First campaign, and alls quiet...

Hi everyone

My first post here but I've been lurking since MTW days. I'm playing as GB and have got to about 1730 or so on settings hard/medium. Have done pretty well and own most of North America after the 13 colonies declared war on me (which seemed odd but I've read its not that unusual given the game mechanics). I have a good trade empire built up and a strong navy. However...none of the AI nations throughout the rest of the world are doing anything. Nobody has gone to war with their neighbours, large fleets are sat in port, big army stacks sit lurking in their capital cities, but no land has changed hands. Sweden did declare war on Hanover at the start and I duly sent a stack to defend my German friends, but no army came to conquer them. Austria, my ally went to war with Prussia but both sides have been content to stand and watch each other for almost 30 years.

Is this normal? I know not to expect naval invasions at the moment, but i thought there'd be all sorts of wars and manouvering going on across Europe like in previous games. Is it worth playing further in the hope it will all kick off? Have I just been unlucky and generated cautious AI nations when I started? Or is there a setting to change to make the AI more active?

Thanks

Europe was really dull on my GB campaign, but not on my prussian campaign. I think the latter was because of my involvement so if you get stuck in there and make a few alliances and enemies it should all get going.

On my prussian campaign i had savoy take france only to lose it to spain a few turns later, sweden take swathes of land from russia and poland and austria just going at it hammer an tongs.

well a gb campaign would be dull as you dont need to spend any money securing your base you can concentrate on all overseas holdings and use the british isles as your factory/research centre makes the game way too easy

I agree with the others, playing as a continental nation is a bit more interesting at the current patch level of the game. I've had fun European wars in games as Prussia and Sweden. I suspect Austria and Poland-Lithuania would be similarly interesting.

My game with France was more like Empire Total Apathy, not Total War. If I didn`t declare war nobody else did either. The campaign AI needs a tweak and bayonet up its......

It depends from campaign to campaign. There are several scripted wars:
1. Maratha - Mughal, that start out at war.
2. Ottomans - Russia, that start out at war.
3. Sweden vs. Russia-Denmark-Poland & Lithuania. Seems to start on turn 2 most of the time.
4. Prussia vs. Austria (depends on #5 taking place).
5. Prussia vs. Poland & Lithuana (depends on #4 taking place).
6. GB & UP vs. Spain & France (random turn).
7. Austria, Bavaria & Wurtemburg vs. France (random turn)

Prussia almost always gets its rear whipped. I have seen posts where people have talked about the AI Prussia expanding. I've seen Prussia take at most two regions, then get embroiled on a multi-front war and lose.

The Ottoman-Russian war rarely progresses. The Ottoman AI builds fleets like crazy, and the Russian AI can be pre-occupied with Crimea, Sweden or Gergia, depending on how its wars are going.

I've seen UP take and then lose Flanders in a turn. I've seen France destroyed by a combination of Wurtemburg + myself. Spain doesn't have enough troops in Flanders to mount a decent attack.

The four most expansionist major nations I have seen in my games so far are: Marathas & Mughals - one wins, the other dies, Sweden and Russia.

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Originally Posted by anweRU

Prussia almost always gets its rear whipped. I have seen posts where people have talked about the AI Prussia expanding. I've seen Prussia take at most two regions, then get embroiled on a multi-front war and lose.

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In my UP game, Prussia went to war with Austria early on and completely destroyed them, taking all of their provinces and becoming massive. Then they went to war with Poland-Lithuania and things reversed. It wasn't a quick reversal, but every couple turns they lost another province. Austria reappeared through rebellion and grabbed back 2 of their provinces, and when I stopped playing Prussia was hanging on with 3 provinces left. It was an interesting back and forth.

except for the usual thats already said by anweRU

I had one game where spain took Iberia controlled the italian states except for venice afterthat they turned there way to france from some reason there relations turned.

and another game playing as france the ottomans allmost had Austria (they where finished by Prusia)they took Persia and had a region in India

Just to say it al depends I guess had a couple of times that nothing was hapening in europe there where wars but no land conquering (only in the americas) and then from 1745 there were multiple factions gone.

Because of the CTD bugs, I've played several GB campaigns. Only one was extremely quiet. I've tried to avoid getting dragged into stupid wars by immediately canceling my alliance with Hannover, Portugal, and Austria since I can't support either of them without invading someone else, and I'd rather build up massive trading empires than get embroiled in petty warmongering by those silly little German states.

If I don't break the alliance with Portugal, and often even if I do, I eventually get in a war with Spain, because I want Florida, Cuba, Hispaniola, and other parts of the Spanish Main. I usually get in a war with France because I want Canada. I always get in a war with the Huron because they want Rupert's Land. I'm more often going to war with the Iriquois because they attack New York and New England. When my king dies, Prussia almost always starts a succession war with me. When I eventually get to India, I wipe out Mysore but usually end up fighting one or the other Indian nation to unblock trade routes. Then there's the Pirates and Barbary Pirates. I also fight the Cherokee because they have 3 states I want.

It's usually after I own most of the New World and have a foothold in India that the game just becomes too easy and too irritating at the same time. I'm too rich and powerful to fear anyone, but I also own too many territories that require constant monitoring, and moving into Europe would mean more piddly little territories to babysit, which would also require building and maintaining more armies to guard my ever-expanding European borders. However, this is usually the point when the game hits a brickwall due to some agent or embark/disembark CTD bug.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to start a new campaign as one of the other european nations until naval invasions get fixed.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

In my UP game, Prussia went to war with Austria early on and completely destroyed them, taking all of their provinces and becoming massive. Then they went to war with Poland-Lithuania and things reversed. It wasn't a quick reversal, but every couple turns they lost another province. Austria reappeared through rebellion and grabbed back 2 of their provinces, and when I stopped playing Prussia was hanging on with 3 provinces left. It was an interesting back and forth.

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In my GF's campaign as Sweden (no, I don't know either) Prussia has crushed Austria completely.

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Originally Posted by fusileer2002

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to start a new campaign as one of the other european nations until naval invasions get fixed.

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Might I suggest playing Prussia to avoid most of the naval CTDs :2thumbsup:

A lot of ruckus happens when you play as a faction on the European continent, especially a central one. As Poland there's a good chance you'll have to defend your land from every neighbour, sometimes even the single state nations like Saxony.

Sweden seems to get a lot of stick from Prussia and Poland, but not from the two countries that hate them funnily enough, they're content to sit and be unfriendly with you but no action.

I wouldn't bother playing as Russia, nobody ever even tried to invade me in 40 years.

I started as Prussia and have quickly grabbed some of the single state nations nearby - Courland and Saxony - plus that region that splits your territory and is owned by Poland. Didnt fancy a long war with them and managed to buy peace by offering them plug bayonets immediately after i'd taken their land :2thumbsup:

I had the most enjoyable battle so far too. Saxony sallied out to defeat my smaller sieging force. I formed a line and out in front, little beyond musket range, was a large farmhouse which I garrisoned with a unit of line. It was like my own little "La Haye Sainte" from Waterloo and worked great to break up and delay their attack! I lost that unit eventually but won the battle easily. Much more fun than fighting hordes of bow-armed Native Americans!

I played as France and I swapped French Guyana for Ceylon and an alliance with UP and then I gave Arcadia to GB for an alliance. After that nothing happened in Europe AFAIK. I built up a trade empire and expanded in the new world.
I expected at least some of my alliance- partners to declare a war that dragged me into it too, but nada...

My first (and current) game was Poland. Ended up in a two-front war - invaded Crimea, then the Ottomans, joined a scruffle with Sweden. Managed to force a peace - then got DoW'd by Courland and Denmark. In the meantime, Portugal got annihilated by Spain, which in turn got kicked out of Italy by Venice. France and Austria beat each others head in, so I swept into Central Europe, taking Prussia and Austria down.

One thing I think is that the likelihood of other nations DoW'ing you depends on the pace of your territorial acquisition. I expended so far and so fast, nearly every state in Europe is diplomatically hostile to me. I wasn't in the mood to tempt fate, so I bribed them off with state gifts to pacify them but I get the feeling that if you go on an all-out land grab early on, others start to see you as a threat and that increases the chances of random DoWs by anyone in the vicinity - i.e Courland and Denmark.