Need Help with Prussia Campaign!

[Memes]

Hey guys,

So I started a new game today and I'm 20 years in. I played as prussia and I attemtped to follow shenryy2's "Super Germany" Guide. If you haven't watched the video, check it out here (I'm sure it would work a lot better for someone who actually knows what they're doing.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm5GyjZGi9o&list=WL&index=7

Basically, the idea is a diplomatic blitzkreig of the German core territories coupled with early wars. Stealing Saxony, Bavaria and the other German cores from Austria's sphere of influence immediately, going to war with France and Denmark early on to get the cores from them, and then outright conquering Austria before forming the German Empire, with the result being the formation of a "Super Germany" which includes all of Austria in under 10 years.

However, things went wrong for me right away. Even though I got an alliance with Britain straight away and Russia, which was allied to France, did not join them in war, France was still able to bounce back from their defeat and get on par with my military. Britain refused to help when I attacked Denmark and then wouldn't re-accept the alliance (this is possibly because my war against Denmark was unjustified, but I don't have heart of darkness so I can't fabricate a causus belli) and then France allied with Austria, preventing the final war which was the key to the plan. The whole point was to seize the cores too fast for the other powers to re-take them, and now my sphere of infulence came under attack and I was unable to hold it all. France declared war, and without Britain I was forced to surrender Alsaice Lorraine. Eventually, France overtook my military and became the dominant world power and worst of all, allied with Britain.

And then the worst part: at the 20 year mark, with France overpowering me, I had no choice but to go to war with Austria to assert my hegemony. Britain broke their alliance. I won every single battle. All Austria's allies pulled out. I was able to sucessfully deman assert hegemony aaaaaaaaaand....once the war was over Austria's military OVERTOOK MINE, and to top it all off I lost my position as power #4 to them. I don't understand how I could win every battle and have that happen.

I'm probably going to have to abandon the playthrough now; I can't beat France and Austria and I can't ally with Britain, even though they dropped their alliance with France when I declared war. Basically, the AI behaved differently than in the guide: they banned instead of discrediting, they allied where they didn't ally before, they wouldn't accept my alliance back where they did in the guide. I'm not sure if the AI is changed in Heart of Darkness or something, and I can't think of what else I did wrong--I followed the guide as best I could, and circumstances were actually BETTER for me early on, as Russia dropped their alliance with France in the first war. Any suggestions if I try Prussia again?

[Reeyver]

1 rule is Ally Belgium and Netherlands to fight france while you also ally russia to fight the Austrians while you fight both

[DerTannhauser]

Are you sure you have the same patch? If you do, basically it goes like this:

1. Fight France for Alsace-Lorraine FIRST. France may ally Russia, but it doesn't matter cuz Alsace-Lorraine is very cheap (so cheap in fact that i dont even suggest mobilizing!). I suggest that you ally Switzerland and UK before you attack, just to make it more easier.

2. Declare war on Denmark (but don't waste your units attacking Denmark, cuz your sphered countries will do the work for you, meanwhile you could use that time to sphere south german states rather than actually fighting Denmark).

3. Attack Austria ONLY AFTER taking its sphered south german countries to your sphere of influence (because then you will need to fight only Austria, and most likely have Bavaria, Wurtemberg and Saxony on your side instead of his!). Also ally Two Sicilies, Netherlands (at the very beginning) and Sweden just to make it more easier (Two Siciles might delcine to join the war a first few times, but eventually it will join). After declaring war on Austria, its really easy to annihilate it.

BONUS:
-Don't forget that you can sphere Luxembourg too, therefor uniting all German States.
-I suggest that you add wargoals with your sphered countries (BAV,SAX,WUR and BAD) to Spain (cuz it will most likely support Austria in its war against you) as much as you like, cuz all their infamy will be removed once you unite, so their infamy isn't important at all (just dont get infamy that is over 25!). If you do add wargoals to Spain, make sure that 1 of them is to aquire at least 1 of Spains southern provinces so that you can easily colonize west and central africa in the future!
-Focus on researches that give you Diplomatic Influence!

Hope that helped :)

[hman]

He said it would be smart to ally Netherlands

[Memes]

Originally posted by Skybro90:

1 rule is Ally Belgium and Netherlands to fight france while you also ally russia to fight the Austrians while you fight both

I tried to do both, but the Netherlands wouldn't go for it and Belgium dropped the alliance when I went to war with France.

Originally posted by Mr.Trollface:

Are you sure you have the same patch? If you do, basically it goes like this:

1. Fight France for Alsace-Lorraine FIRST. France may ally Russia, but it doesn't matter cuz Alsace-Lorraine is very cheap (so cheap in fact that i dont even suggest mobilizing!). I suggest that you ally Switzerland and UK before you attack, just to make it more easier.

2. Declare war on Denmark (but don't waste your units attacking Denmark, cuz your sphered countries will do the work for you, meanwhile you could use that time to sphere south german states rather than actually fighting Denmark).

3. Attack Austria ONLY AFTER taking its sphered south german countries to your sphere of influence (because then you will need to fight only Austria, and most likely have Bavaria, Wurtemberg and Saxony on your side instead of his!). Also ally Two Sicilies, Netherlands (at the very beginning) and Sweden just to make it more easier (Two Siciles might delcine to join the war a first few times, but eventually it will join). After declaring war on Austria, its really easy to annihilate it.

BONUS:
-Don't forget that you can sphere Luxembourg too, therefor uniting all German States.
-I suggest that you add wargoals with your sphered countries (BAV,SAX,WUR and BAD) to Spain (cuz it will most likely support Austria in its war against you) as much as you like, cuz all their infamy will be removed once you unite, so their infamy isn't important at all (just dont get infamy that is over 25!). If you do add wargoals to Spain, make sure that 1 of them is to aquire at least 1 of Spains southern provinces so that you can easily colonize west and central africa in the future!
-Focus on researches that give you Diplomatic Influence!

Hope that helped :)

Yeah, I did all that in order--only difference was that Bavaria became a great power and started screwing with my sphere, so I had to fight them to knock them back down again. My problem wasn't in following all the steps, but that stuff went wrong. Britain dropped their alliance when I went to war with Denmark and wouldn't take it back--instead they allied with France, creating a super alliance of France, Austria and Britain. I allied Russia but Austria badly hurt them in a war beforehand, taking some of their territory and knocking down their military. So the end result is simply that I was forced to give up Alsaice-Lorraine, as even on their own France's military was more powerful than mine, EVEN after I beat them down in the first war.

[Memes]

Originally posted by Mr.Trollface:

Are you sure you have the same patch? If you do, basically it goes like this:

And like I said, I don't have heart of darkness. As for patches, I have it on steam.

[Memes]

Originally posted by Mr.Trollface:

Originally posted by Mr.Trollface:

Are you sure you have the same patch? If you do, basically it goes like this:

Triple posting, that's gotta be a record. :)

Hey man, not sure if you'll get a notification for this, but I misread what you said earlier. I've now started a completely new game and allied the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweeden and Great Britain. I declared war on France straight away and though Britain didn't join me Russia didn't join France either. I won an easy victory, and now hopefully I'm gonna go ahead and do what you ACTUALLY told me to do. :D Thanks for taking the time to respond the way you did!