Poland-Lithuania is one of the 12 major factions available for play.
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Poland-Lithuania is one of the 12 major factions available for play.
You begin as a constitutional monarchy with a few decent provinces and some very underdeveloped ones. Your two principle problems with be that you are initially totally landlocked and everyone around you either isn't Catholic or isn't a pushover.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
In the first few turns Prussia will probably want to swap some land with you, if you can get East Prussia out of the deal go for it. You will likely quickly get involved in war with Sweden and Courland -- Courland is a pushover, Sweden not so much. I took the southern Baltic states and then sued for peace to let Russia deal with them otherwise, 30 years later they were still at war without much progress either way.
Once you get your initial turns out of the way you have three pressing problems, those being Russia, Prussia and Austria. Your border with the Ottoman's is distant but lightly defended, however if you choose to expand that way you must keep a good relationship with all three of your neighbors. Russia in particular will be the elephant in your room as the border is vast and they will have every advantage for 15-20 turns.
Austria is easier to handle as you have to go around the Carpathian mountains, meaning you have only two points of contention with what would otherwise be a nasty border.
Prussia may seem weak but they start with a large standing army and will likely pick up an annoying alliance or two.
I went with an envelopment strategy with Austria, including an overland invasion of Venice and Southern Italy, and would have finished off the Ottoman Empire at this point except the game started crashing every turn, so I ate the diplomatic problems and went to war with Austria instead.
You get Uhlan lancers early in your cavalry tree, these appear to be slightly better but not particularly useful for anything but harassing roles and removing unprotected artillery; even militia can likely absorb a cavalry charge effectively enough to remove the unit from play so they're not as worth the cost/upkeep as much as in prior games.
The naval start is horrible but assuming you can kick Sweden off the coast or repress them altogther you can very easily defend the entire Baltic with a single fleet thanks to the way interception works. You will likely at some point be at war with factions that trade with Britain or the United Provinces -- there are juicy trade lanes right out there by the English channel that can be very profitable to raid. You won't get a fleet out in the trade areas early enough to get a decent cut.
As in every Total War game, Poland is in a pretty hopeless strategic position. You are surrounded by the big three: Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The Ottoman Empire and Sweden are nearby as well. You have no port and are unlikely to be become a major trade or colonial power.
At the start you are allied with Russia who are at war with Crimea and the Ottomans. My policy with regards to the Muscovites is containment. They are already powerful enough, and will only become an exponentially bigger threat if they start getting large amounts of trade income. Russian expansion into the Balkans must also be prevented. Revoke Russia's military access and immediately declare war on Crimea. You should be able to take it before the Russians get there, although the battle can be tough since your starting forces consist of only militia and pikemen. A DOW on Crimea also brings in their protector, the Ottoman Empire, but their commitment is questionable and they accepted peace after I seized Moldavia. You now have a lucrative trade port and I suggest making the most of it, perhaps with a trade deal with the Marathas or U.K.
Once the south is secure, immediately march north with as many new units as you can raise. It is only a matter of a few turns before the Great Nothern War breaks out against Sweden. Your allies, Russia and Denmark, are eager to seize as much land as possible for themselves. Once again, the objective is to contain Russian imperialism. Try to seize the Baltics before they get there. If you succeed, you will have your first shipyard in St. Petersburg. There's also no reason not to march on Finland, if your army is still strong enough. If you have succeeded in cutting off Russia's access to both the Black and Baltic Seas, then just make sure to keep them happy with an occasional gift and they shouldn't bother you for a while.
Meanwhile, on the home front, I suggest bribing Austria for a trade deal and possible alliance. This will give you time to focus on the Teutonic threat. Prussia starts out with plug bayonets and quickly develops ring bayonets, so I suggest pilfering their college for all its worth just to maintain parity. Most likely, by the time the Great Northern War winds down, the Prussians will do something aggressive. In my case, they declared war on my protectorate, Courland. They managed to take undefended Gdansk, but within a turn or two, my army returned from the Baltics and took East Prussia (defended by an 8-star Prussian general who promptly charged straight into canister shot). A newly built second army advanced north from Warsaw and retook Gdansk, then moved on to the Prussian capital.
Once the Prussians are eliminated and you've built up a decent Baltic fleet in St. Petersburg, you can use it to sail over and finish off Sweden. At this point, you will have a relatively secure strategic position, with allies all around (Denmark to the west, Russia to the east, and Austria to the south). You will also have met two of your campaign objectives (Stockholm and Berlin) which you will have to keep garrisoned for a while to maintain order. The next move is pretty open ended, but the remaining objectives in the long campaign are to take Vienna and Istanbul. Russia is also a constant threat, so always watch your back. India and America are not impossible, but you will always have more important threats to worry about back home.
I've been playing for around 45 years now... what an interesting game!
Poland's position is a rather bleak one at the outset of the game. You're surrounded by potential enemies... proud Germans to the west, aspiring Russians to the east, bloodthirsty Turks to the south and power hungry Swedes to the North! In my game, Austria went to war with me almost immediately. I think this is almost a given for games as Poland as I started two other games where this happened...
The Austrians are pretty wealthy in their own right and control a mighty kingdom by this point in time, but they can be beaten. How though? Firstly, maintain your alliance with Russia so that you're not fighting a two-front war. This is critical. Avoid war with the Swedes as well. They went to war with Courland in my game. When this happened, Courland was so enraged that I didn't come to their aid that they declared war on my nation...
Big mistake on their part. They're easy to pick off.
As for Austria, it's a bit of a tougher nut to crack... the invasion route into your territory is through Hungary and past your fort on the outskirts of Krakow. Get troops down there and start to recruit more in Warsaw for the inevitable conflagration. Once you defeat an invasion army or two, Austria will be licking their wounds and preparing for a second assault. As they do, begin a slow advance down their invasion corridor towards Pressburg, recruiting more troops in Warsaw and reinforcing your army as it makes its advance. Besiege Pressburg and take the city. This will put you on the doorstep of Vienna and also cut the empire in two.
Prepare for the inevitable Austrian counter-attack on Pressburg and hold back a few units in Warsaw. Divert these troops to Silesia and have them sweep down towards Vienna from the North so that you effectively have a pincer formed. The Austrians will be forced to split their troops, a situation which they can ill-afford at this point because they simply don't have the resources to generate a large army. You have effectively defeated them in detail at this point. Lay siege to Vienna once you have a strong enough force and wait it out... be patient! Force the defending garrison to come to you.
At this point, the Austrians are easy to mop up and you control their empire... Build up a couple stacks and feel free to rampage through Prussia. They will likely only have a few stacks of troops and should be easy to annex quickly.
This was the first ten years of my game.
At this point, you have a few different options. The scattered kingdoms of Germany lie to the West, the Russian Bear to the East and the Swedes to the North. I found it advantageous from an economic perspective to enter into a couple Germanic wars at this point. I would go to war with a country (Bavaria for instance), conquer it and then bequeath it to one of my German neighbors in return for protectorate status. In very short order, you will have the entirety of Germany under your banner as Allies and will be in a very strong situation financially. You waste no money on the upkeep of these territories and enjoy 50 percent of Germany's income.
You have several warm-water ports at this point... form trade routes with as many major and minor European powers as you can and invest in building a trading fleet to send to the Ivory and Gold Coasts of Africa. Control of the Ivory Market will help you to enjoy massive dividends. At the same time, invest in your own infrastructure at home. Build up your industry so that the balance of trade is decidedly in your favor. Don't forget to invest in "pleasure" buildings as well to keep the populace content.
Consider building up colonies in India and the New World. Tea is a great trading commodity. You can make a tidy sum of money very quickly. I would suggest going to war with Portugal. Take Goa as a staging point and prepare for aggressive expansion. If you colonize, keep in mind that you will need a strong navy. Build up your forces appropriately in preparation for expansion.
At this point, you have fulfilled your objectives and are an economic powerhouse. The endgame for Poland should be one of pet projects, continued scientific research and the occasional skirmish with other major European powers. You're in a good position for this. You should be surrounded by friendly nations, posses a strong army and navy, and be an economic juggernaut. Enjoy the cakewalk!
Poland is great fun to play. As others have mentioned, being in the middle of Austria, Russia, Prussia and Sweden can take its toll. However, Austria usually has other things going on (wars with Prussia or France), and Russia is allied with you at the start.
Prussia usually trades one of their wealthy provinces to me for one of my poor ones (to unite their lone 2 provinces), plus they give over plug bayonet and 580 gold. Good trade.
Second, by attacking Crimean states/Ottomans, you can pick up alot of Ottoman provinces. Sure they are poor, but when enlightenment techs begin to kick in, they are per province, so your wealth goes up alot. The Ottoman provinces can be taken with a pretty small force -- the Crimean taskforce pluys a few infantry or militia.
By attacking and taking every Swedish province, you are left with several good armies to face either Prussia or Austria. And you accomplish the hemming in of Russia and your own expansion in the north and south.
Poland can capture the Swedish and Prussian schools, and that is usually plenty, since you get alot of observatories for extra gentlemen.
In the difficulty setting of any prior TW game Poland-Lithuania will be considered one of the ‘underdogs’ among the great powers. It (1) is landlocked with limited trade-partner potential, (2) has no trade commodity to bolster trade with existing partners, (3) does not have the population mass some of its powerful neighbors have, (4) does not have much of a military edge, (5) is smack in the middle so no front can be considered ‘safe’, (6) owns land that others consider their own (particularly Prussia). After all, should Prussia declare war on turn 1 it will take masterful strategic and tactical prowess to stop them from taking West Prussia; they start with larger and better army and better research and income potential. Unfortunately E:TW is currently ‘broken’ due to bad AI (both strategic and battle) so it is possible to win with almost any major or minor nation on VH/VH settings. Hopefully the promised 4/28/09 patch will improve the AI and give players a truly enjoyable challenge. In the meantime, if you want to enjoy your campaign to the end I would advise you to play on VH/VH and introduce some role-playing limits.
The first turn is crucial for building a solid economic and political foundation. My first step, playing for any country, is to get the best government possible. Here is what you start with (sorry, can't insert the image).
It is easy to see that your Opposition cabinet is better than your current cabinet. So, call instant elections immediately (you know how, right? Press the red button in the upper right-hand corner of this screen). It is almost certain that you will get a change in cabinet, so your new cabinet will look like this (cannot insert image):
Much better! But don’t be satisfied still. Make sure you right-click to see the Character Traits of your ministers; you can still kick out one individual minister that doesn’t cut it as well as rotate ministers in the various seats. As all ministers have at least 4-star ratings I do not recommend kicking anyone out (trust me, you can do a lot worse and if you do you can’t do much about it quickly as you are a Constitutional Monarchy), but I did make seat shifts. My recommended cabinet is (cannot insert image, but here are the names and positions):
Silvester Dziuma - Head
Eryk Cytrynski - Treasury
Gabrjel Ziska - Justice
Kasper Krakowski - Army
Mieczyslaw Bromka - Navy
Once a cabinet is in place, I shift to research next. Send your gentleman to the school in Cracow and select the research you want to pursue. Make the research selection based on your immediate goals. If you intend to do much fighting in the first turns, I would recommend that you go the Military and Ordnance route. As I try to role-play and don’t go immediately on the offensive against the hapless AI, my first selection is Common Land Enclosures. Whatever your selection, once you make it, make sure you go to Vilnius and Warsaw and begin building the Opera House. Building the Opera house will allow you to construct Observatories, which will aid your research and give you more researchers (i.e. gentlemen).
Done with research? Time to check on the religion in the realm! With the exception of West Prussia all your other regions are predominantly Catholic. Unless you decide to attack the Ottomans and Crimea and take land there (in which case send the priest to those regions) you should move your priest to West Prussia to aid the population conversion to Catholic. To speed up religious conversion, I construct Church Schools in newly conquered non-Catholic regions by destroying Smiths, Weavers and Coaching Inns. This strategy gives you a conversion bonus from the church schools and more priests without forgoing much income since, like me, you probably also tax exempt the new regions to maintain happiness and growth.
Your next step is to decide what you are going to spend the rest of your money on. This choice obviously will be dependent on your strategy. If you intend to go on the early offensive then recruit more troops and upgrade your road infrastructure so that new recruits join your troops sooner. If you intend to role-play a more historical setting and turtle through then your focus should be on Government Residences and weaver upgrades. I would recommend that you also destroy the Coaching Inn in Gardinias and build another research school instead. You will be maintaining an army in the province to protect from attacks from Sweden anyway, so public order should not be an issue.
You have several expansion routes. Here are some ideas to get you planning (these are pre-patch; hopefully the patch will make things much tougher):
East – conquering Kiev and then proceeding to Moscow can be accomplished surprisingly easy, as both are lightly defended. Once these have fallen Russia is essentially finished and you can pick the remaining provinces at leisure.
South – just with the army in Galicia I was able to take Crimea and Moldova (I did warn you strategic AI is bad). This path will give you a sea trading route rather quickly and will substantially cripple Russia’s trade potential. It is aggravating how much of a pushover the Ottoman Empire had been made to be in E: TW!
West – war with Austria. This is the most risky route. Sure, you won’t have religion problems, but if Austria isn’t there to fight Prussia, the Prussians may decide to fight you instead. Even with the bad AI in E:TW it will be a challenge fighting Austria, Prussia and Sweden at the same time.
North – war with Prussia or Sweden. Taking Swedish lands will be a logistical nightmare so you may want to limit your conquests to St. Petersburg (great city and port). Taking on Prussia is dangerous (should be lethal with a half-brain AI … but don’t let me digress on how bad the AI is in this game) but can be completed rather quickly as there are only 2 provinces to take.
Your choices of trade partners are limited at the start. You can only go for trade agreements with the Ottomans, Austria, Prussia and Crimea, although getting an aggrement from any of these is highly unlikely. This is all the wisdom I can give you for now. Happy playing! :2thumbsup:
Started a new post 04.30 patch campaign with Poland Lithuania (vh/vh).
Just as one could imagine, the situation is dire: your lands underdeveloped, you neighbours nasty and your allies unreliable.
I had some ideas about blitzing, but it seems that with the 3000/turn profit i can hardly build up regions to a positive GDP (or region wealth, whatever) growth. What armies can we talk about?
In first turn I kicked my worst minister; started research on farms and sent the southern army south, intending to get a piece of Crimean Khanate (you need a port, urgently!). However, the Crimeans declared on me (luckily, without ottomans joining) and sent 1/3 stack against me over the Ottoman territory. I am actually impressed with the AI, as it carefully went over Ottoman territory as close to my southern city as possible and I could not engage without triggering a war with the Ottomans.
So my souther army is tied, waiting for an attack.
Prussians declared war on turn 2 and captured western prussia. My northern armies are small, poor and not much to talk about; I nonetheless managed to defeat a raiding party from Eastern Prussia and capture it. I left the city undefended and retreated - the Prussian army is too big and too good and you have to merge your norther armies to have a chance.
Prussians captured Eastern prussia, left 1 Line infantry there and continued towards Vilnius. Krimean Khanate attacked, I defeated their little army, the bigger one is still there in Ottoman territory, now entrenched.
In my turn I merged the northern armies and attacked the Prussian force in an open field battle in East Prussia. Very interesting, bloody and brutal battle. My general charged like 10 times into the backs of prussian line. The battle - as it was historically common - was decided by polish cavalry charging as often and as agressively as possible; btw, beware of prussian artillery, they have canister while you don't!! After defeating the army, I captured east prussia and sent my priest there.
Next turn I attacked Gdansk, took it and offered peace and trade agreement to the prussians. To my amazement they accepted. I pushed the Crimeans back. They seemed determined to become a nuisance, but I decided to leave them be and only defend. They do not raid, they attack the city, I beat them...
While I was dealing with the Prussians and the Crimean Khanate the Russians and the Swedish started a war; they were fighting back and forth until the swedes declared on courland. Well, courland kicked they arses and was now a real military power with 2 full stacks of units!! My protectorate has more units than me? Well, I thought that was good as it could now fend for itself....
Then, courland declares war on Russia and it all goes to hell. I have to either choose to break alliance with Russia and have a big, nasty border open; or I break alliance with courland and have 2 stacks of enemy troops at my doorstep.
I chose to side with russians and attacked courland immediately. Outmaneouvered their stack with my norther half stack (I left my capital and western territories empty) and captured Jelgava their stack got attacked by a russian or swedish force and reduced to 2 units. Courland retreated.
I decided to reinforce and try to capture the last remaining region of courland and be done with it. The thought went:
-Swedish are busy with the Russians, not a threat
-Russians are my allies, I saved them from Courland, they are busy with the Swedish - not a threat
-Austria is at war with Prussia, both have numerous armies and Prussia seems to be winning; I will need my forces against Prussia. Both are a threat.
-Ottomans and Crimeans are nasty customers; a threat; will probably focus on crimea to get that port I need so much.
I click end turn and.. Russia breaks alliance and declares war :oops:
Now I am at war in the North, action will start in the east, Prussia will kick Austrian butt and come after me while Crimeans are free to raid my south.
Plans? Give Jelgava to Russians or Courland for Peace; if it does not help, give it back to courland for peace and protectorate. If that fails as well - is likely, it is VH after all - will probably recruit 6 unit cavalry army and make it fight on 3 fronts (historically accurate, btw)
OK now, russians were at war with the swedish so I rushed them and captured St Petersburg. Sold it back to them for peace, 5000 and trade agreement; retreated and replenished the army. Selling, not keeping the region was chosen because a) i need peace, really, b) i need cash, really, c) i want to stay away from having a border with the swedish...
Russians, of course, declared war immediately next turn, but I was ready and did the "capture StPetersburg and sell back for peace" - deal a few more times.
Finally, i have my first trade port, signed trade agreements with Maratha (0 cost for me), Great Britain (paid them 1000), and Ottomans (paid them 2000). Hope this relieves tensions with the ottomans...
Now I am keeping my northern army fighting the russians, my southern one defending against Crimeans and my west naked. However, I plan to reinforce my northern army, rush the russians, capture their regions, sell them either back or to the swedish and get a more lasting peace. Then I will have to attack Prussia as they seem to be kicking Austrian butts again.
I also must find time to destroy the Crimeans as they have become a real thorn in my side; they seem to have endless supply of cossack infantry and it is starting to get dangerous fighting them every second turn.... Luckily most of my casualties are citizenry...
Oh yes, and battles are much more difficult when I have to opt for max results with minimum casualties. Cavalry is saving me in the field, as pandours do in sieges (i garrison them and they kill the enemy engaged with my pikemen).
Russia keeps declaring war and making peace every second turn; I have captured Kiev and did not give it back to them. In those few moments of respite while not at war with the russians I managed to destroy Crimean Khanate. Had a lot of fun when my lancers would charge and reform 3 times routing three Cossack Infantry units in three charges. Yeah!
Now everyone hates me due to expansion, i give presents to largest powers and have around 7000 profit per turn. That means I will soon have another army that should allow me to push west and give prussia some beating.
My greatest problem is technology, as investment into economy (all provinces have metalled roads to have my armies mobile) and army has eaten up my cash. I still have only one college and it is 1712 already; I am really behind in the tech race. That is not a problem as I will get fire by rank in 6 turns and have the first three farm techs. Militarily my strongest point is still cavalry which does not benefit from tech advances, hence, I am not yet in trouble.
Plans for the next several years are to develop military infrastructure and decide the fate of the Russians. I would love to capture moscow, however, I can hardly afford to have 1 army tied there and having large border with the "hostile" swedish. Idiot russians don't understand that I would be willing to aid them financially in their fight against the swedish; just to make sure they are at each others throats and leave me alone.... Stupid AI...
1735. I have 70% of my short campaign behind me. i am a dominant power in eastern europe thanks to.. Austria, which took Istanbul at made my southern border with the Ottomans peaceful and quiet. I took Moscow, and StPetersburg; russians still declare war on me from time to time, but I make peace pretty quickly. I get 13000 profits per turn and have four armies (60-75% stack). My regions are all the time under heavy development; I am a constitutional monarchy so industrialization has no negative effects.
With the 15 years remaining I am going to attack Prussia and capture brandenburg. I think then I will take a few turns rest and go get Vienna. Austrians will be a tough nut to crack as they are ahead of me in tech and econ; luckily their troops are shitty...
in 1736 attacked Prussia with 2 armies, about 3/4 of a stack each. Captured brandenburg in a very difficult battle; was heavily outnumbered, but made my arty count. Used another army to take dresden and.. the only remaining prussian town was silesia.
Austrians declared war and started marching towards poland, but I had a cash cushion and a recruitment order in both poland and east prussia, so their half stack got mauled; left my stack in Brandenburg and charged the other one to Silesia. Captured it and Prussians are no more.
Austrians were easy; Attacked Hungary with my army from silesia and another blow to transylvania; sold transylvania to ottomans and got a buffer from austria with my army retreating to Hungary automatically. Then captured Vienna and, voila!, filled the campaign objectives. Made peace with Austrians and started upgrading provinces; replenishing armies, etc. Sweden declared war, captured st petersburg but my army from moscow made short work of them.
Afterwards had an interesting situation in Bavaria (they declared war); the battle where i destroyed them was very interesting. Spent the rest of the time maneuvering diplomatically, with armies on the borders "just in case". 1750, endgame, victory. Congrats, loony!
Played on H/H
With a crap economy, I sold off military access to every man and his dog's flees, and made 35k, while also acquiring some protectorates with the money they paid me! More income is always good. I made the rest of the German states my protectorates, so they were some threat (not that they did anything) to Austria, and were a nice buffer with France and the UP.
After the first turn Prussia took West Prussia, but left East Prussia undefended, so I took that and fought them off next turn. The Swedes naturally went after the Danes, but they left me alone. Shortly after took back W Prussia, and Austria declared war. The problem is that the Prussians can afford a larger army than you, and with only a single province to defend they are a tough nut to crack. Built lots of line inf, killed a small Prussian stack and took Berlin after a big battle. Struggled to afford to repair buildings and replenish the army. Thankfully the Austrians didn't do much, as they were off in the Balkans, but they had large armies in Vienna and the neighbouring province. I took Vienna after a big battle, and from there the Austrians were goners. But the pesky Russians decided they wanted a fight, but were busy with the Ottomans and didn't bother me for a decade or so. By that time I had booted the Ottomans out of Europe and then took Moscow.
The silly Russians refused my offers of peace, so I took all but one of the territories - made them a protectorate - and gave them away to my protectorates or to GB for 2 provinces in the Americas. Eventually had a fight with the Persians who had made their way up through the Caucases, but their armies were tiny, so gave away more territories (the crappy new ones) as my admin costs were getting out of control, at up to 16%. Took St Petersberg, and gave it to Courland, who had taken the province next door with a bit of help. The geniuses decided that they didn't need a pesky garrison there, so a 2 unit Swedish army came and took it, so I retook it and headed for Finland, and gave that to Courland too.
I finally built my first ship and decided to get rid of the Swedes (Courland was simply too stupid to protect themselves against them, and I wanted some more sea trade), but the silly Danes attacked my protectorate Hannover, so I killed them off first, then shipped for Sweden. Shortly after that the Swedes were no more. Kept Sweden, gave Norway to Hannover.
By this stage, about 1740, there was no way anyone could threaten me, so I built up the economy and had some fun invading UP, pirate, Spanish and native provinces in the Americas.
I didn't have any decent seaborne trade (or a ship) for about 40 years thanks to the pesky Swedes, and lived off taxes (about 50k at the end), land trade and my protectorates (7k by the end). With the economic changes I thought that I would really struggle, but with the income from my protectorates I was ok. Nearly researched all the techs.
Interestingly about 1748 the UP, who had only acquired French Guyana, had somehow built up 3 stacks in the Netherlands, and they took Flanders, France and Westphalia.
Given that Wurtemburg had taken Alsace, the French were lucky not to have been wiped out, but shortly before losing France, my dopey protectorate Savoy had decided to send out their 20 unit army into France, while a half French stack was 3 squares away from their capital... so dumb.
Not having unrest dues to industrialisation was really quite handy I must say, it was the first time I had been a Constitutional Monarchy.