Is Luck of the Irish even possible today?

[Captain Butthurt]

After watchung Arumba's LP of LotI playthrough, I decided to give it a try. That LP is dated, and a lot of new features were introduced lately, so achievement could be gained easier, yes?

Looks like "no" to me.

I tried to go after it before AoW was released - but I constantly was being warned by England, and could do next to nothing (even Alliance with Scotland didn't help)

But now it looks that they changet smth in the AI of irish OPM's - at least 2 of them get aliied with Scotland even before I can fabricate a claim on one of them. Even if I don't set them as rivals, they still are paranoid about having human player as neighbour, lol.

So after AoW I have a lot more problems to worry about:

- England still warns me quite often
- That Scotland alliance is always nasty. Even if I ally Scotland too, it will only help defender, not me.
- My other possible allies are EXTREMELY passive and distracted (France and Burgundy), while other great nations are just 8 - 10 positive reasons away from forming an alliance after improving relations, and I can't afford gifting enough gold.

What do I do? I already tried 5 times in a row. Still didn't try no CB DoW on day one, but -2 stability looks nasty.

Any help is welcome.

[gleofrocga]

The naval AI has ruined pretty much any chance for me when it comes to playing as any of the Irish OPMs.

The Naval AI is ridiculous. Venice who became allied when England sent 15000 troops to Leinster and took me out completely. Historically, this would have hardly happened. the 1700s, Wolfe Tone asked the French to help them against the English. They hardly managed to send 1000-3000 troops, and about 2000 of which got lost in bad weather and were captured. Germany planned it aswell in WW1 and WW2, but the voyage was still too dangerous. I know this is a game, but when someone from the Balkans can send about 15000-20000 troops to Ireland and totally suceed is game breaking. The way naval transport works for the player and AI needs to be revamped.

[Captain Butthurt]

Please do not hijack this thread)

While I can understand the frustration, but it's actually amazing that AI can now effectively use transports - it was such a huge handicap in previous versions.

Please stay on topic guys, will ya?

[gleofrocga]

Opprinnelig skrevet av CoTHuK:

Please do not hijack this thread)

While I can understand the frustration, but it's actually amazing that AI can now effectively use transports - it was such a huge handicap in previous versions.

Please stay on topic guys, will ya?

I am not trying to go off topic - this issue is affecting your problem. The AI is far too unrealistic when it comes to the naval AI. Any attempt at the Irish OPMs is easily ruined because of this.

[Captain Butthurt]

That's your vision - to me, more effective use of transport makes continent based allies may more useful - when EU4 was released, you could almost guarantee you won't see any allied troops in a war if they had to use sea transports to get to you.

[Kagemin]

If all else fails you could still go for the Exodus strategy and settle over to the Americas until you're strong enough, it's become much better again since 1.9.

[Laney]

When I did the achievement in 1.7 I allied with Castile, rather than France. The issue with France is that their navy it too weak, and are therefore unable to land any of their troops on the isles. Castile can at least compete with England, especially if you attack when they are already distracted, either because of another war or rebels/War of the Roses. Not sure whether it's still possible to ally Castile in 1.9, but it might be worth a shot?

A no CB war isn't as bad as it sounds, although another option is to ally Scotland and wait for them to call you into a war with England. You can then use this time to annex Scotland's allies, assuming ofc that they aren't also called to war against England.

An alternative stategy is to colonise North America, but I've never tried this myself so don't know how viable/effective that is.

Hope this is at least slightly helpful to you?

[Captain Butthurt]

Well, those were somewhat helpful.

Problem is - I always end up like -3 or -5 positive reasons for even royal marriage, and about -15 for alliance for most juicy allies (like Castille). And I can't afford to send any gifts, even with loans ( each loan gives me 2 gold lol )

I'll probably try americas next time. What is the best starting province anyway? I go with ulster\tyrone because of better king.

[neofutur]

You can get a look at my irish luck guide, even if its already outdated since the game mechanics completely changed, a few advices I give are probably still useful
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=267228648

But yes I think most hard achievements, like the irish luck and sons of carthage are now mostly impossible, this 1.9 version is for playing big nations, not for small nations like an irish lord or tunisia.

[Kagemin]

At least the Sons of Carthage one has gotten easier both in 1.8 and 1.9 imo, not sure about the Luck of the Irish one. With same-continent colonization being stronger again I'd say that route is still open, even if the improved naval AI has made it harder if you choose to stay.

The Re-reconquista has benefitted a lot from the improvements to Africa too, it's actually easily doable by staying now.

Plus there are new achievments for some more of the super-small nations now, and somehow people are getting those too.

[JulesNP]

I was able to do it in 1.9 through an exodus strategy:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=393720876

I started out as Leinster, and conquered the other Irish OPMs, allying England to prevent any surprise invasions at an inopportune time.

I then focused on exploration/colonization, hopping from a Greenland colony to Stadacona.

Once I had 4 colonies, I released Connacht as a vassal and sold them Munster & Ulster, designating Connacht as a march in order to help keep more military strength in the area.

I then moved my capital to my colony in Stadacona, and from there went on to colonize most of the St. Lawrence and Chesapeake Bay trade nodes.

Back in Europe, I used my alliance with England to help cut Scotland down to size, feeding Ayrshire and Fife to Connacht. England broke their alliance with me after this, naming me a rival.

After this I began building relationships with France and Spain, eventually allying both of them. I kept a diplomat in both of their courts improving relations for most of the remainder of the game. I did this to keep their opinion high enough for me be able to break alliances with them occasionally, in order to avoid getting involved in any expensive or dangerous wars, and still be able to re-ally them again once it was over.

I then focused on colonizing Mexico, spreading far enough south to reach the Aztecs, who I then conquered to gain control of their 2 gold provinces.

Once I had enough income shored up, I turned back towards my conquest of the British Isles. Luckily I had already gained Meath by this point, as Irish Patriots had caused it to defect to Leinster.

I then invaded what was left of Scotland, who England had reduced to 2 provinces by that point, and vassalized them. I had to wait for some time after this, until both Spain and France were willing to join a war against England. Once they were ready we easily won the first war, in which I took the rest of Scotland, giving it back to my new vassal.

The next war on England was more difficult, as even though France and Spain joined, neither were willing to land troops in England this time, instead focusing on invading their colonies. Luckily by this point I had enough forcelimit to field a large enough army that, while unable to face their main stack head-on, was still able to carpet siege enough of England to reduce their income to the point they couldn't effectively reinforce their armies. After patiently waiting for their war exhaustion to get high enough, I then attacked their main stack head-on in a battle for London, wiping out their forces.

Out of this war I was able to feed a large chunk of England to Scotland, as far south as Gwynedd and Norfolk. After this war a coalition had formed against me, including Portugal and Sweden. While the truce was on with England I sent my diplomats out to improve relation with the coalition members, and also began researching Influence Ideas, in order to reduce my AE impact and improve my Diplo Rep.

This worked, and the coalition had disbanded by the time the truce with England was over. In the next war I easily took the rest of Britain, with the exception of their capital, London. I took the southern coast for myself and gave the rest to Scotland.

England's only other direct territory by this point was a single province in what used to be the Norwegian mainland, and Iceland.

I then began annexing Scotland, and revoked Connacht's march status, so that the opinion hit would be mostly worn off by the time I was ready to annex them as well. By the time Scotland's annexation was complete, the truce with England had ended once again, and I was ready to take London.

Unfortunately Austria and Gelre (who had become a moderate sized power by this point) had both entered a coalition against me, making the war a lot more complicated. Austria had become quite powerful, having won the 30 years war and proclaimed Erbkaisertum (luckily he hadn't revoked the Privelegia yet.)

Austria was able to overrun France, carpet sieging them and forcing them to peace out of the war. Spain was next to peace out, as they were already were involved in another war and were experiencing internal revolts as well.

Luckily England had moved their capital to Reykjavik, so even if I didn't have enough troops to invade Austria, I didn't need as much warscore, and just had to wait until England's was exhaustion got high enough to make a deal, since Austria also didn't have enough of a landing force to cause trouble in my territory.

With London taken, the last step was to annex Connacht, which completed the acheivement by 1794.

[Taran]

I think an exodus strategy is probably the only possible way with the way the new game changes have shaped up. I have tried about 30 times so far and have two promising saves, two that are kinda screwed, but I did exodus. One I was forced vassal, but broke free cause England didn't have the new world explored to take my capital and the other I am in the new world, but had to cede Ireland to England to keep from dying.

[the_panther]

Opprinnelig skrevet av neofutur:

But yes I think most hard achievements, like the irish luck and sons of carthage are now mostly impossible, this 1.9 version is for playing big nations, not for small nations like an irish lord or tunisia.

Having recently done Sons of Carthage, I can say it is easier now under version 1.9 with so many more provinces in Africa to capture. I had tried and failed several times under earlier versions. All you need now is an alliance with Ottomans and their massive Mediteranian Navy to keep Castille/Spain from invading Africa while you build a massive African Empire. Taking Morocco from Portugal/Spain is easy with the Ottomans helping.

As for the Luck of the Irish, I can honestly say that I am glad I did it a while ago. I remember getting alliances with Scotland and France. and taking out Scotland's other Irish allies while Scotland was already in a war with me that either I or France had started. Also France gave me Meath and forced England to release Wales in a war that they had started after the Hundred Years War was over. I then took Wales after they were free, as I had a claim in place for this to happen. I got high income from two colonies in North America and having the Trade ideas. I can say for sure that every single war with England (until the last one where I took London) was tough, tough, tough.

[Lt. Condition]

I pulled this off in 1.9. However, I got *extremely* lucky and got a PU with Scotland. Between that and an alliance with France, I was able to whittle England down slowly from the north. Without getting Scotland involved in offensive wars, though, I don't know how you'd do it (and they never joined on my previous attempts without a PU)

ETA: A couple of notes to the original post: Most "hard" achievements are going to take a lot more than five restarts. That said, Part of the trick is subdue the rest of Ireland *before* England loses the HYW. It won't warn you before that. Usually you get a mission to take one neighbor, and can fabricate a claim on another. Ally Scotland immediately, declare war on one / both of those rivals and annex / vassalize them. Tada, you've only got one enemy left in Ireland. If you're lucky that last one isn't allied to Scotland, and you can grab them. Once you've got Ireland and a friendly Scotland and France, that's as good a starting point as you're going to get.