Faction specific tips: part 1

Great Britain
as great britain, your strength lies in the navy, without it, you will have very
lttle income and next to no trade, therefore, i recommend you have a larger the
n normal navy, and prioritize tech research on naval.
Great britain also starts of in a very good position in europe, nearly no AI wil
l land on your english shores.
Also, great britain is one of only 2 playable faction that starts as a consituti
on, the othe being poland-lithuania.
Great britain has an overpowered army, their line infantry is way better then an
y other faction. hence winning land battles should be easy. (all colonial line i
nfantry have same stats no matter the faction)
recommended play style: navy orientated, aswell as focusing on the americas and
india (pick which one, india can be very lucrative, you can have so much money o
nce you own all of it you won't know what to do with it. it is however harder, t
he maratha are there, and they are expensionists. in otherwords, they will relen
tlessly attack you.) focusing on europe will be a much more costly affair, much
harder and with not nearly as much reward. If focusing on america, conquer the r
egions france start with in america, and conquer the iroqouis and cherokee, then
move onto conquer the carrabean, eventually, you will own a lot of money fairly
quickly without much problem. eventually, move into conquering spain's possesio
ns
France
France is a hard faction to start with, but get much easier let on. when you sta
rt, within the first 5 turns, nearly half if not more of the world will be at wa
r with you, your armies will be devided and you will be conquere. therefore, a g
ood trick is to ally yourself with as many neighbouring factions, especially in
europe, so you can deal with the americas.
here is a list of nation worth allying yourself with (if possible):
-Wurttemberg (this will in most cases stop bavaria from attacking), as well as t
hemselfs.
-Westphalia, same as above, if you enter a war with UP, they will usually help.
-Hanover, they may be far away, but they are an expansionist minor faction and c
an be a reall pain in the ****
-Savoy/piedmont, same as above, they will attack you early on if left unchecked.
and if you get caught by suprise you may even loose your capital!
-Huron-wyandot. this won't be a long lasting alliance, they will usually backsta
b you, but still, when you are allied with them, you will be fighting the iroquo
is. then possibly the english
-prussia, they are expantionist with a strong army. Austria will usually declare
war on you after the death of Louis XIV, causing a war of succession. having pr
ussia as an ally will help, they will keep the main part of austria's forces occ
upied.
TIPs:
- choose which theater to focus on, if europe, you will most likely lose most am
erican possessions. in this case, i recommend conquer all, or as much as possibl
e, of italy, this will give you a lunching pad against austria if need be. as we
ll as a lucrative trade post.
-if you focusing on america, there is two tactics i recommend, invading the thir

teen colonies, and take over philadephia and boston, this will allow you to recr
uit a fair bit of troops. the thirteen colonies are easy to conquer too. OR you
can try you luck with quebec. in which case you prioriy will be to take out the
iroquois, then move onto the huron-wyandot or go towards GB and or the thirteen
colonies.
- you can also focus on india, but this is a very costly affair, you will not ha
ve the privilage of having a good standing navy like the british will. and there
fore, you will be mostly fighting on very little money using Sepoys.
- when starting, try and be peaceful for as long as possible, focusing on buildi
ng economy, because eventually, the S**T will his the fan, and you will be gaini
ng maybe 200 quids a turn, since you will be fighting on all fronts, in america,
in europe, on the sea, etc.. etc..
- try and use you allies to best advantage, spain will usually follow you wherev
er you go, they also have a good navy. hence there can fight with britain, leavi
ng your navy mostly untouched.
Spain
with spain, your start with a horrible king, hence, try and remove him asap. (ma
ke higher classes revolt in spain). this will help a fair bit.
with spain, i recommend moving quickly. you start off sligtly better then most o
thers. hence. try and conquer as many provinces as possible within the first 10
ish turns.
then. again, choose what theater to pick from. europe or america.
if europe, try and consolidate you possesion in belgium and italy. use them to t
ake over UP if possible, savoy, genoa,venice and papal state/italian states. OR,
you can backstab france, (you will be hated for it) then revert to first option
. eventually france will block you, so backstabbing them is nearly a must.
If america, defeat the peublo that conquer the pirates and carrabean, after that
, invade by sea the 13 colonies.
Prussia/Poland lithuania
with each of them, be as swift as possible, dedicate nearly all your resources o
n war.
i grouped them together since they have very similar goals. conquer each other.
the first thing you want to do, is get austria on your side. this won't last, bu
t it will save you from fighting on two fronts, for hopefully long enough to dea
l with the polish / prussians
when done and if you still allied with austria build up your economy, and pick w
hich where to go, invade russia, invade central europe, or invade the ottomans.
if not, they invade austria.
PS: another good way to avoid open war with austria is giving them a tribute for
20 turns, if you give them a 1000 tribute for 20 turns, they usually won't atta
ck for that period. and yes,1000 may be a lot of money, but is it a lot less the
n open war with them!
^ this tip also applies to any other faction. ^
NOTE: Prussia is one of the hardest factions to play as in VH/VH (that is very h

ard/very hard) since they only start with 2 regions, and no matter who they decl
are war on, they all have allies.
Austria
With austria, you have two choices. peace then war, or war then peace.
if you pick the first, then, you want to boost your economy as much as possible,
lower taxes, build, research, have as small standing army as possible. then, wh
en you are confident. attack, i recommend conquer the ottoman lands, all the way
to egypt, this will give you a big income boost. plus the ottomans start with a
weak and outdated (or oldfashioned) and somewhat useless army/navy.
if you pick the second one, who in my opinion isn't as good, again, invade the o
ttomans. at least to instanbul.
Sweden
as sweden, you priority is russia, again, be as swit as possible, conquering nor
way is easy, and it has a fairly big income too.
personnally, i find sweden very straight forward, you can easily balance between
attacking and economy, without dedicated too much on one or the other.
Russia
as russia, your main opponents will be the ottomans and sweden.
but either way, the first thing you have to do, is secure yourself some ports in
the baltic and black see, conquer the Crimean Khanate, you start with an army t
here, it is large enough to conquer them in the hand of a capable general.
then, conquer Iasi, i recommend you don't go any further until the swedish threa
t is dealth with.
at the seame time, try and conquer Livonia & estonia, and Ingria. then try and c
onquer finland.
after which, bild forts in northern finland, to stop the swedish from advancing
to much. and then focus on you economy, Russia can produce a LOT of money. you j
ust need to build things up. Once you done with that. Slowly move into sweden, y
ou will need more then one full stacked army. in all my campaigns as russia, swe
den can usually muster up anywhere from 2 up to 6-7 full stacked armies.
try ally yourself with Dagastan, georgia.
Faction specific tips - Part 2
United Provinces
again, this is a hard faction, your priority is to conquer central europe, and i
f possible france.
Uses your fleet in the indies as extra income, and if possible move them to the
Cote D'Ivoir, (ivory coast) but be careful at those pirates!
also, try and conquer the french guyana, it is easy and just 4 colonial militia
will do the trick.
keep ceylon how it is, however, move the fleet that spawns right next to it to y
our merchant fleet, to bolster up it's numbers.
then. conquer Flander ASAP. and in the mean time, try ally yourself with prussia
and or denmark.

then, further yourself into westphalia, hanover, bavaria, wurttenberg and alsace
.
after that, it's smooth sailing.
Ottomans
the ottoman army you start with, is for all intense and purposes useless, it is
weak, with low morale, and mainly constituted on armed peasentry. or a mob.
Your first priority, would be to ally youself with austria and Georgia, especial
ly the latter, at least for the moment being. and spend as much time as possible
building up your resourced.
disband your navy too, it is mostly galleys and you will be able to do diddly sq
uat with that. in my personnal opinion, they only good for soaking up cannon fir
e. and they not even that good at that either! they are however, very good at dy
ing and soaking up your money.
it will take time to build up your economy, the advantage, you start with a lot
of regions.
TIP: convert the craft shop in egypt to a school, this will help, and change the
church/religious building in mesopotamia to a school too.
TIP: recruit bashi-bazouks. these are the ottoman quivalent of pikemen. but slig
htly better. they won't stand up to much fire power, but they good in melee! the
y also cheap to recruit.
Maratha
Personnally, i find maratha the easiest factions to play as (tied with great bri
tain). they have a huge income, and a good army. plus. they majoy enemy, the mug
hal empire, is very weak in miltary. it takes no time to conquer all of india, t
han, you will have a ridiculous amount of money.
no real tips on that, it's easy enough. it is however fun. =) especially if you'
re into total ownage.