FAL said:
Hmm Persia doesnt look that bad.
You are kidding, right?
The AI management of Persia is, as expected, a frigging disaster. Not "slightly bad", not "quite decent, actually", but a disaster.
It is only "not bad" in comparison to what could, conceivably, have happened in the realm of all possible outcomes, i.e. total national dissolution. Conservatively, it has set back Persia's economic development by approximately 40 years and ruined Persia's one chance at striking a really hard blow against the OE.
In 28 years, the AI has managed to....
- BB: Increase BB from 13 to 17 despite losing about 11 BB from the passage of time; 1 BB per completely indefensible African diploannexed colony and TP that Oman owned sure adds up. Diploannexing Oman is a strategic error of the first magnitude that no competent player would do at this time. Attacks on the OE help, but it is Oman that is the culprit. Well, at least it increased the techcosts through more provinces.
- Tech: Increase tech from 14/5/3/3 to 17/6/4/3, setting back infra 5 by at least another 28 years or so, without considering ANY other factors. Fortunately it only invested 5% of the budget in naval tech, so there is some consolation.
- DP settings: A total change of +1 CEN, -2 INN, which is not impressive considering that a +2 scripted CEN event arrived during the period. High INN is essential if Persia is to remain a viable nation and not just an Ottoman patsy, and Persia should never, ever, choose to reduce innovativeness in random events. The AI did it twice, setting back tech by years. EDIT: It is even worse when you consider that the INN reducing random event, uncooperative philosopher, allows you to INCREASE innovation by taking the alternative choice. Persia could have been at INN=7 now without using any dp-clicks!
- Trade: Maintaining 1 merchant in Isfahan only is NOT the way to earn real money from trade
- Monthly income: 1583: 70d 1611: 79d.
- Conversions: When you have an 8/9/9 monarch for a brief period of time before the reign of the dummies for the remainder of the game, it really is time to convert the last few provinces rather than leaving the missionaries idle.
- Army: Fielding an 100% maintenance army far in excess of the support level in peacetime is NOT economically viable. It is paying 34d out of a monthly income of 79d in peacetime maintenance, for chrissakes! It is bleeding ducats by the thousands over the years with such a strategy.
- Leaders: Abbas I (1587-1629) 4/4/4/1 and Allahverdi Khan (1597-1613) 4/4/4/1 lost sometime before 1611 to no gain whatsoever. 1600-1630 Persia gets its best crop of leaders, EVER, and the AI has pissed the best of them away, no doubt in some stupid suicide attack on the OE. Only the mediocre leaders remain.
The
one good spot is that the AI has, apparently, received some exceptional years reducing inflation. That is certainly nice, but it does not change the fact that the situation as a whole is a frigging disaster from a Persia/OE BoP question. Earlist possible date for infra 4 is 1630, and infra 5 around 1660 if ALL income from now on goes to infrastructure? Jesus wept. Innovation, now 3, should have been at least 5 (no drops from random events) or more properly 7 (2 out of 3 dp-clicks used to improve it)
A non-Oman annexing Persia that had lost all the western provinces to the OE, which had NOT reduced innovation, which had invested in economic techs, which had performed the needed conversions, and which had
force-converted and vassalised the Mughal Empire, as ANY human player would have done, given the 1583 starting position, would have been immensely better off and ready to face the OE at 3 to 2 odds rather than 2 to 1, and ANY player could have achieved this, most players could have achieved better.
...
Ah, sorry for the ranting. That is what I get for being absent, I guess. It is just that presenting the situation as "not bad" shows a complete and utter lack of understanding of the current Persian position. Considering the exceptionally rapacious expansion of the OE in Africa, Persia's prospects took a severe beating from the AI's mismanagement.
Oman!? 11-12 BB to annex, all but 3 provinces completely worthless and indefensible.
EDIT: I am not saying that no other nation is worse off - Denmark and Sweden certainly come to mind - but for Persia, there is really only one yardstick that really matters, namely how far it lags behind the OE, and by now it lags very, very, very badly.
