Protectorate Advantages?

[MrWhipple]

Exactly what does one gain by making a country a protectorate? I am playing post patch with no mods. Other than doing it as a Senate mission I can't see any advantage.

[Quillan]

A protectorate bundles an alliance with military access between both parties. If they pay any tribute to you automatically, I don't see it. Most important, however, is that the territories you act as patron to their client count as yours for victory conditions. So, when you get to the far side of the world, where you can't maintain order without massive garrisons and huge expense, make them a protectorate instead. You don't get the income or production from those cities, but you don't have to spend money on upgrading the cities, worry about them revolting, or maintain garrisons either.

[Suladan]

You do receive tribute from the protectorates. Each turn, protectorates receive their income, spend it on their expenses, and then send you every denarii left over. You can see the tribute received the Financial tab. This tribute can be quite substantial.

[Malrubius]

Yeah, you definitely get tribute from them if they have any profits (which can be thousands of denarii), but I can envision a beaten-down faction that actually is losing money every turn. In that case, does anyone know what happens? Does it drain your own treasury, or do they just not kick up anything?

[RollingWave]

Protectrates count towards ur winning goal so having them is nice.... though they are sometimes hard to keep ... i lost two protectrate when attacking the Macedonians as the Gaul -.- ( had 4 though, Bruttis/German/Britis/Spain... bruttis and German broke away.. costing me to go down from 10 province till 50 all the way down to 27 province till win XD....)

Usually they won't break by themself though, however if u hit their allies they are likely to break ... espically if they are once that are still in the game.

Intersting though, i have never had success getting 1 province factions to become my protectrate... but my highest record was getting the 20 province Brits o_O... ok... well acturally Egypt did once suggest to accept when they were down to 1 province... except that they ask for me to give EVERYTHING back to them.... which is over 10 + province through the Nile up the middle east... ummm no thx ?

[Es Arkajae]

Bah, I tried to get the Egyptians to become a protectorate as the Seleucids, they never accepted even when I had their last city and last army under siege.

But protectorates are great for those out of the way places that you want to add to your victory score and remove as a threat but don't really want to go through the trouble of conquering or holding.

Germany is an excellent example, maintaining it is a pain in the arse and the money you get from there is pitiful, its also full of rebels.

Numidia with its obscene travel times bewteen cities is another one, Spain too is out of the way and once you've already conquered the Gauls its rather useless really as all the action is in the east.

A hint of advice though, if you're going to make a country a protectorate choose any other protectorates with care, for instance if you go through all the trouble of making Germany a protectorate then DON'T make the Britons or Gauls a protectorate, because inevitably your two protectorates will probably be going to war with eachother which means you'll have to end up conquering one of them again after they break the alliance.

Spain and Numidia are another example, having them both as a protectorate is just asking for trouble, unless you capture and keep both Tingi and Cirta and leave the Numidians the rest, depriving the Spanish of a place to attack or blockade, that can work.

It should made so that two protectorates of one nation don't go to war with eachother, or that if two of your protectorates DO go to war with eachother that it doesn't break their alliance with you, or even that you can tell them to stop.