Forming Prussia as Brandenburg

A basic walkthrough to form the mighty kingdom of Prussia!

Introduction

This is a basic guide to form the powerful Kingdom of Prussia as the Elector State, Brandenburg,
based on the state of the game as in version 1.22 with all major DLC's except for the Third Rome.

As you're probably aware, there are many variables at play in EU4 and no two playthroughs will be the same.

With that in mind, let's begin!

How to form Prussia

The following requirements are set out in the decision:

• Prussia does not exist.
  
• Has an administrative technology of at least 10.
  
• Is not at war.
  
• Is either Protestant or Reformed.
  
• Owns core Province Königsberg
  
• Owns and cores either Danzig or Stolp

Basically we'll need to own 2 provinces, reform our religion and have our admin tech level on 10.

Reforming your religion

Before being able the form Prussia, you'll of course have to choose between Protestant and Reformed.

This choice is up to you as it would probably come down to preference. Personally I prefer Protestant as it's available sooner and you'll most likely get to lead the Religious War. I also prefer the ability to choose the bonus modifiers that suit your need and the ability to change them.

I would also recommend reforming as soon as possible to get the centre of reformation spwned inside you to help you convert your provinces as soon as possible. Order the provinces by religious unity to convert the heavier provinces first.

Ideas

You're pretty much free to pick the ideas that you prefer.

The ideas that I used in this walkthrough are:

1. Influence
   
2. Defensive
   
3. Economy

The Emperor of the HRE

Until the time you reform your religion, you should be actively trying to become the HRE Emperor for the bonusses it gives you as well as not having the emperor cry about provinces you've taken.

It is, however, not at all necessary to become the emperor as you'll lose it once you reform anyways. Winning the election is quite random and should not be prioritised over anything mentioned in the walkthrough.

IF you become the emperor, it would be a good idea to revoke Hamburg's "Free City" status by spending 5 imperial authority, which can be gained by adding 5 privinces to the HRE (provinces that you've taken from either Teutonic Order, Denmark or Poland). This will allow you anex them later with fewer peanalties and resistance. (Gotta get that sweet sweet Lubeck trade)

Be aware that while you are not the Emperor (or allied to him), he will usually request that you return one HRE province that you have taken in a war. Normally you would want to refuse him, as it sets back your expantion while keeping the aggressive expantion gained from taking the province. This refusal will result in 10 unrest in that particular province and all HRE states will receieve a -25 relationship with you, so keep that in mind when expanding in the HRE.

Being the Emperor will not be taken into account throughout the rest of this walkthrough.

Rivals

The first thing to do when you load in, is to set your rivals. Brandanberg has quite a veriety of possible enemies at the start of the game. You may want to restart until your enemies align with your rivals, or at least as many as possible, although this isn't necessary.

The nations you want to be setting as your rivals are :

• Teutonic Order - Since they start off with both the provinces of Königsberg and Danzig.
  
• Pomerania - SInce they start off with Stolp and will provide us with a land connection to
  Teutonic Order
  
• Bohemia - Since they rival us most of the time and will allow us to more easily gain a strong
  ally in either Poland, Hungary or Austria. If they dont rival us, you could considder rivaling Denmark instead

Allies

The next step is to secure some allies, and as an elector, Brandenburg has many options to choose from.

In this guide we'll be allying:

• Saxony
  
• Poland
  
• The Palatinate

It is important to gain all 3 of these alliances as soon as possible. Before you unpause the game, send a marriage requist to poland and an alliance offer to Saxony. As soon your 1st diplomat returns, marry The Palatinate, and then ally them as soon as you are able to send another diplomat to them. In order to ally Poland after the marriage, you may need to talk to them for a while.

The fourth ally is up to you. Bear in mind that you do not want to get involved in any other wars than your own. I would therefore think twice before allying any of the other electors right away, since they like getting into wars that they can't win without your help, and other nations usually pile on afterwards. I would recomend one of the free cities, as Austria will get pulled in if anyone tries to attack them and you'll be gaining relatively quick favours from them. Do not ally Hamburg, or anyone else in the Lubeck trade node as we'll eventually be wanting to claim that for ourselves as soon as possible for some sweet trade income.

11 November 1444

After sorting your rivals and allies, the first thing you want to do before unpausing is to set your mission to Saving the Saxon People in Neumark. ( If you dont have the mission, try setting Teutonic Order as your rival first and look again)

Next, turn your army maintenance down to zero, send your idle merchant to collect in Saxony and unpause.

Use the following period to work with your diplomats. Finish securing your alliances and improve your relationship with the other electors.

The first event you should come across is Hohenzollern Rule of Brandenburg. For this event I would take the 1st option, but either way, it doesnt really matter. The event we're looking for is The Fate of Neumark. This will allow us to buy Neumark for 100 monies (You may need to take a loan to be able to afford this, depending on how long it took for the event to spawn) and gain it as a core. When that happens, give Neumark to the Nobility, as they should be complaining by now. The sooner this event spawns, the better, but it may take a while. If it does end up taking too long, considder restarting. In my test run the event fired on 4 December 1446.

When you have Neumark, your mission will be completed and the next one you should have available is The Pomeranian Succession. Before taking this misison, build a spy network on Pomerania and claim Stettin. You should now have a claim on 3 of Pomerania's provinces (if you didn't claim Stettin first, don't worry too much about it). At this point, Pomerania should have about 1-2 allies, usually East Frisia and Verden. Time to prepare for war.

Put your army maintenance back up to full and build 2 more infantry troops. As soon as your morale has recovered, move your troops to a province right next to Pomerania's army, make your heir the general of your army and declare war on Pomerania. If your heir is too young to be a general or you dont have an heir, hire a general for 50 points, or depending on your Nobility influence, get a general from the estate. You can also considder hiring one of the following Military +1 advisors to help in the war: morale, fort defence, discipline or land maintenance (In that order).

The war vs Pomerania will be a race against time, as we'll need to fully occupy them before his allies can capture Berlin. As soon as you declare the war, move your troops onto Pomerania's. Once you've beaten them, follow them and fight them again to stack-wipe them (they should be running to Stralsund). Once their army is dead, split your troops up to capture all their land. Immediately send 3-4k worth of living troops to Stettin and occupy the other provinces with the rest. Send 0-1k troops to wait on each province so that Pomerania can't build anymore troops. As soon as the province is taken, send that troop to support your Stettin siege. You should be safe from any of his allies' troops for as long as Berlin still stands. Be sure to continue/ start to build your spy network in Pomerania to help with the siege speed and aggressive expantion afterwards.



Once you've fully occupied Pomerania, it's time to peace out. In the peace deal, take Stettin, Kolberg and Stolp and as much money as they'll give you.



Core the new provinces, and if you're afraid of dealing with the rebbels, give them all autonomy (recommended). As soon as the cores are done, add them to your state and assign estates where you deem fit. I would recommend giving Stettin to the Burghers and both Kolberg and Stolp to the Clergy. Austria will demand we give one of Pomerania's provinces back, but we say "NO!".

Congratulations, your first step is done! Now we wait for the Renaisance.

Renaisance

The next period will be relatively quiet. As we're waiting for the Renaisance to spawn, continue speaking to your allies and other electors. Once they're all happy with you, start speaking to other random people and keep them friendly. At this point you'll also need to pick a new rival. Brunswick, Magdeburg or Anhalt should do the trick for now. Your income should also be enough to keep 2-3 +1 advisors of your choice (be sure to put your army maintenance back down again). Missions from this point on is up to you. During this time, refrain from spending any monarch points as we'll be using them when the Institution hits (You shoudln't need to upgrade any technology yet). Just be careful that any rebels don't spawn on your low maintanence troops.

When Renaisance spawns, continue saving up monarch points until you have about 600-700 of each. During this period, be sure to demand points from any estates with 60+ loyalty and 50+ influence to get a juicy boost. When you have enough points saved up, use the development edict on Berlin and start developing for the Institute. Develope from admin first to military last, and keep an eye on the Institution progress so you dont develope too much. Berlin should end up with about 36 dev by the time Renaisance is present. At this point the Clergy should want more land, so give them Ruppin. Now continue speaking to people while the institution spreads around and remember to remove the edict on Berlin.

You'll need to either save up to embrace the intitution and wait for it to spread a bit more itself, or take out a loan to finish it off. Wait until you have enough monarch points to upgrade technology before you do that though.

Once you've embraced the Institution, get your technology (especially military) up to date (to about 5-6) before proceeding (This may take a few years). If you've finished developing Berlin early enough to where the extra cost is still around 0-10%, you can considder leveling up the technology when you can afford it.

Hopefully by this time you havn't been pulled into any of your allies' wars either.


From this point on, your next step will depend on what's been going on in the rest of the world.

Conquest in the HRE.

While you don't have anyone in particular to talk to, you should be fabricating claims on all of your neighbours. Fabricate on as many provinces as you can from a nation before you declare war on them, to reduce the admin needed to core as well as to reduce aggressive expantion. Target your smallest rival first before you eclipse.

As soon as your aggressive expantion is at an acceptable level (below 20-15), you can start declaring war against the other nations in the HRE at a conservative pace. Try to only take provinces that you've claimed as anything more will probably result in a coalition. Avoid coalitions at all costs! (You're not doing a WC right now, there will be more than enough time to eat the entire europe later)
A coalition will form when 4+ nations that you dont have a truce with have 50+ aggressive expantion vs you (use the peace inferface tooltip to view your resulting aggressive expantion from taking land). Also, nations with 50+ relation with you shouldn't ever join the coalition.

Your first priority will be to claim all the land that's apart of the Lubeck trade node. Once you have about 10% in the trade node, make it your home node and forward Saxony's trade towards it. Again, be careful for coalitions! If you're ever sitting on extra money, be sure to build some Lightships and have them protect the trade in Lubeck.

Only call your allies in to help when you really need it and only call the ones who gain 1 favour per year ( like Saxony and The Paletinate). Only use poland for important wars and where you really need him, like trying to take Lubeck (the province) or Bohemia.

While expanding, always keep en eye on Teutonic Order as the golden oppertunity to strike may only come once.

Teutonic Order

Your number one priority will be to keep an eye on the Teutonic Order for an oppertunity to strike. Try to keep a claim fabricated on them at all times.

Now is where playthroughs can vary a bit and you'll have to use your own judgement. Teutonic order could be allied to any combination of Livonian Order, Riga, Denmark, Hungary and Bohemia. This is where you'll need Poland to carry you a bit. The only problem is that Poland also wants Teutonic Order's land for themselves and will keep occupation on most/all the land they capture. It is therefore important that you rush to occupy the provinces Danzig and Königsberg before Poland does, but only do so when it's safe to do so. Your ultimate goal is to take Danzig and Königsberg in the first war. Worst case scenario is that you only manage to capture Danzig. If that's the case, take danzig, break Teutonic Order's threatening alliances and wait for the truce to expire and fight them again.

In the event of Teutonic Order and friends putting up a stronger fight than you and your friends can handle, dont be ashamed to peace out with minimal gain and trying again later.

Ideally you'd want to be able to match Teitonic Order's number of troops or even field more, and also match or beat them in Military technology. You'll still need to get your admin up to level 10 in order to form Prussia, so use that time to meet these targets.

During the time leading up to your declaration of war on Teutonic Order, Poland may have attacked them once already and taken some of their land. As long as Poland hansn't taken Danzig or Königsberg, we're still in the game. If Poland calls you into that war, rush for Danzig and Königsberg as you would have anyways to deny Poland these provinces. If this ends up happening, Teotonic Order may be weak enough for you to fight them on your own, otherwise call Poland in as soon as their truce with Teutonic Order ends before they decide to attack them themselves again.

In order to call in Poland, you'll need to wait at least 20 years from allying them. If the oppertunity presents itself where Teutonic gets into a defensive war against Poland / Denmark / Muscovy, be ready to jump on and occupy the privinces you want, although you may want to wait a bit until their allies won't join to defend them.

Poland / Denmark has captured Danzig and/or Königsberg! D:

If this is your situation, you're in for a bit more troublesome run.

Break your alliance with the occupant, rival them and try to ally all their other enemies. You'll bascally just need to build yourself up as strong as you can in the HRE while avoiding coalitions and waiting for an oppertunity to take the provinces you need.

Denmark would be a much more diffucult opponent as you'll probably lack the navy to reach their capital. While much less likely, if they do control Danzig and Königsberg, wait for Sweden's independence war before fighitng them. You may even considder restarting unless you don't mind taking the run a little more late game before forming prussia.

The same could apply to Poland, although if you can manage to get Austria / Hungary / Muscovy to help you out, it should be much more doable.

Ideally you don't want this to happen, but adapting is EU4's middle name.

We did it boiz!

Once you've captured Danzig and Königsberg, the world is your oyster! Simply wait until Admin 10 to form prussia and fight armies twice your size.

You can now go for the achievement A Fine Goosestep where you need 125 discipline or even carry on to form Germany.

I hope this walkthrough proved to be of some help to someone. Feel free to contact me about any uncertainties or queries, or simply leave a comment.

Happy conquering :)

[Ravaging Wolfsbane]

Instructions not clear, formed germany instead

[violent misanthrope]

Tried it. Bohemia attacked me. I lost.

[ItsAGunshotWound]

Why Palatinate though? They're rivalled to Saxony, and Austria starts as the HRE

[resist]

For mother Prussia!

[Ravaging Wolfsbane]

Plz updyte, i get confuzd. Nw chainges make it hard, plz adres changes thx

[OwlRaider]

If you plan on actually playing as Prussia beyond getting the Fine Goostep achievement than you really should consider not expanding as heavily as you recommended in this guide since you'll lose out on a lot of the Prussian Monarchy's bonuses as the penalty from number of provinces will be too large to combat and will keep you at 0. Only taking what you need and otherwise the best positioned provinces and vassalizing(marches) the rest is much more suitable for a long term Prussia playthough. With the vassal strategy you can eventually annex if you decide to form Germany later on which causes you to lose the Prussian Monarchy thus negating any issues with holding a lot of provinces.

[Punished]

More like Brandenturd.

[Borsch]

With the new mission system, it turns out to be more profitable if you force vassalize Pomerania, then proceed to do the same with Teutons. You will need to reclaim Neumark before engaging Pomeranians though, preferably through war. Ally Poland, set Neumark as vital and wait for PLC to dow Teutons.

When the truce runs out, dow Teutons and vassalize them. As easy as that.

From my experience, Pomerania is no issue to keep under 50% LD, though you might struggle a bit with keeping teutons loyal. Annex Pomerania ASAP (Influence ideas help a lot, so does mission effect for total -40% and if you're lucky you'll vassalize both in the said timeframe. Next up you'll want to grow in HRE and dump Poles as soon as you can. In my recent campaign, they ran into an enormous debt and sold me Tuchel and Orstelburg before I formed Prussia.

[Ravaging Wolfsbane]

Any changes since the latest update?

[Toaster]

Thanks for your comments.

I do mention to actively try to become emperor but I ddin't want it to be an important factor in the guide due to the randomness of it all. Sometimes Austria starts with an immortal king and I didn't want the reader to sit there for 20 years before they progress.

I'm glad you managed to achieve your goal, though :)