What is different in 1.3?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Actually it does. It provides you with some extra cash providing that you raid their trade and not block it completely. In my current Spanish campaign I am fighting the British in North America. The British had a lot of stacks over there, but have lately difficulties with replenishing and reinforcing their stacks. In Carolinas they had three against my two and when those were defeated they were without units to stop my push to the North.

In Germany I am fighting Prussia and since the initial onslaught is over the only thing that stops my march to the East is the fact that I need a stack to pacify Berlin and that Sweden just declared war on me. All the Prussian lands east of Berlin are without units to defend them.

On a side note.
Just before Sweden declared war on me I saw to small fleets carrying two stacks near the coast of Portugal. I really hoped that Sweden wouldn't DoW me because my six dragoons in Madrid were no match to two stacks. Sweden started a was but forgot to move its ships so was able to destroy them. During Sweden's turn I intercepted a third fleet carrying a stack. If the AI would be able to handle its invasion forces it would have caused enormous problem for me.

[Slaists]

Actually it does. It provides you with some extra cash providing that you raid their trade and not block it completely. In my current Spanish campaign I am fighting the British in North America. The British had a lot of stacks over there, but have lately difficulties with replenishing and reinforcing their stacks. In Carolinas they had three against my two and when those were defeated they were without units to stop my push to the North.

In Germany I am fighting Prussia and since the initial onslaught is over the only thing that stops my march to the East is the fact that I need a stack to pacify Berlin and that Sweden just declared war on me. All the Prussian lands east of Berlin are without units to defend them.

On a side note.
Just before Sweden declared war on me I saw to small fleets carrying two stacks near the coast of Portugal. I really hoped that Sweden wouldn't DoW me because my six dragoons in Madrid were no match to two stacks. Sweden started a was but forgot to move its ships so was able to destroy them. During Sweden's turn I intercepted a third fleet carrying a stack. If the AI would be able to handle its invasion forces it would have caused enormous problem for me.

I do not see any cash injection if I blockade a port. If a port is blockaded (and I had sloops sitting in ALL British European ports), there is zero trade with that port. Raiding a trade route does provide cash injection. But the trade (ports) have to be active for raiding to work.

On a different note:

VH strategy difficulty is definitely different (from 1.02) now... Playing as Britain I am desperately trying to scrap some cash, while the AI seems to have almost unlimited resources. It would appear, the AI does not value trade at all at least on VH. Most of my trade partners are almost constantly blockaded and they do not seem to be eager to do anything about those blockades. Bottom line: trade is very, very unreliable as a source of income post 1.03 at least on VH campaign setting.

[AussieGiant]

I do not see any cash injection if I blockade a port. If a port is blockaded (and I had sloops sitting in ALL British European ports), there is zero trade with that port. Raiding a trade route does provide cash injection. But the trade (ports) have to be active for raiding to work.

On a different note:

VH strategy difficulty is definitely different (from 1.02) now... Playing as Britain I am desperately trying to scrap some cash, while the AI seems to have almost unlimited resources. It would appear, the AI does not value trade at all at least on VH. Most of my trade partners are almost constantly blockaded and they do not seem to be eager to do anything about those blockades. Bottom line: trade is very, very unreliable as a source of income post 1.03 at least on VH campaign setting.

I'm playing GB on H/M and trade is my main source of income. It certainly isn't as bad as your version Slaists, but it's clearly more of an issue than 1.02

[Slaists]

I'm playing GB on H/M and trade is my main source of income. It certainly isn't as bad as your version Slaists, but it's clearly more of an issue than 1.02

Okies, that means CA might have finally differentiated the difficulty settings. VH seems to be playable, but it has become much more of a 'precision' game than before. Battles (including the smallest of skirmishes) really have to be played by the player, because the player faction cannot afford the replenishing costs that result from autoresolve.

I was amazed by the number of galleons that AI Spain could spam on VH... A while later, I realized, they pay about 50% of the upkeep that the player would pay for a ship of the same gun-class...

[Prodigal]

Not sure if this has been touched on but raided trade now displays in flashing red the amount of goods being blocked. Still a pain finding trade partner port blockades but at least its a step in the right direction

[Sheogorath]

Naval autoresolve seems to be strongly biased towards the AI.

I recently, as the UP, had a battle with Spain in Indonesia. Myself (using AUM) with 2 Fluyts, 2 Galleons, 2 xebecs, a sloop and a brig. The AI had two galleons and a fluyt.

First autoresolve I lost, with all ships destroyed. Second autoresolve, I won, but one of the AI's galleons survived and I lost all the xebecs, the sloop, the brig and a fluyt. A similar encounter, between equivalent fleets (In this case, a fifth rate, a sixth rate and a couple of brigs on both sides) produced an initial loss with all ships destroyed, and a second battle gave me a rather pyyrhic victory.

[FactionHeir]

Yeah, I lost several autoresolves with a Spanish xp3 galleon against 2 Austrian sloops xp0.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

a few little things I have noticed

1. the trade screen no longer shows if the price of a commodity ( Like Ivory or spices) is going up or down as it used to (no more red or green arrow) the price will just change turn to turn, with no indicator.

2. trade theaters seem deathly empty...... I have a complete monopoly on the indies and Ivory coast, and have had to put not a single war ship there since initially cleaning the theaters of pirates. Normal nations seem to have completely forgotten about the trade spots....

3. penalty for breaking treaties is ridiculous, and as has been said it seems to value regular alliances over Protectorates.

4. I have had a few problems during naval battles, the battle will simply pause (I can move around the map, but cant touch any units or give orders) I have to exit the game to get it working again.

[Zenicetus]

Naval autoresolve seems to be strongly biased towards the AI.

What difficulty setting are you using? I haven't had a chance to play much since the patch, and haven't had a naval battle yet. The autoresolve seemed fairly balanced before the patch at a "H" combat difficulty setting. I hope they haven't tilted autoresolve too far towards the AI, because being able to skip naval battles is about the only way I can enjoy playing this game.

[AussieGiant]

Okies, that means CA might have finally differentiated the difficulty settings. VH seems to be playable, but it has become much more of a 'precision' game than before. Battles (including the smallest of skirmishes) really have to be played by the player, because the player faction cannot afford the replenishing costs that result from autoresolve.

I was amazed by the number of galleons that AI Spain could spam on VH... A while later, I realized, they pay about 50% of the upkeep that the player would pay for a ship of the same gun-class...

Yes that's the feeling I get too.

And the AI is rolling in money on even H/M.

As Cultured Drizzt fan said in his point 2. The trade theatres are now devoid of action and I can get all the trade spots I need. I get the feeling that this is because CA has gone back to simply handing money to the AI nations based on the difficulty setting. As a response they don't seem to want to fight for trade nodes after the initial 10 to 20 year slug fest is resolved.

It was a hell of a slug fest but it seems a little artificial now.

[FactionHeir]

I think just giving the AI money is a bad idea unless there is no other way around it. That means modders probably have to do it, but CA certainly has more tools at their disposal.

With the Ai getting some crazy amounts of money, completely blockading them and raiding all their buildings does little to impact their troop production and building capabilities, and that essentially breaks the campaign game completely.

[AussieGiant]

I think just giving the AI money is a bad idea unless there is no other way around it. That means modders probably have to do it, but CA certainly has more tools at their disposal.

With the Ai getting some crazy amounts of money, completely blockading them and raiding all their buildings does little to impact their troop production and building capabilities, and that essentially breaks the campaign game completely.

I certainly don't advocate it as a solution. It a very blunt tool which CA shouldn't need to use after so many games and experience on the topic.

Still, it scares the bejesus out of me to see stacks of French and Spanish troops swanning about.