Helping allies, how far do you go?

[temu]

I like to help my allies a lot, if I can afford it I will often give them large cash payments and in my recent campaign where the holy roman empire was nearly wiped out I conquered some settlements and gifted them so they could carry on fighting.

Also I like to finance the faction being targeted by the mongols and try to send some armies of my own.

[Tan Zhi Han]

Allies? What are those?

Bahahahahaha. Oh. You mean the "buffers?" That's all I use my Allies for anyways. I acquire an ally whenever they can block a potential dangerous opponent (I allied the Kwharezm to impede the Mongol invasion). I allied the Venetians to help tackle the Byzantineans. I allied the Hungarians to help annhilate the Polish. I take every chance I can to ruin my Allies otherwise...

I guess I do help my allies take cities that I don't find strategically viable (like Jerusalem... The Kwharezm can have it, I don't want Crusaders on my doorstep)

(I play the Seljuks btw)

[midget_roxx]

Allies? What are those?

Bahahahahaha. Oh. You mean the "buffers?" That's all I use my Allies for anyways. I acquire an ally whenever they can block a potential dangerous opponent (I allied the Kwharezm to impede the Mongol invasion). I allied the Venetians to help tackle the Byzantineans. I allied the Hungarians to help annhilate the Polish. I take every chance I can to ruin my Allies otherwise...

I guess I do help my allies take cities that I don't find strategically viable (like Jerusalem... The Kwharezm can have it, I don't want Crusaders on my doorstep)

(I play the Seljuks btw)

Oh man this . I've tried to help my allies but either their armies are too far away or I can't join forces to attack with them.

[newt]

I never help, unless my army is already close by. I get tired of giving back settlements only to have the faction become destroyed anyway. I will give one away only if it makes sense strategically for me. (I don't want to waste resources defending or whatever)

[Metatron33]

Actually,having an ally could be pretty helpfull.Even on a savage AI,they can be your life savior.
On a campaign as Spain,I decided to send my princess to france,got trade rights and from there a freindly relationship started.After i had conquer all of spain and portugal was gone from map,I aided my already ally(the french) by attacking the english owned Ireland.My relationship grow,till the point that i gotmilitary access and all(with out payment).Once I invaded Sicily,the french also help out.Sicily was the itilian super,even out beating Venice.While i was eating sicily from the south up,the french took Venice from them and moved east.Sicily was fighting on 3 fronts.South,north, and west(i had also landed near florence.This proves that with great relationships the ai could be your best friend.Just help you ally fight its enemies and your rep will grow.they will love that you are beating the life out off thier enemy!

[HolyDevil]

Actually,having an ally could be pretty helpfull.Even on a savage AI,they can be your life savior.
On a campaign as Spain,I decided to send my princess to france,got trade rights and from there a freindly relationship started.After i had conquer all of spain and portugal was gone from map,I aided my already ally(the french) by attacking the english owned Ireland.My relationship grow,till the point that i gotmilitary access and all(with out payment).Once I invaded Sicily,the french also help out.Sicily was the itilian super,even out beating Venice.While i was eating sicily from the south up,the french took Venice from them and moved east.Sicily was fighting on 3 fronts.South,north, and west(i had also landed near florence.This proves that with great relationships the ai could be your best friend.Just help you ally fight its enemies and your rep will grow.they will love that you are beating the life out off thier enemy!

this will happen, OR (most likely) backstab you and take your undefended lands

[newt]

I get allies and keep them, as long as it suits my purpose. I just don't go out of my way to help them.

[Metatron33]

I get allies and keep them, as long as it suits my purpose. I just don't go out of my way to help them.

If it mean conquering Britania,any day!
My french ally were fighting the english on thier soil,and by that time i had taken all of Spain under my control(Iberia).Just find an ally that you think wil fit/suit you.I.e HRE would be England..attacking the french.Sicily would be spain,invading moorish lands..ect.

[Gnostiko]

Depends entirely on the alliance on question - more often than not I tend to view most allies as future enemes or, as someone already said, as buffers. If I ally with a smaller faction against a larger one, and I can see my ally is being mauled (as usually happens in with the Crusaders in my Roman campaigns), I'll send an army and financial help to assist them. Usually though, I'll just send an ambassador along every now and then to dispense 10,000fl; defrays their expenses and improves our relations.

[SoCCo]

first of all my example of helping allies.
i'm playing crusaders campaign with antioch. the original alliance with jerusalim got me in tough position, i'm at war with egypt and byzantines because of them. what can i say, i'm a wealthy crusaders that gets 20-25k fl each turn, jerusalim was under pressure as a jihad to conquer the holy city was under way, i acted as a buffer and stoped the turks but egypt was giving them a hard time. so what did i do? first of all i sent a gift of 100k, 2nd i purchased tripoli, acre, ballbek and tyre, each with 30k. next i accepted a peace offer from egypt ( i was bloking all their ports and i had a siege laid on kerak. during the ceasfire negotiations i decided to add 20k fl and purchase kerak from the infidels, the cittadel is perfect as a base for my furture offensive actions in egypt. 2 turns later egypt decides to attack one of my generals who just built a watchtower in kerak region, war in south again . i send my fleet to block their ports again, but surprise a huge byzantine fleet wipes out my ships. my wealth is based in the trade between the ports arrond antioch/cyprus/southern anatolia/middle east. i'm all ruined as the byzantines start to block my ports! but wait, due to the huge amount of cash i gave jerusalim they pop-up a mass fleet and wipe out the byzantines. in the next 20 turns they manage to push back egyptians to nile. they conquer alexandria and lay siege on cairo. i push north and with the help of the venetians i wipe out the last remains of the turks ( they still live in iraq but are getting hammered by the mongols ) and i open a front in northern anatolia against the byzantines. the crusader states survive because of trade and good relationship. a rich nation who lost it's fleet got saved by the poor ally.

now generally i help with everything i can my small nation allies that i use as buffers against bigger threaths. if i have allies that are as strong as my nation i start to use spies and assassins. i sabotage their economy, i kill their agents, i kill their generals and help with cash the nations they fight with. when i'm rich enough i start to buy their casttles as they are easyer to defend and the revolt risk won't be an issue. once they are out of casttles i launch my attack and annex the whole nation within turns.

[ly0_ly0]

Yeah i sometimes help some nations...but you know that one faction dead decreases the turn rate

[LuiSius_ScutaRuS]

I called a crusade against a lethonian city because they were about to destroy the teutonic order...
oh, I'm playing with portugal btw lol

[ShadowKiller2000]

Hmmmmm. I both help allies, as well as use them for fodder depending on the situation.

I have one campaign as the Romans where I am allied to Hungary.....used to be allied to the Turks until a Jihad was recently called. Prior to that I used both allies as a way of keepping my borders secure.

I am in the process of eating Sicily one castle at a time. They have been at war with me for 50+ turns and I was content to sink thier fleets and destroy any armies that landed in Greece. Now for the last 10 turns or so I inveded with a couple young generals that just came of age.

Its turn 80 ish right now so having 2 allies almost all game allowed me to conquer the local rebels and grow my cities and castles. I did not want to rush the Ai too early.

So now I need to defend against the Jihad which should not be too horrible as I have a full stack in Constantanople, and several Citadels near by to crank out troops to battle in the field.

As the Crusader states allies are a life saver.

I am playing a migration campaign with them right now with some slight changes. But my English allies have proven very usefull. I own all Ireland, and Scotland with York that i took from the Scottish. I also have Rennes, Tolouse and the castle just south of Rennes, I sold my starting territory to the Romans, and eventually Jerusalem as it was too expensive to keep it garrisoned enough to hold.

So now my English allies are kicking France all around the map, and I attack factions that are out of favor with the pope. (I took Toluose from Genoa who angered his holyness) The English love me right now. I wonder how they will feel when I kick them off their island? LOL.

Next target is the Moors as I accepted alliance offers from both Partugal and Aragon.

[Wismer]

I find them useful as buffers in territories I have no interest in acquiring. as byzantines, I don't like holding anything north of the danube because they require so much micro managing that it becomes a buzz kill. To avoid that, I am perpetually allied with the Hungarians via generous tributes and the occasional gifting of an enemy settlement. its worth it

[Metatron33]

Just ally with someone that your action will also favor them.
Another example would be you playing as the Byzantine Empire..just send your diplomat south and try to get an allaince with the Crusaders,they will love you once you start your wars agianst the Turks.
@Luisius_Scutarus that's way to far,I wouldn't even do that.Maybe as the HRE or Poland/hunagry.

[bɑne]

This topic looks like it needs one - poll added.

[Gogolometro]

First I play some rules in my games, like I help always Byzantium, HRE or Crusade States if they are in trouble. Even if they are my enemy, I never try to eradicate them. I belive in chilvary, really, with one big exception, mongols, never be mercifull with these gys.
Back to topic, when I get an ally, I help him, like Cumans when I play Byzantium early. Why? Because I hate how easy they became extinct. Why I need to fight near Tesalia with hungarians? Is not nicer to siege the Brasov with Cumans?
If you are Kaiser of HRE is not normal to be ally with Teutons and same if places are inverted?
But are alliances and Alliances. An alliance with mongols never last. Not even 20 turns. Is in their nature.
Ally with some hispanic nation when you play there? That is a big no. Ally with scotts or french like a english?
Best alliance I know is HRE and FRance. Something like that mean both have lot of satisfaction.
And last but not at end are the vassality treaties. You kick their ass, they remain with 1 town? What is more mercifull than let them live under your command?

[Gnostiko]

Why? Because I hate how easy they became extinct.

Sometimes I too will ally with a faction that's on the verge of disappearing because I don't want to see them go. Status quo and all that jazz

[avenging angel]

If we have a common enemy thats more powerful than them, then i help. Send a few stacks to help but when the enemy has been destroyed and my allied armies have been bled, i carefully relocate key armies of mine near their most valuable settlements. Then normally in under a decade, i annex them and conquer them from within.... lol

[Arowaner]

I usually ally with the best logical choice. Like England - HRE / France - Spain / HRE - Hungary and so on. I like to keep the peace for as long as possible. So I try to decide in which direction I want to advance my empire right at the start of a game. Then I make peace with the nations on the opposite side of my realm to avoid a 2 front war. Then I might also try to get a treaty with the lands behind my soon to be enemy. For example HRE could befriend Norway when it wants to fight Denmark.
I like to help my allies if it suits me too. If you play HRE and France is busy fighting Spain or England I can use the opportunity to eat 1or 2 provinces from France. It is good for me and it helps my ally. I send money and an army if my friend is loosing and I stop that when he is winning again. A common enemy helps to keep the alliance intact. Once this foe is defeated your buddy might turn against you - so better give him smth to fight.