Nicely done, that's a good haul of territory!

I think you need both light ships and galleys frankly. Enough galleys to take on the strongest enemy fleets and the rest in transports and light ships, heavies as you can afford. Light ships increase trade power in the nodes they are protecting, so that's a good thing. Light ship upgrades increase the amount of trade each ship generates. Having strong light ship fleets protecting Alexandria and Aleppo would be profitable. And not only for the money you get, but for that you are denying to your enemies. Double check your trade map mode and make sure your merchants in those nodes are transferring in the right direction (to Constantinople) Don't neglect to upgrade the outdated ships when you reach a new tech, as long as you can afford it.

Are you able to build flagships? I think it requires Golden Century.

The top-right button on the fleet screen is to set the fleet to return to port when war is declared. A good idea so that your trade fleets don't get sniped when war begins. If you are declaring you can take care of it yourself. If the AI suddenly declares on you, it can save a lot of ships.

I can build flagships - are they worth the cost? I've been building up the light ships and have been protecting trade in the nodes that are sending me the most cash. I wound up in a little skirmish with Georgia and managed to capture the Crimea node which I gave to Crimea. I also grabbed a few provinces I needed for the Asia Minor mission, though I've still got to get one more to complete it. I'll be doing that shortly.

Got a little sidetracked - I picked up Total War Warhammer 2 in the Steam sale and am giving that a workout.

I love Warhammer 2 and have been waiting for someone to discuss it with around here for several years now. Haha, check my Warhammer thread a little lower down the list and please post any thoughts or questions. I have played virtually all of the factions. Great game.

Flagships are worth it to me yes. The cost for a fully tricked out heavy is about 1.5 ducats per month I think. I give it three bonuses, crow's nest, signal book and aftercastle. This adds engagement width, fleet speed and morale.You can also build flagships with ship types other than heavy, but I have yet to do so.

I'll check them out. Do you put in 1/fleet, or do you only get one for your empire?

Oh - in my government reforms, I wound up picking a parliament. Any thoughts?

I'll drop something in the Warhammer thread. Questions. Yup, I got questions!

One flagship only. That's why I go heavy, to lead my battle line.

Parliament is OK. It's what England has. It's a bit too involved for me, you have to grant seats to certain provinces and then have votes, which give temporary bonuses. It's a fine government type, but personally I prefer monarchy. Actually, I really like Theocracies, my Teutonic Order run a few years ago was great, and mostly due to their gubment.

Since you did it as a reform, you can always change it if you don't like it, but would need to gain enough reform points to do it.

The Ethiopia run crashed and burned. Had done well to take the Horn of Africa and all the way down to modern day Mozambique. My plan was to colonize the Indian Ocean and in to the West Indies. My main challenge was Mamluks, and I thought that I could outpace them through colonization. In 1540 I finally had the ideas, colonial range and explorer. Sent him out only to find most of it was already colonized....by Mamluks! Are you sh!tting me? They take exploration like 10% of the time, but in the one run where it could screw me they did it. Oh for heaven's sake.

Then when I had a force limit about 75% of theirs I declared on them while they were getting beat down by Ottos. Ottos occupied Alexandria, and my armies fanned out around it. Then they struck a truce, Mamluks got Alexandria back, and the ZoC locked one of my armies in to a single province. So I could not support as a pair and they were beaten in detail. I was so frustrated (I've always disliked the ZoC mechanic) that I quit.

Started another run as France, mainly to try them out since they had many changes in the new version, and to try and get the Industrial Powerhouse achievement, which simply requires owning 10 furnaces. There's some RNG to it I suppose, as coal is needed. Going well and I invaded England, taking a large part of the southwest. Gaining that beachhead is key, as I can now go to war without needing to best them at sea. It also prevents them from forming Great Britain. This seals their fate I believe.

The Ottos just keep steamrolling along...

I took on Persia and a minor country that had two provinces right in the middle of mine. As you can see, the borders are much cleaner now! I also added a few Persian provinces to my Empire.

I went ahead and built a flagship, and put my admiral in that fleet. So now I'm loaded for bear on the seas I guess! I'll turn my sights back to the East - Bosnia perhaps, maybe Poland or Austria if I can catch them when they are at war with someone else.

Seems like things are progressing well - no major hassles, except for ANOTHER heir who decided to try and take over. That's the third or fourth time that event has fired - is it common for the Ottoman's or is it one that happens for a lot of other countries?

So here's the latest border porn.

That's a fine looking nation, nice borders

You've reached the Caspian.

Yes it's mostly Ottomans it seems. It's quite rare in others I have played.

By the way, in both of my recent runs Austria took Wallachian lands. Now normally I'd wonder how, as they cannot fabricate when they do not share a border. Must be claims from a mission.

I started a game as Austria to check that out, and they do get a claim from a mission - but it's the last conquest mission in the chain. I didn't look closely, but I would imagine to get to that mission they would have had to controlled all the territory from between the Wallachia and their starting border. I opened an earlier save and they get those provinces sometime between 1461 and 1470.

Speaking of Austria.... so I'm playing my France run and Austria are historical rivals, which meant we started that way, but without the BI firing eventually relations warmed as we were rarely in direct conflict. They removed me as a rival, and later I did the same. Not exactly best friends, but enough that I could get a RM. The Habsburgs are the best dynasty for the game of thrones. Suddenly my king dies and a Habsburg assumed my throne, which is fine. I always like to see if I can keep my starting dynasty to the end, but a Habsburg has advantages.

A few months later I declared war on Great Britain once again as I try to take over the British Isles. As the battles raged I was clicking pop-up notices away without looking at them, which isn't the best way to approach things. A month or two later I saw that Austria had brought a navy and promptly got destroyed but I thought to myself, how did Austria get in to this war? Then a pop-up I did notice said that I had a disloyal subject. Who could that be? I keep a tight lid on that and none should be feeling froggy, especially when we are in a war together. So I paused it and saw that the subject that was disloyal was....Austria!

I had gotten them in a PU and didn't even notice lol. Of course with our various relations modifiers they are not the most content of subjects, but it's a massive coup for my campaign. That really opens up central Europe to me and if I can keep them loyal it should pay sharp dividends.

Sounds like a good position to be in. I'll need to grow a bit to be able to take on Austria or Poland. My alliance with France isn't helping me - they are allied to both (IIRC) and will join the war on their side rather than mine. I'll have to wait unitl they get into a war with someone else and jump on 'em then.

I know what you mean about the popups - they get so frequent at time I click without paying attention. I don't read most of the events either - I just look at the results and pick the one that helps best or hurts least.

Yes, the ally will always join the defensive war side. One way around this is to attack another nation Austria or Poland are allied with. Their provinces would be too expensive to take many, but you can have them cancel their alliances with France in the peace deal (peace them out separately), making the next war free of such restrictions while keeping France as an ally.

I did this many times in my Ottos run. For example I wanted to take Cyprus, but did not want to involve Mamluks who were guaranteeing. Cyrpus was also allied to The Knights, so I declared on the Knights and ended up taking both islands in separate peace deals.

As to the events, I read (or have read) most of them. But at 3500 hours now I reckon most are repeats

Yeah I'm sure you've seen all the events a few times over!

I'll do the alliance thing - that sounds devious and underhanded and I love it.

Here's an overview of my European situation:
Borders with - Bosnia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania.

If I attack Bosnia, they are allied with Hesse, Florence and Bologna. France will join in as "Defender of the Faith." Total manpower, 197k.
My manpower with allies who will participate - 253k.

I looked at breaking the alliances as a great power action, but I will not be able to do so.

Still, this will be my next action in Europe.

Looking at my other situations, if I attack Austria:
Their allies: Hungary (vassal), Augsburg, Trier, Castile, Munich & Mulhouse. France joins as "Defender of the Faith." Total manpower, 350k.
My manpower still 253k.
This will have to wait.

Poland:
Allies: Lithuania (vassal), Knights, Brandenburg, Cilli. France again as "Defender of the Faith."
Their manpower - 365k.
Mine still 253k.

Gonna have to wait there as well.

Naples
Allies - England, Florence. France as "Defender of the Faith."
Manpower - 220k

A possibility.

If France stops being "Defender of the Faith" things can open up. Otherwise they are useless to me as an ally.
I'm also thinking of allying with Aragorn - they seem to be the biggest European nation I can ally with at this time. That might help most against Naples.

So on to Bosnia, then I'll turn my attention back to the ME and keep an eye on things in Europe until I get more favorable conditions.

Yes, that DotF thing is a pain is the ass. You can monitor the situation and watch for France to get in to a war. If they get enough debt, war exhaustion, low mnapower or provinces occupied they may refuse the call in your war. This is why I try to always have at least one claim on any nation I might want to attack, so that if a favorable setup emerges I have the CB to DoW straight away. France could also refuse if their opinion of you is high enough compared to your enemies. there is a way to trade favors for trust which can put it over the line, but admittedly i rarely use this.

For the great power break alliance thing you need enough points as you saw. Are any of those close to agreeing? You can boost relations, use the influence nation mechanic or get a claim to get the close ones to agree to the alliance break. If you have a claim but don't want to accept the war, you can have a look at threaten war and your target nation may give up a province to keep you from declaring. You have the chance to see if they will agree before actually declaring war so can back off if you want. This gains you that province but sets a short truce as well.

What year is it? If it's before 1530 Aragon has a chance to fall under the PU with Castile in the Iberian Wedding. They can make a good ally. They have a good force limit and strong navy usually. But having them fall under PU will remove them as your ally. Not a reason not to ally them, but worth remembering. After 1550 at some point the nations will begin aligning for the League War. If it kicks off (has only happened once in my last four runs) you can sweep in to this void as the alliances will fall apart and shift and during that war allies are less likely to answer your targets' calls. Nations will also flip religion, meaning France will no longer be called as defender of the faith if the target is not Catholic of course. So if you feel blocked everywhere you look by the alliance webs keep expanding to your east and wait for the reformation to change the geo-political situation in Europe.

Naples may be better than it looks at first glance. If you have built your navy up and have lots of on-tech galleys, you can probably repulse the English at sea if they send armies. England has a strong navy I'm sure, but they do not build galleys and in the Med/inland sea you'll have the edge. If England still hold land on the continent they could instead send armies overland. And because Italy is only two provinces wide, any armies coming from France will be easier to meet and defeat if they come down the peninsula, provided you can get a strong force there first. Ancona maybe or one or two of the bordering provinces are mountains. Force the English/French relief armies to attack you there. Do you have any allies that would join that war? Ideally though you'll work out a way that does not involve France so you can keep them as a defensive ally at least.

I invaded Naples in each of my last few runs. It's a gateway to Rome, which gives religious bonuses and another missionary. and from there, northern Italy, Sicily, Savoy/Piedmont and perhaps eastern France are within reach.

Good info on Aragon. I'll ally them, but I'll at least be aware that I could lose them to the wedding.

My strategy was going to be Bosnia first, then work to the East, keeping an eye on European opportunities. That still seems like the best strategy. I will investigate the Naples option though.
I have build up my navy, not sure of how many current galleys I have though. I did build a flagship, and I could always trash and rebuild some galleys. It will take time, but that's something I seem to have available!
I'll have to check England out too, I'm not sure if they hold any continental territory. If the galleys can keep them at bay that puts Naples in a decidedly weaker position.

Here's my France in 1659.




Not much left of England

Looking good! But there's a couple of provinces you need to address - a little red infringing on all that beautiful blue.

My plan has been to vassalize them and then integrate them later along with their colonial nations. I've needed to reduce them to that little corner of Ireland to do it

NIce! What achievement are you going for?