Suicidal Prussia?

[NimitsTexan]

Ever notice that Prussia seems to have a suicidal mind set? They invariably declare war on both Austria and Poland in the first few turns, sandwiching their handful of provinces between to early game powerhouse empires.

It would be nice if there were a way to have Prussia last past 1720 on occasion.

[Prussian to the Iron]

it's not so much them being suicidal, as it is that they have access to no better units than anyone else, start off with 2 isolated provinces, and are in the middle of tons of little allied states and a few big players.

poland usually DoW's on Prussia in turn 1 or 2, austria actually ive never seen (or payed enough attention to).

[Zarky]

In my experience it goes so that Prussia conquers West Prussia withing 3 first turns and also destroys Saxony, after this they often lose East Prussia, then West Prussia. This is usually because Austria seems to DoW anyone who controls West Prussia, sometimes I've seen Austria and Poland-Lithuania go to war in the very first turns, in such cases big winner is usually Prussia.

[Megas Methuselah]

Eh, I witnessed Prussia blaze through Poland-Lithuania and then slice apart the Russian Empire with Sweden, all whilst the Italian States took over Austria's territories. Poland then rebelled, and somehow took over most of Prussia's territory in Russia whilst the Crimean Khanate re-formed. :dizzy2::dizzy2::dizzy2:

[NimitsTexan]

With one exception (where Prussia allied with Austria and then they both went after Poland together) Prussia ends DoWs Austria before 1705. If they somehow manage to survive that, they invariable then go after Hannover and/or Sweden. End result almost every time is Prussia wiped out by 1715.

[Bellicin]

Actually I've had the opposite experience in my campaigns. First Prussia managed to cling to their startingregions and grab one or two from Poland when I played as Sweden. Now that I'm playing as Great Britain in the year 1716 they somehow cut a path through today's Germany, and had close to 10 provinces before Poland struck back and took both their starting regions. Right now they hold most of Germany and Austria, so I suppose it could look both better and worse.

From what I've gathered in my short campaigns the CAI is shortsighted no matter who you play. If they see a poorly defended region they will attack no matter what, possibly holding off if they're a longtime ally of yours. For instance I've tried to keep the peace in Europe as GB to secure status quo, but of course the french started sending small, small fleets against my islands to blockade my ports within a few years. If I didn't have a twice as big fleet defending my islands I might've been more than slightly annoyed... what I'm getting at is that the CAI seems to plan for one turn at a time, disregarding all longtimefactors just to get that easy region for one turn. Oh well, I suppose the rulers of that age could be shortsighted as well, although I doubt it was to that degree.

Kind regards

[Subotan]

Well, anyone who knew anything about Prussia would know that Prussia had a habit of doing that in real life, and almost collapsed IRL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_miracle_of_the_House_of_Brandenburg
Unfortunately, E:TW can't represent things like that, so Prussia gets crushed every time