How did Muscowy become War Leader?

[caimen]

I am in a multiplayer game with a friend, I am Munster and my friend is Prussia. Prussia declares war on Riga. Riga is allied with Poland. All the game says would happen due to declaring war is that Riga and Poland will be at war. So Prussia declares war on Riga. All of the sudden Muscowy is the war leader. So is it because Poland is allied with Muscowy that somehow they become war leader? Also is there any possible way to determine who will become war leader? Are we having a cascading alliance here? What is going on? Did the game just switch from Poland being war leader, then Poland somehow calls Muscowy then somehow they became war leader? All the sudden we go from fighting a small war to a massive war.

 

[Xara]

Riga allied to Poland
Poland becomes war leader in defense of Riga
Muscovy allied to Poland
Muscovy becomes war leader in defense of Poland

Cascading alliance. You need to very carefully watch who is allied to who is allied to who when you are DOW'ing someone who has a noticeably stronger alliance than their own defense.

 

[caimen]

I had no idea war leader could instantly succeed like that, I've been playing the game a while and hadn't noticed that ever happened. Since two war leaders came into play there we are now at war with most europe. So is there any realistic way to tell who will become war leader or is it pretty much up to estimation?

 

[Rey]

Poland became the war leader, and war leaders can call their own allies. The war leader is the country with higher military power (number of regiments+ships), thus it changed from Riga to Poland. One way to avoid getting Muscovy involved would be to use a casus belli that not allowed to change the initial war leader (thus keeping Riga as WL).

 

[Xara]

You probably need to estimate, don't know a way to tell for certain. I assume those nations in play were tending to their typical borders, meaning Riga was an OPM, Poland was medium, and Muscovy it's well-endowed self. Hence the triple play, as each successor was noticeably bigger.

Basically, if you're going to attack a nation, check out its allies. If one of those allies is significantly more powerful, you better check *that* ally's allies as well.

Note that you can sometimes head this off via manual call to arms : If Prussia had been allied to Muscovy, and Muscovy was willing, they might have joined in on the war in Riga, preventing Poland from calling them to war once Poland assumed war leader. Another example : I (as Brandenburg) was allied to Poland, and was attacking OPM Mecklenburg, who was allied to Denmark, who was allied to Poland. I DOW'ed, then manually called Poland to arms, who accepted, thus not joining Denmark's defense when Denmark took control.

That works because there *is* a slight delay of a day or three in the AI responding to CTA, so you can get your ally in before a switch + CTA occurs. Only works, of course, if they're willing to join you in the first place.

 

[caimen]

So you say there are casus belli that prevent war leader changes? What would those be? Some of this seems a little to gamey to me, could certainly use to be a little more clear what exactly happened during calls to arms.

 

[Rey]

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Casus_Belli#Summary_of_war_goals

Check the 3rd column.

Another way of bypassing a doom cascading alliance is to DoW one of the allies of your real target (this ally must stay as the war leader); your target will be called to this minor war without being able to call his own allies.

 

[Xara]

Cleanse Heresy and Revolution / CR prevent war leader shift. Nothing else, iirc

 

[zodium]

Military score is currently the best known approximation for who will take WL, to my knowledge, but it's not perfect.