Alliances and Trade Rights

[th3freakie]

Still on the Venice game,

I'm noticing my rivals and threatened AI neighbors are very effective in assembling alliances against me, which is smart of them. However, it seems my potential allies are not very smart in assembling alliances against mine and their rivals. Well, not while including me anyway.

What can I do to get countries that are in my area but not threatened by me to accept - or better yet, to PROPOSE - alliances with me?

Similarly, what does the AI take into consideration when deciding to accept to give Trade Rights or not?

Cheers mates!

[Kurblius]

Playing as Venice, I had the same problem. I suspect it's tied with the Merchant Republic form of government - no one will ally with you, let alone make proposals, after you start the game. The key is to keep the allies you get at the beginning of the game, which is a constant struggle. The Reformation is particularly disastrous (read my signature, if you haven't already).

Trade rights are influenced mainly by your Diplomatic Skill. Expanding your SoI, and they will come fast and easy. Other factors are essentially the same as with acquiring Trade Leagues. Good relations are also important, especially if you want to keep the rights for a long time. Religion and Proximity to your CoT is also considered, and nations with CoTs will never give you Trade Rights, though countries with whom you've acquired trade rights before they acquired a CoT (ex: whoever forms Russia) will usually keep giving you Trade Rights for some time after acquiring a CoT. However it should be noted that Trade Rights are bugged so shouldn't be relied upon.

[th3freakie]

Playing as Venice, I had the same problem. I suspect it's tied with the Merchant Republic form of government - no one will ally with you, let alone make proposals, after you start the game. The key is to keep the allies you get at the beginning of the game, which is a constant struggle. The Reformation is particularly disastrous (read my signature, if you haven't already).

I have read it mate, and found it full of nice info, but your global conquest sort of threw me off. I'm planning on doing a much more constrained game, keeping my domains small and just getting money and prestige so I can bask in the Luxuries of a rich merchant's life

Trade rights are influenced mainly by your Diplomatic Skill. Expanding your SoI, and they will come fast and easy. Other factors are essentially the same as with acquiring Trade Leagues. Good relations are also important, especially if you want to keep the rights for a long time. Religion and Proximity to your CoT is also considered, and nations with CoTs will never give you Trade Rights, though countries with whom you've acquired trade rights before they acquired a CoT (ex: whoever forms Russia) will usually keep giving you Trade Rights for some time after acquiring a CoT. However it should be noted that Trade Rights are bugged so shouldn't be relied upon.

What is this then?

I'm mostly trying to get them for the mission in any case =D

[Kurblius]

The Trade Rights mission is totally awesome. Get them for that for sure. The bug in the Trade Rights mechanism is that once you acquire them, they can be overuled by AI merchant republics. However, you can't do the same to them. This is particularly problematic when you finally get the bonus for getting access to 33% of a specific good (ie: Salt...) after getting trade rights from say Mecklenburg, only to see the AI acquire the said salt trade rights from Mecklenburg the very NEXT DAY.

[Kurblius]

Oh one thing about Allies for Venice. You can always make allies of your own by releasing countries and growing vassals by giving them conquered territory. I created a nice, powerful Bulgaria that way, and they proved quite useful. Still, the ideal Allies for Venice is still Switzerland and Burgandy.

[th3freakie]

Oh one thing about Allies for Venice. You can always make allies of your own by releasing countries and growing vassals by giving them conquered territory. I created a nice, powerful Bulgaria that way, and they proved quite useful. Still, the ideal Allies for Venice is still Switzerland and Burgandy.

The Swiss would be nice, but they are firmly in league with my predictable arch-nemesis Milan, who in turn is also allied with Bavaria and Croacia. Bugger's got me well surrounded. I'm allied with Urbino and Bohemia, but the latter keeps having Troubled Times and refuses to join wars against Bavaria because of too good relations. Damn it.

[Kurblius]

Perhaps you can try Savoy, though typically they get distroyed by France. However, if France DOES get a border with Milan, it'll inevitably make mincemeat out of it - it usually gets a mission to claim Italy. Good luck .

[th3freakie]

Perhaps you can try Savoy, though typically they get distroyed by France. However, if France DOES get a border with Milan, it'll inevitably make mincemeat out of it - it usually gets a mission to claim Italy. Good luck .

Savoy was nice enough to grant me Trade-rights, but they won't ally (impossible) for some reason. Boohooo =(

[brifbates]

Savoy was nice enough to grant me Trade-rights, but they won't ally (impossible) for some reason. Boohooo =(

They most likely are already at their limit. The ai tends to ally with anyone they can until they hit the limit no matter how useless or non-obvious they might be. Things like Brunswick allying with Novgorod at the start happen fairly regularly in my experience. This is one reason I set things to alert me when nations break alliances-to pick up the pieces (or smash them, as appropriate).