I feel like it's really difficult to play most of the smaller nations recently

[Vulkandrache]

Day 1 you sent yozr Armies against them, but they still manage to get away in a neighbouring

The Ai got slower troops aswell.
im talking about the fact that everything just takes longer now for no reason.
Having your army stuck in suspended animation for 2 months just for a naval landing is so amazing.
Or 3 months for uncovering a new province in Asia.

As long as you just play in Europe, where provinces are small, it doenst matter.
2 extra days for a travel are not really noticeable.

 

[bbqftw]

The thing that happened with the AI this patch isnt "getting smarter".

They unlocked the magic shield that kept the AI from recognizing the players expansion as a threat to their existents on anthing lower that VH.
While that sounds like a good thing and it might well be it has led to the game becoming more frustrating than challenging
mainly because it leads to alliances and guarantees which look arbitrary.
Examples:

Ming and Otto ally because i as Japan conquered some Persian land.

Transoxiana and Ottos ally because i as England no-CB Georgia for coring range.

Blobbed Russia guarantees 3pm remains of Ottomans which i couldnt full annex because 100% WS.

Otto and AQ allied, Attack Otto, peace out AQ for anull treaty, peace out Otto 100%. Before my 6 year truce with AQ is over Ottos guarantee them.



This behavior leads to you having to fight the same countries over and over again for no real gain.
Having to walk from Trebizond to Samarkand to kick Transoxiana out of my wars 3 times because they keep allying the 2pms around the Caucasus looks so stupid.
They get nothing out of it, get thrashed, loose manpower and get their money taken away. In the end they get attacked by other nations and end up disappearing.

Add to that the reduced movement speed which basically killed the game for me because i now fall asleep even at speed 4 waiting for armies to arrive.

on the other hand it is really funny when people who are playing to "check" you start subsidizing people you are attacking. Easy money...

I dont think those guarantees are arbitrary, they might fall under the same "person I rival + me mutually border X, thus guarantee" protocol which seems independent of the "check runaways" script.

 

[Magnificent Genius]

This topic really makes me feel like I should pick a minor and see how many restarts it takes me before I can get rolling. Does Oman count as a minor? I still need the Third Way.

 

[gia257]

This topic really makes me feel like I should pick a minor and see how many restarts it takes me before I can get rolling. Does Oman count as a minor? I still need the Third Way.

is byzantium a minor? has like 4 provinces, was easy to take over the ottomans two out of two

 

[Magnificent Genius]

is byzantium a minor? has like 4 provinces, was easy to take over the ottomans two out of two

I would say yes, but I'm unsure of how many provinces you have to get up to before you lose "minor" status and become a "medium" nation. Brandenburg is a medium sized country, and it has 5 provinces, so it's somewhere between 3-5.

 

[random name]

My problem right now playing Brandenburg is that the AI is just so hyper aggressive in this patch. From 1458 to 1500 it was just be called into a suicidal war, recover, suicidal war, recover. by the time I quit I had 7 loans and zero manpower. The breaking point was when Poland called me against the Ottomans using the humilate rival cascus belli. On a side note I guess the AI is technically smarter, but it seems to like using its gurantees and alliances to hinder the player rather than help itself. I wouldn't have a problem if it was my rivals doing it, but instead its my allies creating entire interlocking webs of gurantees and alliances to hinder my expansion.

 

[Coffer]

but it seems to like using its gurantees and alliances to hinder the player rather than help itself

I'm not sure about the others, but this one is very noticeable. Just a few hours ago I had both Muscovy and the Ottomans guarantee a free Lithuania at the same time around 1500 (Poland was fully annexed) when they both badly want its land, just because myself (LO) and TO want to grab a chunk as well. The Ottomans in general absolutely love spamming those guarantees in Europe right now, but Muscovy is truly inexplicable given that I'm allied with them, have given them land before and are very much willing to do the same for me.

 

[Rocketskates]

stop ticking in the call in for offensive wars if you dont want to be called into any offensive wars, watch the AIs troops, if they are training you are good, they wont attack, if they aint and fully payed, war is brewing, setting up a spynetwork to get to know about their plans is also an option

the AI is not hindering anything, it simply says: "hands off this is my land i will eat it when i feel like"
also if you are playing in Europe depending on where you start, you either smack the ottomans, russia or france from day 1 whenever you can because nobody wants to deal with a *insertcolor* later on

 

[Coffer]

the AI is not hindering anything, it simply says: "hands off this is my land i will eat it when i feel like"

The post-guarantee truce stops that from being effective. It's just a timewaster - it would be an effective one if they knew when to take it off, but they mostly take it off at random, or, worse, when they're the ones having a tough time (the same goes for warnings). They don't even do it when they know you're busy or otherwise incapable of exploiting the 5-year window, which all but invalidates the point of the guarantee.

also if you are playing in Europe depending on where you start, you either smack the ottomans, russia or france from day 1 whenever you can because nobody wants to deal with a *insertcolor* later on

The Ottomans are the only real threat of the 3. Russia can be pushed into a bad situation by the player very quickly and is easier to beat than it should be no matter how much it expands, and France all but guillotines itself once it starts exploring, so you might as well let them grow early on and even use them to advance your goals (and whack the Ottomans in Russia's case). And since the Ottomans fall off later on, even they're not a major issue, so prioritizing them isn't such a great idea right now.

 

[Rocketskates]

everything is easy to beat if you know what you are doing and you dont understand what hands off mean

 

[Coffer]

everything is easy to beat if you know what you are doing and you dont understand what hands off mean

You'd have a point if the AI didn't defeat its own purpose, which it always does. It has absolutely no idea how to use guarantees correctly in these situations.

 

[Vulkandrache]

I dont think those guarantees are arbitrary, they might fall under the same "person I rival + me mutually border X, thus guarantee" protocol which seems independent of the "check runaways" script.

Before the change, on normal, i was seeing maybe 5 guarantees the entire game, now the Ai's throwing them around like candy.

Ontop of that to me it seems the Ai can ally stuff it shouldnt be able to given the modifiers im used to.
Being half the world appart, having very little relations, being over relationlimit and maybe even having different religious groups and they still ally even thou ive never fought either of the two directly like the Ottoman-Ming example.
Ming especialy ive never seen ally anyone in earlier versions, now they switch between Bengal, Orissa, Ottomans and Transoxiana while im Japan, depending on whose "annul treaties" has just run out.

 

[Dutchman251]

This topic really makes me feel like I should pick a minor and see how many restarts it takes me before I can get rolling. Does Oman count as a minor? I still need the Third Way.

If you really want a bad start, try The Third Way with theocratic Mzab. It's one of the only nations I never got to prosperity, however hard I tryed. You can hardly get any allies, it's all wrong religion land around you, you're a theocracy, and you have to beat up much bigger foes (you can get the dirt poor deserts of Djerid and Touggourt easily, but afterwards you'll have to beat up Tunis/Morocco/Tlemclen, past which stage I never got).

Then you'll know what a shitty minor is. But I fiercely disagree with those who thinks Mzab should have a "doable" start. No, it should be the challenge it is. The game would start to bore me otherwise.

 

[master_kong]

Did someone restore the Sultanate of Rûm as Karaman (A Hero's welcome achievement) after 1.24? I can't do it, it's frustrating

 

[Dominion]

Did someone restore the Sultanate of Rûm as Karaman (A Hero's welcome achievement) after 1.24? I can't do it, it's frustrating

Yup.

You don't need to do anything. Every start near Ottos has lost any difficulty. They don't have a militarist as a ruler 24/7, meaning you can just ally them to kill everything else for you.
Keep blobbing until you're bored, break alliance and finish them.

 

[master_kong]

Yup.

You don't need to do anything. Every start near Ottos has lost any difficulty. They don't have a militarist as a ruler 24/7, meaning you can just ally them to kill everything else for you.
Keep blobbing until you're bored, break alliance and finish them.

Last game i finally gave up on Mamluks(they are extremely stupid) and ally Ottos. They broke alliance when i eat up some Mamluks and Dulkadir lands Then i couldn't survive but first time i came this far actually. I will try this again then.

 

[Dominion]

Well, yea, they broke with me as well because I didn't give them any land and took all for myself.

But trust regenerates and as long as you keep your rm with them they won't attack. Gives you enough time to conquer something else until you can ally them again.

But as a rule of thumb, the most basic strategy in any area that has them revealed from the start is: Either ally Ottos or kill them before they become too powerful.

The closer you are the faster you should start doing either.

 

[master_kong]

Well, yea, they broke with me as well because I didn't give them any land and took all for myself.

But trust regenerates and as long as you keep your rm with them they won't attack. Gives you enough time to conquer something else until you can ally them again.

But as a rule of thumb, the most basic strategy in any area that has them revealed from the start is: Either ally Ottos or kill them before they become too powerful.

The closer you are the faster you should start doing either.

Allright, thanks

 

[YuriiH]

For an OPM this is an issue ONLY if you are in immediate danger or isolated: Byzantium, Theodoro, Ryazan, Tver, Mzab, Granada, Navara, etc.
The game there clearly depends on your alliances and RNG in terms of AI selection of conquest targets.

For others, non-HRE, you can always use No-CB vassalize war (e.g. vs. Irish minors), then DoW with vassal's CB and core next to him.

As for HRE (I don't know, it may be my bias) any HRE minor is VERY easy on normal ironman. You just ally your enemy's rival and DoW promising land, then DoW another rival for money while coring. The strategy worked, works, and hopefully will work in 90% of starts as well.

And by the way, the game became harder after:
1) removing terrain penalties for combat width;
2) increasing mercenary cost.
Everything else is virtually the same in terms of strategies.

I still need the Third Way.

Take Mzab.

 

[Magnificent Genius]

Byz is really easy this patch, tho. Ally Albania, restart if the Turks declare on anyone else first. If they declare on Albania, laugh as Skanderbeg leads the armies of the infinite wellspring of money to victory while you clean up the scraps.