The potential for diplomacy.

I've been recently playing a game called, "Knights of Honor" which is kinda like a slim down, bite-sized version of MTW. The thing that really impressed me though was how well diplomacy functioned in the game and I thought to myself how much I wished that this was the case for MTWII going forward.

Let me elaborate. In KOH (which is also a medieval game in which you set to conquer Europe and Northern Africa) I'm playing as the Norwegians and I started an early alliance with Sweden (AI) whom I shared a common border. After declaring war against the Danish I asked my ally Sweden to assist me which they did and we conquered and split their territory. We then continued to invade the European mainland and made war on, conquered and divided starting from Hungary, Poland, Germany and France. All the time we acted as allies, taking on the same enemies and trading partners and sharing a common border going down Europe we trusted each other so did not keep standing armies on adjacent territories. Those enemies that stood before us did so only if they were strong enough and didn't attack us without abandon simply because we were strong but instead contented themselves to survive as vassals.

As for our alliance, neither one of us sought to betray one another not only because it would have been a chaotic mess but because we mutually benefitted from our partnership. Also, like in MTW there are severe penalties to your Influence should you betray your ally or act otherwise dishonorably which can cause rebellions in your regions and armies declaring independence from your rule.

Now before you say that I should then stick to playing KOH if its such a great game I'm just remarking upon on aspect that I wished was improved upon in MTWII. It seems like such a small thing to wish for and its certainly less complicated than organizing and orchestrating several thousand men on a battlefield. I'd love to have a campaign in TW where I didn't have to keep full stacks of standing armies in marching distance to my allies and where everyone wouldn't attack me piecemeal just because my empire became large and powerful. Thus far most of my games have finished with nearly every other nation eradicated and frankly it could have been more. I think realistically and logically I should have found myself with a few key allies, numerous vassals and subdued enemies at the end with some other objective for victory.