Hands Off Testing

[unmerged(5161)]

I just ran a hands off campaign starting in Age of Explorations. By 1550, nothing had happened really. Well, aside from the massive military reductions of the major powers down to about 10-20k armies for major powers. Minors who didnt fight wars, or did but did well, still had fairly large armies left over from the beginning. I was watching from the beginning and only Portugal and German minors promoted their tax collectors. Inflation among major powers is averaging about 12-15%. Spain has built 5-7 TPs and 2-4 colonies in the new world. Portugal is doing better than Spain at colonizing (cause they promoted their TCs), but they still have a tiny army and Algarve revolted away to Spain (giving Spain 1 TC at least). England built a few TPs, but 3 got burned down by the Lenape who were untouched. Eire is almost complete thanks to English defections. Lancashire is on the verge of independence, as what I dont know but it has been rebel controlled for over a year now.

France diploannexed Brittany, Savoy, and Helvetia. Helvetia declared independence soon after that and is now back to both provinces. Savoy was unable to rebel thanks to Genoese armies moving through during a war with Spain. France has 6k troops total at this time.

The Ottomans were completely inept, taxing one prov from Georgia, only to see it rebel back in a few years. They lost a few provinces to defection and gained a few from Venice/Hungary/etc. Mameluks are untouched. China gained 2 provs from Manchu, but is down to a 30k army and 1 ship, suffered 2 defections, and lost a war to Vientainne. Sweden, Muscovy, Poland, and Lithuania are down to about 5k armies thanks to snow attrition and the inability to replace them.

Austria is the only bright light here. They diploannexed Bohemia and Hungary, militarily annexed Gelre, Oldenburg, and Bremen. They conquered Milan and Mantua, but they both rebeled back into independence. They havent fought a major war yet, so they have a huge number of troops. Austrian inflation is at about 20% I think.

Due to such horribly low numbers of troops, every major country has a bunch of tiny armies everywhere, which tend to lose battles against rebels, hence all the defections.

Has anyone else run a hands off game with this new TC rule? If so, post in this thread so we can get some feedback on behavior. Thanks.

P.S. If you want to see my save file, find me on ICQ or MSN. The file is too large to go through hotmail, sorry. My info is in my signature.

 

[unmerged(5161)]

I have now run all the way to 1600. Things are pretty grim. The French colonial empire consists of a level 1 trading post in Chesapeake. The English have 2 colonies (level 2 and 5) and 5-7 TPs but thats it. The Spanish have 8-10 colonies of various sizes in the Carribean, but they havent even touched the Aztecs, not even a DOW, and they have no provinces on the North American mainland (pacific or gulf of mexico) and only a handful in northern South America.

The Turks have done surprisingly well. Their passivity resulted in good diplo-relations and the diplo-annexation of Algiers and Morroco. Mameluks havent been touched, not even DOW. Austria is a massive bohemoth in Central Europe. They are bigger than most MP Austrias I have seen, taking most of Poland before the Poland-Lithuania union. The Netherlands revolted successfully from Spain, taking all 5 traditional Neth provs. France took the rest + a few other Western German minors. Helvetia has seen a lot of action, losing Schwyz to Straussberg, then being annexed by Lorraine, then declaring independence as Schwyz. Very funny to watch. Venice is was reduced to Veneto and Cyprus by the Ottos, Cyprus declared independence, and now Venice is down to one province. Annexation should be soon, since everyone has been DOWing them since the game began.

The Asians have been relatively stable, with Manchu diplo-annexing Korea, followed by rebellion, then China moved in and took a few more provs. The rest of the Far East has been almost completely static, including India.

 

[corporateslave]

As I mentioned in another thread, I have conducted three hands off GCs with the Mar29 patch. As we speak, I am in the middle of my fourth (all on VH/Normal).

In all four GCs, the AI appears totally incapable of handling the new way census taxes work.

Every major power in the game disintegrates by the end of the game. It happens to some nations quite quickly (the poor Ottomans always seem to get killed right out of the gate), but takes longer for others. Regardless of the major, however, they always seem to break apart before the end of the GC.

I'm hoping Johan decides to give the AI a break and let them cheat by getting full census taxes even w/o a tax collector (but maybe only in their core provinces).

--Corporateslave

 

[Gebhard Blucher]

What was the problem with the original TC setup again? I rather just see that come back if the new setup is giving the AI such problems.

I know some people don't bother with building TCs because of the RR and the minimal gains, but I always built them (and CJs), even in every little colony and conquered province.

 

[Porcius]

I am running a hands-off with the new TC rules, and I find the same thing. France has no taxmen, nor does England, Spain or Turkey. Austria has one or two.

Lots of defectors, a super-Brittany that reaches to the Netherlands. The Turks still managed to find money to become Defender of the Faith, though.

The game started interesting enough with Auvergne eating up most of France before all her neighbors ganged up on her. But since then it has been no TCs and very little colonization - probably lack of money.

 

[Juice]

Test

Hello,

Well I ran a test with the new Mar 31st patch to see how the new TC's rules applied. Well it seemed that the AI was building TC's but when it came to colonizing nothing.

I watch the hands off until 1550 and then went to bed and let it roll. Well I get up this morning and bam the same colonies in the new world

Not a single colony in Far East, not even a colony in India. Maybe the tax change wasn't the problem maybe there is something wrong with the colonizing AI again

Thanks,
Juice

 

[unmerged(5161)]

Anyone run a hands off test with the newest beta?

 

[VinceV]

Is there a built-in way to run a 'hands-off' game or do you just play as Dakota and type in the "Columbus" cheat?

 

[unmerged(5161)]

Dakota is the best choice. Use Columbus. If you wanna go do something, there is a cheat to autochoose event choice A when an event pops up. I dont use it cause I am doing it so that I can see what happens.