Galicia

Primary culture

Galician (Iberian)

Capital province

Corunna (206)

Government

Feudal Nobility

State religion

Catholic

Technology group

Western

Galician ideas

Traditions:

−15% Light ship cost

+1 Yearly navy tradition

The Way of St. James

+10% National tax modifier

Galicia la Bella

+20% Fort defense

Rein in the Cities

−10% Stability cost modifier

Galician Shipyards

+5% Ship durability

Santiago y Cierra!

+10% Morale of armies

Sailors of the Cantabrian Sea

−20% Morale hit when losing a ship

Irmandinos

+10% Infantry combat ability

Ambition:

+1 Merchant

Galicia is located on the Iberian Peninsula. It does not exist in any start, but can be formed due to rebellions, as part of a war settlement or as a peacefully released vassal. In 1444, Castile controls Galicia's core.

Decisions[edit | edit source]

An independent Galicia can form Spain.

id

Form Spanish Nation Militarily

Global expansion in newly discovered areas and the establishment of colonies is transforming Spain into one of the most powerful and wealthiest nations of our time. Spanish explorers are constantly moving into new lands and extending our borders. Immense amounts of gold and silver are being brought back to our motherland, filling the coffers of our state Treasury.

Potential requirements The country: was never an end-game nation. is not a colonial nation. Is not France or The Knights Is not Muslim is in the Iberian culture group or has Basque as primary culture. If the country is AI-controlled then it: is not a custom nation is not a former colonial nation. if is Castile or Aragon, the other one is AI-controlled has at least 3 cities and Spain does not exist. is not Portugal Playing with normal or historical nations	Allow Spain does not exist. The country: has an administrative technology of at least 10. is not a subject nation other than a tributary state. is not at war is not a nomad nation. owns core provinces: Barcelona (213) Zaragoza (214) Valladolid (215) Salamanca (216) Toledo (219) València (220) Granada (223) Sevilla (224) No Muslim nation owns a province in Iberia region.

Provinces map All orange provinces must be owned and cored. Formation grants permanent claims on shaded area.

Effects The country: becomes Spain. gains 25 prestige. gets new missions.^[1] gets the event ‘New Traditions & Ambitions’, unless it is a custom nation. increases rank to kingdom, if it is a duchy removes all provinces from the Holy Roman Empire, if it is a member and not an elector or the emperor. gets a permanent claim on Iberia region, except Alentejo and Beira areas. gets “Increased Centralization” for 20 years, giving: −0.05 monthly autonomy change, +1 national unrest.

AI will always take this decision
AI gives "high priority" (400) to this decision

Strategy[edit | edit source]

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

To play as Galicia one has to release it from Castile as a vassal. While simple release at the beginning of the game might work, independence from Castile allied to Portugal and with Aragon under personal union may be too hard to achieve. As such, there are many ways to weaken Castile prior to releasing Galicia.

Weakening Castile[edit | edit source]

Usual part of weakening an overlord nation is going into bankruptcy. One can take about 10 loans (due to limitations in when money can be gifted) and gift these money to smaller nations far away or maybe Navarra and Granada to strenghten them and conversely weaken Aragon and Portugal a bit. Then take all possible loans and invest them in claiming defender of faith title and upgrading centres of trade. If necessary, repay loans and take them again and again.

It's recommended to develop Galician provinces with any monarch power points one has. Since Juan II de Trastámara starts with 1/1/2 stats, one should have 42 administrative power, 42 diplomatic power and 98 military power. After enacting Encourage Development edict in Galicia area it's possible to develop Lugo for 45 points, so one might wait until December to get these missing administrative power and diplomatic power points. Then it's important to develop tax and production first and manpower after that, unless one hired any advisors in November. One might want to not develop manpower in Lugo twice, instead establish a Franciscan holy order in Galicia for 50 military power.

There are two Castilian forts, in Toledo and Burgos. Both are worth deleting so that the player is not restricted with their movement and that any Castilian rebels can siege half of Castile and enforce demands before 1450.

The player may also wish to give away some of their provinces. It is advised to be careful, though, as releasing León means that Galicia shares no land border with Castile and may only take land reaching from the southern coast. While it's possible to seize land from vassals, Galicia won't be able to take it without breaking aliance and aliances at the beginning may prove scarce.

One may, however, insult Aragon and Portugal hoping to give them incentive to support independence of Galicia. Setting them as rivals might be useful, too. Having diplomatic relations limit in mind it might be okay to ally or marry a willing one province minor, as remaining slots will be occupied by vassals.

Other ideas include removing states from non-capital states and lowering estates' loyalty and/or increasing their influence. While abdicating Juan II for Enrique might seem like a good idea, it may lead to spawn of pretender rebels, which overrun the country and then stabilize it and provide free army, so it's strongly discouraged.

Preparations during the truce[edit | edit source]

After switching to Galicia the player has five years of truce to find support for their independence. Any Castilian rival should be willing, provided they have an access to Castilian territory (sometimes Burgundy would rival Castile and be unable to reach their lands). France will be especially valuable here due to their strength and proximity, however, England and Aragon should be alright as well. Getting Portugal to support Galician independence will be trickier and probably impossible due to them being historical friends with Castile. If one has a chance, though, it's definitely recommended, as Portugal is the main threat for Galician existence. Besides, there is also Morocco that might support Galician independence after sufficiently improved relations and/or Castilian insult earlier on.

One thing to have in mind is that when "Surrender of Maine" event fires and England declares on France, they both won't support Galician independence until the peace treaty. Thus starts where Aragon rivals Castile are more reliable.

There is no point in building an army too early, as the player starts with 1000 manpower anyways. It's better to wait until the last year before the truce with building units to save money. Moreover, should Castile be attacked by anybody, it may be beneficial to sabotage Castilian war efforts to maybe even be released from vassalage in peace resolution.

If the ruler of Galicia has 4 or more military monarch skill, then it may be possible to achieve 4th military technology level with some help from the national focus and a level 1 military advisor, but it shouldn't matter much, as with right support there would be little need to fight with own forces. There is one use for monarch points, however — establishing a holy order in Galicia — again. That holy order established earlier as Castile should be gone, but development shouldn't, giving opportunity to reap benefits again. Which one to establish is up to the player, though Dominicans are not recommended for their bonus is pretty useless there and Galician provinces have rather bad trade goods.

If the player tried to bankrupt Castile, it is usually declared as early as in January 1445. The goal, however, is not to lower Castilian army morale in the upcoming war for independence, as 5 years of lowered morale end just as the truce runs out. The real purpose is to discourage anybody from allying Castile and destabilize country. Given their initial military National Focus and weak administrative monarch skills, it should take Castile more than five years to simply increase their stability to even −2 (it takes 67 months to accumulate 100 administrative power with Juan II as monarch). It usually ends in The Peasants' War or Civil War.

Choosing moment for strike[edit | edit source]

It is wise to attack as early as possible. If player refuses to do so, Asturias and León might decide to go for it by their own, either fighting against Galicia or denying them any meaningful territorial gains. On the other hand, it's crucial to get support from at least one big nation, not for the fight itself, rather for that this alliance carries over after the war and is vital for deterring Portugal from attacking.

One thing to have in mind is that Aragon alliance will be costly, as they expect the player to give them their fair share of land after the war. The same applies to Morocco or unlikely Portugal ally. This may be an incentive to risk a bit and wait for the "Surrender of Maine" war end should England or France want to support Galician independence.

Bankrupted Castile may still be ravaged by rebels in 1450. In this unlikely scenario (if the player didn't forget to remove forts) it is better to wait until they collapse as there are important sieges to get before Galician allies do — and, besides, engaging rebel troops and sieging rebel-controlled land only works in Castilian favour, and Galician allies will surely do it.

Strategy of fight[edit | edit source]

The goal is to get as many sieges for Galician name as possible to be able to optimally divide conquered territories between allies. The key to that is letting allies attach to one's 1k stacks. Hopefully Castile has no more than 6 or 7k troops, allowing Galicia to carpet siege northern Castilian territories. If possible, send one or two units to get key siege of Sevilla and maybe provinces around it. Sevilla is the best province one can get from the war and allows the player to fabricate claims on Granada later.

It is advised to keep most carpet-sieging 1k stacks close to each other so that in case of Castilian attack the others can reinforce the fight. The Sevillan stack is the exception, as their goal is to get key sieges and maybe distract Castilian army.

Actually sieging Canaries is not worth the hassle, as there is no fort here and Castile is unable to transport meaningful amount of troops to the mainland.

It's possible to siege most of Castile without ever engaging their army. The benefit of that is conserving that precious early game manpower.

The diplomats should not be idle during the war. It may be wise to build spy network in Castile to reduce aggresive expansion from demanded provinces. The other diplomat should improve relations with Portugal and/or Aragon, unless already improved.

Securing independence in peace treaty[edit | edit source]

Once warscore is high enough, it's time to make peace. Besides obvious independence, there are three provinces to choose from: Sevilla, Cadiz and Huelva. Of these, Sevilla is the best possible, as it has the center of trade and the highest development. Taking Murcia is risky as it puts the player as the target for Aragon. Then, Gran Canaria is good for future colonization, but it can be taken after the next Castilian war as well and one has to fabricate claims somehow for Castilian lands first.

One thing to have in mind when taking Sevilla is to have land connection to Galician capital. The player should not expect to get land access from Castile, so taking either Badajoz or Cordoba for themselves or for León is crucial to maintain the connection though Leónese lands. Another option is to take Huelva and ask Portugal, but, unlike León, they are not guaranteed to accept and even if they are, they may turn hostile if they start to desire your lands. Especially since Portugal gets permanent claims for Galician area early on.

The player can opt not to satisfy all their allies with peace treaty, if there is any alliance they wish to drop soon after the war. The prime example of such an ally is Asturias, because they are weak and have easily accessible provinces.

Soldifying power in Iberia[edit | edit source]

The most important thing to do after gaining independence is to find enough allies to avoid Portuguese declaration of war. If any of the superpowers already supported Galician independence, it should be enough to feel safe for the time being.

There is no way for Leónese–Asturian alliance to hold, as both have core in Asturias. The player may, however, opt to keep both as allies for the time being, observing, who they both ally.

If the player managed to ally Aragon or Portugal, then the most obvious target for Galicia is Granada. One may wish to call their ally on promise of land, should Granada ally any of the Northern African naval powers like Tunis or Morocco, as Galicia don't have the economy to sustain a navy that could fight back incoming transport ships.

If the player allied Morocco, then Granada should be toast, unless they allied Mamluks or Ottomans who actually commit their forces to defend Granadan land. This risk can be reduced by waiting for Mamluks / Ottomans to get involved in a war somewhere far away.

If the player allied England or France, then there are no obvious targets other than Asturias and even then the player might wish not to give away any Asturian land. The best strategy is to eat Asturias and be opportunistic with Portuguese weakness.

Further steps[edit | edit source]

Once Galician economy allows this, it may be wise to build a fort in Lugo. It denies land access to the capital and Galicia has +20% fort defense as their second idea.

As an Iberian country, one might wish to go colonizing to profit from being in Sevillan trade node. This involves usual steps of taking exploration and building three light ships for an expedition (especially since Galicia has −15% light ship cost in their traditions). Financially supporting a colony is generally mutually exclusive with a fort in Lugo, so one should make this choice depending on their goals. Is this more of a Mare Nostrum run or building a colonial empire?