Dithmarschen

Primary culture

Lower Saxon (Germanic)

Capital province

Dithmarschen (4141)

Government

Peasants Republic

State religion

Catholic

Technology group

Western

Dithmarscher ideas

Please help with verifying or updating this infobox. It was last verified for version 1.33.

Traditions:

+10% Morale of armies

−10% Shock damage received

Resistance to Feudalism

+10% Infantry combat ability

Kirchspiele

+2 Tolerance of the true faith

Trade Missions

+1 Merchant

Expert Wreckers

+20% Privateer efficiency

+10% Chance to capture enemy ships

Fortify the Coastline

−10% Development cost

Ecclesiastical Orders

−0.05 Monthly autonomy change

Free Farmers

+10% Goods produced modifier

Ambition:

+0.3 Yearly republican tradition

Dithmarschen is a member state of the Holy Roman Empire situated in the far north of the Empire. It starts as an independent one province nation bordering Holstein to the north and east, and Hamburg to the south. Dithmarschen has the unique republican government type of "Peasants Republic" and exists from the game start at 1444 to 1559, after which it becomes a part of Denmark. Dithmarschen is capable of forming Hanover and if it can conquer enough territory, it can potentially even form Germany or a united Holy Roman Empire.

Missions[edit | edit source]

Main article: Dithmarscher missions

Strategy[edit | edit source]

The below is one of many player suggested strategies for Dithmarschen. Bear in mind, due to the dynamic nature of the game, it may unfold differently for other players.

Dithmarschen starts in a difficult position with few expansion opportunities. Its neighbor to the north, Denmark, is far too strong to expand into early on. Other attractive expansion targets such as Hamburg or Lübeck can quickly become free cities (and thus protected by the emperor) or part of a trade league. Expansion is further hampered by increased aggressive expansion within the HRE, and as such will have to be slow and deliberate. Additionally, unless an alliance with the emperor is secured, demands for unlawful territory are likely and if denied they may lead to an attack by the emperor.

An ideal first target is East Frisia, which is the only small country nearby that can be attacked and that is not in the empire (thus no unlawful territory). Taking it will allow fabricating on more countries in the area as well. Saxe-Lauenburg may also be feasible, depending on alliance situations. It is important to note that speed of attack and military access play very important roles in the early game - the player may easily defeat two countries on their own, if they can overpower the first target without the second target being able to intervene in time.

From here it is recommended to follow Dithmarschen's mission tree if the player has Emperor. The tree emphasizes gaining a theocratic ally and taking land in the Lower Saxony and Weser states and eventually in the Friesland state.

Developing provinces may be beneficial to both strengthen the economy and trade power, and to spawn institutions if needed.

Initial alliances should be based on the player's rivals, and an alliance and high relations with the emperor (likely Austria) should be sought as soon as possible to avoid demands for unlawful territory and/or being declared war upon with the Imperial Liberation casus belli. As a republic, Dithmarschen is unable to form royal marriages, which makes it a little more difficult to build and keep alliances with bigger nations. It may also be beneficial to join a trade league in the beginning for defensive purposes.

Once Dithmarschen has grown into a regional power, it should be time to take on Denmark, ideally with the help of their rivals (likely to include England, Poland or Muscovy). It may also be beneficial to support the independence of Sweden and/or Norway in order to both weaken Denmark significantly and to allow controlling Sweden's/Norway's growth (in case the player is going for the "Lessons of Hemmingstedt" achievement).

Dithmarschen has a unique opportunity in the form of the Imperial Incident for the Great Peasants' War, which typically fires in the early 1500s and must fire before the League War. This makes peasant revolts in Germany much more potent and, if the peasants break the tag, it will gain the "Peasant Republic" just like Dithmarschen. Dithmarschen, alongside all of the newly minted "Peasant Republic"s gains a casus belli on all monarchies to get them to change their government with the first event heralding the Incident. Their support of peasant revolts could tip the imperial incident, which provides modifier to the nobility estate dependent on whether the peasants successfully rise up or are quashed, which impacts every HRE prince, even other players in multiplayer.

Further expansion should be in northern Germany and further to the south, west and east if feasible, and one could even launch a campaign to conquer the Dutch territories - however, the player needs to be aware of the Dutch revolts that happen between 1550 and 1650 with large and recurring rebel armies. This can be avoided by either changing the culture of conquered Dutch provinces before 1550 or waiting with conquering the territories until after 1650. Alternatively, if one wishes to do so, it is also possible to culture-shift to Dutch culture and form Netherlands, thus preventing the Dutch revolts from firing. A third option is simply to move one's capital to the Low Countries region, but that only works as long as the Netherlands don't form by revolting from another country.

The player may form Westphalia and Hanover.

Ideas[edit | edit source]

Due to its position in one of the richest trade nodes in the world, taking Trade ideas can be very beneficial.
Diplomatic ideas or Espionage ideas can help manage aggressive expansion in the HRE
Military ideas such as Defensive ideas or Quality ideas stack well with Dithmarschen's national ideas
Quantity ideas can be helpful with bolstering Dithmarschen's manpower for protracted wars.
Humanist ideas can help with religious intolerance once the reformation hits as well as for handling unrest. They also help mitigate aggressive expansion, especially when combined with Diplomatic ideas for further Improve Relations %.
Economic ideas can help to further boost national income and the -10% discount to stacks with the -10% discount from Dithmarschen's national ideas.
Plutocratic ideas are a good all-round useful idea set for a republic, granting reductions to unrest, increased army morale, and faster manpower recovery speed.
Administrative ideas can be somewhat useful in that one of the ideas grants a -25%core creation cost reduction, which can be helpful with coring the high-development provinces in western and central Europe. The additional from the finisher is also useful.

The below is one of many player suggested strategies for Dithmarschen. Bear in mind, due to the dynamic nature of the game, it may unfold differently for other players.

At game start you need to carefully consider your rivals and allies, many of your neighbours are either free cities protected by the emperor or part of Lübeck's trade league, thankfully this pre-existing web of alliances leaves little room for the other northern german states to forge strong alliances, you should be able to defeat those countries with 1 or no allies fairly easily, relying firstly on your government giving you extra morale and the fact that the ai will in most cases not build their army to maximum strenght until it is too late, if you still strugle you can also build a free company which should make any war a breeze. Once you have defeated the lone northern germans you should be able to either take Lübeck and their league head-on or you can drag in the individual members of the league by declaring war on their various allies, dismantling it piece by piece. Remember to always have a diplomat increasing relations to avoid coalitions or on the emperor to avoid being forced to return land which is almost a guaranteed coalition if refused, you can rely on strong allies, truces, or simply conquer carefully to avoid coalitions.

During this first part you can ignore the Renew the Likedeelers mission as you simply don't have the ressources needed to build enough galleys, the mission should be considered after having defeated denmark (or at least lubeck and the hanseatic league), or once you have around 20 caravels, including a flagship with the Spare Jolly Roger and Trade Route Map modifications.

Around the time where you'll begin destroying the trade league there is a good chance Sweden will have earned it's independence from Denmark, their success in this war (if it has happened) is the major source of rng when playing as Dithmarschen in a best-case scenario denmark will be ruined and you should be able to annex them completely in about 2 wars, in a less lucky scenario Sweden has either been placated by Denmark something that you should be able to handle with the right allies once a good portion of northern germany is under your control or Sweden has completely replaced Denmark as the antagonist, which should, depending on their performance in earnining their freedom and whether or not the russians are applying any pressure, be pretty difficult to deal with.

Once you have vanquished whatever enemy you had in scandinavia and have gotten around 10-20 provinces you should be strong enough to ally France or Austria (there is a good chance for you to have done so before), the choice is mostly made for you depending on who owns Amsterdam.

The Political Dynasties along with the Sortition reform in the government tab should get you leaders with total stats above 8 fairly often as you get to pick between 4 candidates and your chosen leader will get 2 extra random points, as such technologies and ideas should not be much of a problem. Make sure to have high crownland and low autonomy to reach this point as soon as possible.

I strongly suggest acquiring plutocratic ideas first, the considerable boost in morale from the second idea along with your government form, tradition and a morale advisor should be enough to carry you through any battle, you can also get defensive for the same purpose, if you combine all morale modifiers you shouldn't have to worry about your military.