Is being a suzerain useful?

[Arheilgen]

Just playing King Aelle in the winterking-mod. Managed to force the other two anglo-saxon kingdoms into submission.
And I wonder if that was a clever idea.

They now pay tribute to me (small amounts) and they hate me. That's ok.
They help a bit to claim the Bretwaldaship. That's ok, but Bretwalda doesn't mean much anyway.
They call me into their wars. That's can be very annoying and risky and I don't profit even if they win.
But they don't come when I need support in a war, there is not even an option to call them as a suzerain-tributary relationship doesn't mean an alliance.

So I really wonder what the advantages of being a suzerain are?
I am tempted to release them from paying tribute and then attack and conquer their lands.

Any ideas?

 

[Andrew0Red]

A partial explanation of tributaries:

• While trying to make someone a tributary triggers existing defensive pacts, it doesn't increase threat. (Moot if playing without DP.)
• If you have expanded as far as you want, making the next state a tributary keeps your vassals from grabbing the territory. (Moot if powerblobbing.)
• If you choose the type of tributary that ends on your death, you can choose not enter their wars without losing them. (Horse Lords required, I think.)

So yes, in most cases they're pointless.

 

[Arheilgen]

So yes, in most cases they're pointless.

Very interesting special cases - so for me it just was a mistake to not conquer them directly.

And that's what I will do now. Many thanks, their blood is on your conscience ;-)

 

[jonjowett]

A partial explanation of tributaries:

• While trying to make someone a tributary triggers existing defensive pacts, it doesn't increase threat. (Moot if playing without DP.)
• If you have expanded as far as you want, making the next state a tributary keeps your vassals from grabbing the territory. (Moot if powerblobbing.)
• If you choose the type of tributary that ends on your death, you can choose not enter their wars without losing them. (Horse Lords required, I think.)

There is one more important use case: "Extorted" tributaries can be forced to join all of your wars for the rest of your life. (And their levies refill much faster than if you conquer the territory, because they don't get the various penalties from newly-conquered provinces.) This can be very useful when starting as a 1 or 2 county tribe: after your first successful tributary war, you can very quickly snowball into a fearsome tributary swarm, which gives you a lot more options.