I'm in my third straight serious war in India as the Netherlands because my ally France insists on DOWing Vijayanagar over and over and over again. They never actually do anything to carry out the war, but they always call me to arms. I get caught between the AI throwing a temper tantrum and breaking its alliance with me (along with a big Prestige hit) if I don't accept and having to fight off tens of thousands of Indian troops (who won't white peace for years) trying to take Ceylon from me if I do. I'm so sick of the AI whining and crying like a baby because I don't follow them on every last idiotic war they declare, especially when the war actually puts me at appreciable risk. The enemy isn't hard to beat or anything, but what the hell is wrong with France to make them attack everything in sight in the first place?
Why does the AI act like such a brat?
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It something were you have to take advantage of the AI desire to exploit Indian Vijayanagar weakness. I would just start eating India and Declaring a Holy War every 5 years. That way France is following you instead of following its whims. Be proactive not reactive to the AI. I have found they don't ask for your help if you are committed to a semi serious war as much.
Another thing I've noticed is that the AI will call you to war against a landlocked country halfway across Europe that you can't, within reason, actually reach (or even against an opponent that they've already occupied yet refuse to make a peace deal with), but they'll sometimes refuse to answer your own calls when you are DOWed by a country that can't possibly pose much of a danger to them. The random wars against distant, far-flung countries - just because they have a CB, I think they feel compelled to use it - is also annoying. I would almost call this behavior self-serving, except they are defying their own long-term interests by treating the human player in this way. A few key adjustments to the AI could probably fix these problems.
Edit: I should probably provide an example of what I mean. In a recent Death and Taxes game, Naples declares war on me, but Bulgaria refuses to join. Together, with a few allies, we were powerful enough to annihilate the Ottomans, but now, because Naples might land a few troops on their shore, they're going to throw away decades worth of good relationships? As a human, I would calculate that Naples poses very little threat, and joining in the war is worth it to keep an ally, but I really don't know what the AI is thinking.
Edit: I should probably provide an example of what I mean. In a recent Death and Taxes game, Naples declares war on me, but Bulgaria refuses to join. Together, with a few allies, we were powerful enough to annihilate the Ottomans, but now, because Naples might land a few troops on their shore, they're going to throw away decades worth of good relationships? As a human, I would calculate that Naples poses very little threat, and joining in the war is worth it to keep an ally, but I really don't know what the AI is thinking.
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But the whole point is that I don't want to expand into India. I do eventually want to grab Jaffna (the Vijayanagar-held half of the island of Ceylon), but (a) not at full Infamy since I have the Holy War CB, and (b) I can't actually do so anyway (I only have a small garrison in Ceylon for rebel-popping - good enough to beat the weak stacks they drop off on Ceylon, but not good enough to advance onto the mainland; and Jaffna only produces ~3% warscore while costing ~14% to annex).
And while it's true that getting into semi-serious wars will keep them from doing that... the whole point is that I'm not interested in getting *into* wars.
Then you probably should break the alliance. The a.i. is coded in a way that makes war declarations pretty frequent, particularly against nations it sees as being weak and/or unable to hurt them. Once they have discovered them the a.i. regularly attacks most non-European nations because they won't have the maps and/or navy to strike back.
Well it's France, I've found that France is probably hardcoded to be a douchebag and should be beat down whenever the opportunity arises.
dont make alliances with anyone who is not your vassal/PU partner, unless you need a "dishonored call" CB to attack them with. if you are going to take only one province in india, make it dadra, since this will give you the east asian trade port bonus and the eastern trade route modifier.
Issue there is that the alliance was a key method of keeping France pacified from attacking me. I just wish they'd pick ANYONE other than the ONE New World country in the ENTIRE FRIGGIN' WORLD that can actually do anything to me. *sigh*
Truth. They're also apparently hardcoded to mint to the max so they can keep an army 150% of their force limits and get super magical inflation reductions that keep them from going into an inflationary death spiral by 1500. I dunno if the opportunity's going to arise.
Max Free Trade -> no ETR modifier.
Good thinking though, in the event I play a mercantilist country anytime soon I'll have to remember that.
There are two factors at work here:
1) France starts the game with the "Lucky" modifier if you are playing with Historic lucky nations (the default).
2) As the in-game flavour text says, "French lands are both populous and wealthy." France has a lot of wine and cloth, which although not the best trade goods in the late game, are certainly the best European trade goods all game long (unless the Ottomans manage to eat large parts of the Old World, in which case Iron will displace Wine due to the increase in the number of Muslim provinces in the world); it also has a lot of high base tax provinces.
Any AI country that owns all the French culture group provinces will be a bit of a git; throw in Lucky status and you get an absolute monster.