A couple of Questions

[Hobbes]

Hi, can anyone tell me what the difference between attacking an allied country or attacking a non allied country? Do other countries turn on you if you break an allience?

Also do the expenses for a province have any impact on the
province itself? For instance if I have a massive army stationed in the province.

Thanks, Hobbes

[Gregoshi]

About the alliance/non-alliance question, I think attacking an ally has a negative affect on your influence (you can't be trusted). If you attack a faction and you both have mutual allies, those allies will make a decision as to which faction (your or the one you're attacking) they will break their alliance with.

If I understand your second question, the only affect I'm aware of is that loyalty goes up due to the presence of the armies (Smile for the nice soldiers, Roger, and get the king's banner out of the trash can and hang it out front of the house...)

[juststeve]

Has anyone noticed a pattern about your alliances choosing sides when you are involved in conflict with a faction that they are also allied with? I mean, what causes the ai to choose your side over the other? Generally, once I start to control more of the provinces on the map, nobody stays allied with me, even if I am a Christian faction attacing a non-Christian faction.

I am currently enjoying a MedMod 3.12 campaign, and I was attacked on the same turn by both the Swedes (Christian) and the Russians (Orthodox). I had a large number of alliances on the previous turn, but the only ones who stuck by me were the Danish. In fact the Pope reprimanded me (playing as the Poles) even though it was MY ships getting sunk by the Swedes. Basically, since I wasn't expecting the Swedish attack, I was still moving my armies up to get to them - and the Pope just made me take a 15 yr long time-out.

But among the cancelled aliiance messages, a number were from Christian factions that were choosing to stay aligned with the Russians. So religion may play a part, but it is not always a deciding factor.