Defending Vassals

[Sparkutas]

Hey I got 3 questions.

Why AI has to defend its vassals, even if it does not want to?
Why AI does not attack vassals?
Is there a mod changing that, making the game much more realistic?
I cant find one like that even though I thought I did once.

 

[gigau]

1/ I'm not sure why the AI would not want to defend its vassals... it's afterall indirectly his land.

2/ I've never seen the AI completely ignore vassal land, especially on their borders (but it's true i haven't played Vanilla in a while).

3/ Question best asked in the User Mods section.

 

[redshirt4life]

A vassal is effectively a part of your own empire. You would never attack it and you would always want to defend it. They are basically a part of your empire that retains their own leadership and government.

Vassal - Europa Universalis 4 Wiki

eu4.paradoxwikis.com

 

[Sparkutas]

2) I meant declare war against it, sorry

1) Yeah, sure, part of empire etc. But for historical example, Commowealth invaded Ottoman's vassals on numerous occasions and it didnt mean war with Ottomans at all. Ottomans did same thing against Commonwealth. So it had to be more common behaviour over the world and changing game in this way would have to make it more realistic.

 

[redshirt4life]

In those cases it's more likely they just didn't have the resources to respond, espesially for the ottomans. They fall into that same two fronts problem the Byzantines had. If the Ottomans, or in earlier centuries the Byzantines, were fighting in the east, they couldn't wage a war in the west.

The war mechanics in EU4 don't account for loyalty among generals. Giving a huge army to a general is just asking for a coup.

Ofc my knowledge of history focused mainly on the Byzantines earlier and less on this time period. But in the history I know Vassals were a fantastic buffer against invaders that were used because it's very difficult to muster an army against an invader quickly, espesially if said country is already at war.

In this, I think the only change I'd recommend is for one to declare war on the vassal directly and making the mother country an automatic co-beligerant of the war. This is probably better then forcing the war upon the mother country only.

 

[Cancerofthehead]

2) I meant declare war against it, sorry

1) Yeah, sure, part of empire etc. But for historical example, Commowealth invaded Ottoman's vassals on numerous occasions and it didnt mean war with Ottomans at all. Ottomans did same thing against Commonwealth. So it had to be more common behaviour over the world and changing game in this way would have to make it more realistic.

“Vassals” in real life encompass a broad variety of relationships. In many cases they were much more akin to tributaries in game, where they provide something to the overlord in exchange for promises of protection (often protection from the overlord) rather than vassals that were tightly tied to the overlord’s nation like all vassals are in game.

No game can accurately play the massive amount of different types of relationships. While predating the game’s time, the relationship between England and France is an example of how messy things could be. At the simplest level, the Duchy of Normandy was a vassal of France and was in a Personal Union with the England which was independent from France.