Advice for United Provinces

[JeromeBaker]

I plan on going with United Provinces after I finish up my latest campaign with GB. Anyone have any suggestions on the best way to start out with them? (Best use of starting armed forces, key allies to gain, key enemies to make and go after, best provinces to hit first due to either money or strategic importance, stuff like that)

Thnx
JB

[Liberator]

I first concentrated on europe, took the Rhineland (my home region!) and Hannover, later also Württenberg because they offended me....these german states are easy to pick

You may be at war with britain (they are allies of hannover). You should make peace with them and get a trade agreementwith them, also with Prussia or Sweden.

Later on, concentrate your efforts on India, maybe you can also grap the pirate Islands in the caribbean later, easy to blitz them

But how you should play also depends on your victory conditions - I played short campaign and traded 3 Indian Provinces to the Brits for New York and blitzed french guyana, flanders and new andalusia in the last round

[A Very Super Market]

OR read the whole sub-forum on guides for the playable nations.

[Tarquinius]

Go to war with Spain as soon as possible and take some of the closest spanish and french colonies(new andalusia, windward islands, french guyana etc.) Also make sure you take Flanders, after that I made peace with the both of them because they had big threatning armies. But if you succeed to take some of these very wealthy colonies, the rest of the game is relatively easy sailing.

Good luck;)

[Alsn]

I'd recommend if you are going to go after spain to simply annihilate france' and spain's European possessions. This will eliminate the factions completely and they will instead be replaced by american factions who will not be at war with you. Not to mention that france and spain are both filthy rich.

When I played the UP on VH/VH I made all the central european 1 province states my protectorates by gifting them fine china and then paying them 1-2000 gold for becoming my protectorate effectively blocking any advance of central/eastern european factions should they want to declare on me(eventually austria declared on one of my protectorates but they had no way of passing venice...).

[JeromeBaker]

OR read the whole sub-forum on guides for the playable nations.

Didnt see that when I made the post.

[Roy1991]

Naval supremacy is everything. I'm making about 160K each turn right now, about half from trade, half from taxes.

I started conquering the two Pirate islands in the Carribbean, and from there expanded further in America. Didn't conquer anything in Europe until 1740 or so, I prefer to get a steady flow of cash coming my way before going to war with Spain and France.
Also, if you plan on expanding in America in order to get your economy running, do everything you can to keep your alliance with GB - the Cherokee and Hurons are challenging enough to fight, even without the English armies in the area coming after you. And of course GB is a very good trade partner.

[Kulgan]

How do you get 160K? My last game I had an income of about 30K. 5K taxes and 25K trade.

There must be something I'm missing here :)

[Devastatin Dave]

Go to war with Spain, Great Britain is a great ally to have (I'm in turn 59 and I'm still allied with them and Austria) and build up your techs with all your gentlmen in the colleges.

[andrewt]

I'd suggest not going to war with Spain and France at the same time. I just declared war on New Spain around turn 10, got into a war with Spain and started conquering all their territories. The only ones left for Spain now are New Mexico and that region north of Genoa (is that Milan?). I'm still at war with them at turn 60+. Their America regions are much easier to conquer than the pirate ones.

Also, trade with both Westphalia and Hannover is pretty good so I never bothered expanding that way.

Once you conquer Flanders, consider demolishing a town to make a college. It's a hit in income but I didn't have any town grow until turn 25-30ish and having only 1 college for the first 25-30 turns got me behind other factions.

[IRONxMortlock]

Be prepared for them to be buggy as hell and give you lots of CTDs later in the campaign (if it's not fixed in a future patch).

[butterfingers158]

Be prepared for them to be buggy as hell and give you lots of CTDs later in the campaign (if it's not fixed in a future patch).

really? I'm at 1774 with them and i've had no problems.

What I did was invade Flanders first turn, then took France. After that I got peace with both France and Spain and turtled for awhile.

Currently I own all of India, in Europe from France to Bavaria, and in America I own the required regions plus the pirate islands.

I make 120k or so a turn, currently have over 4 million in the treasury.

[Tarquinius]

Just a question, am I the only one who has severe moral problems with conquering France, Spain or England as the UP? It seems to me that once the 3 of these guys home provinces are conquered(which is quite easy in itself) there is absolutely no competition left in the game what so ever. I therefor have decided never to conquer any of these 3 provinces. I do realise the Spanish and British don't get destroyed once you conquer their capital, but France does get destroyed, which really ruins the whole naval part of the game to me.

[A Very Super Market]

Well, don't conquer them and make a fort near your border. Then bully the German states. They can't do #### against you, except maybe bring Austria into your war.

[Roy1991]

How do you get 160K? My last game I had an income of about 30K. 5K taxes and 25K trade.

There must be something I'm missing here :)

(I control all the white regions)

The key is building as much trading ports as possible - just keep 2 or 3 Naval Hospitals / Steam Drydocks in Europe and 1 in America, and build trading ports in every other port city. Then get your ships on as much as possible trading spots in the trade theatres and keep the waters clear of enemy ships.
Also keep upgrading the plantations in America - no use in having a lot of trade routes if you don't have any goods!

[Major Robert Dump]

For your war with Spain start it by proxy with a war on new spain, that gets you war with spain, and it keeps the peace with france. If you must fight france, make sure and take advantage of britains nearby navies to bring them into naval fights and use them for meatshields.

I don't much care for owning the Paris region because it has so many borders and is so quick to rebel, so don't bother taking paris unless you have the extra money to garrison every little settlement and port, or unless you have an ally you can trade it to for tech and money. French Guyuna is also a good income source that is safe from land invasion and requirs only a small garrison.

I gave Paris to the Russia Empire and hilarity is western europe has kept me laughing since. There are rebels everywhere, and every time spain tries to pass through to retake flanders they either get ganked by the Russians or by french rebels

Regardless of all this, it is highly important to get stacks of ships to the trade arenas and claim trade nodes ASAP. In most cases, Pirates will attack the lanes, not the hodes, and you can calim a spot with a non-trade ship, so used your battered and bruised brigs to hold spots unitl you can get an india man there

also, in northwest east indies there is a short stack of pirates hiding in the shadows. if they see you they will come for you, so ignore the NE altogether ore take the fight to them, but they do have a lot of guns on those tiny little ships, I believe 5 with 148 firepower and a galleon as admiral

[Major Robert Dump]

on a side not, along with the pirates, i have noticed countries will attack the lane, not the resource node, even if it would be a clear, easy victory for the attacker. I hope they fix this as theres no reason the AI could not just do both

[NimitsTexan]

I think the difference is, the AI gets immediate cash from raiding the sea lanes, but, aside from prize money, nothing from the Trade node until/unless it can move a trade ship there.

[vicsrealms]

The farthest I have gone with UP and UK was to take out those bloody pirates first and then send that army over to India and conquer it. By the time I was done with the Dutch I was earning almost 25k a turn and I was pushing into Persia, Russia, and finishing off the quest for the colonies was a breeze.

[vicsrealms]

Oops, got the UK and the Dutch mixed up. lol. The quest for the colonies was only for the UK. Still, tearing through India has proved very helpful. I'm doing it with the French now as well. Still, it will be interesting to see how far I can go without the game crashing. lol

[Shahed]

(I control all the white regions)

That is freakin excellent man. You gotta give some more tips on how to acheive that please. how do you get the price of ivory and spices so high ? Do you have max fleets (14-20 ships) on each trade spot ?

[Dayve]

Why would you want advice? They may look like a challenge with such a tiny starting area, but your Indian province has gem mines, your American province has a gold and a gem mine, i think, and your American island, although tiny, has a sugar plantation, plus you have 3 trade ships in one of the trade theatres.

They're easy, even on VH.

[andrewt]

The prices of trade goods goes up with time and down with supply.

[antisocialmunky]

I wish that the game had some strategic resources(and strategic buildings like gun smiths etc) so you couldn't just spam army everywhere because of your trade routes. The game would actually be challenging if there was an upper bound to your army.

[Dayve]

I wish that the game had some strategic resources(and strategic buildings like gun smiths etc) so you couldn't just spam army everywhere because of your trade routes. The game would actually be challenging if there was an upper bound to your army.

Roll on Empire Barbarorum eh?

[Relic]

In my first turn as the United Provinces, I managed to make The German States and Genoa into Protectorates, and Ally myself with Venice and a few others.
Develop your mines in SA and India for income, and ally yourself with neighbours you don't plan to conquer. Set up additional trade routes and all over just focus on money for the first few turns. Take flanders by force if you can't buy it reasonably from Spain.

[jsberry]

really? I'm at 1774 with them and i've had no problems.

What I did was invade Flanders first turn, then took France. After that I got peace with both France and Spain and turtled for awhile.

Currently I own all of India, in Europe from France to Bavaria, and in America I own the required regions plus the pirate islands.

I make 120k or so a turn, currently have over 4 million in the treasury.

There's something horribly wrong with a game that makes it possible to, as UP, "take Flanders on the first turn" and "then take France" like it is nothing. Taking Flanders should take 50 years, and taking France should be impossible.

[Devastatin Dave]

Be prepared for them to be buggy as hell and give you lots of CTDs later in the campaign (if it's not fixed in a future patch).

I'm at that point now. I have troops stuck in the Bahama's (I'm sure they don't mind!!!) because my game takes a dump if I try to load them at the port. I crash here and there, radomly to a point where this is almost unplayable.

[Devastatin Dave]

Just a question, am I the only one who has severe moral problems with conquering France, Spain or England as the UP? It seems to me that once the 3 of these guys home provinces are conquered(which is quite easy in itself) there is absolutely no competition left in the game what so ever. I therefor have decided never to conquer any of these 3 provinces. I do realise the Spanish and British don't get destroyed once you conquer their capital, but France does get destroyed, which really ruins the whole naval part of the game to me.

Burn their colleges. Keep the populace dumb and controlled.