AI allies behavour

[Tryvenyal]

Hi!

I´m abit of a rookie on EU4.. Alot a mechanists I don't grasp. The one frustrationg me the most is how AI allies treat me countering how they treat my enemies.

If I´m medium sized, allying big size, warring mediumsized enemy with a big size ally, my enemy will allways get full unconditioned support from the entire army of his ally while my ally will at best send 50% and not nearly as effective in supporting me in battles and sieges. Relations are at top with my ally and before the war with my enemys ally. It does not matter if I´m attacker or defender.

What am I doing wrong? How do I make the same use of my allies as AI nation does? Is it because AI is unable to forsee my intentions? Or something I don't understund?

I´m more home in CK world where allies are mostly doing bad decisions both in my direction and to others

I´m playing vanilla EU4 with no major DLC.

 

[evilcat]

Need to be more specific which countries you are speaking of.

If your ally is on island, or otherwise separete by sea it is limited by transport ships. You can build some, and set them to allow allies use them.

You can always set enemy province as target of your ally.

How rivalries are set? If AI has someone as rival, they are more eager to find him (hoping for some land).

 

[Tryvenyal]

Need to be more specific which countries you are speaking of.

If your ally is on island, or otherwise separete by sea it is limited by transport ships. You can build some, and set them to allow allies use them.

You can always set enemy province as target of your ally.

How rivalries are set? If AI has someone as rival, they are more eager to find him (hoping for some land).

My two examples are:

1. Playing as Holland with 6 provinces, having France as ally and attacking Saxony who has greatly expanded westwards and are far into Munster bordering me. They ally Poland. I´m attacker in a Conquest war. France have 55 k men devided in 3 groups and no other war, full stability. Poland has 25 k + 14 k Lituanians(PU). I have 200 relations with France and about 125 with Poland. France has a little less then 0 with Saxony due to them beeing heretics. Poland had to ship their army as no access through Brandenburg/Bohemia. France was bordering my vassal Flandres. Within a ingame month I had 37 regements of Polish/Lithuanian soldiers(probably 39 k missing a few men each due to attrition). France walked up thrugh my provinces with 20 k but turned over and positionened themself in Picardie. My army was destroyed in 3 batteles. The last one in Holland but France still hadn't moved any army while enemy were stacking their 3 together at all point. What should I have done to get France support?

2. Playing as Milan allying Austia. Having defensive Conquest war against Florence, allying France. Quite earalygame By France and Autria could walk to my area. France came with ~30 k, Austria with 0. My relation to Austria were close to or 200. They had no other wars. What s hould I have done to get their support?

You are talking about setting targets? How do I do that? Or is it a DLC feature?

I don't know if my allies has had any rivals involved in any of the two wars above.

 

[Dominion]

You can always set enemy province as target of your ally.

 

[netherlink]

And allowing allies to attach to your army often helps, too.

 

[Tryvenyal]

And allowing allies to attach to your army often helps, too.

Wow... You mean by default, allies are not allowed to attach to my armies? :O
I will definatly check that tonight.. Thanks.
But does this setting prevent allies to try to help?

 

[netherlink]

Wow... You mean by default, allies are not allowed to attach to my armies? :O
I will definatly check that tonight.. Thanks.
But does this setting prevent allies to try to help?

Well, AI is not forbidden to help, if you don't check that box, your processor might not guess right what is helpful for you

 

[Tryvenyal]

Well, AI is not forbidden to help, if you don't check that box, your processor might not guess right what is helpful for you

Well my intention with this thread was to learn something and I did also if not what I expected Thanks!

 

[PedroVargas]

France has proven to be notoriously bad as a fighting ally in my last games. It seems they prioritize transport by boat instead of walking. Example: When fighting the Ottomans you always see French troops waiting somewhere in Gascony or Normandy, enjoying the beaches and waiting for something. They should have full land access, but they wait. It sometimes help to set provinces as a priority for France, but more often than not, they play the sitting game - until something snaps and they walk into the battle, sometimes months after the start of the war.

I have a couple of theories - one being the boat thing. Nations with lots of boats seem to prioritize this as a transport. Also the access bug from this patch (even though solved) might still be a factor. I might have full land access but since other countries are involved (or the HRE) some calculations are off.

 

[kente]

You are talking about setting targets? How do I do that? Or is it a DLC feature?

I don't know if my allies has had any rivals involved in any of the two wars above.

with Art of War dlc, on the province screen, you can select which of your allies/subjects should siege the province.
But, in my experience, the AI rarely react good to that, so sometimes they go to siege, sometimes they ignore it, sometimes you start siegeing and than they go there, maybe with the full army so you and your ally/subject die of attrition

anyway, the AI army logic is kind of a mess, probably you should have the best interaction when all your allies border directly (or through subjects) the enemies, when there is some distance (as in PedroVargas example) don't expect much help from allies