No one wants to be my friend

[tefras14]

Well i have just installed SS 6.3 and i enjoy it a lot. I use the early campaign and the savage AI and play as the Byzantine empire but i have a huge problem. I cannot forge any alliance! I am still in the early stages of my game and i have not gone to war with anyone but for some reason my reputation drops randomly with some factions that are far away from me like Denmark. I try with my fairly good diplomat to offer alliance + map info + gold and i get the generous or very generous message but i always get just rejected in the end. Any help will be appreciated

[Nat Belmont]

Disregard friends

Acquire Scholarii


Seriously though, if you have the money, easiest way to get an alliance is to offer about 30000 gold with the alliance, or however much you need to make the offer 'very generous'. This will give your relationship a boost too so they're more likely to accept next turn if you're persistent. However, you've noticed that your relationship drops with a lot of factions every turn also. I think this happens simply because you're a large faction (byzantine early starts with about 15 regions, right?) and there's not really any avoiding it. What I do is use multiple diplomats to all send Very Generous alliance deals on the same turn. Each one raises relations until Perfect and usually I can eventually get an alliance out of it.

You're going to need a lot of money, though.

[Galain_Ironhide]

In my late era gc as the Byzantine Empire, I recall it took until very close to turn 35-40 before anyone would even take a look at me to ally with them as my relationship status with these factions were too low. As it also happened, I was being mercilessly attacked by the Hungarians, the Seljuks, Venetians, Crusader States and the Sicilians which meant any resources such as money was being spent on the defensive war effort to keep afloat.
The direction I wanted to take the game however, was that I wanted to keep the HRE afloat and have them be my ally – one big glorious Roman empire. So I made a huge offensive effort against the Venetians and took most of their territories and at first gave Zagreb to HRE which made our relationship amiable, I then took Venice and traded the city with the HRE for an Alliance, plus military access and we have been good friends since.

Also, as I had all but eliminated the Venitians down to only Milan (yes, Milan) I was able to coerce them into becoming my Vassals.

The biggest challenge I’ve been facing now is keeping the blasted HRE alive as they have had 2 crusades called against them and everyone is at war with them – they’ve lost 2 cities which I gifted to them as well.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is don’t worry about not getting any friends early in the game, as when you start making your mark on the world, they’ll come begging eventually – you just have to dangle a BIG carrot.

[Losthief]

military alliances are keys...but in my crusader states campaign im playing (savage ai/bgrIV) up until finally at turn 75 a jihad got called on me i was allied with everyone but khwazermian (sp?), novogrod, hungary (after they attacked the romans), venice (same as hungary), and england and norway.

I would use the alliances to force peace btwn nations and was getting a ton of money for it (richest faction in the game with CS basic territories only) for about 20 turns. The jihad kind of screwed the pooch a bit, but only as far as the muslim factions go. Just don't choose nations that go to war constantly with each other and get a few military alliances and you'll hold those for as long as you want.

[Anatorax]

Try getting good relations with the Pope. I noticed that the relations with Pope and other Catholic nations are somewhat correlated.

[Diablo del Sur]

military alliances are keys...but in my crusader states campaign im playing (savage ai/bgrIV) up until finally at turn 75 a jihad got called on me i was allied with everyone but khwazermian (sp?), novogrod, hungary (after they attacked the romans), venice (same as hungary), and england and norway.

I would use the alliances to force peace btwn nations and was getting a ton of money for it (richest faction in the game with CS basic territories only) for about 20 turns. The jihad kind of screwed the pooch a bit, but only as far as the muslim factions go. Just don't choose nations that go to war constantly with each other and get a few military alliances and you'll hold those for as long as you want.

Im quite a noob, can you explain this a bit deeper for me? Thank you!

[Galain_Ironhide]

Im quite a noob, can you explain this a bit deeper for me? Thank you!

I'm thinking he is talking about vassals. ie in my campaign i was talking about as above, when I vassalled Venice, this meant they suddenly dropped out of the war against HRE and also my other ally the Fatamids. The money you get from these other factions as regular tribute can be huge.

Otherwise I think if you have enough money you can also go for straight alliances with other factions and that too will cause them to drop out of a war with your other allies.

Try getting good relations with the Pope. I noticed that the relations with Pope and other Catholic nations are somewhat correlated.

Or you could make him your vassal like I did

[Losthief]

ok...so if your allied with someone that someone else is at war with and you ally that first person (the one at war with your ally but not you) then it forces peace. If you get enough alliances you can do it on a global scale. I'll post my diplomacy screen for ya soon to give you an idea (i just survived the jihad and trying to really with turks and fatmids at the moment). But because your so 'powerful' (the game sees your power as a total of your allies and your own as far as military etc etc) that the ai will want to ally with you, it also helps them get out of wars that they may not want to be in (like when fatmids (my ally) got crusade called on cairo, i brokered peace for all my european allies listed above and drained the fatmid treasury, until the jihad happen and they canceled the alliance).

so..basically....it forces peace, eventually war breaks out again, and you just go back and reap the profits by reupping the alliance. hope that makes sense.

[tefras14]

Thanks for the tips dudes. I know that making alliances is not the most important thing in the game but this is the way i like to put some role play in my games. Make alliances with at least a couple of selected factions. For example my Varangian guards are supposed to be Scandinavians so i want Denmark or Norway as an ally and also the Russians for the sake of orthodoxy

[Nemesis_GR]

Everyone wants to be my friend in my byzantine campaign!!!(6.4,savage,early).I think that u should get some early alliances(for me it was kiev,novgorod,poland-to secure my north borders) and work ur way to immaculate reputation.(occupy,release prisoners).

Just train some diplomats and have them sell map info and trade rights to everyone for about 3k florins and get some alliances on the way.Furthermore everyone who is at war with u will want a ceasefire and will pay an amount around 20k for it.
When u start as the strongest faction-abuse ur diplomacy!Especially since almost everyone will hate u eventually because of religion...

So in my experience reputation and power play the major role on diplomacy.Also faction that are half the world away logically dont want an alliance with u.(since u mentioned dennmark and norway).The best way to ally them is through marriage or pay them if u can spare the money.(10k is an offer they cant refuse).