France WC beginning steps?

[👅 f r e a k y c y r u s 👅]

I want to attempt a world conquest as France, but I have no idea what my beginning actions should be.
I've tried a few different times with varying success. I want to become emperor and get the full Burgundian Inheritance. So far my steps have been to get the dip rep advisor, delete 2 forts, use estates to get papal influence and invest it to become controller, ally Trier, Cologne, and Mainz and allying + RMing Bohemia, and allying Castile or Aragon for an actual alliance. I rival England, Austria, and Provence to break my alliance with them.

However I'm confused at what to do. Do I just sit tight and wait for Austria to die so I can become emperor, then declare on Burgundy?

England has been surrendering Maine 4/5 tries, is that a good thing or is it better for them to declare war so I can get a defensive war?

Should I be warring anyone while I wait to become emperor?

Any other tips would be appreciated. I'm very bad at beginning the game as larger nations.

[AllGrainGamer]

It sounds like you are dedicating a lot just to get a few extra provinces for free. If you are going for WC I would say the last thing you want is the surrender of Maine to succeed. I recently did a Big Blue Blob campaign that I am converting to a WC campaing just to finally get it done. I've been close a few times before but it just becomes so tedious at the end I fail to finish before the next big update.

Anyways, I believe approaching WC as a BBB run will put you in the right mindset. You forever feel against the clock, and it forces you to conquer in a lot of regions quickly which opens more avenues for later. The HRE is a huge roadblock with the double AE paired with the relatively rich lands until you dismantle it. Trying to absorb it first will give you a strong powerbase, but will cost a lot of valuable time. Therefor, I like to focus on attacking England first and working my way to Scandinavia into Russia while also hitting Ibera and Italy to surround the HRE for later.

England is pretty easy to deal with while avoiding a coalition thanks to the cores and the distance from other countries. Get a foothold on the island, take parts of Ireland and Scotland, hit the Danish Union via Norway, then get into Muscovy or Novgorad while they are still weak. This way you will spread out your AE between several cultures and religions hopefully avoiding a coalition.

It is also a good idea to try and take out Aragon or Castile if the chance arrives to prevent their later union into Spain. I usually ally Castile for use against England and Portugal in the beginning and later use them on Aragon and Naples. They are also a good reliable ally to help disuade an attack on you. If you can, curtail their expansion into Africa as well.

I play real vassal heavy, so I vasalized an Irish minor, Algeria, Catalonia, Novgorad, Ferrara, and the Livonian Order; two of which I made marches. They are far more reliable in helping in wars than allies and have reconquest claims to go after on top of saving me points on cores.

In my WC the year is 1600, I have 2000 personal development, another 1000 in vassals, all of my major rivals are diplomatically isolated and I am double the second great power who is Ming. Absolutism is just about to come online and I stole Goa off of Portugal opening up India. I've also kept Portugal and Castile around to worry about colonizing the new world while my colonists got me around Africa. England I just finished annexing and got English Brazil from them. I have taken most of Portugal's Iberian provinces keeping them ready for their turn. Castile is still my ally but very weak compared to where they should be due to being cut off. They did get the lowlands in the Burgundian Inheritance, but the Netherlands is now around causing trouble for them (and to an extent me) which lets me take parts of their territory cia our mutual enemy.

All in all I feel pretty good about this run. At this point I can disregard AE and the discount in coring costs are starting to grow. Now it's just the tedious grind of annex, core, war.

[N2-Power]

I have never conquered the world as France, although I would assume it is one of the easiest nations to do that with. Anyway, just one point I would like to add: Don't wait for the surrender of Maine event, attack England asap with reconquest cb. That way you can get all your cores in one war, without getting notable AE, whereas taking land in a defensive war incurs massive AE even if it's one of your cores. You don't even need any allies, France can take on England and Portugal alone.