Advice Regarding a Brandenburg Campaign?

[Corvus]

Long story short, my previous attempt at the campaign didn't go quite as well as I'd like, so I'm trying to formulate a better plan. Thing is, I'm not sure how to best approach the following:

1. Aside from Austria, which other nations should I prioritize allying when possible?

2. After dealing with Wolgast and Stettin, what's would be the most efficient way to handle Teutonic Order and/or Poland? Try to expand into part of Prussia before Poland tries to conquer them, or just wait for them to start warring with each other?

3. Does anyone know how the "Franconian Hohenzollerns" and "Disposition Achillea" events are supposed to work? Just asking so I know what to expect, and maybe try to force these events to trigger if possible.

Edit:

4. Is it worth giving the estates monopolies for additional cash and mercantilism now at the expense of income over time?

[cathartic]

Brunswick is normally a pretty good early game ally for Prussia. It's large enough to be meaningful, close enough that it won't deny helping due to "distant war" and there's enough space for you both to grow (at least initially!). If Bothemia hasn't rivalled Austria and aren't Hussite, then they might be a good ally.

However the HRE is a pretty fluid environment, and you should adjust your alliances accordingly.

Poland and the Teutonic order are likely to go to war with each-other, with Poland normally coming out on top. So you can take advantage of that and grab some Teuton land

Poland is also likely to end up fighting either the Ottomans or Muscovy sooner or later, so that might be an opportunity to backstab them.

[Corvus]

Noted. Funny that most of the time, Brunswick tends to start the game rivaled against me, but so be it. It would be interesting seeing if I can help them form Hanover, just for kicks.

Yeah, I know how fluid the HRE can be. Found myself pulling my hair at how unpredictable the alliances between AI could be, especially when Stettin and Wolgast make unfortunate alliances with some major powers, like Poland or Lithuania.

[Casual909]

Ally and marry Ansbach for a potential PU. There should also be a 1 province nation bordering you in the south without a heir which you should marry too for a potential PU. I don't know the name by memory unfortunately. You should ally Poland too if possible.

If Prussia somehow forms, you should marry em too and get relations to at least 100. This way an event can fire which results in a PU with Prussia related to history.

[Thrillho]

Litteraly the campaign I'm playing now. Here's what I went for.
Assuming all DLC and assuming not hard/very hard:


Get dip rep advisor if possible.
Ally Poland, usually possible without dip rep advisor but may take a month tick after you both mark Teutons as rivals for them to turn friendly there is a chance they will do something awkward in that time. Don't mark rivals other than Teutons until after this just in case.
After you have the alliance mark both the provinces in neumark as vital interest in case sale of neumark didn't fire in time + danzig and kolberg as vital interest too These two are all you need to start with.
Used estates/diplomats to get any single claim on the coast - Stettin is best but Wolgast will do.
Allied 2 of the three electors who you can also royal marry so you can become emperor if/when Austrian heir dies - take the mission that gives you the extra diplomat, you will need him.
Ally Austria in 4th or 5th slot if you can but it's not as important as Poland, you'll be chucking Poland later and Austria can replace them then.
Don't underestimate how much larger BB is than the nations around them at the start of the game. Even without good ideas you can 2v1 pretty easily and 3v1 is possible with good management - (i.e. killing armies on day one of the war and carpeting provinces to prevent recruitment). In the words of Kobra Kai - strike hard strike fast, no mercy.
If you want to take a free city the Emperor isn't called in if you co-belligerent them (Lubeck trade league can be very useful here for picking off free cities one at a time).

Obviously be aware of AE inside the HRE but expand as fast as AE lets you (try to never take noCB land - sign a white peace and fight a second war it's less hassle in the long run) but focus on the best provinces rather than lots of them, Prussian government gives -50% government cap now so you want to be quite compact. You can always take Livonian land in the Baltic if AE is too bad in the HRE.

Make sure to set up your diplomacy well for the league war: rivals of the Eperor will almost always join the protestant league so make sure that you focus on other nations - get their opinion of you high if you're the league leader and they should join you, especially if a rival is in the other league - so use insults here as well, good diplomacy can make the league war a sinch.

I took offence, religious, diplo ideas in that order and converted to protestant ASAP. So I didn't become Emperor until like 1600 (the 22 year old that got elected at the end of the league war lived to be like 76 - fml). Diplo and humanist are probably better if you do get elected emperor before the league war or if you are going for that.

If you do form Prussia try to make sure you do it when an ally or at least a friend is on the throne if possible as when I did my rival Bohemia was Emperor and I didn't gt kingdom rank for free.

Re Ansbach PU events, the heir of Brandenburg starts the game as ruler of Ansbach so if the ruler of BB dies first you get the PU automatically, if the BB heir dies first they get a new ruler - but you can claim the throne as usual. The event fires automatically on the death of the original BB ruler see Re estates I haven't generally been giving monopolies (unless I need the loyalty boost) as the money is for provinces you own now but you lose income for provinces you take in the future - seems like a bad deal to me.[eu4.paradoxwikis.com]

[Thrillho]

well that formatting f*ed up. the link is for the PU events.

[Corvus]

Thanks for the thorough reply. Incidentally, it seems I’ve finally gotten lucky and ended up with a rather ideal start.

As of March, 1445, I already got an early Neumark event, and thus already have permanent claims in Pomerania. Both Wolgast and Stettin are rivals, as is Magdeburg. Wolgast is allied only with Friesland; Stettin has Magdeburg, Lithuania, and Teutonic Order.

While not my original plan, it looks like I may have to take four out of Wolgast’s five provinces, and humiliate them for good measure. I’m the meanwhile, I’ll probably need to cozy up to Poland, hope they PU Lithuania, and then work on humiliating Magdeburg and maybe annexing Stettin if my AE allows it.

Sigh... if I didn’t need mil points for the early tech so badly, I’d have set my national focus to admin.

[Thrillho]

I had really bad rulers for the first 100 years (No more than a 3 in any category) and it turned out alright. My prestige was always garbage from unlawful territory (I should probably have vassalised and it is often a better option in the HRE). But now I'm just going into the C17th I've now got three 30k death stacks and I'm finally making Imp authority after a purge of European Catholicism and those wishy washy reformists. In the long run you're better off if Poland don't get the PU as you will need to war them for the rest of Prussia proper but I would leave that until after the league war.

If you're playing to stay in the HRE and become protestant emperor then try to keep as many of the small tags on the map as possible even at the cost of a bit of dip power. I'm honestly a bit disappointed at how few of them I could keep alive. 60 members is a good number, 50 is good enough any less than 40 and probably best off just forming Germany.

One more tip if you leave a large ormid sized country like The Ottomans Russia or France with one HRE province you can come back every 20 years and beat 133% warscore worth of return cores out of them every 20 years.