MP Poland strategy

[Jomini]

Something I've been curious about. Exactly how does Poland in a MP game ever manage to thrive? Assuming you had equally compotent players in Brandenburg, Russia, Sweden, Austria, France, England, Spain, OE, and Portugal (all others AI) in 1492; what are good strategies for Poland?

Nasty events, less than stellar leaders, a long border, a naval bottleneck and many neighbors who have reason to each take their own slice of your territory ... what are the best options when given these handicaps to achieve dominance?

 

[Fredrik82]

Poland got a strong leader file early. Use it wisely and take out your future threats with it. Perhaps ally Sweden against Russia, and prevent Russia from expanding early. It'll slow them down and give you more time to grow. The longer you can keep them from reaching Siberia the better.

I would myself take out Lithuania early, the orthodox tech group that Poland gets when it annexes Lithuania is really hard to master. If both Brandenburg and Austria is played i would focus on the east and have good relations with the west. You sure as hell don't want to end up fighting a two front war against the Germans and the Russians

Oh, and i would make sure to have excellent relations with Sweden in the 1600s. Convince Gustav II Adolf and CO that Russia/Denmark is the bad guy. In the same time you convince Russia/Denmark that an alliance against Sweden is really necessary for the stability of the region. Sweden is much more dangerous for you then Russia is in the 1600s normaly. As they often seek to expand in the baltics and Danzig is always a tempting target.

It's probably very importent to lay down much work on diplomacy here, turn them against eachother while you hypertech and can stand ready in the tuff times. When Poland is supposed to be partitioned