Am I Missing Something? : AI ally "does not want" territory that I want in peace deal

[ArEsKay3]

I've been playing as the Commonwealth and it's getting close to the end of the game. I decided to start a massive imperial war against Russia. After handily winning the war I was upset to find out I can only claim a handful of my border provinces because all of my other allies "do not want" the other ones, despite the fact that I do. They don't have any cores or claims to them it just seems like randomly the game has decided that I'm not interested in them myself. Based on my brief research it seems this might be because I don't have The Cossacks expansion, but all of the AI players do? They seem to be able to claim "interest" in places, but I'm stuck without? This is a HUGE bummer as my total war to conquer the Russian empire will have to end with me taking only a few provinces in really strange places.

I've attached the picture. If the reason is what I suspect it's a real bummer that expansion patches can ruin the game for people who haven't bought them. I hope I'm missing something.

 

[PhoenixG]

most likely they want it, but can't core it.

 

[ArEsKay3]

So if they want it, but can't core it. I can't take it? All of the dark red there on my border is wanted by Swedish or Austrian allies. Even though I want it and can core it I can't take it in a peace deal?

 

[Hichel]

Let me see if I understand...the provinces were conquered by them? and if they don't want it...so yes, you can't take it for yourself unless they change it to you (if you have the Art of war DLC)

 

[ArEsKay3]

Ah, OK I see depends on who is occupying. That is a painful mechanic playing with AI I can't actually communicate with and without Art of War DLC. Not what I thought though. Thanks for the tip.

 

[ArEsKay3]

Had to pay $20 just to finish my game properly. The transfer should be in a patch not a DLC.

I remember having similar problems in CK2.

Although it did work perfectly once I did boot with the expansion.

 

[Laurent1944]

From memory, what happens is that the provinces you can't take are the ones occupied by your allies, right ? Without the Cossacks DLC, each country taking a province will keep it until war's end, and in the peace treaty almost always your allies won't let you take what they occupied.

So the idea is to occupy all important things by yourself. Especially the fort: you only need to be the first there, so sending a merc infantry unit to start the siege. It won't advance until your allies arrive to have enough units for the siege to progress, but even if you have 1k men and your allies 60k, the first here will occupy the fort when it will surrender.

 

[Laurent1944]

Don't pay, you started your game without DLC, you can't use a DLC in it.

Actually, the best will be to wage your final war without allies if you can.

 

[ArEsKay3]

Don't pay, you started your game without DLC, you can't use a DLC in it.

Actually, the best will be to wage your final war without allies if you can.

I did and it worked just fine. I guess I can't get achievements or something, but I don't really care.

 

[ArEsKay3]

From memory, what happens is that the provinces you can't take are the ones occupied by your allies, right ? Without the Cossacks DLC, each country taking a province will keep it until war's end, and in the peace treaty almost always your allies won't let you take what they occupied.

So the idea is to occupy all important things by yourself. Especially the fort: you only need to be the first there, so sending a merc infantry unit to start the siege. It won't advance until your allies arrive to have enough units for the siege to progress, but even if you have 1k men and your allies 60k, the first here will occupy the fort when it will surrender.

Yep, that just doesn't make much sense to me thematically and the AI is way better at spreading out and managing all that so they always tend to take more land than me. IMHO the Art of War DLC clears this weird behavior up perfectly.

My only issue is that the original behavior seems a bit like I'm working around a quirk of the game and not rooted in the theme of the game, so it felt a bit frustrating to have to DLC my way out. I was planning on eventually getting them anyway though, so w/e.

 

[Badesumofu]

Don't pay, you started your game without DLC, you can't use a DLC in it.

Actually, the best will be to wage your final war without allies if you can.

You actually can. There's a good chance it will result in oddities and that some features of the expansion just won't function. Depending on the DLC it might totally break the save, even, so I generally wouldn't recommend it. But you can do it.