Spain

[MikeV]

I Kaimuk Territory (however that's spelled. The province north of Cherokee territory)

Kaintuck (Kentucky)

[PseRamesses]

As previous posters stated you´re spread out and quite weak. Your small fleet is the key, port them immediately or you risk getting them sunk by pirates or Barbary States. Your fleet in Cuba should be moved west and south of the island to avoid being attacked by the pirates to your east. There is another pirate fleet that comes in from the west and 8 out of 10 times attacks you but this one you can beat.
Since you´re at war with the Cherokee and your garrison in Florida is weak I usually trade it for Windward Islands with the French and let them deal with them. Bring troops from Flanders and Lombardy home to Spain. Leave Flanders weak to invite Holland to attack you. This way you can take Dutch Guyana and most importantly Curacao (mission) from them. Trade is the key so I build I.M in EVERY port I can on every turn I can and later I add Galleons to each trade scene. I also demolish all shipyards but the one in Spain to further bolster trade. Build farms, wine and... some mine, I think, some militia then you´re out of money this turn.
First target: Pirates in the Caribean. Do some island-hopping with your small fleet and take Leeward isles and Trinidad Tobago (mission). Now you rule the caribean and can crank out I.M like mad. This is done by 1703, safely. Next targets: Hollands holdings, both D.Guyana and Curacao. You can also start to move on the Barbary states and Morocco with your armies from Iberia, Flanders and Italy. More ports, more I.M and close to home and Tunisia is a nice staging-point to protect your holdings in Italy that you have left weak intentionally. Italian states always attacks me sooner or later. This lets me get them as a protectorate. Further bolster your army in the caribean and ship them to Texas (mission). The fastest I´ve taken Trinidad Tobago, Curacao and Texas to aquire New Spain is 1708.
Often Savoy will attack France. If you can spare the troops Take them out because sometimes I´ve succeded in trading Savoy for F.Guyana with gold and gems ;) I always honor my alliance with France no matter what. They act as a nice buffer-zone both in America and Europe. Holland has Flanders as a mission and is desperate to obtain it. If you have beaten them you should be getting offerings to swap it for Ceylon. When I´m ready I do so and immediately declare war on them taking back Flanders and taking Netherlands (mission) and this gets you a staging-point, nicely developed, in India. If you don´t want it you can always trade it for the Brittish holdings in the caribean, both Jamaica and Bahamas will often be tossed in to the deal. Sometimes Portugal DoW´s you and I usually take them out or make them a protectorate but they cede Goa in India. If you keep it, and Ceylon, you have a nice new theater opening up.

So now you have a super strong position in Iberia/ Africa, you hold all of the caribean and all of central- and south America. Where you go from here is up to you. Good luck!

[Gingivitis]

There's another benefit to having a revolution ASAP for Spain. I think mine went down in 1703 or 1704, and if you left Madrid unguarded the rebel force stack you command takes minimal losses and you get a decent sized stack for free when you take the capitol. With that stack and the army already in Spain you have a big enough force to take Morocco and Portugal before they have time to match the size of your army.

[mbrasher1]

Spain is spread out, with a lot of valuable and vulnerable territories.

But you also have the ability to benefit from turmoil in many different theaters of war.

Major theaters that Spain can, and should dominate, include:

-- Italy
-- India
-- North America
-- Caribbean
-- Ivory Coast and Brazilian trade

Selling Flanders for Ceylon is a good move which sets up the conquest of India. It also strengthens your forces in Lombardy to take out Genoa (Genoa and the Italian states will eventually attack you, so you should be prepared). The Italian powers are Catholic states that you can get pretty docile pretty quickly.

North America is a great plum. Attacking Georgia puts you in contact with the 13 colonies, the Cherokees and Louisiana. Often, the 13 colonies or Louisiana will attack Spain, which usually results in picking off a province or two (but no war with their protector). Getting the cherokee territory and Kaintuck are excellent, as you get good income.

The Caribbean theater offers lightly defended pirate bases, as well as lightly defended plantation islands of the Dutch and British, should it come to war over getting Curacao (it usually does, since the Dutch usually do not sell).

Once you have completed the mission to have New Spain join your state, Spain is unbeatable.

Spain gets decent trade income, but you really cannot and should not try to compete with the Dutch/British navy. Your navy needs to focus on getting trade slots, and stealing THOSE from the Dutch/British.

Also, the Spanish get lots of plantations, which are expensive, but pay for themselves very fast. If you look at the income screen, you will see that you get tax income from plantations, as well as trade income; plus you often get a bonus of extra units of sugar or whatever. So a basic plantation costing 1250 will usually pay for itself in 2-4 turns (1-2 years). No other land investment is so profitable. The only other investment that returns better are Indiamen. You should build as many as you can and monopolize the trade slots as best you can. Indiamen take several years to get to their spot, and two turns to build, but they can return their entire cost in 1-4 turns.

The Spanish mission seems the easiest to complete. They are all a one turn march from the Caribbean, and are lightly defended. And you get GREAT territories. Mexico alone is worth it, but you get others also.

As a side note, I find the Spanish slow to get going unless you have money to invest. So I usually disband the useless pikemen, the Cuba force, and the entire force in Spain (unless you plan to attack Morocco early). Since Portugal and Morocco are 2 turns from Madrid, you can build a decent force of line infantry which can easily see off their forces.