How to get the Irish to expand?

[PershsNhpios]

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[wungered1]

I know that playing as the Sicilians (who are one of the only other island factions), it really helps that they start with a couple of galleys in the water around their territory.

[wungered1]

I was playing with the portuguese IIRC and they were my allies.

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[nzd07]

Once, when I was playing as the english in XL I moved a large army of british north militia out of northumbria to aid my forces in france, leaving a few archers and feudal swordsmen in my castle to keep the scots at bay. To my surprise, it turns out the irish actually bribed my small army and took northumbria. Then, when i took it back, the scots invaded me after realizing how weak my forces were in england. My empire soon collapsed because the scots had built up a huge army. I pulled my king and his army out of brittany to defend mercia from the scots, but then the stupid french overwhelmed me and took all of my french provinces, which led to my quit.

Always remember that the smaller nations can be the ones to screw u over

[bondovic]

I'm in the camp that says: No straight islands!

There's the historical-accuracy-argument going on, as well as a minor gameplay argument.

1. Historical accuracy -wise, it's obvious; the English Channel for example, and how it has protected them against a lot of bad things, from Armada to Napoleon.

2. Gameplay. Not as much turtling. And re-emerging factions get back in the mix.

Regarding 1, I feel that AI fleet management and naval combat is too random to properly reflect the power relations that you assign intuitively. In this particular case, a nice solution would be to make the land bridge a one way into Flanders. This would let the English get some time and space away from the French.

Also, I don't like the H-A argument to go too far. There's a point where H-A just smothers gameplay - something that inevitably guides every debate on improvements/changes/modifications. For me, it's OK to limit the landbridges to go from island to mainland/larger island. The small factions will be safe for a while (H-A) but able to, in theory, invade and grow somewhat (Gameplay).

Regarding 2, I've mentioned the benefits in the above about one way bridges. The fact that re-emergants will get back and be relevant speaks for itself. Ultimately, I want more action and these one way bridges supply that. If H-A suffers - so be it. It doesn't suffer to the point that it affects gameplay negatively. Quite the contrary in this instance, actually.

Was it you, Macsen, who first talked about this long ago?

[caravel]

I partially (mostly in fact) agree with bondovic, I would add however that one way land bridges are still a problem for the AI. Taking the proposed one way Wessex/Flanders bridge for example. There is the potential for the AI's main army or King to invade Flanders and get stuck there with no escape back to the mainland if the battle is lost. It also means that the king loses connectivity with the homeland which may rebel.

Personally I think the default setup of the Wessex/Flanders land bridge is both ok and required. Provinces such as Ireland, Corsica, Malta, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus also need connecting to the mainland to get rid of the useless islands and make the game more interesting.

[Vantek]

Not saying it would necessarily be a bad thing, but that would squelch the importance of naval affairs.

[bondovic]

Taking the proposed one way Wessex/Flanders bridge for example. There is the potential for the AI's main army or King to invade Flanders and get stuck there with no escape back to the mainland if the battle is lost. It also means that the king loses connectivity with the homeland which may rebel.

Conceded. Ireland bridge is less of a problem in vanilla, of course. But all the other islands should have two way bridges.