Latest patch and DLC => Impossible to survive as Morocco

[Bibor]

After Ottomans, Morocco is the easiest nation to play and has the highest consistent chance of survival.

Reasons:
- it has a gold mine
- its lands have more than decent trade goods (cloth, sugar etc.)
- it has easy access to Western Africa + Americas (if you wish to colonize)
- falls under Ottoman DoTF protection (later in the game)
- profits either from iberian colonizers being strong or weak (Sevilla trade node)

Played 10+ games since latest patch. Seen Morocco take at least a few provinces from Iberians in most games, being completely destroyed in one game and taking more than half of Iberia in at least two games. More than anything, It's quite common to see Moroccan Portugal.

The way to play Morocco is to understand the consequences of Iberian Wedding and vassalization of Navarra and planning your early conquests around it.
Aragon doesn't even share a coastal border with you, and is far more likely to rival an European, pref. Austria and Castile.
Your starting economy is more along the lines of Castile than Portugal. At start, Portugal is really, really weak.

Basically, if Iberians are at war and you don't capitalize on the fact, you're doing it wrong.

EDIT: Controlling the strait is a no-brainer. Sure, combined fleets of, say Portugal, England and/or Castile can wreck your navy. But individually, you can destroy Portugese or Castilian navies and they will probably never rebuild it. Especially Portugal. If you manage to destroy Portugal's navy and army early, it will never recover. Without colonies, they simply don't have the cash flow. They will probably find it hard to find money to colonize, especially if you take their cash in an early war.

 

[Knut Skallagrim]

Imo it's easier now than before, i could be wrong, but when i played morocco on old patches portugal + castille always prepared a gangbang for you, you should be doing the same thing as before, wait for them and stackwipe their forces before they merge, you could win the war for tangiers alone before, now it should be the same, maybe carrying aragon if it's a rival.

 

[Piotrzeci]

You can also recruit Heavy Ships and a 40-tradition admiral, Royal Marry Granada and ally Tlemcen.
You can then eat Tlemcen and attack Portugal for your core. Your navy should be enough to take down Castilian+Portuguese navies and Granada shouldn't give them access.

 

[Blacksmurf]

I managed to pull it off! Was able to survive long enough and run from fights until France attacked Portugal and Castille didnt honor their alliance.
I was already without my northern Morocco provinces, but as soon as this happened I supported a Moroccan Nationalist rebellion in northern Morocco which decimated the Portugese troops there. Then I came in and had a good meal!

Only alliances were Tunis and Tlemcen, but Tunis is getting reduced to nothing by Tlemcen. Now I can finally focus on the Americas with the Iberians removed from North Africa!

 

[Sousuke123]

I managed to pull it off! Was able to survive long enough and run from fights until France attacked Portugal and Castille didnt honor their alliance.
I was already without my northern Morocco provinces, but as soon as this happened I supported a Moroccan Nationalist rebellion in northern Morocco which decimated the Portugese troops there. Then I came in and had a good meal!

Only alliances were Tunis and Tlemcen, but Tunis is getting reduced to nothing by Tlemcen. Now I can finally focus on the Americas with the Iberians removed from North Africa!

Why focus on NA while you can take fight to their land? The longer coast you have the higher chances they will land on shore and wipe you.

 

[iquabakaner]

What really destroys diplomacy is the fact it makes more sense now to ally christian europeans instead of muslim arabs. Mamluks and Ottomans should be a 100% yes for Morocco alliance just like iberians have 100% succes chance between each other. The "too far away" penalty should be reduced and more diplomatic relations should be made possible.

Wow... Maybe you should reread what you just typed.

 

[Regaccio]

It's definitely not impossible, given that the AI Morocco regularly trounces the Iberians in this patch. You say that it's impossible because you can't ally the Ottomans, Mamluks, or French, but none of that is even necessary... Tunis and Granada should be more than enough to defeat Castille and Portugal. You have a few things going for you anyway:

• You have basically free land right next door in Tlemcen, often a common enemy of you and your friend Tunis.
• Your starting units are better than the Iberians'.
• Unlike in previous patches, you don't have an inherent tech penalty for being a certain tech group.
  
• You have a fort in mountains in Fez. The AI can easily be lured here and ground into dust with terrain penalties.
• The AI has to cross a strait to reach you. The AI is also somewhat poor at massing its navies. If you can pick off smaller navies in the first days of the war you can take complete control of the strait.
• You can declare war for Tangiers which is on your side of the strait, letting you rack up 25 ticking warscore without engaging in a single battle if you can block the strait.
  
• You start with a gold mine in Tafilalt. This is basically a free ducat machine you fuel with dip points. The AI will never exploit Gold mines the way a player can.
• The AI loves to abandon sieges for no reason in this patch, making wars in general much easier. (especially if you learn to scare them away from sieges with small army stacks)

If Tunis rivals you, it's still not strictly impossible to defeat the Iberians, but I would reload because it's more trouble than it's worth though.

 

[Vince75]

Being bad -> complaining about the game.

Sure man. Morocco is still very easy comparing to other nations.

 

[EmagDrolBot]

After Ottomans, Morocco is the easiest nation to play and has the highest consistent chance of survival.

Reasons:
- it has a gold mine
- its lands have more than decent trade goods (cloth, sugar etc.)
- it has easy access to Western Africa + Americas (if you wish to colonize)
- falls under Ottoman DoTF protection (later in the game)
- profits either from iberian colonizers being strong or weak (Sevilla trade node)

Played 10+ games since latest patch. Seen Morocco take at least a few provinces from Iberians in most games, being completely destroyed in one game and taking more than half of Iberia in at least two games. More than anything, It's quite common to see Moroccan Portugal.

The way to play Morocco is to understand the consequences of Iberian Wedding and vassalization of Navarra and planning your early conquests around it.
Aragon doesn't even share a coastal border with you, and is far more likely to rival an European, pref. Austria and Castile.
Your starting economy is more along the lines of Castile than Portugal. At start, Portugal is really, really weak.

Basically, if Iberians are at war and you don't capitalize on the fact, you're doing it wrong.

EDIT: Controlling the strait is a no-brainer. Sure, combined fleets of, say Portugal, England and/or Castile can wreck your navy. But individually, you can destroy Portugese or Castilian navies and they will probably never rebuild it. Especially Portugal. If you manage to destroy Portugal's navy and army early, it will never recover. Without colonies, they simply don't have the cash flow. They will probably find it hard to find money to colonize, especially if you take their cash in an early war.

One minor comment. Morocco won't get DotF protection from the Ottomans, unless they've been beaten back and pushed out of Anatolia, because DotF doesn't protect across continents.

 

[Bibor]

One minor comment. Morocco won't get DotF protection from the Ottomans, unless they've been beaten back and pushed out of Anatolia, because DotF doesn't protect across continents.

I’m assuming you have at least one european province by this time.

 

[jdavis86]

Can't you just declare war on Portugal at start and win easily? Will Granada give military access to Castile or Portugal? I thought they would not.

 

[EmagDrolBot]

I’m assuming you have at least one european province by this time.

That doesn't matter. Only the position of each countries capital is relevant. You did make me doubt myself and double check with console quickly though, so I'm certain it works this way now. Either Morocco would have to move capital to Europe, or Ottomans move theirs to Africa for Morocco to get Ottoman DotF protection.

 

[SaucyBaron]

Clearly OP is doing something wrong when AI Morocco forms Andalusia and blobs from West Africa to the border with France very other game.

 

[schondetta]

Ai doesn't seem to have a problem. You can just heavy up and block the straight if you get dowd. Otherwise eat up Africa to establish a power base.GG

 

[iquabakaner]

That doesn't matter. Only the position of each countries capital is relevant. You did make me doubt myself and double check with console quickly though, so I'm certain it works this way now. Either Morocco would have to move capital to Europe, or Ottomans move theirs to Africa for Morocco to get Ottoman DotF protection.

Moving capital to Europe is a beneficial thing in the long run anyway. You can create TC in Africa.

 

[Coffer]

Castile is very susceptible to a painful war with Aragon right now - a lot of the time I see them get in a losing position very quickly. You're going to have to leave Granada to its death while you eat up Portugal, but the AI is clumsy enough that it won't just eat Granada cleanly. Wait for the opportunity to eat Portugal or the much bigger opportunity to eat Castile once Aragon gets feisty, because both of these will definitely happen. Worst comes to worst, just hold the strait and wait until the terrible colonizing AI kicks into overdrive and steal some territory while their troops are away.

Portugal at the very least dies a horrible death most of the time for me right now, and I've seen Andalusia form more than a handful of times by now.

 

[Kagerou.Echo.三葉]

So far in my ironman games, Morroco formed Andalusia in all of my europe starts, but then again weird shit always happens in my games.

 

[ponasozis]

every time i see somebody complain about a decent sized country like morroco being impossible to play

i laugh

 

[Bibor]

That doesn't matter. Only the position of each countries capital is relevant. You did make me doubt myself and double check with console quickly though, so I'm certain it works this way now. Either Morocco would have to move capital to Europe, or Ottomans move theirs to Africa for Morocco to get Ottoman DotF protection.

What I fully meant is "by this time you surely have at least one province in Europe that you moved your capital to". I didn't mention moving the capital because it's the obvious choice to do, as you get the added benefit of having trade companies in Africa. The cheapest way to do it is, obviously, to form Al-Andalus.