Are there tactics to get AI to declare war on other AI? Can you influence coalitions you're not part of to attack?

[fossar_]

Playing as Aragon, I want to start attacking France and they've just generated a ton of AE which has formed a massive coalition against them consisting of most of the HRE and England, who I'm allied to. I only have 20ish AE to France though so can't join myself. I want to take advantage of this coalition but don't know the best way to go about it.

If I declare on France and call England in, is that enough for the coalition to trigger and everyone else to be brought in?

In not, are there ways to encourage the coalition to attack so I can also declare while that war is going on? England already has -200 relations with France so using the Reduce Opinion interaction won't make a difference.

Cheers in advance!

 

[Lykus Cerebros]

The AI takes the targets strength into account when deciding to declare wars.

You could isolate france by attacking it's allies or it's allies allies and forcing them to cancel the alliance with France.
You can also use diplomatic interactions to ask frances allies to break their alliances with france (using favors or Great power interaction).

The direct route works as well. If you weaken France and their allies enough this could tilt the scale in favour of the coalition so they might attack. Especially if you occupy and ally so they wouldn't join a defensive war on Frances side could make the difference.

No real guarenteed way though.

 

[Kapi96]

A coalition will usually declare war as soon as they think they can win and aren't distracted by anything else.

So your options are to weaken France/break their alliances and to help out coalition members if they've got any neighbours/enemies threatening them or rebel issues or something.

Attacking France and doing well against them has a decent chance of the coalition dogpiling on them too, but be aware that calling England into it may actually prevent that from happening too. Will the coalition still have enough troops/manpower to go toe to toe with France without England (since they'll be removed from it if they join your war vs France)?

 

[vaLor-]

Playing as Aragon, I want to start attacking France and they've just generated a ton of AE which has formed a massive coalition against them consisting of most of the HRE and England, who I'm allied to. I only have 20ish AE to France though so can't join myself. I want to take advantage of this coalition but don't know the best way to go about it.

If I declare on France and call England in, is that enough for the coalition to trigger and everyone else to be brought in?

In not, are there ways to encourage the coalition to attack so I can also declare while that war is going on? England already has -200 relations with France so using the Reduce Opinion interaction won't make a difference.

Cheers in advance!

I've been declared on by coalitions before when in wars against powerful enemies, so that may help.
Also, allies are very much a factor in coalitions thinking they can take you on; chances are if you are on the edge of getting coalitioned, an ally that flips to not wanting to defend you will be the tipping point. I assume that annulling alliances would have the same effect.
Coalitions are very finicky though, I've only ever seen coalition wars against AI happen like once or twice in my time playing.

 

[Blizzrd33]

Playing as Aragon, I want to start attacking France and they've just generated a ton of AE which has formed a massive coalition against them consisting of most of the HRE and England, who I'm allied to. I only have 20ish AE to France though so can't join myself. I want to take advantage of this coalition but don't know the best way to go about it.

If I declare on France and call England in, is that enough for the coalition to trigger and everyone else to be brought in?

In not, are there ways to encourage the coalition to attack so I can also declare while that war is going on? England already has -200 relations with France so using the Reduce Opinion interaction won't make a difference.

Cheers in advance!

You could Send Warning to France, that way if France declares on one of your land neighbours you'll get a defensive call to arms to join the war.

 

[fossar_]

You could Send Warning to France, that way if France declares on one of your land neighbours you'll get a defensive call to arms to join the war.

Didn't know this that is actually incredibly helpful. In the end France continued to attack East and must've co-belligerated Austria who then called me in so I got what I wanted anyway. This tactic would work without even needing those defensive alliances. Sounds like it's probably worth sending warnings to any rival neighbour you can take on while at peace as you either stop them expanding or get to expand into them.

 

[PDXJon]

Didn't know this that is actually incredibly helpful. In the end France continued to attack East and must've co-belligerated Austria who then called me in so I got what I wanted anyway. This tactic would work without even needing those defensive alliances. Sounds like it's probably worth sending warnings to any rival neighbour you can take on while at peace as you either stop them expanding or get to expand into them.

Just a heads up, you need to be large enough, or France small enough, in order to have the option to warn them.

 

[fossar_]

Just a heads up, you need to be large enough, or France small enough, in order to have the option to warn them.

makes sense nations would just ignore warnings from countries with militaries significantly smaller than them

 

[cuendillar]

Another way to try triggering a coalition war is to ally a member of the coalition (preferrably one with other strong allies) and set some of France's provinces to vital interest. Most likely, your new ally will take into account that he can call you into the war with a promise of land when decided whether or not to pull the trigger.