Switzerland achievement

[Waffle the great]

I'm trying to do "Switzerlake" achievement - own 99 provinces and have no ports
My strat now is to ally strong countries and conquer whatever is reachable. I realised that i'm not able to conquer Spain, cuz to do so i'd need to conquer the Pyrenees provinces - which are ports - so i'm just taking over France and the german princes. But it gets hard when every prince is like 35 development, it leads to massive coalitions
Are there any tips, strats? Should i, like, conquer a port and invade Tunis for low-price provinces, or is there a strat to cause less aggressive expansion? Cuz if i keep doing it with my speed, i'll run out of time. Or, like, are there any ways to de-value the german provinces, so i could conquer more

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Dismantling the HRE would certainly help. If I'm not mistaken, keeping coastal provinces under your indirect control by feeding them to vassals doesn't disqualify you from this achievement, so that could be useful for you.

[Marquoz]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Dismantling the HRE would certainly help.

That's what I did. I dismantled somewhere in the 1460 to 1470 range. After that, it was easy.

[Triple G]

I haven´t done the achievement, but usually when it says "no port" - it doesn´t mean You can never have a port. I for myself - if it was only for that achievement, would try to go to Africa, and then China - and then do satellite states out of the port provinces. It´s probably less hassle and works faster than conquering all of central Europe. Of course it´s also possible to do it in Europe, but i think the achievement doesn´t say that the provinces have to be there. I´m actually unsure how many inland provinces there are in West and East Africa, perhaps they´re already enough. Another way would be to switch the capital to North America.

[罗曼尼亚球]

Regarding the strategy for this achievement that I previously saw in the Chinese EU4 community: You don't need to worry about whether you control ports yourself. You can launch offensives against North Africa and West Africa, as those regions generate less Aggressive Expansion (AE) compared to Europe and are easier to defeat. After securing sufficient inland provinces, you can release vassal states and grant them coastal provinces. This approach will still fulfill the achievement requirements.

[Medicles]

What exactly did you do to begin with?

The 99 provinces are easily reachable just by annexing Germany and Bohemia and even with a slow gameplay of waiting ten years between each war can you get there. Going that route you could go Espionage as first idea to get the combined AE reduction with the age bonus, ally the emperor and annex as much as you can in the early game until you reach coalition status and then balance your wars.

If german provinces have 35 dev in your game and there are still more than enough threats surrounding that area that you fear a coalition then this means you are in the endgame and i dont understand what exactly you did up to that point. Went into Italy and Austria?

[Waffle the great]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Dismantling the HRE would certainly help. If I'm not mistaken, keeping coastal provinces under your indirect control by feeding them to vassals doesn't disqualify you from this achievement, so that could be useful for you.

This sounds very useful, thanks, if i run out of time and reach 1820, i'll do that in next run

[Waffle the great]

Originally posted by Medicles:

What exactly did you do to begin with?
i dont understand what exactly you did up to that point. Went into Italy and Austria?

I was jacking off

[Dumah]

Alternatively you can unite HRE and than just abandon your shore provinces. Achievment doesnt require you to stay Switzerland, so unless you have attachment ro unique swiss republican gov reform it should not be problem.

You can even crash the game after getting achievment and continue that save later. I did that with my no nation ruining Turn the table run, were i also completed Auld Alliance reversed and Industrial Revolution.

[TsyuRyu.TTV]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=393763926

just make a very strong army and stomp everything, switzerland idea are great