I am liking this AAR and your strategy. You have a lot of vassals but, with the possible exception of the Byzantines, none of them are powerful enough to oppose you directly. The only way they would even stand a chance is if you faced a few of them at once. Also, I have a question. Why did you liberate the Byzantines instead of taking the land for yourself seeing as it had no penalties?
Two reasons: A. fewer provinces means less stability costs and I do intend to 'abuse' this advantage a lot, such as having military access to launch a surprise attack. I will be back on +3 in 6 months.
B. I like it this way. That may not be your best reasoning, but I find this way more amusing.
Why don't you vassalise them through the peace treaty? Wouldn't that be a lesser hit of infamy?
There are reasons for this, but also reasons against.
For:
- You change their government to yours (when releasing them).
- You remove them as an elector (though, this may also be counted as an against).
Against:
- Bigger infamy hit.
- You remove them as an elector (as I said above).
So sometimes it can pay off, sometimes not.
In addition, some countries are too big to accept an offer of vassallisation in a peace treaty, but will accept annexation (weird, I guess).
And when you need to get the nation 'freed' out of another country, you really have no choice. A freed nation is just an ally, not a vassal, but demanding the provinces for the new nation and
then releasing them will grant you a vassal.
I know it is a bigger peace cost and infamy hit, but it's worth it. Sometimes.
Also remember the infamy reduction when you release a vassal.