats gonna be a problem

[Jojojay]

Originally posted by brian_va:

yep, thats gonna be a problem

it was.


i do not think that i need to elaborate.

[brian_va]

nope, we've all been there. you know the answer, beat up the coalition first.

[Jojojay]

Originally posted by brian_va:

nope, we've all been there. you know the answer, beat up the coalition first.

yes. doomstacks of 60k troops are peices of cake.

[brian_va]

once they are doomstacks, sure. the key is to hit them before they are doomstacks. you are gonna go all aggro, strike the coaliton with shock and awe. big friends will help

[Snakejuice]

Here's a good guide on how to handle situations like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwxt1v1rvAA

[XerxesTheUndead]

Influence Ideas can help in regards to reducing AE, however that only does so much (10% or 20% I don't remember) to try to lower it enough for you to take land. As long as you keep track of how much AE you are taking (which can be done by clicking on the Coalitions Tab in the lower right corner), it can give you a good indication as to whether or not you should take a break from wars or if you're good to go.

[Jojojay]

Originally posted by XerxesTheUndead:

Influence Ideas can help in regards to reducing AE, however that only does so much (10% or 20% I don't remember) to try to lower it enough for you to take land. As long as you keep track of how much AE you are taking (which can be done by clicking on the Coalitions Tab in the lower right corner), it can give you a good indication as to whether or not you should take a break from wars or if you're good to go.

i get a coalition from ONE war