Alliance problems

[Mr.Lakkie]

Hey guys, ive been playing with austria and am doing quite well, i want to have an alliance with poland but when i ask them they accept it, and iam also friendly with them, but for like 10 turns in a row, the alliance breaks down due to bad relations or something, every time they accept again and when i end turn it happends again, why is this? i really want my northern borders to be secure so i can focus my military on those damned ottomans ;)

Grtz. lakkie

[Empire_TW]

they usually plan to invade you so they don't want an alliance so they don't get the breaking alliance penalty

[Insaniac]

Yeah, that happens at random times at random factions. Means you need to wipe their asses out.

[CHE]

Originally posted by mrlakkielak:

Hey guys, ive been playing with austria and am doing quite well, i want to have an alliance with poland but when i ask them they accept it, and iam also friendly with them, but for like 10 turns in a row, the alliance breaks down due to bad relations or something, every time they accept again and when i end turn it happends again, why is this? i really want my northern borders to be secure so i can focus my military on those damned ottomans ;)

Grtz. lakkie

Do they have any victory conditions which involve taking any of your territories? When a faction has such victory goals, they are not a trustworthy ally.

[Mr.Lakkie]

i see, well since prussia is also being a ♥♥♥♥ to me i guess i have to fight on the northern border too, i really just wanted to leave europe alone and conquer the southeast

[Ecliptix]

I tried an Austria campaign for awhile as well on h/h. Never got through it, but I made some progress before I decided to take a break on it and play sweeden for awhile. But while playing as Austria I found I had 3 immediate big threats

Basically, all your territories are a part of someone's win condition and you need to avoid what I like to call, "The war cascade effect". Once someone declares war and you have to send your army X distance away some other neighbor decides your weak and tries to invade to take advantage of this. Prussia can actually be kept off your back for a REALLY long time if you just give them the territory they ask for at the start of the game.

The Ottoman empire can also be "persuaded" to leave you alone if you send 6-8 units to reinforce Translyvania and Croatia (I think, its the Southwestern territory you control at the start of the campaign).

As for Poland-Lithuania, I have found it literally impossible to appease them or dissuade them away from war AT ALL. In all my campaigns, they're the war you have to fight. The best thing I found to do is to take Warsaw. The mistake I always make is that I tend to get greedy after that. Once you take Warsaw though it provides a strategic buffer that puts a stop to what Poland can really to do you offensively. After this you have a very brief window (and by brief I mean 3-5 turns) to capture Venice (who will also declare war if they can get a full stack) and reposition a 2nd army into a strategically defensive position. By then you should have your 2 armies in a fairly condensed space meaning the AI is less likely to trigger the full out War cascade.

Sell your technology to minor nations to bolster your economy and fortify your natural economy. I can't promise this will work, but its the latest version of my strategy I've tried after 2 failed playthroughs.

[Mr.Lakkie]

hmmm, its true they have armies at my borders, but prussia has a massive army near prague now as well, so i dont wanna fight poland and prussia at once, since iam also allready at war with the ottomans.

[Rommell8]

ya- Poland is the worst I seen so far ,for asking 4 peace-then attacking

I gave Warsaw to England in a trade to quell them a bit..w florida ,for New York- they gave it right to Poland and in a few rounds Poland was at it again:)(england stayed my ally whole time)

[Mr.Lakkie]

Hmmm yeah they seem to be very aggresive, one othe thing, i hear people talkiong about victory concitions, does this mean if u use the world domoniation victoriy condition ( no specific territory needed ) then they dont act like this?