Vassels

[julianrj]

I just got my first vassel (Sicily) and I wanted to know what vassels do in this game, so I just searched this forum and read about em.
I noticed a lot of ppl saying that in order to make a vassel your enemy has to have one land, a weak army, completely broke, besieged, and ports blockaded if there are any.
Well, I just enslaved Sicily which held 4 provinces-Palermo, Naples, Milan, Bologna, of which three I was laying siege with full stacks each, including the capital. They were bankrupt, but I had no ports blockaded, and they had a rather strong navy, and some army-about 1+1/2 stacks-which I could see (but only had 1-3 units in the cities I was laying siege). I had just killed their only ally off (Denmark).
When their diplomat came to beg for ceasefire, I made a counteroffer saying they become my vassel and I will not attack them. They said they would agree to be my vassel if I gave them about 13000 florins, and I agreed, just because I had a lot of money and I tought it'd be cool to have a vassel.

[townie33]

It might depend on if they started the war or you did. if they start a war and lose terribly they will offer a ceasefire and on those rare instances it can be turn into becoming a vassal. on the other hand I've had it where i start the war and it takes 3 full stacks and a blockade on their last city and they barely accept it, damn scots.

[miccofl]

I just got my first vassel (Sicily) and I wanted to know what vassels do in this game, so I just searched this forum and read about em.
I noticed a lot of ppl saying that in order to make a vassel your enemy has to have one land, a weak army, completely broke, besieged, and ports blockaded if there are any.
Well, I just enslaved Sicily which held 4 provinces-Palermo, Naples, Milan, Bologna, of which three I was laying siege with full stacks each, including the capital. They were bankrupt, but I had no ports blockaded, and they had a rather strong navy, and some army-about 1+1/2 stacks-which I could see (but only had 1-3 units in the cities I was laying siege). I had just killed their only ally off (Denmark).
When their diplomat came to beg for ceasefire, I made a counteroffer saying they become my vassel and I will not attack them. They said they would agree to be my vassel if I gave them about 13000 florins, and I agreed, just because I had a lot of money and I tought it'd be cool to have a vassel.

They will start sending you gold every turn. They send all the gold they have over a certain amount (not sure what the amount is though.) It could take many turns to get your 13K back but if you can maintain the vassalage over the long term it will pay off.