How do I diploannex?

[ByzantineCaesar]

I have bought this game yesterday and started playing the Byzantines. It is going well so far (with cheats) and I own Greece, Macedonia, Adrianople, the Western coast of Anatolia plus Karaman and all Aegan islands, including Cyprus. I have helped to form Bulgaria and I am allied with them and have 200 relations. However, when I try to vassalize them, the game says it is impossible. Any tips for a beginner?

PS1: Same situation with Trebizond.
PS2: The year is 1427 and my monarch is Zoe II Paleologuina (diplomacy 7)

[Landsknecht_88]

I have bought this game yesterday and started playing the Byzantines. It is going well so far (with cheats) and I own Greece, Macedonia, Adrianople, the Western coast of Anatolia plus Karaman and all Aegan islands, including Cyprus. I have helped to form Bulgaria and I am allied with them and have 200 relations. However, when I try to vassalize them, the game says it is impossible. Any tips for a beginner?

PS1: Same situation with Trebizond.
PS2: The year is 1427 and my monarch is Zoe II Paleologuina (diplomacy 7)

Your odds of diploannexing have to be "very unlikely" or better for it to work. The better the relations, the better the odds. So send gifts to these vassals to improve your relations with them if you have to.

[ByzantineCaesar]

The problem is that I can't turn Bulgaria into my vassal.

Update: Ottomans are gone and Trebizond became my vassal through war.

[shikaka]

The problem is that I can't turn Bulgaria into my vassal.

Update: Ottomans are gone and Trebizond became my vassal through war.

Diplomatic vassalization in general is very unlikely according to my experiance.
I had success (40-50% acceptance) with 1 province countries only. If one is stronger, they will not feel the need to look for a liege.

The easiest would be to start insulting them until relations drop, kick them off the alliance and when you get a CB destroy them, and ask for vassalization and a few provinces.

[Landsknecht_88]

The problem is that I can't turn Bulgaria into my vassal.

Update: Ottomans are gone and Trebizond became my vassal through war.

Your reputation (or "bad boy," as it's also called) points also affect your chances of diploannexing if I'm not mistaken. So it may be difficult to annex a country if you have 20-30 reputation points.

Ideal conditions for diploannexing:
* You have +200 in relations with the vassal.
* You have no reputation points.
* The vassal has only one province (if I'm not mistaken, it's easier to diploannex smaller nations.)

So long as your chances are at least "very unlikely," it is possible to diploannex, although it might take 10-20 tries at +200 in relations.

Overall, diploannexing is a hassle, though, and in terms of gameplay, it is only beneficial to do if you want to keep your reputation points low (you don't get any reputation from diploannexing; forceannexing increases your reputation points by 5 IIRC.)

[ivan_the_terrible]

I thought you still got BB from diploannexing, just less than through war... I may be wrong though.

In any case it's seldom worth it, on account of the time it takes and the decentralisation hit you take as a result.

[shikaka]

I thought you still got BB from diploannexing, just less than through war... I may be wrong though.

In any case it's seldom worth it, on account of the time it takes and the decentralisation hit you take as a result.

There are times when it is worth it.
Example: As England I would definietly vassal + diploannex Scotland to form GB.


But generally I just take wealthy provinces, vassalize and leave them be.

[Landsknecht_88]

I thought you still got BB from diploannexing, just less than through war... I may be wrong though.

I can't remember for sure, as it was several months ago I played EU3. But I don't think that you got any reputation at all from it.

In any case it's seldom worth it, on account of the time it takes and the decentralisation hit you take as a result.

That's true, so it is a no-no if you have a long way to go to optimize your sliders. As a nation like France, you have multiple events that allow you to centralize fast, though, so in that case the decentralization hit doesn't hurt so much.