Damn these mechanics are working FINE!!!

[Jochi]

I have been playing SS for about a year now and for the very first time it al makes 100% sense.
H/H BGRE
Im playing as England and i attacked France since Scotland was allied because of a marriage agreement.
One turn after my attack my three allies :Norway ,Scotland and the papal states back me up!!!
France gets excommed;Scotland uses Bruges as battlestation sending troops in France and Norway is blocking a port. Do note that i had very good relations with each of these three and now on top of that .....

*drum roll*

France became my vassal! For the very first time in a TW game i have a vassal .
France was down too it last two regions being cities and having maybe two generals left and bout 20 units fighting a war 360. So it really makes sense. I didnt even have to bribe them ,they jsut accepted.

now ,how do I exploit them and what are the disadvantages?

EDIT: using savage AI

[SirRobin]

France gets excommed;Scotland uses Bruges as battlestation sending troops in France and Norway is blocking a port.

Congratulations on your success, too bad blockading a port won't do anything, since the AI gets free money when they go broke..

[Jochi]

Ok so now it did something weird. Genoa vassalised them too .

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[chris7ian]

Cheers!

Never seen dual vassalships before. LoL after a year you finally get one and have to share. If I was you I would have broken something.

[Jochi]

Like Genoese balls ? Ive seen this before in SS6.3 with submod compilation Another question ,when my leader became king ,his first son was under 14 so a regent was appointed. And now he is 18 and still not heir ?

[SirRobin]

Also, will you keep the vassal? I got a vassal in my last campaign, but after a couple of turns, they just cancelled the vassalage and walked away. Not much fun...

[Ichon]

Until the regent and any the regent appointed heir dies your heir won't be named officially.

[Asterix]

Until the regent and any the regent appointed heir dies your heir won't be named officially.

personally i think that if you have a regent in place, when the king's son (or whoever is the true heir) comes of age the crown should immediately pass to him. i hate having to wait 50 years for the regent to die before the crown can be returned to the proper bloodline. is that possible, at all, or is it something that cannot be changed?

[Jochi]

Just found out ,died peacefull death. Does a war start when they become independent?Or can i suspect a surprise attack?

[Jochi]

I doubt it ,since the heir crown mod also needed the previous heir to die before it could be attached . Speaking of which ,why didnt they include it in 6.4 the patch . It was a really fantastic submod.

[Losthief]

I doubt it ,since the heir crown mod also needed the previous heir to die before it could be attached . Speaking of which ,why didnt they include it in 6.4 the patch . It was a really fantastic submod.

it's in meneths 6.4 compliation...and the rest of the stuff is toggable...so u could get it there if the submod for 6.4 hasn't been released yet.

[Jochi]

Crap ,too late . Not gonna screwup my game though,having quite an interesting setting for the moment.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have had a recent marriage alliance with leon ,which will last approximatly 40-50 turns. While Scotlands alliance will die out in max 5turns. France is acting as some sort of buffer between me and genoa and though genoa is allied i dont trust them. Aragon is being crushed by me ,unfortunatly the pope is giving me timeouts from time to time.
Im afraid that the moment Scotlands marriagealliance is over ,all hell will break lose . Although if i could just lay my hands on a new princess or single heir i could renew the alliance. But than yet again ,i wont get the rest of britain. suggestions perhaps ?

EDIT : For those who think i cheat by using FOW ,you are wrong I knew all of my surrounding regions already because of recent diplomacy map tradings. Was just curious bout the rest of europe .

[Spoon]

My advice, just crush Scotland. I don't like to "betray" an ally, but it just has to be done. Now you've to consider, with each expansion, a faction that has the possibility to backstab you. You don't have to fear any nation beside Scotland. Castile is probably bussy with the Moors, France is too weak to hurt you and Genoa can help you against the Scots(if you need them)

[k/t]

Make long-term alliances (that you intend to keep for the rest of the game, I mean) only with factions whose lands you don't want.

Also, how can Genoa help you against the Scots? You're between them.

[newt]

Scots have 9 or so regions on the mainland

[k/t]

Heh, you're right. I don't remember the Scots ever getting off the island in SS.

[newt]

They usually take Bruges, but I've not seen them get much further.

[Jochi]

Well because of the HRR getting excommed they pushed landinward. Id might consider having a marriage alliance with genoa to have them buffer the pope and aid me in kicking scottish arse. But i dont seem to lose too much relationpoints when i cancel my allinces ,although i only have broken one with norway since i had to chose between them and another ally .No worries though ,it is not like im going to be friends with the fatimids or the mongols

[Hatch]

I'm loving Aragon with Portuguese/Leon (marriage) /France/Genoa alliances. Once I tidy up with the Moors (who seem to attack the first round I send a priest into a Moorish territory) I have a massive amount of land, and I end up coming back and taking both Portugal and Leon factions out with assassination. It's easy because they are so small I can have a spy next to every city watching, and I can play royalty whack-a-mole until they are all out of royal spawn.

My reputation stays up (lots of alliances that I am not breaking!) and no one is attacking me so I don't need to waste money on massive armies. Once Iberia is all set I move up to France, buy out the cities that are too far to run assassins to and then proceed with the assassination routine.

[newt]

Which ai are you using? Not having an army is risky. They will think you are weak and attack. The better you do the more they will hate you also.