Straiten up the straits!
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Ohh, you're wrong.
A Swedish army marsched from Jutland to Fyn in 1658 across the Belts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_across_the_Belts
Careful. Put the moon in EU3, and the AI would probably try to send troops there.
+1 for colonizing the moon within the game timeframe 
You can cross straits on pontons and other temporary vessels without any problem. However these were very vulnerable, one good ship could sink and drown many soldiers...
You can cross straits on pontons and other temporary vessels without any problem. However these were very vulnerable, one good ship could sink and drown many soldiers...
As regards straits, personally I'm for many many many many more straits including gibraltar, messina, venice, bosphorus, kerch, channel, sund and many many more. Only they only apply when you have military access to the controller of both sides of the straits.
So, as long as england controls kent and calais the channel is a strait, once France takes calais the channel ceases to be a strait. This allows for many many more straights e.g. between cuba and florida, japan and korea, malaya and sumatra, yemen and africa, oman and persia, ceylon and india, corsica and sardinia, scotland and ireland
This can be combined with making transports very expensive to build and maintain. So you can transport 30 thousand men over a short strait with local shipping, but moving 30 thousand men to america is almost impossible.
But Johan doesn't listen to me.
So, as long as england controls kent and calais the channel is a strait, once France takes calais the channel ceases to be a strait. This allows for many many more straights e.g. between cuba and florida, japan and korea, malaya and sumatra, yemen and africa, oman and persia, ceylon and india, corsica and sardinia, scotland and ireland
This can be combined with making transports very expensive to build and maintain. So you can transport 30 thousand men over a short strait with local shipping, but moving 30 thousand men to america is almost impossible.
But Johan doesn't listen to me.
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You know, you would have half expected someone to mention the dutch Water Line, the "Waterlinie" and that wasn't even a strait but flooded land (including extensive fortifications and fortified cities along the entire span of the flooded area. As well as another possible ring of defenses around Amsterdam, again including floodable land).
"Old Water Line" (1629) & "New Water Line" (1815)
Though water had been used as a natural line of defense since the 16th century (Spanish siege of Leiden, 1574).
Come to think of it, guess there's no dutch event regarding the Water Line defense at all, is there? Does anyone even get a water crossing penalty when invading Holland from the south east?
Imagine what it could do to hold off Spain (in the later scenario), France or Burgundy though if the dutch could do the same as Venice with a fleet.
"Old Water Line" (1629) & "New Water Line" (1815)
Though water had been used as a natural line of defense since the 16th century (Spanish siege of Leiden, 1574).
Come to think of it, guess there's no dutch event regarding the Water Line defense at all, is there? Does anyone even get a water crossing penalty when invading Holland from the south east?
Imagine what it could do to hold off Spain (in the later scenario), France or Burgundy though if the dutch could do the same as Venice with a fleet.
the strait works perfectly for the sea of marmara.
in wartimes its easy to block it since konstantinople has its port in it and edirne (i think) too.
its easy to block the straits in war times and its easy to be able to march in peace times.
also its historically acurate that the ottomans conquered the areas around konstantinople first. that means that they also have acces to the straits at that time.
france never had that easy aces to britain and shouldn't have that easy acces now.
in wartimes its easy to block it since konstantinople has its port in it and edirne (i think) too.
its easy to block the straits in war times and its easy to be able to march in peace times.
also its historically acurate that the ottomans conquered the areas around konstantinople first. that means that they also have acces to the straits at that time.
france never had that easy aces to britain and shouldn't have that easy acces now.
The water line is not a strait or river but a swamp. The whole point of the water line was that it was unnavigable. It made it impossible for an attacking army to camp near the Dutch fortifications. It also created an extremely unhealthy environment with malaria rampant, making it even harder for an army in the field to effect a siege. If the water line could have been crossed by boat in an orderly fashion, the French would have done it in 1672. There were plans of crossing it when it was frozen over, but Dutch raids by ice-skate put a stop to that. If you want to model the water line historically, you should make Holland into a marsh type of terrain, like in HOI, with the same huge defensive modifiers. For the moment, I think it is modeled best by scorched earth tactics in Utrecht, Brabant, Breda and Zeeland.
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About the AI needing straits for its crossings, it baffles me that in all these years of Paradox designing games where an amphibious invasion is a core concept the AI has never been able to use it effectively. The fact that I'm surprised probably tells more about my total lack of knowledge about the hardships of AI design, but still. These games require a lot of time to play, far more time than can be expected from a group of average gamers to be collectively freed up for a multi player game. The community is not that big to begin with. Therefore the single player mode has to carry the game.
In my experience all the planning I've seen the AI do in EUIII is build more regiments than the opponent, make some arbitrarily sized stacks of random composition and march them without regard for attrition into enemies lands, seemingly without any destination or goal, other than besieging worthless border provinces. At least the AI in Victoria was able to create a front (given enough time).
But this seems to be a general problem in AI design. I can't think of a single RTS or TBS game that actually has any strategy going on on the AI's side. In Civ games for instance at higher difficulties the AI gets insanely good at cranking out units but still doesn't know how to use them effectively. I wonder if it is even possible to program an AI (any AI) that can make strategic decision, plan towards goals and effectively carry out those plans? Maybe it's just something computers won't be able to do, ever.
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Well, I wasn't suggesting it should be navigatable by ships, but be more like the link Venice has with Friuli (I think?), where Venice is modeled as an island. At least I've noticed the main reason Venice survives wars in IN is by blocking enemies from traversing the watery link with their fleet. Boats been used a lot by the dutch to stop (as well as land) invasions on dutch territory in several instances. The dutch used flatbottom boats to attack the Spaniards in this type of flooded land as well, so there's certainly a naval element to it, both Zeeland and Holland were basically turned into large islands after all. English/French invasions of Holland and Zeeland were thwarted with fleets, rather than direct land combat. If one wants to conquer Zeeland, which is basically all island, you'd definitely need a fleet though, there were no bridges at the time after all.
It happened many times - Ottomans didnt have any substantial fleet until late 15th century but they started the succesful conquest of european mainland in 14th century. They crossed the Marmara (or Bosfor) straits a few times even AGAINST enemy fleets without having any themsleves. Year 1444 is a good exemple.
If the strait is narrow and easily navigable (NOT like the one between England and the european mainland) and at the same time big enough all you need is time and a couple of boats - confiscated fishing boats if there isnt anything better.
The straits like the one near Dover is a completly different matter. It cannot be directly compared with the Black Sea ones.
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Do they? In recent games -- admittedly in 3.2, not HT -- I've seen several large navies, including POR and ENG still using carracks several with caravels, several levels beyond the required tech. I can't say why.
The general rule for straits should be simple enough: was it really used, without major fleet ops, for invasion or at least crossing? (And not in just one fluke case.)If so, then sure, it should be a strait. If not, no. That lets out Dover & Gibraltar; it justifies the Bosphorus (and probably the Dardanelles), & Messina.
What about Rhodes, Naxos and the Danish straits then, Georg LeS?
BTW, straits definitely justifiable between Ternate, Tidore and Halmahera.
Oh and I second the idea that something should be done with the Dutch Water Line.
BTW, straits definitely justifiable between Ternate, Tidore and Halmahera.
Oh and I second the idea that something should be done with the Dutch Water Line.
Quite wrong. Goal oriented AI systems are quite feasible and can perform well in many situations, but they also require lots of resources and are more complex to develop, test and evaluate.
At any rate, don't think that what you see in commercial games is any indication of the current state of affairs in AI as a science. Most games depend on very basic conditional behavior, techniques first applied in the 60s or so. Some use elements of methods developed in the 90s. But there is a strong drive in developing any commercial product to use the cheapest, most reliable and simplest to obtain components over experimental ones.
What I've read about the layered AI that's being developed for Civ V does sound pretty nice though. It's still not scientifically state of the art, but it could turn out to be a very skilled and versatile Civ opponent nevertheless. (See the last two paragraphs on this page, and the next page of the preview as well)
what about; when in a strait province you get the options ' confiscate fishboats' or ' build bridge'. number of fishboats should be calculated from province tax and there should of course be a risk that they sink. i got the bridge option from the persian king who build a bridge across the bosphorus.
I wouldn't mind the english channel being a strait. I've pretty much never seen the english mainland invaded, which makes it a bit boring
