Fronts being manned for no reason because defenders of factions wont join the war.

[klopkr]

I think most people are aware of this exploit by now. If you have faction members with a front line on the enemy you don't want to defend you can just choose to never call them in to war.
You might have also noticed that sometimes the AI will also refuse to join their faction in a war if they don't like their chances.

Honestly I think this isn't the biggest deal but the really frustrating part is when you declare war on a nation then their biggest ally with a border you share never joins. What this leads to is having to wait for some arbitrary amount of time to make a causus beli so you can open up the front with a nation already in a faction you're at war with! It's absolutly silly.

Mussolini or hitler or stallin wouldn't have stopped their armies at the greek border because greece joined the allies but never joined the war. It's just silly.

The solution is extremely simple too! If declare war on a faction you should have an automatic causus beli against everyone else in the targets faction. That way it's not the defenders in control of when new fronts open up but the aggressor.

 

[Synicus]

Despite what Hitler said about the only reason for a faction is to wage war. The Allies use it for protection from war...

Edit: Guess I didn't read into your solution too well. so I somewhat agree. Also, who is the Justification for? the aggressors population? If so should it be easier to justify against a minor than a major?

 

[bitmode]

The solution is extremely simple too! If declare war on a faction you should have an automatic causus beli against everyone else in the targets faction. That way it's not the defenders in control of when new fronts open up but the aggressor.

At first I thought the solution can't be that simple. But it seems you really are the chief suggester Really any country that gets the warning "There is justification of war goals against us" for a given justification should be fair game, i.e. also puppets/overlords and guarantors.

 

[GrandVezir]

At first I thought the solution can't be that simple. But it seems you really are the chief suggester Really any country that gets the warning "There is justification of war goals against us" for a given justification should be fair game, i.e. also puppets/overlords and guarantors.

You already get free declarations on puppets if you're at war with the overlord. The AI doesn't use this mechanic, but that problem won't be solved by free wargoals on faction members.

Declaring on a puppet already puts you at war with the overlord.

Getting a free wargoal on the guarantor: does an AI guarantor ever not back its guarantee?

 

[Synicus]

Getting a free wargoal on the guarantor: does an AI guarantor ever not back its guarantee?

Yes, Romania for example.
I could be wrong but I think if the AI guarantee two nations who later go at each other, the guarantor does nothing.

 

[GrandVezir]

Yes, Romania for example.
I could be wrong but I think if the AI guarantee two nations who later go at each other, the guarantor does nothing.

In which case, why would you get a free wargoal on the guarantor?

 

[bitmode]

You already get free declarations on puppets if you're at war with the overlord.

Huh, that's very non-intuitive. The "Declare war button" is usually grayed out with the tooltip "No war goal to justify a war declaration" but then it works without a listed war goal anyway for puppets.
The AI's code likewise treats war goals as the absolute most important factor for picking that action, aside from being explicitly told to declare war on a country. So the AI issue would actually get solved by giving free war goals. (The relevant define is NAI.DILPOMATIC_ACTION_DECLARE_WAR_WARGOAL_BASE)

Declaring on a puppet already puts you at war with the overlord.

Not their other puppets though, who do get the justification-of-war-goals warning.

Getting a free wargoal on the guarantor: does an AI guarantor ever not back its guarantee?

Perhaps just very rarely. I just mentioned it for completeness regarding the notification. In my opinion it is at least not outlandish to get a casus belli against the guarantor if they don't retract during the justification period. The overarching idea of OP's proposal is to equalize the advantage of the defender to call in someone at any time whereas the aggressor has to go through an extra justification first. Guarantees and factions are similar in that respect.

 

[Synicus]

What then is to stop the aggressor faction from declaring against an entire faction from the get go, and how would the AI decide if it's a good idea or not?
Refusing a call to war should lead a nation down a path of being kicked from the faction and the AI probably could use some tact when choosing who to call.

 

[bitmode]

What then is to stop the aggressor faction from declaring against an entire faction from the get go

Nothing.

and how would the AI decide if it's a good idea or not?

Just like it does now for the initial war declaration. I.e. it almost always declares unless there are strong reasons against in the specific situation.

Refusing a call to war should lead a nation down a path of being kicked from the faction and the AI probably could use some tact when choosing who to call.

That's a good idea too and compatible with OP's proposal.

 

[Voigt]

Only thing to be careful about. If Germany doesn't call in Italy, and UK gets a free wargoal on Italy and acts on it, suddenly Germany gets the in defensive war modifier gaining 30% warsupport, and UK beeing in offensive war losing 20% war support.

 

[GrandVezir]

Only thing to be careful about. If Germany doesn't call in Italy, and UK gets a free wargoal on Italy and acts on it, suddenly Germany gets the in defensive war modifier gaining 30% warsupport, and UK beeing in offensive war losing 20% war support.

Or the other thing to be careful about: the AI will bungle this ability like it usually bungles all the others it has.

 

[Vlad123]

The problem is if I am Italy and I want to go to war in the 40 as historically. If germany calls me and I refuse ... and then I get kicked out of the mechanics ... and then I get the war / DoW justification from the uk, then I can (given by the bonuses I earn for the AI) get back into the axis immediately after the declaration of war. Mussolini Declared Non-belligerence and during the "strange war" with France, the idea was that Mussolini would make peace as he did 1 year earlier. Because obviously nobody wanted to die for Gdansk in theory ... in fact the French Communists had as their motto (more or less) "the stupid Poles refused the help of the Soviets, why should we save them?" So we thought it was a crisis a little more heated. If the war continued and why
1) the French instead of attacking Germany while they had the TOTALITY of the army in Poland remained playing football. (I'm not kidding they played football, the Germans ditto). Ironically, the German generals at the end of the war said this "if you wanted to stop us you could stop us in 39".
2) Once Poland had disappeared there was no longer any reason to continue the war, especially if not a single shot had been fired in the West! So up to the northern campaign (or up to the French one) it was similar to the "previous crises".