Into the Renaissance Austria Strategy (Deity)

Into the Renaissance – Austria Strategy (Deity)

Already in 2014 I played Into the Renaissance as Austria. On Deity difficulty of course. And in the second attempt I succeeded. That is why this post is significantly shorter than the usual Into the Renaissance strategy guides you’re used to. Also: Even though playing Austria in this scenario is quite a challenge there’s no Steam Achievement. So all you get (if you don’t have it yet) is the usual “Beat the game as Austria” achievement:

Austrian Succession

Austrian Succession Steam AchievementUnlocked: 9 Nov 2014 @ 6:21pm

Beat the game on any difficulty as Maria Theresa.

You can get this Steam Achievement in any other game, but I saved it for this scenario 😉

The Austrian Unique Traits

Hussar Diplomatic Marriage
The Austrian Hussar replaces the Cavalry and is significantly stronger:

+1 Movement (giving it 5 instead of 4)
+1 Sight (making it an excellent scout)
+50% Flank attack bonus

The Hussar is a great unit particularly in this scenario. It’s 5 movement allow you to move freely across the battlefield, attack and retreat as you see fit. Especially a highly promoted Hussar is almost unstoppable on the battlefield.

Can spend Gold to annex or puppet a City-State that has been your ally for 5 turn.

The least powerful unique trait in the hands of a player on Deity difficulty. Not only will you have a hard time being allied with a City State for 5 turns, but even in this case you’ll lack the funds to “buy” the City State.

The Austrian unique traits are not the best compared to other playable civilizations in the Into the Renaissance scenario. In the late game Austria will grow powerful, thanks to Hussars. The unique ability makes Austria an incredibly powerful AI player. Facing them as your opponent will make you an enemy of most if not all City States on the entire map. And Maria Theresa will eat them all over the course of the game.

Into the Renaissance – Austria’s way

In the scenario you’ll play Maria Theresa (1717-1780), sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress. She lived long after Austria, namely Habsburg, came to power.

Like many nations in Europe Austria merely emerged during the time of this scenario. Österreich, how Austria is called in German, comes from the Old High German word Ostarrîchi meaning “eastern realm” first mentioned in official documents in 996. At this time it referred to the easternmost parts of the Holy Roman Empire, a realm that still belonged to the Duchy of Bavaria. It was the Babenbergs who until 1030 established a core territory which is pretty close to Austria’s present republic.

After again forming a union with Bavaria in 1139 the Austrians became an independent dominion within the Holy Roman Empire: The Duchy of Austria in 1156.

Within less than 300 years and through various twists and turns of history the Habsburg dynasty was not only established. The Dukes of Austria managed to unite Austria and the Empire under a single Habsburg crown. The Habsburgs maintained this position almost continuously from 1438 to 1806, when the empire was dissolved.

Chapter 1: Establishing The Empire

  1. Found Kassel (in central Germany) to contain the Netherlands (turn 7)
  2. Found Salzburg (western Austria) to maintain the connection to Kassel and prevent enemy cities (turn 30)
  3. Found Laibach (SW of Budapest) to secure resources and get a foot on the Balkans (turn 52)

Step 1 is not possible without adopting the respective Social Policies. After going for the free settler head for completion of the Honor tree. Immediately focus on military units, because settling Kassel will anger House Orange and the Netherlands.

Civilization 5 Into the Renaissance Austria Deity City Positions
Positions for Austrian cities

In many regards my game of The Netherlands was pretty similar to the Austria Deity Strategy: To contain the other, settle Germany. When it comes to Build Order and Social Policies, please check out the Netherlands Strategy Guide.

As usually many Spearmen (sacrifice if needed) and Composite Bowmen / Crossbowmen (save them) defend the north against William of Orange of the Netherlands.

Chapter 2: Expanding towards The Balkans

Around turn 100 Reformation will start. When the AI plays Austria, their city’s pressure will be dangerously high to suppress the spreading of Protestantism. Fortunately this won’t be the case with you playing Austria. As many of your cities won’t be very big, Protestantism should spread to you quite quickly. From this time you’ll be able to compete with the AI, since production is boosted and bigger cities greatly contribute to your economy.

In turn 95 I declared war on Theodora of Byzantium, who had advanced very very far north west. Also Boudicca of the Celts had sent settlers to present-day Hungary. There they had founded 1 city and captured 2 Byzantine cities. All of those shall fall:

  1. Capture Budapest (turn 113)
  2. Capture Samosata (turn 120)
  3. Declare war on Belgrade (turn 131) and capture it (turn 141)
  4. Capture Glasgow (turn 153)
  5. Capture Bari (turn 157)
  6. Capture Prilep (turn 159)

By now you’ll not only have a significant number of veteran Crossbowmen, but also some elite Hussars. Your offensive capabilities will allow you to win the game by conquering foreign religion cities.

Chapter 3: Defeating House Orange and Byzantium

Now it’s time to also turn north against some of the villainous City States serving our enemies. Also up north: The Netherlands. Time to attack our arch-enemy with some powerful units.

  1. Warsaw had captured one Celtic city: I took Ramsey back (turn 160)
  2. Capture Nicomedia (turn 168)
  3. Capture Oxford (also from Theodora, turn 170)
  4. Capture Rotterdam (turn 173)
  5. Capture Ani (turn 174)
  6. Capture Ohrid (turn 175)
  7. Capture Nicaea and Nicopolis (turn 180)
  8. Capture Amsterdam (turn 181)
  9. Re-Capture Nicaea and Nicopolis (turn 181)
  10. Capture Varna (turn 187)
  11. Capture Adrianople (turn 188)
  12. Re-Capture Varna (turn 188)
  13. Capture Warsaw (turn 190)
  14. Capture Antwerp (turn 191), waging war against England
  15. Capture Constantinople (turn 192)
  16. Capture Trebizond (turn 195)
  17. Capture Newcastle (also from Theodora, turn 197)

Austria is incredibly exposed. Most other nations have the advantage to not have to fight at all directions – Austria is the center of Europe and surrounded by enemies. Yet playing the game is similar to other strategy guides. Stick to some of the main points:

  • keep your enemies occupied in wars with each other
  • when making peace – demand all gold you can get
  • save your veterans
  • shrink enemy cities for more VP and faster suppression of those damned rebels

Into the Renaissance – Austria (Deity) – Conclusion

Civilization 5 Into the Renaissance Austria Deity Expansion
Expansion of the Austrian Empire

12:45 hours playing time said the “Messages” tab at the end of the game. Playing Austria was big big fun. Basically I chose Into the Renaissance Austria after doing all the Steam Achievements for this scenario. Normally Austria is one of the strongest contestants, dominating central Europe. Playing it myself was… Challenging, but doable. This game honed the skill of beating the scenario on Deity with all the other nations.

That also explains the relatively poor outcome in terms of score. In the end more would have been possible:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.