Quote Originally Posted by Kralizec View Post
I also took those two cities in the Alps (the two directly north of Italy) from the Sweboz so that I had a buffer against them, consisting of Type IV client states. Because I had beefed up the Averni considerably by now, and becaus I had launched a couple of punitive raids against the Sweboz, they never became much of a threat again. They still attacked my two Alp cities regularly but rarely with full stacks. Usually I could decimate a besieging army in one turn with mostly slingers. It's an annoyance to be sure, but nothing major.
Did you not consider giving the two cities in the Alps to the Arveni or Aedui instead? The Sweboz AI will not attack you if it doesn't share a border with you, hence creating buffer states controlled by other factions can be more useful than creating Type IV governments - the AI doesn't care what the government level is, it regards those towns as yours and the AI tends to regard the human player as the primary target, especially on higher difficulty levels.