A General Guide to Campaign Diplomacy:

Diplomacy, or rather what you do diplomatically is a huge factor, whatever faction you are playing, or whatever difficulty setting you are playing.

The Cabinet:

Your Minister Cabinet has a strong effect on this also.

To that end, here are a few pointers.

Your First Minister is your most important. He gives you any diplomatic bonuses and prestige you are going to get. Your Head of State also effects this but there is nothing you can do about him or her.

On the first turn of any campaign install your best man in this position. If you get someone better in the course of play, then by all means, exchange the two.

Agreements & Treaties:

Also on your first turn, just after choosing your First Minister go to the Diplomatic Menu. Arrange all of the Trade Agreements you possibly can. Don’t forget that Land Routs do not count against you Ports.

A rule of thumb is that the more regions a Faction has, the more you will make in trade. Certain factions always have their ports blocked early in the game so if it is a choice between a Major Faction that is always blocked and a minor one that never gets involved in wars, then go with the minor.

Alliances can entangle you in war but some will keep you out of it. Particularly those factions with many bordering factions need to reach an agreement of some kind with as many of those as you can.

Many times those difficult factions that always go to war with you will become stanch allies or disinterested bystanders if you can reach any kind of agreement or present them with a state gift.

Yes I know that State Gifts now are only +5 but it can have a real effect. Just don’t bother with more than one.

Some factions, Spain in particular, need to court these minors. It is not any longer easy to make protectorates (as of 1.4 & 1.5) but cultivating alliance can save you having to trade regions away and help you maintain a better income level. Not to mention avoiding needless wars.

Negotiations:

In trades and swaps the AI always drives a hard bargain. In many instances it is ridiculous. Never expect to get the better of the AI, or even break even in trades and swaps.

Gifts of State are worth less but a change of a few points has a more dramatic effect than you would think. Those who are hostile toward you do not usually go to war if the meter is less than -90. Gifts of cash and techs also now count. Military access will also help and I have yet to see it betrayed past the 1.2 version.

I have yet to discover the cash threshold for peacefully making someone your protectorate but if it is possible it will be discovered in time.

If the AI is dealing with you it is not yet going to war. Once you refuse deals is when it is most likely to attack.

This can be a sort of signal. If it is not offering you silly deals or is quite it is not likely to open hostilities against you directly. This does not mean that an ally or trade partner won’t go to war with an ally or protectorate though.


Much of this may be a now brainer but it may help newer players or those who never gave it a thought before hitting the end turn button on the first turn of their campaign.

A small (maybe obvious) point but something to remember when using diplomacy:

Always do your diplomacy BEFORE developement. The CAI knows how much cash you have and will adjust it's counteroffers likewise. It's better to delay another farm upgrade for a year and get that trade deal than having the CAI refusing your offer outright because you don't have enough cash to give with it (or it'll ask for provinces that you don't want to part with).

I remember the basic advice from Rome was don't ally with your neighbour, but with your neighbour's neighbour. Allies seem less prone to attacking you in Empire; more often the Alliance breaks down after a failure to join after a declaration of war. I'd still say that if there is someone you are planning to attack that you should aim to ally with as many of their neighbours as possible.

The primary rule for all strategic game diplomacy can be summed by: "If you're Russia, ally with Spain and meet in the middle."

In other words, ally with someone far away that has no strategic conflicts with you and kill everything in between. :-D

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Originally Posted by antisocialmunky

The primary rule for all strategic game diplomacy can be summed by: "If you're Russia, ally with Spain and meet in the middle."

In other words, ally with someone far away that has no strategic conflicts with you and kill everything in between. :-D

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And then kill them!:smash:

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Originally Posted by A1_Unit

And then kill them!:smash:

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sounds like a good plan to me:laugh4:

Alternatively, give almost every one of your provinces to a random remaining nation (I use the native americans or louisianna) and give them all your techs. Then enjoy

There also seem to be times in the game when nothing works diplomatically, and times when you can get almost anything, except what may be a victory requirement.

I managed to get the Iroquois to offer to become a protectorate in my GB campaign.

How? Well truthfully I am not quite sure. I mostly ignored their pleas for peace took another region and prepared to take the last by staging an army on the border.

I may have been distracted and forgot to move it in the next turn, but I am not sure. At any rate in their turn they offered to become a protectorate for peace. My reason for war with them was over the 13 Colonies, which had joined me by then. They had gone from a maximum of 6 region down to one and were a hairs breath from death.

Evidentially the AI perceived this as a strong possibility and made the only offer that would save it.

I only say that because it had offered peace repeatedly and been turned down. I had not seen that before but I won’t say it was not in at 1.4.

There was a point earlier in the game when they had asked for Jamaica for peace.

I know that I have made some other nations generous offers of techs, money, and territory to become protectorates and met with refusals.

It is very unclear how the AI factions view these offers, or if it is just offers from the human player. At any rate, I recognize that the AI is capable of self preservation, but may only act on it when it really is meaningless so far as giving or denying victory to the player.

Well, I have a question.

Venice declared war on me long ago, I didn't go though and ignotred them until I had defeated Poland and Courland (I am Prussia), made Courland my protectorate, then beat Venice and tried to make them my protectorate but the diplomacy screen did not even show that option, why is that? Our relation is -211, is there some minimum relation below which a nation cannot be made a protectorate anymore? I had this with Poland long ago in another campaign and thought you couldn't make major nations your protectorate but Venice is a minor so what was stopping me? :inquisitive:

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Originally Posted by Husar

Well, I have a question.

Venice declared war on me long ago, I didn't go though and ignotred them until I had defeated Poland and Courland (I am Prussia), made Courland my protectorate, then beat Venice and tried to make them my protectorate but the diplomacy screen did not even show that option, why is that? Our relation is -211, is there some minimum relation below which a nation cannot be made a protectorate anymore? I had this with Poland long ago in another campaign and thought you couldn't make major nations your protectorate but Venice is a minor so what was stopping me? :inquisitive:

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Only a Faction with One region can normally become a protectorate.

They start with two regions and likely still have two.

However, I am unsure this is all to gather true in 1.4 and 1.5 but it is the best I can do to explain what you say happened.

I see, I suspected as much but wasn't sure, thanks.