Prussia to strong germany essential guide for 1.5

Want to have an easy time forming Germany as Prussia? Look no further, this guide is for you!

Goal of the guide and issues with 1.5

This guide is meant to only cover the necessary process to forming Germany as early as possible, as easily as possible. It doesn't cover what are the best laws to have when, what constructions to queue for the best GDP or what other optional war goals the player can ask for during the 3 obligatory wars to forming Germany.

With that out of the way, please note that fresh off the release of 1.5 Vic 3 has a true boatload of bugs, performance issues / crashes and some very poor design choices for the new mechanics. Depending on your system, these issues may be more of less impacting your playthrough. Here's a non exhaustive list of bugs I have encountered:

- War goals not being enforced after winning a war.
- Frozen armies and navies.
- Armies not moving after a naval invasion.
- Naval invasions taking 10 years to complete due to how the system is designed. At the moment, a weaker nation can permanently stop a naval invasion by abusing the system.
- Loosing occupied territories cause your AI ally decided to go on the offensive with its ♥♥♥♥ troops.
- Loosing a war entirely cause your armies have a hard time deciding where on the frontline they should go when there is impassable terrain in the middle of the front.
- Every single nation starting with no training method for their armies.

First moves before letting time go forward

The first goal will be to form the North German Federation, which will annex all German nations in North Germany into Prussia. There are two requirements for that:
1. Prussia must successfully resolve the "Schleswig-Holstein question" journal entry.
2. Prussia must be the only unification candidate for Germany.

Once those two requirements are fulfilled, the North German Federation is automatically formed. Providing Prussia with a massive GDP and pop boon.

Moves to do before unpausing the game:

Begin improving relations with Russia, Great Britain, France, Hanover and Hesse-Kassel.

Declare war on Denmark to conquer either Schleswig or Holstein. Once the diplomatic plays is available, add the wargoal to liberate the province you chose not to conquer. Do not add a wargoal against Austria once they join the war if you want Austria to white peace out of the war quickly.

Only Austria should back Denmark in this war and Prussia's army is strong enough as it is to deal with both of them. Rarely France, Great Britain or Russia will also back Denmark. If that happens it is better to restart the game or reload a save if not in iron man.

Start queuing enough warships to be able to beat Denmark's navy. 20 light ships and 10 capital ships will be enough. Having more than 1 capital ship for 2 light ship will start giving negative modifiers to the fleet.

And then queue enough universities to reach Prussia's research cap. It is a race to get to the Pan nationalism technology asap.

In research, start researching nationalism because once 75% of German nations have that research, it unlocks the war goal to become the sole unification candidate.

Select the Kavallerie-Korps and send its lancers to the 1. Armee-Korps and Garde-Korps. To not get a negative modifiers, an army needs more infantry than Artillery and Cavalry combined.

War with Denmark

At the moment, one of Prussia's armies is stuck in West Prussia and will be unable to go anywhere until Prussia gets an alliance with Hesse-Kassel, Hanover, France, Belgium or the Netherlands.

But that's alright because Prussia doesn't need it to win the war against Denmark and Austria.

Mobilise the armies that are in Prussia proper and send them to the Austrian front with the order to only defend.

Once the war starts, wait for Austria to white peace you. It will happen usually fairly quickly. AI co-belligerents have a high tendency to leave wars in 1.5

With Austria out of the picture, it is time to naval invade Denmark. There are 2 ways to get that done:
1. wait long enough for your navy to be stronger than Denmark's (it takes so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ long a navy to build itself in 1.5).
2. bait Denmark to start a naval Invasion in East Prussia and launch your own naval invasion while the Danish fleet isn't protecting the mainland which is so much faster. Option 1 is just a backup truly.

To bait Denmark, make sure you have no armies stationed in the Poland HQ and then demobilised enough troops until the AI feels it can win a naval invasion. Once demobilised, an army needs 85 days before it can be mobilised again.

Once Denmark is busy with its naval invasion, create an army of a few units to naval invade Denmark and station whatever other troops you have mobilised in the Poland HQ to stop Denmark from landing.

Peace out Denmark with both war goals enforced and that will resolve the Schleswig-Holstein journal entry successfully.

Forming the North German Federation

While waiting on enough German countries to unlock the nationalism research, keep building Prussia's strength, GDP and relations with Russia, France and Great Britain.

Austria will be doing the same and will be a little bit stronger than during the first war. The other three great powers will be easily swayed into the war, so it is better to have them with you than against. Especially France and Russia who have land borders with Prussia.

If France can be swayed in exchange of Prussia's puppet in South Germany, that is a good idea to give it since that puppet will be automatically integrated into Prussia once the player starts the unification play.

Once 75% of German nations have unlocked nationalism, go into the Cultures tab - Nation Formations - Germany. And click on the "Launch leadership play button".

Just like the Denmark war, the player should wait on all AI co-belligerents to white peace out of the war before going on the offensive against Austria. The AI ♥♥♥♥ troops makes it a nightmare to conclude a successful offensive as their troops then tend to loose their offensive battles, wiping out the occupation your troops were able to get.

So let the AI duke it out and get tired, while your troops stay fresh. Defence is stronger than offence and with how armies replenishment works in 1.5, it is always better to let the enemy get a few battles as the attacker before going on the offence yourself.

To enforce the Leadership war goal, Prussia needs to fully occupy the Austrian capital state and a bit further than that.

Enforce the war goal and enjoy as Prussia annexes all North German Nations for free, netting you a huge GDP and pop boost.

Preparing to form Germany

Race to unlock the pan-nationalism technology while preparing for war against France.

This war tends to only be Germany vs France but if another AI nation is interested in being swayed into the war, better it be on your side than France's. If this scenario happens, wait to the AI co-belligerent to white peace out of the war before going on the offensive.

Once the research is unlocked, go back into the Cultures tab - Nation Formation - Germany and click the "Launch unification play button".

Once the diplomatic play starts, all South German nations will be automatically integrated into Germany.

Win the war against France to get Alsace-Loraine as a bonus, and any other war goal you decided to add on top of that.

Forming Germany

Go back into the Cultures tab - Nation Formation - Germany and press the button. That's all there is to it, kind of anti-climatic I know.

[Best Waifu]

@Chris P Chicken. Yes, further updates after 1.5 has made the AI more competent at war along with a nerf on Prussia starting technological advantage on Austria. Now you need to build Prussia's armed forces before doing this strategy.

[Chris P Chicken]

Edit to previous comment. I haven't lost the war yet but they pushed through Silesia and are in Berlin.

[Chris P Chicken]

so I i tired this guide and I lost the war with Denmark to Austria. I followed the instructions for military management but they still broke thought the front. idk if this is supposed to happen but Denmark's armies somehow fought at the Austrian front??? so I was outnumbered pretty much 10/2 and I got my ass kicked.

[Netrunner]

Great advice. I read it about 30 years in and was having issues getting this state. What I did was win favours with Russia and The Netherlands. Ended up being on Friendly terms and then I noticed they just let me attack it. And for some reason Austria didn't say boo. And Scandinavia joined me lol. It was a nice moment.

Another tip that I think worked. At this time England was constantly being pulled into African revolts so they were too busy to worry about my invasion :)

[Best Waifu]

@Tino124, well yeah that is what I said in the guide's introduction.
You can form Grossdeutchland before hitting the form Germany button too. You just need Austria to back you up in the unification play.
But that means you need to have won the leadership play war vs Austria before.
So yeah, do the war vs Denmark, or vassalage them for more rewards in the long run. Remove the rivalry with Austria. Improve relations all the time. Do the war for the leadership vs Austria while also taking the war reparations war goal. As soon as the war is over resume improving relations while bankrolling Austria. Wait until Austria backs you for the unification play (around 60 positive relation. Start unification play and boom, GROSSDEUTCHLAND.

[Tino124]

So this works, for just forming Germany... much more fun to form super-germany instead. End rivalry with Austria and begin improving relations. Do all the other stuff. Sometimes you can even reverse sway leadership without a way, or get an obligation from Austria to keep them out of the Denmark war. My game was weird. But eventually had Austria back me as leadership candidate, BEFORE pan-nationalism. Hit form Germany and boom, GROSSDEUTCHLAND

[Best Waifu]

rolled 10 times, UK never backed Denmark. Sometimes France did but the army stuck in West Germany was enough to defend the border till they white peaced out.

[Sledjer]

Don't think I've ever seen UK not back Denmark using that strategy. In fact, what I had to do was wait until UK was in a play and join on their side before attacking Denmark