Turtle Nation

[Alexander XXI]

Which nation would you say is the best to play as if you want a slow relatively peaceful campaign, by this I mean not being attacked by everyone and having a reasonably good starting position, to enable you to keep out of trouble for a bit.

[Xipe Totec]

I'd recommend the Plains Nations or the Inuit.

[Fisherking]

With the current state of things there is no such place!

If you have a mod you might try Bavaria.

The place where you are least likely to have more than you can chew on is India, try the MC.

[Peasant Phill]

With the 'Black knight'-AI that's practically impossible. If you must try an island nation.

[Prussian to the Iron]

Marathas most likely. after you take the portuguese town, you have no one to fight except the mughals; no one else will attack you.

[Xipe Totec]

Marathas most likely. after you take the portuguese town, you have no one to fight except the mughals; no one else will attack you.

Marathas equals all-out war from the start. You even begin at war already unlike all the other vanilla factions. War with Mysore is also unavoidable. Even after I conquered Goa, Mysore and the Mughals I was attacked by Persia to the North who wouldn't stop for anything. And you just have to take over Ceylon. And the pirates islands. I ended up conquering America, Britain and France too.

Seriously I would suggest playing GB and trying to offload the albatross that is Rupert's Land onto some other mug. UP are quite gullible, being friendly and protestant. A nice island in the caribbean is always a haven of peace and prosperity. Oh, apart from the pirates of course ... and you'll have to leave the thirteen colonies to their fate of becoming the least popular nation on Earth.

[Psycotic Empire]

Turtling and peace is not the way to victory! You should not be making peace unless it serves your motives in defeating the enemy. So suck it up and DON'T TURTLE! No nation ever became great just by turtling, they took great risk and confounded there enemies with there superior tactics. As for a nation that is best for your..... plan, id suggest britian or MC. Heck, if you ally with Westaphila and Hannover, you could play as the dutch and be safe.

But COME ON! Dont do that. You should take on Prussia, the ottomon empire, or Russia. Combat and war is the best reason for playing total war!

[Zenicetus]

Maratha, definitely. Don't make any alliances, and don't take Goa yourself. In my last game, Mysore took Goa, and then I was able to take it from Mysore (and wipe them off the map) without angering the Portuguese. If that doesn't happen, Portugal will eventually get destroyed and lose the province anyway. Leave Ceylon alone until you move out of India. This keeps you in good relations with all of Europe, so you can maximize trade routes.

It takes time to defeat the Mughals, but they're a pushover and aren't allied with anyone. After you unite India, you can decide if you want to expand to the northwest through Persia and take on the Ottomans, or go adventuring in the Caribbean. The Caribbean is the obvious choice (IMO), since there will still be some easy pickings after you unite India. Taking Ceylon and the UP's Caribbean territory gives you a good base of operations in the south of that region. I kept up a low-grade war against Persia without taking all their provinces, as a buffer against the Ottomans. You can probably stay friendly (and trading) with the Ottomans for a long time, as long as you don't knock out Persia and share a common border.

Maratha is so easy as a turtle faction, that it's boring. I wouldn't play them again, but it was a good way to experiment with the tech trees and trading, learning the game without having the whole world at war with me.

P.S. I realize that starting at war with the Mughals, and the need to constantly keep taking their territory isn't exactly the definition of "turtling", but it's the closest you can get with this game. And you can do some true turtling after the Mughals are gone.

[Xipe Totec]

Combat and war is the best reason for playing total war!

I think it is more fun to kick ass in a war of revenge when the b***ards start on you, than it is to go round picking off the poor weaklings methodically and purely for power and profit. There is never a shortage of 'ing minors declaring war on you anyhow.

Whichever faction you choose, in the end you can only turtle if you have already conquered a sizeable area. It's all about advancing technology in the end. You can only do that if you can build plenty of universities. You can only do that if you conquer some territory. Long term your best bet is to avoid Eastern Europe. Any faction here will get no peace until all others have gone. The Western Powers GB, France and Spain can stay out of continental European politics to some extent and build empires in America or India. But you don't get anything in this 'world' without fighting for it.

[Yun Dog]

NOT PRUSSIA

Any nation that doesnt share alot of borders

UK is good cause you can turtle on your island and they are all powerful

I rekon Sweden might be alright but havent tried them

Yeh the Marathas (Indian nation) are good you have an early fight on your hands against the Mughals and Misore but once youve got India, turtles away.

[Servius]

I say GB. Focus on trade initially. Use early profits to build a strong navy. Use said navy to take and protect trade nodes. This job is made much easier by sending a relatively small land force to take the two Pirate islands in the Carribean ASAP. With good trade bring a strong navy which can bring in massive amounts of money. You'll almost certainly be at war with France and Spain. It's usually not something you can help as the AI will declare war on you eventually. So just be ready for it. Destroy their navies and use Sloops to blockade their ports. Once the ports are blockaded, they can't build any more ships, which means as far as GB is concerned, both France and Spain no longer exist. Take the Carribean islands from Spain, especially Cuba which generates a TON of trade income. Avoid land wars as much as possible. With an economy based on trade, most of your land consisting of islands, and a powerful navy, you can turtle to your heart's content.

If/when other nations declare war on you, just destroy their navies and blockade their ports with Sloops.

[Daveybaby]

Another vote here for marathas. They only people you have to worry about are the Mughals and Mysore. As has been said by others, let someone else (i.e. Mysore) take Goa, then take it from them. You can quite easily set up trade agreements with every other major faction, and any minor ones you can get trade routes to, and before too long you will be on friendly or very friendly terms with all of them.

Once you eliminate Mysore and the Mughals you have the whole of the indian region to yourself (excluding ceylon, which you will eventually be able to buy from the dutch for cold, hard cash and maybe another region or two if you dont feel like fighting them for it), the only people you share a land border with will be the Persians who for some reason never seem to DoW on me, so you can sit back and turtle to your hearts content.

In fact, 'turtle' probably isnt the correct term, because that implies some kind of defensive capability. You can in fact completely disband your military at this point and put all of you cash into development (aside from some anti-pirate escorts for your trade ships).

Of course, as soon as you decide to expand beyond the indian region, you will start to get DoWs left right and centre as usual.

[Dead Guy]

I'd go with GB and sell off Rupert's as suggested previously. After that the only war you'll be in is that of the seas, if you choose to.

Sweden is probably not such a great idea although they have a lot of shores. You border three countries who don't like you at all and are all allied, Russia, Poland and Denmark (iirc). On top of that you have the suicidal Courland. Adding to the discomfort is the fact that your fronts are a looong way from each other, forcing you to have at least two able armies.

[Fisherking]

Actually, Poland is no worse than the Marathas. Only Prussia and Austria want a piece of you. Russia is your ally and trade partner. You have two protectorates at start, a decent army and a lot of potential.

The AI Poland is usually one of the worst offenders in silly DoWs, so with that out of the way it my be about as close to a turtle position as anything going.

The Turks are no real threat if they decide on war, but you may get a trade agreement out of them and a quite border.

[Skott]

Russia is another good choice. Its not hard to make peace with Turkey at the start or keep out of a war with Sweden. This mainly leaves you to watch Crimean Khanate, which you can defeat easily at start, and Dagestan and Georgia which is not hard to deal with either. Russia allows you to slowly build up and turtle all you want even with v1.3 patch I have found. Russia's economy isnt high though and you do need to build up the farms, factories, and its cities but this also fits in with turtling pretty well. Then once you are ready you only have two directions to attack basically. West and/or South. Just make peace with Turkey and stay friendly to them and all you have to do is move west. Turkey isnt a powerhouse in AI hands so if you do get into a war with them just take them one region at a time. Rarely have I seen AI Turkey invade Russia and then it'll only be a small raiding party through Moldavia.

Russia doesnt allow for much naval fighting early on though because you need to take St.Petersburg and the port near it before you can get access to the Baltic and ships. You can turtle up your economy and land forces however for a while before going at Sweden and St. Petersburg.

[Prussian to the Iron]

i find it much harder to make peace with sweden as russia; they attack me, and i cant get peace. so then i pretty much make them my .

[PseRamesses]

I´d go for UP. Although spread out and seemingly small she is a economical powerhouse. In my latest game I was pulling in 45-50k/ turn before 1720. France, Spain or both will attack sooner or later and for this you´ll need troops in 2 places. Take Windward Isl. and F.Guyana from France. Flanders and New Andalusia from Spain. UP has only one home port so research larger port potentials and naval tech is a must.
In the long run India is a sweet target and I usually take out Mysore first and build up there for a while. Portugal is usually removed by the MC.

[thurjack_mahr]

I'd like to buck the rest of the thread on this one.

If you want to play a defensive game... try Prussia.

My current Prussian campaign, I decided to do something differant... and not declare war. I was going to see what happened when I played as the Prussians and only fought defensive wars. Whenever a nation would declare war on me, I would raise an army and take thier lands until they no longer existed. Between wars would be periods of peace lasting up to ten, fifteen years during which time I would dissolve most of my forces other then garrisons and a standing army or two, and during those peace periods my treasury would do very well.

As a result of this VERY unconventional approach, my expansion has been defined by those whom have attacked me. The year is about 1747 (playing prestige) and I have taken all of Denmark, Hanover, and Sweden. My economy is very healthy, and I have over fifty years to take out Courtland and Poland and move into France for the win (although the Maratha is going to be tough to out-prestige)

Give it a try - Prussia, and only fight the nations who declare war on you.