Taunguan Vassal Shenanigans and Offensive / Defensive Wars

[fukujinpickle]

Doing a playthrough as Taungu, here's the current situation:

Basically I'm in a race between my rival Bengal (top left blue) and my ally Ayutthaya (bottom right green) to mop up the rest of the minors in the Burma region (all of which I need for my mission tree). Bengal and I are currently both at war with Arakan (directly to the west, sieged out by me). Bengal already holds 3 provinces I need and I really don't want them to get any more because they are already much stronger than me and also have 3 huge allies in India. Basically barring some miracle I'm never going to be able to attack them.

So a couple questions:

1) If I force vassalize Arakan while Bengal is attacking this puts me in a defensive war against Bengal, correct? At that point do my other allies also get the opportunity to join? The second part is very important because I'm not sure I can win a war 1v1.

2) If I simultaneously force vassalize Kale (top left OPM light green) and then force Bengal to return their cores in the ensuing defensive war, does this accrue less aggressive expansion for me? In other words do I get the same 25% AE cost for a reconquest CB, or at least some AE reduction? I'm already flirting with a Ming coalition because they decided that most of Northern Burma was of vital strategic interest for some reason.

So basically, should I play it safe, take the territory I can now and hope for some miracle opportunity to attack Bengal later, or do I get cheeky and try to take everything in one go, possibly crippling a key rival or possibly leading to disaster as a result? I'm already at relations limit, so if I'm going to be losing 2 diplo / month I would like to make an informed decision before pushing the button. I'd also like to prevent Bengal from taking the remainder of Ava if possible (dull green 3 provinces directly north), as I have another 6 years until our truce expires and giving Bengal a bloody nose now might just get me there.

 

[klingonadmiral]

If I force vassalize Arakan while Bengal is attacking this puts me in a defensive war against Bengal, correct? At that point do my other allies also get the opportunity to join?

Yes and yes.

 

[grotaclas]

1) If I force vassalize Arakan while Bengal is attacking this puts me in a defensive war against Bengal, correct? At that point do my other allies also get the opportunity to join? The second part is very important because I'm not sure I can win a war 1v1.

It will make you the warleader of the war between Arakan and Bengal if Arakan is the primary defender and you are not in a war which involves any of the other participants of that war. So if Kale is also a participant of the war between Arakan and Bengal and you make a separate peace with Arakan, you can't get called into the war. And Arakan can't call you in later after you peace out Kale. I don't know what happens if you vassalize Arakan in the peace deal with Kale. It might depend on the order in which the game processes the peace deal.
If you become the warleader of Arakan's war, you can call in your allies if they are willing to help and are not prevented from joining by other overlapping wars.

2) If I simultaneously force vassalize Kale (top left OPM light green) and then force Bengal to return their cores in the ensuing defensive war, does this accrue less aggressive expansion for me? In other words do I get the same 25% AE cost for a reconquest CB, or at least some AE reduction? I'm already flirting with a Ming coalition because they decided that most of Northern Burma was of vital strategic interest for some reason.

You might have a slightly reduced AE because it is a defensive war, but you don't get the -75% AE which you would get in a reconquest war.

 

[fukujinpickle]

It will make you the warleader of the war between Arakan and Bengal if Arakan is the primary defender and you are not in a war which involves any of the other participants of that war. So if Kale is also a participant of the war between Arakan and Bengal and you make a separate peace with Arakan, you can't get called into the war. And Arakan can't call you in later after you peace out Kale. I don't know what happens if you vassalize Arakan in the peace deal with Kale. It might depend on the order in which the game processes the peace deal.
If you become the warleader of Arakan's war, you can call in your allies if they are willing to help and are not prevented from joining by other overlapping wars.

You might have a slightly reduced AE because it is a defensive war, but you don't get the -75% AE which you would get in a reconquest war.

Thanks for the detailed reply, this is exactly what I was looking for.

 

[fukujinpickle]

If you become the warleader of Arakan's war, you can call in your allies if they are willing to help and are not prevented from joining by other overlapping wars.

Yup, worked perfectly. If you're interested, here's how it turned out:

They still managed to call in two of their allies (favours, I think), but I was able to call in 4 of mine and we gave them that bloody nose. Left them with 0k army, 2k manpower, a mountain of debt and two active rebellions. Thanks again!