Alliances - some countrie more beloved/reviled than others?

[Cadwallon]

Does anyone find building alliances with particular nations are easier than others?

For example, as the spanish, no one seems to want to ally with you for very long. Everyone seems to want to take you down - and you wind up fighting everyone plus the papacy early on the piece. The English seem to be similar.

As the Venetians though (VH/VH) - I've been on excellent terms with the papacy for the entire game, people are knocking down my door to become my ally. No one - excepting the Germans attacked me - and then they sued for an expensive peace two turns later. I am a financial giant I suppose, and apart from the Byzantines, the only catholic countries I've fought have been the perfidious Milanese. The Turks willingly (with the Egyptians/Mongols beating down their door) became my client state/vassals.

Are certain factions designed to be less fractious/easier to ally with? Perhaps diplomatically they are superior? Are certain relationships - ie the French/English conflict, Spanish/Moor conflict built in from the beginning? Or is it the financial/military strength and popularity with the papacy which make everyone love the Venetians? I've even had the normally vicious Sicilians leave me alone.

[Duke Bart]

Idk if its built in, but i notice that each game i play there are always a few factions that go along similar diplomatic routes.


for example, milan is always evil and betrays/goes to war with everyone

france and scotland usually get hooked up for a while, trying to take out english (sometimes it even works out well!)

germany nd denmark usually have a thing where it is either one or the other, so the center of the map is either black or red after a while

moors spain and portugal will often have a situation where two ally against one, so if its portugal and moors vs spain, nothing happens, spain and portugal vs moors, moors out of spain, spain and moors vs portugal, portugal dies nd the remaining two go 50/50

then in the east u hav byz nd turks having a similar situation to HRE nd denmark

thats the main stuff i see happen extremely often. So maybe there is something 2 it

[Ramses II CP]

Search the forum for 'shadow factions.' Some opponents are coded in to be more difficult to vassalize and make an alliance with; it tends to be exactly the one you would expect.

[Orion66]

Since my experience is based only on a couple of play throughs, I'm nowhere near that good, but my playing thru as Spanish now, I 've had no problem with the papacy.
Build your churches/chapels when they become available, spread Christianity with your priests. I also park a diplomat next to Rome and give 100 florins each turn. I consistently have more crosses than the other nations, so if France or other nation attacks me, that angers the Pope. France got so low, that I was able to get the Pope to declare a crusade against Paris. Eventually, I had HRE, Hungary, Poland along with the crusade.
Also, warring with the Moors, boosts your standing with the Pope.

[Diehard_TH]

I can never really get into the Diplomacy side of things, at first getting alliances is pretty easy and then evryone just ignores you. Had a really long Alliance with HRE, we were best buddies and then in one turn they blockade half my ports send 3 big stacks in against my provinces and ally with the French whom i've been kicking for 80 turns. WTF?

And better options to threaten would be good.

[Quintus.JC]

While there are certain factions that are just more popular than others. I personally have such a distaste for Milan. Absolutely bunch of Treacherous Bastardi . They have betrayled me on 8 separate occasions. They're also quite a power later on, which just makes matter worse.

[Iñnsomñni]

I agree, when i played Spain, everybody seems to be fighting against you, especially those Portugese people, i never did like them...
I also agree with the fact that HRE and Denmark seem to have a thing for each other, none of these have ever been at war in any of my campaigns.
I wouldd also like to state that in any of my campaigns, Russia stays relatively neutral, they stay out of the battles in Europe, they just come down from time to time to get some trade agreements, then go back to the solitude of Russia...
Milan is a very big issue in my campaigns, even if you are halfway across the world, milan will get somebody over to your area to declare war upon you with a very small army, and their already weakened empires crumbles from all of its enemies...
The largest empires usually seem to be the most liked, i never saw anybody declare war on HRE, only Milanm and they are a load of cocky sons of a guns...

[Quickening]

I heartily endorse all the Milan bashing in this thread. Ive actually developed an intense hatred of them after them backstabbing me time and time again.
I don't go for diplomacy much now except to secure trade rights and map information. If the mechanics made a little more sense I would but oh well, it is Total War after all.

[Pater Familias]

I generally find the Pope to be more trouble than he's worth, unless I'm playing an Italian faction, where it doesn't make sense to diss such an influential neighbor.
But yeah, Milan are always a pain. I thought I had finally crushed them early one game playing as Sicily: I took Milan and Genoa. But when I got across the Alps, they had taken out most of France and were every bit as big a pain in the as ever.
I also have very bad luck w/ the French not honoring alliances, but never seem to have to work too hard to crush them.
But in most games, frankly, I'm the most opportunistic, alliance-breaking, backstab-me-own-Mum-for-a-castle-in-a-good-spot bastage on the entire map, so I really can't complain too much about the AI being doublecrossers.

[Duke Bart]

Yeah, i know what you mean about milan...
after i took all of the milanese cities i thought existed, i did toggle_fow since i couldnt find the rest of their lands.

And what do i see? eastern france, 1 spainish castle and 1 portugese castle (starting ones) the rebel cities and the moorish stuff is all theirs. Plus that french port.

the worst part was that they where also crawling with stacks upon stacks of units. :(


somethings definately screwed up w/ milan

[Rhyfelwyr]

for example, milan is always evil and betrays/goes to war with everyone

This has never been more true than in my Spanish short campaign I just finished. Milan owns all of modern Italy, including the islands (except Sicily), and most of the Balkans, as well as Dijon, Bern, and some ex-HRE provinces. I've elected three Popes in the space of four turns, presumably because Milan keeps killing them, since they were young. I would have called a Crusade to Rome but they looked to strong for me to tacke!

And Poland always proves to be a monster, taking east Germany and the entire steppes, going as far as Sarkel sometimes.