Sweden

[Monk]

Sweden guides

Please review the ToC before posting new strategies.

[Zain]

I have yet to get the game but I would probably jump all over using Sweden. Any Sweden users? How is it?

[Braden]

The earlier version guides are pretty much still current. Look to them for a guide to get you started, the war with Norway, Russia & Polish-Lith is still set to occur in version 1.5 unless you get a full alliance treaty with any of them.

In my wifes current campaign, all three declared war at turn 22 in the same turn. Its not a major thing to deal with though the main drawback is Norway blockading your sea trade as before this you should have plenty of trade and income so make sure you spend extra coins on FLEET.

Prior to this she had taken a non-agressive approach building trade treaties and getting friendly with Great Britain, Austria and other large nations. This meant she had a large sink-hole of cash to see her through the Norway blockade and to rapidly build armies to keep Russia and Norway busy. Pole-Lith has not sent any armies as they're (as with other games with other nations) busy fighting Austria by this point.

Taking this route gives you a chance to really build your infastructure and tech so you don't have to worry about cash shortages during long wars.

[nameless]

I finished a campaign as Sweden on VH.

Generally speaking Russia, Poland, and Denmark are your main enemies.

Fortunately, Poland can be kept at bay so long as you maintain a decent garrison of militia and horseman in your city next to Courtland. Courtland I found was pretty good and never engaged me in any military affairs even with Poland.

Denmark, sooner or later you have to take them out so keeping a strong army nearby when they attack is a good idea. Taking norway and cophenagen secures your western frontier though Hannover could be a problem. However, Prussia may be able to hold them back so securing an alliance with them is advisable.

Russia is the top dog you'd have to deal with. I maintained a strong army in St. Petersburg and they destroyed every russian army coming at them. Now and then they'd accept peace when I destroy these armies. Eventually though you'll need to go on the offensive.

While Russia itself is huge, the only cities worth any penny is Moscow and Kiev. If Russia loses those two cities they pretty much can't do jack.

Taking Moscow will defintely cripple Russia and take a lot of the fight out of them but you'll be spending the next turns trying to maintain order and secure its borders from raiders because of its huge size. However, if you push through you can eventually capture Kiev and this takes Russia out of the fight and you can send a small army to take their remaining small provinces to the east.

[Zarky]

Taking the remaining provinces in eastern Russia is unwise unless you have obsession with dragoons or +6 to lower classes happiness from ministers since they are slowly developing regions with no way of fighting unrest expects waiting it out and removing taxes, my personal suggestion is that after you get Karelia, Archangelsk, Muscovy and Ukraine you get peace with them by offering them roughly 5000 and some tech for trade rights and peace, works every time and when they are that weak they won't backstab you so long you keep decent garrison, which is must in Moscow anyways.

Once properly developed Moscow can rather easily hold 2 schools in the later stages of the game where you have lots of clamour to reform, Archangelsk and Karelia are useful to capture since they have 3 fur traders put together (2 averages and 1 low yield if I don't remember wrong, ones in Finland and Sweden are also average).

My personal strategy which I find effective is to deal with Denmark ASAP, and yes, that means taking Iceland. I send some 4-6 line infantry there and then later use same forces to capture myself Pirate islands from American theater.

Once you own Denmark, Hannover will declare war on you but if you have trade agreements with its allies, they shouldn't be able to drag major powers into war with you, they are easily dealt with by keeping garrison of 4-6 line infantry (cavalry or artillery not essential) in southern Denmark.
My plan is to form "Baltic Ring" which means owning every single region that has connection to Baltic Sea, including victory condition region Berlin. Baltic Ring is important since creating it protects most of your core territories from unlikely but very real naval assaults. All you need to do is keep mediocre fleet between Norway and Denmark.

In 1.5 Prussia often loses East Prussia after some 10-15 turns if not earlier, you need to be ready to capitalize on that by taking out Courland right after Poland-Lithuania captures East Prussia and then move to East Prussia and claim it as your own, this also removes most resistance to foreign occupation which is good since the region is almost filthy rich after you destroy the entertainment building in there and build another industrial building instead.

You are safe to send Indiamen to trade theaters if you wish but I strongly suggest taking out Denmark before sending any out of your ports. You need to be more careful if Crimean Khanate is destroyed, which has happened in every single one of my games, but before you start massing a gigantic trade fleet, keep upgrading you fur traders for a less risky way to make more money and destroy pirates in American theater, then you can convert those 2 shipyards into ports and you have 2 regions with ports producing sugar and they are within one turns reach from Brazil.

This is long bit I've written and I'll continue this later if needed.

[Marshal Murat]

Opening Moves
Definitely move in on Denmark. Securing that strait is important for anything Sweden does, since all of your trade goes through those straits. For me, the first step was getting as many trading contracts as possible. In the start of the game, you have enormous reserves of fur to trade, which is only rivaled by a few posts in Russia or Canada. Use trade funds to bolster your army and move into the Lithuania area. Try to avoid allying with Prussia, Austria, Russia, or Poland (they don't really like you anyway). Poland will usually attack you first, and they're easy pickings. Use Indiamen to grab some sugar profits off South America

Middle Game
Usually it's best to get a trade agreement (and large army) with Russia. You get about 1K profits from them every turn for fur and general trade. They don't want to lose that income. In Poland, wipe out Poland ASAP. Use Protestant missionaries to subdue the Catholic populations of Poland, and large armies to keep the Prussians at arms distance. You could even ally with Prussia, but it's difficult to balance the need to take Brandenburg and the numbers of Prussian troops. Hold off until you successfully pacify Poland. Once you get Poland figured out, you can launch a multi-pronged assault from Sweden/Denmark/Poland and overwhelm Prussia, grab the "Baltic Ring" as previously mentioned.

Late Game
In my game France fell to Netherlands/Britain. Take some troops and grab "Quebec" and other territories to get a strong monopoly on fur trade, maintain good relations with Britain, Netherlands, and Spain. All three essentially control the seas. Now is time to take out Russia. Move into Moldavia, Belarus, and build up troops. Launch troop columns into Russia, take out Crimea ASAP. Remove their connection to the outside world quickly, cut off their trade. Next is Kiev. The large size of Russia prevents one from really taking all of Russia, just as long as you smash into Moscow at the end, you've essentially won, since your provinces are all captured and you have the requisite number of provinces.