Overview
This is my guide for how I play as Prussia in the Grand campaign. It is based on games I have played as Prussia on the Hard difficulty setting. Prussia is one of my favourite teams to play as, they are very challenging to play as because your fighting everyone at some point during the game and they are hated by every other countries. This is my guide to how I play as them for the beginning at least, I’m sure there is loads of different ways to do things this is just my ideas and how I play as them. Feel free to leave your opinions about this guide or your ideas how you play as them.
Introduction / Starting off
Prussia is an interesting country to play as, it starts in a fairly strong position for researching and in its military however it only starts with 2 territories and is surround by enemies. For the start of the game your 2 main enemies will be Austria and Poland, with Austria being the most powerful-est one out the 2, however I have found as the game goes on you will be at war with every nation at some point. The smaller countries can be annoying in the beginning, some I target specificity for conquering like Saxony and others I try to avoid war with as it is an extra enemy to fight and defend against even though they are smaller and weaker they can outnumber you in area like after you capture a area, I only like to fight these countries when I ready to conquer them. Prussia is tough to expand, protect conquered territories and upgrade economy buildings in newly taken territories but because of its powerful army you expand rapidly.
Here are what I do for the first few turns:
First I sort out my ministers, there is a better Justice and Navy minsters than the ones you start with.
For research I go for the first artillery one which enables the caster shot and the upgrade for cannon factory and after that the researches which will upgrade the barracks and will give you ring bayonets.
I try to upgrade all my economy buildings, replacing the inn in East Prussia with a iron workshop and start building up my armies and for my first turn I build the fortification in Brandenburg as I find it easier to defend the city in the fortress.
For alliances I ally with Hannover and with Courland even though they are protectorates of Poland, this because it avoids having an extra enemy to fight when war will come with Poland.
I prepare my armies. I start of with 3 armies large enough to to take 3 territories with armies in the 2 cities to protect them.
When war starts (Turn 5 – 10)
War will come quickly for Prussia, Austria will declare war on you in 3 or 4 turns if your lucky maybe later, their first attacks shouldn’t be too much of a threat due to your armies defending Berlin. When my 3 armies and defensive armies are ready in East Prussia and Berlin, I declare war on Saxony to be at war with Poland this way will mean I won’t be at war with Courland and I will be at war Poland to which I can expand into.
When I go to war with Saxony I siege their capital straight away and siege West Prussia and Lithuania all in the same turn. For 1 or 2 more turns I continue to increase the size of my army in East Prussia city so I can use that army to siege Warsaw.
This technique allows for rapid territorial expansion and it virtually neutralises a potential powerful enemy, Poland starts of weak but if not dealt with quickly can become stronger and harder to defeat. This way gets rid of their 2 largest cities and leaves them with 2 territories and only means your fighting with one fairly powerful enemy, Austria.
For Austrian territories I only start sieging them after I have taken Saxony and got large enough armies to take their cities, the first targets are Silesla and Bohemia and Moravla. Austria is a powerful enemy with a better starting military than Poland and its Line infantry consisting of 150 men rather the standard 120 men, and because they are attack later than Poland they have a longer period of time to become stronger.
This screenshot shows my starting armies sieging the territories in Poland, as you can see Austria has a few armies around its 2 territories making it hard to siege without threatening my Capital.
2nd Part of the War (Turn 20ish)
After Silesla and Bohemia and Moravla are taken, my next targets would be the Austrian capital and Hungary by doing this it would neutralise Austria from the game after that there are many options to take.
Could go conquering other countries like Bavaria and the last 2 Polish territories or try and have a rest bite to secure you newly conquered territories and upgrade the economy buildings.
It depends on the situation to what to do next but ideally neutralising an enemy would be the best thing to do.
At this point in the game the key military researches should have been done and economy base research would be good ones to do. So ideally research which would increase income from buildings like the weaver research or farming ones, as farms are cheap to upgrade. This would increase money income per turn which allows for building upgrades or increasing army size.
There are many choices after dealing with Austria, invading countries in the Ottoman Empire or dealing with the minor states of Bavaria, Venice and Wurttemberg or completely finishing of Austria and Poland. From that second screenshot my next targets would probably be Bavaria since they have taken quite a few countries near my capital including defeating my Hannover ally.
Other Pointers
Every country seems to hate Prussia, countries I’m trading with and seem to have good relations with declare war on me some are predictable, like Russia declare war when Lithuania is taken. Great Britain and Sweden probably will declare war on you at some point and try to land with a large army most likely when you have no army available in the countries they would land in. Venice declaring war when Austria is taken.
These minor countries might be small but are annoying for raiding and just going to war with Prussia it prevents options for trading.
Other pointers are maybe letting your capital rebel as this would make it a Republic empire if you side with the Rebels and win, being a Republic seems to make the Lower Classes happier which would reduce the risk of rebellions in your conquered countries.
Always check your ministers when one dies to replace him with the best mister possible.
Playing the battles rather than auto resolving them can mean the difference from a defeat in auto resolve to victory in playing, plus when playing the battle you can kill loads of infantry as they route at end of battle.
Let them declare war on you, longer your at peace with countries the more time you have to deal with current enemies, upgrade countries economy or prepare your armies.
Trade ships are good but I don’t use them for Prussia, for the beginning at least. The reason are you start with no navy, it takes 2 turns to build them then 2 or 3 turns to get them to the theatres, and they are costly to build and maintain as you also need a few warships to protect them from other fleets, this money would be better spent on army or economy buildings.
Final note
Hope this guide helps and gives you a few ideas how to play as Prussia. Good luck with conquering the rest of the world probably what will happen since everyone is at war with Prussia, it is what is happening slowly in this current game.
