Bribery and Oher Stuff ???

[Vladinoc]

Hello, i'm playing Total War for quite long, i allready played Shogun, i played Rome Total War and i played and i'm now again playing Medieval 2 Total War (very hard few times and i was victorius).
But i still do not get some stuff.

I allready searched in google and in other forums, but i didn't found anwsers, so i came here for it.
I would like to people who realy knows about thgem and they are 100% sure.

1. What happens when somebody is your Vassal (I know about military acces, alliance, trade rights and so...but i'm interested if you get some money ? (if you do not, can you mod that in files)

2. How to bribe somebody (settelment) in Medieval Total War 2 ??? (i have 500000 florints and i can't bribe anyone, not even rebels (not even a settelment with General with loyality 3) and in other game i habe 30000 florints, and i can't still bribe a settelment.

Thank you and your comunity for anwsers and sorry for broken english,

Vlad

[Monsieur Alphonse]

1. What happens when somebody is your Vassal (I know about military acces, alliance, trade rights and so...but i'm interested if you get some money ? (if you do not, can you mod that in files)

You get all his money if it gets more then 10.000. since the AI is usually bankrupt. This means that you will get nada unless you play it evil. Give him a lot of money to become your vassal and most of it will be returned if he hasn't spent it.

2. How to bribe somebody (settelment) in Medieval Total War 2 ??? (i have 500000 florints and i can't bribe anyone, not even rebels (not even a settelment with General with loyality 3) and in other game i habe 30000 florints, and i can't still bribe a settelment.

Your diplomat needs to be very experienced and probably you need to have a good reputation. Even with these conditions met it is still very difficult. In Kingdoms I could bribe a tiny rebel settlement for 250,000 florins.

[Koalakonnor]

Where are the files that organize the bribing diplomacy? I would like to alter them to make bribing easier like it was in RTW. It was one of my favorite aspects.

[Merchant of Venice]

Yes you do receive money for your vassals- specifically half the amount of their income. Sadly most faction seem to go bankrupt so you don't receive that much.

I too have had problems bribing settlements even with the highest rank diplomats. I end up just buying it from them. You can get settlements from as low as 15000 florins.

[Earl of_Duke]

Yes you do receive money for your vassals- specifically half the amount of their income. Sadly most faction seem to go bankrupt so you don't receive that much.

I too have had problems bribing settlements even with the highest rank diplomats. I end up just buying it from them. You can get settlements from as low as 15000 florins.

Oh, you can buy some for much less than that in the early game. For example, the HRE are usually willing to sell Bologna for around 6000! (Try using your sexiest princess to negotiate. )

Bribing is just not worth it. It also totally tosses ones' reputation into the toilet, if one cares about such things.

[painter]

Yes, bribery is practically unusable in this game.

The king's ransom in this game was 10,000 florins, wasn't it?

Well, a single crossbow militia rebel will demand 8,000 florins to disband. A small group of five units will demand almost 100,000 florins to disband. And a small group of five units and a general will demand about 200,000 florins to disband.

In this reality, bribing a general over to your side would seem to cost 100,000 florins.

Truly, these knaves do think too much of themselves. And although I could afford the bribe, I am always thoroughly disgusted by their ridiculous demands. Where do you think the gold comes from? And you dare think your value is more than my men's worth?

I always take great pleasure in taking one of my many city regiments of six Merchant Cavalry Militia (that cost me 2,220 florins to recruit and 1,260 florins of upkeep per turn if they were not in town) and run these wastes of life to the ground. I'd do a lot more to hammer in my displeasure into their thick skulls, but I am unfortunately limited by the game.

If you don't have a regiment of cavalry handy, keep in mind that it is cheaper to create a new army stack powerful enough to completely destroy the brigands. The only problem is how fast you can create one and how fast you can send the brigands your regards through this new stack. It is only for this reason that I say that bribery is practically unusable, and not completely unusable.

[Maklodes]

This isn't a direct answer to Vladinoc's original questions, but one use for bribery doesn't depend on succeeding -- giving your leader the traits DeceiverVirtue, PoliticsSkill, and StrategyDread. Those all boost authority. I think you have a chance of getting those regardless of success at bribery. Unless you are going for a chivalrous leader, it might not be a bad idea to recruit a couple of diplomats dedicated to making (failed) bribery attempts every turn. The diplomats themselves will gain terrible traits from failing so much, and soon have 0 influence, but hey, they don't need influence to make failed bribery attempts.

[painter]

Wow, that is despicable and underhanded. The poor diplomats. I like!

Now where was that fool of a diplomat...

I'd repped you, but the forum is blocking me. Saying I need to spread it around. There really needs to be a time limit on that thing.

[Merchant of Venice]

Oh, you can buy some for much less than that in the early game. For example, the HRE are usually willing to sell Bologna for around 6000! (Try using your sexiest princess to negotiate. )

Bribing is just not worth it. It also totally tosses ones' reputation into the toilet, if one cares about such things.

Yes you can but in later game it costs much more. My strategy for Venice is usually buy it off them then it is solo much easier taking out the Milanese.

[Kaiser Nonsense]

Call the inquisition, we have people practicing necromancy!

[Sky Walker]

Is there a way to bribe princess?

[Ventos Mustel]

You cannot bribe a princess, no.



Bribery cost of non-character units is based on the unit's recruit cost (as given in export_descr_units) , its experience level, its casualties, and the factions it is enabled for. The exact formula is:

2 * <EDB Recruit Cost> * <Fraction of starting size> * (1 + 0.2 * <Experience level>) * ( unit can join bribing faction ? 2 : 1 ) * (unit can join slave faction ? 1 : 2 )


So a 1-experience unit of Peasant Archers costing 270 florins to recruit will cost 1296 florins to bribe, for example

[Ventos Mustel]

As an addendum, the formula for determining the bribery cost of an agent is 800 + 240*skill level. Priests and any stack joined by them are immune to bribery

[FootSoldier]

I've never successfully bribed a settlement in M2TW (did so lots in M1TW) but have bribed rebels and troops from other factions. I find it prohibitively expensive. The player needs a good reputation - Trustworthy or better. If you watch you can see that other factions regularly bribe the troops of their enemies.

Failed bribery attempts still increase the ruler's authority. Try 10 failed attempts for a 4 or 5 point rise in authority. However, they also rapidly increase dread in the ruler, and if you have chivalrous generals they tend to feel feel Disrespected after a bit.

I agree that buying places is easier and cheaper than bribing. For those that mentioned buying Bologna from the HRE - if Venice I'd recommend buying Innsbruck at the same time for around 3000. The HRE will still sell Bologna mid-game for around 15,000, so if you arrive on the scene as say, France, and don't want to war with the HRE then buy it.

Some places are easy to buy, and you can buy from your enemies. Another good opening gambit if England is to buy Angers from the French. If France then buy Caen from the English. Smyrna is easy to buy. I once bought it from the Byzantines for 3000 late game - it was a fully fledged Citadel with nothing left to build. The build cost must have been around 100,000.

If Novgorod in the Teutonic Campaign then buy Narva from the Danes. They sell it to my Novgorod for an Alliance and a trade agreement - no money changes hands. You have instant access to the sea and the Danes are no longer a threat until you take Abo.

Castles are easier to buy than Cities, and half the price.

That said, later in the game factions seem to suffer "seller's remorse" and are liable to try and take back what they've sold. Watch out for that, especially where the AI decides to not to give you a garrison and you must wait three or so turns for a recruitment option. Be ready to move troops straight into the place you've just bought.