Germany 1700AD strategy hints

[Dennis Laursen]

I've tried several games like Germany on the 1700AD map, and I just can't figure out how to win.
There are three UHV:

• Settle 7 great people in Berlin in 1900 AD
• Control Italy, Fance, England, Scandinavia and Russia in 1940 AD
• Be the first to discover 8 Industrial era techs and 8 Global era techs

The first one is pretty easy, and the second one should be straightforward too. But the third one is causing me trouble. Almost no matter what I do, I can only get 2-3 industrial era techs at most. It seems that England, France, USA and partly Holland are sprinting away.
Even when I run 100% science, and use all my great persons to invent techs, I don't reach the 8 industrial era techs. Even if I prioritize espionage, and steal techs from the Netherlands and England, it's hard for me to get more than 2-3 industrial era techs as the first one.
And I only play Monarch.

So does anyone have any good suggestions on what strategy I should use to be the first to invent 8 industrial era techs? Instead of waiting for Poland to declare war on me, should I put all my effort into defeating England and France early in the game?

 

[Dracosolon]

Where do you go for your oil? Closest one is near/in Ottomans territory and they're a pain to fight. Should you settle somewhere in Africa?

 

[Derdan]

Your opening move should be to conquer England. They will run away with tech otherwise. Plus you'll pick up Oxford University, massively boosting your own research.

 

[AOS9001]

Where do you go for your oil? Closest one is near/in Ottomans territory and they're a pain to fight. Should you settle somewhere in Africa?

There is oil in Cameroon, in the 600 scenario it should go unclaimed for a while, in 1700 you may need to contend with the Portuguese or the Dutch.

 

[hnrysml]

And I only play Monarch.

There is still a lot of balancing left to be done in general at the moment if you're playing on the 1.18 development version, so this may not address the issue you're having, but in general my understanding is that Leoreth always balances the UHVs based on the Regent difficulty

 

[Dennis Laursen]

Thanks for your replies guys.
I've played another game on Monarch. I didn't win this time either, but I got much further by conquering England first. Then I conquered France because they declared war on me around 1800. And of course I took advantage of that opportunity to take the French cities.
In both cases, England and France collapsed respectively. This gave me a better chance to keep up with the tech race.

However, I still have the following challenges that I want to look at in my next game:
- Finding the right balance between science and espionage. I have to both invent my own technologies, but also "steal" the ones I'm behind on, where it's obvious to let Holland live and steal from there.
- Around 1850 I tried to conquer Austria and Italy, but Austria had become quite strong in the meantime. At the same time, England demanded independence, and that was too many challenges to handle, so I'm trying a new game where I focus even more on armament, i.e. training units rather than building buildings.
- I also think that I am not aggressive enough. The steady gold income from conquering cities gives me the opportunity to run 100 % science for a longer time, in spite of negative income.