United Provinces (the Dutch)

[Monk]

The United Provinces are one of the 12 major factions available for play.

[peacemaker]

So, the united provinces. I looked at another few factions, but I wanted to start small in order to understand how the game works and not have to micromanage so many things. Start with enforcing your trade routes to America and India, these routes are often attacked by pirates. I didn't know you had two provinces in America 'til at least 1715, silly me. Anyway, Prussia, your ally, will probably go to war wit Poland-Lithuania. I took the province separating The two halves of Prussia, then sold it to them for some tech. Get gentlemen running through france and spain, then later moving on to all of europe. Meanwhile, start building trade ships and move to the ivory coast; These spots fill up fast! Eventually Austria went to war with Spain and France, and being the good ally that I am, I joined them. After taking Flanders, I ran into financial hardshisp and sold it to great britain for a nice sum. From there I formed another army and marched on Paris itself. After a good win, I began guarding my borders better and building an army. The year is 1720ish, Spain has taken Paris and I have taken Madrid, and the whole nation is in turmoil. Great britain is your favorite ally, be sure to keep in touch with them. Factions are generally not very tech-generous. I immediately researched plug bayonets and then ring bayonets, and the whole time be stealing other tech such as square formation and naval upgrades.

[seireikhaan]

An early war with Spain is in order- they own Flanders, which is intolerable for the Dutch. Spend the first few turns in Europe getting an army in order, and quickly attack Flanders and seize it. Shouldn't be terribly difficult- Flanders hasn't a lot of defenses, typically. Make sure to bring some Sakers. Even though they're fixed artillery, they are still invaluable for forcing the Spaniards out into the open. Make sure to be ready in the Caribbean as well. The Spanish are vulnerable- they have few defenses in most of their cities here, you shouldn't need much to take them, just keep a decent enough navy to keep the pirates from getting your armies to the Spanish possessions.

It should be noted that the Spanish start allied with France- I would advise against continuing onwards to Paris. It is much more heavily fortified than Flanders. However, this also means the potential to take the French sugar Islands in the pacific.

By the time you're finished, it is quite conceivable to have taken Cuba, Hispanolia, and all of the smaller French and Spanish Islands, as well as possibly Panama and Spanish colonies in South America.

After obtaining a desirable peace from the Spanish and French, attentions must be turned to the Pirates. They will obstruct your trade, attack merchantmen, and be general nuisances. Make sure to bring a good sized army with you when you try to take their islands- they will be much more difficult to take than the Spanish or French possessions, but its still not too terribly difficult; above all, just make sure to treat the Pirates not as rebels, but as the faction they are. Think of it not as a raid, but a military campaign, and you should do well. Again, cannons(preferably mobile versions) are very helpful. I also found Native American horseman valuable as screening and flanking units. A unit or two of them will not go wrong against the all-infantry pirates.

[al Roumi]

Playing my first proper campaign game after completing the RtI tutorial, I chose the Dutch. I played a short campain on the default M/M difficulty setting.

Strategic considerations
You begin with 1 European province, 2 American provinces and 1 Indian province. You are allied with England and Austria -as good a pair of allies as any could hope for. France and Spain are hostile to you, but you aren't actually at war with them, yet...

You are nicely set up with trade routes, having agreements with both Mughals and Maratha in India, and England in Europe. If I remember rightly, you may have 1 spare trade route (although if you don't start with one, it didn't take me long to get another ). Your main trade goods are spices, sugar and tea but your provinces in America and India also have a fair few gem and gold mines.

Militarily, your colonial provinces are poorly garrisoned - and with no armies in the field. In the Americas, your settlements will take a fair ammount of development to be able to recruit anything like a capable field army. Thankfully, no one else in south America is much of a powerhouse at this stage either. Ceylon, in the Indian area, has great potential for projecting Dutch supremacy accros India (or at least the south). However, it too starts with only a general and 1 unit of East india company line inf.

In Europe however, you start with a garrison, an army in the field and 2 generals. You can recruit line infantry off the bat as well as fixed artillery.

The Dutch Navy is at somewhat of a disadvantage in the Americas and Europe. Your 2 fleets in these regions are smaller than both the English and French Channel/North sea fleets (in Europe) and the pirate fleets in the Americas. In India, you possibly start with more of an advantage over the Maratha and Mughals.

That's alot on surveying your starting resources & strategic situation, hopefully it will be usefull for most games -however you play.

Playing a short campaign, I had to take & hold 15 provinces, 9 of which were pre specified. The listed territories to claim are all in America or India and are (at the beginning of the game) under the control of Spain, France, England and the Maratha. It was therefore logical to expect war with these factions -unless England being an ally and the Maratha a trade partner would offer alternative methods for gaining control of their regions.

The threat of war with France and Spain -probably at the same time was worrying. Taking their colonial provinces would almost certainly lead to them attacking my single European settlement. I considered turtling for a bit, but what convinced me otherwise was the alliances with Austria and England. Both of whom could lend a decent hand in dealing with the Bourbon kings in Europe and America.

The campaign
So, in a rather reckless/bold move, I declared war on Spain in my first turn and attacked Flanders. England and Austria both joined in the war against Spain, but unfortunately did not do so with France who ralied to Spain's banner because of their alliance.

I'll not go into a turn by turn guide, but relate some overall strategy & significant events.

I took Flanders from Spain in 1 or 2 turns, ending the Spanish presence in northern Europe. Over the next few turns, France however kept sending armies (half stacks or less) from Paris and Alsace to raid my towns. Using reinforcements from Holland, I was able to beat these small armies 1 at a time, whilst building up a second stack of troops.

Once I had 2 stacks in Flanders, I sent 1 to take Alsace and clear any French armies on the way, and the other to the French fort in between Flanders and Paris -blocking any future raiders from access to Flanders.

Alsace fell quickly, the raider armies having been beaten before and there being nothing much left to defend the city.

Meanwhile, my stack occupying the northern French fort faced several assaults by French armies, superior in size. These assaults were repelled without significant Dutch casualties and i was able to raid the French pleasure palace every turn.

In the Americas, I built up a a small force of militia & Indian melee infantry (5/6 units max) in my southernmost region. These troops i moved down accross land to the French colony (on the north coast of what i guess is now Brazil), winning an easy victory and claiming the first of my specified regions with more spices, gold and gems.

Back in Europe, after taking Flanders and moving my focus onto France, i sent my European fleet to do some Piracy on the main French shipping lane in the channel. After a turn of piracy, the french fleet showed up and, outnumbering mine, i withdrew (like a good pirate). They chased me however, and trounced me -sinking my entire European fleet...

The French fleet then proceeded to raid MY shipping lane -causing the game advisor to get all agitated about me not being able to balance the books (or something silly like that -don't you know there's a war on?). Happily, all i needed to do was send a unit of militia from Flanders to garrison the port -forcing the french fleet out and opening my trade route again.

Concerned that they migth do this again or that it might get worse, I marched half my victorious stack from Alsace and all of the stack occupying the Fort on Paris.

After a quick number-crunch-of-death, i captured Paris, defeating France and ending it's existance!

Quebec immediately emerged as an independant faction, the rest of the French colonies in America (Martinique etc), going rogue.

I was facing quite a lot of unrest in Paris, due to religion and loyalty to the previous ruler, which was tying my stack down. Fearing an attack from Spain, i was able to negotiate a straight cease-fire with them, giving me some breathing space to consolidate & develop my now expansive realm.

Although I hadn't advanced greatley towards claiming the territories neccessary for victory, I considered myself in a more than advantageous position, from which a short period of turtling would achieve a lot more than if i had done so at the very start (more resources & more ways to spend them). That sounds like i was feeling rather pleased with myself, but frankly i was -who'd expect the Dutch to annihilate France??? (Ok, so in real life they historicaly did an amazing job of protecting themselves, but still...)

I went on to re-declare war with Spain, moving two stacks through to Madrid (1 on the north Atlantic coast, 1 through the Pyrenees). At the same time in America, i marched on New Andalucia and then New Granada, bringing the entirety of the north coast of South America under Dutch control (i had previously stopped off & captured the Pirate colony of trinidad & tobago).

After taking Madrid, and now occupying the two largest western european regions, as well as facing at least 2 full Spanish stacks moving up from Gibraltar, I re declared peace with Spain in another straight deal (no sweatners).

By this time in india, I had teched up enough to recruit a decent & balanced stack including howitzers, horse arty & grenadiers. I took 1 stack (with my doddery 70yr old general -yes, a risk if he fell from his horse) and captured carnatca from the Maratha.

This left only 1 specified territory to capture: New York. My best ally's... as well as a few non-specified territories to make up the numbers.

Not wishing to ruin things for myself with England, I decided to leave the capture of New York till the last few turns (playing the game less than realistically, perhaps).

I made the rest of the numbers up by adding Mysore to my Indian territories.

Closing remarks/musings
If you are still reading by this point, i think it might have been possible to gain control of New york through less cheaty means than declaring war on my ally in the last turn of the game. Spain kept making me silly offers to exchange New granada for: Gibraltar, lombardy, Sardinia & Naples. I never tried, but might reload later, and see if England can't be induced to swap some Italian states for New York...

Other closing remarks:

1. I suck at Naval warfare and have mixed feelings about how i was able to be so successfull with nearly no fleets (and no trading fleets either). The AI, whether factions or pirates, would raid a lane or blocakde a port for 1 turn and then move off. I could also disrupt their amphibious raids on my ports by re-occupying them with militia. Except for that one time the advisor would not allow me to end the turn for fear of not balancing the books, i was not sufficiently bothered enough to cover the expense of standing fleets.

2. It is essential to destroy religious buildings of other denmoniations on capturing a province. They do not automaticaly switch to your religion, and are not automaticaly destroyed (as in MTW2). They will continue to convert citizens to their religion so long as you leave them there.

3. Fill out your extra trade slots as and when you get them. I found i had an abundance of slots and found it hard to find enough trade partners (till the end of the game, Austria would not trade with me -despite being a close ally!)

4. Occupy and hold forts, enemy or otherwise wherever you can. In my game, the AI was pretty inept at using them (most notably the fort defending Paris, to the north). They allow you to control territory and they will maximise your defensive advantage. I find them one heck of a lot more useful than their equivalents in MTW2 were.

[andrewt]

I'm playing on M/M as well. I'm only up to turn 7, I believe, but I spent the first few turns upgrading all the mines in my empire. There's quite a few of them, especially in Guyana. I built a farm in my home province as well and upgraded all my farms after I got the first farm upgrade.

I immediately sent my Americas fleet to West Africa to kill the pirates. The ones in East Africa are too strong for now so I sent my fleet back to the Americas for repair. While this is going on, I'm spamming Indiamen from all my ports. I sent some to West Africa, then to Brazil and the ones going to Brazil should arrive in the next couple of turns. They're all undefended but the competition is Portugal and Britain. I doubt they'd attack me.

I kept asking Westphalia and Hannover for trade and they kept refusing. At around my current turn, they finally relented but asked 800ish and 500ish gold respectively. Looks like it'll mostly pay off in 1 turn so I accepted. I'm building roads as welll, mostly as an experiment. I have no idea how much it'll add to trade (it did in RTW and MTW2), but 750 each for my 3 underdeveloped provinces is a small price to pay.

I'm just now starting to build land units in the Americas. I was planning to attack the pirate province first but I guess I'll start with the Spanish ones next to me. I'm not sure if it's New Spain or Spain. Hopefully, it's New Spain so some of Spain's allies might not attack me. Going to start building some troops in the Netherlands as well to conquer Flanders and I'll have to build up a navy to protect my sea trade in the next few turns.

[al Roumi]

I totally neglected trade fleets, not through any conscious decision, more becasue i didn't know what i was doing yet...

Was still hauling in 13k a turn at times.

How much profit can you make from trade fleets?

[andrewt]

At turn 7, I believe I have 4 indiamen in West Africa making 480 each. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the number goes up every turn. Also, adding more trade fleets to a trade theater reduces the per ship income, even if they're on different zones within the theater. It's not that much, but indiamen only cost 50 upkeep per turn.

Also, trade goes directly into your treasury unlike province income, where only the taxed portion goes into your income. What I'm still not sure, is the trade portion of province income. That seems different from normal trade income somehow.

[Ordani]

How much profit can you make from trade fleets?

Before I went to war with France and Spain I was hauling in around 39k/turn in trade with 2-3 fleets about half full per trade theatre. Afterward it got totally ridiculous and I think my current for turn profit is 32k after 50k of Naval/Army upkeep ...

[al Roumi]

Sweet! i was prejudiced against a navy due to the high cost of maintaining them in MTW2.

I placed a couple of fleets (forcibly) in all but the brazilian trade area last night. I'm not making money on the same scale as you report, but it does seem (and CA bloody well should have made it) profitable, to say the least.

[Ordani]

I placed a couple of fleets (forcibly) in all but the brazilian trade area last night. I'm not making money on the same scale as you report, but it does seem (and CA bloody well should have made it) profitable, to say the least.

Brazil is the least profitable of the theatres. You'll notice in the trade panel that it displays the price of each commodity, this is based both on its availability and the number of factions offering it. I had my ports in India and South America churning out a trade ship nonstop from 1700 to 1730, by 1725 or so I could not spend money fast enough.

The only downside to trade income is that you need to keep a cash reserve since someone blockading the port in the Netherlands can result in your income falling by 90% for a turn or two, which will destroy your fielded armies. After the early game, however, it's virtually impossible not to unless you simply like building metaled road systems on islands with 1 village because you can.

[Szun]

I totally neglected trade fleets, not through any conscious decision, more becasue i didn't know what i was doing yet...

Was still hauling in 13k a turn at times.

How much profit can you make from trade fleets?

as UK i got 56000 per turn from trade..in 1750 (and 33k from taxes at 3/2 (noble/lower))



the return is less and less the more you add ships 20/13etc but haveing 32+ ships(total) at 8 spots....
is some nice cashflow.


My overall strategy is "sit back and research/trade"
i avoid wars at all cost, pick up some random province that goes "rebel" or take the pirats

the point where i would consider going to war is after i got volleyfire for lineinfantry...befor that its a waste of time and money.
Btw, best unit vs. americans are dragoons or cavalry in general (but you can build draggon in colonies soo...)