Most tempting offer ever? (Nothing to do with schoolgirls)

So here i am, happily plodding along with my Prussian campaign. By plodding along i mean i'm having fun, i'm kicking asses and starting wars, all my neighbours hate me, it's only 1706 and i've already caused 2 separate world wars, taken the province i wanted and then made peace, while the chain reaction nations continued to go to war with each other.

Anyway, the plan is to carve out the old pre-WW1 borders of Germany and then from there, who knows, perhaps recreate WW2 200 years early. Basically just play as Prussia and mis-behave as much as i possibly can to get as much of a challenge from the game as i possibly can.

So far i had Berlin, Saxony, 1 other single German state whose name i forget, and i had just taken Rhineland from Westphalia in the most fun battle i have ever fought... It was a slaughter on the scale of Verdun for both sides, but them slightly more than me.

Then, Spain offered this...

https://img2.imageshack.us/img2/6902/tempting.png

Look at that! All that just for Rhineland. I was tempted to scrap my plans of European misbehaviour and go the route of transcontinental trading empire, but i mustered all the willpower within and declined.

But still, most tempting offer a man could ever receive, without bringing schoolgirls in the equation.

You made the right choice.:yes:

Rhineland is a major city with 4 building slots. The regions offered to you are a separated one-slotters, including the practically useless New Mexico territory way off in the farthest edge of the map.

With the addition of Rhineland i'm making about 2,000 a turn, a low number due to two factors. One, i need a very large army to keep all my neighbours on their side of the fence, and two, my public hate me because i have so many smithies and weavers to keep that army maintained and so taxes have to be kept very very low.

If i'd traded Rhineland for the 3 provinces Spain offered my income would have doubled instantly and quadrupled as soon as i made peace with the necessary factions to allow all that tea and coffee to flow through my ports.

Westphalia might be a 5 slot city but when you're at war with everybody except Denmark, who you can't even trade with because Sweden has them on their knees, the trade offered was like a bag of gold coins to a beggar.

My most tempting offer as Prussia was France gave me the windward Isles for Wurttemburg,

Actually was avery good trade...

Oh yeah and the UP gave me Ceylon for Hannover.

I'm now trying to become a power player in the Americas, and the Indian subcontinent is all mine!

I don't think anyone has mentioned this and I do not know if it is documented, but when a country offers you a trade like that, if you simply hover your mouse over each of the country names printed on the trade proposal, a tool tip box will pop up that will give you each of their current relative total incomes.

Every time I have been presented with a deal like this, the relative incomes clearly showed that I was being hornswaggled if I accepted. Most of the time they are wanting a relative cash cow in trade for few magic beans and a shiny plastic necklace. I think we got New York like this from the Indians a few hundred years back.

The only reason I could ever see to do it is if the one time cash payment was good, you could simply crawfish on the the deal on the next turn by taking the province back by force.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by nafod

My most tempting offer as Prussia was France gave me the windward Isles for Wurttemburg,

Actually was avery good trade...

Oh yeah and the UP gave me Ceylon for Hannover.

I'm now trying to become a power player in the Americas, and the Indian subcontinent is all mine!

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UP did that to me every other turn until France ate them, thankfully.

I have had that exact same offer for the Rhineland too in my Prussia campaign. In fact Spain once offered me Lombardy, Flanders, and New Mexico for the Rhineland. I seriously considered it because I wanted Flanders and Lombardy but considering I was playing a world domination and intended to take them anyway at some point I decided why swap when I plan to take for free anyway.

I rarely do land swaps because I usually take what I want by force. Might makes right! :laugh4: I dont like giving up something I worked to capture anyway. That plus most deals offered by the AI arent worth it. Just my opinion though.

Prussia gave me Konigsberg, Plug Bayonets and a one time payment of 100+ in exchange for Gdansk in round 3. Couldn't believe my luck. I'd invested quite a lot into Gdansk upgrading all my towns, but, ultimately, I thought the trade in the long term was well worth it.

Yeah the AI is very determined to get some territories. They spam you with trading offers every second turn.

Spain particually craves Rhineland or the Italian Lands like Venice or Rome.

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Originally Posted by Dayve

Look at that! All that just for Rhineland. I was tempted to scrap my plans of European misbehaviour and go the route of transcontinental trading empire, but i mustered all the willpower within and declined.

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Giving away the Rhineland as a german faction is like giving away your mother :thumbsdown:

Lombardy is landlocked and you will be attacked by an italian fraction for sure

florida and new mexico will give you nothing; you are at war with the Brits, aren't you?!

Be very dubious of any offers the AI makes!

The only one I have seen that is worth while is UP’s offer to trade Ceylon for Flanders.

Flanders is pretty worthless. Ceylon is at least a major city with trade and a port.

The Rhine Land is a cash cow. New Mexico is worthless. Florida can be developed but you need also to take Georgia to get a trade port before mid game. Lombardy is just about as bad as Flanders without a port. Building armies in any of those three places is slow and you must build the military governors line to have any hope.

Usually they will offer you trash for a valuable region. The only reason to consider the exchange is for strategic reasons. It won’t be for money except Ceylon.

Konigsberg for Gdansk wasn't a good trade? I was pretty pleased with it.

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Originally Posted by Fisherking

Flanders is pretty worthless. Ceylon is at least a major city with trade and a port.

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:inquisitive::laugh4::whip:

Flanders is a very rich province. In both my UP and GB games, it created x2 income, if not more, than Ceylon. For UP it is a very crucial province. Tear down the dock and build a trade port instead. Not only is it a prosperous (or wealthy?) site, but it will immediately allow UP more trade pact slots.

Ceylon is not as good an income earner. It is a good base to attack mainland India. And of course to spam IM for East Indies and Madagascar Straits.

My most tempting offer was from Spain for France: Naples, Lombardy, Sardinia, New Mexico and Florida for France. I was tempted to take the offer and capture Paris back the very next turn.

However, it was more fun conquering the offered regions.

I never take the deals offered by the AI as they never seem worth it. I take contiguous territory that I can defend with minimal increase in the size of my armed forces, thus improving the balance between income and upkeep. The AI will often offer me 3 far-flung territories that are not contiguous to each other, let alone me, and could too easily be retaken by the offereing faction or some other. I don't want 5 territories all over the world, each requiring their own personal army to hold on to.

Thus, when I play England, I go after islands or coastal regions and control the seas. If I can hold the seas, the islands are completely safe and I can reinforce the coastal regions easily.

When I play as a land power, like Prussia, I stick to contiguous territories that preferably shorten my front line, rather than expand it. I'm always seeking bottlenecks like bridges and paths through mountains or forests so I can use the rivers, mountains, and forests as safe borders, and further reduce the need for border guards.

My England plan may become more difficult once the bug preventing naval invasions is removed.

playing as UP I made an offer to Spain was in a WAR with them already for 14 turns or so. after taking the region above Panama I already had the others that ar lower from spain. I also had spain from the turn before and flanders already from the beginning.

I asked for peace demanding New spain, florida and an island. it worked I thought lets try again asked some more provinces and it worked again my 3rd try i asked all the lands accept for napels-sicily because that was there main capitale. And they accepted :oops:

In my UP game, I conquered France and was at peace with Spain. Every other turn, Spain offered me 5-6 provinces in exchange for France. It was a massive exchange, but I never found it tempting due to the prosperity of France.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

In my UP game, I conquered France and was at peace with Spain. Every other turn, Spain offered me 5-6 provinces in exchange for France. It was a massive exchange, but I never found it tempting due to the prosperity of France.

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I only offered peace (for some reason couldn't select Spain) and they were happy enough to trade al there remaining provinces

As Prussia the only problem with taking Rhineland was the incredibly annoying incessant offers to trade it away from Spain, France and the UP, at least 1 per turn. :furious3:

Eventually I swapped it with Spain for Lombardy (borders my Venice and protectorate Italian States), Cuba and New Mexico. Cuba gave me an impregnable foothold in the Americas which, since I had no navy and was at war with GB, was a big boost. Gave New Mex to eventual enemies Poland to waste money on in exchange for $. Next turn I took back Rhineland and wiped out the French, then knocked off the 3 Iberian provinces. Couldn't be bothered to build a navy to get to Sardinia so got peace with Spain for Hispaniola and $.

So far the only swaps I have done are extracting them for peace or swapping and then taking back what I swapped away. With no reputation system it's full steam ahead for swapping and taking back next turn! :2thumbsup: I have tried a few times to buy a province for 120k but got rejected each time.

I really wish the AI would stop spamming me with really stupid offers of 1 tech for a 10k province or 1 crappy province for 3 good ones of mine. I am actually worried that in my haste to get rid of them I will accidentally press Accept!

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Originally Posted by aimlesswanderer

As Prussia the only problem with taking Rhineland was the incredibly annoying incessant offers to trade it away from Spain, France and the UP, at least 1 per turn. :furious3:

Eventually I swapped it with Spain for Lombardy (borders my Venice and protectorate Italian States), Cuba and New Mexico. Cuba gave me an impregnable foothold in the Americas which, since I had no navy and was at war with GB, was a big boost. Gave New Mex to eventual enemies Poland to waste money on in exchange for $. Next turn I took back Rhineland and wiped out the French, then knocked off the 3 Iberian provinces. Couldn't be bothered to build a navy to get to Sardinia so got peace with Spain for Hispaniola and $.

So far the only swaps I have done are extracting them for peace or swapping and then taking back what I swapped away. With no reputation system it's full steam ahead for swapping and taking back next turn! :2thumbsup: I have tried a few times to buy a province for 120k but got rejected each time.

I really wish the AI would stop spamming me with really stupid offers of 1 tech for a 10k province or 1 crappy province for 3 good ones of mine. I am actually worried that in my haste to get rid of them I will accidentally press Accept!

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I've done that twice. When you decline those offers you have to press X, and then the check button to exit the screen. Playing as Russia i had taken that city on the Baltic(?) from Sweden, the one which they start off with a ship building port in, a military one.

They'd been offering technology and money to me for ages but i needed it for trade. Anyway, one turn they offered me empiricism and one other enlightenment tech for it and i declined, as usual, or at least i thought i did.

About 5 turns later i noticed that part of the map was no longer green and Sweden were holding it... bastards. I know it was Empiricism and Physiocracy they traded for it because i never research or buy any enlightenment technology when i play as Russia. I also didn't keep a garrison in that place because i was trying to tempt Sweden into another war so i never got a message saying "Tactical Retreat" to warn me i had lost the province.