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Playing as France, which I do most of the time, the *easiest* - and surprisingly effective - technique I've found for weakening Spain is to overrun Aragon in about the 1460's, and force them to give up Rousillion (hey, it's a CB province), Gerona, and Catalonia.
Then, release the last two as Catalunya, but keep them allied to you. This makes it impossible (unless you're incompetent or unprepared for TWO wars) for them to get their hands on Barcelona, and that seems to cut into their economy and manpower something fierce.
And on top of that, since you don't actually have to fight Castile/Spain to pull it off, it doesn't damage your relationship with them.
Then, release the last two as Catalunya, but keep them allied to you. This makes it impossible (unless you're incompetent or unprepared for TWO wars) for them to get their hands on Barcelona, and that seems to cut into their economy and manpower something fierce.
And on top of that, since you don't actually have to fight Castile/Spain to pull it off, it doesn't damage your relationship with them.
Just so i'm not forgotten, I was Poland in that game. Shipping cav to the Austrian Netherlands, in a 1500ish time frame (Polish navy isnt that large even with continual building) is time consuming. Unfortunately, I think my contribution to the war effort would have been small at best. I had to agree with Spain's position in that war, you just don't want France with its manpower mixed with gold, just not a good thing. From Krakow to Paris! 
A better tactic for the French player would be to contain Spain (which is fairly easy) and throw all of your military might into taking the Austrian lowlands and Italy. Once you do that, you can write your own ticket in Europe.
BTW, shame on the Ottoman player. By 1510 he should have had a massive empire by then and mostly converted to boot. He could have had a field day in the balkans while Poland and Austria was fighting France. *shakes his head*
Containing Spain really depends on how skilled the Spanish player is. I have seen the Spanish whip all over France and I have been in the Spanish chair while it has happened as well. The usual thing - the French player comes in cocky with little annoying 25k mixed forces while I come up and slap them with 50k cavalry.
good strategy but the main point is to just attack present day mexico and cripple spain from there
This is a fairly old post. And a game that I was apart of as I was Austria.
I just want to make one analyse. From what Prinz Eugen is saying, many players perfer to go into a country and siege forts down. What surprises me is that not more of them create army hunting stacks of cavalry and go after the opponent's armies. This is a tactic we always use in our MP games. We don't bother sieging forts down, we go after the armies and hunt them down. Once you destroyed the bulk of their armies, you can go in and cover forts and begin sieges. Usually at this point, a peace can be formed since you already know who has the upper hand.
Anyways, something that took my intrest when I read this thread. I just wish more players would siege forts down in games I play in. Make my life alot easier.
Duma
I just want to make one analyse. From what Prinz Eugen is saying, many players perfer to go into a country and siege forts down. What surprises me is that not more of them create army hunting stacks of cavalry and go after the opponent's armies. This is a tactic we always use in our MP games. We don't bother sieging forts down, we go after the armies and hunt them down. Once you destroyed the bulk of their armies, you can go in and cover forts and begin sieges. Usually at this point, a peace can be formed since you already know who has the upper hand.
Anyways, something that took my intrest when I read this thread. I just wish more players would siege forts down in games I play in. Make my life alot easier.
Duma
Originally posted by Eradius
This is a fairly old post. And a game that I was apart of as I was Austria.
I just want to make one analyse. From what Prinz Eugen is saying, many players perfer to go into a country and siege forts down. What surprises me is that not more of them create army hunting stacks of cavalry and go after the opponent's armies. This is a tactic we always use in our MP games. We don't bother sieging forts down, we go after the armies and hunt them down. Once you destroyed the bulk of their armies, you can go in and cover forts and begin sieges. Usually at this point, a peace can be formed since you already know who has the upper hand.
Anyways, something that took my intrest when I read this thread. I just wish more players would siege forts down in games I play in. Make my life alot easier.
Duma
I used this strategy and it failed miserably. The Spanish player retreated when I attacked him and caused me grave attrition. Attacking his retreated cannons in the mountains would be pointless (I did try it once) since they would just blow away my cavalry there. When he tried to cross the border I blew him away without his terrain, but the Spanish provinces are too much of a factor. If you always win with France then you need to put a more skilled player in the Spanish seat. Btw, in this game where Spain repulsed my invasion Wilhelmus was playing Spain.
