Three Countries One Goal

[unmerged(58610)]

That would be the Lithuanian roadblock. The purple people eaters want to stop the manifest destiny of the great Order's march to their promised land. I was slightly disappointed you weren't up to your neck in war. Their gaining of the province will stop you and mean you can't getthe warscore to take a province or two and the capital. The Kazan further complicate matters. The Mamluks may even gain a province, too.

On the plus side you have revealed that the ai -
does not invest in stability
builds too many ships
too many regiments
does not upgrade units as new tech levels gained
allows minors to force majors to war
realtions -199, we are neutral towards them

At the rate the Teutonics are buiilding ships, they'll take Naval Fighting instructions as their next NI. Novgorod is bigger than it appeared. I assume the blue on the screen depicting Novgorod's vassalage is Terra Incognita. The TO should take Colonial Viceroys to reduce the bad revolt effects and bankruptcy that apparently can occur with inflation 15%+ and two gold producing provinces.

Sicily's annexation of Venice is excellent news. With any fortune, Sicily will have a monopoly in Venice and ooddles of money and Corsica will became part of the state. At 13/13 they have almost caught Teutonic Order's 14/13 and look like they'll be the first to reach tax assessors and start dealing with their inflation before the Order.

I would expect the Order and Lithuania to fight, sooner rather than later.

 

[Legolas]

Yea I can hear the howls of protest from you about them being a different religion so I can’t diplo-annex them But I don’t care.

As far as I remember, you can diploannex Orthodoxes when you are Catholic. I did that in 1.1, and I definitely remember the option being not greyed-out in 1.3, although I did not succeed in doing that. And, at least in 1.1, you can diploannex all religions in your religion group.

 

[unmerged(79701)]

Now you'll have to chose carefully the gain you want from the peace with muscovy... And remember you won't have access to lands you could gain further than moscow itself, so put some regiments beyond that frontier and get the rest on your mainland before suing for peace. That is, if Muscovy doesn't become your vassal of course.

And I think you should'nt ally with minors, like Sicily with Corsica. They can't help you in any war but they bring you in conflict with Castile, France... Or at least you should maybe cancel your alliance before the end of the turn so that the AI don't follow their minors single-province friend against the big powers you're surrounded by.

 

[Amric]

I have to think that Lithuania is the big problem for you. Did you not notice if they were allied with Muscowy? If they are, things could get a bit dicey....If it isn't them, I have to agree with the idea that you ran into huge troops with a excellent leader. Shame the AI has that nasty habit of building a lot of ships. But if you were going for a naval power you'd be in good shape, but since you aren't....

 

[SerFranke]

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised. I knew you can't diplo-vassalize countries of a different religious group (due to impossibility of RM's), but I didn know that it's even impossible to diplo-annex them after force-vassalizing. I guess I have to stop playing with western/central european countries solely and try something new...

There are some problems that might occur, maybe it's Lithuania granting MA to Muscovy so htat they can threaten your flank while you're restricted to the corridor, or it's Kasan grabbing some provinces that are blocking your path to the goal; but those are only minor.
I think Boyss is right, the real problem is, that the first province in the corridor is the enemy capital, so that you can't take it unless you fight seveal other wars against Muscovy... :wacko:

 

[merrick]

Lesseee... Could be:
1) General Winter (alas poor manpower)
2) A Slavic Horde with a good leader
3) Lithuania gives Muscovy MA and they keep looping round your armies to recapture territory.
4) Lithuania backstabs you while all your armies are in Muscovy.
5) You, Kazan and Mamelukes partition Muscovy, then Lithuania steps in at the last moment to annex Moscow - cutting you off from the goal.
6) That grey/blue shading is rebels, not Kazan. You fail to realise in time and turbo-annex most of Muscovy. BB-war ensues.
7) Something embarassing involving cats.

 

[unmerged(58610)]

I think there's a Lithuanian army sieging the province the Teutonic Order needs to break out and the one Lithuania needs to connect up its territory. Time to send your Archbishop to steal the siege.

Edit:I think these cliff hangers are the direct result of the cats being out of Storey's reach. He needs an appreciative audience.

 

[stnylan]

Honestly, I think you should be entirely used to starting a turn on low stability and with no manpower pool by now!

 

[Montague]

Ya, if you grab everything else, then Lithuania WILL annex Moscow while you are gone....and since Moscow is the first province in line, you'll be completely cut off from your new territory (and your army)

 

[unmerged(25227)]

I like the thinking behind this game. Leaving the AI in charge over some years does make you think about what you do and how you play in new ways.

Still, it hafto suck to spend alot of time correcting bad AI moves. But perhaps they can change some of the way it plays, simply by looking at this AAR.

 

[Storey]

Morpheus506- crazypeltast52 - It’s Kazan and they really helped in my war against Moscowy. I saw men marching off toward Kazan and I never saw them come back. Is that cool or what?

Insanity Boy - They did meet a couple of good leaders but that wasn’t too much of a problem.

Chief Ragusa - Lithuania is part of the problem but not ‘the’ problem I was pointing at.

Also the ai likes to move toward innovative no matter how much of a problem it will cause. The TO pushed me too far and I sank their navy, well most of it. It will probably just rebuild it.

Don’t be so sure that the TO and Lithuania will fight each other.

Legolas - You’re correct and this is the second time someone has had to point that out to me. So the good news is that I could still diploannex Novgorod and the bad news is my memory continues to dissipate through the holes in my head.

Boyss - You are correct that is the main problem I’m facing. With Moscowy’s capital blocking whatever I gain I get I’m going to have to decide what to do about it. I have come up with a few possibilities that I’ll go over in the next post.

You’re right about having a small country as an ally. I’m only going to do it when there is a valid reason for doing so. For example I want to make sure Novgorod continues to let me have military access and possibly being absorbed by the TO in the future so I want them as an ally. But I’m thinking that Japan doesn’t need Brunei and Malacca anymore so they may be expendable. We’ll see later.

Amric - Lithuania is allied with Poland and I think Hungary. Alliances seem to last a very long time in EU3. If I find myself at war with them it isn’t going to be easy, which is something I deal with in the next post.

RedBarron1918 - Yep Boyss is the man! I just have to figure a way around that problem.

Merrick -

1) My men died like flies because of General Winter but that wasn’t the problem.
2) I drop kicked the Slavic Horde out of the way for most of the war.
3)Right country giving military access but to the wrong country.
4) That was one of my major worries.
5) Kazan did help but the Mamluks have problems of their own. Good guess but wrong.
6) Nope it’s Kazan all right.
7) My cats are outside most of the time now. It’s summer and they take full advantage of the sun, the warm ground and food in any order they like.

Chief Ragusa - You raise a point that I haven’t completely figured out. Most of the time it seems that the first one to start a siege is the leader. Most of the time I have a general, even though usually a weak one, in the siege and most of the time the siege isn’t taken away but every great once in awhile it does happen. Does anyone know the rules in patch 1.3 regarding this? Or am I just imagining this? I know hard to believe that could happen.

Stnylan - You would think so wouldn’t you. But looking at the start of a turn and seeing that the first 3-4 years are going to be spent doing nothing but recovering and the COST of this recover is going to add to your inflation is almost enough to get me to express my displeasure in colorful language that would burn the tattoo of a naked lady doing the rumba off the backside of a drunken sailor.

Montague - Quite right but I don’t think Lithuania will be able to get all of Moscowy before I get back. It has been taking a bite every decade or so but it seem to be enough to satisfy its appetite.

Uknight - Yes it takes a strong stomach, steady hands and a keen eye to play this way. However I’ve never run from a challenge and I don’t know the meaning of fear so nothing bothers me. Now my knees do knock at the hint of terror and panic can cause me to wet my pants but I haven’t run into those since that time back in 1961 that involved a kite, too much string and a group of black kids who disputed the ownerships of the previously mentioned kite but that’s another story for another time.

Joe

 

[Storey]

Okay so how to deal with this cork in the bottle problem. As I see it I have three basic options. First I can take as many provinces as quickly as I can from Moscowy and then DOW Lithuania and grab at least one province that would connect all my provinces together. I don’t like that option because too much could go wrong. Would I have enough time? Would I run into a stubborn Lithuania AI? Could I lose the war because two wars in such a small time frame is going to cost me a hell of a lot of men?

Option two is to take as many provinces from Moscowy and take my chances with those provinces that are cut off from my country still being there when I get back. I can leave enough men to defend them, at least I think so. This would probably work since if I get into a war with either Moscowy or Lithuania I won’t have to worry about access to any of my provinces. However if someone else gets a hair up their butt, like Sweden, then I’m in for a difficult time so it’s on to option three.

I’m going to start sending gifts to Lithuania and see if I can get military access. If I do then I should be reasonably safe until I return. I mean it’s going to make me a new best friend and help me protect my new provinces. What could be better than that? Of course this ignores the fact that I did the same thing early in the game just to have the brain dead Teutonic Order AI DOW Lithuania as soon as I turned my back. But I prefer to be optimistic and always have a rosy red positive attitude is my motto. At least until the crap hits the fan. “This will work” is my mantra.




Okay the wars starts and I’m off to a good start. I ram my killer army down the throat of Moscowy and defeat both Novgorod’s and Moscowy’s main armies. Novgorod sent more troops against me than Moscowy but then Moscowy war also at war with Kazan, thank you Kazan the checks in the mail.

It didn’t take too long before my manpower was gone and I had to start hiring mercenaries. The attrition loses were particularly bad because all my men had to funnel through this narrow alleyway before they could fan out.

As you can see to the right I have four armies at zero or close to it and they each have a few to several regiments in them. Since I’ve been reduced to zero manpower my mercenaries are truly carrying most of the load by this time. I’ve been cycling my empty armies clear back to the coast just to get them out of any attrition problems and because if they ever do start to refill I might need them to handle revolts.




By the middle of 1649 I start asking for a peace agreement but I’m pushing for more than the score says I should get. For example my first demand was with a war score of 65% I asked for 106 score. I was turned down. Okay I had to try didn’t I? Greed is good as long as you can get away with it.




I keep asking for more than I should get because I have destroyed all their armies and captured or are besieging all of their provinces but they continue to turn me down.

Moscowy sends me a peace offer that they have been repeating for sometime now and I decide that it’s all I’m going to get so I agree. I also think the money would be put to better use in sending gifts to Lithuania rather then hiring mercenaries to ram their heads into a brick wall called Moscowy.

 

[Nil-The-Frogg]

You raise a point that I haven’t completely figured out. Most of the time it seems that the first one to start a siege is the leader. Most of the time I have a general, even though usually a weak one, in the siege and most of the time the siege isn’t taken away but every great once in awhile it does happen. Does anyone know the rules in patch 1.3 regarding this? Or am I just imagining this? I know hard to believe that could happen.

Well, as far as I understand it, the first army in there "owns" the siege. You may loose it if said army moves for any reason. I had the problem when I've tried to relieve a starving army with a fresh one and a third party "stole" the siege as a result.

 

[Storey]

Now I just have to get military access from Lithuania and my plan can be called a success.





About this time a message pops up telling me that Cyprus has declared war on Sicily. Islands are definitely a problem for the AI when they revolt. Paradox needs to figure out how to solve this problem.

In December 1650 Lithuania agrees to give me military access. I keep sending gifts at a slower pace to hopefully convince Lithuania that I’m a cool guy to hang around with.

Because I now have another religion to worry about and because of my policy restriction situation you can see how it can be a problem. This shot was just after I adjusted my religious sliders so it shows the before adjusted revolt risk at 17%. After the adjustment it was under 10%.



I now start getting fun events like “Russian revolts (ten regiments revolt it Tver) and city rights (Decentralization gain 1) and Pommerian revolts (six regiments revolt in Mecklenburg). It was a fun time.



.
I finally decided that I couldn’t put it off any longer and adjusted a slider. I moved it toward narrowminded. Yea I know I swore on a stack of bibles, cross my heart hope to die if I ever at any time ever even remotely contemplated moving that sad ass of a paint a target on my back because I’m a sucker sucking on the sad excuse of a slider called narrowminded otherwise known as how to squeeze your head down to the size of your pea brain so as not to have to hear those echos of dim witted ideas any longer. Put me out of my misery thank you very much. Yes I said I wouldn’t waste my time doing that again but the policy restriction problem is frankly calling my name like a siren on the beach to a lovesick sailor on a sinking boat. I just couldn’t ignore that call. I’m going to change my government as soon as I can but until then I’ll have to waste a move with this slider. I’m almost through to the Moslem countries where I think my tech advantage will cover any lack of slider moves in offensive or land.

I had a dream last night. I was standing with a mallet and a silver stake in my hands. There below me laying in a coffin all peaceful and comfortable was narrowminded. I’d get a gleam in my eyes as I’d raise my mallet and place the stake over its chest. Then every time I tried to hit the stake and puncture that pathetic little heart it would suddenly move toward innovative and I’d miss. Time to take a break from the game or maybe I’ll just have another vodka martini. Yea that sounds better.





Just a few last shots to show what’s going on as we wave goodbye to the TO. I finally have time to deal with the revolts that took place before my turn started.

Notice my navy? Finally sunk the bastards down to their proper size.

Lithuania is only up to +77 in relations but I think that should be enough to keep the peace. Yea right.


And a quick look at japan. Everything looks all right.

 

[Nil-The-Frogg]

A quiet war, sort of... Now, who will take advantage of your empty manpower pool?

 

[unmerged(59737)]

How many men died in that war?

 

[unmerged(58610)]

Lithuania, Hungary and Poland look as though they are involved in a war against, possibly, Austria or there are a large number of provinces in revolt. The Teutonic Order ai may immediately receive land reform and move 1 towards innovative.Sweden is the most likely state to DoW the Teutonic Order. Look forward to the fleet building efforts of the airather than the land forces the Teutonics will need for its next war with Miuscovy againstwhom it has no CB, unlike Lithuania. Since Novgorod is a vassal what possible purpose is served by you having a CB against them or strength to their warning against the order?

So your first task as Sicily is to recover Cyprus and from whatever mess the ai has left you in. Then more war against Persia. It might just be an easy turn in Sicily. I think you'd deserve that.

 

[Nil-The-Frogg]

I've thought about something strange. One of the conclusions from your experiment is that the AI does not upgrade its armies. But how could it win any land battle against a human player on the later stages of the war?

 

[SerFranke]

The AI does upgrade its units, but they do not upgrade to EVERY new unit. In the folder EUIII/common/countries there are txt-files existing for every country in the game and there you can find a list with "historical units" for each country.

This list is the reason that Brandenburg or the TO, for example, don't upgrade their cavalry from "Latin Knights" until "Austrian hussars" are available, ignoring the "Swedish galoop" or the others...

This list is also responsible for an Austrian AI always picking "Austrian whitecoat" although the better "French bluecoat" would be available with the same tech level.

 

[unmerged(76311)]

If I may venture an idea ...
One thing that's been a bit bothering me is the way with which the AI keeps on rebuilding the navy in your absence.
So far, you've been dealing with that in a no nonsense kind of way.
(IE, scrapping the lot)

However, I think you might as well embrace it, too !

Think about it. The AI is spending thousands of your money during twenty years for making a way too big navy. Ok.
Now if you keep that navy, you will indeed during your ten years lose hundreds on maintenance. But if that can keep the AI from rebuilding again ...

Of course, I'm working on the basis that the AI does not cheat and does in fact PAY for the ships it constructs. And maybe more importantly, I'm working on the basis that after a certain amount of ships, it will finally STOP building them :-D

In any case, it might be something to think about !

Good luck Storey and thanks for the entertaining read thus far