How to get the Irish to expand?

[Kavhan Isbul]

I think that if you go into the startmap files you will see that the Irish are Catholic Isolationist. I am not sure how much this affects their chances of expansion, but I have never see them try and only once I saw them building a single sheep. When controlled by the AI their usual role is to get the English or sometime the Danes excommunicated (same as Scotland's role). I have also noticed that the irish rarely accept an alliance proposal, even when you offer them a princess and they have 5 unmarried heirs.

[caravel]

I'm not sure to what extent the AI types affect the different factions, apart from what they build and train. For example the Byzantine are 'orthodox_stagnant' which would lead one to believe that they are a passive faction that does not do much to improve it's ecomony orstanding in the world, yet experience tells us otherwise. The English are down as 'catholic_crusader_trader' (from memory, apologies for any errors) yet I've found that they crusade less than the HRE, the French and the Spanish. They also trade poorly to start with. This may be down to (bad)luck. The English are thrown into conflict with the French from day one, so they may not have much opportunity for trading and crusading. The only AI that really makes much difference is the 'barbarian_raider' (Mongols). They don't seem to build alot, which is why I think the AI types are limited to building and trading, and nothing else. One could say that the KGH are much more aggressive, though that can be attributed to them emerging into one or two provinces with a massive force. Any AI faction would be highly aggressive under those circumstances, as it's been proven that the AI attacks alot if it has alot of units at it's disposal, and it's stacks outnumber the enemy's across the border by a large proportion.

[satchef1]

Im thinking about putting land bridges to all the islands to fix this. The AI handles ships terribly so any factions that get confined to an island tend to stay there and build troops instead of ships (except Sicily for some reason)

I'd like to see the AI create an Irish or Hospitler empire every now and then!

[caravel]

Im thinking about putting land bridges to all the islands to fix this. The AI handles ships terribly so any factions that get confined to an island tend to stay there and build troops instead of ships (except Sicily for some reason)

I'd like to see the AI create an Irish or Hospitler empire every now and then!

I had often thought about landbridges between between the following provinces in addition to those already in Vanilla MTW/VI:

Greece/Crete
Sicily/Malta
Scotland/Ireland
Nicaea/Rhodes

Personally I think that Third spearman from the left has it right in this thread https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...t=69416&page=2 and that some of the sea zones need to be removed to make it easier for the AI to cope. A few mods have done this already so it's not unheard of. Linking the islands to the mainland would remove their tactical importance. The English channel for example was always a natural defense for England, the landbridge present in vanilla MTW/VI negates this entirely, yet Ireland is still a true Island. Ridiculous that the French can cross to England without fleets, yet the English need fleets to invade Ireland. This is why I, personally cut all landbridges except the one between Sweden and Denmark, and create a new one between Sweden and Finland.

[Don Corleone]

I guess I've been reading the Fish & Chips thread a wee bit too much, but my first reaction to the thread title was "Just keep feeding them Guiness and kebabs, and they'll expand plenty"

One thing the Irish in XL have going for them is how cheap all their unit upkeeps are. I usually grab Wales, then try to put together enough boats to get to Lithuania. Yeah, historically inaccurate, but nice cash, ka-ching...

[satchef1]

Scotland/Ireland
Nicaea/Rhodes

Ireland/Wales makes more sense to me. That way Ireland can invade there quickly, giving them 2 provences. It won't make much difference to High or Late either because the English hold both Wales and Ireland

Nicaea/Rhodes is the only other one i'm putting in. It will stop the Byz getting trapped there in Early/High and aid the Hospitlers in Late.

Think im going to add these land bridges to XL.

[caravel]

Ireland/Wales makes more sense to me. That way Ireland can invade there quickly, giving them 2 provences. It won't make much difference to High or Late either because the English hold both Wales and Ireland

Either would be fine, or both as I did once. The crossing point between Ulster and Scotland is shorter though.

Nicaea/Rhodes is the only other one i'm putting in. It will stop the Byz getting trapped there in Early/High and aid the Hospitlers in Late.

Think im going to add these land bridges to XL.

Nicaea/Rhodes is sensible, though The Byzantines can still get trapped in Cyprus or Crete, and the Sicilians can get stuck in Malta.

A faction becoming isolated in the British Isles is not so much of a problem as that faction can expand within those provinces and rescue their economy, so the Flanders/Wessex one should remain cut IMHO (especially with Ireland linked up to Wales or Scotland).

[Mooks]

There anyway to mod the coding so that the AI uses ships wisely?

[BrSpiritus]

I think that if you go into the startmap files you will see that the Irish are Catholic Isolationist. I am not sure how much this affects their chances of expansion, but I have never see them try and only once I saw them building a single sheep. When controlled by the AI their usual role is to get the English or sometime the Danes excommunicated (same as Scotland's role). I have also noticed that the irish rarely accept an alliance proposal, even when you offer them a princess and they have 5 unmarried heirs.

In my current campaingn they asked for an alliance after 5 turns and when I offered took my princess that was 1 turn away from spinster. Maybe they like the ugly hosefaced ones with a moustache? I playing Byz/Early/Normal



~BrSpiritus

[Martok]

@Don Corleone:

You deliberately go for Lithiuania early on? Odd; I didn't realize you were the type who enjoys constant uprisings.

@BrSpiritus: The Irish actually asked for an alliance? Wow; that's got to be the first time I've even heard of that happening. In my XL games, they always tell me to buzz off (to put it politely )!

[BrSpiritus]

@Don Corleone:

You deliberately go for Lithiuania early on? Odd; I didn't realize you were the type who enjoys constant uprisings.

@BrSpiritus: The Irish actually asked for an alliance? Wow; that's got to be the first time I've even heard of that happening. In my XL games, they always tell me to buzz off (to put it politely )!

yeah it was funny, had never seen that before myself, but then this is my first campaign with an Orthodox country. Maybe the Irish just hate the other catholics?

BrS

[Martok]

yeah it was funny, had never seen that before myself, but then this is my first campaign with an Orthodox country. Maybe the Irish just hate the other catholics?

BrS

Could be. It's hard for me to say myself--whenever I've played the Byz in XL, the Irish are often gone (usually conquered by the English) by the time I ever get an emissary over to Dublin. It's as good an explanation as any, though!

[eggplantman]

does anyone else think the irish and the vikings have the best starting place

[aturuxo0]

Hi, this is my first post.

I only see the Irish expans once in more than 6 months playing XL. I was playing with the portuguese IIRC and they were my allies. I owned the iberian peninsula, north africa and the holy land. the Irish not only conquered all the Britain Islands but they also moved to continental Europe from the Pyrinees to Poland.

Unfortunetely, they backstabbed me looking for the sun of the spanish beaches and I had to take care of them