I begin to prefer pushing the slider towards defense rather than offense.
I might give this a try actually, since I tend to be on the defence constantly when playing with England...
Also if you have 20k troops, just storm the castle.
I tend to wait for the walls to fall before I try and storm the castle, and even then, morale drops so fast that you usually end up waiting anyway. I've played this game on and off for years and I still haven't quite grasped it yet. I was doing really well on my last play through though, but as always, the game just turns round and gives me the middle finger.
I was about to form Great Britain, waiting on my stability to go from 2 to 3, then the middle finger came. My entire country decides to rebel against my current government. Suddenly, all the major countries in the vicinity declare war, even countries I haven't even heard of, who have no chance of even reaching the continent of Europe. All this with an infamy rating of less then 20, good legitimacy, and high prestige. What I really need help with, is the government system and rebellions. In all of my provinces, I had a high national revolt risk, yet all of the rebels were heretics. What am I meant to do in such a situation?
