Russian Exploration

[Vynd]

So I am running this hands-off game under the 1.06 patch. Amazingly, Russia comes up big. They obliterate the Golden Horde, Nogai, and Sibir, and make it to the Siberian corridor by roughly 1600. They put a trading post in Karaganda, and then they stop. Nearly a hundred years later they still hadn't expanded any further. They hadn't even improved their trading post in Karaganda beyond level 1.

So I went in to the game as Russia to see if they had done any exploring at all. The answer was no. They hadn't explored a single province in Siberia. Yet at that very moment (I forget the year, sorry I'm at work) they had two conquistadors, one of whom had been alive for more than a decade.

Anyone have a clue as to what is going wrong here?

 

[Porcius]

Could the AI's colonization simply have fallen asleep? This happens sometimes, though the new 1.07 patch is supposed to fix that.

In my last game, though, Russia made it halfway across Siberia before running into my French colonies working their way in the opposite direction.

 

[Vynd]

I saved and reloaded every 10 years or so throughout the game. If that doesn't wake up the AI I don't know what will.

 

[unmerged(2833)]

Hmm. Strange. I remember one game when AI Russia actually managed to get to Siberian corridor (what an achievement, lol), and they did the same-nothing.

I though it was an issue with not enough colonists, but apparently not...


EDIT/ a question-was it Muscovy turned Russia, or other minor?

 

[Vynd]

It was Muscovy. As a further clarification, they do have colonists available, although not very many are coming in every year. Also, I've been thinking about the one trading post that they did build. I suspect, but can't say for certain, that one of the khanates discovered that province during a war, and Russia found out about it when they conquered said khanate.

I've only had two ideas so far as to what might be wrong: 1) Something in Russia's AI file might make it uninterested in exploring and colonizing. 2) The fact that the historical conquistadors that Russia is getting are also genuine military leaders (or at least that's what it looked like to me) confuses the AI and/or makes it want to keep them at home to lead armies in battle.