Don't mention the Bavarians

[epaminondas]

Ponder ye this.

Austria has a Defensive Treaty with Bavaria.
Prussia declares war on Bavaria.
Faithful to her treaty obligations, and mindful of the prestige loss associated with not doing so, Austria declares war on Prussia.
Austria comprehensively defeats Prussia which sues for peace.
Austria accepts the offer only to find that the cessation of hostilities doesn't extend to Bavaria.

The situation appears to have only two possible outcomes - either Austria abandons her ally and concludes a separate peace, or Austria and Prussia partner up in their version of a 1930s dance marathon where the music goes on and on and on.

For a game that presents itself as being keyed to political and diplomatic interplay that has to be a serious oversight does it not?

[Kensai]

This is a known limitation. In certain times it works very well and realistically, there are many instances in the world history of warfare that separate peaces were signed. Actually, technically, it is the only thing you can possibly do unless you explicitly ask for other nations to be involved.

But in the game abstracted it is indeed a problem. Perhaps in a future version of the Athena logic, it could be added that if A is at war with B and C is at at war with A, if C defeats A while A defeats B... A should automatically lose any progress against B as well. In game terms: Prussia should have been forced by the game logic to stop the war with Bavaria, even if it had positive warscore against it. Losing badly (and having own objective cities occupied) should be a huge incentive for the AI to stop any other ongoing wars and dedicate to defend against the major danger.

Another solution could be that in games like PON it could be added as a peace treaty demand option: end ongoing war with... (nation in question, not necessary ally but ally could give more prestige points if successful)


I think it is doable, logic-wise, but it's up to the Philippes to implement.


PS. The solution to your problem, albeit gamey, is rather nice however. After you concluded peace with the Prussians you could park "peacekeepers" in your ally Bavaria. These will make sure that Prussia won't be able to enter Bavarian territory and if they do they won't be able to occupy anything. The AI sometimes ends inconclusive wars that last for a long time, but not always. Actually this is something else that might need further work.

[loki100]

The situation appears to have only two possible outcomes - either Austria abandons her ally and concludes a separate peace, or Austria and Prussia partner up in their version of a 1930s dance marathon where the music goes on and on and on.

For a game that presents itself as being keyed to political and diplomatic interplay that has to be a serious oversight does it not?

As Kensai, yes, alliances in war are effectively missing from the PoN logic routine. One of those times when you need a script to make sensible things happen:

SelectFaction = $AUS
StartEvent = stop Prussian Bavarian War|1|1|NULL|NULL|NULL|NULL

Actions

SelectFaction = $GER
SettleWhitePeace = ALL

EndEvent

In the unlikely event that Germany has more wars, replace all with 'BAV' (I'm assuming that is Bavaria's faction tag. You can elaborate if you wish, transfer of money etc from Prussia to Bavaria and so on

[epaminondas]

Thanks to you both, Kens and loki. I'm about to plug your script in now, loki, and hope that my monumental record of failing to get events to work doesn't overpower it.

Another solution could be that in games like PON it could be added as a peace treaty demand option: end ongoing war with... (nation in question, not necessary ally but ally could give more prestige points if successful)

It sounds so simple and so obvious. It's certainly the resolution I'd prefer.

The solution to your problem, albeit gamey, is rather nice however. After you concluded peace with the Prussians you could park "peacekeepers" in your ally Bavaria. These will make sure that Prussia won't be able to enter Bavarian territory and if they do they won't be able to occupy anything. The AI sometimes ends inconclusive wars that last for a long time, but not always. Actually this is something else that might need further work.

This is in fact what I did when I found that there was no 'end war' option among the peace conditions. My concern though is that it seems such a war without end must have cumulative effects that take Prussia out of the game as a realistic contender.

[epaminondas]

Thanks loki - script worked a treat.