The Art of CB

[unmerged(6192)]

As I newbie with a hunger for war my first couple of attempts at playing the GC resulted in the whole world taking up arms against me.

I didnt care about losing a bit of stability and starting wars without a CB, annexing at every opportunity laying waste to europe, sending insults to all nations. I must have had a huge Bad Boy rating!

I realised that this cant be the way to play EU. So I calmed down a little.

My question is how does one influence other nations to give a DoW?
Or better still how can one get a CB on a nation?

My current and only tactic is to bombard a CoT in another nation, with my merchants. Until they have had enough and put me under a trade embargo. Thus I get a CB and declare war without penalty.

However I have noticed on several occasions that a nation has put a trade embargo on ME, but I didnt receive a CB on THEM.

Is this a bug??

 

[hjarg]

There is no certain way to make an enemy attack you. Even if you control some of their national provinces and have relations -200, doesn't mean that they attack you. If you want war, you have to take initiative quite often.

Bombardment is the only option, expect some random events and this nifty strategy: get your potential victim (country A) to alliance with you. Then insult him as much as you can. Declare war on someone whom you have a CB (country B) and invite A to join as well. A will decline and you have a temporary CB on A (6 month iirc). Only bad thing is that you get a war with 2 fronts, so be prepared.

And last: that is not a bug, that is a random event: everyone gets banned from his CoT. I'm quite sure you have had this event as well: trade embargo against all nations. No CBs come from there, i'm afraid.

 

[unmerged(3408)]

A will decline and you have a temporary CB on A

Oooo....hjarg, that's pretty low. However, this could be seen as exploiting the game engine. But it sure will work.

To keep things interesting, some players have a special "house rule": No war without CB. I myself could never stick to it. Some countries just needed to be taken down a notch.

One way to keep to this plan is to ally with France, Spain or England...Turkey if you are really itching for a fight. Let the other country be the alliance leader. The will get the hit for each DoW.The catch is that the ai may make peace one month before you can seal a side deal. This leaves out hanging out to dry.

There's a random event when you get insulted. This gives you a six month CB. But the time and country are, well, rather random. Too random to be of much use.

Religion is another element. Spain for example gets a CB against all non-Catholic countries.

 

[laurent]

Originally posted by Petrus

One way to keep to this plan is to ally with France, Spain or England...Turkey if you are really itching for a fight. Let the other country be the alliance leader. The will get the hit for each DoW.The catch is that the ai may make peace one month before you can seal a side deal. This leaves out hanging out to dry.

There's a random event when you get insulted. This gives you a six month CB. But the time and country are, well, rather random. Too random to be of much use.

Are you sure of it??? I never ever got this event.....

Apart from that, since I find insulting an ally and flooding a COT cheap methods, I usually try to find the most likely future ennemy of my target (CB on both side, if possible related to a core province, awful relations, multiple wars between them recently, etc...). But it isn't really reliable and I usually end up in a war with some country I wan't interested in fighting. But it leads to unexpected developments.

If you don't care who you're going to fight, Petrus advice is the best one. Join some alliance including a major or two....

 

[unmerged(6159)]

If you own someones CB province I can pretty much guarantee that they WILL attack you at some point. It may take 300 years, but it is a lock. The way to deal with being in an alliance with a warmonger (Turkey, Spain, France) is to let yourself be dragged into the war then IMMEDIATELY give one of your opponents a seperate peace for 250d, or 500d. 500d will generally be enough. Now you're in a seperate war as the alliance leader, and your friends in Turkey (or wherever) can't make a white peace after you have taken all of the enemies provinces.

Another option is to ally with a future protestant before the reformation. They will convert within a decade or two and presto! free CB.

 

[unmerged(6192)]

Thanks for the advice. I like the 'temp CB an the basis of alliance dishonouring' plan. It's certainly the cheapest.

And last: that is not a bug, that is a random event: everyone gets banned from his CoT. I'm quite sure you have had this event as well: trade embargo against all nations. No CBs come from there, i'm afraid.

I have seen the random event trade embargo against all nations, but the situation I am refering is more definite. After swamping a CoT with my merchants, the nation in question trade embargoes ME and only ME, and I dont get a CB.

 

[unmerged(6350)]

Use loans to get a CB. If someone don’t repay a lone you get a CB. If you want a CB on a poor country that’s quite easy, just give them a 50 - 100 d loan on, say 12 months, and they can’t pay you back. If you want a CB on, lets say spain, it’s easier to give the loans to a alie and get a CB on them, and hope that spain won’t dishonor when you DoW. Note: You have to have quite good relations to give loans. Give several small loans (10d).

 

[Owl]

Originally posted by Isaac Brock

Another option is to ally with a future protestant before the reformation. They will convert within a decade or two and presto! free CB.

Don't think this one works - aren't all their alliances instantly cancelled when they convert?

 

[unmerged(6350)]

- Don't think this one works - aren't all their alliances instantly cancelled when they convert?

Yes, and when they cancel the alliance you get a CB.