Is there any benefit to Vassals?

[01d55]

I have one 2.2 game under my belt, and I did take a lot of vassals - but only after I was in the lead and just wanted to subdue opponents and move on to the next. Couldn't say whether the lack of help I noticed was due to the vassal system being weak, or the empires I was subjugating being left in my technological dust.

I found subjugation wars to be a way of putting large enemies away without having to do multiple rounds of claim and conquest, and also without adding more planets to manage. I did not create any vassals out of my own territory.

 

[buglepong]

Vassals dont seem to be adding fleet cap in 2.2.2

 

[Bouchart]

Vassals will also use their own resources, including their own influence, to build things like Gateways and Habitats and even Megastructures, assuming they have the alloys, the tech, and nothing better to do.

 

[The Traitor]

The vassals have been joining my wars, sure. But they arrive after the war is over, and do I need to rely on the AI? Or will they follow my fleets?

They usually follow either your strongest or your first fleet on the top. Not sure which it is, since my first fleet is always strongest.
They are not too effective for me because they are too slow since I use only corvettes.

 

[Askorti]

They usually follow either your strongest or your first fleet on the top. Not sure which it is, since my first fleet is always strongest.
They are not too effective for me because they are too slow since I use only corvettes.

I believe you can set which fleet they will follow, iirc there is a button that switches whether a fleet is "followable" at the top of the fleet panel.

 

[The Traitor]

I believe you can set which fleet they will follow, iirc there is a button that switches whether a fleet is "followable" at the top of the fleet panel.

Thank you, I'll check that out. It might be useful. Seems like even after 350h in game you still find some more useful things.
But TBH vassals would be most useful, if they simply ran through enemy territory, distract their fleets and be annoying in general while I deal with their main fleets and citadels instead of following me.
I suppose I could have the vassals follow something slow like a single battleship and treat that whole vassal swarm like another unofficial fleet.

 

[evilcat]

Some use of vassals:
Tributari Pacifist as passive income without admin cap.
Placeholder. We take capital and leave vassal state of the rest. We might integrate them somewhere in the future.
Militaristic vassals sends their fleets.
You can declare war off vassalization to claim all empire. It is generally cheaper that way than claiming systems separetly.
Integration is bugged and it cost no influence, but even then it cost less.
Enemies will have something to raid and conquere. Buffer zone we dont really care about.

So generally there are some uses, just do not expect too much.

 

[Brian Bóroimhe]

I suppose I could have the vassals follow something slow like a single battleship and treat that whole vassal swarm like another unofficial fleet.

I'm not 100% certain of this, but I think that vassal fleets will only follow a fleet larger than their own. You could still use a secondary fleet, but probably not something as gamey as a single battleship.

 

[Nussor]

Naval Cap is pretty useless now. Evilcat got it right, though. Unfortunately, your vassal's economy will often be so broken that they can't produce any ships, at least if you take any sensible systems from them.

Another use of vassals is that you can pacify more areas without adding to your admin cap. Imo the most useful aspect, aside from the micromanagement that comes from having more planets than fit in the UI.

 

[SirAlexius]

I have tried making vassals and it did not seem to change my naval capacity. I would say that tributaries are the way to go if you do not plan to integrate them and do not need their help in your conquests. The amount of raw resources that you get from them will completely change your game if your fleet is limited by resources.

 

[gathomas88]

They're usually not worth the effort, IMO, at least as far as fleet power goes. Vassals fleets are almost always so technologically inferior to your own as to be virtually inconsequential to the actual outcome of the war, and the AI is absolutely terrible at controlling them anyway.