What´s with GB vs France in 1705ad with 1.3?

[Skott]

Sorry if this is OT, but I gotta vent.

I've been playing Russia for a while, since it's a big enough change of pace from the usual nations I play. Anyway, I took St. Petersburg and am Poland's only ally. Poland, being completely stupid, has declared war on everyone, even though Austria and Prussis are eating them alive. So what does Poland do now? They send a stack towards St. Petersburg, split it into 4 little forces, and just camp around my city. They don't attack, which I guess is good and a slight improvement over the current BS DOWs where Allies stab you in the back with absolutely no logical reason to do so. But while Poland is losing Poland, this army just continues to camp around St. Petersburg, doing NOTHING!

In my last few turns, Prussia takes one of Poland's last major territories. What does Poland do? They send another stack towards Moscow...

Completely asinine. The DAI and CAI are broken. None of your diplomatic relationships mean anything except Protectorates and Trade Partners as at least you do actually get some economic benefit from them. As far as war goes, it's you vs. the world, no matter what the diplomatic screen says. It's very odd you know, because when the game first came out, Diplomacy worked much better than it does now. It was after the 1st or 2nd patch, when some people were complaining about how they could play through a whole game without going to war that CA 'made the AI more aggressive', which basically broke diplomacy.

When playing Russia, which is one of my fav factions to play, I have never seen what you described although I have seen similar things happen when playing other factions, just hasnt happened yet with Russia and Poland. Anyway, what I like to do is give Poland money and technology to keep them going. I basically use Poland as a wall to seperate Russia from Prussia and Austria until I'm ready to go to war with them.

Now some may say they cant make enough money to support an ally like that but it doesnt take a whole lot really and what really helps is that you give them technology that other factions dont have. The AI in this game doesnt really tech up all that fast and for some factions they dont seem to tech up at all. Give Poland square, bayonet, and fire at will tech as soon as you get them (I go for these right away) and watch Poland kick some butt especially once you add techs that give howitzers. Then just sprinkle in some needed cash as gifts from time to time so they can build those units.

In fact nowadays I give away all my techs to all the other factions as soon as I get them. Makes for a more difficult fight on the battle map since there isnt a huge disparity tech wise between my units and the enemy's. The AI still cant outwit me but their units are a little tougher since they have the same abilities as mine do. So if you want to have your allies (in this case Poland) do more for you give them your techs as soon as you get them but dont give techs to your enemies. They'll perform in battles better against their opponents.

I hope these tips help you out.

As for the Poles hanging around St. Petersburg to me thats a AI glitch in the game. Only thing to stop it that I can think of is to start a new campaign. It sucks but it shouldnt happen everytime so a new campaign should stop it.