Difficulty Level and Declarations of War

[Prussian to the Iron]

pretty much the same stupid DoW's as any difficulty level; the only thing that changes is the frequency.

[Peasant Phill]

I'm playing as Prussia on medium and I can't complain about DoW's. Let's say only half of my neighbours have declared war on me. The half that didn't so far were both (very) friendly and hostile towards me.
The thing that really annoyes me is that after the DoW's there is no aggressive action. What's the use of being at war when the AI doesn't try to gain from it.

[Didz]

I can't say I've tested it systematically, but I didn't see any real difference between Medium, Hard and Very Hard. The DOW's are just as random, stupid and pointless regardless of the difficulty.

[Prussian to the Iron]

The thing that really annoyes me is that after the DoW's there is no aggressive action. What's the use of being at war when the AI doesn't try to gain from it.

simple:

so that you can stay doing nothing, while they continuously send 1-unit armies to raid your farms until you get annoyed and attack them, wiping them out when they shouldn't have done anything in the first place.

[Fisherking]

Maybe it is just the campaign I am in or maybe there have been some changes made...I can't say absolutely but, the DoWs don't seem to be coming as frequent and what is more amazing is that factions are now starting to actually work on clearing their trade lanes and ports from AI blockades.

Now perhaps the AI has always behaved this way and we have unfairly criticized it....but I don't think so!

[al Roumi]

I *think* that on normal, things are less hectic. In other words, you do still get kamikaze factions controlled by the puppet master campaign AI, but they are less frequently flung against you.

I played a GB campaign on normal and seemed to be able to remain allied to those with whom i was most friendly (Iroquois for one!), but I've also observed that the campaign AI always wants you to be at war with someone. So if you do wittle away your enemies ("hostile" or "indifferent" factions), eventually your best friends ("friendly" and v friendly") will be zombified one by one.

This is much worse on H as, in a now aborted Russian campaign, every bugger with whom i shared a border DoW'd on me -including Poland/Lithuania, Courland, Georgia (with whom i'd set up a trade agrement), Dagestan, and the last straw: Persia (with whom i was Friendly, was trading and had granted military access. Russia is meant to be challenging, but not neccessarily to that extent...

The most glaring inconsistency in that Russian game was that everyone seemed to piling in on me, the greater my strength became (still not that great -15 turns in is not far for Russia's economic development!) and not concentrating their forces against closer foes with whom they shared more borders and were already at war with.

[Dradem]

I think it has to do with how you actualy play as a faction, for example playing as Prusia for the moment, and after being at war with Poland (one that I started) and gaining 3 provinces demanded peace, they agreed. I kept my army (most of it) in Warsaw, they didn't declare war on me. I tested a few things and when I pulled my army out of that Province they declared war. Now already in 1750 and still didn't declare war on me even after Rusia declared war on me they didn't join. Austria still didn't DOW nor did France (I did 2 turns ago ) I just got an Aliance with Austria and Sweden. It all depends I think on how you keep your borders and how you treat your neighbours.

Still when they want they will still backstab (as Russia did) but now I'm back Trading with them.

[Didz]

That business where the AI declares war on you for leaving a Regional Capital unguarded is really lazy programming. What it ought to do is consider the relative strengths and weaknesses, and make a assessment as to whether it can win the war, before it actually plunges in like an idiot.