Very Hard campaign is indeed, Very Hard.

[FloatingBlizzard]

Playing as Prussia, I wait a little bit to declare war on France--Trading with everyone I can, diplomatic relations with Russia at 83, allied w/ Austria--Diplomatic relations at 120, GB diplomacy at 85. So one turn Russia declares war on me for no apparent reason, then 2 turns later Austria declares war... Wow there goes freaking 120 diplomatic relations, So i offer to declare war on france for peace and alliance. Austria accepts and the next turn declares war on me.

So i'm at war (For no reason AT ALL, those ing Russians started all this crap) with France, Austria, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and most likely soon to be Great Britain(And also quite a few minor nations).

Tip for everyone out there--Unless you declare war on France for alliances, or either ally with France, and you are Prussia on Very Hard campaign difficulty... You are indeed ed.

OHH yeah i forgot to mention that Russia and France peaced! Hahaha, that was the most unrealistic part, seriously nobody would ever peace with France in this time period, especially Russia... (Unless forced to, which they weren't)

TIME TO START ANEW ON HARD CAMPAIGN DIFFICULTY!

[Society]

Actually people did get peace with France and even ally with them... Sure, it took Nappy's boot up their butt before they did, but still.

Also, just like in Empire if you leave yourself COMPLETELY open they will invade. Do NOT invade too early and if you do make sure you're allied with others.

[Lord Tomyris]

Maybe Russia signed a non-aggression pact with France?

[Centurion Legio IX Hispana]

Playing as Prussia, I wait a little bit to declare war on France--Trading with everyone I can, diplomatic relations with Russia at 83, allied w/ Austria--Diplomatic relations at 120, GB diplomacy at 85. So one turn Russia declares war on me for no apparent reason, then 2 turns later Austria declares war... Wow there goes freaking 120 diplomatic relations, So i offer to declare war on france for peace and alliance. Austria accepts and the next turn declares war on me.

So i'm at war (For no reason AT ALL, those ing Russians started all this crap) with France, Austria, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and most likely soon to be Great Britain(And also quite a few minor nations).

Tip for everyone out there--Unless you declare war on France for alliances, or either ally with France, and you are Prussia on Very Hard campaign difficulty... You are indeed ed.

OHH yeah i forgot to mention that Russia and France peaced! Hahaha, that was the most unrealistic part, seriously nobody would ever peace with France in this time period, especially Russia... (Unless forced to, which they weren't)

TIME TO START ANEW ON HARD CAMPAIGN DIFFICULTY!

Well on Very Hard, it's supposed to be very hard. And given the fact that you are playing the GC, I think it's normal that the game isn't following the exact course of history. And btw, actually Russia and France were allies for a couple of years during Napoleons reign.

[RuleBritannia]

Playing as Prussia, I wait a little bit to declare war on France--Trading with everyone I can, diplomatic relations with Russia at 83, allied w/ Austria--Diplomatic relations at 120, GB diplomacy at 85. So one turn Russia declares war on me for no apparent reason, then 2 turns later Austria declares war... Wow there goes freaking 120 diplomatic relations, So i offer to declare war on france for peace and alliance. Austria accepts and the next turn declares war on me.

So i'm at war (For no reason AT ALL, those ing Russians started all this crap) with France, Austria, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and most likely soon to be Great Britain(And also quite a few minor nations).

Tip for everyone out there--Unless you declare war on France for alliances, or either ally with France, and you are Prussia on Very Hard campaign difficulty... You are indeed ed.

OHH yeah i forgot to mention that Russia and France peaced! Hahaha, that was the most unrealistic part, seriously nobody would ever peace with France in this time period, especially Russia... (Unless forced to, which they weren't)

TIME TO START ANEW ON HARD CAMPAIGN DIFFICULTY!

You're leaving yourself open for invasion by a nation that's been Prussia's rival for decades (Austria) and a nation with gigantic armies that wants a strong foothold in Central Europe (Russia). What do you think's going to happen?

[Gaidin]

I wonder, with this happening, if you play France, can you sign a treaty with Britain?

[ststew]

historically russia attacked prussia and took land from them (poland area).. and didnt care much for france wars until nappy marched his forces at them (and lost)

[Gaius Baltar]

Doesn't make sense to be at war with everyone, particularly in this age of alliances. Sounds like the diplomatic AI is just as messed up as it was in ETW where everyone declared war on you for no reason.

Not a good sign.

[Rhetor]

historically russia attacked prussia and took land from them (poland area).. and didnt care much for france wars until nappy marched his forces at them (and lost)

You are so wrong. Try reading more. Revolutionary-Napoleonic wars are a fascinating period, and Russia was one of the major players all along.

[larsier]

probably just the very hard setting

[Vade101]

OHH yeah i forgot to mention that Russia and France peaced! Hahaha, that was the most unrealistic part, seriously nobody would ever peace with France in this time period, especially Russia... (Unless forced to, which they weren't)

There was the Treaty Of Tilsit in 1807? Admittedly there was a bit of the carrot and the stick in that the Russians had been beaten at Friedland shortly before, but it was still very much an alliance.

[FloatingBlizzard]

Yes, but the point i'm trying to get across is that I recommend Hard campaign, hehe. I also wish that if you are peaced with say France, but at war with Spain, you could negotiate with Spain using the same tactics you used to arrange peace with France Ex. At war with France and Spain, but agree to ally them both in order to attack Austria, instead of allying only with France to attack Austria, but still remaining at war with Spain.

Also, my Military power has always been on Mighty or Terrifying--The regions weren't open to attack at all, plenty of units to defend everything.

But that was my review of Very Hard campaign
I recommend Hard diffuclty on both BAI and CAI, because I just played about 3 hours on Hard and I'm not able to steamroll, yet I'm doing pretty well and am having a fun challenge.

[Chyeaaaa111]

Yeah VH/VH is definately tough!!

[Maximus_54]

Sounds like the AI is retarded again.

[Santini]

Seconded.
Does Very Hard = schizo AI diplomacy?

[Data78]

most countries liberated/invaded by napoleon had a large majority of their populations support him due to the idea of dissolving acien regieme... aka the old regieme of having a king/emperor with pompous noblemen/women running about like annoying rich... this concept was generally accepted by the bourgeoisie(middle class) and the lower class...
however.. during napoleon's reign over most of mainland europe, what was an idealistic attempt to remove a heavily entrenched culture within europe ended up having some severe consequences of economic explotation...
basically in the perspective of the occupied this is what happened... first... you laboured for the institution, most of the income you produced/produce/resources you made would be taxed and/or reclaimed by the french goverment... which in turn... transfered economic benifits to France not so much for the people being occupied... the kings and nobles were replaced by wealthy businessmen and high goverment officials..

knowing economic disparity as a huge problem that has people thinking about their way of life... nostalgia for their old goverment is born... this leads to the rise of nationalism...which is the will to attain a goverment of your own, run by your own people. and built for your own people for your own dominion... note* it is not the creation of a facist state, democracy, autocracy, or etc...basically the support for the existance of your own nation...

Nationalism triggered by manipulative goverment oppression/economic exploitation was the key reason why France did not retain control over most of europe...well that an Frances population was REALLY low due to 14 years fighting 15 (i think) wars against the world powers at the time...

[ShamelessGit]

I tried to play France on very hard and I know it is supposed to be easy, but I'm thinking it is insane and depending on your luck possibly impossible.

Turn 1 the Barbary states attack my fleet in the Mediterranean and destroy it unless I put it in the dock

I'm outnumbered on all fronts and everyone attacks

Prussia and England both get double my prestige within 5 game years (although my prestige starts out highest and actually increased a little)

England gets 20k + within a few turns

I think all the people who say that the game is too easy even on VH are full of BS. If you try to put all your money into your economy and trade at the start then your neighbors attack on all fronts with 2x your forces and the pirates destroy your trade fleets, and if you put your money in troops then England gets 5x your income within 5 years and eventually wears you down.

[oqvist]

So NTW is harder then ETW? I run DM ETW on hard and it´s insanely easy. But maybe there is a huge gap between hard and vh. I did got to war with four major factions in my campaign and thought I was in trouble but never was.

[Thoms]

I had a similar situation, playing as Prussia within about 10-15 turns Austria declares war on me for no reason, Russia and GB quickly follow. On Very Hard it seems like the AI will attack you however good your diplomacy is.

[JaM]

There are few problems with NTW/ETW AI that are impossible to cure. For example, AI will attack human player no matter what - in my few campaigns as Russia (ETW and NTW), i had to face British invasion force landing in Crimea... they declared war and landed their force for no apparent reason, just because they had one army and one fleet at their disposal... I tried several things to eliminate this in CAI files, but no luck at all. AI at H or VH will attack you no matter what, with factions that dont even have borders with you, or have any land requirements in victory conditions.. and same is true for NTW, except here we have several scripted missions set, so you are unable to do anything differently (capture Vienna, etc..)

In ETW i think the main problem is the huge campaign map with all those factions... i think there shouldn't be all factions active all the time.. for example if you play Prussian campaign, India theatre should not matter to you, and Marathas should not send their armies to Prussia just because human is playing them... Instead, they should made small scale campaign for those factions with only relevant factions active... but ETW is dead, NTW too, and S2 will get axed very soon too. Hopefully new R2TW will finally do this differently, so we could have real historical feeling from game instead of unrealistic things happening all the time (forming USA just because natives capture province, destroy all buildings and then are unable to resist the revolt, is just a cherry on top..)