Hello,
I have noticed in my last game something rather strange. Most of the forts in India and SE Asia were always up to date, while the European big powers, GB, Spain, the Ottos, Portugal, Russia and so on, never update a fort in the whole game. The end result is that it was faster for me in late 17th to defeat GB + Otto alliance than to invade Dai Viet that had no ally.
It seems to me that upgrading fort is very low in AI priority. Basically the AI tags that update forts are the one that don't seem to have much else to do with their money, like HRE OPMs. And this is really a weakness for AI blobs in late game.
I also notice that most of the big powers that did not upgrade their forts were using Charter Companies to buy TC province. I have seen only one screen capture of an AI doing it from a player and it spent 4k ducats for a 1/1/1 province. Another AI priority is also to cover the map with manufactories.
AI will be better (and game harder, or at least conquest slower) if the AI:
1) always upgrade its capital to highest possible fort level (this is especially true when an AI lost its capital and end in an unfortified province. By the way relocating the capital after losing it should take in account the fort level too).
2) upgrade forts in a regular basis. Let's define sequences, depending of country and ideas, like that:
_ defensive: improve/build fort - build manufactory - improve/build fort - and so on
_ productive: build manufactory - build manufactory - build manufactory - improve/build fort - and so on
_ colonial: charter company - improve/build fort - build manufactory - build manufactory - improve/build fort - build manufactory - build manufactory - and so on
3) never delete a fort in mountains or desert or salt province. In my last game, Spanish AI deleted the fort in Pirineos while I (their rival and 1st GP) was holding France. On the other hand, my Mexican CN was in a debt spiral, had no enemy at its borders but still never deleted any of the 7-8 forts taken from the natives during the conquest of Mexico. By the way the CN could never afford an army until I paid its huge debt.
I have noticed in my last game something rather strange. Most of the forts in India and SE Asia were always up to date, while the European big powers, GB, Spain, the Ottos, Portugal, Russia and so on, never update a fort in the whole game. The end result is that it was faster for me in late 17th to defeat GB + Otto alliance than to invade Dai Viet that had no ally.
It seems to me that upgrading fort is very low in AI priority. Basically the AI tags that update forts are the one that don't seem to have much else to do with their money, like HRE OPMs. And this is really a weakness for AI blobs in late game.
I also notice that most of the big powers that did not upgrade their forts were using Charter Companies to buy TC province. I have seen only one screen capture of an AI doing it from a player and it spent 4k ducats for a 1/1/1 province. Another AI priority is also to cover the map with manufactories.
AI will be better (and game harder, or at least conquest slower) if the AI:
1) always upgrade its capital to highest possible fort level (this is especially true when an AI lost its capital and end in an unfortified province. By the way relocating the capital after losing it should take in account the fort level too).
2) upgrade forts in a regular basis. Let's define sequences, depending of country and ideas, like that:
_ defensive: improve/build fort - build manufactory - improve/build fort - and so on
_ productive: build manufactory - build manufactory - build manufactory - improve/build fort - and so on
_ colonial: charter company - improve/build fort - build manufactory - build manufactory - improve/build fort - build manufactory - build manufactory - and so on
3) never delete a fort in mountains or desert or salt province. In my last game, Spanish AI deleted the fort in Pirineos while I (their rival and 1st GP) was holding France. On the other hand, my Mexican CN was in a debt spiral, had no enemy at its borders but still never deleted any of the 7-8 forts taken from the natives during the conquest of Mexico. By the way the CN could never afford an army until I paid its huge debt.
- 3
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