Is the computer terrible at Spanish?

[Epistax]

Of the three games I've played so far in PTW, in each when I first contact the Spanish, they are poor, way behind in tech, and have laughable armies. They make excellent first targets. I don't suppose anyone else has seen this as well, and may even be able to explain it?

[vulture]

The various civs leaders have different build priorites, which affects the importance they attach to building military and the various city improvements. Some of the civs have awful build priorities that stop them from (almost) ever being a factor in the game, with the default rules. While this adds diversity to the civs, it does so at the expense of their competitiveness. You might want to have a look at the AU mod thread, where the effects of playing around with the preferences are discussed. It is probably worth using the preferences assigned to each civ in the AU mod, even if you have no intention of using the rest of the changes made, if you want the AI to put up mofre of a fight (one of the goals of the AU mod was to make the AI stronger).

[Nakar Gabab]

I take it you've never seen them get going... by the Industrial/Modern age, Spain is a powerhouse in every game I've seen them in. Just takes them a looooooong time to get started.

[Kaos XIII]

I agree with Nakar, I've seen the Spanish become one of the world powers many times and I play with 24 Civs. Of course they only become powerful if they aren't my neighbors.