uclgeog said:
I'm playing Brandenburg on AGCEEP and am trying to use them to get the reunification of Germany event for which I need to vasslize Mainz, Palatinate and Cologne. I am the largest of the German states with 7 provinces have a good economy and have a military alliance and marriages with all 4 states. Yet even at +200 none will agree to become my vassals. Are there certain tricks to easily diplomatically gaining vassals and diplo-annexing?
diplomacy works JUST as colonialization does, based on percentage "change' with the exception you can not see it...getting a 60% or more "chance" will always make things going your way sooner then later.
as "burningego" mentioned, ALWAYS check if the targeted nation has any vassals. it is impossible (the eu2 game engine) to diplo vassal any nation as such. your first thing to do in this cases is to break those vassalships, and that generally is done by war. presume nation 1 has as vassal nation 2 and BOTH are in same alliance. dow nation 1, vassal it in SEPARATE peace( if you sucessfull in beating her and get 100ws of course), then SAVE game and invite nation number 1 in YOUR alliance while the war with nation 2 still rages one. the save is requiered becouse a small bug, where nation 1 COULD not cancel vassalship with nation 2 upon getting into your alliance, as it always should do so, and not ending in a state of war with her former vassal(nation2). repeat procedure if bigger alliance and more vassals. thus you can get more then 1 vassal by doing such "diplomatic" work
in order to have success into vassaling a nation WITHOUT any vassals of her own:
1- must have a much greater economic output. the ratio for that is still an "enigma" BUT having 3 times more income then the target will generally help. however this has a "cap" in later gajme where any nation above size 10(owning more than that number of provinces) will be impossible to vassal without a war first.
2- make sure your monarch diplomatic stats are better then the targeted nation regardless of your aristocracy siders or hers as well.
having a greater land/naval tech then the target ALWAYS helps.( greater army or having army in the nations capital, to ME , is an absolute myth, has no implications whatshowever).
3- diplo annexing. only after 30 years of permanent and continuos vassalship you can sucessfully attempt to diplo-annex even if have to try it many times( might not accept from first but will certanlly not break unless she is bigger then you , etc).
4- your bb level is VERY important ESPECIALLY in earlly game. having less then 1/2 bb of the "hard limit"(total possible, or acceptable before you hit "we are a dishonorable scum" status) is very very important for both annexing and vassaling, again ESPECIALLY in earlly game. staying always under 5-6bb will always increase your chances for diplomatic actions, at ANY stage in time or game period.
also at time you need to rehost since ai can get "stuck" in her denying even if you 100+ provinces and she is 1(later game only.
one more very IMPORTANT thing:
if you target a nation that has been a vassal of another ( as her former overlord gets annexed) you NEED to rehost. ai really gets stuck in those aspects.( i can not say i seen it 100 percents but definatelly in more then 9 out of 10 cases it will happen). so if you kleep trying to vassal such nation WITHOUT rehost you will keep getting rejected no matter what( again i have seen exceptions as well but that is likelly becouse the ai did NOT get "stuck")
