Europa Universalis IV announced

[Monoriu]

I just invaded England proper, for the first time in this game, with the goal of gaining a foothold.  Any province would do.  They diplomatically insulted me, so I used that as a CB.  I sent my entire army there, sieged and got Marches, and fought off their main army a few times.  The papal states and the remnants of Castile (3 landlocked provinces) attacked my home provinces.  It is a race against time as my deficits and loans pile up, manpower drop to zero very quickly, rebels pop up, and my forts fall to the papal states and Castile one-by-one.  I got a warscore of 50-60.  I paused the game, demanded two provinces from Castile.  Then, without unpausing the game, opened peace negotiations with England. 

Just for kicks, I demanded London, which I did not touch in this war.  Green.  Deal.  War is over.  My foothold in England is: London.

[crazy canuck]

Why do you want to take out Castile as Portugal?  Wouldn't you benefit from them bringing in trade from the New World while you concentrate on South America and the West African/Asian trade?

[Eddie Teach]

What's better than half a pie? A whole pie.

[crazy canuck]

What's better than half a pie? A whole pie.

Working with Castile, Portugal gets a much bigger pie to collect from.  What is better, your own small pie or a large pie from which you will draw more than half?

[Eddie Teach]

A player will generally colonize faster than an AI country. He's also preventing Castile from robbing all those rich native tribes before he can.

[crazy canuck]

A player will generally colonize faster than an AI country.

Generally speaking yes, but Castile gets more colonizers than anyone else.  Plus going to war early with Castile has means that Portugal needs to expend Admin points to core all those provinces rather than getting the Quest for the New World Idea which in turn delays the ability of Portugal to begin its own colonization. 

[Eddie Teach]

Speaking of war with Castile- another advantage of killing off all the colonizers is your colonial nations don't drag you into offensive wars against countries you share mutual allies with.

[crazy canuck]

Speaking of war with Castile- another advantage of killing off all the colonizers is your colonial nations don't drag you into offensive wars against countries you share mutual allies with.

Another good reason for keeping Castile close. Let them colonize in their areas while you keep to yours.  Under the new game mechanic they will not try to colonize in an area declared yours (after you acquire your first colonial nation) and so long as you also don't violate their regions all will be fine.

[garbon]

I don't know about that. Colonial nations will still get random cores on one another if you have colonies next to theirs...unless they changed something about those grants in the new area system.

[Monoriu]

Why do you want to take out Castile as Portugal?  Wouldn't you benefit from them bringing in trade from the New World while you concentrate on South America and the West African/Asian trade?

Because I want to paint the world green, not yellow.  I also need the manpower base to sustain continued operations against, well, everybody in sight.  Can't imagine fighting and annexing France, England, Ming, Bahamanis etc with Portugal's original manpower base. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Recent changes have made it harder to keep colonial nations loyal, I suspect an unenlarged metropolitan Portugal might have problems on this score as those nations develop.

[Norgy]

I'm still not sold on the whole colonial nation concept.
My Danish Caribia is actively working to screw me.

[Eddie Teach]

Sitting here watching Scotland and England go back and forth sieging Wessex, Gloucestershire, and Cornwall and avoiding each other's army. Over and over again. 

Scotland finally caught up and routed the English army and sieged the remaining provinces. They took 6 provinces in the peace deal. 

(I am the French and have taken London and several other provinces. Last time I attacked England, Scotland was busy fooling around in Ireland. This is better though, the current goal is to get rid of England and Portugal fast and without getting huge coalitions against me).

[Norgy]

Scotland at times becomes a major force. Along with Britanny.

[Eddie Teach]

I plan on swatting them once they start colonizing.