France-Russia friendship

[Loquitran]

So, i started as Prussia(now i'm North German Federation) and as soon as possible, i took Alsace-Lorraine from France. Years later, after i crushed Austria and took some land from them(still waiting the truce to expire to sphere them), the damn frenches declare war on me with Russia by their side.
Even if i try to increase my relations with Russia, it seem worthless, because they will join France in their war.

How the heck i'm supposed to break this damn alliance of theirs?

I also hate UK(yeah, they are my ally), because even when they are the strongest military force on my game, they somehow still manages to get wrecked by France on their homeland.

[Rapty Dapty]

I had a similar problem in my german campaign. I stationed armies on the French border, and they shut up, and Russia ignores me as long as the French do, so I ignore Russia. It's worked so far, and that hopefully won't change. Im also upgrading the forts as much as possible.

P.S I feel your pain about Britain being useless. The french were once SUPPOSED to be invading me but ended up taking a 4th of the main English island.

[Lembley42]

You break it best by force :)

You want 4 Inf / 1 Husar / 5 Arty ratio. If you're later already, just double those figures.
Make sure to have appropiate generals in your battles and mind the terrain.
If it is past 1870 (Machine Guns), defense is OP.

Best is to build those support stacks with your standing army (with just a few "ready" stacks) and before you go to war, mobilize and use the mobilized infantry to make your prepared support stacks combat ready.
E.g. spread 1 Husar / 5 Arty in one province each, nearby the rally point, then mobilize and split up 4 Inf from mobilization and send them to one of the prepared stack standing.
Merge and send it to the frontline.

This naturally doubles your effective army size and ensures you never run out of reinforcements as the Infantry is the one that will do most of the dying (and they're rooted in farmers and laborer pops, not in precious soldiers).

Make also sure to give your stacks a rest on your home territory after they've suffered quite some organizational / strength loss.
For that you also want the furthest to the right tree in Culture to gain faster reinforcement (and more experience). Army techs shouldn't be a brain teaser anyway.

The AI is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ retarded, that you could fight against all of them simulatenously and still win quite easily. Don't be intimidated by the size of their armies & lands. It's the AI.
You win with Prussia vs France / Austria / Russia very early on as well (that's how you get Super Germany in 1841-2).

Imo better allies are Austrians or even Ottomans. At least Russia wastes useless brigades on those.


P.S. : To form Super Germany after already forming Germany by the way, you need to release Hungary (just free a single State, "West Siebenbürgen" or something small at the edge) and then sphere Austria.
Easiest is to attack them for that "Free Region" CB, keep occupying them until they drop from GP status, then also add "Add to Sphere" on the now-not-GP Austria, then peace out for both.
A few months later they'll join you by event.

[LSD]

The game AI revolves around forcing every main power to ally with one other main power. It tries primarily to go by relationship. It means that even if you do break their alliance, they'll just re-align a few days later.

[Rapty Dapty]

Originally posted by LSD:

The game AI revolves around forcing every main power to ally with one other main power. It tries primarily to go by relationship. It means that even if you do break their alliance, they'll just re-align a few days later.

But it gives you a window to attack one of them. I'm going to DOW on one of France's spherelings for a low infamy CB, and then when France joins I'll add the wargoal of cut down to size, making it so they can't fight me and I can safely invade Russia like a true German.

P.S. If you find a solution please post it since I'm trying solutions myself.

[Loquitran]

Hey guys, thanks for all the tips, it helped me out a bunch!

I tried increasing my relations with Russia and got some alliances, like the Ottomans(which was a secondary power at the time) and France didn't attacked me, since i had a lot of countries backing me up.

About the UK, the AI is totally stupid. In my first war, against France and Russia, UK got steamrolled by France and i was all by myself. But since this game peace deals seems to be easier to achieve than EU4, i won the war even with a lot of provinces controlled by them.

The tip about being more defensive is really helpful, i managed to gain a lot of warscore out of it. But i don't understand the dig in mechanic yet. Is it something i have to order my troops to do?
Or i just need to let them in a province i control for a while and then the bonus ticks in?

Anyway, thanks again for all the hints!

[Lembley42]

Dig in builds up to its maximum as soon your troops simply idle on a province.
Maximum is determined by your techs (Military,left side)

It is countered by Recon value, which is why I suggested adding a Husar to every stack (as it has a good recon value) :)

[Loquitran]

Hmm, good to know that, thank you.

I started over and tried to form Germany(again), it was everything going fine and i wasn't paying attention at the diplomatic war with Austria and they stole Bavaria from me. As i declared war, Bavaria was a great power and was allied with Austria...

After beating the crap out of them, i waited a loooooooooooooong time and they didn't fell from GP status. I got pissed and gave up -.-''

The satisfying part, was helping Two Sicilies on a war with The Papal States and France, and i clobbered France so hard, that the rebels changed the government politics(even changed their flag lol).