Austria...useless?!

[LykianLad]

Has anyone else found that in every single grand campaign Austria gets absolutely and terribly destroyed by the Prussians??
I dont know why, but it seems that Austria always seems to have everything taken except for Transylvania, and then they just sit there for the rest of the game without enough of anything to be relevant.

[Slaists]

Has anyone else found that in every single grand campaign Austria gets absolutely and terribly destroyed by the Prussians??
I dont know why, but it seems that Austria always seems to have everything taken except for Transylvania, and then they just sit there for the rest of the game without enough of anything to be relevant.

Well, in my game (as British), the Prussians dared to DOF on me for succession reasons. I blockaded their ports and from there on, the Austrians slowly 'ate them up'... So, I guess, the Austrians need a little help from their allies ;)

[anweRU]

In my GB campaign Austria still has all her starting regions. Prussia conquered Saxony, but being at war with a lot of factions (including Austria, Poland-Lithuania and the 1 region German states) lost East Prussia. Austria is alive and well.

[Husar]

Sounds contrary to what always happens in my EU3 games where Austria becomes the most powerful nation on the planet...somehow...
I'd tell you how they fare in my grand campaigns but due to physical problems with the arrival of my copy I still haven't played yet.

[Relic]

Yet to see Austria fall. The last game I was in, they were advancing south.

[crpcarrot]

nope not in my campaign

[Sheogorath]

It was Poland in my other campaign.
As Austria I kicked the Prussians asses, though.

It seems that occasionally some states get stuck with 'passive AI'. Somebody talked about it with the Ottoman Empire. It seems to mostly happen to major powers.

Which, of course, results in the hilarious state of minor factions having massive armies of pwnzorz while the major states are wandering around with a single quarter-stack of 'crippled orphan militia'.

[Melvish]

In my experience Austria is one of the most dumb and obstinate AI faction.
In my last French game i had conquered all America (except for my Native Nations allies) plus divided India between me and MC. Made peace with UK and UP by offering them generous amount of gold (take 100k of gold or i burn your capital!!! common sense answer: ok)
As hard as i tried i never managed to have Austria(who was reduced to 1 province) to agree to end the war. Even when i offered to give them back ALL their provinces plus 200k gold they refused squarely and say i will rue that day (lol). To bad for them them, i ring up Bavaria PM and place that offer: become my vassal and i'll give ALL Austria territories plus 200k gold. They happily accepted.

[Sheogorath]

In my experience Austria is one of the most dumb and obstinate AI faction.
In my last French game i had conquered all America (except for my Native Nations allies) plus divided India between me and MC. Made peace with UK and UP by offering them generous amount of gold (take 100k of gold or i burn your capital!!! common sense answer: ok)
As hard as i tried i never managed to have Austria(who was reduce to 1 province) to agree to end the war. Even when i offered to give them back ALL their provinces plus 200k gold they refused squarely and say i will rue that day (lol). To bad for them them, i ring up Bavaria PM and place that offer: become my vassal and i'll give ALL Austria territories plus 200k gold. They happily accepted.

And thus was born the Mighty and Terrible Bavarian Empire

[Dradem]

It al depends I guess one the game and how it develops, had only ones that they where defeated
ones they where the bigest faction invading both rusia and ottamans Poland already destroyed by prusia and austria

[jsberry]

MetterNICHT.

As Prussia I gave Austria $2500 and they promptly became an absolute lackey. Every time I attack Poland, I call Austria and she comes, and then Poland devotes all of its energy fighting Austria while I poach a Polish province. Austria does not mind when I make separate peace with the Poles after I called Austria into the war. And when Poland conquers Silesia and Bohemia, and I invade them to take them for Prussia, Austria helps me fight the Pole again. Absolutely stupid.

I know nothing about Artificial Intelligence, but it is very hard to believe that anybody put much thought into this. I mean, really, Austro-Prussian rivalry was the constant in 18-19th century diplomacy, but here Austria is bending over for Prussia.

Is any faction especially smart???

[Quillan]

In my GB campaign, Prussia slowly ate the Austrians. Of course, Austria was at war with Poland-Lithuania too. In my UP campaign, the Prussia/Austria fight was a century long stalemate with Prussia stuck in their original territories. In my pre-crash France campaign, Prussia successfully grabbed one province from Austria (the one south of Saxony, can't remember the name at the moment), lost it back to Austria, retook it, lost it to Westphalia, took it back, and lost it to Westphalia again. They'd also managed to grab Hungary away but lost it back to Austria again. That campaign crashed about 15-20 years in so no telling how it would have turned out.

[Fisherking]

Nope!

I have seen it go all sorts of ways. Prussia gets taken out as often as not. It all depends.

[andrewt]

Yeah, they're losing against Prussia/Poland until I decided to help them. I gave two provinces I conquered to my British allies but they just built improvements and didn't build any troops so the Prussians and Poles reconquered those provinces. They did this again so the third time I conquered those provinces, I just gave them to the Austrians. That should keep the Austrians from breaking our alliance again.

The reason I'm giving those provinces away is that I don't want to be bothered with fighting the Prussians and Poles.

[Thermal]

Has anyone else found that in every single grand campaign Austria gets absolutely and terribly destroyed by the Prussians??
I dont know why, but it seems that Austria always seems to have everything taken except for Transylvania, and then they just sit there for the rest of the game without enough of anything to be relevant.

This is replica of my Dad's game, but It didn't happen in mine, must vary, depending on what happens with diplomacy & wars etc.

[Dayve]

It was Poland in my other campaign.
As Austria I kicked the Prussians asses, though.

It seems that occasionally some states get stuck with 'passive AI'. Somebody talked about it with the Ottoman Empire. It seems to mostly happen to major powers.

Which, of course, results in the hilarious state of minor factions having massive armies of pwnzorz while the major states are wandering around with a single quarter-stack of 'crippled orphan militia'.

The passive AI is indiscriminate, it seems to pick certain factions at the start and stick with them. Most 1-state German factions are ALWAYS passive, but in my recent game Hannover are slowly conquering Sweden, while every other nation in Europe, except for me, Prussia, is entirely inactive.

Austria is, of course, doing nothing and have multiple tiny stacks of militia, and the Ottoman empire is, of course, on its knees and at deaths door, with no armies or navies whatsoever, and destitute wealth, just like every other game i've played since it came out.

Britain is the most passive, unfortunately, because they're landlocked in Europe, so any action from them is always in America, and even there it is minimal from what i've seen when playing as France.

[KozaK13]

Never ending back and forth war with poland in mine. They also refuse peace when im the most powerful faction etc. but then that is because of the rediculous penalties you get for capturing regions...

[Dead Guy]

Can anyone who has played as Austria comment on their larger line infantry units and any pros or cons? Are their guard units larger too?

[Didz]

Austria is not doing very well in my Ottoman Campaign, they have been at war with France for some time and not really gained much. Then as soon as Britain also declared war on France, they declared war on me which was pretty dumb as it was their chance to gain a real advantage and they blew it.

Anyway, they ninja'd Serbia, taking me by surprise, but then seemed to run out of idea's and troops. They have a couple of decent size armies wandering about now but seem relucant to take the officensive and have allowed me to pretty much dictate events. Serbia has been retaken, Transalvania has been seized, trashed and abandoned and is now an independant state and I have just annexed Croatia.

They have three decent sized armies in the area including one commanded by Prinz Eugen, but I think their tech is pretty low. They still seem to be fielding a lot of fixed artillery and their infantry don't seem to use fire by rank. On top of that they only have one trading port and I have that blockaded, the only Austrian ship I've encountered was a lone East Indiaman which I sunk pretty easily.

Their cavalry, seems to be poor to non-existent. They have a Pandour festish in their armies which makes then easy meat for my cavalry. The only Austrian unit so far that I have learnt to respect are their grenadiers, who are tough to kill in melee. Fortunately, they come in small units of 60 men and Austria does not seem to field many of them.

So, I'm not too impressed so far, though I suspect its not helping that they must be really short of cash. Not only have I severed their trade routes but my cavalry have been raiding any town they leave unguarded incessantly.

Playing on Hard Mode (btw).

[ZIM!!]

Austria got beat up a lot in reality to Theres a reason one of the biggest countries in Europe is a tiny nation today

[Oleander Ardens]

Austria got beat up a lot in reality to Theres a reason one of the biggest countries in Europe is a tiny nation today

[Subotan]

Austria got beat up a lot in reality to Theres a reason one of the biggest countries in Europe is a tiny nation today

Or, because the German speaking areas of Austria were so tiny in comparison to the rest of the empire...

Started an Austria campaign today. Seems to be progressing well. Wurttemberg, Bavaria, and Hannover are all my protectorates (I asked Wurttemberg for trade rights; turns out they want me to protect them ) whilst the Rhineland is an ally. Currently at War with Prussia, Sweden and Poland, despite the fact that I was gearing up for a war against France. Eugene of Savoy is busy swatting away raiders, whilst I send out Indiamen to kill elephants for the good of Austria. :3

[satchef1]

I've accidentally made them the strongest force in Europe in my current game (GB and France are stronger, but their power is in America). Playing as Prussia that is really bad news! I'm now competing with Sweden to see who can grab the most Russian territory, if i don't get the majority of it i'm doomed! I'll be stuck with a strong Sweden to the North and a strong (but allied) Austria to the south.

Thankfully the Russians are putting up a good fight. They've pushed the Swedes back to St Petersburg (and me back to East Prussia ). In the last few turns i played i managed to get Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine back and snatch Moscow (which was in Swedish hands before the Russian retaliation.

Here's to hoping the Austrians don't turn on me, if they do...

[Prussian to the Iron]

in my experience, austria is defeated for a good reason. they seem to think it is ok to declare war on just abouty every faction in north europe. i wasn't even near them; i was playing UP and only had my starting provinces. I have no idea why they would want to declare war on a nation that wouldn't meet them for at least a good 20-30 turns, and only if i decide to launch a giant campaign across europe, in which case i would steamroll them anyway.

most of the a.i. is very stupid still though. the mughals just cancelled our trade agreement out of the blue. and no one who doesn't already have trade rights with me will not trade with me, even if i offer tons of money. while the battle a.i. is now much better, tha diplomatic is actualy downgraded in some respects. and im only playing on M/M. i cant imagine how hard it must be to get a trade agreement on VH/VH.

[GeneralHankerchief]

In my experience Austria has always been somewhat plucky.

In my France campaign, they took Munich before I took it from them, and despite getting battered by me and my Prussian allies for several decades, they still mustered enough resources to defeat a Prussian full-stack army that was defending Vienna. They were still making regular incursions into my territory when I finally took their last city.

[Kraxis]

There is another factor playing it seems.

I have an Austrian campaign going at the moment. Now I'm a better strategist and tactician than the AI, so I generally avoid getting into the same issues it does. However I have found it horribly problematic to expand. Everywhere there are potential enemies, but they all have a million allies. And while many of them are not exactly in a position to attack me I would be ruined economically if I just decalred war on two factions. The AI tends to not think such issues through. It weighs the situation up 1:1 and thinks it is ok. Suddenly a few turns later it's initial attacks are foiled and it hasn't got the resources to keep going. Meanwhile other factions are joining in on the fun and beating up on the punchbag.

Simply speaking I have found the faction to have a diplomatic mess on it's hand, and I have been forced to wait for enemies to attack me to get out of the mess. Save the Ottomans, but not surprisingly the AI will consider them to be powerful due to the size and relative wealth/power. Not knowing that the Ottomans can't possibly bring that to bear on one front.

Had I been the AI I would have been in deep trouble by now. Beset by Venice, Poland and Prussian in short succession. Each attacking a different place, but Austria only have the economic power to field two armies...

[nafod]

With the naval bugs and complete lack of European AI activity in the American and Indian theatres I've been playing Prussian and Russian games since day one.

Due to save corruptions however I've played alot of them. Any time Austria declares war on me as Prussia, in four games the following occurs:

1. They declare war, bye bye alliances. Only Bavaria sticks with them.

2. For some reason they tend to do this while Prague and Silesia are COMPLETELY ungarrisoned.
-that's two territories in turn 1.

3. They then fall back to Vienna and Hungary and wait to be destroyed.
-3 turns into the war Vienna and Hungary fall to me.
-4 turns and there staunch ally Bavaria is kaput.
-5 turns Transylvania is gone
-6 turns I have Croatia and await a declaration of war from Venice....

Happens every single friggin time. I've never met them in the field. Not once.

Naf

[Pinxit]

Confirmed! Austria died horribly after a battle against Poland-Lithaunia. That being said, it should also be said that I, as Sweden, supported P-L with a lot of money.

[Subotan]

Nice. War by proxy.

[IvarrWolfsong]

Nice. War by proxy.

I do that too! I like making my protectorates go to war for me, not helping them , letting them get overtaken and then retaking their lands myself =P