United Provinces (the Dutch)

[al Roumi]

I've started another campaign (long, 40 provinces to win), and am playing very diffferently to how i did in the report at the start of this thread.

Swapping Mughals for Ottomans as trade partners early on is going well so far.

Have complete monopoly over trade in the East Indies and overbearing majorities in all three other trade areas. (Spam Fluyts & merchantmen in your first turns).

Considered appropriating Westphalia and then Hannover, but their starting armies are as good as - if not better than your force in Amsterdam.

Instead invaded new-andalucia (with 6 line inf) and took Flanders (with the start-up army) on the turn following the declaration of war.

After taking Flanders, I made peace with Spain -so as to focus on new-spain alone, but this hasn't panned out as I'd hoped as new-spain has now been incorporated into Spain proper, who i'm still at peace with.

Pirates next i guess...

On trade, i've found it hard to secure trade rights with Austria in the past. They are certainly a more reluctant ally than britain. In my previous game, i had to shell out 10k to get the deal (which pays off quickly) -anyone get a deal for less?

Stealing tech from the german states is a fruitful strategy, there are about 4 school/colleges within a turn's march, so it's easy to move about and cherry pick.

Does anyone know of a way to increase a gentlemen's likelyhood of succeeeding at tech stealing? I've not yet noticed an apptitude/trait that increases with instances of academic kleptomania...

[Frankenbeasley]

I played a trading game with the UP (N/N). My very first move was to split the fleet in the East Indies in order to appropriate three trade posts and free up the three warships for the Americas. My early strategy was to take out the Pirate Islands as soon as possible, they continually blockade the trade theatres otherwise. Once I had the Pirates out of the game I left the Americas alone for a while. My other early colonial move was to build an army in Ceylon and pop round to take Mysore. Mysore is a hugely wealthy territory and, along with Ceylon and Dutch Guyana, gives you control of a goodly percentage of the world gem trade (go De Beers!). This, too, was the extent of my early Indian campaign.

Europe became my main sphere of expansion. I avoided war with Spain or France in the early stages and, in fact, abandoned Austria as an ally when they went to war with Prussia. Instead, I paid for trade very early with both Westphalia and Hannover. I also built troops and sailed them down to take Morocco. This, it turned out, was an excellent move because it gave me a useful port from which to build Fluyts and send them straight into the trade theatres. Additionally, Morocco is one of the regions that furnish you with the Dahomey Amazons (if you pre-ordered SE from Amazon, that is)It also allowed me to sweep east through the Barbary States. These may not be the richest territories but it does leave you at peace with everyone and able to concentrate on economic development and technological research. If, as I did, you also then broker a trade agreement with the Ottoman Empire, it prevents the Barbary scum from cutting off that trade.

My next thrust was to occupy the Italian States, Venice, Malta, Genoa and Savoy, in that order and in quick succession. You may have noticed that my policy has been, up to this point, one of picking off the single-region states. This is very successful because most of them are devoid of allies and there is little comeback to you for your attacks.

Throughout this time I was continually building Indiamen and Fluyts in Ceylon (for the East Indies), Mysore (for Madagascar), Dutch Guyana (for Brazil) and Morocco (the Ivory Coast). Trade for the Dutch is huge, I soon had at three full stack fleets in each of the trade theatres. Each fleet of 20 ships was bringing me between 3,500 and 6,500 per turn, depending on the theatre, which translated to a total of about 55k per turn overall.

At this point I turned my attentions elswhere. Sweden, to be exact. They happened to be at war with my sole ally, the British. This left me free to sweep in and take them out in the course of about four turns, shortly followed by Denmark. Then Courland came under the cosh, which brought Poland-Lithuania into conflict with me. By this time, of course, I waws exceedingly rich, highly advanced and well armed. My Northern troops systematically destroyed the Poles whilst my Southern Armies began to push upwrds for my conquest of Austria. They met neatly in the middle.

By 1740 or so, I was in possession of over 30 territories. I had military spending of around 95K per turn and I was still reaping profits of over 130k per turn. The rest was simple. Take out the French in Paris and Strasbourg. This led to the emergence of Quebec. Next, in a single turn, all the troops who had taken out the central European states took out the Spanish in Lombardy, Sardinia, Naples etc. (Portugal had already taken out Spain itself). This led to the emergence of Gran Colombia, Mexico and, strangely, the re-emergence of the Pirates. By 1750, I had well over 40 territories, all research was complete and I still hadn't expanded in India or the Americas.

[nafia]

My opening strategy for playing as the Dutch on H/H.

I try to use the strategy of having quick short war, where i attack quickly and then sue for peace. It seems that the AI have a soft spot for peace when you have taken over one of their larger regions, esp their capital. The strategy of ignoring the outlaying troops and go straight for the capital then sue for peace works great.

So...

Aside from the war, try to pump out as many indieman/fluytes as possible to secure the trade spots. They provide you with good source of income and denies other nations. I upgraded the mines and plantations first, ahead of other building, us they generally produce more money.
Also i paid Hanover and Westphalia for trade deals.

1st Dutch/Spanish war

Take Flanders with starting army in Netherlands (turn 1 or 2).
Build up a small army (4-6 line infantry) in the island above New-Andalucía and take it by turn 4.
Sue for peace peach with both. It seems that New Spain soon joins Spain after that.

War against the Pirates
Take out the 2 pirate islands. Take out one above the French island first as it is very lightly defended, whilst building up more troops. After a few turns, send the original force (back to full strength), plus new troops and take Trinidad Tobago. Remember to have ships in other trade theaters take over the new slots vacated by the pirates before other nations grab it.

1st Dutch Franco War
By this stage, i think about 1710, France have taken over New France. I have built up a bit over a stack of troops in brussels, plus 2 small army (6-8 units each) in south America - one on the border French Guyana and the other loaded into in ships off that other French island. I waited for the French to have some of the troops away from Paris to declare war. The two French regions in Americas fell straight away. The Brussels stack first took the keep north of Paris (defended by only 4 units) and march straight onto Paris (6 units) and took it. Immediately sue for peace with France and Spain (who joined as allies) and they accept.

With France in my hands, i paid for trade deals with savory, Genoa.

2nd Dutch Franco War
After the resistance in Paris died down in Paris (3-4 turns) . I marched my stack from Paris to border of the last French region. Paris is relieved by more troops from Brussels/Amsterdam. The next turn, i swiftly finished off the French. Since Spain also joined the war i took Puerto Rico that turn as well. With French gone, the Spanish accepted peace as well.

I built up the new regions I’ve captured over the next few turns. in the mean time the Spanish kept offering to exchange regions, mostly for my New-Andalucía.

2nd Dutch Spanish War
One turn suddenly, the Spanish offered to trade 5 regions (New Mexico, Florida, Cuba, Sardinia and Lambady) for France (the region), I accepted. I was keen on the these American possessions. Once again I immediately declared war on Spain and took back Paris. After also taking out a Spanish fleet or 2 in the trade theaters, I once again sued for peace, thus ending the 2nd Spanish war.

With Lambady not garrisoned and unable to recruit decent troops there, I gave it to Savoy in return for becoming my protectorate. In the mean time, a slow simmering war between the British and Sweden has been raging over the last 8-9 turns. I prepared for an invasion of Norway (Denmark lost it).

1st Dutch Swedish War
I sailed a nearly full stack to Norway (lightly defended) and took it the next turn with small losses. The stack then moved towards Stockholm whilst ignoring all the towns and troops. I was able to get to Stockholm with a few smaller army chasing me and took the city under their noses (despite heavy losses). With the capital fallen, the Swedes accept peace and withdraw all of their troops. I also managed to get a few techs in the deal too. In hindsight, i should have asked for tech all the other times i took ppl's capital.

So at this stage the year is about 1720. And i am preparing another quick war with the Spanish, whilst also looking for a opportune time to take Brandenburg from the Prussian, who are at war with Austria. I have 20k income after expenses per turn. Things are looking good so far =)

[Skott]

I'm still learning the game but I have learned enough now to have a good grasp of how trade and the economy works, which is the hardest part of ETW IMO. The military tactics arent that hard. Certainly different from past TW games but not hard to figure out and execute on the battle field. My UP campaign is only played on N/N and on 'Long' so I dont have to rush. My description below will be in a general talk and light on details. I didnt record dates and take screen shots. Sorry.

In my UP campaign I'm doing some things backwards compared to others here. The main problem is that you basically have three theatres of war to deal with. The Americas, Europe, and India. Trying to do all three at once is difficult so I decided to do one at a time basically, at least in the beginning.

Opening Moves: I decided to build up my trade and economy first. I tend to turtle in my games rather than blitz so I started building India Men (IM) ships and get them to the trade nodes as quickly as possible. At first I just put one IM ship on as many nodes as possible because they fill up fast. Once I had that part done I added a second, third, so forth to each node. While I was doing this I built up my farms and industry and my ports and cities. I also stayed out of wars with other nations so I could get as much trade dollars as possible coming in.

India: After I got a healthy trade and economy going I had to decide where to attack first. Some people go for Flanders first but I didnt want to war with Spain and France just yet. The pirates in the Americas arent worth much neither so I decided to go for the most bang for my buck. India. Originally I wanted to side with the Marathas and war on the Mughals but the Marathas refused to ally. The Mughals however were happy to ally with me so it was decided I would war on southern India first. I built a small army in Ceylon and attacked southern India. I skirted around Mysore at first and went east and north. About this time The Portuguese colony west of Mysore rebelled. Apparently Spain took out Portugal so I sailed an army up the coast and took it. This was a blessing because now I didnt have to worry about a war with Portugal and the consquences of that.

Mysore: Mysore isnt an easy territory to take head on. They build up an army and build up fast. A full stack in their capitol and a 3/4 stack near the former Portugal Colony border. I used a two prong attack to deal with them. With a full stack in the former Portuguese Colony and a small stack of about four units to the southeast in the former Marathas colonies I started my campaign. I used my small stack to invade eastern Mysore hoping to pull one of the Mysore armies away from my main stack. Sure enough it worked. I got lucky and their 3/4 stack moved east and left the way open to the Mysore capitol. Now I only had to beat their main army at the capitol. In one battle I captured the Mysore capitol and destroyed their faction. I then rolled north and east and captured the last remaining Marathas territories without any problems.

Mughals: I spent a few turns repairing my damaged army and building up my newly conquored territories and its econmy. The Mughals were still allied to me but now wanting to trade tech for Mysore. Well, I wanted the entire Indian sub-continent for myself so I invaded and pushed north and then northeast into Mughal lands. After I conquored the Marathas I built the smaller of my two armies into a full stack and moved one army up the western coast and one army up the eastern side. It was a fairly easy conquest but there was some really good battles since the Mughals build some fast stacks if you give them time but my troops were the better quality. Basically it was attack a territory, resupply the troops with more men, and then move onto the next territory. Once all of India was mine I again worked on building up its economy. I left the Persians alone. They are no threat. I made sure to replace the Mughal and Marathas churches with my Protestant ones. It speeds up acceptance of my Dutch rule.

Note: Once you control all of India you will be making some serious money through taxes and mainly trade. If you are playing a faction and want to make serious money India is it! Take it and you can fund any war you want if you can control the shipping lanes.

Pirates: I now decided to take out the pirates. They werent a major headache for me this go round so I wasnt in a hurry to take them out but now their time had come. I sailed my two india armies to their two island territories and showed them what real trained soldiers can do. They didnt stand a chance against my men and cannons. Once they were dealt with I packed up my armies and sailed them to Europe.

North Africa: Now I needed to pick another fight and again I elected to leave the Americas and Europe to avoid wars and keep the trade money flowing in. I read North Africa was a good place to take since its easy to take and gives you a place to invade the Meditteranean from. At the time Savoy and Northern Italy looked intriguing to me so I needed to invade and gain a base to attack from. Morrocco was easy to take. I sailed my two Indian Armies from the Carribean. One I sent to my home territory to get ready to take Flanders and one I invaded Morrocco with. From Morrocco I just moved east to Tripoli. It was a land battle and the Barbary Corsairs are more of a pirate naval type faction. The main problem with them is getting them to accept your rule. Each territory rebelled once on me and I had to kill their rebel army that sprouted up. Tunis had a good size army but after a single fight I vanquished them. Of course there was a rebellion but I defeated that army too. I easily took Tripoli after that. Again I took time to build the new territories economies. I replaced their old Muslim churces with my protestant ones. This quelled the rebellions for good it seems.

Europe: Now I had to decide what to do next. I didnt want to take on Spain and France just yet nor did I want to take on Savoy like I thought I might want to. So after I got both my armies onto Dutch homeland I invaded Rhineland and Hanover. One big battle invasion decided their fate. One army into Rhineland and one army into Hanover. After a quick resupply of men I sent my army in Rhineland into Wurttemburg and captured it. Again took a couple turns to build up economy and resupply troops.

Spain: Okay, now I had to decide who and what to attack next. I considered Denmark but Sweden beat me to it and they had a full stack and a half stack at the capitol so i considered it not worth the trouble. Spain was the more obvious choice. I never fought against Spain before so wasnt sure about them. I know they had some good size army stacks in their homeland and they had one in Flanders and two more full stacks in Brittany. What they were doing in Brittany on French soil is beyond me but they were just sitting there watching ships go by. I saw them when I sailed my armies back to UP. I sent a spy to watch them. France was what I was really worried about. According to others posting here France can be bought off. I just wasnt sure if it would work. France has a large army with stacks everywhere. They also have a very large navy. If they failed to be bought off I was going to be in some deep doo-doo.

So I took one army and attacked Flanders. It was not a large Spanish army. 6-8 units at the time. Of course France declared war on me too. Just what worried me. But I managed to buy France off. 50,000 for a peace treaty with France. That India trade sure pays for some nice things! This now left me with only Spain to deal with. After losing Flanders Spain cant really get to me in Europe despite the fact they have two full stacks in Brittany still. They still hadnt moved! I quickly built up my Morrocco defense with a full stack there to keep Spain from crossing from Gibraltar. I now started taking Spanish colonies in the Americas. I made a 10 unit stack and invaded New Andalusia. It was an easy takeover. I then moved on to and into eastern South America with that army and captured that territory. During this time I sent a 4 unit army to take Hispanola and Cuba one after the other.


This is as far as I have gotten so far and its about 1754. Spanish colonies are weak it seems. One or two units defending their New Spain capitols in America so I plan on moving into Panama, Mexico, and Florida. I also am building a small army in Tunis of 8-10 units to take Sardinia and perhaps Sicily and Naples. Once I capture all of the Spanish colonies I think I'll make peace with Spain. I hear their homeland is hard to control and it is not part of the Campaign objective. Plus I need to get onto the French and I guess GB. I just need two more territories for a campaign win. French Guyana and New York. I think I can buy or trade with the French for French Guyanna. They have offered it enough times for the Rhineland so maybe I'll do a deal just to avoid a war. I'm not sure how I'll get New York. That will take some thought.

[Eduin]

United Provinces are more or less a more fun, swifter version of the Brits.

On VH/VH.

The key things are trade, trade and more trade - get Indamen to occupy trade spots in the trade theatres as soon as possible. Just get one to as many trade spts as you can and build them up later. Remember you start with a fleet in the East Indies. Use it.

Secondly, you need to learn. Faster learning triggers better units and getting ahead of the game pays dividends. Turn both Den Haag and Utrecht into University towns and get learning. Use 1 University for Philosophy and the other for Infantry.

This will occupy your first few turns. You then need to consider where to try to expand.

1. Americas. This is not a good place. The income is low, the expense high and the British will dominate with the French lapping up anything the Brits don't own. Spain dominate the southern half but this isn't very rich. Overall, you can more or less ignore the Americas.

2. India. This seems to be a trap set up by the designers. They've made it look like you want to go for Mysore but this will remove the key to early expansion in India. All three Indians are at war or quickly go to war with each other. Mysore as the weakest of the three is the ideal buffer to keep whoever you are attacking busy on two front. I discovered this by mistakenly attacking Maratha instead of Mysore and it quickly became clear this was the right way to play it. Pick either Maratha or Mughals and wipe them out, finally take Mysore when your chosen major has only a couple of territories left. Stop expanding when you just have your trading partner left, they won't attack. One thing with India, you need two Army stacks because they keep sending small forces when you are trying to replenish armies in town and with just one stack, it gets too frustrating.

3. Europe. Again there is an "obvious" action to take - try and capture Flanders. But once more, i doubt this is the best way to do the scenario. The best thing to do with Europe is to wait till the Swedes start attacking all their neighbours (which they do without fail - I guess the Great Northern War is built in to the Scenario). As they are busy with Russia and P-L, you can sneak up their backside to take Denmark, Norway and Sweden itself, very profitable privinces. Keep going and finish Sweden off in Finland and any Russian/P-L provinces they have captured, then give back any captured provinces to keep the Easterns sweet.

As you take any province with an existing College or University, use it to start researching the trees you aren't learning in the Netherlands. You don't need to steal or trade for any tech. With this plan, you have the entire technology trees by 1735 and most of the important ones by 1715 which is a massive advantage over the AI.

Don't worry about any Alliance other than Britian - which is easy to maintain. And don't, whatsoever, get drawn into a long lasting, wasteful land campaign in central Europe!

Regards,
Eduin

[andrewt]

1. Americas. This is not a good place. The income is low, the expense high and the British will dominate with the French lapping up anything the Brits don't own. Spain dominate the southern half but this isn't very rich. Overall, you can more or less ignore the Americas.

I think you're making the mistake of only looking at province income and not trade income. The Spanish possessions in the Americas are easily conquered and have high trade income. The only problem is that some of them don't have ports yet early in the game. You'd have to cut taxes to get them to grow those ports as fast as possible. On the flipside, you can conquer everything with a stack of just 3-4 units.

[katank]

I actually found it quite profitable to expand in both America and Europe while neglecting expansion in India. I could probably have been more aggressive in India. I was thinking about attacking the Mysore but they were wiped out virtually immediately.

As for Europe, just remember to keep it short and sweet. Rush your starting army to take Flanders and Paris immediately. This prevents an AI buildup there. At the same time, I captured New Andalusia from Curacao and French Guyana from Dutch Guyana. A quick suit of peace allows you to grab some tech and cash from both Spain and France.

At this time, a quick push for the windward islands also eliminated the pirates which removed several pesky pirate fleets in the trade theaters.

The next war saw Martinique, Alsace Lorraine and Madrid fall simultaneous which resulted in elimination of France. Another peace which forced Spain to pay out their entire treasury.

A few turns later, the Spanish offered to trade all their Old World territories except for their new capital Naples as well as Cuba and military access for Madrid. I agreed and immediately attacked Madrid with a nearby stack which resulted in another humiliating peace for the Spanish that robbed their treasury yet again.

I currently own virtually all of the trade spots and have a wall of German and Italian minors as protectorates. I can take out the Spanish at my leisure as they only possess Naples now.