Greetings and pardon me if my question retreads old ground.
I'm playing my first Grand Campaign at the moment. I'm set up as jolly old England against some rather scary European powers. It's fun. Painful but fun. I've reached the later parts of the 1500s and I am finally pulling ahead in expansion and wealth. Only the lousy Dons surpass my accomplishments in the colonial race.
One thing that has helped me widen my lead is the sad state of several major powers. Poland-Lithuania has suffered scism after revolt after insurrection. The Commonwealth has had two breakaway factions (Ukraine and Courtland) and one civil war. France, my wine-swilling nemesis, went bankrupt and now her countryside is bathed in the fires of rebellion. Portugal has also had a pair of civil wars. The common thread in all three cases -- war exhaustion. At one point, France had a +10 revolt penalty in every provence due to the fatigue of her people.
My question: Was it a mistake setting the game difficulties to normal/aggressive?
By increasing the aggressiveness of the AI, I'm worried I may have created a bias against accumulating points through diplomacy and commerce. Furthermore, I suspect I have compromised the prospects the more central European powers.
Has anybody noticed a similar trend in games with increased AI aggression levels? Would I get a better challenge in future games by decreasing the aggressiveness (to normal) and increasing the difficulty?
Cheers.
I'm playing my first Grand Campaign at the moment. I'm set up as jolly old England against some rather scary European powers. It's fun. Painful but fun. I've reached the later parts of the 1500s and I am finally pulling ahead in expansion and wealth. Only the lousy Dons surpass my accomplishments in the colonial race.
One thing that has helped me widen my lead is the sad state of several major powers. Poland-Lithuania has suffered scism after revolt after insurrection. The Commonwealth has had two breakaway factions (Ukraine and Courtland) and one civil war. France, my wine-swilling nemesis, went bankrupt and now her countryside is bathed in the fires of rebellion. Portugal has also had a pair of civil wars. The common thread in all three cases -- war exhaustion. At one point, France had a +10 revolt penalty in every provence due to the fatigue of her people.
My question: Was it a mistake setting the game difficulties to normal/aggressive?
By increasing the aggressiveness of the AI, I'm worried I may have created a bias against accumulating points through diplomacy and commerce. Furthermore, I suspect I have compromised the prospects the more central European powers.
Has anybody noticed a similar trend in games with increased AI aggression levels? Would I get a better challenge in future games by decreasing the aggressiveness (to normal) and increasing the difficulty?
Cheers.
