Protectcorate mess up!

[SaengsaWang]

Just liberated Westphalia in french cam. and then the next turn Batavian guys declared war on my lovely Westphalian ! This make my campaign gone mad because that dutch had a lot of troops! Have you ever experienced sth like this? let's share.

[GTFO. Jamie]

is annoying, your allies love declaring war and taking your protectorates over for themselves.

I think that if a ally (or anyone) tries to declare war on one of your protectorates, they should get a warning that it will be a declaration of war towards the owner of that protectorate as well

[Red Hue]

It is very irritating and just part of the player challenge (hate) built into the game. If you stay out you lose the income and if you fight you lose an ally...

of course you could see it as an opportunity to liberate another faction.

[Dzhon]

Everyone hates Westphalia...my new protectorate caused war with my Dutch allies, and while I was mopping them up Oldenberg brought its stack of doom down to overrun Westphalia itself. After seizing Amsterdam, I decided just to incorporate it directly into the empire. Undefended Oldenberg is next, and then I'll just need to decide whether to liberate Westphalia again or not...leaning towards not.

Has anyone tried letting Austria have its way with your starting allies (Bavaria, Baden, etc.) so you can counterattack and make them protectorates instead?

[Red Hue]

The Wisdom of Protectorates


Gaining a Protectorate vs. adding another region to your growing empire might be immersive in game terms but they seem to be the target of stronger allies and trade partners who would not go to war otherwise.

The benefits of a protectorate are that you get half their income and a staunch ally. You also usually get troops at the founding which will help in your conquests of further territory.

Each time I have elected to make a region into a protectorate I have gotten burned. It has not always happened immediately but it always happens.

The most meaningful coincidence I have observed is that when the last of my troops exit the region a neighbor and perhaps all of their allies will declare war on the new nation.

Even in the Italian Campaign, the Pope went to war with Piedmont as soon as there were no French troops left in their area.

I am as yet unsure if leaving troops there would prevent the adventurism but I do intend to find out.

How about the rest of you. Do the benefits out weigh the risks. And even at that isn’t it more beneficial to own the region and receive 100% of the wealth vs. 50% and a few units.

[tenjouten]

While playing Russia, Austria kept declaring war on every protectorate I made. Naturally I had to stay by Austria because they had massive armies near the borers but that kept on pissing me off.

[Zetto]

of course you could see it as an opportunity to liberate another faction.

+1 exactly how I see this. After Batavia declared war on my Westphalia, I simply destroyed them too and added another protectorate to my list of trophies

[Amos]

Protectorates should ally with your allies and be at war with your enemies it makes more sense!!!

[Mueller]

This happened to me too while liberating Bavaria from the French as GB. Saxony (allied with Prussia) declared war on Bavaria so I recaptured Bavaria and just chose occupy.

[Slaists]

It all depends it seems. For example, creating a protectorate in an area filled with your enemies might be very beneficial. That way, it won't be your allies that declare war on the protectorate but your enemies. And it won't be YOUR armies doing the fighting but rather your protectorate's.

Also, it seems, filling an area with protectorates is viable too. I have yet to see, a protectorate going to war with another protectorate (of mine).

Another benefit of protectorates is that you get a reliable trade partner and do not need to spend cash of your own to build them up.

Still another bonus is that protectorates seem to get AI faction army-upkeep bonuses. Practically in no time single province protectorates are able to field full stack armies, which you, as a human player, would not be able to maintain based on that one province's income. I have witnessed this in the case of Romania and Ottomans. Usually, Ottomans leave Romania alone for some turns after the liberation. Once Ottomans declare war to retake the province, Romania fields full-size professional armies. Those eventually might lose to the Ottomans, but weaken the foe so much that it's an easy retake (and re-liberation) for the player.

MPC warning

Be wary to make any protectorates if you are playing against a human player. It is quite easy for the human player to bribe protectorates to attack their human controlled master faction. I suspect the built in 'player hate' has something to do with this.

In the specific example I saw, I was playing as Russia while my friend was controlling France. A few turns after I liberated Romania, he managed to bribe them to ally with France and attack Russia...

[skimyy]

I've had one make a Trade Agreement with my biggest enemy right after I liberated them.....

[SaengsaWang]

Slaists is exactly right I've never seen my protectcorate declare war with each other.
but anyway if that region is liberateable I still often liberated it.this make my life esier than occuplied.

[Amos]

Making protectorates as GB eg.catalonia, brittany and belgium will all make trade agreements with the french, spanish and dutch the very next turn this makes protectorates useful to you and the foe.
However, you are the only one with military access, so the only way for enemies to pass them is to declare war. As well as negating the value of the region to the foe and it being less likeley to be recaptured.

[TheAussieDigger]

i liberated westphalia today as france for the pure of reason of wanting to be able to exit the region quickly as i needed the troops elsewhere

next turn oldenberg declares war on westphalia and now virtually all the northern german states are at war with me

[Dreamw4lk3r]

I usually just create an empire... no prisoners, no protectorates.

Last time though, I could not resist liberating my home country (belgium) from france, I gave it some extra gold and in turn for some cheap tech's they cancelled trade with france whilst maintaining the favors with me (was playing as G.B. at the time).

After a while I coerced belgium in declaring war with france and they build a fullstack army in the capital as most city-states tend to do but they also - to my surprise - build some armies and even attacked france about three times... the fact that they got their ass kicked every time didn't matter much to me.
Sadly, I mistrust allies & protectorates (sucky AI memories from past TW games) and thus once I conquered france and started advancing vs austria & prussia I annexed belgium

I treat protectorates as buffer-zones between me & my enemy and maybe a small cash pot...
I must admit that I don't see the reason to make protectorates because controlling them gives more cash, and I can defend regions better than they can, maybe if I got bored I could make them to create a buffer zone (or if I needed the breathing space) but that is rarely needed...

What do you guys think?

[grandtomatoe]

I like the idea of liberating protectorates. It is definitely a change from the old two party system of "loot" or "keep".

I have seen some pretty massive armies built up in my protectorates. They field way more men than I would even put in their region to keep it safe.

You do have to work with them under diplomacy to make sure they are not working with your enemies. It is best to hand them all your technologies and some cash to get them to go to war with your enemies right away.

If a major power declared war on one of my protectorates, I guess I would have to let the protectorate fend on their own unless I was poised to start a massive war.

If anything, it’s cool to see the new flags flying on the campaign map!

[Jom]

Just a tip: if you liberate Westphalia as France, you will end up having to declare war on one of your allies to defend it, either the Batavian Republic or Oldenburg will immediately try to grab it the next turn, normally it's the Batavian Republic that does it with me.

[douglas]

Same thing happened to me. I just let them go. The "war" did not go to battle between the two. I did have a large French army close by it they had decided to do something. I think it is just another one of those odd distractors that the game seems to come up with from time to time.

I liberated Silesia and they hate my guts. I am waiting to see what happens with them.

[Gezoes]

You do have to work with them under diplomacy to make sure they are not working with your enemies. It is best to hand them all your technologies and some cash to get them to go to war with your enemies right away.

[Smokey_MkII]

I think that there can be real benefits, but you need to consider carefully why you're doing it. I liberated Greece as Russia because it's too out of the way to waste resources protecting, andi liberated Belgium after annexing Holland. The French, my enemies, actually maintained peace with Belgium and so I had a buffer which prevented an invasion I could scarcely afford to defend. The Belgians soon amassed an impressive stack and developed their region very quickly from a dismal low earner to a fairly highly developed one, which I couldn't have done in the time cause of my other priorities. Then the bloody Prissians declared war and I had to invade Belgium to keep em sweet - so I get the money but have lost my lovely buffer...