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  1. #1
    War Story Recorder Senior Member Maltz's Avatar
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    Default TW:S2 Diplomacy 201

    Note: This article is written for people who already have certain exposures to the game. It assumes that the reader already knows which diplomatic options are available and generally what they do.

    ***

    Many people distinguish strategy and tactics this way: strategy is what happens outside the battlefield; tactics is what happens on the battlefield. With good strategy, we can simply auto-resolve all battles in the game and win. (But it is not so fun.) I do not think the opposite can be achieved due to the infamous Realm Divide.

    Diplomacy lies in the core of strategy - right beside money making. In TW:S2, Diplomacy is a decision making process that takes place every turn, or every few turns if there is not too much going on. We go into the diplomacy view, and look at what is happening in Japan, and make appropriate deals.

    The highest Bushido tech is called "Shi". "Shi" is the way how the things evolve and will become. This, and the pro-action in response to our perception of "Shi", is basically what diplomacy is. We make the best guess of what will happen, and make appropriate beneficial deals. We will plot a smooth route of expansion with good diplomacy - never lose a battle, never have to wait, never run into a wall, just keep expanding until the point before Realm Divide. And after some preparations, the unstoppable expansion continues post-RD.

    So how to we plot a smooth route of expansion?

    Chapter 1. Reduce enemies

    All clans attempt to expand by attacking their neighbors. Every clan that borders us is a potential enemy. Some of them we might want to attack in the near future, some we want to leave until later. While you would welcome the clan that you wish to attack to actively declare war on you so you do not have to worry about their allies, you SHOULD expect those clans that you do not want to war with to attack you, sometimes in the most inconvenient times. According to Murphy's Law, they will! - if you do not prevent it diplomatically.

    Here are the three questions that we can ask ourselves every time we look at a neighbor clan.

    - Does the neighbor have another enemy (actively at war)?

    If the answer is yes, take a look at the personality of this neighbor. Are they trust-worthy? Some clans tend to declare war on all of their neighbors no matter what. A good example is Ikko-Ikki. Luckliy they are rare. (I can only think of Ikko-Ikki and Otomo.) Most clans do not declare war to all their neighbors.

    If the answer is no, there is a good chance that this clan is going to attack you. On higher difficulties, if an AI has multiple neutral neighbors, you should expect the AI picks you to fight. You are human! The AI has an obligation to prioritize on you on higher difficulties.

    On the most extreme case, if an AI runs out of all other neighbors - all they border is you - very likely they will attack you even if you two are the best buddies in Japan. This is a scripted reluctant betrayal. In very rare cases, though, your buddy will launch an oversea invasion to somewhere else as it does not want to backstab you. I have seen Imagawa and Ashina doing that. The recipient of this naval invasion will probably have a "What the..." bubble on top of their head, though.

    - Is the neighbor going to get killed by another clan?

    Going back to the first question, does this new neighbor have another enemy?

    - Does the neighbor have a spare army?

    Send an agent there and take a look. If there is a stack standing right beside their castle - it is getting ready for an attack! If that castle is undefended - you are safe for now.

    Now we know who might be an enemy soon. How do we delay the their attack and thus reduce the number of enemies? There are a few ways:

    - Gifts

    Each 1000 koku converts to +15 relationship, for a maximum of +100 achieved at 6633 koku paid at once. More payment does not give better result. Also, the more frequent the gifts, the less effective it is. Personally I do not recommend monetary gifts. The best gift we can give to an AI is a promise that we will not crush them in the near future. Which brings us to the following...

    - Marriage

    +100 and decays to +20. Marriage is a soft way to improve diplomatic relationship. There is no strings attached. Attacking your in-laws and force your daughter in-law to turn against their parents is so common in Sengoku Jidai. (And the rebellion of the heart-broken son is therefore also very common.)

    Some clans have daughters to marry in early years of the campaign (such as Ashina, Shoni, Chosokabe, Date, Takeda, Ito), making them very easy to befriend. You can marry their daughter even if your clan does not have a bechalor in the immediate family - probably some distant second or third cousin? If you have a daughter, it is better to save her as an emergency friend maker. There seems to be no limit of marriage age.

    Note that all enemies of your in-laws also dislikes you. So if there are two clans that are at war, and one is probably going to win, do not marry the losing clan.

    - Hostage

    It is good to have lots of sons, so you do not regret if you lose one. You can attach a Hostage in trade and alliance negotiations and obtain a 8-turn +100 relationship with the target clan. However, this is probably a very bad way to maintain peace with a neighbor, as the risk of losing a son is probably too big. Now I am a father myself, I just can't do this to my virtual son. :)

    - Military Alliance

    +100 subject to decay to +40. Military Alliance is the tightest bond the game offers between two clans, but it also comes with the worst side effects. In order to keep your daimyo's honor, you will have to join your allies' side if they are being attacked. So you will probably end up making more enemies. However, if your powerful ally can handle one border for you very nicely, and your enemies are not going to launch naval attacks on you (you are human!), why not? It is how Oda and Tokugawa emerged as victors of the Sengoku Jidai.

    - Trade

    +15 and slowly increases to +60. Trade acts too slowly if there is an emergency, but if an attack is not imminent it will eventually become significant. However, after the FOTS patch, whether we can trade with a clan is not depended on whether we want to, but whether they want to. So it is not really a strategy now, but more of a luck thing.

    - Selling Military Access

    Each turn of military access can be sold for about 200 koku. More if the AI likes you, less if not. The AI always love to buy your military access if it has a land-route access to your territory.

    Selling military access does not make a clan like you more. In fact, you are giving them the right to march an army all the way to your castle and if they wish to betray your trust, they can. (Fortunately, I have not seen AI clans doing this. If they want to declare war on you while they have your military access, they declare war while their army is on the border.)

    Selling military access helps delay an attack by making the AI poorer. Even Legendary AI does not have infinite cash. If they do not have money, they can't hire soldiers. In very early game, the AI operates on very limited budget. So you can delay the AI's readiness of launching an invasion by quite a few turns by stripping 4000 koku away from them to buy 20 turns of your military access. (Try sell them 5 turns, then next turn 10 turns, then next turn 20 turns.) This could make a huge difference where you successfully destroy your first neighbor without getting back-stabbed by another.

    But selling military access definitely has its drawback - if you attack this clan within certain turns (it is now displayed in game), you suffer a great hit of diplomatic relationship against all other clans. So it is not a good idea to sell military access to some targets that you want to attack immediately next. Fortunately, this financially weakened neighbor might become a victim of some of their own neighbors, so you might be able to simply take on the new neighbor instead.

    That's the end of chapter 1! We will continue with chapter 2 (Shi - the prediction of what is going to happen) at a later time...

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