This guide is for the 1700 AD start. Starting from 600 AD may be considerably easier since you may end up with a large army from Holy Rome and even more so if they refuse the flip. Also England and France may be weaker than in the 1700 AD start and thus would be steamrolled easily with the starting army.
Our historical goals are:
- Settle 7 great people in Berlin by 1900 AD
- Control England, France, Italy, Scandinavia and Russia in 1940 AD
- Be the first to discover 8 industrial and 8 global era technologies
In my opinion there is only one real difficulty but if not taken care of will certainly lose you the game - England. If you don't destroy them reasonably early, they will beat you to the 8 industrial era goal because their tech rate is insane. But it's not just a matter of simply going all in on them because your domestic situation is potentially quite problematic with Russia, Poland and France all right on your borders and looking for blood. Also my strategy of taking Amsterdam is almost guaranteed to get you declared on if they are still alive when the first congress happens and they ask for their capital back.
1) Research path that worked well for me was : Replaceable Parts, Hydraulics, Ballistics, Engine, Labour Unions, trading for all other early technologies with Sweden, Netherlands, Russia, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Colombia and Argentina.
2) City production:
- Frankfurt builds Barracks and then builds non-stop military units (build Levee, Assembly Plant and Coal Plant as soon as you can in between) until the English and French are destroyed.
- Hamburg builds Galleons and the three production buildings
- Berlin builds National Theatre, the three production buildings, National College and then military until France and England are dead. Regulated trade is great so give it every single tile it can possibly work.
- Konigsberg sucks in the beginning (later it can easily be your most populous core city), so I have it build three workers. It gets rolling once Poland is out of the game since it gets access to good production tiles.
- Conquered cities build the three production buildings, jails and military. Once England and France are gone I switch the core cities to building just wonders and infrastructure and conquered cities build military from then on.
3) General strategy:
- Espionage on England and France to know what they are researching
- Raze Kobenhavn right away to make more space for Hamburg
- As soon as you have all Arqebusiers promoted to Fusiliers take out Amsterdam (it's usually poorly defended). The Dutch will survive without it for a long time in my experience so keep that in mind. It's great for all its specialists and it gives more space for Hamburg and Frankfurt
- I join the first seven great people I get straight away even though there is plenty of time to do that goal (In my last game I got 14 in total before 1900 AD). Great generals count too and joining one early is great since Berlin will build many troops
- Next up is England, ideally you want Riflemen and Artillery. In the mean time you may find that Poland and Austria end up in a war and if that happens, Poland is easy to kill. I keep Warsaw and raze Wilno to give more space to Konigsberg
- You may find yourselves declared on by Russia (Catherine did it to me in almost every game) so keep some units in the east for that. Also a defensive pact with Austria or France might help
- You are likely to lose all your galleons in the invasion of England but Hamburg can build more
- When England is done, France is next
- You may get unlucky with the timing of the first congress and you may get declared on by Russia and France while many of your troops are in England. Even if that happens, Berlin and Frankfurt can build 5xp Riflemen each turn so you should be fine. Alternatively don't go for Amsterdam first but the Dutch have a good tech rate too so they may mess up your 8 industrial era goal
- After France is wiped (I would prefer to vassalize them but their foreign cities have too many units and so their military ratio is too high and they don't vassalize; or you can have the war drag and wait for them to collapse to core after you've taken all but one city and then vassalize them) I recommend a civic switch to Constitution, Central Planning, Tolerance, Nationalism and Egalitarianism. That will turn your already powerful industry into ridiculous mode. Also you are probably suffering -10 from outdated Conquest and Centralism by now
- At this point the game is basically won. I like to build the Palace of Nations and Westminster Palace to deal with congresses and overextension. Sweden is a pushover, Austria is easy too (take Italian cities before their core if you don't want Italy to spawn after they collapse) and with your technological superiority and insane production even Russia shouldn't be much of a challenge (just bring a few healers to deal with General Winter). Nobody can beat you in the tech race anymore, just make sure to keep tabs on America and research things like Refrigeration, Pneumatics, Refining etc. before they do
So there it is. Good luck to anyone who tackles Prussia
Our historical goals are:
- Settle 7 great people in Berlin by 1900 AD
- Control England, France, Italy, Scandinavia and Russia in 1940 AD
- Be the first to discover 8 industrial and 8 global era technologies
In my opinion there is only one real difficulty but if not taken care of will certainly lose you the game - England. If you don't destroy them reasonably early, they will beat you to the 8 industrial era goal because their tech rate is insane. But it's not just a matter of simply going all in on them because your domestic situation is potentially quite problematic with Russia, Poland and France all right on your borders and looking for blood. Also my strategy of taking Amsterdam is almost guaranteed to get you declared on if they are still alive when the first congress happens and they ask for their capital back.
1) Research path that worked well for me was : Replaceable Parts, Hydraulics, Ballistics, Engine, Labour Unions, trading for all other early technologies with Sweden, Netherlands, Russia, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Colombia and Argentina.
2) City production:
- Frankfurt builds Barracks and then builds non-stop military units (build Levee, Assembly Plant and Coal Plant as soon as you can in between) until the English and French are destroyed.
- Hamburg builds Galleons and the three production buildings
- Berlin builds National Theatre, the three production buildings, National College and then military until France and England are dead. Regulated trade is great so give it every single tile it can possibly work.
- Konigsberg sucks in the beginning (later it can easily be your most populous core city), so I have it build three workers. It gets rolling once Poland is out of the game since it gets access to good production tiles.
- Conquered cities build the three production buildings, jails and military. Once England and France are gone I switch the core cities to building just wonders and infrastructure and conquered cities build military from then on.
3) General strategy:
- Espionage on England and France to know what they are researching
- Raze Kobenhavn right away to make more space for Hamburg
- As soon as you have all Arqebusiers promoted to Fusiliers take out Amsterdam (it's usually poorly defended). The Dutch will survive without it for a long time in my experience so keep that in mind. It's great for all its specialists and it gives more space for Hamburg and Frankfurt
- I join the first seven great people I get straight away even though there is plenty of time to do that goal (In my last game I got 14 in total before 1900 AD). Great generals count too and joining one early is great since Berlin will build many troops
- Next up is England, ideally you want Riflemen and Artillery. In the mean time you may find that Poland and Austria end up in a war and if that happens, Poland is easy to kill. I keep Warsaw and raze Wilno to give more space to Konigsberg
- You may find yourselves declared on by Russia (Catherine did it to me in almost every game) so keep some units in the east for that. Also a defensive pact with Austria or France might help
- You are likely to lose all your galleons in the invasion of England but Hamburg can build more
- When England is done, France is next
- You may get unlucky with the timing of the first congress and you may get declared on by Russia and France while many of your troops are in England. Even if that happens, Berlin and Frankfurt can build 5xp Riflemen each turn so you should be fine. Alternatively don't go for Amsterdam first but the Dutch have a good tech rate too so they may mess up your 8 industrial era goal
- After France is wiped (I would prefer to vassalize them but their foreign cities have too many units and so their military ratio is too high and they don't vassalize; or you can have the war drag and wait for them to collapse to core after you've taken all but one city and then vassalize them) I recommend a civic switch to Constitution, Central Planning, Tolerance, Nationalism and Egalitarianism. That will turn your already powerful industry into ridiculous mode. Also you are probably suffering -10 from outdated Conquest and Centralism by now
- At this point the game is basically won. I like to build the Palace of Nations and Westminster Palace to deal with congresses and overextension. Sweden is a pushover, Austria is easy too (take Italian cities before their core if you don't want Italy to spawn after they collapse) and with your technological superiority and insane production even Russia shouldn't be much of a challenge (just bring a few healers to deal with General Winter). Nobody can beat you in the tech race anymore, just make sure to keep tabs on America and research things like Refrigeration, Pneumatics, Refining etc. before they do
So there it is. Good luck to anyone who tackles Prussia
