Possible Castile WC? Need advice!

[Cuphead]

Due to some stroke of good luck my awful heir died and I got a female heir, then right after king Juan died and the Iberian wedding fired right in 1450. Along with the conquer Portugal mission I now own most of Iberia+Naples, along with all the Portuguese islands. The year is 1454.

I feel this game is going way too well to pass up on trying a WC, but I've never actually done one before and I have no idea what I should be focusing on.

[nekoman]

Castile is not your ideal nation for WC as it focused on colonisation and doesnt have easy ways to expand in asia. The general idea for any WC is to be ready to get absolutism to max asap and focus Asia first and Europe last.

[Mipak]

I like exploration into religious ideas with Castille then rush along north africa to the mamluks and "save" them from ottomans and continue to spread the word in middle east to Asia.

Depending on the situation look for weak spots in France and Ottomans while grabbing Africa/Asia.

Personally i ally at the start with France for my Portugal war and grab the irish england province as foothold to Britannia and switch between North Afirca and Britain wars to keep agressive expansion in check. Depending on how the irish internal wars go vasalizing one or two countries can give you nearly the whole irish peninsula without AE.

I like also Portugal as vassal for colonization and giving them berber provinces. Aragon is feed high development provinces until they reach the limit for political spain creation.

Edit: Before i forget, while the start is good, long time it does not really matter. Handling agressive expansion / overextension is much more important to WC than the good start.

[Zornvel]

Spain is great for WC, it has great ideas for everything (+5% Discipline +15 %Moral = great army) +1 Missionary +2 Missionary strength = fast converting. The pope loves you and you get more settlers and bonus tariffs + more trade power.
You control already Spain and south Italy.
You can also go for HRE and become the Emperor, very fast you are a super strong catholic nation, they will love you at the begin but later you have to get rid of the Protestant guys.
Also control the Pope = crusades agains north africa = easy way to India after getting the Mamluks (even ignoring the ottos is possible at the begin).

If you try the diplogame in Europe, HRE + merry, PU you will make almost no AE in Europe going strong agains Afrika and Islam-nation. But you are strong and if you get strong allies (France+PLC (PLC is also great for an PU later^^)) who cares for the coalition of this guys, when you break the ottos the way to India is yours.
You can also ignore Europe at the begin, conquer 2-3 provinces every 20 years will make no AE at all in Europe. When you have 25% of the World AE is nothing you should worry about.

Also possible = fast colonization to south africa = way to India, take India = beeing super rich^^

Spain is a good choice for WC

[Cuphead]

Stance right now: beat up France a first time in 1465 and fed their West Coast to vassal Navarra, next on the list is feeding Tunis to Aragon and finish off the final Portugal lands. Picked decreased AE as my first Age bonus and will be starting the colonization soon. Idea is to open up 3 fronts I can alternate between In Europe, Africa and the Middle East. No idea where to fit in Asia conquest or when to beat up Muscovy.

[Mipak]

Asia comes after Middle East. Muscovy after Ottomans, probably Russia at that time.

From my last failed WC with Castille i give the advice to watch Ming. Didnt made it because i underestimated how long it takes to take down a 2.8K development Ming (didnt took diplomatic ideas for -20% province warscore later was huge mistake). In the end i had to truce break them too often and everthing fell apart on the goal line.

[Cuphead]

So, Exploration -> Religious -> Diplo -> Admin Ideas?

[nekoman]

Humanist should be fourth or fifth idea group due to absolutism. Diplo is more important only later as you are more restricted in coring cost rather than warscore. Also try to stick influence somewhere.

[Mipak]

Yes, diplo is only important later IF you have a big blobber to take down. Otherwise it can help but not necessary.

Exploration -> Religious -> Influence/Admin -> Humanist/Diplomatic/Military

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Reconquistador:

So, Exploration -> Religious -> Diplo -> Admin Ideas?

For world conquest, i would actually ditch Exploration and steal maps & colonies from Portugal/England and later France instead. Early admin + influence means affordable mercs (i.e. less problems with manpower -> more war. Less coring cost -> more land. Influence for less AE and more land in peace deals, and better vassal feeding due to reduced diploannex cost).

My opening move is declaring war on england (either during a pre-existing english/french war, or if you manage to get the unholy alliance declaring with promise of land to france). Get to Labourd fast, then focus on english ally portugal while france and england duke it out. If you can, try to land on english soil (probably not possible due to lack of heavy ships, but if burgundy joins the fray is can work) and establish a foothold in the peace deal. Release Gascony and get cores for half or france for free! Bonus: Don't give france anything in the peace deal if they declared with you! Makes sure the French will declare another war vs. England. Next war England vs. France or Burgundy vs. France opportunistically declare for gascon reconquest vs france. If possible before elan, otherwise its quite hard.

Also, feed Aragon to the max possible provinces before you use the decision to form spain. Consider keeping the PU with Aragon and Neaples for a while longer, they are quite helpful (make all lands in claim range "of interest" and they will create claims) and better from a manpower perspective than just owning the land yourself.

[Cuphead]

Originally posted by Marcos_DS:

Originally posted by Reconquistador:

So, Exploration -> Religious -> Diplo -> Admin Ideas?

For world conquest, i would actually ditch Exploration and steal maps & colonies from Portugal/England and later France instead. Early admin + influence means affordable mercs (i.e. less problems with manpower -> more war. Less coring cost -> more land. Influence for less AE and more land in peace deals, and better vassal feeding due to reduced diploannex cost).

Also, feed Aragon to the max possible provinces before you use the decision to form spain. Consider keeping the PU with Aragon and Neaples for a while longer, they are quite helpful (make all lands in claim range "of interest" and they will create claims) and better from a manpower perspective than just owning the land yourself.

My first moves were actually to kill the colonizers France and Portugal because I initially started this run as a normal colonial game. I'm also taking admin later because right now I can freely feed everything I conquer to my PUs and vassals. France to Navarra, Africa to Aragon (who conveniently took religious ideas first) and Italy to Naples. The only provinces I took for myself were Portuguese.

My next plan is to no CB an Irish minor and feed them Britain. How helpful would it be to go for becoming the Emperor as opposed to slowly eating them? I don't really feel like dealing with the league wars. I just did 50 years of that playing whack-a-mole as Austria, so boring I stopped playing it.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Reconquistador:

My next plan is to no CB an Irish minor and feed them Britain. How helpful would it be to go for becoming the Emperor as opposed to slowly eating them? I don't really feel like dealing with the league wars. I just did 50 years of that playing whack-a-mole as Austria, so boring I stopped playing it.

Well, the easiest way to world conquest is still HRE->vassalswarm but also the most boring one. I would leave the HRE alone in the beginning until till they consolidate to a few nations for easy conquest later and focus on the other contenders first. E.g. helping the Mameluks vs. Ottomans, or preventing a huge Russia can really pay dividends in late game (since a strong ottoman/russia can requires focus -> smaller number of parallel wars)

[Cuphead]

Originally posted by Marcos_DS:

E.g. helping the Mameluks vs. Ottomans, or preventing a huge Russia can really pay dividends in late game (since a strong ottoman/russia can requires focus -> smaller number of parallel wars)

How would I even do that? Both countries are way beyond my reach.

[AllGrainGamer]

Until the Imperialism and Nationalism CBs, most of the challenge is from getting ways into seperate parts of the world to spread your AE. Alternatively, you can rely on no CBs.

You have a great position to go in many directions from the getgo. If you can somehow get to Novgorod and make them a vassal before Muscovy kills them that would be a real nice bonus. HRE you can approach in several ways as described above.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Reconquistador:

Originally posted by Marcos_DS:

E.g. helping the Mameluks vs. Ottomans, or preventing a huge Russia can really pay dividends in late game (since a strong ottoman/russia can requires focus -> smaller number of parallel wars)

How would I even do that? Both countries are way beyond my reach.

Well, not in the first years (priority should be PU aragon, conquests / vassals in france + england in the first ~30 years, with luck Burgundian inheritance but i wouldn't count on it). But its something to look out for in 1480+. Getting to the russian area early is a bit hard. Might work with trade league -> Riga. Ottomans can be attacked via their alliances, e.g. Tunis (or with some luck even Grenada, but thats rare). Or attack Mameluks yourself when they are attacked by the Ottomans. Can also open up a fast way to india (don't forget you can take provinces cheap by threatening wars without actual wars, if the enemy is weaker)

[Cuphead]

Originally posted by AllGrainGamer:

Until the Imperialism and Nationalism CBs, most of the challenge is from getting ways into seperate parts of the world to spread your AE. Alternatively, you can rely on no CBs.

You have a great position to go in many directions from the getgo. If you can somehow get to Novgorod and make them a vassal before Muscovy kills them that would be a real nice bonus. HRE you can approach in several ways as described above.

Interesting. Novgorod right now is down to 4 provinces and I can easily vassalize them now in one easy no CB war. But wouldn't that just bring me into constant war with Muscovy while I'm still working on slicing up France and England?