Darn it! STOP giving me stuff!

[HydroAC]

It is 1555 in my game as Commonwealth (first game as Poland). I have long-term allies in Austria and Spain (both eventual PU targets). Spain is the #2 power, haven eaten France and gotten HRE part of BI. I'm #1.

I just finished a war with Milan, sucking up a lot of great territory from the excommunicated Republic, and furthering my goal of expanding my space in the Genoan trade node and linking my Austrian and Spanish allies together. My current Baltic trade node is kind of pathetic, so this is a good long-term goal to spike my trade income.

Then Spain calls me into a war with Liege and his allies (Emperor Brandenburg, Pope, Lucca, Cologne). OK - I'll help. I want the favors to get my trust up to 80 or so.

So Spain peaces out Lucca and gives me Lucca. Well, I didn't have a claim or declare strategic interest. I'm 100+ overextended now and my AE climes alarmingly. I improve relations with nearby powers to see if I can stave off a coalition. Lucca is very nice (23 dev) and in the Genoan node, and perhaps I can live with it since a core will be done shortly, getting me below 100.

Then Spain peaces out the Pope and gives me MORE land (Albenga, 13 dev), which I had no claim to nor had I declared strategic interest. Now my AE is really through the roof AND I am really overextended. The Pope REALLY hates me now, so I may be the next excommunication target. I got Defender of the Faith ASAP so he can't do that.

I think this is an evil plot by those nasty Trastamarans to destabilize the Commonwealth with 'gifts' that cause massive revolts, a coalition, and getting the Pope to hate and excommunicate me. This is the thanks I get for helping him in a useless war on Liege, an obvious pretext to his real motive - stabbing me in the back.

King Tomas de Trastamara is laughing up his perfumed sleeve. Bastard!

 

[Dakka]

No One Expects the Spanish Generosity!

 

[HydroAC]

True! More evidence of the nefarious Spanish plot!

 

[Heradite]

And yet when I play, I'm lucky if the AI gives me land even if I mark it as strategic interest.

Did you at least get the favors?

 

[CountKino]

Just transfer occupation to others in the war?

 

[HydroAC]

The war isn't over yet, so I don't know about the favors. I wonder if I get fewer favors if he gives me land instead? I'll see...

I'm doing all the heavy lifting in the war, of course. I fully occupied the Pope, HRE Emperor Brandenburg, etc. But Spain hasn't bothered with the war goal Liege yet. ***sigh** Looks like I'll have to do that too.

Not that I'm in a hurry to end the war since as soon as I'm out of the war I will likely have a coalition on my hands. I got the opinions of most of the majors (England, Switzerland, Provence, etc) positive and the Big Dogs (Austria, Spain) are my allies, so the coalition will be manageable. In fact, I may want to see this as an opportunity and attack a weak coalition and so I can take their ducats, shatter their alliances, etc.

Regardless, taking more land in the Europe is off the table for a while. I'll have a LONG wait to let the AE dissipate.

 

[Kypton]

Transfer occupation ASAP next time

 

[HydroAC]

I hadn't thought of transferring the occupation. But then, I didn't think Spain would give me the land either.

Regardless, this is a great idea. I'm transferring ALL the remaining occupations to Spain.

 

[HydroAC]

18 favors and 1000+ ducats as my share of the loot from peacing out - not bad!

Spain has it in for the HRE since he forced Brandenburg to revoke Reform #1. The HRE is toast anyway, so I would have preferred the ducats.

I bumped Spanish trust to 75 and have 19 favors remaining.

 

[moscal]

Simple solution - select Spain as rival

 

[PhoenixG]

Might be one of his traits. Normally AI won't give you stuff that push you over 100% overextension

 

[artemis667]

Transfer occupation ASAP next time

Yeah I do this habitually... if I do not want any land I've occupied, I almost always transfer it to the war leader and it's their concern. Exception might be if it's a core of another ally in the war, when I'd transfer occupation to them instead. Not particularly important, it's just a detail I like.

 

[HydroAC]

The Spanish AI is an Architectural Visionary, so it wasn't AI traits.

The only items I can think of is that at the time the trust was good (65%) and opinion was very good (175%). And the land was adjacent to land I already owned.

In the end it turned out OK. I have a minor Coalition that has formed (Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden and 3 minor HRE members) and I escaped massive revolts since I have Humanism and cored lands with the same religion, so it went pretty fast.

Anyway, this is a good lessons learned.

I still think the Spanish had it in for me, though...

 

[gia257]

you are doing too much of the work, so the ai gives you land so you dont kill them, let them fight their own war more

 

[HydroAC]

you are doing too much of the work, so the ai gives you land so you dont kill them, let them fight their own war more

I'd like to do that, but the AI also has a tendency to invade my territory and siege my lands. Plus, if I'm in a never-ending AI war that means that I can't focus on other priorities. I want wars to end quickly, and the AI is not good at this.

 

[Richard-monagha]

I played a game as Ottomans a while back and I was allied to France. I took the conquer Serbia mission while i was taking the few provinces nearby owned by Venice. I had high AE with many nations in Italy the Balkans and HRE but only a few over 50 AE and the rest not too high to make a coalition. As soon as I was done France called me into a war with Austria allied to Hungry/England and a few other nations. I take out Hungry while France beats down Austria in the low lands and hit their allies. Hungry had just before this war taken the 4 of the Serb provinces that I had a claim on from the mission that I forgot about and forces Hungry to give me all 4 provinces causing the whole of Italy most of HRE and Poland to hate me. As soon as the war ended France rivals me and a coalition forms, and war is declared. While i was winning the war at first Mamluks decide to hit me when their truce ended...

 

[Heiliges Thüringens Reich]

I played a game as Ottomans a while back and I was allied to France. I took the conquer Serbia mission while i was taking the few provinces nearby owned by Venice. I had high AE with many nations in Italy the Balkans and HRE but only a few over 50 AE and the rest not too high to make a coalition. As soon as I was done France called me into a war with Austria allied to Hungry/England and a few other nations. I take out Hungry while France beats down Austria in the low lands and hit their allies. Hungry had just before this war taken the 4 of the Serb provinces that I had a claim on from the mission that I forgot about and forces Hungry to give me all 4 provinces causing the whole of Italy most of HRE and Poland to hate me. As soon as the war ended France rivals me and a coalition forms, and war is declared. While i was winning the war at first Mamluks decide to hit me when their truce ended...

That's what you get for trusting the Frenchies

 

[HydroAC]

I played a game as Ottomans a while back and I was allied to France. I took the conquer Serbia mission while i was taking the few provinces nearby owned by Venice. I had high AE with many nations in Italy the Balkans and HRE but only a few over 50 AE and the rest not too high to make a coalition. As soon as I was done France called me into a war with Austria allied to Hungry/England and a few other nations. I take out Hungry while France beats down Austria in the low lands and hit their allies. Hungry had just before this war taken the 4 of the Serb provinces that I had a claim on from the mission that I forgot about and forces Hungry to give me all 4 provinces causing the whole of Italy most of HRE and Poland to hate me. As soon as the war ended France rivals me and a coalition forms, and war is declared. While i was winning the war at first Mamluks decide to hit me when their truce ended...

Yikes! And I thought I had it bad. Looks like I got of lightly. At least the Spanish are still my friends (or so I think...).

As an update, the Ottos joined the coalition against me so I'm going to have to either 1) leave the coalition alone and focus on those in truce timers and other areas of expansion or 2) attack one of his allies to draw him in. The Ottos took Trade and Quantity, so they have a huge economy, army and lots of manpower. I think I'll go with Option #1.

 

[atwix]

wait what? Ai giving you land without a claim or vital interest?

Is that even WAD?

 

[Vince75]

Yes, I'm thinking like atwix. I've never seen AI giving you provinces if you have no claim or if you don't put them in red in your diplomacy tab from my experience... It must have been the case...