Poland? How The Hell in EU game!
I have played Poland twice now. Once as France I inherited it. The other time I started out as Poland. Both times the population revolted from day one and I had all of my tolerances at the max. Also diplomatically Poland was pretty much hated by all other countries from the beginning. How in the hell do you play Poland?
This is what happened in the game where I started as Poland. After 20-30 years of revolution (starting on the first day of the game!) I lost Ukraine which was a relief because at least I didn’t have to keep taking those two or three provinces back. There was a revolution and my religion was involuntarily changed to protestant. I thought that it would calm down after that but it did not. First I was attacked by a coalition of Austria, Bavaria, and Venice. I managed to get them to agree to a white peace and then had another revolution which changed my religion back to catholic involuntarily. I was then attacked by Hansa, Brandenburg, Sweden, and Prussia. At this point I am wondering WHAT THE FUCK?????
hjarg 28-04 08:46
Errr… why are they revolting???
As France, it was definetly nationalism.. but as Poland.
Just click on provinces that revolt and then on church and then hold your mouse over revolt risk for a couple of seconds. You will get the report of all positive and negative factors that affexct revolt risk… It’s easier to fix it when you know what’s wrong.
28-04 08:51
I don’t know why. I did not know about that trick. I changed everything that I could. I mean what more could I do? Can Poland be played without all of that?
John_Keats 28-04 08:53
Yeah, we get a lot of people saying “These provinces revolt a lot, what is wrong with them?” The answer is usually just to look at the breakdown of the percentages. For Poland, it could be your religious sliders started off wrong for orthodox. Or perhaps there was a random event that you didn’t notice increasing revolt risk. Or one of many things. As for everybody attacking you, that’s probably just because they saw how weak you were because of rebellion and jumped in like sharks on a wounded surfer.
hjarg 28-04 09:05
Quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
I don’t know why. I did not know about that trick. I changed everything that I could. I mean what more could I do? Can Poland be played without all of that?
Simple: if you know what’s wrong, it’s easier to fix it. And easier for us to help you. I’m currenlty just guessing, just because i don’t know why…
War exhaustion?
Orthodox tolerance wrong?
Muslim tolerance wrong?
Random relolt rist increace event?
Civil war event?
There are numerous possibilites, as John_Keats said already.
If you know which one of these, you can deal with it.
Btw, John, what shield you have?
daboese 28-04 11:07
Poland does revolt quite often, especially if you are not careful about the religion. After the reformation event, it has to deal with four different religions, so I usually try to get down the population of either the orthodox/muslim/reformed provinces below 5000 so that I can use a settler to get a conversion. That usually works fine for Poland (although others will hate you for that). Also, try in the very beginning of the game to ally with someone large close by (by giving them money)- if you stay in an alliance with this country, nothing usually happens to you (I very often use Hungary- big enough, and will help you against Bohemia/Turkey)…
Pomerania Prince 28-04 15:53
OK, I play Poland all the time so here are some tips:
at the start change religion tolerance.
Catholic firs , Orthodox second, Muslim third. Muslim dose not need much tolerance, You have only one Muslim province which sucks anyway.
First diplomat send to Hanssa to form alliance. Second to Saxony for alliance as well. Third and forth to Bavaria RM first than alliance.
Next form RM with Hungary, Austria, France and Spain. Specially Hungary.
Spend some $$ on relations with Bohemia and try RM after 4-5 years. At the start Bohemia always refuses the marriage to you.
Upgrade bailiffs first in all Catholic provinces. It raises revolt risk, but Catholic religion is your main one so you should not have revolts.
Try to keep stability up +3 most of the time. Also, to raise Stability as Poland in GC takes very long time so do not declare wars too often.
Exchange knowledge with Persia as soon as you discover them by random event which happens almost every game.
If you receive settler by random event do this:
lower your tolerance for Muslim religion to 0:
That one Muslim province you have will rebel now every year. Let the rebels take the fort , than you send in the army and besiege the fort. do that few times and population will drop below 5000. Now send settler and change religion to Catholic.
When you do this you have only two religions in a country until Luther. That is when Danzing and East Prussia turn protestant.
Adjust your tolerance.
Tip. Do not attack German Order from the start. They will kick your ass big time. Actually do not start any wars for first10-12 years. Upgrade economy first. Upgrade army tech but do not spend any $$ on navy. Keep stability high because it raises your income significantly. After 10 years you can start war with G. Order when their alliance is over or when they turn Protestant. In the last case you will not loose any stability you have CB and different religion. Annex Prussia only after it changes to Protestant. Annex Kurland any time you wish. That should give you good start. War with Russia. Never declare war on IT. Wait. After Russians finish with Khanates it will attack you. So prepare for it by constructing better walls and better army tech. It is too expansive to attack Russia and than raise stability. You will loose 4-5 years or research for it. When Russia attars you take 2-3 provinces each war. In all my games Russia starts attacking me after 50-60 years. And than it attacks me every 5-7 years.
Playing as Poland is more difficult than France but it may be fun.
Hope that it will help out out..Good Luck
daboese 28-04 18:20
Usually it is quite important not to get an Austria- Hungary in the south of Poland. If you ally with only one of them, they will not be able to join together, and you have gotten your back free for later.
John_Keats 28-04 19:54
Shield is Sicily. It almost never comes out in the game, but I’ve seen it go independent from spain once when they had like a million year war or whatever after conquering/reconquering Navarra and Lorraine about 3 times bringing their badboy up to about 30. The same game where Catalonia rebelled and took over most of spain, neutralizing Spain for the rest of the game.
As for playing Poland, just like playing Hungary, it’s a juggling act. Poland has more religions than most of the major powers and most of the minors save for aforementioned Hungary. Gotta keep the stability high, sliders near the middle and war exhaustion low. And remember to hover that pointer over the revolt risk and find out why they’re revolting and you’ll have a much better idea. This game doesn’t do much “hidden” and under the hood, most of it is in simple +/- simple math terms.
Demetrios 29-04 01:11
Independency??? What is that? I think the word you are looking for is
Independency is an older form of the word indepencdence that used in the time period that EU covers. It was used periodically in the the writings of the American Founding Fathers. I thought its use was odd too at first, but later thought that it added a quaint, old-fashoned touch to the game.
sandman 29-04 02:24
Independency? I thought it was a joke, something “Dubya” said in one of his press conferences….
GrandInquisitor 29-04 06:52
I’m currently playing a Normal/Aggressive GC with Poland and I’ve followed a very different strategy than the Pomeranian Prince (interesting idea about the Germanic alliance in the beginning; I’ll have to try that out). I started by ambushing Golden Horde and annexing them in the first 2 years. This accomplished 2 main objectives: 1) a strategic blockade of Russia, and 2) Samarra is a very valuable province (gold). Wanting to block in Russia and prevent it from becoming a major power was my major goal, and at least in my game, it worked. Russia attacked me once (with Denmark and Pskov) about 40 years in, and has since left me alone to tussle with Sweden. I definitely agree with the Pomeranian Prince about building up your economy - by doing so early, I’ve managed to keep my treasury spending, and hence inflation, well under control (better than any other country I’ve played so far). You have to pick and choose your spots carefully with diplomacy, since so many of your monarchs have crappy diplomatic skills. Aside from a couple wars of aggression against the Baltic coast, I’ve let Poland pick up territory only through defensive wars. My ally from the beginning has been Spain, and in all that time, I’ve only been directly attacked ONCE (by Russia). Poland right now in my game (c. 1700) has, what I feel to be, at least compared with the historic Poland, a very comfortable position. Unfortunately, Spain, France, and Turkey have all been far more aggressive than me, and hence I am currently in 4th in VP. So…. I don’t know how helpful this may have been. Anyway - enjoy the challenge!
dudmont 29-04 07:35
Have you tried the peacefull approach. I’m playing that way and currently(1630) am in second in victory points. Through trade, manufactories, and new CoT’s popping up in my territory, have advanced much quicker than was historical(I’m using version 1.08, IGC 1.8, and real EU 2). I’ve diplo anexed Moldavia, I inherited Bavaria, and I’ve started colonizing(built a shipyard, and found that my only admiral and conquistador occure at virtually the same time). I found the CoT in India (I have five merchants there). It’s quite a lucrative locale. I’ve built a colony in Table and one in India. The colony in India, I found, has normal Europe pop. growth rates. Combine pop. and rich trade goods, and Colonizing can be quite profitable.
dudmont
P.S. I’ve fought in no wars yet, but expect at some point to the have Rus come knocking on my door.
bmolsson 29-04 08:10
Beginning is hard….
The beginning with Poland is hard, but later in the game it is pretty easy….
Have one going on with Poland on the hardest level.
Hansan and Brandenburg was very tough alliance so I was forced to take them out.
Ally up with Austria and Hungary showed to be good in the beginning and they helped me to keep the turks of my back.
Russia got wipped and I got Novogord early, which was a major boost in revenue. I let Russia and Persia ally up and take care of Khanates, which gave me some breath.
After taking our Northern part of Central Europe. The Danish are more or less nothing and Sweden is busy with the Russians.
I have been concentrating to get deeper and deeper in to the turks territory. They keep on declaring war, despite the fact that they have been at war for the last 100 years. The turks are falling apart. I have taken a few provinces from them including Ragusa (they took it from Venice earlier) and this has given me the yearly settler. With this I have succeeded to trade maps and get colonies in the Americas (Delaware, Roanoke and a few others) plus that I have got Khmer (?) and there got a real “kick-ass” CoT (about 1800 ducats).
I have been concentrating on military techs and infrastructure. This gives me (around 1670) a 0 % inflation and the highest tech of all.
At war I always start to fight this inside my own territory and use attrition as a strategy. After that I am very selective in which province to take from the enemy. For example when I got Novogord I only took that and Moscow and waited for the offer. Just keep on kicking their butt….
I also have succeeded to get rather big bucks out of the Krim Khanante by taking their provinces and NOT annex them, just ask for 1000 ducats. This has given me a lot of breweries and armies 
I did not want to have a lot of angry muslims in Poland to I went for these money 3 (!) times during 100 years……
I must say that I find Poland a rough starter, but a kick ass in the middle and end game if you play the cards good. USe the leaders wisely and don’t always take heaps of provinces that you can’t swallow. Money is good and a few manufactories are much better than a province that keeps on revolting….
VP of mine gives me a second place after Spain, which is very strong in this game.
Weakness, exploration and colonies………
Plan for the last 100 years is to take out Japan and China. Make a stronghold in North America. Might go for the Irquis. In Europe, I will be more defensive, but if I get a chance I will take out the Northern (Sweden) and Eastern (Russia) enemies, but be nice to Austria……
Sagitta 29-04 12:54
This is whats great about this game. 
I have a Polish IGC game going at the moment. I was remarkably stable up until the Reformation when I immediately became the first kid on the block to go Protestant.
Not knowing about the BB effect, I now know (after perusing the boards) why I had everyone and there uncle POed at me at the start. My first act was to DOW on the Teutons, which gave me to CoT’s when they gave me (gah, forget the province. Near Danzig and East Prussia, on the coast.)
The reason I was able to pull this off, was I allied myself with Russia despite the CB we each held against each other. When I DOWed the mahjong Teutons, Russia got Estonia in the deal so we both made out.
Anyhow, my 30 years of complete HELL suppressing everyone revolting against me after converting to Protestant, I was able to - with my Russian friends to the north - slowly start expanding eastward, nibbling at the Golden Horde and Crimea.
Usually it went “Hey, Russkies, wanna grab some more turf?”
“Da” and we’d both push eastward together.
My problems would come if I got stupid and messed with the Euro allies.
The vast majority of the time, however, I concentrated on my trade, pumping value into developing it above everything else. I kept inflation low, which I suspect is why my revolts pre-conversion were nil.
Things changed, however, to the Insanely Ugly shortly after the dust settled from converting when I saw “Turkey Annexes Hungary” 
and suddenly had the Turks on my southern borders. It was also amusing in a way - as I had the biggest ‘muscle’ in Europe at that point militarily, and my economy was thriving, that everyone else suddenly decided that becoming protestant wasn’t so bad an idea.
It did work to my advantage however, because I was able to declare on Crimea at this point, dragging Turkey and the Golden Horde into war against me. Turkey at this point had no less then SIX seperate alliances pounding on her, so my jumping into the gang-beating only made it worse. The fact that my Russian allies (I re-allied after I switched Protestant) jumped in as well didn’t hurt any either.
I was able to take territory from both Turkey and Crimea, opening those nice Black Sea ports a little wider.
This is, since I *am* new to the game (not new, had it since US releas but shelved because I was unaware that the bug in Fantasia was *only* in Fantasia
I looked and saw Moscow with NO defenders.
You can guess what happened from there. Wait for alliance to expire, DOW on Russia, queue major revolts all throughout my territories. I gave up when Ukraine went independant
I still have the savegame on file if anyone wants to pick up with a challenge. My Screwed Up Savegame
At any rate, now that I have a better grasp of what I’m doing, I may give it another shot. Only this time I’ll be a bit less ofa warmonger,a bit more of a diplomat, and I won’t pull a Hitler on the Russians. They make *far* better friends then enemies if you’re Poland, its an expensive alliance, but its well worth it. You will not be attacked, because a:) your armies are (hopefully) a good deterrant, and Russia makes a hell of a backup deterrant if the first fails.
- Sag
25-05 17:18
Thanks for the tips. I have played Poland twice since this post and it has gone much better. The best tip I have seen for playing Poland is to attack and annex the Golden Hoard. This cuts of Russia from expansion and makes it easier to conduct war against them. Again, thanks for your help.
Jehangir 25-05 17:32
Poland really is the only challenging major. You really have to balance what you are doing and keep abreast of what’s going on around you, but if you can hold out long enough there comes a point where you really are strong and can do some damage.
John_Keats:
I saw Sicily go independent once too - it was so cool. I allied with them immediately.
Oh, and kudos to your avatar-namesake.
Jim Winsor 25-05 17:56
I have an independant Sicily in my current ICG. The island got conquered by the Papacy, but they could not control the subsequent revolts, so they got booted out and Sicily went independant.
Poland is IMO one of those countries which upgrading baliffs is a BAD idea. You have so many religions to juggle, that +3 revolt risk just does not make the investment worthwhile, even over a 300 year campaign.
Van Barel 25-05 18:22
Actually Poland has always had an hard life in European history. Just take a look at the map and look at the location: only way to and fro mother Russia, really near to powermonging Germanian powers…
Arty16 25-05 18:34
Re: Poland? How The Hell!
I dont know man i have the same fucking thing!I dont know,sorry!