Has anyone else here ever been offered to become a protectorate of an AI faction? Last night, I was.
I was playing as Britannia on VH/M and was trying to perform the crusaders scenario, where by you have to conquer and hold all island provinces, Jerusalem and Damascus and Belgica, but you cannot hold any other provinces.
Anyway, I had raided Alesia a couple of times, conquered the settlement, eradicated the populace, destroyed all the buildings and looted the place dry and then gave it back. This was while I had built quite a large army and fleet that was just about rounding Spain (stopping on the way to pick up some mercs and raid some Spanish cities). Then one time I forgot to give Alesia back. Big mistake, the populace rebelled with a stack of 14 peasants - fair enough you might think, they're only peasants. These peasants all had 1 gold chevron experience, silver weapons and golden armour! Where the hell did all that come from?
Bearing in mind the army and fleet was rounding the Pillars of Hercules, I was in trouble. The Gauls already had quite a few big armies around in addition to the uber-peasant stack and I was also at war with Germania who were attacking Belgica with small stacks too. When the peasant stack moved at Belgica, I decided to send all I could muster (mostly mercanaries) from Londinium and Belgica to attack the stack before it could combine with a Gallic stack containing cavalry, warbands and a 5-star general arriving from the West and some Germanic skirmishers arriving from the East.
I was able to rout the peasant stack at quite a heavy cost to my rag-tag army (around 7 lots of mercs vs 14 mega pesants). Had the peasants had the 5-star general or some mixed-unit support I would've stood no chance. As it was, it wasn't a completel victory because I lacked sufficient cavalry to spare for running down such a vast horde.
Anyway, next turn, the generals stack approached the settlement in Belgica so I sent out a diplomat to try and stop the attack or at least get some cash, since I didn't have the forces to do so and my coffers were empty. When I offered map information, the Gauls offered me protectorate status and also offered 1,700 denarii per turn for 7 turns. Despite the impact on my pride I thought I'd accept, since an alliance with Gaul would also abate the Germans and it was not in my objectives to attack either of them.
In those 7 turns I was able to rebuild my channel defences, raid most of coastal Spain - making me a fortune, capture Palma from Carthage and refill my coffers. Gaul has left me alone, although when I finally quit he looked to be shaping for another attack against Belgica, but this time I will be ready with a professional and well equiped army.
So you see, being someones lacky isn't so bad if it helps you to achieve your objectives. A thoroughly profitable arrangement for me I think and from what my spies could see it seemed to do the Gauls a favour by allowing them to concentrate on fighting the Julii. It's onwards to Sardinia now and then to Sicily.
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