Prussia

PRUSSIA - 1.5 - EARLY GAME

I'm not going into too much detail since there are lots of good guides for Prussia. Just some thoughts while playing the last patch.

Victory Condition and difficulty: Prestige Goal - Normal Campaign - Very Hard battle
I believe that difficulty alone doesn't make the AI more agressive in the campaign but the economical bonuses it gets on harder modes makes it more agressive because it builds up and gears for war quicker.

Personally I like playing the diplomacy game, taking my time and not rush. By keeping the campaign on normal you'll get a more stable diplomacy and if you don't go around blitzing you'll still be figting large battles against the AI because the AI only attacks when it feels ready. So pick whatever suits your style but these notes were taken from a normal campaign.

Early game:
- Start trade agreements with GB, France and everyone else that has borders with you. Except Saxony since it is likely to be your first target.
- I like starting research on Empiricism and then Social Contract to boost your technology research. Use your starting college for this coupled with your starting gentleman who is good at enlightment.
- Destroy the happiness building in Easter Prussia and build a school there. This school will be to research only military projects. Put gentlemen here that have military bonuses or the ones that don't have any bonuses so they can pick some military ones.
- You should aim to have a third school dedicated to industrial research eventually but in the beggining you can use your starting college for both enlightment and industrial research. You don't need to be too speedy on enlightment anyway.
- Your only port in the beggining should put out a trade ship every two turns non-stop. I was 20 years in the campaign before i considered building a small galley fleet to protect the Baltic.
- Send your trade ships to Eastern Indies, Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Brazil in this order. You need to be very carefull since you'll won't be able to protect them. So run from pirates. If you see a big pirate fleet anywhere pick all your ships in a trade theater and move them to another one. It is better to relocate from withing the trade lanes then to rebuild from Bradenburg.
- For a long portion of the early game you should focus your efforts on Poland, Austria and the german minors so as long as you can dodge pirates you can make a lot of money in the trade lanes. Just be smart and remember to use "guerrila" tactics. You are an underdog on trade in the early game so you have anything to lose.
- Austria will declare on you very early even if you have a trade agreement with them and they will keep coming back for more everytime they feel they have enough forces.
- Take on Austria step by step, one region at a time. When you take Wien make sure you are at a point where you can handle the big unhapiness that Wien will cary by being Austria's ex-capital. It takes at least 5 turns for it to stabilize and you'll still need good garrison units to keep things in check. It helps to destroy the school in the region and replace with a protestant church and start converting. (this same thing applies when you are ready to take Warsaw)
- Military you should focus your research on getting "Fire by rank" (duh) after that everything else is far less appealing. "Fire by rank" is the most important tech in the early game
- It is rather important if pursuing this strategy to keep on good terms with Sweden. Since you don't have a fleet being at war with Sweden can ruin your economy if they blockade your only port. Sweden is a fenomenal trade partner, you can't trade with it in the beggining since it doesn't have extra port capacity but keep loking out for an opportunity to open trade with them.
- Always remember to renew trading status when you make peace with Austria and Poland.
- Curland will attack at some point and will only accept peace if you destroy almost all it's forces. Making them a protectorate is not adviable since they also seem to get attacked fairly often most notably by Sweden.
- Allyng with Sweden and GB is a good way to help protect against raids on your trade lanes during war time.
- Don't neglect your industry Germany is a very industrial region and you'll have lots of weavers and farms to upgrade. Research the farming techs asap followed by the ones that give bonuses to the weavers. You'll only get some smithies when you conquer Austria and Bohemia.
- Bavaria is most likelly your strogest early "side-enemy". They will jump in the chance to attack you most likely when you are at war with Austria and distracted. Do not understimate them.
- Hannover can hold its on quite well and since it is allied with GB, you might as well ally with them too.
- The other german minors are not a huge issue just keep them at "Friendly" by always trading with them when you can and don't bite more then you can chew. Always remember that regions need to be "peacefied" and protected before you can move your armies away.
- Put your monarch to good use by keeping your ministers up to date. Be carefull not to get too many good ministers that have "harsh" traits. Some traits while giving management bonuses increase lower class unhappiness and that adds up.
- After you have taken Wien and Warsaw your two main enemies so far will be crippled for the rest of the game.
- Turns 1-10 an army with 4-6 LF and a cavalry unit is enough to beat almost everyone if you pick your fights well. After turn 10 you need to include a few more LF, a couple of grenadiers and a couple of artilery as well as a couple more cavalry units. Full stacks are a bit of overkill untill later on but you should have at least 2 stacks with 15 or so units. Keep one on the eastern side and one on the western side. Don't neglect your borders, it is by "looking" tough that you keep the AI from trying to grab a piece of you when you aren't ready.
- Don't neglect your garrisons. The regions where you have your schools will notably have high unrest. Use a combination of dragoons and militia to keep things in check. Try to use an odd number of non-dragoon units to hopefully get a rounding up benefit. I usually use 3 militia and 2 dragoons on most provinces and add more dragoons as needed on key places with colleges and stuff.
- By the time you conquer Wien you should be thinking about starting a real navy. A good start is to ensure the protection of your coast. With Wien and Bradenburg both your home ports are at "low seas" so you can safelly use galleys for your home protection.
- Take your time, don't rush. The game is harder when you don't rush the AI.

Thats about all I can think of right now. Will try to edit more as things comes up.