Diplomacy, peace, war and everything

Here's some story about how my campaign with the Danes is progressing (VH/VH) with respect to the diplomacy/foreign relations part.

I started out with taking Hamburg, Stettin and later on Magdebrug. These were still Rebels.. In between I took Stockholm and Oslo, so a nice pretty little empire. I even got a meesage once at that time I was the strongest faction, to give an idea about my progression regarding to the AI nations. Now, taking Magdeburg was technically in Rebels hands, but right when I wanted to take it, the Polish were lying Siege to it. The Pope ordered it, and I was in the mood, ánd it was a logical addition to my empire, so I attacked the Polish, which retreated without fighting(they were in low numbers, attacking the town would have been tricky at best for them), I took the town and the Polish backed off.

That was my start of hostilities with the outside world save for Rebels. Now, Poland and I didnt really clash for a couple of turns later. I wasn't interested in fighting them yet, and nor were they, since they lacked the forces to confront me (there were no large armies of them in the field, while I was walking around with half a stack).

Now, later on there followed occaisional battles, including twice the order to blockade Thorn, and I took Breslau, but IIRC, this also was still Rebel. Somwhere in this, I also get the order from the Pope not to battle with the Poles, for five turns. I honor this, save for a blockade still in progress. No consequences AFAIK came from this. Somehow, I grew stronger and stronger in relation to Poland, and this is then reflected in Poland offering a ceasefire. I barter, and succeed in getting Thorn through Diplomacy, this settling the ceasefire.

In the meantime, Poland allies with the HRE, and I end up in a war with Poland again, and the HRE attacks me aswell. I manage to fend off their attacks, and defeat both HRE and the Poles in two major battles, depriving them of a stack each. The HRE offer a ceasefire (got some money!), and the Pope asks me to refrain from attacking them aswell, at about the same time.

Oh yes, somehwere in the mean time, I take Antioch on a crusade the Pope ordered and standings improved with the Papacy. And off course, one or two of my diplomats are travelling the world selling trade rights and maps, giving a modest though occasional boost to my treasury.

Now, one could ask, what is your point?

Well, seeing the above, the diplomacy/relations in my campaign till thusfar are pretty normal, convicingly realistic even. The only thing is that I never could ask for a ceasefire myself, which seems to be the biggest complaint on diplomacy, along with 'suicide attacks'. Indeed, I too wasn't able to get a ceasefire from the HRE, but it would not have been realistic per se, since they had an equal or bigger militairy might then me.

Regarding the suicide attacks, I don't see them. Poland attacked me when allied to HRE. Both HRE and Poland offered ceasefire when the tables turned on them. Sometimes I do see a small stack besieging a lower stacked city, but not often. Maybe the HRE and Poland only decided to offer peace because they had other losses besides the one I inflicted on them, but that is unknown to me, and does not change the point.

I'm curious to see what happens if I grow bigger. If people still offer ceasefires when I get Bullier. Till thusfar though, nothing wrong with the diplomacy front in my campaign..

I won't pretend to know how it works but you can ask for a ceasefire and usually it says demanding or very demanding, but occasionally it will tell you that it is generous. It may take quite a few turns without hostile acts for it to come about though.

The diplomacy is a bit of a mystery still. Even when you get that an offer is generous sometimes they don't take it or wish to haggle about things. It dose seem a good idea to enter as many alliances as you can manage though. I have noticed that sometimes allies will go to war the turn after you are betrayed and the betrayals seem less frequent than in those games where you have only one or two allies. Of course this could be shear coincidence. The ai doesn't seem to react to logic or bullying tactics though and the bigger you get the fewer friends you have…this seems to be universal in all of the CA games.