I've entered foreign lands w/army and not hurt relation, maybe it works like this:

[dearmad]

My relationship with them both was good or better each time this happened. Not saying it can't get lwoered, but maybe the odds of lhurting your relationship are lower if you have good relationship already?

So, anyone with perfect relationships seeing them get hurt when you just cross other kingdoms?

[Ambrosius]

yes.
i gave hungary four cities - antioch and the surrounding ones. i was getting attacked on too many fronts and i needed a buffer.

anyways, my relationship with them shot up to PERFECT instantly. when you giive someone your cities, the units garrisoning them end up standing beside the city. most were militia, which i disbanded, but i hhad a couple units of gold chevron troops which i wanted to keep, so i moved those to my own lands (jerusalem and acre). as soon as they took one step, my relationship with hungary went down to poor.
i was so pissed off you wouldnt believe. after giving them 4 cities simply taking one step on ground that had been mine seconds earlier destroyed my relations with them. what BS.

[Mooncabbage]

I think the amount of time a faction has a certain disposition to you is a key factor here. Try convincing other nations to agree to a ceasefire without ramming it down their throats after being at war with them for 50+ turns.

I think relative strength of the factions comes into it too. Someone two steps away from being a client state is far less likely to complain than an equally powerful neighbour.

On that note, is there any tangible benefit of forcing someone to be a vassal state over just say, invading them and wiping them out?

[dearmad]

oh. well. then. nevermind. proven wrong instamagically.

[Romanos]

I guess your question has been answerd. Close