A.I+difficulty and naval invasions(vanilla 1.0)

[Cmdr_Sdxo]

Okay, so my question is :

Does the A.I do more naval invasions(like send actual stacks across oceans) in the VH campaign difficulty? I'm playing as England H/H, the year is 1604 and the only "naval invasions" not committed by me were done by the papal crusade stacks(Okay, and Mongols putting stacks in ships in the water puddle surrounded by land next to Jerusalem, but that's hardly a naval invasion). I've read on these forums stories of Byzantines/Moors making landings to Papal States etc. but I want to know whether the Vanilla 1.0 A.I can do this too or was it in mods or updated versions of M2TW.

[Sodbuster]

On Very Hard difficulty as Spain, I had to fight multiple naval invasions in the first 15 turns by Sicily, England, Denmark, and Russia. France, Portugal, and the Moors all attacked me as well. It was tough but once you beat the stacks down and get a few of your own, the campaign should go more smoothly. Those first turns are usually what make or break a campaign.

[Viking Prince]

Sodbuster is correct. The Sicilians arrive on a punctual and early scehdule. While playing France on VH they bring a 1/2 stach to Marseille. You can ceasefire and get cash out of the deal, but the stack will remain. Eventually you need to deal with the invasion even though the invasion is rather static. Kill it and it returns. with better units. Maybe this is the only way AI can demob obsolete units?

Back to Spain. The Moors seem to take units from the two north african cities. Lacking patience, this mean two four stacks that will combine if able. They do something similar with France at Toulouse whenever they are not just wandering with a small twit stack on recon.

The English (and sometimes the Scotish) will also send a 1/2 stack to the Leon area. Usually includes mainly peasants and militia.

So, the short answer is that AI cannot put a major invasion of elite units onto your soil for a prolonged campaign. The twit attacks are distracting and do draw resources. I guess in game terms, they do serve a purpose.