Spain the wimpy???

[Secret Master]

I know ya'll get tired of seeing me post silly questions, but this one had to be asked.

Why does Spain not upgrade their fortresses at home? I don't know if it's a 2 game fluke, but in the past two IGCs Ive played, Spain has not bothered to upgrade their fortresses on their home turf. The year was 1750, and two of their core proveinces did not even have a fortress at all! It was almost shameful to walk in with the Papal States and just take away these provinces, sacking Castille with its puny level 1 fortress in several different wars. Now its happening again, and I can tell that when I bring the Ottoman Sultans to to doors of Granada, I will sweep them away. Is this a fluke, or have other people noticed it to?

 

[BiB]

If Spain does not have enough money for it and when other matters take their attention they will not get around to it. That being said it is extremely silly Spain even starts with unfortified provinces.

 

[State Machine]

By the way, Secret. What tax setting are you using. The lower (revenue producint) tax settings like "low" or "chaos hurts" reduce overall fortification, particularly in the colonies.

 

[unmerged(3627)]

I have seen them fortify Murcia - even when I wasn't playing Spain - just not very often. Once they're up and running in the Americas they tend to forget about the homeland.

 

[Secret Master]

Maybe that's it....

I was using the Chaos Hurts tax setting, and I did notice that Spain was often at -3 stability. Maybe they just ran out of funds. At the very end of the game, they tried to fortify a few provinces at home, but it wasn't enough to really make a differance. I also noticed, now that you mentioned it, that they always seem to have money to send colonists and traders, even at -3 stability, so I guess they did kind of "forget" about home. Thanks for the help...

 

[State Machine]

Interesting about still colonizing at low stability. The IGC+ research seems to show that both fortification and colonization are low priority ai expenditures. I wonder if fortification is the lowest?

 

[unmerged(931)]

Not fortifying the home provinces is a good strategy. The AI seldom takes advantage of it in a war, but it does factor into the AI's decision to start a war (fortifying increases a player's land strength). Playing England or Spain in the GC, I seldom build forts until I've been attacked a few times, giving me some BB-free expansions.

As for Spain, it has money problems in the early game, what with relatively high colonization costs and a weak economy. The 100 ducats to build a fort is a large expenditure then, and Spain should fortify two islands (Canaries and I think the other is called Beleares?) before fortifying the provinces on the continent. The continental provinces are easy to retake. I've also noticed that Granada rarely goes after them, although that strategy could win the war.