Becoming A Protectorate

[TinCow]

I have seen plenty of posts about getting other factions to be your protectorate, but I haven't seen much about becoming one yourself. Last night in my VH/VH Dacia game I was at war with both Gaul and Germania at the same time. I was frantic because I only had one army capable of defeating large enemy stacks and I couldn't defend both borders at once. The situation was looking grim, with one of my cities recently lost to Germany, with another beseiged by Germany and yet a third beseiged by Gaul. I sent a diplomat to try and negotiate a peace with the Gauls, hoping for even a turn or two before they attacked again to allow me to defeat Germany and transfer my army back west. Surprisingly, the Gauls offered me over 2000 dinarii tribute for 5 turns on the condition that I become a protectorate. I sat back and thought for a while... and finally accepted. I am now Gaul's 'ally' with trade rights and military access for both of us on both our lands. I can easily afford to pump out a couple more armies now and I am certain I can push Germany back. Eventually I will break the Protectorate and pursue Gaul some more.

So... what penalties am I suffering from being Gaul's protectorate? Other than them having military access to my lands, I can't see ANYTHING bad about this situation. What am I missing?

[Siris]

No clue bro. But the question is how do you get a powerful faction to ally you & fight your war for you. I'm thinking I need Germaina & the Gauls to help hurt the Romans in the North to lighten up the War in my Home land, which I'm slowly loseing.

I've lost around 5,000+ men to around 25,000+ Romans in my Spartan lands, and their still pushing us back, crazyiness!

[aw89]

why do you keep saying "us"? are you gullom or something?

[R'as al Ghul]

Are you getting any denari from them?
Like making another faction become your protectorate totally bankrupts you? (at least until fixed by a patch)
It would be interesting to see what happens when you or your ally makes a new enemy/ ally. Does it automatically influence your diplomatic stance?

R'as

[Bob the Insane]

When a faction becomes a Protectorate of yours their lands are supposed to count as yours for victory purposes so I am lead to believe (or at least that is how it is supposed to work)... So I would assume that the players faction becoming the Protectorate of another faction is basically losing the game...

[TinCow]

I'm not at home so I can't check, but I *think* my income from diplomacy the turn afterwards was 3100 (or something close to that). However, I know that about 2500 of that was from the Gauls via tribute and I am pretty sure the rest is Armenian tribute (map trade). There was definitely no large sum deposited into my treasury right afterwards... as far as I can tell, no financial benefits except for the tribute and the trade rights.

When a faction becomes a Protectorate of yours their lands are supposed to count as yours for victory purposes so I am lead to believe (or at least that is how it is supposed to work)... So I would assume that the players faction becoming the Protectorate of another faction is basically losing the game...

Definitely didn't lose the game. I'm still playing without any problems. Even with my territories, Gaul is a LONG way away from controlling 50 provinces so that's not much of a concern for me.

[Bob the Insane]

Yeah, I just noticed I did not read the first post correctly....

Remeber that Protectorates are at the moment apparantly a "little broken" to quote one CA dev who posts here and this might apply to becoming a protectorate yourself...

Which I did not think was possible!!!!

[TinCow]

Which I did not think was possible!!!!

I was very hesitant about it when I saw it offered. I actually tabbed out and searched the forums for any insight into this, but none came up. In the end, I decided I didn't have a whole lot to lose so I accepted, as much out of curiosity as anything else.

Interestingly, they didn't offer me the protectorate when I asked for a ceasefire. They only offered it when I tried to sell them my map. They then countered with Give us Map, Protectorate and we give you tribute.

[Quillan]

I've seen a screenshot where Egypt offered the Seleucids the opportunity to become an Egyptian protectorate (the player was running the Seleucids). Apparantly CA slipped another joke into the game there, because the Pharaoh's message was "All your base are belong to us".

[Bob the Insane]

They only offered it when I tried to sell them my map. They then countered with Give us Map, Protectorate and we give you tribute.

That sounds well broken....

I will have to try offering the AI a tribute to become a protectorate and see if that works....