Bribing spells war

Who could have thought that! I'm now playing the Danish on expert and the clock struck 1206. My empire takes basically all of HRE and the French lands. In the south I border on a strip of Italy-held provinces starting from Aquitaine eastward to Venice. A dozen years ago the Italians got excommed (for attacking both Papacy and the Spanish). I craved to get access to Mediterranean, but I was reluctant to start a war, firstly because the Italians always agreed to my marital proposals (both male and female), and secondly, because of their ramified fleet network. But I decided to act underhanded and bribed a small contingent of 2 units in Genoa. They went over to me, so I got the province without an arrow loosened. But next year I get a message from the Byz (the Italians' only ally) that they choose to stay with them in our war!!! Thus never killing a single Italian soldier, nor sinking a single Italian ship I found myself at war with a ship-strong nation!! Outrageous!!
Do not repeat my mistake: bribing IS war!!

hahahahaha that is funny, bribing works great in very specfic cases, yours is not one of them, good luck

Well, its an easy mistake to make if you don't know. In effect you occupied an Italian province with your troops. True the troops used to be Italian, but that doesn't make it any better. Hope you still have someone left to marry off and the Italians agree.

When you bribe a stack, in the following turn the stack will "land" in the province it was based before in your colors. In game terms it is as if it will be invading the province under your banner. You buy the stack, but not the land it occupies. I think this is what caused war to be declared. I am unsure as to if you bought another faction's stack that was say under siege somewhere by athird faction, the same would have happened (war).

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Originally Posted by gollum

When you bribe a stack, in the following turn the stack will "land" in the province it was based before in your colors. In game terms it is as if it will be invading the province under your banner. You buy the stack, but not the land it occupies. I think this is what caused war to be declared. I am unsure as to if you bought another faction's stack that was say under siege somewhere by athird faction, the same would have happened (war).

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+1

Yes, you can't just buy a faction's units and province in one go. You bribe only the stack and the stack is then actually invading the province...

Hi

IMHO, the Italians' reaction to your despicable deed (treating the bribe as a declaration of war) was righteous!

Actually, it doesn't strike me as 'unrealistic' behaviour by the AI, if you see what I mean.

Was the outcome that your fleets got smashed?

Regards
Victor

Sapere aude
Horace

:laugh4: lol yeah i wouldn't be all to happy with a sneak action like bribing with another kingdom i share blood ties with.

Ins't the sneaky, but AI-Approved(TM), way inciting a rebellion and then bribing the rebel stacks after the uprising takes the province? :hide:

That is exactly what i had in mind for above-the-law-sneakiness (TM) when i mentioned bribing an army under siege by a "third faction" (i meant a rebel faction stack that i was responsible for) ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by victorgb

Hi

IMHO, the Italians' reaction to your despicable deed (treating the bribe as a declaration of war) was righteous!

Actually, it doesn't strike me as 'unrealistic' behaviour by the AI, if you see what I mean.

Was the outcome that your fleets got smashed?

Regards
Victor

Sapere aude
Horace

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Well, I'm going to start dealing with the ship-rich Italians, so I will report on the outcome later, but my plan is (as always in cases involving exensive marine warfare) to withdraw my ships to a limited number of sea regions to form several "fists" (stacks of ships) and deliver more powerful sea strikes. Or at least prevent them from transporting their troops from Greece and Constantinople (yes, they do hold them). I think with their disrupted ties and being excommed Italians are likely to face some rebellion or civil war (they have already lost Corsica and Sardinia to rebels). As for the land campaign, I don't think they are strong enough to resist my huscarle-abundant troops. Anyway, I'm not going to attack them at first and see what happens during a year or two.

Yes, bribing can be dangerous. That's why if you can bribe rebels, it's usually better. I like to do the same thing sometimes when my treasury is heavily laden, especially when troops start getting stretched thin, I bribe provinces. Also, you can try and start rebellions in places that don't have much fort protection, and hence get those places to go rebel.

There's also the situation where you bribe a rebel stack only to find that the provinces have rejoined their old faction when it reappears...

I report on the Bribe War. Year 1220. The 16th year of the war. It didn't turn out that bad. At first I had half a dozen of my ships sunk by the Italians before I managed to tuck them away to some cozy nooks, but then having my ships in 2 stacks I started to move one from the north, another from the east and finally cornered the last Italian ship south of Toulouse. As their excom has been lifted with the Pope's death I cannot attack them any more but I just put the fleet into the same sea region where the Italian ships are and they can't refrain from attacking which leads either to their loss or disastrous victory with heavy casualties. So I reign the sea now. As for the land campaign, it went the way I had predicted. Their town militia and Genoese sailors are no match for my huscarles, so the only province they still hold in Italy is Papal States with Corsica, Sardinia and Naples having gone rebel. What really makes me sad is the fate of the crowd of my princesses married to Italian princes. I hope they don't treat poor lasses bad being frustrated about the downfall of their empire.