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ho Mixobarbaros
Aug 27, 2000
1.730
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Hey there all,
Most of you must have noticed the so-called 'swiss cheese' problem at some point in your games--that is, AI fighting wars faaaar away from its home provinces in Europe and obtaining unlikely provinces in return w/peace treaties. Besides creating whole range of problems for the AI (dealing with constant rebellions afar etc) it kinda ruins the realism of my games--a factor I greatly cherish while playing EU. Lemme clarify what I'm talking about with a few examples, all from two recent games I've played with Sweden and Russia:
-Baden got Euskeda from Spain
-Navarra got several Hungarian provinces (Hungary had been annexed by Austria prior to that)
-Ottomans obtained a province in Ireland

Despite the fact that I can justify some acquisitions (such as Spain getting Skane) the ones I've cited above and other like'm really do ruin my gaming experience to some extent. So, the big question goes, is there any possible way to prevent this pattern? I was thinking about solutions the other way, and the best way to go seemed to have the AI not send troops to fight wars so far away from its home provinces. I mean, can you imagine how many Ottoman troops must have died due to attrition on their way to Ireland? It just doesn't make sense... Maybe the regional classifications that're already built-in the game (HRE, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia etc) might be used to this end. If the AI doesn't send any troops in the first place, it can't annex unseemly provinces. So what do you guys think?

tuna
 
Hmm, note that the original 'Swiss Cheese' bug (where the AI always *demanded* a province as far away as possible) is gone though. Of course, if the only thing they can get out of a peace treaty is a far away province, they will still take it. Seems to me that You were especially lucky/unlucky to see so much Swiss Cheese action in Your current game? Because whereas I see such things happening sometimes, too, it´s usually not so much to get me annoyed over it. Also possession of provinces quite a bit away from the homeland was far from uncommon in the EU timespan. Think of the Habsburgs for instance. I concede, though, that it´s a bit hilarious to have Turkey in Eire. ;)

Btw., tuna, could You have a look at the 'Constantinople/Istanbul' issue in the IGC-thread (I think it´s the main thread or the province thread)? We would like to hear Your comment on this...

Regards, Hartmann
 
I have a couple for the top ten of Swiss Cheese:

England annexing the Papal States (just after going protestant, quite ironic)

Courland taking Romagne (and being in the top 5 points list for the first 90 years!)

Sweden taking Vorones

and all those in one very wacky game. But my personal favorite is Kazan taking Ostlendet. After all, when your stuck in the endless Russian steppes, what you really need is an alpine province on the other side of Europe :)

What I find more disturbing than the occasional one like that is that when the opportunity to add a province contiguous to existing provinces, or taking one 2, or 3 provinces away that the AI seems to take whatever province is more valuable regardless whether it might be possible to keep it.
 
some more oddities:

*portugal annexes (ducal) Prussia
*golden horde takes bulgaria (from hungary)
*Scotland and Cyrenacia colonizing Vietnam (not too objectionable, but silly)

others certain to follow...
 
Originally posted by Mariani
some more oddities:
*Scotland and Cyrenacia colonizing Vietnam (not too objectionable, but silly)

others certain to follow...
Click to expand...

I wonder if the Scots Greys would have held Diem Bien Phu? The world would also have experienced Vietnmese Style Haggis, and maybe Rod Stewart live in Highland Hanoi :)
 
Venice in one of my games had several Khanate provinces and the North Cape. Try annexing them militarily :D

Also Astrakhan conquering Oporto. Moldavia having 3 provinces : Moldavia, East Pommerania and Ingermanland :D
 
Hmmm...


I've seen these:

(in diffrent games)

Spain: Memel, Southest part of Norway, Jylland

Holland: Ukraina

Russia: Colonizing allmost all(80%) of the east coast of BOTH americas and coming around Kap Horn and heading north

Turkey: Colonizing South Africa

If you play long enough you can see allmost any country colonizing allmost anywhere. Papal States in North America, Oman in Indonesia, Hansa in Africa and so on.
 
In my game, Sweden had Oporto (which has had a red flag over it for 3 decades), Spain has Western Prussia, Milan has Bosnia, Navarra has Helvetia.

Also... does the AI ever take rebel provinces back? Around the late 1540's, Holland declared independence from Spain... the war dragged on for many, many years... Spain had war exhaustion rebellions in every single province. Spain put them down for a while but eventually... gave up? Been quiet in Iberia ever since... even though red flags fly over 25% of Spain and her possessions.
 
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