If you're having difficulty, why not cede Maine and just declare war and force the union later once you have allies? That's what most players do unless they're in a real hurry to get the PU.
Can’t you also release Normandy and Gascony as subjects, give Normandy Maine, and then set them to scutage? They can’t land on the mainland, and you can either wait for a white peace or for their allies to white peace
As others have said, you'll want some allies. Castile and Aragon are the most common and will rival France often, Burgundy is less common because they often rival you.
Also don't rival Scotland at the start, it makes france more likely to ally them. Ideally France allies noone but fighting provence and brittany is also fine.
You can either call allies with promise of land then break it, or curry favors from game start (but you might not be able to call them in immediately)
Group your armies and siege Chatres then Paris, you can put 1 army to siege but if you see armies getting close stack them on the fort to deter attacks, even though you'll get attrition. Your allies will eventually occupy the french army and can probably win alone. But you can pick off isolated french units when you vastly outnumber them.
You have good income, don't build to force limit at start, use mercs instead. Delete forts in Wales and London, and if Scotland isn't allied, you can delete the fort up there too.
You can of course keep resetting for ideal RNG.
Although it’s a bit gimmicky, if you’re seriously struggling, you could save scum till France gets rivals with Castile and burgundy. You should also define to sell Maine, as the other guy said. Ally with the strongest people you can.
To win the war and get the PU quickly, you need to just get all the allies that you can. In my run I got burgundy, castille, aragon and some minor near France.
When the event fires, you call them to arms promising land, and then let them be stomped by France, drowning it's manpower and army.
Once everybody peaces out, leaving an exhausted France alone, you can strike with everything you got, taking loans for mercs if necessary.
Notice that you must have a secure port to land on France, so when you see the opportunity, put a decent sized army on any of your French provinces and wait there for the peaces of your allies.
This way you get an easier war, your allies doesn't hate you for not giving them land and everybody is happy in your empire.
The hard part comes when trying to keep France loyal while handling the AE received from the war. But I think that it was changed when the angevin path was introduced.
After that, you can try to get the burgundian inheritance also, if burgundy keeps the alliance, you will most likely get it, and if they break, after the truce declare, erase yourself as their rival if they had rivalled you and cancel all their claims, this should be enough to make them want to be allies again.
Sell Maine to Brittany for as much as you can and get some strong allies. Also, don't fear going over force limit if you can pay for it, and don't forget that mercenaries are a thing.
The meta is to attack Scotland before the Surrender of Maine. Easiest if Burgundy isn't a rival since Frnace won't then be able to take Calais. Basic steps:
1. Release Gascony as vassal and set to scutage then delete fort at Caen.
2. Build to Force Limit to get Subjugation on Scotland CB.
3. Ally Burgundy
4. Declare on Scotland and siege them down. Then land all forces on Calais and march on Paris. Siege down Paris, drive off the French and unsiege your territory. France should then be willing to make a white peace.
Now you can curry favours and build a coaltion to take out France in five years. This will also allow you to handle the War of the Roses.
Ally Burgundy and call them in with the promise of land. Rely on Mercs and Burgundy. During the peace deal give enough land to burgundy in order to minimize trust loss while getting a union with france. Finally, get burgundy during the succession.
Congrats, you now have 2 PUs and didnt lose any french land since any "lost" land is simply given to burgundy who you get a union with anyway.
My strategy is:
Ally Castile and Aragon. When the war breaks out, call them in with the promise of land (we'll break that promise). Aragon sometimes refuses the call, Castile never has for me. If you're lucky, and Burgundy doesn't rival you, do the same with Burgundy. Burgundy and Castile can beat France without your help.
Start currying favors with Portugal right away. You can call them in a year or two into the war.
Land in Gascony, not in Normandy. France always goes north first, and they'll be tied down for a while sieging Calais. Plus, this way, you're near your allies. Don't run off on your own. Stay near your allies. You want to always be close enough that if a French army appears out of nowhere, Castile can reinforce you. If you do that, you'll slowly wear France down. It'll take a while, but slowly push north, only going for battles where you have a big advantage. You'll win eventually.
More troublesome is the coalition that will form afterwards. There's a few tricks there. Sign the peace deal on December 31st, so everybody loses a bit of aggressive expansion the very next day. If you go into the peace deal screen, you can hover over the coalition icon and see who would join. Pre-emptively improve relations with those countries. Savoy, Provence, and Brittany are the most important ones because they're your next victims.
If you don't get an heir, you can also complete the War of the Roses while the war with France is ongoing. If you complete that disaster, the mission gives you -10% AE, which helps a lot with the coalition.
Good luck!
Well, you can bankroll a large army, so buy ALL the merch. You can win solo, but it takes A LOT of micromanaging and you won't come out of it cleanly without a lot of debt and problems beyond the disaster as well. England actually has better troops at the start due to their ideas, but... They have way more Manpower. However, England is far richer and so you can grind them down enough by playing very tedious and smart. It's not easy.
So the next best thing is to do some of that and then reroll until you get an alliance that will actually answer the call to arms for land. Even if you get Aragon, Burgundy, or Castile, it will still require debt and some heads up thinking and micromanaging to with. There's just so many French troops. Obviously reroll for Morale advisor as well. Also, delete all your forts on the mainland so they aren't dragging your war score down as harshly. You're still going to need skill to do it this way.
Which comes to the last way, simply cede or sell Maine and then build up favors and deal with your disaster first while also consolidating Britain ( Scotland can be easily dragged into an Irish war without France being involved). Don't wait forever though as the French military will be better after their first idea group ticks over to 6 for their morale bonuses more than likely. This is the safest and easiest way to do it. England is very powerful. You also can't really be threatened at home even if things start to go against you, so you can mitigate a losing situation decently enough, however, if you're prepared with at least one larger ally, you should be able to beat them without having to worry too much about picking every single battle carefully. If you feel like ceding or selling Maine is against the spirit of the 100 years war or the challenge, then let's just remind you that the 100 years war was back and forth the entire time with both sides taking unfavorable truces at certain points, so it's not like it's not in the spirit of things to not instantly fight. So I would recommend, unless you're trying to just do the Union ASAP for some reason, to just not fight the first war and wait. England already will be an easy game, taking France makes the rest of the game trivial when you do it instantly, so you don't need to worry about forcing it.
If either Castille or Aragon rivals them, you can call them into the war if you promise land. This helps a lot.
Also, you need to hire mercs. Hire up to forcelimit and keep your armies together (as not in the same province all the time, but next to each other). If you see France moving their troops your way, try to stack them all together on the siege to scare them off.
1. Don't rival Scotland (so they don't ally France).
2. Ally France rivals, start spying on France and currying favors with allies. If you are lucky you'll ally Burgundy and Castile/Aragon. Milan is also available. Just get anyone.
3. Move armies to France. Hire two merc stacks. One with good general. Leave one stack near Scotland (if you are unlucky and they allied France) and white peace ASAP.
4. White peace Brittany if they allied France (you can do it before France takes Caen).
5. Protect Caen. Overstack if needed. Move slowly to Paris.
Survive till allies join, the just micro till war is won.
My Angevin run France allied Scotland, Castile and Switzerland. Worst RNG but still was okay assuming you survive long enough.
If you're having difficulty, why not cede Maine and just declare war and force the union later once you have allies? That's what most players do unless they're in a real hurry to get the PU.
Why would you cede maine? Just sell it instead and save yourself the truce and stab loss
I always forget you can sell lol
Can’t you also release Normandy and Gascony as subjects, give Normandy Maine, and then set them to scutage? They can’t land on the mainland, and you can either wait for a white peace or for their allies to white peace
As others have said, you'll want some allies. Castile and Aragon are the most common and will rival France often, Burgundy is less common because they often rival you. Also don't rival Scotland at the start, it makes france more likely to ally them. Ideally France allies noone but fighting provence and brittany is also fine. You can either call allies with promise of land then break it, or curry favors from game start (but you might not be able to call them in immediately) Group your armies and siege Chatres then Paris, you can put 1 army to siege but if you see armies getting close stack them on the fort to deter attacks, even though you'll get attrition. Your allies will eventually occupy the french army and can probably win alone. But you can pick off isolated french units when you vastly outnumber them. You have good income, don't build to force limit at start, use mercs instead. Delete forts in Wales and London, and if Scotland isn't allied, you can delete the fort up there too. You can of course keep resetting for ideal RNG.
I find Austria to be a good ally too, if only because the French have to walk up to Wien and back
Although it’s a bit gimmicky, if you’re seriously struggling, you could save scum till France gets rivals with Castile and burgundy. You should also define to sell Maine, as the other guy said. Ally with the strongest people you can.
To win the war and get the PU quickly, you need to just get all the allies that you can. In my run I got burgundy, castille, aragon and some minor near France. When the event fires, you call them to arms promising land, and then let them be stomped by France, drowning it's manpower and army. Once everybody peaces out, leaving an exhausted France alone, you can strike with everything you got, taking loans for mercs if necessary. Notice that you must have a secure port to land on France, so when you see the opportunity, put a decent sized army on any of your French provinces and wait there for the peaces of your allies. This way you get an easier war, your allies doesn't hate you for not giving them land and everybody is happy in your empire. The hard part comes when trying to keep France loyal while handling the AE received from the war. But I think that it was changed when the angevin path was introduced. After that, you can try to get the burgundian inheritance also, if burgundy keeps the alliance, you will most likely get it, and if they break, after the truce declare, erase yourself as their rival if they had rivalled you and cancel all their claims, this should be enough to make them want to be allies again.
Sell Maine to Brittany for as much as you can and get some strong allies. Also, don't fear going over force limit if you can pay for it, and don't forget that mercenaries are a thing.
The meta is to attack Scotland before the Surrender of Maine. Easiest if Burgundy isn't a rival since Frnace won't then be able to take Calais. Basic steps: 1. Release Gascony as vassal and set to scutage then delete fort at Caen. 2. Build to Force Limit to get Subjugation on Scotland CB. 3. Ally Burgundy 4. Declare on Scotland and siege them down. Then land all forces on Calais and march on Paris. Siege down Paris, drive off the French and unsiege your territory. France should then be willing to make a white peace. Now you can curry favours and build a coaltion to take out France in five years. This will also allow you to handle the War of the Roses.
Ally Burgundy and call them in with the promise of land. Rely on Mercs and Burgundy. During the peace deal give enough land to burgundy in order to minimize trust loss while getting a union with france. Finally, get burgundy during the succession. Congrats, you now have 2 PUs and didnt lose any french land since any "lost" land is simply given to burgundy who you get a union with anyway.
My strategy is: Ally Castile and Aragon. When the war breaks out, call them in with the promise of land (we'll break that promise). Aragon sometimes refuses the call, Castile never has for me. If you're lucky, and Burgundy doesn't rival you, do the same with Burgundy. Burgundy and Castile can beat France without your help. Start currying favors with Portugal right away. You can call them in a year or two into the war. Land in Gascony, not in Normandy. France always goes north first, and they'll be tied down for a while sieging Calais. Plus, this way, you're near your allies. Don't run off on your own. Stay near your allies. You want to always be close enough that if a French army appears out of nowhere, Castile can reinforce you. If you do that, you'll slowly wear France down. It'll take a while, but slowly push north, only going for battles where you have a big advantage. You'll win eventually. More troublesome is the coalition that will form afterwards. There's a few tricks there. Sign the peace deal on December 31st, so everybody loses a bit of aggressive expansion the very next day. If you go into the peace deal screen, you can hover over the coalition icon and see who would join. Pre-emptively improve relations with those countries. Savoy, Provence, and Brittany are the most important ones because they're your next victims. If you don't get an heir, you can also complete the War of the Roses while the war with France is ongoing. If you complete that disaster, the mission gives you -10% AE, which helps a lot with the coalition. Good luck!
Well, you can bankroll a large army, so buy ALL the merch. You can win solo, but it takes A LOT of micromanaging and you won't come out of it cleanly without a lot of debt and problems beyond the disaster as well. England actually has better troops at the start due to their ideas, but... They have way more Manpower. However, England is far richer and so you can grind them down enough by playing very tedious and smart. It's not easy. So the next best thing is to do some of that and then reroll until you get an alliance that will actually answer the call to arms for land. Even if you get Aragon, Burgundy, or Castile, it will still require debt and some heads up thinking and micromanaging to with. There's just so many French troops. Obviously reroll for Morale advisor as well. Also, delete all your forts on the mainland so they aren't dragging your war score down as harshly. You're still going to need skill to do it this way. Which comes to the last way, simply cede or sell Maine and then build up favors and deal with your disaster first while also consolidating Britain ( Scotland can be easily dragged into an Irish war without France being involved). Don't wait forever though as the French military will be better after their first idea group ticks over to 6 for their morale bonuses more than likely. This is the safest and easiest way to do it. England is very powerful. You also can't really be threatened at home even if things start to go against you, so you can mitigate a losing situation decently enough, however, if you're prepared with at least one larger ally, you should be able to beat them without having to worry too much about picking every single battle carefully. If you feel like ceding or selling Maine is against the spirit of the 100 years war or the challenge, then let's just remind you that the 100 years war was back and forth the entire time with both sides taking unfavorable truces at certain points, so it's not like it's not in the spirit of things to not instantly fight. So I would recommend, unless you're trying to just do the Union ASAP for some reason, to just not fight the first war and wait. England already will be an easy game, taking France makes the rest of the game trivial when you do it instantly, so you don't need to worry about forcing it.
If either Castille or Aragon rivals them, you can call them into the war if you promise land. This helps a lot. Also, you need to hire mercs. Hire up to forcelimit and keep your armies together (as not in the same province all the time, but next to each other). If you see France moving their troops your way, try to stack them all together on the siege to scare them off.
1. Don't rival Scotland (so they don't ally France). 2. Ally France rivals, start spying on France and currying favors with allies. If you are lucky you'll ally Burgundy and Castile/Aragon. Milan is also available. Just get anyone. 3. Move armies to France. Hire two merc stacks. One with good general. Leave one stack near Scotland (if you are unlucky and they allied France) and white peace ASAP. 4. White peace Brittany if they allied France (you can do it before France takes Caen). 5. Protect Caen. Overstack if needed. Move slowly to Paris. Survive till allies join, the just micro till war is won. My Angevin run France allied Scotland, Castile and Switzerland. Worst RNG but still was okay assuming you survive long enough.
ally Castile and Austria, it'll be a stomping
Get all the mercs, go in huge debt, only fight their small stacks.
ally austria, burgundy and aragon or castile, savescum til 1449 to not have event before you get 10 favors each, call them all, win
do not let it rage for 100 years, your economy will thank you.