Castile is one of the most played nations by newer players. I find it very enjoyable as there are a lot of different aspects of game you can play through. You have very high early game army morale, so you can go full conquest; Iberian peninsula has natural fortifications on map which will help you out defensively. Your national ideas are only behind Portugal on colonization. Your home trade node receives a lot of money from the new world, and you can potentially get a lot of merchants, so you can learn about trade and become very rich mid to late game. You can PU Aragon, Austria or Portugal and get the Burgundian inheritance too. In short, Castile could be played in a lot of different ways. Just like my Austria guide, I will lay out two guides for different play styles. One is for intense expansionist game play, which I call Colossal Castile. And the other is for a more relaxed play style, which I call Castile ‘n Chill.

I will divide the guides into Conquest and Colonization sections and a separate Event section which will be common for both guides.

Guide to Colossal Castile

Before 1500

Primary Objective: Cripple the colonizing adversaries

Secondary Objective: Colonize African provinces for conquest in Africa. Colonize Colombia for permanent CB on all South American and Mexican nations.

1. Better if Aragon is not a rival (protects a flank and gives a cushion in defensive wars). I would restart if Aragon has rivaled you.
2. Get your level 1 advisors. Preferably spymaster for diplo; and morale or discipline for military.
3. Rival Portugal, England and Morocco.
4. Set army maintenance to zero.
5. Send merchant from Tunis to Sevilla. Set hostile trading.
6. Mothball all forts. Make Enrique into a general.
7. Estate interactions- 1)Burghers- Demand diplo. 2) Clergy- Recruit minister. Send emissary. Seek support. Demand admin. 3) Nobility- Grant gen. Call diet. Demand mil.
8. Ally Aragon. Improve relations with Austria. Build spy network on Portugal.
9. Invest in becoming Papal controller.
10. Send light ships to protect trade in Sevilla node. 2 heavy ships to hunt pirates in Sevilla node. Sail rest of the ships to Sevilla port.
11. RM Burgundy, if they haven’t rivaled you. If they have rivaled you, don’t worry about it. You can still get the Burgundian Inheritance.
12. Improve with Papal State. RM Aragon if they haven’t sent you a proposal yet.
13. Ally/RM Austria whenever possible.
14. Ally/RM Navarra. Diplo vassalize them later. Embargo rivals.
15. Wait few years to take the naval doctrine that lets you capture more ships in battle. It’s literally free navy.
16. Use the papal influence buttons, they are very useful.
17. If your ruler is 50+ and Enrique is still alive, disinherit him. 50 prestige hit is better than decades years of 0, 0, 0 ruler and a potential civil war event.
18. Keep mil focus on monarch point generation till you get level 4 mil tech. Then switch to Admin focus till you get your first idea group. Then switch to diplo focus.
19. Ideas: Exploration- Administrative- Influence- Quantity

Conquest:

Your conquest will depend on-

1. Allies and rivals of Portugal, Aragon and Granada
2. Timing of the Iberian wedding
3. Who gets the Burgundian inheritance

So your campaign might go a bit differently, but you have significant army morale advantage compared to your neighbors and you should win most wars.

Don’t forget you get extra army morale with missions.

First Portuguese War

Objective: Take Porto and Bragança. Humiliate. Annul alliance with England.

Prerequisites: Build up to land force limit. Build up to Navy force limit. England is at war with France for Surrender of Maine event.

Hide your navy at Sevilla port. Keep half your army on north coastline to fight landing Brits (they will land troops on you even when their provinces are sieged down by France). Chase down Portugal stack with rest of the army and full siege. England will white peace after a while.

If England doesn’t go to war with France, you can still win it. Its just going to take a bit longer.

Build spy network on Granada and their ally while at war.

Interlude: Regenerate your manpower. If you can take the reconquista mission, do it.

Granadan Reconquista

Objective: Full annex Granada.

Prerequisite: Reconquista mission. OR at least 1 claim on Granada. If they ally Morocco, at least 1 claim on Tangiers/Melila. If they ally Tlemcen, at least 1 claim on Tlemcen/Wehran.

Full siege Granadan provinces.

• If Morocco is ally, cobelligerent and take Tangiers (center of trade), Melila and Fez. Morocco might have attacked Portugal by now, so take any Portuguese province (Ceuta, Algarve etc)  they own too. Core Tangiers (and any Iberian province). Release Fez as vassal and give them any non cored provinces. North African provinces have permanent modifier which increases coring cost by 50%, so keep the centers of trade for yourself and feed rest of the provinces to vassals.
• If Tlemcen is ally, cobelligerent and take Tlemcen (center of trade) and Wehran (you get an event later for owning it). Full core those provinces.
• If Tunis is ally, just take some money and prestige and peace them out.

Build spy network on France while at war.

If Morocco was not allied with Granada, declare on them immediately after finishing up with Granada.

Second Portuguese War

Objective: Take Lisboa.

Prerequisite: Portugal has taken Exploration Idea.

They will have some small ally, shouldn’t be a difficult war.

First French War

This war is a bit tricky, but it’s also very important to take some land and prevent the blue blob before they get Elan. You likely won’t have enough favors with Austria at this point to call them in. If France has a major ally, such as Aragon, you can try one of two things- 1) wait till French allies are busy with another war and won’t join in 2) Call Aragon to fight Portugal and don’t peace out of that war. Keep an eye on your war exhaustion and man power. Take some coastal provinces plus money. Don’t be too greedy here.

Interlude: Diplo annex Navarra. Recuperate man power. Pay off loans. Embrace institution. Deal with rebels. Improve relations to keep down AE.

Coalition watch: some nations will join coalition against you at this point

1500 and beyond

If Brittany is still standing they likely have France as allies, declare on Brittany when France is busy with another war. Vassalize Brittany (their provinces have increased coring costs too). Scotland might be allied to either France or Brittany, in which case try to snag just 1 province from them so you have a foothold in the British Isles. Start spy network on England/any adjacent Irish minors. You need to get a vassal in the Ireland; who you attack will again depend on which nations are alive or can be released as a vassal. England will likely have rebel issues, attack them and take all their money. Next, attack France again and take 3 or 4 provinces and all their money. Vassalize Portugal. Attack Tlemcen and release Algiers as vassal. You might get a coalition war against you at this point, Austria will help you out though and it shouldn’t be a huge deal.

You will be above your relationship limit, so start annexing Brittany. You should constantly be at war as you can rotate your expansion from Europe to British isles to North Africa to Eastern Africa to Central Africa to Western Africa to South America. And eventually to Southeast Asia.

Colonization:

Once you get exploration ideas, start exploring West African sea and coast. Then move to Caribbean sea and coast. Get first colony on Gold Coast. Second, get your colonial nation in Caribbeans (5 colonies, start with center of trades). Third, get your colonial nation in Colombia for the mission. Next should be colonial nations in Eastern America, Canada, Louisiana.

In between colonizing the new world, you should spare a colonist for the African provinces of Arguin/Beafada to fabricate claims on Eastern Africa; Gabon/Luanda to fabricate claims on Central Africa; and Inhambane to fabricate claims on Western Africa, so you can start your conquest in Sub Saharan Africa. Through Africa, you can island hop to Southeast Asia and start conquering the spice trade lands.

Every time you see another nation starting to colonize, eg England, Genoa, Norway etc, you should attack them and take the non-European land. This will keep them in check while not accruing a lot of AE.

You are guaranteed to spawn Colonialism with this strategy.

Castile ‘N Chill:

1. Again, its easier if Aragon is not a rival but not as important as the last guide.
2. Get your level 1 advisors. Preferably morale or discipline guy for military.
3. Rival France, England and Morocco.
4. Set army maintenance to zero.
5. Mothball all forts. Make Enrique into a general.
6. Estate interactions- 1)Burghers- Demand diplo. 2) Clergy- Recruit minister. Send emissary. Seek support. Demand admin. 3) Nobility- Grant gen. Call diet. Demand mil.
7. Ally Portugal. Improve relations with Austria. Build spy network on Morocco.
8. Invest in becoming papal controller.
9. Send light ships to protect trade in Sevilla. 2 heavy ships to hunt pirates in Sevilla. Sail rest of the ships to Sevilla port.
10. RM Burgundy, if they haven’t rivaled you. If they have rivaled you, don’t worry about it. You can still get Burgundian inheritance.
11. Improve with Papal State. RM Portugal if they haven’t sent you a proposal yet.
12. Ally/RM Austria whenever possible.
13. Ally/RM Navarra. Embargo rivals.
14. Ally/RM Aragon, if they haven’t rivaled you.
15. Build more light ships to naval force limit and send them to protect trade as well.
16. If your ruler is 50+ and Enrique is still alive, disinherit him. 50 prestige hit is better than decades years of 0, 0, 0 ruler and a potential civil war event.
17. Keep mil focus on monarch point generation till you get level 4 mil tech. Then switch to Admin focus till you get your first idea group. Then switch to diplo focus.
18. Ideas- Exploration- Expansion- Quantity

Conquest:

Granada Reconquista

Objective: Full annex Granada.

Prerequisite: Reconquista mission.

Once your manpower is max, build your army to force limit and take the reconquista mission. Now wait till truce with Granada is over and attack them.

• If Morocco is ally, cobelligerent and take Tangiers, Melila and Fez and humiliate them. Core Tangiers (center of trade). Release Fez as vassal and give them any non cored provinces. North African provinces have permanent modifier which increases coring cost by 50%, so keep the centers of trade for yourself and feed rest of the provinces to vassals.
• If Tlemcen is ally, co belligerent and take Tlemcen (center of trade) and Wehran (you get an event later for owning it). Full core those provinces.
• If Tunis is ally, just take some money and prestige and peace them out.

If Morocco was not allied with Granada, declare after finishing up with Granada.

French war

Objective: Prevent the blue blob

Prerequisite: Enough allies who will attack France

You will need time for favors to build up before attacking France here. Aragon (if they haven’t rivaled you) and Austria will be enough against pre-Elan France.

Tlemcen War

Objective: Take provinces and release Algiers as vassal

Prerequisite: Aragon might help you out.

Take 100% war score on provinces and release Algiers as vassal.

Next wars depend on the diplomacy among other nations. You should attack Morocco again and feed some more provinces to Fez. And start annexing Fez soon. Next you should concentrate on getting the western African provinces as you start colonizing. Take African lands and hop onto Southeast Asia. Once Iberian wedding fires, you can break your alliance with Portugal and start to take them out bit by bit. Idea is to vassalize them eventually.

Colonization:

Once you get exploration ideas, start exploring West African sea and coast. Then move to Caribbean sea and coast. Get first colony on gold coast. Second get your colonial nation in Caribbeans (5 colonies, start with center of trades). Third get your colonial nation in Colombia for the mission. Next should be colonial nations in Eastern America, Canada, Louisiana.

In between, you should spare a colonist for the African provinces of Arguin/Beafada to fabricate claims on Eastern Africa; Gabon/Luanda to fabricate claims on Central Africa;  and Inhambane to fabricate claims on Western Africa, so you can start your conquest in Sub Saharan Africa. Through Africa, you can island hop to Southeast Asia and start conquering the spice trade lands.

You will have some competition on colonies but you should still be the biggest colonizer. Conquer the South American and Mexican nations and put your colonialism CB to good use.

Events:

Finally I will summarize the main Castilian events. This applies to both guides.

Iberian wedding- If you get Naples in Iberian wedding, you can build claims on Ottomans and start cutting them down to size. You will need allies for this as Ottomans will likely have double your army size and large number of galleys.

Genoa trade node is a very important target here.

Once you reach level 10 admin, you can make Spain diplomatically if you are at peace and have 100 legitimacy. You will go over land and navy force limits, don’t panic and start making states in Aragon provinces. It should increase your force limit sufficiently in the next few months. If you are still above force limit, delete some galleys and cavalry.

Burgundian Inheritance- If you get Burgundian inheritance, start chipping away at Savoy. You main goal is again to take over the Genoa trade node. Also, look for tiny nations in HRE that the emperor won’t protect. This will be a slow process because the AE generation is insane. And you get 10 local unrest every time the emperor asks for HRE lands.

Habsburg Throne- If you get the Hapsburg throne event. Keep an eye out on Austria and claim throne when possible.

Reconquista Events- There are few events associated with conquering Granada.

• Torquemada and conversion of Moors- I always take the toleration option as it gives +1 stability.
• War of Las Alpujarras- This event will fire when you are converting one of the Muslim provinces in Granada. Kill the rebels.

Rare Events-

Portugal PU- This is a very rare event which can happen if you have a royal marriage with Portugal between 1550 and 1650 with mean time to happen of 2000 months. That’s 166 plus years!

Navarran Succession war- This has happened to me more frequently on 1.25 patch. You will be the defender and Aragon the aggressor. Its a very easy war to win. However, you end up with PU over Navarra which means you have to wait 50 years, instead of 10 years as vassal, to annex them.

Hopefully this guide will help the newer players a little bit! Enjoy!