Resolving the Breton Succession War

[Ifernat]

Hey, first time posting in this sub-forum. I wanted to let you know that I’ve really been enjoying the work of the mod team. I did however have a problem that I was hoping that someone might know how to solve.

Started as England in the 1356 scenario with the Breton war already active. The war was “won” within about three years and France and all of the various French vassals were occupied. Since this was my first MEIOU play through the “Surrender of the Valois” event took me by surprise. The northern French territory was transferred to me and the southern territory became Dauphine (which was immediately reoccupied). The only problem is that its 1420 now and I’m still occupying the French vassals & Dauphine and unable to end the war either by myself or by tag switching to Brittany/Montfort. None of the French minors can peace out because they’re vassals of Dauphine…yet Dauphine can’t peace out because it thinks it’s a vassal of itself (Dauphine).

At first I didn’t mind all that much because I was getting a steady stream of province defections but those dried up after about 10-15 years despite there still being several provinces with ENG cores in and around Vendee. I was also a bit preoccupied from 1360-1400 trying to digest the large influx of uncored land (wound up overextended at one point). By now though its getting to be a problem as I could have finished consolidating France some time ago. Dealing with revolts is also getting to be a headache and is tying up a majority of my army. The French lands I got as part of the Valois Surrender have all reached 0 nationalism by now but the occupied Vassals all have minimum revolt risks north of 30% a month after having been occupied for 60 years. Given that there are about 12 or so occupied provinces I’m getting tired playing whackamole even though its done wonders for my army tradition. The unending war is also limiting in that its locking out any action that requires me to be at peace.

So my question is this…what is the best way (the least likely to break something) to end the war via a manual change in the save file (and what would I need to change). As I noted it can’t be resolved in game due to all the remaining defenders thinking that they’re vassals of each other. While I’ve messed around in EU3 save files before its mostly been to alter province ownerships to something saner after the AI concludes a war with a baffling peace treaty. I haven’t ever save file modded an active war so instructions would be appreciated.

[Evander]

I know that's a cheat but you can use the command

annex TAG

which will (obviously) annex the designated country. The Breton succession war as been a problem in MEIOU, the only way to end this war properly as England is to wait the Montfort or Blois to end its vassalization ... but the AI doesn't do that.

[James_Manring]

I've had the same problem too. I found that if I played the game without stopping then everything works fine. It is when I save the game and then load from that save that Dauphine starts to think it is a vassal of itself. I stayed up one night and played the game until Dauphine (vassal of England from the Valois surrender event) would accept a demand for annexation, then I saved the game. From that point on the vassals of France become independant nations and I am then able to form English-French Union.

I am confused as to why the vassals of France remain vassals of Dauphine after the surrender event. I believe they should become vassals of England along with Dauphine, instead of a cascading vassalization. There are even unused events in the file that allow for vassals to switch during the war. This convinces me the intent is for the vassals to swap sides at some time.

Gigau, could the cascading vassalization of England => Dauphine => Blois, etc. be the cause of Dauphine becoming a vassal of itself when the game is saved and reloaded?

[Bloodmerchant]

Only way for that to happen is:
1) One annexes the other
2) If they're not vassals

[gigau]

I'm having trouble with that war. I've tried all i could, but half the time, in that war, it's either the vassals that are considered as war leaders. I've tried making France and England be at war earlier, and the two vassals joining later. But it keeps acting strange.

For the Dauphiné issue, i'm sorry. Place this file in your MEIOU diplomacy history folder.

[SAS]

I'm having trouble with that war. I've tried all i could, but half the time, in that war, it's either the vassals that are considered as war leaders. I've tried making France and England be at war earlier, and the two vassals joining later. But it keeps acting strange.

For the Dauphiné issue, i'm sorry. Place this file in your MEIOU diplomacy history folder.

How about just removing that war in the history files? Since England and France are at war won't they join anyways?

[gigau]

How about just removing that war in the history files? Since England and France are at war won't they join anyways?

Not always. That's one of the many problems with this war.

[James_Manring]

I'm having trouble with that war. I've tried all i could, but half the time, in that war, it's either the vassals that are considered as war leaders. I've tried making France and England be at war earlier, and the two vassals joining later. But it keeps acting strange.

For the Dauphiné issue, i'm sorry. Place this file in your MEIOU diplomacy history folder.

It worked marvelously, Gigau. Thank you very much. I edited this very same file to fix the problem but did not realize that I had to start from scratch instead of a save game to activate the change. Doh!

could you have added an "if exist = FRA" type of thing in there to fix it instead of deleting the offending portion?

[gigau]

It worked marvelously, Gigau. Thank you very much. I edited this very same file to fix the problem but did not realize that I had to start from scratch instead of a save game to activate the change. Doh!

could you have added an "if exist = FRA" type of thing in there to fix it instead of deleting the offending portion?

No. It's just that the history files are read only when loading a new game. After that, diplomacy and war data are stored in the savefile.

[James_Manring]

No. It's just that the history files are read only when loading a new game. After that, diplomacy and war data are stored in the savefile.

Well I'm learning more about how this works every day. I've been going through the files trying to teach myself things about the structure. I'd like to be able to help fix things instead of just begging you guys. Hopefully one day I can become useful for you.

[gigau]

Hopefully one day I can become useful for you.

Feedback is already of great use. We can't test everything... so, that's where you guys come in

When you feel like it, we can see what else you can do for MEIOU

[Ampersand]

Hey, I've solved the problem with the vassals being war the leaders in the Hundred Years War.

By the looks of it, it seems to be a bug in the game engine itself, rather than anything you guys have scripted into the mod. Here's how you see what I figured out.

1. Start up the game and load the mod. When you are prompted to select a start date, simply do not choose one, or pick the Golden Bull 1356 start date. If you start the game here, England and France will be the war leaders.

2. Do as above, but when you are prompted to select the start date, click any date after the Golden Bull 1356 start date. As far as I can tell, it can be any one of the other starts, except Hands Off. Then, after clicking some other start date, go back up, pick the Golden Bull 1356 start date, pick England or France. This time, the vassals will be the war leaders. I've experimented with this several times, and it works, every time.

edit: Actually, for the vassals to be at war, the start date you temporarily select has to be any date including and after the Vanilla Grand Campaign.

[gigau]

Wow ! didn't see that one coming

Except that i always suggest one doesn't select a scenario at a later date to finally select an ealier date, as it usually messes things up. Here would be a new proof... and would explain why i think i never experienced this issue myself...

[doubtofbuddha]

Wow! That makes a lot of sense. I was about to come in and state that this was an issue I've never seen and try to see if we could pin it down, but that makes perfect sense. Excellent!

[gigau]

Forgot to say : made an announcement in this section of the forum.

Now, i'm adding this thread to the stickied FAQ thread.

[Spricar]

What if I've already started a new game so that neither file nor Ampersand fix won't fix this issue. is there any other way to end this war (some console command or smth.). I'm playing as England and winning...

[Evander]

What if I've already started a new game so that neither file nor Ampersand fix won't fix this issue. is there any other way to end this war (some console command or smth.). I'm playing as England and winning...

You can annex the breton house you want :

 annex BLO

to annex the House of Blois
or

 annex MNF

to annex the House of Montfort

...


or

 annex FRA

but that's just silly !

[Mizzle]

Less cheaty but more complex way of doing it:
Open up your save file in notepad or something similar and search for the section that looks something like this: (It will have more stuff in the history section if you've been fighting the war for a while. Should be pretty easy to find by doing a search for "guerre")

active_war=
{
	name="Guerre de succession de Bretagne"
	history=
	{
		name="Guerre de succession de Bretagne"
		casus_belli="cb_claim_throne"
		1337.11.1=
		{
			add_attacker="ENG"
			add_defender="FRA"
		}
		1341.4.30=
		{
			add_attacker="MNF"
			add_defender="BLO"
			add_defender="NRM"
		}
	}
	attacker="MNF"
	attacker="ENG"
	defender="NRM"
	defender="BLO"
	defender="FRA"
	original_attacker="ENG"
	original_defender="FRA"
	action="1356.1.10"
	casus_belli="cb_claim_throne"
}

The bit at the bottom where it lists the attackers and defenders is in the order they appear in game. Just move the 'attacker="ENG"' line to the top of the list of attackers and the 'defender="FRA"' line to the top of the list of defenders and save the file. Then when you load the save file up in MEIOU England and France will be the war leaders like they were supposed to be.

[gigau]

Thanks, Mizzle, i ignored that trick

[Dasein]

I've had a similar issue, but it's after France is gone: France has fallen, changed into Dauphine, but, after a save/load, became vassal-ed to himself. As a result, the last hundred years have been war after war ending with "No Violence = No War" events. England has gone onto gain enough of France to become the Anglo-French Union, but Dauphine is still around, stuck in these never-ending wars. I don't think the above solution is going to work for me, because the game seems to be quite certain of two things: 1) Dauphine is leading the war, and 2) vassals can't negotiate peace. Is there a way in the save file to edit the vassalage itself, instead of just the opponents of a particular war?