I’ll never get the money, just the territory, when my enemy pays tribute. This has happend to me a every time I demand money. Why? If he is out of money I shouldn’t be able to demand such amount of money. Or?

If your demands are for more than he has in his treasury, he only has to pay you what’s in there. This applies to you also: this is why the AI will sometimes present you with a demand for 27 ducats. He actually wants 250, but you don’t have that much so you can escape for just 27. You’re never obliged (and neither is the AI) to take out a loan to cover a peace demand - unless, you’ve spent money in between getting the demand and accepting it. ie. if the demand comes through for 27 ducats and you send out a trader and only have 19 left, and then accept it, you will be forced to borrow money. Because the AI always responds instantly, this never happens to it. Read the rest of this entry »

When did they get to the Baltic actually? Ingermanland falls quite fast in most of my games… Especially when I am Russia. I always set it to Russian. I find the Russian AI to inept to get a harbour in order to get their colonists. Russian AI does better if they start out with Ingermanland, and they seem to colonize more when they have it at start.

They’ve been quite good about grabbing a port in my recent games-they’ve just got even crapper, if that’s possible, at breaking past the Khanates (although it doesn’t help when the Crimea is the nation that annexes the Golden Horde, Astrakhan and Sibir-Russia only got about one Golden Horde province)! I don’t know if anything was altered in the Russian AI file… But in my last 7 games or so, they never succeeded in getting to the Siberian corridor. Their annexations stop after the Golden Horde mostly. Read the rest of this entry »

So after annexing Tuscany and New Spain, I join an alliance with France. They are allied with The Palt(sp?) I vassalize, and then annex. Erie was also in this alliance, so I vassalizied them.

Now with Meath still belonging to England, I must find a way to take the province from them, despite lacking a CB. So for years I built up a navy (without the benefit of a shipyard) and after getting into a BB war with the hope of England attacking me, I soon realize that every nation *but* England wants to go to war. So I DOW, take the stability hit, and soon major portions of my empire are rebelling. Now with France I could take stability hits without any worry, but with P-L’s multiple religions (I had every religion possible) this wasn’t possible.

I land at Meath, and conquer it…but I only have one star against England, and they refuse to forfeit the province. So I send my ships back to the mainland, and have to reissue orders about 100 times because of all the different ships that hate my guts. (The Netherlands, Spain, Denmark…) so I finally make it back to the mainland, load up some troops, and set sail for England. I drop off 55,000+ troops into the English capital, only to watch in horror as a army of 85,000+ kicks them all over England, until they eventually die. I persist in my demands for Meath, but they won’t accept. And to top it off, they take Meath back, as well as a few of my underdeveloped North American provinces. Read the rest of this entry »

White House After George Bush's New Job: Goalkeeper

I just started a GC as the most Serene Republic of Venice, and i see the great nation starts in a precarious position. My initial alliance was with teh Mamlukes Hungary and Poland, and i managed to rip morea off of the Ottomans. Now i am building a fleet built mostly of galleases to dominate the mediterranean. Are these the right things to do?? Should i be looking in other places for income? are there better allies than these and Persia? Should i star trouble in the Itlaian peninsula?

All I can say is that a bunch of countries would be more than happy to attack you. At this point any ally will be helpful as long as they can get to both you and them. Sorry but I am not well versed in the strategies of Venice. I am sure someone else will help you out better.

Best thig to do is to Annex he Mamelucks when they are at war with the Ottomans. Then you can consider diplo - Annexing the hell out of all northen Italy and when your BB drops you go for the rest of the Boot. Note that I was recreating the Roman empire with my Venise. So you can skip the Italy part. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s what I attempt to accomplish against the computer AI playing France. Goals: Control Andalusia and Toledo and receive 250 in reparations from Spain, gain 250 from Naples, preserve the Spainish-English alliance, reduce Spanish forces by 40%, gain Lorraine and The Palitenet in your alliance, defeat Spanish navy off coast of Andalusia, receive rutters of Saudi Arabai, achieve peace and stability before 1494.

It seems you miss some major chunks of the world. What will you do afterwards? Is the world enough?

What I was curious about was does anybody else have any other opening strategies (for 1492)? I thought someone might have something to say about how they begin in France. Is it better to declare war on Spain or Naples in 1492 for example? Declaring war on Spain will remove England from the Spanish-English alliance. But then England can create its own alliance and that makes more potential enemies for you. Preserving the Spanish-English alliance is probably better because it is a weak alliance that can be split up at almost anytime. But then you have to take ships out to Naples to end the war. You get 250 from Naples, so I think that’s good. But Spain must give a separate peace before invading Naples. Read the rest of this entry »

don't miss the duck you will loose the points

Swap places of block in such a way to have at least three of the same kind next to one another (horizontally or vertically). You are only allowed to swap blocks that are next to each other.

Go Bananas! Jump and spin through many levels of hilarious fun as you rescue captured animals in this wacky zoo adventure!

Picture Natalie Brooks, the cute, dashing super sleuth resting comfortably as her grandmother’s house when she receives strange and unexpected note from one of her classmates from her high school days. It seems that Chad Roberts is in some kind of trouble. He asks Natalie to come to his art gallery right away. Chad and Natalie’s amer mater is being used by a gang of fiendish criminals and the principal’s daughter has devised a plan that will frame Chad for the murder of her incredible wealthy and unsuspecting new husband. Will Natalie be able to foil the plan quickly enough to save the day as well as Chad and his girlfriend Kitty?

Alawar Friday’s Games recently released Natalie Brooks: Mystery at Hillcrest High, a full featured hidden objects adventure game. The game play is actually styled as more of an adventure game that the other games in this series. You are spending so much time trying to solve item manipulation and inventory puzzles that you forget your technically playing a hidden objects game until a scene suddenly pops up, reminding you.

The game has ten chapters that take place in locations consisting of a handful of rooms. Read the rest of this entry »