Dutch Campaign abandoned in disgust

[Tsavong]

Didz was the Dutch campaign you had problems with one you started befor the patch? Maybe the AI tweaks maid it do odd things.
I have a Prussia campaign on the go form be for the patch and 1 turn after the patch the Dutch went to war the next turn Austria went to war and the 3rd turn Russia joined in. Hopefully my European empire is big enough to soak up the armies of Austria and Russia an till I've dealt with the Dutch. Hopefully the German Empire will emerge stronger as a result.

[al Roumi]

Zerg, depending on your game's difficulty settings and comparative level of tech to other factions, you should be ok. I played a short (M/M) Prussia campaign through that I started post patch 3 and did not face such a mob near the game ending, I was at war with Austria, Russia and Danemark though. I had also been aiming for the finish which, no disrespect to didz, I'm not sure he really was in his game -probably due to his entertaining (for me, reading his AARs) tendency to roleplay.

It is a bit gamey but it's often easiest to go for the hardest to hold regions in a last minute blitzkrieg -hopefully you've at least been building up to that or have some plan to deal with getting hold of them!

If you've already satisfied the victory conditions, I doubt you will face more of an onslaught that you already are. At least as Prussia most of your income comes from internal revenue (farm & industry "taxes"), so having your trade routes blockaded should be more than a nuisance.

[Fisherking]

I believe him.

I just played about 21 turns of a UP campaign and everyone was either lining up to go to war with me or just plane refusing to trade with me.

Either way it makes it hard on the Dutch.

Difficulty levels have nothing to do with how belligerent the AI is. They are all the same.

[al Roumi]

Who wouldnd't trade with you? Were you offering cash too? What was their disposition to you? It's usually a lot easier to smooth the way for a trade agreement first with state gifts, then accompany the contract with a fat bribe. Its just down to the size of the bribe then.

I completely agree that the AI makes irrational decisions and that sometimes conquest of a masochistic faction is the only way to stop the madness. I admit to making liberal use of reloads to avoid or "reroll" annoying AI decisions, I run a cycle of 6 saves +quick save to make sure I don't lose campaigns in that way (once was enough).

That said, I can't remember if I've ever had an ally DoW on me in patch3 ETW yet(although I have had protectorates doing it, but I count that as a kind of rebellion) , I generally manage to stay on goods terms with the factions who start as your allies all through the campaign (not to mention those with whom i trade). I also take any opportunity the AI hands to me, i.e. as the UP, receiving a DoW (however random) from Spain/France or an Indian faction is as much an inevitability as a blessing -these are wars you would end up waging anyway so as long as you expect them, its all good IMO.

As to the 3rd kind of DoW that happens, e.g. random and unprovoked DoWs from factions miles away from you (playing as UP, Russia DoW for example), well I'm happy to ignore them tbh.

The tricky thing, is of course when a gaggle of neighbours gang up on you -as often happens with the Indians & colonists of North America. However, when that happens I only kick myself for not allying or at least befriending one of them beforehand.

[Vlad Tzepes]

I'm on my Dutch campaign right now, around year 1730. All my alliances hold. Spain accepted a peace treaty when I offered France as a compensation, kept peace for about 10 turns and started a new war after. All my allies joined right in. Usual problems with Cherokee and Pueblo in America, but apart of that, no irrational AI. Only the Mughals refuse any trade agreement, no matter how nicely packed. They must be hating the Dutch accent. Oh, and I'm playing H/H.

I've noticed different AI responses in Total War series depending on how aggressive you act. I don't fancy blitz so I never had huge problems with everybody declaring war on me.

[anweRU]

That said, I can't remember if I've ever had an ally DoW on me in patch3 ETW yet(although I have had protectorates doing it, but I count that as a kind of rebellion) ,

Never had it pre-patch. Post-patch, I was pretty darn surprised when UP declared war on my GB on turn 7! Just because I captured French Guyana and Flanders, from France and Spain respectively. Mind you, they were still "friendly" when they declared war.

I don't like the "lets go back to METW2 style war-with-everybody diplomacy" that we got with patch 1.2. I am otherwise happy with it.

[al Roumi]

I was pretty darn surprised when UP declared war on my GB on turn 7! Just because I captured French Guyana and Flanders, from France and Spain respectively. Mind you, they were still "friendly" when they declared war.

I don't like the "lets go back to METW2 style war-with-everybody diplomacy" that we got with patch 1.2. I am otherwise happy with it.

I'm not sure one should be surprised that the UP go to war with factions holding these provinces. I assume the AI for the major factions plays to the same list of conquests that a human player would (is that a huge over-estimation of the game though?). So, as the UP are required to capture both of these territories they, as the player would, inevitably are forced to sacrifice the alliance in order to satisfy their imposed victory conditions.

I do have a huge nagging doubt that I'm giving the AI and game design too much credit in that assumption though.

[anweRU]

The problem with the assumption is that the Dutch AI did not want to buy the territories when I offered to sell/ trade them. It didn't even request them via diplomacy as it did pre-patch.

In my pre-patch game, I had managed to sell Flanders to UP for 6K. This time the Dutch AI wouldn't give a single cent for Flanders when I offered it...

[al Roumi]

ah, ok then.

But maybe they didn't have the money? It takes turns as the player to save enough to buy a province for nothing but cash. When you have a standing army, its often simpler to conquer the province and just to move your defensive position into the captured territory as it becomes the new border?

What you have described would annoy me though, especially as your expeditionary force would have cost money and could have captured you something more usefull and profitable to your empire than something you end up gifting a retarded Ally. I guess the one benefit of gifting them the territory would be their gratitude -their disposition to you should go up immesurably if the territory means that much to them.

[anweRU]

Unfortunately, gifting a territory doesn't seem to do much for the diplomatic rating. The 2500 state gift gives a 100 points. Gifting territory not that much - IIRC, before I absorbed the 13 colonies, I was getting only a 1 point boost per region. I'll need to load an older save and double-check.