Alliance worth it?

Well I've had Napoleon Total War since last week and I did a quick Italian campaign to play as France in the European campaign.My problem is that I'm too succsessful.I've captured Vienna and Berlin,established 2 protectorates,and have the largest military in the world.This means that many nations are jealous or envious of me.Britian,Russia,Prussia,and Austria are at war and several smaller allies of there's hate me.My allies are the Kingdom of Holland,the Kingdom of Italy,the Swiss Confederation,the Ottoman Empire,Denmark-Norway,Spain and the Rhine states except Saxony.However the thing is Spain what I hoped to be my closest ally hates me due to historical grievances.I could conquer them and restablish them as a French satellite,but then all my allies would hate me more and right now it's little more than a shaky confedration and a Spainish invasion would destroy my alliance's.I could just let them slip away to the side of the Coalition but would that make me more vulnerable to a invasion of France itself while most of my troops are putting down rebellions in Berlin and Vienna and attacking Russia.So what should I do with the "Friend of France?"

Park some armies near Madrid. They'll probably think twice before turning sides then, and if they do you can quickly capture their capital and perhaps force a peace...

Spain is actually fairly reliable as long as there is a shared enemy. I always play aggressive diplomacy and an early blitz as France, the result of which is that my allies tend to hate me to the tune of -200 or so by turn 7. Spain has yet to backstab me. I do keep a spy or two on the border in case they decide to attack, but whilen they've marched across France before with a stack or two, they've never declared against me. Mutual military access seem to create significant disincentive for an AI to backstab.

Spain was actually loyal to me through my whole campaign. It hated me completaly for the full 10 years.

Well I could do that but army upkeep is expensive and most of my troops are halfway across Europe.I'm not sure if the time and money it takes to train and move a army to my Spainish border is worth it particually when it could be added to Napoleon's army currently heading to Poland which need's troops due to the Prussian and Austrian wars.However I could divert a small amount of resources to France where I'll build a small army and take Gibraltar and Portugal then gift it to Spain to ease diplomatic tensions.Plus it would free me from having a British presence on the mainland and destroy one of my minor enemies.Should I carry through with "Operation: Penisular Liberation?"

Oh and Valentinian you stole my avatar!(Ha,Ha just kidding)

Well Spain hasn't betrayed me yet but I have another problem.All that stands in France's way of domination over Europe is Russia.I got the mission to take Moscow and as they are the last remaining major nation to fight against me(beside's Great Britian)taking them out of the dying Coalition would leave Great Britian the last great enemy of France.But I don't want to lose my army by attrition like Napoleon did.So do I attack quickly with an army that could be ravaged by "General Winter" in a attempt to knock out Russia?Or wait for more favorable conditions which could allow the Russians to pull back there troops from the German front?Your help is appreciated.

You could load a couple of your armies on your fleet and start an amphibious invasion of St. Petersburg. That should speed things up a little. It would give you a base to which you can retreat your armies during the harsh winter months, and it's not that far away from Moscow.

If you turn on an ally, even if you cancel alliance and trade, wait 5 turns, then attack, other countries wont trust you. Rightfully so. It will ruin your capacity for diplomacy, long term allies may well turn on you when you least expect it because you have just advertised that an alliance from you isnt worth . I played a 2 player camp as austria vs human france (very very hard for me as austria are impossible) one of the only damaging things i did to my opponent during this game was sending a 7 unit raiding force through suothern france looting territories and hiding in forest between turns. I looted something like 7 territories and gave them all to spain. The other player now had the option of waving goodbye permanently to half his empire or going to war with his ally to get his territories back. He chose the latter. Within 5 turns the spanish had sunk all his trade fleet and navy, sent huge armies into france and his allies, the dutch turned on him, looted paris and ramapaged through his territories for a long time. I still lost the campaign because i was getting absolutely spitroasted by the otts and italy but this is a good example of the consequences of poor diplomacy.

Well guess what.I won and no one betrayed me.(except the stupid Danes)So I didn't have to worry at all.Spain did nothing.Wonder why.

I always form a military alliance (as France) with the Turks if possible in the Grand Campaign. This draws off Russian & Austrian armies which could have been deployed against me to fight Turkey. You can only build 10 armies as a rule & can't possibly keep all your borders secure as you advance toward Vienna & Berlin, so it helps greatly if you have the Turks securing your right flank.

I too formed a alliance with the Turks.(Historical Reasons) They did a good job of distracting Russia and Austria.