Tribute for peace

[Brandy Blue]

I have a neighbor I don't want to fight and I can't get an alliance. If I promise my neighbor to pay tribute will the neighbor be less likely to attack? It seems logical that my neighbor would think twice before starting a war and losing the tribute, unless tribute is seen as a sign of weakness or an opportunity to buy a bigger army before attacking.

[A Nerd]

You really delve deep into the personality of the seemingly emotionless AI! I would guess the AI would still go to war with you despite the tribute. This is based on my experiences in TW games. I could be wrong though, I play little RTW.

[ReluctantSamurai]

In my experience........don't bother:inquisitive:

I've tried it several times, all with bad results.

The worst was a Greek Cities campaign, where I once gave Dacia 250,000 denari to keep the peace. With only one place with a common border (Dacia and Paionia), I figured I'd take the chance. They were heavily involved in a war with Scythia and Germania, and my eye was turning east to Pontus, and south to Egypt.

Ten years later, they make peace with those two factions, and two full stacks of the best Dacia has to offer comes out of the mountains and lay siege to Bylazora and Byzantium:furious3:

After I beat back the initial onslaught, I stopped my expansion everywhere else, and made it a personal vendetta to lay waste to all lands owned by Dacia. Everything was burned to the ground, and all their lands were left to the rebels.

That was the last time I paid a tribute to any faction within 100 leagues of my territories.

[Guyus Germanicus]

Samurai is correct. The AI is not sentimental. It won't be bribed. In all my adventures with RTW over the years, I have seen very few times where an alliance with me wasn't betrayed by the AI even when a betrayal was not in the best interests of the betraying faction. Of course, it helps if you don't hold any regions adjacent to the faction you're negotiating with. Then your alliance has a chance to last, or your relations have a chance to remain cordial. But tribute won't deter the AI. Its decision logic baseline is to be antagonistic, not to play nice if treated nice.

I think M2TW is a bit more nuanced in interfactional relations. And that's not to say that when you are allied to a faction in RTW that they can never be trusted. I've seen factions allied to me behave in a very commendable fashion, coming to my assistance in both naval and land battles. But again, their disposition depends a great deal on whether you control regions adjacent to their territory, or whether you have captured a city that your ally is programmed to consider in its sphere of influence.

I have many times given monetary gifts to the enemy of my enemies, or the enemy of a faction that I consider a rival though I may not be at war with it at that moment. But I can't say that my money gifts have ever led to friendlier relations with the faction I was giving the gift to. The game just doesn't seem to work that way.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I have seen very few times where an alliance with me wasn't betrayed by the AI even when a betrayal was not in the best interests of the betraying faction. Of course, it helps if you don't hold any regions adjacent to the faction you're negotiating with.

I'd say the 'little brother' to the "Black Knight Syndrome" that reared its' ugly head in ETW was present in RTW. After my above experience with Dacia, I never made an alliance with any faction that I shared even the slightest sliver of a common border. Didn't make any difference:inquisitive:

At some point, the faction I was allied with, would send a single ship to blockade a port of mine even though they couldn't possibly hope to maintain it, and had no troops to send an invasion force to any of my territories. And even more inane, they were making tons of denari by trading with me...denari I could afford to lose but the offending faction could not.


I have many times given monetary gifts to the enemy of my enemies, or the enemy of a faction that I consider a rival though I may not be at war with it at that moment.

Basically, the only reason I play RTW anymore is to do exactly this.....play god:laugh4: Mostly, it's factions that are fighting the Romans that I give money to...not that it makes much difference, in the long run. No AI-led faction has a chance to resist Rome. But still, it's made for some entertaining moments like the time I was feeding Gaul denari on a regular basis. They actually put together a full stack of good quality troops led by the faction leader (a 5-star general) and lay siege to the Julii capital. Even beat off a lame attempt by a small SPQR force that attempted to relieve the siege.

Then the AI had to go and ruin it by not assaulting, even after all the appropriate siege engines had been built. It just sat there until the Julii faction leader brought a relieving army all the way back from Massilia.:inquisitive: Even on auto-resolve, that stack was sufficient to overwhelm the meager garrison before the army from Massilia arrived, even taking into account the slanted results to Roman infantry.

There is a built-in bias for the Romans over and above all the 'perks' they get, AFAIAC, after seeing that. But enough digression from the topic..........:oops: