Tell us about your useful AI allies!

[rustic]

From what I've read here, the AI doesn't have the best reputation as an ally. I've accepted alliance requests from decent-sized Castille in the hope that we could pair up and contain France, just to see Castille getting steamrolled as if they actually wanted it. But aside from the OPM vassal swarm that hunts down rebels and carpet sieges, sometimes the AI ally is actually useful. I'll share an example, then please tell yours!

I was playing as Sweden in the grand campaign, and fresh out of the PU with Denmark I was looking for friends in a hostile world. Being the mid 15th century, I was ofc poor as an otter. Denmark and Norway was allied, and Norway was allied with Lithuania (bordering me). Denmark wanted my main guy dethroned, I wanted Norway subjugated, and Lithuania wanted some casual spoils of war. (Norway probably just wanted to get away, but tried to do the best out of the situation.)

Then I found the Hansa, or rather, they found me. They stuck around no matter if I was the aggressor vs. Norway or if Denmark or Lithuania smelled weak prey and declared war on me. I couldn't afford an army big enough to effectively fight a two front war, but the Hansa was always willing to join without me even having to ask. While I took care of the Lithuanian business, the Hansa prevented the Danes from crossing the strait, or fought back the Norwegian army and took back the Swedish provinces that had become occupied, until Lithuania had peaced out and my army could return to the main theatre.

This went about for four or five wars, until both Norway and Denmark finally were vassalised (this was IIRC my second EU3 game, not much skillz from my side). I don't recall if the Hansa ever got any material gains, but I guess a true war monger isn't disturbed by that!

 

[Lord Curlyton]

You can always build a good ally by vassalizing a nation and then selling provinces to it so it grows to the point it can field a respectable army or navy. As of right now, useful AI allies I've had:
AI France that I built up from a released Champagne (never vassalized but made sure outside interference of their reunification wars was minimal). That was a very dependable ally in containing England or Spain. 200k troops didn't hurt either. Eventually started the AI war spam of pointless Asian minors so I finally let them go (plus I didn't want them to eat Spain, who was able to fight them to a standstill 1 v 1).
AI Spain under a PU with me. Considering their colonial holdings, they have an excellent navy and lots of troops. Yum! Of course I'm playing as Austria, so I have lots more troops...but its nice to start world wars and not have to fight a single battle yourself. Will be useful in late game as I pushed England completely out of Europe so they have decided to become an absolute powerhouse in the Americas (income almost 6k, not bad for an AI). France has trouble fighting its various Imperialist wars vs American England, and even my PU Spain would have issues, so I may end up involved if they push the issue...
Having AI England is generally a good choice if you are a more landlocked nation and don't mind tilting the France/England wars in their favor (unless you ally after they have been decided). About the only nation capable of giving AI England's navy a run for its money is AI Castille/Spain, but I usually see them lose the long, slow war of attrition and naval death vs England. And, of course, the player should (s)he decide to challenge England/GB...
The reason AI Hansa was so loyal to you is likely b/c it sees Denmark/Norway as a rival/threat, and you can be sure that they will colonize like mofo's once they can reach foreign shores.
If you're not playing a Euro nation, AI Ottomans, AI Vijayangar/Hindustan or AI Ming would likely be a good ally, though you better be willing to fight Euros if you ally with Ottos.

 

[maidros]

Playing Aragon, I made an ally of France in 1402. Now it is 1482, and they have stuck with me in all my wars (well, they have started far more wars than me and I always stuck with them too), defeating Castile and Bohemia twice for me and Austria once. I ended up getting a PU with Brittany and inheriting it too (France has a core on one of my provinces) and they are still on great terms with me and have always been helping me out in all wars, even though they have an army twice my strength along with fantastic generals. I don't know what quirk keeps them on great terms with me, but I am sure glad they are on my side.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Playing Aragon, I made an ally of France in 1402. Now it is 1482, and they have stuck with me in all my wars (well, they have started far more wars than me and I always stuck with them too), defeating Castile and Bohemia twice for me and Austria once. I ended up getting a PU with Brittany and inheriting it too (France has a core on one of my provinces) and they are still on great terms with me and have always been helping me out in all wars, even though they have an army twice my strength along with fantastic generals. I don't know what quirk keeps them on great terms with me, but I am sure glad they are on my side.

I can say the exact same about Burgundy in my Aragon game (we happily gobbled up France together). It was the European super power (+ HRE emperor) and a fearsome frenemy. While he could've easily crushed me, we were allies and we fought 95% of our wars together. Eventually, I formed Spain and backstabbed him while he was fighting a distant Lithuania (whom I allied to get the CB). Then I quartered him by using spies all over his war-torn territories, which left him as a 3-province minor in the end.

If this is real history, Burgundians would've hated Spaniards with a passion.

 

[Magnive]

Would Burgundians even exist if that was real history?

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Why not?

 

[unmerged(399291)]

Burgundy is as suicidally offensive an ally as you're likely to get in this game. They're bound to run into France, England and Austria in very short order. My favourite country, Brittany, starts out allied with Burgundy, which might be a good thing in the short run, but something to run away from later on. Either Burgundy is nearly wiped out or becomes the Western European blob; there is no middle ground.

I've abandoned one game (as Brittany) because Burgundy was not only wiping out France, but was the Emperor and leading a personal union with Bohemia. In terms of allies, I tend to prefer Castille.

 

[maidros]

Burgundy is as suicidally offensive an ally as you're likely to get in this game. They're bound to run into France, England and Austria in very short order. My favourite country, Brittany, starts out allied with Burgundy, which might be a good thing in the short run, but something to run away from later on. Either Burgundy is nearly wiped out or becomes the Western European blob; there is no middle ground.

I've abandoned one game (as Brittany) because Burgundy was not only wiping out France, but was the Emperor and leading a personal union with Bohemia. In terms of allies, I tend to prefer Castille.

Depends on where you are in Europe, I would say. Whenever I have started the game as Aragon, Castile has ended up backstabbing me at the worst instances. I prefer to kill/break up Castile as Aragon, rather than ally with them. But I agree with you that Burgundy is a suicidally minded ally. One game as Hungary, I ended up fighting most of Europe for them.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Burgundy is as suicidally offensive an ally as you're likely to get in this game. They're bound to run into France, England and Austria in very short order. My favourite country, Brittany, starts out allied with Burgundy, which might be a good thing in the short run, but something to run away from later on. Either Burgundy is nearly wiped out or becomes the Western European blob; there is no middle ground.

I've abandoned one game (as Brittany) because Burgundy was not only wiping out France, but was the Emperor and leading a personal union with Bohemia. In terms of allies, I tend to prefer Castille.

++

Castile is usually a reliable ally for non-Iberian Christians. Keeping it happy can spare you the trouble of fighting large stacks of big ships and make it easier to defend colonial possessions.

And by the way, I did have Burgundy as the HRE emperor for a while in that game as Aragon. By mid 1400's, I had 30k troops compared to his 120k. Scary.

 

[MercKnight]

Portugal:
Beats our enemies to the colonization game, we also like to gobble up Castille. Although every now and then, Portugal thinks it's invinsible and decides to war somebody without my help and gets WE through the roof and loses against rebellions.

 

[Caban]

As the Byzantines... Venice can be an amazing ally for obvious reasons.
And you can even keep them around with judicious use of nationalist spies and still unify Greece. Or alternately give up their Greek provinces if you get made war-leader and don't mind cheesing.

 

[The Blood Eagle]

The only good ally is a vassal ally, everyone else is out to screw you over.

As England a vassal Scotland and Brittany are great - they both keep navies and have large enough armies to actually succeed from time to time.

 

[Talar]

In my Muscovy game Poland has been a great ally. We have been allied on and off and had royal marriages for the most part of 50 years now. First they helped me to destroy the threat of Lithuania, then the Teutonic order, then they also managed to rid me of the future threat of Poland by getting into a war with Bohemia at the same time as we were fighting TO together. I almost feel a bit sad for them that I did not decide to join them in that last war.. almost.. Sorry Poland :blush:

 

[Pewt]

Most of my AI allies have been great, and I usually have a few every game.

I'd go so far as to say that most of everyone's AI allies are very good allies. That said, most players don't want allies, they want slaves who will help them when they're in need but who don't need anything in return.

 

[Fire and Ash]

Denmark surprisingly enough. Took Scotland and made me rage. Then allied with me and and attacked England. Helped me enough for me to take Meath from them as Ireland. Best Ally ever!

 

[Linx MP]

I prefer not having allies outside of Vassals. Vassals will not drag you into their own wars as they do not have any. I dislike being in wars half the time, preferring instead to focus on developing a colonial empire and trade. Vassals are useful as allies on the offence. They usually start seiging forts allowing my armies to focus on crushing the enemy army.

In my last game I had to contest with a massive Burgundy that controlled almost all of present day France while still retaining the southern low countries that I had cores on. They had a 150.000 strong army and a manpower pool that was the same while I managed to scrape just 110.000 men in my army and 45.000 manpower at equal tech levels. I had two vassal allies with tiny armies of 7.000 and 5.000 (Nassau and a another German minor I had released) which would do no good in the field but they did occupy Munster the only ally Burgundy had and managed to siege 2 other provinces as well.
I meanwhile focussed on catching Burgundy's huge army, which counter attacked me all at once, in series of successful field engagements to destroy them. By focussing my army in two stacks I did manage to win all but one of the battles and destroyed his armies leaving me with a surprisingly easy win. My allies played a minor role but one for which I am grateful.

 

[Caban]

That said, most players don't want allies, they want slaves who will help them when they're in need but who don't need anything in return.

+10000000000
Most players don't seem to understand the concept of a true alliance, and want them all to be balanced completely in their favor. I actually think its really fun to keep a close alliance through the entire game and assist the friendly nation in meeting their goals too.

 

[Me_]

I remember a long time ago a game as Byzantium in IN that included the best AI ally I ever had yet its course convinced my that AI allies are a bad idea. My first ally was Hungary and it helped me a bit against Ottomans and I even took a BB hit for them so that they could take a province from Serbia in a war where I was the alliance leader. But my best ally was Austria. Toegether we dominated Europe helping each other in numerous wars. I ruled in the Mediterranean, they united most of Germany. But in the end they ended up as my only obstacle in my quest for rebiuilding the Roman Empire in their largest borders. And so I broke the alliance and fought them in 4 or 5 wars. They proved to be the most dangerous AI enemy I ever fought. Even when I broke their empire apart and they suffered from Revolution not to mention huge WW they somehow managed to overcome all rebels except some Branderburgian nationalists in a detached province they couldn't reach.
Good times. The best EUIII game I had. Also quite tragic. A beautiful friendship ruined by ambition.

 

[Linx MP]

That is true but only to a point. I have tried on a number of occasions to make such alliances work but this fails for me for a number of reasons. First of the AI is too dumb to actually achieve it's goals even if it achieves them. They make stupid peace treaties even when they are in position to have a great peace settlement. If you make the peace for them it is complicated to impossible to assure they get what they need and for your trouble you will get the infamy hit for it if you do manage it.
Your allies will constantly be at war both offensively and defensively so you will also be constantly at war. This to me gets tiresome especially considering how little either you or your ally gets out of such wars.

Maybe if the peace settlements are more useful and the AI gets into fewer but more important wars I would enjoy this more.

 

[TeutoDraeger]

Burgundy is as suicidally offensive an ally as you're likely to get in this game. They're bound to run into France, England and Austria in very short order. My favourite country, Brittany, starts out allied with Burgundy, which might be a good thing in the short run, but something to run away from later on. Either Burgundy is nearly wiped out or becomes the Western European blob; there is no middle ground.

I've abandoned one game (as Brittany) because Burgundy was not only wiping out France, but was the Emperor and leading a personal union with Bohemia. In terms of allies, I tend to prefer Castille.

I actually feel the opposite. I much rather prefer to have burgundy as an ally (esp. if i start at my new favorite date, 1441) because though they may attack on a whim, they usually have the strength/manpower to back it up. once they control the netherlands, they're nearly unstoppable. their only problem, i've noticed, is building way too many cavalry units to be effective.

on the other hand, castille's probably the worst ally to have because unless you like fighting the barbary powers they'll 9/10 times NEVER answer your calls to arms.