Yeah something like what Aminti just said. diegoami had a great AAR effort recently on "AI proofing" a huge empire and, well, turns out that nothing is enough to help them keep anything big together. Let alone this big.
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Yeah something like what Aminti just said. diegoami had a great AAR effort recently on "AI proofing" a huge empire and, well, turns out that nothing is enough to help them keep anything big together. Let alone this big.
Yeah, letting a worldwide empire collapse to horde rebels, just for starters
( btw, it would be cool if Prawn picked that save with the Italian Horde in the XVIII century, like he mused about at the time ). The main culprit is the fact that the AI simply does not know how to deal with rebels in big continuous areas and ends sending stacks via land from Lisbon to quell a rebellion in Beijing and similar nonsenses ...
Ok this question is aimed more at Prawn. How on god's green earth do you manage BB in Holy Wars so well? What I'm able to get out of 100 WS deals is never enough to sustain to the finish of the next. Specifically this has been a problem with the Mamaluks and Ottomans because they have so many provinces that they are really annoying when you go for peace unless you have 100% WS.
I've essentially came to two ideas it likely might be. 1) I have poor stack construction and my assaults just aren't as effective as yours. 2) I'm not managing enough wars simultaneously. I like to run 6 inf 4 cav stacks. I'm thinking I may need to include more inf for better assaulting. As for 2, I'm wondering if I shouldn't have 2 different types of armies. One for smashing their doom stack and another for sieges/assaults. That way, once their main stacks are crushed I could start in doing the same on country 2 and so on and so forth.
Overall, I know I'm doing something wrong I'm just not sure what it is. European wars seem fine because of the higher BB costs but I seemingly need to rethink my wars in Holy War lands.
I've essentially came to two ideas it likely might be. 1) I have poor stack construction and my assaults just aren't as effective as yours. 2) I'm not managing enough wars simultaneously. I like to run 6 inf 4 cav stacks. I'm thinking I may need to include more inf for better assaulting. As for 2, I'm wondering if I shouldn't have 2 different types of armies. One for smashing their doom stack and another for sieges/assaults. That way, once their main stacks are crushed I could start in doing the same on country 2 and so on and so forth.
Overall, I know I'm doing something wrong I'm just not sure what it is. European wars seem fine because of the higher BB costs but I seemingly need to rethink my wars in Holy War lands.
also always a headache when using "hunt rebels".. Iberian guards charging into Africa.. from diegoami's game, it was also not being able to quell rebellions in not-connected provinces at the same time (too few armies and transport fleets altogether)Yeah, letting a worldwide empire collapse to horde rebels, just for starters
But 50 years shouldn't be enough for total ruin, even for the AI.
Just caught up! Yeah just dont sweat it winning. Sad how not more countries went revolutionary, i was hoping for a more climatic ending. :/
Oh but you wont disappoint us now will you?!
Oh but you wont disappoint us now will you?!
Maybe this is just me, but I feel kind of sad now. I look at poor old Bohemia, having been reduced from such heights into nothing but their capital and some hinterland. I miss the good old days when victory wasn't assured and majors would declare a new war while you were still trying to wrap up the last one. When the world was wild and free. Where giant stacks of noble savages lurked behind the veil of Terra Incognita. The days when we hastened to meet our enemy in one-on-one combat, not hide behind giant walls and take pot shots at one another. I long for that Age of Discovery during which our kinsmen would venture forth and found new homesteads and towns knowing not what laid beyond the next hill!
*Sigh* Maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe I'm just being sentimental. Maybe I don't understand how difficult it was. Maybe I've entered the Romantic period early in this timeline. Maybe all of the above. I don't know. What I DO know, however, is that I long for a new world! A fresh world where dangers and adventure and the possibility of failure lay around every turn! A world where giants roam unchecked, seeking to crush all who dare challenge them! I seek a world where the truely meek shall inheret the earth. I seek a world that is covered in that lovely shade of blue that belongs to the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. Just a thought, Prawnstar. Just a thought...
I miss the good old days when victory wasn't assured and majors would declare a new war while you were still trying to wrap up the last one. When the world was wild and free. Where giant stacks of noble savages lurked behind the veil of Terra Incognita. The days when we hastened to meet our enemy in one-on-one combat, not hide behind giant walls and take pot shots at one another. I long for that Age of Discovery during which our kinsmen would venture forth and found new homesteads and towns knowing not what laid beyond the next hill!*Sigh* Maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe I'm just being sentimental. Maybe I don't understand how difficult it was. Maybe I've entered the Romantic period early in this timeline. Maybe all of the above. I don't know. What I DO know, however, is that I long for a new world! A fresh world where dangers and adventure and the possibility of failure lay around every turn! A world where giants roam unchecked, seeking to crush all who dare challenge them! I seek a world where the truely meek shall inheret the earth. I seek a world that is covered in that lovely shade of blue that belongs to the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont.
Just a thought, Prawnstar. Just a thought...
I like the way Cyprus made it to the 18th century. They are always under the radar...
Yes, and now PrawnStar can set up Lincolnshire Poacher.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincolnshire_Poacher_(numbers_station)
I wonder, how silly it would look with carrier pigeons.
This is some insane shit. I have always stopped playing England early after conquering France and Spain, takes about a hundred years and it's pretty damn easy. After that, I always lose interest No challenge left to be Western Tech and have many times the economy and military of the next biggest...unless of course you want to do complete WC Well done anyway! Great report!
No challenge left to be Western Tech and have many times the economy and military of the next biggest...unless of course you want to do complete WC Well done anyway! Great report!
It's not over yet!This is some insane shit. I have always stopped playing England early after conquering France and Spain, takes about a hundred years and it's pretty damn easy. After that, I always lose interest
Even though probably the only thing that could stop him now is a corrupted save file/crashing hard disk.
or a cat, I mean Prawnstar has quite a lot of cats ... and they can wreak havoc :ninja:
Malurous, Ricardo Rolo, Chieron, thank you for reminding of my "experiment".
In hindsight though I'd like to point out that my empire's big problem was that the AI could not deal with attrition. Even in peacetime there were too big stacks. As a consequence, WE increased, there were rebels, who would occupy provinces and create more war exhaustion and so on...
But I was playing on "normal", if I had been playing on "very hard" the results might have been different, as the AI gets less attrition. And in 5.2 attrition has been nerfed as well.
Prawnstar's empire has no WE at the moment. There are bound to be some nationalist revolts, but It should definitely hold for 50 years even if led by the AI IMHO. Even my empire took ~100 years to collapse.
In hindsight though I'd like to point out that my empire's big problem was that the AI could not deal with attrition. Even in peacetime there were too big stacks. As a consequence, WE increased, there were rebels, who would occupy provinces and create more war exhaustion and so on...
But I was playing on "normal", if I had been playing on "very hard" the results might have been different, as the AI gets less attrition. And in 5.2 attrition has been nerfed as well.
Prawnstar's empire has no WE at the moment. There are bound to be some nationalist revolts, but It should definitely hold for 50 years even if led by the AI IMHO. Even my empire took ~100 years to collapse.
The key is to already be halfway through the next war when you make the peace. Obviously this can be problematic early on when your position is somewhat precarious, once you reach a critical mass it becomes almost trivial. He also used some sideshow wars to grab a province or two here and there just to keep some BB to burn; beating up minors or tribals for a quick province or two for that 6 month cushion needed in the "real" war.
This is a bit difficult early with a france game. You have to assume by the time you start holy warring you will be spread out in England(usually ~3 provinces plus the reconquested stuff) and castille(i usually take 5 from the first war). There's also burgandy who can be a pain wanting its land back. Those are the givens. I've also had Aragon come after me for no particular reason. What I've been trying lately is to get to Empire ASAP for the free Holy War CB's and then take out tunsia and Algiers why they are still relatively normal sized and just occupy them while my BB is still high from taking english land.
I think what I want to try next with the mamaluks is to just start a war with them while my BB is high and focus on destroying there usually 50k+ army and driving up WE while in my land. That may help but I think there is just going to be times where planning is difficult. The main issue tends to be that I'll get to a relatively stable state in europe and have to hit a bigger Holy War country with no one bite sized to fill up on.
Only thing I can think of is I need to break thru the Mamaluks faster so I can get at some of the smaller muslims in arabia because after you eat Morocco, Tripoli, Tunisia and Algiers you're usually stuck hitting the Ottomans or Mamaluks.
Think I may go back and reread PS's posts from that time period if I can glean anything more.
(to be hummed to the tune of Flying on a jet plane from the sixties)
Waiting... waiting for an update... Prawnstar... I'll be back again...
I have to say, I've gotten very irritated with the whole officials thing in DW. I am sitting on a load of gold, with 1700+ GP income, and can't spend it on anything really. I reached Govt. 30, and picked up Cabinet in Oct'1634. All of my technologies are at least level 29 by 1636. I'm ahead of all Western tech group countries in all technology categories. I cannot Westernize - period. There is no way I can fall 20 tech levels behind now, unless I get stab hits every other week for the rest of the century...
Thanks to your AAR, I've been alerted to the post office - customs house combo. Lets say the result isn't pretty - 100% trade efficiency by 1635, and getting higher. And my production efficiency is at 98%. Even with this large & diverse an empire, I recover stability a little over a year.
That is one advantage of the Ottomans - Ottoman Tolerance + religious decisions + republican tolerance = who cares about converting heathens. It is a little difficult with only 1.5 priests a year.
For my next game (either as Castille or England), I would like to mod the game so that at least the first level buildings wouldn't require magistrates, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I might increase the magistrate output by adding magistrates to the administrative ability of the rules for example (0.1).
Waiting... waiting for an update... Prawnstar... I'll be back again...
I have to say, I've gotten very irritated with the whole officials thing in DW. I am sitting on a load of gold, with 1700+ GP income, and can't spend it on anything really. I reached Govt. 30, and picked up Cabinet in Oct'1634. All of my technologies are at least level 29 by 1636. I'm ahead of all Western tech group countries in all technology categories. I cannot Westernize - period. There is no way I can fall 20 tech levels behind now, unless I get stab hits every other week for the rest of the century...
Thanks to your AAR, I've been alerted to the post office - customs house combo. Lets say the result isn't pretty - 100% trade efficiency by 1635, and getting higher. And my production efficiency is at 98%. Even with this large & diverse an empire, I recover stability a little over a year.
That is one advantage of the Ottomans - Ottoman Tolerance + religious decisions + republican tolerance = who cares about converting heathens. It is a little difficult with only 1.5 priests a year.
For my next game (either as Castille or England), I would like to mod the game so that at least the first level buildings wouldn't require magistrates, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I might increase the magistrate output by adding magistrates to the administrative ability of the rules for example (0.1).
Much more fun to stomp em with autentic units . With a tech advantage like you describe you probably can. You can always sink money in direct tech investment. Only 50% as effective as the sliders but if you arent using it anyway.
. With a tech advantage like you describe you probably can. You can always sink money in direct tech investment. Only 50% as effective as the sliders but if you arent using it anyway.
Personally I hate hard limits like magistrates, and I think there should be something you can do to get around them. So personally I've added 0.01 officials to some of the early government buildings. Without getting to the endgame yet that and knowing how significant those bonuses are that is it does make me feel less powerless about the whole thing.