I'm guessing this is a bug that needs reporting in the sense that it seriously breaks the spirit of diplomacy in the game. I went back to look if someone else had reported it, but I didn't find it; still I'm a bit surprised no-one's mentioned it, so please delete this if I just missed it.
Anyway, the exploit:
When a country is in a war with another, you can use "Send Expeditionary Force" repeatedly to wear down the other side's armed forces with impunity. My particular case was me as Germany while France and the UK had a colonial war, but this should be applicable to a lot of other situations.
I build up a huge naval stack, one which likely could have defeated the UK navy, but a smaller one (still fairly powerful) would work if you used it with care. I sailed it around the map until I was in the same sea zone as a UK force smaller than it, then used "Send Expeditionary Force" to give the stack to France. The two stacks fight, and with proper planning the UK one sinks. If I keep the expeditonary force selected, I can use "Return Control to Owner" right away, which means the stack cannot be counter-attacked -- Germany is not at war with the UK -- so I just sail away. Wash, rinse, repeat. Using this tactic, I was able to destroy more than 500 British ships, about 80% of their fleet.
This technique is particularly bad because it doesn't cost a diplomat to send or return an expeditionary force, so you can do this many, many times in a short period of time...just how long it takes to sail to the next sea zone with a small UK stack in it, really.
Even more surprising, this has no diplomatic effect with the UK! I was basically sending the entire German High Seas Fleet into combat with the British Navy, and hiding behind a flag of convenience whenever they came up with enough firepower to oppose me. Yet my diplo rating with them never budged off the positive figure I'd established with them earlier.
I'd strongly suggest making "Send Expeditonary Force" cost a diplomat, or else (though possibly harder) make combat between an expeditonary force and a country cause a reduction in diplo rating with the country being attacked.
Anyway, the exploit:
When a country is in a war with another, you can use "Send Expeditionary Force" repeatedly to wear down the other side's armed forces with impunity. My particular case was me as Germany while France and the UK had a colonial war, but this should be applicable to a lot of other situations.
I build up a huge naval stack, one which likely could have defeated the UK navy, but a smaller one (still fairly powerful) would work if you used it with care. I sailed it around the map until I was in the same sea zone as a UK force smaller than it, then used "Send Expeditionary Force" to give the stack to France. The two stacks fight, and with proper planning the UK one sinks. If I keep the expeditonary force selected, I can use "Return Control to Owner" right away, which means the stack cannot be counter-attacked -- Germany is not at war with the UK -- so I just sail away. Wash, rinse, repeat. Using this tactic, I was able to destroy more than 500 British ships, about 80% of their fleet.
This technique is particularly bad because it doesn't cost a diplomat to send or return an expeditionary force, so you can do this many, many times in a short period of time...just how long it takes to sail to the next sea zone with a small UK stack in it, really.
Even more surprising, this has no diplomatic effect with the UK! I was basically sending the entire German High Seas Fleet into combat with the British Navy, and hiding behind a flag of convenience whenever they came up with enough firepower to oppose me. Yet my diplo rating with them never budged off the positive figure I'd established with them earlier.
I'd strongly suggest making "Send Expeditonary Force" cost a diplomat, or else (though possibly harder) make combat between an expeditonary force and a country cause a reduction in diplo rating with the country being attacked.
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