Power Rank 1

[BebopFx]

Anyone have any tips to get up to power rank 1 when France and Britain are a good 1000-1500 points ahead of me?

[Kimlin]

Just keep building your economy. Do you have enough oil? It’s important to secure states with oil and rubber to expand your economy.

Building your military is really where you’ll gain enough prestige to surpass those two. Just make sure your economy can handle it.

[BebopFx]

I'm Germany so military wise I should be able to make a ton of barracks

Originally posted by Kimlin:

Just keep building your economy. Do you have enough oil? It’s important to secure states with oil and rubber to expand your economy.

Building your military is really where you’ll gain enough prestige to surpass those two. Just make sure your economy can handle it.

[Toblm]

Originally posted by Swreynolds:

Anyone have any tips to get up to power rank 1 when France and Britain are a good 1000-1500 points ahead of me?

Fight them and make new states.

GB without Ireland, Scotland and Wales is a much less impressive country.

France without Brittany or Aquitaine same story.

Not to mention any colonial states they grabbed. Best part its low infamy. Every time they get in a war with you, peeloff something new, and make sure to kick their asses in particular, even before whatever started the war.

[Dave Reckoning]

Military "production methods" make a big difference.

(i.e. Go to menu entry Buildings, Development, and look inside each of the 5 icons for the Barracks building and review the options available within each of them. Each of the first 4 icons have different "Prower Projection" for whatever option you choose. Those options make a big difference to your Prestige score; but bear in mind it's a big difference in Power Projection, but also impact on economy and impact on how your army plays; and also in time it takes army to adapt to the change. Then do the same/equivalent for your navies.)

Also, some Society techs give % Prestige buffs.

Hope that helps.

[lubed_assassin]

unify germany with austria included and laugh

[BebopFx]

Originally posted by lubed_assassin:

unify germany with austria included and laugh

Is there a decision eventually for that? Or just conquer them?

[kgkong]

Start wars against GB to liberate their subjects.
Start wars against France to conquer their colonies.

A lot of their prestige comes from their GDP, so taking away their access to exotic goods will crush their GDP as it will create god shortages and expensive good problems.
Another part of their prestige comes from having such a large domain. Chip away at them. Force GB to release Jamaica, take over the West Indies, liberate Canada from Britain. France directly governs their states abroad so it's just a matter of picking a place and conquering it really.

[teron]

Originally posted by Toblm:

Originally posted by Swreynolds:

Anyone have any tips to get up to power rank 1 when France and Britain are a good 1000-1500 points ahead of me?

Fight them and make new states.

GB without Ireland, Scotland and Wales is a much less impressive country.

France without Brittany or Aquitaine same story.

Not to mention any colonial states they grabbed. Best part its low infamy. Every time they get in a war with you, peeloff something new, and make sure to kick their asses in particular, even before whatever started the war.

This. Also forcing GB to release the East Indian Company (EIC) is a major hit to their prestige. Since subjects give you prestige for their GDP, Army and navy.
Even better is if you can release the EIC and any of their puppets in a way to cutoff their inland puppets from the coast. Since their market access will tank destroying those economies. Plus screwing GB from those resources.

If they ever have an independence movement, support it. Screwed France in one of my games when southern France declared independence. Ended up splitting the country in two which hurt their prestige.

Same with civil wars, support one or both sides. Either though bankrolling, or setting up trade routes for military goods. Also check the laws for the civil war country, if they have bad laws, for example forcing them back to traditionalism, support the hell out of them. Else just try to help drag the civil war out since they are damaging to the economy.

Also you do get prestige from being the number 1 producer in a good. It varies by good, but some like fine art are 40-60 just by itself. Also the canals are 100.

[King Hades]

Use them against each other. As Morocco, Britain declared war on me (With Egypt as their ally) but I had the Ottomans, Italy, France and Algeria come to my side.

Quebec saw itself be freed, and well, so early in as Morocco I managed to press war reparations. I propelled from mid forties to mid twenties in the ranking from it and crawling gradually up as I was going. France eventually overtook Britain.

I've found the prestige gains from being a major producer of something is very handy as well. My Morocco is the largest producer of electricity (Hell, we were second to Sweden to even building a power plant) but also the largest producer of steel and small arms. That helps big time in adding prestige to gain those rankings. Ultimately, if you can balance the economy, customs unions sometimes helps (I am currently leading one with the USA, Liberia and Modena all within it), then you can pay for a better military to get those critical extra territories and military to improve your prestige further.