naval invasions: anything happening post patch 3?

**Monsieur Alphonse** · 05-12-2009, 10:59

I had just one in my Swedish campaign. Unfortunately I wasn't counting on that one because Denmark launched an invasion from Iceland. They landed in the fishery in Norway and marched to the region capital. The did no raiding but went straight toward the capital. I was quite surprised. Luckily I had an army near by and managed to capture the region back. I have sent an army to Iceland to take Denmark out.

**Prodigal** · 05-12-2009, 12:46

Seen one, GB invaded Hannover. Pretty pointless move really.

**WackiestPaladin** · 05-12-2009, 17:23

While playing as France, I saw the GB invade Spain in about 1710 or so. They went back and forth a few turns. Spain was still my ally, so they didn't ask me to join them in the war (which I would have). They also didn't move their full stack in Gibralter, or the dispossessed troops from Flanders, Lombardy and Naples (all lost to other factions.)

I later invaded the GB, razed every building to the ground and left. The three regions came back as 3 separate nations (GB, Scotland and Ireland), though all their armies and fleets were destroyed. The American colonies formed the United States.

**Tora** · 05-13-2009, 12:30

My British fleet intercepted a Polish army in the middle of its Baltic cruise, 4 units on 3 ships. Hoping to discover the composition of this rare, almost mythical, phenomenon, by using the chain shot/grape shot method I managed to capture all 3 ships - 2 brigs and a sloop.

Sadly I never found out the nature of their cargo as to my disappointment there was no trace of it.

**Xipe Totec** · 05-18-2009, 10:55

In my first post-patch GB campaign, I was surprised to see a French fleet carrying a small stack near Newcastle. I had already garrisoned all my English ports on the first turn to prevent them being burned in a surprise attack, but I decided to raise a few extra infantry in Scotland and England just in case.

When I hit end turn (Winter 1702) the French fleet sailed right around Scotland, declared war, invaded undefended Glasgow and landed the army, which immediately marched overland to Edinburgh and assaulted, before I had time to finish swearing. My garrison of one general and one militia supported by a couple of firelockies had to fend off a French army including two line infantry and cavalry. It all ended in a desperate melee at a gate which opened rather unexpectedly

with my general saving the day by some miracle. After that I managed to retake Glasgow and was never again invaded for the rest of the campaign.

It seems that the AI can pathfind through an unoccupied port, but not land an invasion on a coastline like the human player. Now I usually keep Indiamen in all my ports to block naval invasion and devastation by sea units, as they are very cheap upkeep.

Perhaps AI invasion fleets at sea get lost when a port they are heading for becomes occupied before they get there, or the route is blocked by another fleet?

Anyway the incident made my opinion of the AI somewhat higher. Generally I think the orgahs have perhaps focussed too much attention on CTDs, glitches and random moans about anything and everything to do with this game. I have suffered very many problems and cursed a lot since its release. However I also think that unlike M2TW which I rarely enjoyed playing, ETW is a work of genius. It has such depth and detail and so many ground-breaking features that we should give CA more credit for, and less whining about trivia. Sure it can be improved in many areas and eventually I'm sure it will be.

It may be worth emphasizing to those suffering persistent CTD's to update your video drivers. I had one every hour or two pre-patch, and since updating my driver at the NVIDIA site I have had only one in over two weeks (over 200 turns of game time).

**Slaists** · 05-21-2009, 15:39

I was playing around with Prussia the other day. The Polish declared war on the Austrians, but did not fare too well. The Austrians took Gdansk from them on the very next turn. To my surprise, a small British (Austrian allies) fleet appeared next to Gdansk and landed a small army. The next turn, the Army joined the Austrians in fighting the Poles near Warshaw...

What's most interesting about this observation: that's the first time I see AI land an army ON THE COAST...

So, it seems, the notion that in 1.02 the AI can land armies only in undefended ports is false.