Burgundy Strategy

[Gio L'Uomo Focaccina]

Any tips & suggestion about a performant start as Burgundy? Is it even fun to play instead of France?

[tonypa]

I absolutely loved Burgundy more. This is from my run about year ago:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1343418119
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1359037702
My ally Austria kept beating up Ottos in that game.

At the start of the Burgundy is stronger then England and France (start with +10% Morale of armies). You want to ally Austria for example but you start with so many subjects you can wait with alliance.

Then wait for England and France to go into war and declare war on one of them or Provence to bring France into second war (take English lands in north France and take whole France).

You should rely on trade and mercs mostly, use the idea groups that improve these.

[Stormfox]

The most important reason to play Burgundy is the fantastic map color.
The second most important one is because they are a historical underdog that actually had a shot and is pretty strong at the start date.

They are very playable, they just do not have those super strong "pu another major power" missions and need to be mindful of the dutch rebellions around 1600.

As with most starts, how easy the game goes depends a bit on how rivals and alliances shake out at the beginning. If you get a good diplomatic setup, Burgundy can be very easy, otherwise you have to work a bit more.

[Azazel]

- mindful of the dutch rebellions around 1600-
just switch your capital to the lowlands-problem solved btw doing this you also have moved your main traiding port to english channel which is far better than champagne

[Arcrom21]

France / Provence alliance can broke in the early game due to France trying to PU Provence by force. You can use this to grab some Provence's provinces.

Lorraine's fate it's up to you, but I don't think that the AE and getting Austria angry is worth it

Like was said, ally Austria and wait for England and France get into war and then you jump in.

[pmpdadypenguinmn]

In my Burgundy game I immediately built a spy network on england and declared while he was fighting with France. I just sat on the war goal until I had enough warscore to get Pale. I peaced out and began eating ireland, then scotland. After that England was easy pickings. After rivaling and declaring on England, France was friendly so I allied him and used him as my hammer to steal the subjects. I took Sweden and Naples and made them marches. After that I started diplo vassalizing minors in the HRE and integrating them every ten years. The vassals I wanted to keep became marches. Once I was overwhelmingly strong I dissolved my alliance with France and ate him. I owned all of Europe well before 1700. Diplomatic+Influence for dealing with the HRE works every time

Burgundy is more fun than France in my opinion

[the_panther]

The one time I played Burgundy, I formed Netherlands. That is a nation that has a navy as good (if not better) than England. My goal was to get the Dutch achievements. At that time (and still might be true), the Dutch Republic government was the best in the game. Finally, having your capital moved to Holland and main trade node moved to the English Channel will drastically increase your trade income.

The only trick is that you have to eliminate France first. If France exists (even as a vassal), all owned French region provinces will be given to France when Netherlands is formed.

It was many years ago and I was kind of new, but the main thing I recall was that a Netherlands nation owning all of France plus the rich low countries was perhaps the the strongest nation in the game. The Dutch idea Embrace Humanism (+3 tolerance of heretics) means you are immune to religious strife and can easily switch to Protestant if desired.

[Mikey]

As Burgundy you have the option of either becoming France or becoming the Netherlands. Both require you to take over France though unless you want to lose half your territory.

Get some allies early, I like getting Castille or Aragon with Austria sprinkled on top. Usually you will have either England or Austria as your rival so just ally the one that isn't (England being the better one due to their closeness to France).
You will want to nuke France. Take their economic provinces in Champagne and just keep hitting them time and time again. don't join Englands offensive wars as England would get France as a PU then.

Once France is completely eliminated you can then get the option of becoming France yourself, or you can go and take over the Dutch minors and becoming the Netherlands. If France still exists when you take the Netherlands decision any french held province will be given to them so make sure France isn't around.