Make the Austrian AI actually put effort into winning HRE elections

[Mindel]

Currently you can start the game as just about any HRE OPM monarchy and win the HRE election simply by allying electors, keeping relations with them at max, concentrate on gathering prestige, and waiting for the current emperor to die. The Austrian AI simply doesn't recognize electoral threats.

This makes no sense. Austria stakes its power to being emperor. The Austrian AI should act like it, and do the same thing as players would do: ally at least 4 electors, keep relations with them at max, and prioritize gathering prestige and diplomatic reputation. The Austrian idea set is geared towards doing exactly this. The AI should play to its strengths.

It should not be possible in almost every game to beat Austria in the first HRE election as a OPM minor. In fact, it should be almost impossible to win the election at any time without some kind of disaster happening to the Habsburgs.

It would be a good idea to make AI HRE emperors do this in general. Holding the throne needs to figure into geopolitical calculations.

 

[almoravid]

If Austria puts any serious effort into it, you as a player needn't bother to try to become emperor as any other country. The whole mechanic loses any significance, unless someone outright annexes Austria or the protestants win the league war.

If left alone, Austria retains the emperorship without any trouble.

 

[Mindel]

If Austria puts any serious effort into it, you as a player needn't bother to try to become emperor as any other country. The whole mechanic loses any significance, unless someone outright annexes Austria or the protestants win the league war.

If left alone, Austria retains the emperorship without any trouble.

None of these statements are true.

 

[almoravid]

None of these statements are true.

Yes they are. Habsburgs typically lose the elections either due to player intervention, or because they have a female heir or something. If anything, you need to give big foreign countries a better chance at attaining the title. Hungary (until 1437) and Spain had it, France invested huge resources to gain it, so it shouldn't be as futile as it is now.

 

[Mindel]

Yes they are. Habsburgs typically lose the elections either due to player intervention, or because they have a female heir or something.

You just confirmed that your last statement is false.

And the other statements are about as true as saying "The Ottomans are powerful, so nobody should even bother to try to fight them."

 

[almoravid]

You just confirmed that your last statement is false.

And the other statements are about as true as saying "The Ottomans are powerful, so nobody should even bother to try to fight them."

The freak accident with a female heir doesn't really invalidate the principle, does it? Historically, the Hapsburgs did lose the emperorship due to a female heir, after all.

And while Ottomans are quite challenging, you do even as Byzantium have a fighting chance if you marshall all resources. If Habsburgs actively try to woo the electors, you don't have that chance. It would be unreasonable to try to ally and royal-marry three of them, because your investments are guaranteed to yield no return. You would have to vassalize the electors outright as your only recourse.

 

[Mindel]

The freak accident with a female heir doesn't really invalidate the principle, does it? Historically, the Hapsburgs did lose the emperorship due to a female heir, after all.

And while Ottomans are quite challenging, you do even as Byzantium have a fighting chance if you marshall all resources. If Habsburgs actively try to woo the electors, you don't have that chance. It would be unreasonable to try to ally and royal-marry three of them, because your investments are guaranteed to yield no return. You would have to vassalize the electors outright as your only recourse.

A female heir is one example. Sometimes Austria loses its heir and has no one to compete for the election, as any other nation can. Sometimes it loses because it just passed a reform and no longer enjoys the imperial authority bonus to elections that it otherwise would. Sometimes it loses because some small AI nation happened to ally two electors and the other electors were all doing their own thing. I've seen all of these happen in my games before. Individually each one may not be the most common outcome, but it shouldn't be. The normal outcome should be that a powerful incumbent wins.

Austria actually defending itself in the election does not mean there is "no chance" of someone else taking the throne. What it means, and what it should mean, is that winning the election requires you to wait for or create some kind of misfortune to weaken Austria's chances.

For instance, either defeating them in a war and forcing them to annul treaties with electors, dealing them a huge prestige hit, or attacking the HRE so that they don't defend. Something beyond just being friendly with electors, which Austria can also do. It's also possible Austria's position will decline on its own from repeated attacks by France or the Ottomans, and of course the league wars.

 

[SonofWinter]

I see Hesse or whoever winning the elections quite handily, this is definitively an issue.