Quote Originally Posted by Prodigal View Post
The game's not called Happy Fatty Trader, its called total war, the AI in any setting should be going at it hammer & tongs.
Yeah, and CA is doing the exact same thing it did with METW2. Force the player to become a blitzer. My METW2 games used to last into the 150 turns or so, but because I wanted to build up my regions. I would get the requisite 45 victory regions before the Mongols came. Entirely because of AI DoWs on me.

As for the current patch: My income in my current VH French campaign went down from 16K / turn to 7K / turn due to increased upkeep and reduced tax income, something I can live with. The techs have been rebalanced, which is fine.

The AI is more aggressive - to its own peril. The Iriquois are no more. The Cherokee will provide a challenge - having taken Florida and Upper Louisiana. Will it make the game more enjoyable? Nah, just another dozen or so repetitive battles.

The Barbary states are more active as I mentioned in my prior post, again stupidly suicidal. A two-ship stack raided my trade lanes. I forgot about it, being preoccupied with the Iriquois - and it was destroyed by a full-stack Papal fleet.

A pirate fleet from Windward isles blockaded Martinique's port - I destroyed it with one of my two naval stacks in the Carib, then blockaded T&T with the other one. Two turns later a single pirate fluyt blockades Martinique. I quickly captured it with my fleet @ T&T (1 5th, 3 6th, 1 xebec, 1 sloop), and sent it to a trade theater. Thank you CA for a never ending supply of free fluyts!

So, to recap: More aggressive doesn't mean more intelligent. I have hopes for the promised re-balancing with the next patch, but they are not very high.