AI Spain in French Grand Campaign

Hi,

Has anyone here had a French Grand Campaign where an AI-controlled Spain actually did anything?

For instance, I have never seen them attack Gibraltar. I have actually never seen their armies outside of Spain proper save for the few times they venture through they Pyrenees only to return to Spain on the same turn. My latest campaign find Spain with no less than 5 full stacks that simply shift troops between them and wander the Spanish countryside.

I have gotten them to declare war on Austria, Prussia, Russia, UK... none of these motivates their troops beyond their borders. I have never ever seen a Spanish navy.

I guess this is somewhat historical, excepting the lack of a Navy, that Spain would not be a huge continental player here... but if the fortunes of war change the storyline in the game, one should be able to release the hounds as it were and send the Spanish against continental powers.

Have you guys had any good experiences with them doing anything when controlled by the AI?

Don't know about the French campaign, but in the coalition campaign Spain snatches Gibraltar from the Brits almost every time while also attacking and conquering some of the German minors (if there are still any left at that point). Maybe Spain has been deliberately dumbed down in the French campaign to make things a little harder for the player?

No! Sorry! I was also annoyed by this fact. The second time I played the Grand Campaign, I did it with The Rights of Men Mod. The modders had supposedly changed the Spanish AI in an active one. Didn't see anything of it. I thought it was just me being jinxed or something because everybody said that in their campaign Spain was very active. In my campaign, there was always a Spanish navy, but they were only trading and not fighting, although it occurred a few times that they would attack one or two Turkish ships who were in Western Italian waters. Or they did sometimes attack the British navy if one of the English navies crossed Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. So seawise it wasn't too bad, but landwise is another story. Maybe it's coincidence and sometimes something needs to trigger aggressive AI towards Gibraltar for example. Maybe start a new campaign and see what happens then? To show you I may be possibly right, I was playing the Peninsular campaign as Spain where the British were just sitting and doing nothing. I lost and started a new campaign and they seem much more active. Weird, isn't it?

The most active I have ever seen Spain in the GC is actually on the naval front. Sometimes they engage in tradewars with GB and Russia, and sometimes Austria, but only in the Med, never the Atlantic.

when I played Napoleon campaign, I hoped that Spanish will help me in some time, because they are at war with my enemies, but it never happened. once I saw british take Spanish capital, and wasn't much retaliated.

recently I played a campaign with Prussians. started very awkward, war with Russians and after that Austrians. By the time I had liberated them (to complete alliance tasks) I saw, that Spanish were at war with Hessen, and they really were attacking it with their armies. (stupidly 1 stack at a time, while Hessen had 2).

Hessen was my ally, but was fighting only with Spain, not France.

Was interesting to see Spanish action :d