This FAQ is partly based on the work of VKV, no longer active on the Forum. Credits to him. 
Original FAQ
Credits : Silver Legion, Owen, Wooster, kurtbrian, Castellon, ws2_32.
1. Openning the Diplomacy Screen
To initiate a diplomatic action or to look at the diplomatic status, you need to either :
- left-click on the Diplomacy button (scroll & feather) on the left side of the main screen
- right-click on a province owned by another country, and select "Send a diplomat" (provided you have a spare diplomat).
2. Glossary and Abbreviations
DA : Diplo-annexation : Annexation of a country through diplomatic action
DV : Diplo-vassalization : Vassalization of a coutry through diplomatic action
FA : Force-annexation : Annexation of a country in a peace deal
FC : Force-conversion
FV : Force-vassalization : Vassalization of a country in a peace deal
MA : Military Access
RM : Royal Marriage
Active country : the country whose diplomatic status is analyzed, or to which you're sending a diplomat.
Alliance : general alliance between countries.
Coalition : countries figthing on the same side in a war, whether part of the same Alliance or not.
Leader : country leading an Alliance.
Relations : value (minimum : -200 ; maximum : +200) showing the current liking of two countries with each other.
Warleader : country leading a Coalition. Either the original DoWing or DoWed country, its replacement, or a country having negociated a separate peace. In MP, the Alliance leader is always the Warleader, whoever DoWed or was DoWed.
The Diplomacy Screen includes two parts :
- the Alliances
- the Relations
The map shows varying degrees of green, red and grey, as well as symbols at the emplacement of capitals. Those symbols show the flag of the country, as well as other symbols.
List and meaning of the symbols :
- a little crown on the top depicts the existence of a Royal Marriage between the active country and the other country
- a clenched fist grasping a pair of lightnings under the flag indicates that the active country and the other country share a Military Alliance
- a cloud with two emerging lightnings on the top (above the RM crown) shows that the active country has a Casus Belli on the other coutry
- a griffon (on the left) and a lion (on the right) holding the flag indicates that the active country holds the other country in vassalage
- a fire surrounding the flag indicates a war is raging between the active country and the other country.
Meaning of the colors : the colors change according to whether you're under the Alliance part or under the Relations part.
If under the Alliances part, their meaning is :
- dark green : the active country
- light green : existence of a RM (without CB between the two countries), parts of the same alliance, or vassalship
- grey : no diplomatic "link"
- light red : existence of a CB of one country on the other
- middle red : crossing CB between the countries
- dark red : war between the countries.
If under the Relations part :
- dark green : relations higher than 150
- light green : relations higher than 75, but no more than 150
- white : relations between -75 and 75
- light red : relations under -75, but not under -150
- dark red : relations under -150.
When the active country is yours:
The Alliances screen lists all your diplomatic links to other countries. Those links are :
- current Wars : an entry for each war, with the list of allies and enemies (Coalitions, with enemy warleader listed first).
- Truces : during a period of 5 years after a peace is concluded, you receive an extra -5 stability hit when you DoW this country.
- Royal Marriages : by hovering your mouse over the icon, you'll see the expiry date (tip : all RMs are listed in chronological order, so that a RM above another will always end first).
- Military Alliance, and whose members are part of. By hovering the mouse over the icon, you'll see the planned expiry date (unless wars extend it, or earlier dissolution). Alliance leader is either the active country or the first country in the list.
- Vassalizations, in both ways. By hovering the mouse, you'll see the starting date.
- Permanent CBs, one entry for all countries (whether the CB is due to a core, an embargo or another reason).
- Temporary CBs : one entry per country, showing the expiry date.
- Military Accesses given and received : one entry for the MA given, and one for the MA received.
- Embargoes given and received : one entry for the given, one for the received.
- Trade Agreements : one entry listing all countries you have TA with.
- Warnings : notices that the country has been warned by another. Mentions what country warned you, but don't show the expiry date of the warning.
The Relations screen depicts the state of your relations with every country you have had action with. The list is split in two :
- first part shows the major countries (which are indicated in the savegame and figure in the shields in the launch scenario window)
- second part shows the other countries.
Countries are given in a decreasing order, starting with best relations and ending with worse relations.
When the active country is not yours :
Both Alliances screen and Relations screen show the same informations as for your country, but a second window opens, allowing you to issue the diplomatic actions.
In the Alliances screen, diplomatic actions are : Declare War/Offer peace ; Offer Royal Marriage/Break Royal Ties, Offer Vassalization/Cancel Vassalization, Annex, Ask for Military Access/Cancel Military Access ; Create New Alliance, Leave Alliance, Ban from Alliance, Invite to Alliance, Join Alliance ; Trade Embargo/Allow Trade, Offer Trade Agreement/Cancel Trade Agreement, Exchange Discoveries, Offer Loan.
In the Relations screen, diplomatic actions are : Send State Gift, Send Personal Gift, Send Letter of Introduction ; Send a Warning, Send an Insult, Claim their Throne, Proclaim Guarantee.
What determines the amount of diplomats you receive ?
Following kurtbrian's FAQ on this subject, the amount of diplomats you receive each year depends on three points : state religion, monarch's DIP skill, war.
State religion :
- Counter-Reformed-Catholics and Catholic : +2
- Protestant and Reformed : +1
- All others : +0
Monarch's DIP skill : +1 diplomat per point above 6, with a minimum of +1 and a maximum of +5.
War : being at war gives +1 diplomat.
3. Analysis of the various diplomatic actions
I'll analyze them by order of listing in the Diplomatic screen.
All diplomatic actions are subject to two conditions, otherwise the action is greyed out :
- having at least one diplomat in the diplomat pool
- not having sent a diplomat in the past 30 days (tough exceptions, possible bugs I presume, exist).
3.1 Declare War/Offer Peace
Declare War is the action if you're currently at peace with the active country ; Offer peace is the action if you're currently at war with the active country, no matter your relative status in the war (war-leader or ally).
Declaration of War (DoW)
Who can you Declare War on ?
Three categories of countries can't be DoWed :
- members of your Alliance
- countries giving you MA
- countries currently at war on your side, even if no longer in the same Alliance.
You also need to be at Stability -2 or higher.
Stability Hits of a DoW
- Breaking a Truce : -5.
- No Casus Belli : -2.
- Breaking an RM : -1.
- Breaking a Vassalization.
- Same Religion : -1. This stabhit is no longer active after 1600.
- Good Relations : if relations are >100, -1 ; if relations are >150, -2.
BadBoy Effects
BadBoy Effects
DoW with a CB, except as european against pagans : 1 BB.
DoW without CB, relations +100 or more, except as european against pagans : 2 BB.
DoW without CB, relations less than +100, except as european against pagans : 4 BB.
DoW against a pagan, if you're a european coutry (that is, your capital is in Europe) : 0 BB ; CB irrelevant
Honoring a Call to Honor an Alliance
No BB if given, and only stabhits from RM/Vassalization Breakings are received.
Refusing to Honor a Call makes you drop of the Alliance, even if you were the Leader. You may join the Alliance again, but you won't be Leader.
Dishonoring the Call also gives a temporary CB (siw months) upon you for your former alllies.
Miscellaneous Diplomatic Effects
- Relations with the target country will drop by 100.
- A war against the Papal States gives every catholic or CRC country a CB on you.
- Warleaders are the DoWer and the DoWed countries : they're the only ones able to conclude Alliance Peaces.
Offer Peace
When at war, you have the possibility to Offer peace to any or all of your enemies.
Coalition peace or Separate peace
If you are the war-leader (either being the original DoWer, having taken the mantle after the original war-leader leaving, or having already left the original war by a separate peace), you have the possibility to Offer an Coalition-wide peace, or a Separate peace.
If you are not the war-leader, you may only offer peace for your part, even if you are the leader the Alliance.
Please note that the word used by the game is Alliance. In this FAQ, Coalition is used instead, to avoid confusion.
If you offer peace to the enemy war-leader, you may choose to limit it to him (separate peace) or to the whole Coalition.
Thus, there're three kind of peaces :
- Coalition-Coalition : only between warleaders.
- separate-separate : between any two enemies, including warleaders.
- Coalition-separate : between the warleader and any one enemy, including warleader.
Concluding a separate peace (in regards to your coalition) makes you exit the current war, and start another, with you as attacker. It also gives your former coalition-members a temporary CB (12 months) on you.
Choosing the type of peace
When you send the diplomat, you'll get two possibilities.
1) If the warscore is 100 and the country has only one province (excluding TPs/colonies), you'll get a screen proposing you to annex the country, or to cancel. You'll also get this screen when the country is pagan.
2) If the warscore is under 100, or if you choose cancel rather than FA, you'll get a window proposing you four possibilities :
- Demand Tribute : means you'll ask something to the enemy.
- No Tribute : means you offer a statu quo peace, or white peace.
- Offer Tribute : means you'll offer something to the enemy.
- Cancel : if you don't want to make peace now.
Those windows show you two important informations : warscore and the status of the peace talks (whether this peace would be separate or coalition). You may change the status of the peace (from separate to coalition, for both sides) by left-clicking on the shields on the left of the countries'names.
Warscore
Warscore is the measure of how the war is going. When you offer peace, the first screen will tell you what the warscore is. By hovering over it, you'll read the breakdown. Warscore ranges from -100 (you're performing badly, having lost all provinces to your enemy, and not controlling any other) to +100 (you're performing prime, controlling all provinces of the enemy).
Warscore is determined from two sources :
- result of battles : 1 point per battle won or lost (whatever the amount of troops or losses).
- control of provinces : the amount of points depend on the wealth of the province.
The type of peace offered may change the warscore : if you're doing good, but your ally is doing bad, you'll have better warscore as a separate peace rather than as a coalition peace.
To have any luck that the AI accepts the offer, you have to ask for 11% warscore less than you could, or offer 11% more warscore if you're on the losing side.
If the warscore is at least 50%, and you make an offer for 11% less than warscore, the AI gets -1 to Stability if it refuses.
Provinces that are cores of the AI are more difficult to ask, whatever their warscore cost is. A good rule of thumb is to account for them at twice their actual value.
The AI will frequently offer more than you could reasonably ask. It often pays to be patient, even if you won't get your picking of provinces, nor will be able to FV/FC/ask MA.
Force-Annexation
If you Force-Annex a country, you'll get 6 BB if it's from your religion, or 3 BB if it's not of your religion, or no BB if it's a pagan.
You'll receive all the troops and ships of the country. Governors, Manufactories, fortresses, shipyards and CCs will be unharmed, but Tax Collectors and Chief Judges are removed.
A severe relations hit will take place, and some countries will get a temporary CB (2 years) on you.
If you FA the warleader, the war will continue, whether you selected coalition or separate peace.
Tributes possible
There're five types of tributes that are possible to ask : Forced-Vassalization, Force-Conversion, Military Access, province(s), money. You may only offer the last two, province(s) and money.
Force-Vassalization : costs 70% warscore, and you need to control their capital. They also must not be vassals already. They'll leave their Alliance.
Force-Conversion : costs 50% warscore, and it must be asked in a separate peace (separate for them ; you may offer this peace for your whole warside, but you must choose separate war for them, even if they're alone). Force-Conversion may only be enacted between : a) western-rite christians (CRC/catholic vs protestant/reformed), b) muslims, and c) anyone may FC pagans.
Western-rite christians may change back, and will probably do so if they have more provinces of their old religion, but only after the expiry of the Truce. Muslims and pagans can't revert to their old religion, due to the impossibility to convert from sunni to shiite (and vice versa) or to paganism.
Military Access : costs 20% warscore.
Provinces : cost variable, depending on income. You may only ask or offer provinces controlled, or cores (of the enemy if offering, yours if asking). You may only ask a province to its owner : if you control a province from an ally of the enemy warleader, you need to ask the province in a separate peace with the ally.
The provinces are attributed to the controller : if you offer a general peace, you can ask provinces for your allies. If a province controlled by one of your ally is one of your cores, the province will go to the ally.
Factors influencing warscore-cost :
- basic cost is tax base of province
- cost increases as fort levels increase
- cost increases with manufactory
- cost increses massively with Centre of Trade
- cost doubled if core province of enemy
- cost halved if core province of player
- cost doubled if not controlled by player (these provinces can only be demanded if core province of player)
Money : 25d increments. You can't ask for more ducats than they have in treasury, and the cost is 1% warscore per 25d beyond the 25 first. In general peace, money is shared equally between all members of the Coalition.
Tips for making peace
There are some tips, useful to know when sending an offer for peace (not all of them are confirmed) :
- if you siege one of their provinces, you may ask for a white peace and make them accept more easily.
- controlling (or sieging) their capital makes them more open to peace.
- if they keep refusing decent peaces, search and destroy their armies : if they have no more troops nor ships, they'll accept more easily.
- when you conclude separate peaces as warleader while on the defensive side, start with the allies of your enemy, to benefit of the reduced BB-cost for defensive territorial gains in war.
- attributing provinces to your allies improves your relations with them.
- if you can wait, and don't want very specific provinces, wait. The AI will usually offer you greater tributes than what you could ask and receive.
Other peaces
Two other means of achieving peace are possible.
- White Peace : if no fighting occurs between the coalitions for three years, and neither coalition controls any province of the other, a White Peace is declared. War ends without any tribute. Regarding Sole Defender of the Faith concern, a White peace is considered a defeat for the attacker, and a victory for the defender.
- Collapse of Government : if rebels control strictly more provinces than the country, its government collapses. The country immediately becomes at peace with all former enemies, as if separate peaces were concluded with enemy warleaders. Provinces controlled by enemies are given to them ; any province controlled by rebels that can declare independence (considering revolt.csv file) immediately does so, and no war erupts.
Truce
Whenever a peace is concluded, a Truce is declared between all members of the Coalition involved, if Coalition peace.
A Truce lasts for five years, and breaking it triggers a -5 stability hit.
3.2. Offer Royal Marriage/Break Royal Ties
Offer Royal Marriage
Who each Faith can have a Royal Marriage with
From kurtbrian's post.
After the Edict of Tolerance, all Christians can have RM with each other
Nobody can create a RM with the Papal States, The Knights or vassals. But if you play as them you can make RMs with other countries.
Both France and England have some Spymaster events with random RM's.
Conditions
Relations have to be between -150 and -1, or between +25 and +200. Depending on difficulty settings and other factors, offering RM at positive relations may require a minimum of up to +80 to work.
Effects
Relations go up by 15 point.
Fog of War is removed for owned and/or controlled provinces.
A -1 stability penalty is suffered when you DoW a country with whom you have an RM.
Break Royal Ties
By choosing to break a RM, you get a -1 to Stability.
Relations are unchanged.
3.3. Offer Vassalization/Cancel Vassalization
Offer Vassalization
Conditions
- relations between you and the active country at 190 or more
- same Alliance
- Royal Marriage existing between you and the active country
- you must both be at peace
- they must not have vassals themselves (the option will be lit up, but they'll always refuse).
- you need stronger economy (sidenote : it appears from recent discussions that trade does not enter in the determination of 'stronger economy' - to be followed).
[BInfluencing factors[/B]
- relative monarch's DIP skill
- relative economical strengths
- number and morale of troops
- BadBoy
Effects
- You get half of the vassal's tax income.
- Fog of War is removed.
- The AI country can't enter any alliance, except yours (and only if you're the leader). A vassalized human player may still try to create or join another alliance, but no success were met during my tests, so I presume it's not possible.
- The AI country may not have any further RM with anyone (including you). A vassalized human player may still offer RM.
- Your troops may cross their territory, and your ships may enter their ports, but Supply limit is not increased.
Cancel Vassalization
Conditions
If you are the vassal, you need to be at Stability 0 or higher to have the option of Cancelling the Vassalization.
Effects
Surprisingly, relations don't drop. :wacko:
3.4. Annex
Ah, the hard point : "how do I Diplo-Annex ?" Answer follows.
Conditions
- Relations at 190 or higher at the time of the DA : it can be lower during the wait-time.
- Length of vassalization of 10 years or more.
- The vassal must be at peace.
- Stronger economy.
- Same Alliance.
- Compatible religions : you have to be able to conclude an RM with the country (you do not NEED an RM, you only should be capable of).
- Common borders : a common border between 2 TPs at the other side of Earth is enough, but you need one. There's no way to DA island countries that don't own firm land elsewhere.
Although you must have an available diplomat, it won't be used by the attempt.
Influencing factors
- Relative economical strengths.
- Relative monarch's DIP-skills.
- Number and morale of troops.
- Length of time since the vassalization, up to 30 years.
A sizable part of the Community thinks that the position of the armies also helps, but it's still unproven.
Effects
You receive all provinces, troops and ships of the country. Tax Collectors and Chief Judges in the new provinces are removed, all other improvements are left unscathed.
CENTRALIZATION DP-slider moves by one 'click' towards decentralized.
BB cost is 1 per province, cities/colonies/TPs/cores being treated the same way.
In case of a failure, relations drop by 30, and there's a risk that the vassals Cancels the Vassalization. The risk depend on the overal chances of success, AFAIK.
Vassals and sub-vassals
What you can and cannot do regarding countries that have vassals themselves :
- you may force-vassalize them
- you may force-annex them if you meet the other requirements (either pagans, or one-province country)
- you may diplo-annex them.
The only thing which is prevented against a country having vassals, is to diplo-vassalize them.
Please note that it prevents you new vassal from DA its own vassals, since you make your vassal to leave it's current alliance, prevent him from entering any alliance except yours, and can't invite its vassals to your alliance.
3.5. Ask Military Access/Cancel Military Access
Conditions
You may ask for a MA only when at peace with the country.
As a general rule you will need relations of 150 or more to be granted military access. Your monarch DIP-skill and your BB will influence your chances. A special case is countries that are considered your neighbors by the engine because they are close enough. In that case they will grant you MA even at significantly lower than 150 relationship if you have a much greater military strength than they do.
Effects
- Your armies may cross their territory, and your ships may enter their ports.
- Supply limit is doubled (4x base tax value).
- You can't DoW them, but you may still be at war with them (and they won't cancel the MA).
Cancel Military Access
Cancels a MA you were receiving.
Gives a -1 stability hit.
Revoke Military Access
Cancels a MA you were receiving.
Gives a -1 stability hit.
You cannot cancel your military access to a country while you have an army inside that country.
Notebook :
- relations decrease when competing merchants (don't know where to put this for now)
3.6. Military Alliances
Create Military Alliance
Conditions :
- be out of any alliance
- having good relations : minimum seems to be +50
Effects :
- you propose a country to ally with you
- you become the Leader of the Alliance, thus in control of the joining of any new ally
- the country immediately enters any war you're currently entangled in
Leave Alliance
Conditions :
- being in an Alliance
- without being the Leader of the Alliance
- being at peace
Effects :
- you leave the Alliance
- other Alliance's members get a temporary CB (12 months) on you
Ban from Alliance
Conditions :
- being in an Alliance
- being the Alliance Leader
- having a CB on the ally you plan to ban
- not being in a common war
Effects :
- your former ally no longer is part of the Alliance
Invite to Alliance
Conditions :
- the country must be out of any Alliance
- having good relations : again, minimum seems to be +50
- being the Leader of the Alliance you're in
Effects :
- the country enters your Alliance
- the country immediately enters any war you're currently entangled in
Join Alliance
Conditions :
- you must ask to the Alliance Leader
- being outside of any Alliance yourself
- good relations with the Alliance Leader
Effects :
- you enter the Alliance
- you enter all wars the Alliance Leader is currently in
3.7. Trade Embargoes
Conditions :
- trade tech level 4
- no Trade Agreement with the country
Effects :
- the target country can't send any more merchants in CoTs you own
- the target country doesn't get any income from merchants already present in CoTs you own
- similarly, the target country doesn't get income from your provinces for trade into other CoTs (that is, if your provinces represent 25% of the trade value of a given CoT, the target country will only get 75% of his normal share of the trade)
- the target country gets a permanent CB against you (until you lift the embargo)
- investments in trade tech decrease by 1d monthly for every embargo above the allowance MERCANTILISM DP-slider gives you
- decreases your relations with target country by 25 pts, and with all same-religion countries by 10 pts
Factors increasing the risk of being embargoed :
- AI file (a factor determines the 'mind' of the country about embargoes)
- BadBoy
- sending many merchants at a time in the same CoT
- getting a monopoly in a CoT
- being enemy in a war (becomes nearly automatic now)
Lifting the Embargo :
- by a victory in a war (a white peace is a victory for the defender)
- voluntarily lifting it, but the AI only does so if you lost all merchants in their CoT(s)
3.8. Trade Agreements
Conditions :
- currently no Embargo between you and the target country
Effects :
- prevents competition between your merchants and the merchants of the target country
- prevents any Embargo between your country and the target country
3.9. Exchange Discoveries
Allows you to share maps and knowledge of provinces. All sea provinces will be exchanged, and all settled land provinces : unsettled (ie, non-city, non-colony, non-TP) will be kept secret.
Conditions :
- positive relations (the exact minimum changes according to monarch's DIP skills and respective number of provinces exchanged)
- having more known provinces to give than they have helps quite a lot
- some countries seem to be much more reluctant to share maps (meaning, colonizers like Portugal and Spain)
3.10. Offer Loan
Limits :
- monetary amount : minimum 1 ducat, apparently no upper limit (I went up to 6000d once)
- interests rate : 1-10%
- length : 1-300 months
Nowadays, the AI rarely (if ever), agrees to offers of loan.
If a country decides not to repay a loan, the loaner gets a temporary CB on the debitor.
3.11. Gifts
Gifts come in three sizes, depending on the amount of money you're ready to send : State Gifts (the biggests), Personal Gifts (intermediate), Letters of Introduction (smallests).
A Personal Gift costs as much as four Letters of Introduction, and a State Gift costs as much as ten Letters of Introduction.
The exact cost depends mostly on relative sizes of the economies of both countries and on relative DIP skills of monarchs.
A gift has a random effect, based on both the size of the gift and on relative DIP skills of the monarchs. Variations can be rather huge, and bad monarchs sending small gifts may actually make the relations worse.
3.12. Send a Warning
A Warning is a way to get a temporary CB against a country if that country DoWs any country during the five-year period following the diplomatic action.
Conditions :
- at peace with the target country
- the target country can't be currently warned by you
There's no way to lift a Warning (tough you may not act upon it).
3.13. Send an Insult
This action costs you some money, but gives the target country a temporary CB on you, lasting 12 monts, and also decreases the relations between you by 50 pts.
3.14. Claim their Throne
Condition :
- there must exist an RM between you and the target country
Effect : gives you a temporary (3 years) CB against the target country, but costs -1 stability and -100 in relations with every country you share a RM (including the target country).
3.15. Proclaim Guarantee
This action lasts five years, and is the equivalent of a Warning, except it is applied to a country you want to protect. You get a temporary CB on any country DoWing the country whose independence you have guaranteed.
There is no way to lift a Guarantee, but you are not forced to act upon it.
**********************************
If you feel like you have comments to post, or various informations, please post, and I'll take into account.
Things I need to know (so post if you have informations)(non-exhaustive list) :
- functionning of the DiplomaticMatrix
- some datas on conclusion of RM : according to personnal experiences, RM can be concluded at relations -150 to -1, +25 to +200. Has anyone concluded an RM at another relations ?
- the effect of a collapse of government on SDotF title.
- data on relations when you ask MA : I cannot find a guideline. :wacko:
Original FAQ
Credits : Silver Legion, Owen, Wooster, kurtbrian, Castellon, ws2_32.
1. Openning the Diplomacy Screen
To initiate a diplomatic action or to look at the diplomatic status, you need to either :
- left-click on the Diplomacy button (scroll & feather) on the left side of the main screen
- right-click on a province owned by another country, and select "Send a diplomat" (provided you have a spare diplomat).
2. Glossary and Abbreviations
DA : Diplo-annexation : Annexation of a country through diplomatic action
DV : Diplo-vassalization : Vassalization of a coutry through diplomatic action
FA : Force-annexation : Annexation of a country in a peace deal
FC : Force-conversion
FV : Force-vassalization : Vassalization of a country in a peace deal
MA : Military Access
RM : Royal Marriage
Active country : the country whose diplomatic status is analyzed, or to which you're sending a diplomat.
Alliance : general alliance between countries.
Coalition : countries figthing on the same side in a war, whether part of the same Alliance or not.
Leader : country leading an Alliance.
Relations : value (minimum : -200 ; maximum : +200) showing the current liking of two countries with each other.
Warleader : country leading a Coalition. Either the original DoWing or DoWed country, its replacement, or a country having negociated a separate peace. In MP, the Alliance leader is always the Warleader, whoever DoWed or was DoWed.
The Diplomacy Screen includes two parts :
- the Alliances
- the Relations
The map shows varying degrees of green, red and grey, as well as symbols at the emplacement of capitals. Those symbols show the flag of the country, as well as other symbols.
List and meaning of the symbols :
- a little crown on the top depicts the existence of a Royal Marriage between the active country and the other country
- a clenched fist grasping a pair of lightnings under the flag indicates that the active country and the other country share a Military Alliance
- a cloud with two emerging lightnings on the top (above the RM crown) shows that the active country has a Casus Belli on the other coutry
- a griffon (on the left) and a lion (on the right) holding the flag indicates that the active country holds the other country in vassalage
- a fire surrounding the flag indicates a war is raging between the active country and the other country.
Meaning of the colors : the colors change according to whether you're under the Alliance part or under the Relations part.
If under the Alliances part, their meaning is :
- dark green : the active country
- light green : existence of a RM (without CB between the two countries), parts of the same alliance, or vassalship
- grey : no diplomatic "link"
- light red : existence of a CB of one country on the other
- middle red : crossing CB between the countries
- dark red : war between the countries.
If under the Relations part :
- dark green : relations higher than 150
- light green : relations higher than 75, but no more than 150
- white : relations between -75 and 75
- light red : relations under -75, but not under -150
- dark red : relations under -150.
When the active country is yours:
The Alliances screen lists all your diplomatic links to other countries. Those links are :
- current Wars : an entry for each war, with the list of allies and enemies (Coalitions, with enemy warleader listed first).
- Truces : during a period of 5 years after a peace is concluded, you receive an extra -5 stability hit when you DoW this country.
- Royal Marriages : by hovering your mouse over the icon, you'll see the expiry date (tip : all RMs are listed in chronological order, so that a RM above another will always end first).
- Military Alliance, and whose members are part of. By hovering the mouse over the icon, you'll see the planned expiry date (unless wars extend it, or earlier dissolution). Alliance leader is either the active country or the first country in the list.
- Vassalizations, in both ways. By hovering the mouse, you'll see the starting date.
- Permanent CBs, one entry for all countries (whether the CB is due to a core, an embargo or another reason).
- Temporary CBs : one entry per country, showing the expiry date.
- Military Accesses given and received : one entry for the MA given, and one for the MA received.
- Embargoes given and received : one entry for the given, one for the received.
- Trade Agreements : one entry listing all countries you have TA with.
- Warnings : notices that the country has been warned by another. Mentions what country warned you, but don't show the expiry date of the warning.
The Relations screen depicts the state of your relations with every country you have had action with. The list is split in two :
- first part shows the major countries (which are indicated in the savegame and figure in the shields in the launch scenario window)
- second part shows the other countries.
Countries are given in a decreasing order, starting with best relations and ending with worse relations.
When the active country is not yours :
Both Alliances screen and Relations screen show the same informations as for your country, but a second window opens, allowing you to issue the diplomatic actions.
In the Alliances screen, diplomatic actions are : Declare War/Offer peace ; Offer Royal Marriage/Break Royal Ties, Offer Vassalization/Cancel Vassalization, Annex, Ask for Military Access/Cancel Military Access ; Create New Alliance, Leave Alliance, Ban from Alliance, Invite to Alliance, Join Alliance ; Trade Embargo/Allow Trade, Offer Trade Agreement/Cancel Trade Agreement, Exchange Discoveries, Offer Loan.
In the Relations screen, diplomatic actions are : Send State Gift, Send Personal Gift, Send Letter of Introduction ; Send a Warning, Send an Insult, Claim their Throne, Proclaim Guarantee.
What determines the amount of diplomats you receive ?
Following kurtbrian's FAQ on this subject, the amount of diplomats you receive each year depends on three points : state religion, monarch's DIP skill, war.
State religion :
- Counter-Reformed-Catholics and Catholic : +2
- Protestant and Reformed : +1
- All others : +0
Monarch's DIP skill : +1 diplomat per point above 6, with a minimum of +1 and a maximum of +5.
War : being at war gives +1 diplomat.
3. Analysis of the various diplomatic actions
I'll analyze them by order of listing in the Diplomatic screen.
All diplomatic actions are subject to two conditions, otherwise the action is greyed out :
- having at least one diplomat in the diplomat pool
- not having sent a diplomat in the past 30 days (tough exceptions, possible bugs I presume, exist).
3.1 Declare War/Offer Peace
Declare War is the action if you're currently at peace with the active country ; Offer peace is the action if you're currently at war with the active country, no matter your relative status in the war (war-leader or ally).
Declaration of War (DoW)
Who can you Declare War on ?
Three categories of countries can't be DoWed :
- members of your Alliance
- countries giving you MA
- countries currently at war on your side, even if no longer in the same Alliance.
You also need to be at Stability -2 or higher.
Stability Hits of a DoW
- Breaking a Truce : -5.
- No Casus Belli : -2.
- Breaking an RM : -1.
- Breaking a Vassalization.
- Same Religion : -1. This stabhit is no longer active after 1600.
- Good Relations : if relations are >100, -1 ; if relations are >150, -2.
BadBoy Effects
BadBoy Effects
DoW with a CB, except as european against pagans : 1 BB.
DoW without CB, relations +100 or more, except as european against pagans : 2 BB.
DoW without CB, relations less than +100, except as european against pagans : 4 BB.
DoW against a pagan, if you're a european coutry (that is, your capital is in Europe) : 0 BB ; CB irrelevant
Honoring a Call to Honor an Alliance
No BB if given, and only stabhits from RM/Vassalization Breakings are received.
Refusing to Honor a Call makes you drop of the Alliance, even if you were the Leader. You may join the Alliance again, but you won't be Leader.
Dishonoring the Call also gives a temporary CB (siw months) upon you for your former alllies.
Miscellaneous Diplomatic Effects
- Relations with the target country will drop by 100.
- A war against the Papal States gives every catholic or CRC country a CB on you.
- Warleaders are the DoWer and the DoWed countries : they're the only ones able to conclude Alliance Peaces.
Offer Peace
When at war, you have the possibility to Offer peace to any or all of your enemies.
Coalition peace or Separate peace
If you are the war-leader (either being the original DoWer, having taken the mantle after the original war-leader leaving, or having already left the original war by a separate peace), you have the possibility to Offer an Coalition-wide peace, or a Separate peace.
If you are not the war-leader, you may only offer peace for your part, even if you are the leader the Alliance.
Please note that the word used by the game is Alliance. In this FAQ, Coalition is used instead, to avoid confusion.
If you offer peace to the enemy war-leader, you may choose to limit it to him (separate peace) or to the whole Coalition.
Thus, there're three kind of peaces :
- Coalition-Coalition : only between warleaders.
- separate-separate : between any two enemies, including warleaders.
- Coalition-separate : between the warleader and any one enemy, including warleader.
Concluding a separate peace (in regards to your coalition) makes you exit the current war, and start another, with you as attacker. It also gives your former coalition-members a temporary CB (12 months) on you.
Choosing the type of peace
When you send the diplomat, you'll get two possibilities.
1) If the warscore is 100 and the country has only one province (excluding TPs/colonies), you'll get a screen proposing you to annex the country, or to cancel. You'll also get this screen when the country is pagan.
2) If the warscore is under 100, or if you choose cancel rather than FA, you'll get a window proposing you four possibilities :
- Demand Tribute : means you'll ask something to the enemy.
- No Tribute : means you offer a statu quo peace, or white peace.
- Offer Tribute : means you'll offer something to the enemy.
- Cancel : if you don't want to make peace now.
Those windows show you two important informations : warscore and the status of the peace talks (whether this peace would be separate or coalition). You may change the status of the peace (from separate to coalition, for both sides) by left-clicking on the shields on the left of the countries'names.
Warscore
Warscore is the measure of how the war is going. When you offer peace, the first screen will tell you what the warscore is. By hovering over it, you'll read the breakdown. Warscore ranges from -100 (you're performing badly, having lost all provinces to your enemy, and not controlling any other) to +100 (you're performing prime, controlling all provinces of the enemy).
Warscore is determined from two sources :
- result of battles : 1 point per battle won or lost (whatever the amount of troops or losses).
- control of provinces : the amount of points depend on the wealth of the province.
The type of peace offered may change the warscore : if you're doing good, but your ally is doing bad, you'll have better warscore as a separate peace rather than as a coalition peace.
A warscore of 100% can only be achieved if a single coalition controls all the provinces of the enemy, while at the same time the enemy doesn't control any other province. To get 100% warscore in a Coalition peace, only the provinces of the warleader are checked.
To have any luck that the AI accepts the offer, you have to ask for 11% warscore less than you could, or offer 11% more warscore if you're on the losing side.
If the warscore is at least 50%, and you make an offer for 11% less than warscore, the AI gets -1 to Stability if it refuses.
Provinces that are cores of the AI are more difficult to ask, whatever their warscore cost is. A good rule of thumb is to account for them at twice their actual value.
The AI will frequently offer more than you could reasonably ask. It often pays to be patient, even if you won't get your picking of provinces, nor will be able to FV/FC/ask MA.
Force-Annexation
If you Force-Annex a country, you'll get 6 BB if it's from your religion, or 3 BB if it's not of your religion, or no BB if it's a pagan.
You'll receive all the troops and ships of the country. Governors, Manufactories, fortresses, shipyards and CCs will be unharmed, but Tax Collectors and Chief Judges are removed.
A severe relations hit will take place, and some countries will get a temporary CB (2 years) on you.
If you FA the warleader, the war will continue, whether you selected coalition or separate peace.
Tributes possible
There're five types of tributes that are possible to ask : Forced-Vassalization, Force-Conversion, Military Access, province(s), money. You may only offer the last two, province(s) and money.
Force-Vassalization : costs 70% warscore, and you need to control their capital. They also must not be vassals already. They'll leave their Alliance.
Force-Conversion : costs 50% warscore, and it must be asked in a separate peace (separate for them ; you may offer this peace for your whole warside, but you must choose separate war for them, even if they're alone). Force-Conversion may only be enacted between : a) western-rite christians (CRC/catholic vs protestant/reformed), b) muslims, and c) anyone may FC pagans.
Western-rite christians may change back, and will probably do so if they have more provinces of their old religion, but only after the expiry of the Truce. Muslims and pagans can't revert to their old religion, due to the impossibility to convert from sunni to shiite (and vice versa) or to paganism.
Military Access : costs 20% warscore.
Provinces : cost variable, depending on income. You may only ask or offer provinces controlled, or cores (of the enemy if offering, yours if asking). You may only ask a province to its owner : if you control a province from an ally of the enemy warleader, you need to ask the province in a separate peace with the ally.
The provinces are attributed to the controller : if you offer a general peace, you can ask provinces for your allies. If a province controlled by one of your ally is one of your cores, the province will go to the ally.
Factors influencing warscore-cost :
- basic cost is tax base of province
- cost increases as fort levels increase
- cost increases with manufactory
- cost increses massively with Centre of Trade
- cost doubled if core province of enemy
- cost halved if core province of player
- cost doubled if not controlled by player (these provinces can only be demanded if core province of player)
Money : 25d increments. You can't ask for more ducats than they have in treasury, and the cost is 1% warscore per 25d beyond the 25 first. In general peace, money is shared equally between all members of the Coalition.
Tips for making peace
There are some tips, useful to know when sending an offer for peace (not all of them are confirmed) :
- if you siege one of their provinces, you may ask for a white peace and make them accept more easily.
- controlling (or sieging) their capital makes them more open to peace.
- if they keep refusing decent peaces, search and destroy their armies : if they have no more troops nor ships, they'll accept more easily.
- when you conclude separate peaces as warleader while on the defensive side, start with the allies of your enemy, to benefit of the reduced BB-cost for defensive territorial gains in war.
- attributing provinces to your allies improves your relations with them.
- if you can wait, and don't want very specific provinces, wait. The AI will usually offer you greater tributes than what you could ask and receive.
Other peaces
Two other means of achieving peace are possible.
- White Peace : if no fighting occurs between the coalitions for three years, and neither coalition controls any province of the other, a White Peace is declared. War ends without any tribute. Regarding Sole Defender of the Faith concern, a White peace is considered a defeat for the attacker, and a victory for the defender.
- Collapse of Government : if rebels control strictly more provinces than the country, its government collapses. The country immediately becomes at peace with all former enemies, as if separate peaces were concluded with enemy warleaders. Provinces controlled by enemies are given to them ; any province controlled by rebels that can declare independence (considering revolt.csv file) immediately does so, and no war erupts.
Truce
Whenever a peace is concluded, a Truce is declared between all members of the Coalition involved, if Coalition peace.
A Truce lasts for five years, and breaking it triggers a -5 stability hit.
3.2. Offer Royal Marriage/Break Royal Ties
Offer Royal Marriage
Who each Faith can have a Royal Marriage with
From kurtbrian's post.
Code:
FAITH: CAN HAVE ROYAL MARRIAGE WITH
Pagan: Pagan
Sunni: Hindu, Budhist, Konfucian, Sunni
Shiite: Hindu, Budhist, Konfucian, Shiite
Hindu: Sunni, Shiite, Budhist, Konfucian, Hindu
Konfucian: Sunni, Shiite, Budhist, Hindu, Konfucian
Budhist: Sunni, Shiite, Hindu, Konfucian, Budhist
Orthodox: Catholic/CrC, Protestant, Reformed, Orthodox
Catholic/Crc: Orthodox, Catholic/CrC
Reformed: Protestant, Reformed, Orthodox
Protestant: Reformed, Protestant, OrthodoxNobody can create a RM with the Papal States, The Knights or vassals. But if you play as them you can make RMs with other countries.
Both France and England have some Spymaster events with random RM's.
Conditions
Relations have to be between -150 and -1, or between +25 and +200. Depending on difficulty settings and other factors, offering RM at positive relations may require a minimum of up to +80 to work.
Effects
Relations go up by 15 point.
Fog of War is removed for owned and/or controlled provinces.
A -1 stability penalty is suffered when you DoW a country with whom you have an RM.
Break Royal Ties
By choosing to break a RM, you get a -1 to Stability.
Relations are unchanged.
3.3. Offer Vassalization/Cancel Vassalization
Offer Vassalization
Conditions
- relations between you and the active country at 190 or more
- same Alliance
- Royal Marriage existing between you and the active country
- you must both be at peace
- they must not have vassals themselves (the option will be lit up, but they'll always refuse).
- you need stronger economy (sidenote : it appears from recent discussions that trade does not enter in the determination of 'stronger economy' - to be followed).
[BInfluencing factors[/B]
- relative monarch's DIP skill
- relative economical strengths
- number and morale of troops
- BadBoy
Effects
- You get half of the vassal's tax income.
- Fog of War is removed.
- The AI country can't enter any alliance, except yours (and only if you're the leader). A vassalized human player may still try to create or join another alliance, but no success were met during my tests, so I presume it's not possible.
- The AI country may not have any further RM with anyone (including you). A vassalized human player may still offer RM.
- Your troops may cross their territory, and your ships may enter their ports, but Supply limit is not increased.
Cancel Vassalization
Conditions
If you are the vassal, you need to be at Stability 0 or higher to have the option of Cancelling the Vassalization.
Effects
Surprisingly, relations don't drop. :wacko:
3.4. Annex
Ah, the hard point : "how do I Diplo-Annex ?" Answer follows.
Conditions
- Relations at 190 or higher at the time of the DA : it can be lower during the wait-time.
- Length of vassalization of 10 years or more.
- The vassal must be at peace.
- Stronger economy.
- Same Alliance.
- Compatible religions : you have to be able to conclude an RM with the country (you do not NEED an RM, you only should be capable of).
- Common borders : a common border between 2 TPs at the other side of Earth is enough, but you need one. There's no way to DA island countries that don't own firm land elsewhere.
Although you must have an available diplomat, it won't be used by the attempt.
Influencing factors
- Relative economical strengths.
- Relative monarch's DIP-skills.
- Number and morale of troops.
- Length of time since the vassalization, up to 30 years.
A sizable part of the Community thinks that the position of the armies also helps, but it's still unproven.
Effects
You receive all provinces, troops and ships of the country. Tax Collectors and Chief Judges in the new provinces are removed, all other improvements are left unscathed.
CENTRALIZATION DP-slider moves by one 'click' towards decentralized.
BB cost is 1 per province, cities/colonies/TPs/cores being treated the same way.
In case of a failure, relations drop by 30, and there's a risk that the vassals Cancels the Vassalization. The risk depend on the overal chances of success, AFAIK.
Vassals and sub-vassals
What you can and cannot do regarding countries that have vassals themselves :
- you may force-vassalize them
- you may force-annex them if you meet the other requirements (either pagans, or one-province country)
- you may diplo-annex them.
The only thing which is prevented against a country having vassals, is to diplo-vassalize them.
Please note that it prevents you new vassal from DA its own vassals, since you make your vassal to leave it's current alliance, prevent him from entering any alliance except yours, and can't invite its vassals to your alliance.
3.5. Ask Military Access/Cancel Military Access
Conditions
You may ask for a MA only when at peace with the country.
As a general rule you will need relations of 150 or more to be granted military access. Your monarch DIP-skill and your BB will influence your chances. A special case is countries that are considered your neighbors by the engine because they are close enough. In that case they will grant you MA even at significantly lower than 150 relationship if you have a much greater military strength than they do.
Effects
- Your armies may cross their territory, and your ships may enter their ports.
- Supply limit is doubled (4x base tax value).
- You can't DoW them, but you may still be at war with them (and they won't cancel the MA).
Cancel Military Access
Cancels a MA you were receiving.
Gives a -1 stability hit.
Revoke Military Access
Cancels a MA you were receiving.
Gives a -1 stability hit.
You cannot cancel your military access to a country while you have an army inside that country.
Notebook :
- relations decrease when competing merchants (don't know where to put this for now)
3.6. Military Alliances
Create Military Alliance
Conditions :
- be out of any alliance
- having good relations : minimum seems to be +50
Effects :
- you propose a country to ally with you
- you become the Leader of the Alliance, thus in control of the joining of any new ally
- the country immediately enters any war you're currently entangled in
Leave Alliance
Conditions :
- being in an Alliance
- without being the Leader of the Alliance
- being at peace
Effects :
- you leave the Alliance
- other Alliance's members get a temporary CB (12 months) on you
Ban from Alliance
Conditions :
- being in an Alliance
- being the Alliance Leader
- having a CB on the ally you plan to ban
- not being in a common war
Effects :
- your former ally no longer is part of the Alliance
Invite to Alliance
Conditions :
- the country must be out of any Alliance
- having good relations : again, minimum seems to be +50
- being the Leader of the Alliance you're in
Effects :
- the country enters your Alliance
- the country immediately enters any war you're currently entangled in
Join Alliance
Conditions :
- you must ask to the Alliance Leader
- being outside of any Alliance yourself
- good relations with the Alliance Leader
Effects :
- you enter the Alliance
- you enter all wars the Alliance Leader is currently in
3.7. Trade Embargoes
Conditions :
- trade tech level 4
- no Trade Agreement with the country
Effects :
- the target country can't send any more merchants in CoTs you own
- the target country doesn't get any income from merchants already present in CoTs you own
- similarly, the target country doesn't get income from your provinces for trade into other CoTs (that is, if your provinces represent 25% of the trade value of a given CoT, the target country will only get 75% of his normal share of the trade)
- the target country gets a permanent CB against you (until you lift the embargo)
- investments in trade tech decrease by 1d monthly for every embargo above the allowance MERCANTILISM DP-slider gives you
- decreases your relations with target country by 25 pts, and with all same-religion countries by 10 pts
Factors increasing the risk of being embargoed :
- AI file (a factor determines the 'mind' of the country about embargoes)
- BadBoy
- sending many merchants at a time in the same CoT
- getting a monopoly in a CoT
- being enemy in a war (becomes nearly automatic now)
Lifting the Embargo :
- by a victory in a war (a white peace is a victory for the defender)
- voluntarily lifting it, but the AI only does so if you lost all merchants in their CoT(s)
3.8. Trade Agreements
Conditions :
- currently no Embargo between you and the target country
Effects :
- prevents competition between your merchants and the merchants of the target country
- prevents any Embargo between your country and the target country
3.9. Exchange Discoveries
Allows you to share maps and knowledge of provinces. All sea provinces will be exchanged, and all settled land provinces : unsettled (ie, non-city, non-colony, non-TP) will be kept secret.
Conditions :
- positive relations (the exact minimum changes according to monarch's DIP skills and respective number of provinces exchanged)
- having more known provinces to give than they have helps quite a lot
- some countries seem to be much more reluctant to share maps (meaning, colonizers like Portugal and Spain)
3.10. Offer Loan
Limits :
- monetary amount : minimum 1 ducat, apparently no upper limit (I went up to 6000d once)
- interests rate : 1-10%
- length : 1-300 months
Nowadays, the AI rarely (if ever), agrees to offers of loan.
If a country decides not to repay a loan, the loaner gets a temporary CB on the debitor.
3.11. Gifts
Gifts come in three sizes, depending on the amount of money you're ready to send : State Gifts (the biggests), Personal Gifts (intermediate), Letters of Introduction (smallests).
A Personal Gift costs as much as four Letters of Introduction, and a State Gift costs as much as ten Letters of Introduction.
The exact cost depends mostly on relative sizes of the economies of both countries and on relative DIP skills of monarchs.
A gift has a random effect, based on both the size of the gift and on relative DIP skills of the monarchs. Variations can be rather huge, and bad monarchs sending small gifts may actually make the relations worse.
3.12. Send a Warning
A Warning is a way to get a temporary CB against a country if that country DoWs any country during the five-year period following the diplomatic action.
Conditions :
- at peace with the target country
- the target country can't be currently warned by you
There's no way to lift a Warning (tough you may not act upon it).
3.13. Send an Insult
This action costs you some money, but gives the target country a temporary CB on you, lasting 12 monts, and also decreases the relations between you by 50 pts.
3.14. Claim their Throne
Condition :
- there must exist an RM between you and the target country
Effect : gives you a temporary (3 years) CB against the target country, but costs -1 stability and -100 in relations with every country you share a RM (including the target country).
3.15. Proclaim Guarantee
This action lasts five years, and is the equivalent of a Warning, except it is applied to a country you want to protect. You get a temporary CB on any country DoWing the country whose independence you have guaranteed.
There is no way to lift a Guarantee, but you are not forced to act upon it.
**********************************
If you feel like you have comments to post, or various informations, please post, and I'll take into account.
Things I need to know (so post if you have informations)(non-exhaustive list) :
- functionning of the DiplomaticMatrix
- some datas on conclusion of RM : according to personnal experiences, RM can be concluded at relations -150 to -1, +25 to +200. Has anyone concluded an RM at another relations ?
- the effect of a collapse of government on SDotF title.
- data on relations when you ask MA : I cannot find a guideline. :wacko:
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