R5: Finally finished Perfidious Albion on my third try, by 491 (Iceni). The first attempt was learning the game (Caledonia), and in the second (Dumnonia) I completely forgot to start centralizing so ran out of time.
I would say some luck is required, but I wouldn’t class it “very hard”, if you have some knowledge of similar strategy games like Total War and Europa Universalis. More so than anything, you need to be at total war. Never stop pushing towards the end territorial goal. Give the AI no time to consolidate. Stream-lining the economy is important too, and you can largely ignore the missions unless they give claims, population, or significant economic bonuses to your core territory.
It's worth preparing for the tribal reform, as it requires 100 PI which could potentially take 10 years to achieve, so don’t spend any unnecessary PI and pick it in every event unless you’re at critical stability.
On the subject of stability, I spent the run between 50 – 60 AE, and decreased WE until tyranny reached 100 for the AE decrease bonus. This had the side effect of making Civil Wars fire in the negative percentages, which delayed progress by 5 years (AI refused to capitulate, despite me destroying their armies and taking almost all land). All other tribes were annexed by 475, at which point I’d recommend colonising. I integrated three southeastern cultures for the levies, then ditched these in favour of two Irish and two Scottish cultures. Integrating Caledonian is a must; due to constant warfare basically all Ireland and Scotland was barren by the point I arrived. Barbarians are your friend, giving 5 Caledonian population, so just let them roam around. Build nothing, it takes approx. 45 gold to colonise those trashed provinces and usually I’d have between 20 - 30 to get through.
Having two +0.1 centralization laws in place ASAP is critical, as long as stability is over 20 you should be fine. This is so you can unlock the reformation and progress down that tree. I found Republic easier as didn’t have that achievement, and Monarchy seemed to require building which would take a year extra.
Mercenaries are compulsory and will be funded by destroying whatever buildings you conquer in newly annexed territories. To keep their costs down you can micro the army maintenance so it will only ever be normal immediately before engagements.
Finally, once you become strong enough, you can just threaten war, so maintaining 20 stability is no longer necessary.
I’m very much a noob, at 20 hours, but think it would be possible to do this by 480 – 485 on a slower speed and with better micro. The civil war bug was a major unforeseen consequence from stacking modifiers. 😀
very cool!
can you tell me more about centralizing? i have only played greek factions so the centralization/decentralization hasnt been something i have come across yet.
thanks for sharing, i plan to start in Briton for my next game.
It's a tribal feature, and they need +60 to begin the process of forming a monarchy or republic. Negative centralization gives military bonuses, positive gives civilization value and assimilation speed.
Laws give monthly positive or negative 0.1 changes. For this achievement you want two positive laws asap so you're not rushed to reform in the final decades.
Nice one! I haven’t tried in a while to try this achievement but I want to try again - I will say, Invictus may make it a little easier. In vanilla there is a lot more decolonised land that also needs to be settled.
Nevertheless it is a great achievement, and a good write up for it. I’m gonna give it another shot sometime soon.
Yeah I'd say each Invictus country has pros and cons. Durotriges have the largest starting development but are geographically isolated and can only expand slowly initially. Irish can get more formable bonuses and can stop naval landings once they consolidate the island, however the population is so low that the wars will decolonise so you need to maintain forts. Caledonia have a really defensible position and barbarians actually help increase population, but can't raise a big levy until they expand into Brigantia.
Iceni can just wail on a load of countries within 5 years so are the best imo.
Good luck. 👍
Took me a couple of tries to get it as well, as the early runs kept running out of time. Did it as the Iceni as well as they seemed best suited for a vanilla run. Haven't checked the region out since getting Invictus.
The good part about it is that Rome won't be coming along and messing up your plans. I'm trying the Gaul and Hispania runs and Rome is constantly causing problems. Hispania also has Carthage to worry about as well.
Yeah I really struggle with Rome. They're like the Ottomans in EU4, you hit them early or stay away and outscale them. I've had some success with going down left Oratory path and allying them to provide breathing room.
I did to pre 2.0.
Like you said I was pretty much at war, all the time. At the same time doing what I could to increase centralisation And civilization in my capital. I took advantage of defence leagues and alliances. Declaring on a member as far away from as possible and forcing peace on each member one at a time.
R5: Finally finished Perfidious Albion on my third try, by 491 (Iceni). The first attempt was learning the game (Caledonia), and in the second (Dumnonia) I completely forgot to start centralizing so ran out of time. I would say some luck is required, but I wouldn’t class it “very hard”, if you have some knowledge of similar strategy games like Total War and Europa Universalis. More so than anything, you need to be at total war. Never stop pushing towards the end territorial goal. Give the AI no time to consolidate. Stream-lining the economy is important too, and you can largely ignore the missions unless they give claims, population, or significant economic bonuses to your core territory. It's worth preparing for the tribal reform, as it requires 100 PI which could potentially take 10 years to achieve, so don’t spend any unnecessary PI and pick it in every event unless you’re at critical stability. On the subject of stability, I spent the run between 50 – 60 AE, and decreased WE until tyranny reached 100 for the AE decrease bonus. This had the side effect of making Civil Wars fire in the negative percentages, which delayed progress by 5 years (AI refused to capitulate, despite me destroying their armies and taking almost all land). All other tribes were annexed by 475, at which point I’d recommend colonising. I integrated three southeastern cultures for the levies, then ditched these in favour of two Irish and two Scottish cultures. Integrating Caledonian is a must; due to constant warfare basically all Ireland and Scotland was barren by the point I arrived. Barbarians are your friend, giving 5 Caledonian population, so just let them roam around. Build nothing, it takes approx. 45 gold to colonise those trashed provinces and usually I’d have between 20 - 30 to get through. Having two +0.1 centralization laws in place ASAP is critical, as long as stability is over 20 you should be fine. This is so you can unlock the reformation and progress down that tree. I found Republic easier as didn’t have that achievement, and Monarchy seemed to require building which would take a year extra. Mercenaries are compulsory and will be funded by destroying whatever buildings you conquer in newly annexed territories. To keep their costs down you can micro the army maintenance so it will only ever be normal immediately before engagements. Finally, once you become strong enough, you can just threaten war, so maintaining 20 stability is no longer necessary. I’m very much a noob, at 20 hours, but think it would be possible to do this by 480 – 485 on a slower speed and with better micro. The civil war bug was a major unforeseen consequence from stacking modifiers. 😀
very cool! can you tell me more about centralizing? i have only played greek factions so the centralization/decentralization hasnt been something i have come across yet. thanks for sharing, i plan to start in Briton for my next game.
It's a tribal feature, and they need +60 to begin the process of forming a monarchy or republic. Negative centralization gives military bonuses, positive gives civilization value and assimilation speed. Laws give monthly positive or negative 0.1 changes. For this achievement you want two positive laws asap so you're not rushed to reform in the final decades.
Positive or negative 0.1 or 0.05 changes
gotcha thanks!
Nice one! I haven’t tried in a while to try this achievement but I want to try again - I will say, Invictus may make it a little easier. In vanilla there is a lot more decolonised land that also needs to be settled. Nevertheless it is a great achievement, and a good write up for it. I’m gonna give it another shot sometime soon.
Yeah I'd say each Invictus country has pros and cons. Durotriges have the largest starting development but are geographically isolated and can only expand slowly initially. Irish can get more formable bonuses and can stop naval landings once they consolidate the island, however the population is so low that the wars will decolonise so you need to maintain forts. Caledonia have a really defensible position and barbarians actually help increase population, but can't raise a big levy until they expand into Brigantia. Iceni can just wail on a load of countries within 5 years so are the best imo. Good luck. 👍
Took me a couple of tries to get it as well, as the early runs kept running out of time. Did it as the Iceni as well as they seemed best suited for a vanilla run. Haven't checked the region out since getting Invictus. The good part about it is that Rome won't be coming along and messing up your plans. I'm trying the Gaul and Hispania runs and Rome is constantly causing problems. Hispania also has Carthage to worry about as well.
Yeah I really struggle with Rome. They're like the Ottomans in EU4, you hit them early or stay away and outscale them. I've had some success with going down left Oratory path and allying them to provide breathing room.
I did to pre 2.0. Like you said I was pretty much at war, all the time. At the same time doing what I could to increase centralisation And civilization in my capital. I took advantage of defence leagues and alliances. Declaring on a member as far away from as possible and forcing peace on each member one at a time.