Conquering the World via Diplomacy

[Exarch]

Has anyone tried it?
i'm having an awesome time playing as the byzantines doing just that.
i've got the venetians and the turks as my vassals and thing is, their $$ and their lands pretty much count as yours.

mind you, have there ever been cases where vassals will backstab you? especially if they're of a different religion to you?

Share your tips on conquering the world via diplomacy!!

[Conquistatore]

Oh yes, vassals will backstab you eventually, the same as any other ally or neutral faction will. I find it very hard to conquer via diplomacy, I prefer the enemy taste my sword and smoke of war.

[Silent Assassin]

Oh yes, vassals will backstab you eventually, the same as any other ally or neutral faction will. I find it very hard to conquer via diplomacy, I prefer the enemy taste my sword and smoke of war.

Just to point out I've never been betrayed by them in over 200 campaigns, it's now quite different in RTW where having protectorats was uterly useless

[Exarch]

in my experience
a show of overwhelming force and occasional gifts of florins are necessary as an overlord.

in order to get that vassalage, i have a couple full stack armies march their way throughout their territories raiding eveyr now and then and economically dominaitng them until they finally accept vassalage. it also helps if they're down to one family member (after you've killed off most of their family) and are in danger of extinction.

now, taking hints from Machiavelli's 'the prince' in order to control your vassals it's best to, as i said, parade around with an overwhelming show of force..

as the byzantines, i have the turks and venice as my vassals.
both shall be my buffer states for other enemy factions.
it should be noted that it's easier to get vassals if your global reputation is reliable or very reliable. it's harder to get vassals if everyone hates and fears you

[Conquistatore]

The points about vassals make sense. But I still believe they will eventually betray you no matter what you do. It's like the AI has to be an independent nation although the AI seems to managed being a vassal to another AI just fine. I think they have a problem when the player takes them over..

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

The points about vassals make sense. But I still believe they will eventually betray you no matter what you do. It's like the AI has to be an independent nation although the AI seems to managed being a vassal to another AI just fine. I think they have a problem when the player takes them over..

I believe this is a glitch of some type or maybe it was Intentional.

[Conquistatore]

Don't think it is a glitch. If it was it would have been fixed with a patch. This leads me to believe it is intentional.

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

Don't think it is a glitch. If it was it would have been fixed with a patch. This leads me to believe it is intentional.

Well CA isn't know for good patches..

[Spartan90]

I quite enjoy dominating the world via diplomacy, and I find the Byzantines are the best faction to do this with. I thought it would be fun to make Hungary and the Turks extremely close allies of mine. Because Hungary didn't waste its resources fighting me to the south, they took huge amounts of land in Poland, Germany and Venice. I then bought all of Hungary's southern lands, except their capital - thus expanding my empire. The same with the Turks, they expanded into the Holy Lands and the eastern territories, so I just bought their lands in Anatolia. Everyone wins, no wars, and I've yet to have my two neighbouring allies attack me. Nevertheless, I'm still prepared for the unpredictable AI...

[Nazgûl Killer]

Conquering the world via diplomacy... I actually almost did that once, I bought all of Italy (Aside from Rome, don't want it), took me a lot of money and turns, but I reserved my army, and conquered France and England (I was HRE).

[Conquistatore]

I love the term 'conquered with diplomacy'. It's kind of a contradiction but it does sound good.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Agreed. Definetly.

[Exarch]

latest update with my byzantine campaign;
spartan 90 is right, the byzantines are the best for conquering via diplomacy; their diplomats are the best especially when trained in constantinople and you get heps of $$$ to, how shall we say it, grease the wheels of diplomacy

i find that a lot of factions will form coalitions with each other and tend to stay in that alliance if they have reliable reputations.
going to war with one of these factions and making them your vassals is a great way to break up these big alliances/coalitions, but be warned, the AI, like in real life prefer the status quo so it's best not to be the aggressor in any conflict.

for eg, there was a major axis of evil with the HRE, milan and russia and despite my being allied with russia as the byzantines, even going so far as to give them aid eveyr now and then, they betrayed me and broke our alliance when i went to war with milan.
then, after i made milan my vassal i attacked the HRE and that subsequntly lost me all my vassals.
i loaded up again and this time i let the HRE attack me. the result being that my vassals stuck with me and condemned the attacks, breaking off relations with the HRE and thus was the axis of evil destroyed from within

byzantine diplomacy, manuel comnenus would be proud

[svenn42]

The Byzantines are in a really good starting position for diplomacy because they have loads of resources that can be tapped by merchants nearby, a fair amount of rebel provinces for capturing, and are orthodox, thus exempting them from excommunication if they go to war with catholic factions and don't have crusades declared against them because they are Christian

[D.B. Cooper]

As Venice, my MO for expansion is to capture border city from a faction and then request a ceasefire. A handful of florins seals the deal and then I have another settlement to add to my empire, and another good trading partner. Only disadvantage is that I'm scattered all over the place, if someone knocks out my navies then my cities are practically helpless.

[Spartan90]

As Venice, my MO for expansion is to capture border city from a faction and then request a ceasefire. A handful of florins seals the deal and then I have another settlement to add to my empire, and another good trading partner. Only disadvantage is that I'm scattered all over the place, if someone knocks out my navies then my cities are practically helpless.

The problem with this is your global reputation goes downhill fast. Then after doing this several times, other factions will stop accepting ceasefires from you because of the global hatred for Venice.

[Conquistatore]

Well that's very lucky then because in my campaigns the vassals I manage to get never stay loyal.. for a long period of time at least.

[Exarch]

the thing is
you have yourself a situation like europe pre 1914
the complex web of alliances and protectorates and whatnot will force you to have to side with one vassal over the other and well...this inevitably leads to war

best time to take vassals is in the eraly game when they're still weak and when you can use their resources to the max

[Toorima]

I'd love to use more diplomacy in my world-dominance-plans, it just turns out every time to be too stressful and frustrating. So I'll try to solve problems diplomatically and if it doesnt' work slaughter every last of them, whoever meant by "every".

I really hope in Empire: Total War diplomacy will be improved at least a bit.

[Spartan90]

the thing is
you have yourself a situation like europe pre 1914
the complex web of alliances and protectorates and whatnot will force you to have to side with one vassal over the other and well...this inevitably leads to war

best time to take vassals is in the eraly game when they're still weak and when you can use their resources to the max

How would your vassals declare war on one another? I'm only able to get vassals if I land-lock them around my empire. Or make them when they only have one front - me. You were able to have two vassals next to each other??