Why not give up Maine in Surrender of Maine?

[Taipan]

Quick one about playing England. Why not give up Maine to France and avoid a war which is hard to win unless you go high into debt or have a lucky roll where your allies want land into France, and build up favors with your allies and prepare for a war where you can actually ravage France without lucky rolls or big debts or abusing the engine?

I see many guides and tips related to starting up an English venture, yet most of them make taking Maine as a starting point, and I fail to see the reasoning behind this, financially it's just a province, and in 10 20 years time you will be in a much stronger position where you can make France look like a fool.

So, your cons and pros? Cheers.

[mooosin]

I always sell maine to britanny, avoiding the event in general. It allows me to stock up on allies and my own personal powerbase and it ticks france off a bit.

[Darksinth]

denying surrender in maine causes a long, hard and expensive war indeed. It isn't just the province of Maine that is at stake though. The English can demand a personal union over France in the peace deal, which basically instantly makes you the strongest mofo in all of western europe and gives you a huuuge chunk of land for a neglectible amount of AE.

[Azulus]

Ahh, i didn´t know that winning the battle of Main can get you a pu over france.. i skipt it just yesterday :(

[Vladimiś]

With new mission system you get a second shot at it anyways

[mooosin]

Actually, in 1.24, I sold Maine off to a different power and then eventually got the mission to PU France, since I technically never lost the battle of Maine to them. So you get a second chance regardless, especially with the new mission system

[Taipan]

Because I am dumb for some reason I haven't thought about selling it. But since I played England a long time ago I forgot about the PU, and that reason is a very huge reason to win the war, although if you don't reroll, which I hate to do it unless the game is done, it's very hard to fight the Frenchies.

I will check in what conditions you get the PU again if you get rid of Maine.

Thanks guys.

[Azulus]

Whats the name of the new 2nd mission that will allow me to PU france too? Can´t find it.

[Darksinth]

I succesfully PU'd france yesterday solo vs france, scotland, western isles, savoy, montferrat, provence and brittany. Deleted all mainland forts prior to the war and focussed down Scotland and western isles down first. After crushing all scottish troops and full occupying him I kept him in the war to make sure he gave me enough warscore to stay above a total of -50 warscore. Meanwhile I let the War of the Roses ravage my land, cba to waste manpower on that stuff...

What's troubling was that all the enemy's troops were clustered together, so I send 1 merc regiment to provence in southern france, occupied a province there... the entire french army went south to kill my merc. Meanwhile I landed my armies in brittany and peaced them out quickly. deoccupied some normandy land and went back to GB when the french armies were breathing down my neck. managed to peace out provence due to him being at war with burgundy for a while.

I just continued the hit and run tactics, occupying land with single regiments where france wasnt looking and managed to get some easy sieges and even winning almost evert battle due to dividing the french army

[Red Dragon]

Derp. And there I thought I was clever, lowering the manpower of the province and selling it to France before the event fired. Should obviously sell it to Britanny X)

I'm in a war over France (with Austria and Spain on my side) many years later now, after taking Ireland and some of Scotland. The war is going in my favor - But can I still actually get a PU over France and if so, how?

[Taipan]

Just started, so I allied Castille and Austria, both French rivals ( luckily, no reroll ), I still have time before the War of Roses starts, the Maine event just went it. Castille wants to join me:
http://prntscr.com/iua4fw
I already married my king, for heir chance and relations, with Austria, Castille, Navarra ( will make them vassals after the war ), and have a heir, and now I will make my king a general and also try to kill him in battle. Since it seems this is a lucky roll, I also got a +1 stability from an event.
So, the Maine war will be won, the Roses war it's a wip, depends on if I manage to kill my lovely king.

PS: Castille wants land to join my war of course, I am thinking about giving them nothing after I win the war, and break the alliance and ally Aragon, because they are red and England is red too :D

War sides: http://prntscr.com/iua7jc

EDIT: Turns out to be a very simple war. I waited for the French to go south to deal with the Castille ( I removed all my continental forts so my lands were conquered very fast ), and when they did, I attacked Brittany, peaced them out quickly, now I am taking my time to take down the French, first step, Paris.

Used mercs in the process too, although with a bit of micromanagement I could have kept the gold for my coffers, I wasted a bit of extra cash. So in the right circumstances, which happened in my first run, you can win the Maine war, and also deal with the Roses and become a powerhouse quite fast.

[bobsickle]

Originally posted by Belphegor:

denying surrender in maine causes a long, hard and expensive war indeed. It isn't just the province of Maine that is at stake though. The English can demand a personal union over France in the peace deal, which basically instantly makes you the strongest mofo in all of western europe and gives you a huuuge chunk of land for a neglectible amount of AE.

Neglibible AE? I had half the HRE join the resulting coalition and 2 years later, Brittany joined for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles (Seriously, I did nothing to them and our relations were improving naturally when they just joined it randomly 2 years in.)

Then of course someone declared it a year before people would start calming down. I exited in a fit of pique and am now too scared to go back.

[Vladimiś]

@Bobsickle ~70 AE is nothing for 300 dev junior member with solid ideas. Basically you have to send your diplomats to improve durning war and then if you have dlc just send 3 guys on outraged countries duty, so you dont have to micro it. Also having bigger guys like Burgundy help you out in the war helps you alot since they get reduced AE and if they break alliance if will have a truce. Worked out for me

[CaptainSpacetime]

I just gave it up then came back later when I was stronger.

[Taipan]

I managed to painfully win the war, the problem with the PU is that France has full liberty desire, because there are many factors that make them dislike you, like accepting the lollards too. I think Anglicansim is a must be if you play England in the last patch. I think it's a bad move, no matter how good they are, they should be PUd later, and just give away Maine. I made the wrong move, maybe an expert can deal with this, not sure I will be able.

Although I hate it, I restarted the game, and going to give away Maine quick, deal with the Irish and Scots, then when France starts dealing with Burgundy I will start dealing with either one or the other. Scots are somehow easy to trap since they will most probably ally one of the minnows in the Irish lands so I will be able to skip the French guarantee.

[Red Dragon]

Originally posted by Stefan:

I managed to painfully win the war, the problem with the PU is that France has full liberty desire, because there are many factors that make them dislike you, like accepting the lollards too. I think Anglicansim is a must be if you play England in the last patch. I think it's a bad move, no matter how good they are, they should be PUd later, and just give away Maine. I made the wrong move, maybe an expert can deal with this, not sure I will be able.

Although I hate it, I restarted the game, and going to give away Maine quick, deal with the Irish and Scots, then when France starts dealing with Burgundy I will start dealing with either one or the other. Scots are somehow easy to trap since they will most probably ally one of the minnows in the Irish lands so I will be able to skip the French guarantee.

Yes I used exactly that strategy, so far it worked like a charm. Attacked a Scottish ally in ireland to take the first bite out of it.

I just had the popup for Anglicanism with three options and haven't chosen yet. One says "nah", one says adopt Anglicanism and the last sounds like it would spawn a center of reformation that is specifically evangelizing the Anglican Church, which would piss everyone off.

Why do you say I should pick Anglicanism? How exactly is that going to help me integrate France?