How to get the Irish to expand?

[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?

[Koval]

I once managed to have quite a successful campaign as the Irish on Hard difficulty (mind you i was using the BKB Super Mod). Initially i took Iceland and Scotland, and then, after assuring naval superiority in the region, moved on to take over Scandinavia and then the Novgorodians, most of Russia soon falling into the hands of the Irish. Eventually, I managed to claim a significant chunk of the British Isles after the English were excommunicated. Mainly, i took my time and preferably tried to spring at rebel provinces that sprung up, especially early on. I think i still have the save file, i might play it later.

[caravel]

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

Not as far as I know. That is hardcoded along with the rest of the AI. You could make fleets cheaper and faster to build so that the AI can produce more fleets more easily. Also the crusader_units_prod11.txt could be edited to encourage the AI to build more ships. That's it though. As far as behaviour is concerned there's not much you can do. The AI will still send it's few ships to the opposite side of the map instead of protecting it's coasts or building trade routes.