Ceasefires

[Jack of Clubs]

hey,
I was just wondering is there any way to make enemies accpet ceasefires easier. I hate it when you have basically destroyed then and yet they still wont except ceasfire. any ideas?

[talvisielu]

That's what I've been wondering too. Really hard to get a ceasefire after a long war.

[Vor]

The only way an AI seems to accept my offer of a ceasefire is if I've badly beaten him, or he knows he can't win. To help this along I always move as many troops as I can into their land, or along my boarder, before I offer the cease-fire.

This is with a mod, long time since I played vanilla so it may be different there.

[Pyrebound]

They hardly accept ceasefires if you have captured city(s) from the faction, as they surely want them back. This ofc has its downsides, as if they only have few left and are sure to lose the war, it is quite bad for them to only keep wanting their cities back and declining ceasefire.

I think different mods have improved AI so they could make decisions better for their future :p

[alvinthegreat]

Download Lusted's Campaign AI, it makes the AI alot more rational and willing to accept a ceasefire (at least more than vanilla AI)

[pwijnands]

A high global standing also helps a lot I think.

[Vor]

A high global standing also helps a lot I think.

Yeah, that's another factor to consider. If your well liked and respect throughout the world then the AI seems more likely to bow to your demands or requests.

If you exterminated and executed thousands of citizens and troops then its going to be harder to get that ceasefire.

I generally try and always keep a good rep.

[Alendil]

I'd like a mod where executing troops didn't affect your reputation so badly.

I always end up with more than a half of the enemy army in captivity. When I release the prisonner, they come back a few turn later with new troops to siege my town, as opposed to executing them and be left alone for 20-30 turn.

[N3rull]

I'd like a mod where executing troops didn't affect your reputation so badly.

I always end up with more than a half of the enemy army in captivity. When I release the prisonner, they come back a few turn later with new troops to siege my town, as opposed to executing them and be left alone for 20-30 turn.

(attempt to) Ransom them.
A) AI will have less money to field more troops (in some cases mods and vh diff settings make AI's money boundless, which negates this argument a bit)
B) You'll have more money to field your own troops.
C) 50% of the time the AI rejects a ransom, which ends in execution, but without its negative effects.


As for

Yes, reputation plays a major role in how AI factions react to you.

- it's total ******** in my oppinion. It should be so, but the CG AI is screwed and it doesn't count nearly at all. I was playing english once and was 'very trustworthy', had 33 regions all over the world and 2 huge stacks in Paris. My turnly income was around 25k Florins. France had only Rheims left. First I moved my diplomat, entered negotiations and clicked 'become vassal'. It said very demanding. I attempted to make a ceasefire. Very Demanding it said again, and the response was the typical "wtf r u nuts ******?! we pwn u, just w8 fuul!" type of text. I moved my stacks to the Rheims region and attempted diplomacy again. This time I clicked 'become vassal' and the response was 'wow wow wow this is a most generous offer, we must accept!!!!!" enthusiastic thing.

So basically, an AI faction doesn't *really* seem to care how powerful you are "in general" (let's say the stats screen placed my military might, like 2,5 times higher than anybody else's... whatev), they don't *really* care how much money or production capacity you have (which translates into your ability to outproduce and overrun them, as USA did in WW2 against Japan).

What the AI seems *really* concerned about is whether you can ****** them up and scatter the ashes with as little effort as "click -> siege -> autoresolve".
Come on now - vassalship happened in history when a War would be too costly for the obvious winner.
If you are already standing at their gates with forces 10x bigger then theirs... what is the point in letting them live? Huh!??
Another screwup CA!

[big_feef]

Yes, reputation plays a major role in how AI factions react to you.

In my latest Turkish campaign, I slashed and burned my way across Greece after the Byzantines ticked me off. With a very bad reputation, it's impossible to get them to accept a ceasefire even when they're down to just Durazzo, which I have under seige now. That, and I can't ally with anyone, I have a crusade bearing down on Antioch with most of the Catholic factions involved, and Egypt and the Moors are also at war with me... noone likes a bad boy it seems.

In my latest Byzantine campaign, I have a sterling reputation and everyone wants to be my friend. Even after beating on Venice and leaving them with only Tripoli; they offered to become my allies. The only problematic faction in this campaign is the HRE; who is at war with me and all my allies now: France, Denmark, Poland, The Papacy and Venice. They broke our alliance and backstabbed me and has a very reputation; prompting France, Denmark and Poland to declare war on them almost immediately.

I'm using a self-modified version of the LtC AI nowadays in my campaigns; one of the best I've used so far by the way.

[pwijnands]

Yes, reputation plays a major role in how AI factions react to you.

In my latest Turkish campaign, I slashed and burned my way across Greece after the Byzantines ticked me off. With a very bad reputation, it's impossible to get them to accept a ceasefire even when they're down to just Durazzo, which I have under seige now. That, and I can't ally with anyone, I have a crusade bearing down on Antioch with most of the Catholic factions involved, and Egypt and the Moors are also at war with me... noone likes a bad boy it seems.

That pretty much sums up one of my Turkish campaigns (except for the Crusades part), even fellow Islamic factions hated me right from the start. Constant backstabbing and factions offering ceasefires in exchange for 50.000.

[daedme]

I to am having trouble. Every time I play any Western European nation I end up with exactly the same thing happening every game. I always end up in a war with France and Milan and every single time, Milan will never accept ceasefires, I have to wipe them out, reputation bad or good. France on the other hand always starts wars and the next turn offers a ceasefire and is willing to hand over region after region, because they will declare war again the next turn and give another etc.

I also have an impossible time getting the Moors to accept ceasefires. I need to look at some of these mods, because its getting insane. Milan is the biggest annoyance because they end up with some weird eastern regions most games so I have to either cross by ocean and find them or by land if Milan is blockading every port and making ship travel a hassle.

On a side note Milan also has 20 bajillion armies out at any given time, usually only one or two units but they do it with ships too so my ships are constantly stopping because of the entire water way being clogged with 20 individual Milanese ships. Anyway, sorry for the rant heh, I will look at the mods suggested above.

[Samir]

Yes, reputation plays a major role in how AI factions react to you.

In my latest Turkish campaign, I slashed and burned my way across Greece after the Byzantines ticked me off. With a very bad reputation, it's impossible to get them to accept a ceasefire even when they're down to just Durazzo, which I have under seige now. That, and I can't ally with anyone, I have a crusade bearing down on Antioch with most of the Catholic factions involved, and Egypt and the Moors are also at war with me... noone likes a bad boy it seems.

well probably sending the ceasefire offer with Trebuchets over the besieged wall, together with some captive heads might explain that they wont ceasefire with you... I dont think that that has much to do with reputation. If I were the emperor, I also would think that my opponent might not be righteous about his will for peace.

For me it often works that I withdraw my troops from my enemies land and hand back a province (that I got from the faction I want to ceasefire with, which I sacked and tore down every building before for cash) as part of the ceasefire. this weakens the enemy more than a ceasefire without the province, as they have to garrison and rebuild Stupid AI yes, but it makes peace much more reasonable for the AI and in general it works very well. I almost never have war on that front again.

If I am attacked and want peace, there is no way than beating the attacking army, do not engage in hostilities for a couple of turns and then try to get a ceasefire. sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt.

I rarely sacrifice provinces for diplomatic reasons. I sometimes did intentionally give up a city without battle ( just taking out the garrison or disbanding it) thinking that it would help to calm down the attacker but most of the time it makes them overconfident.

[Vor]

I liked the option to execute prisoners during the actual battle that we had in the first Medieval. You just clicked that little icon next to the prisoner indicator and away they went.

[pwijnands]

Global reputation doesn't help as much as I thought. I have an "immaculate" reputation in my current French (using Stainless Steel) campaign and ceasefires and alliances are never accepted anymore. The only faction that has accepted ceasefires so far where the Fatimids (Egypt), which is a top 5 faction.
I even had Norway offer an alliance in exchange for 2860 gold. I counter-offered with map information and military assistance against their enemies. The offer was very generous (compared to the balanced one they offered first) and they replied that they had reasons not to accept an alliance at this point.
It probably has something to do with me owning over 45 regions.

[The Conquistador]

When it comes down to the last couple of sentences I would usually just finish them off... one less flank to worry about. The whole point of the game is to conquer everyone right?

[HANDsolo]

It would have been nice if the game was more transparent w.r.t. what positive and negative factors are being used to calculate the factions relation with you (like in Civ 4). And have a similar approach in the diplomacy screen, so you know exactly why the faction is rejecting your offer. This is game after all. It should be fun not frustrating by witholding helpful info from you. Behind the scenes its all maths anyway.

[Old Geezer]

But N3rull, the game would be all over but the shouting after about turn 50 for many players, if CA had done as you suggested. Once you'd get 30 provinces and have a huge army wouldn't every other faction just capitulate to you, even the Mongols if they have a home?

[pwijnands]

Small, hopeless factions should. If a faction has only one settlement left and practically no standing army, they should want to offer vassalage instead of waiting to be destroyed. I have the same problem as N3rull with a French campaign. I beat down Milan to it's last province, sabotaged every building inside and still they responded "We are not seeking a peacefull way of ending this war with you". They should be begging for a ceasefire, not prolonging a war they cannot win.

[Pontifex Maximus]

give them what they want (cash)