I bought out France

[shootfast]

On my first campaign I played the English on H/H. First thing I did was marry my heir to the French princess so I could wipe out the Scots and Flemish with out interference.

When I finished my conquests I was logically planning out my attack on France. Only problem was that I had to do everything one turn or face excommunication by the pope. Then it struck me since I was loaded with cash I might save myself some trouble and buy out some of their Castles.

I got Angers for 1000 tribute over 2 turns, Bordeaux 1500 tribute over 5 turns and Toulouse 2400 tribute over 10 turns. Note I had a very good reputation and relationship with France plus marriage alliance. Afterwards I realised I paid too much for Toulouse so cancelled my tributes to France. They still remained allies for some stupid reason as my army was already outside Paris.

Killed their King and captured Paris but the stupid Pope wouldn't let me finish them off. So I parked my army outside Dijon where most of their army was and waited.

Finally they attacked with two full stacks, great battle as they had decent calvary and dismounted knights while I had only Billmen and LongBowmen so it was close. In the end I wiped them out but lost half my army.

Afterwards they wanted a ceasefire so why not. Then to see how much they wanted peace I tried to buy Mertz for 5000 and Bern for 4000 both were sold to me, I guess France was broke. Next turn when the threat of excommunication was finished and with my Pope in Rome I captured Dijon and Rheims.

Did I get lucky or is it suppose to work like this? Because I found it a very easy and cheap way to take Castles, you can cancel tributes so it doesn't cost you anything and you already have units there at the castle to garrison it. It seems to work with Castles more then Cities though(I bought all their Castles), France has a lot of Castles to begin with, around five compared to two the English have.

[KARTLOS]

sounds very cheap, il have to try it

[Arifel]

I played my HRE campaign quite similarly only in reverse. I gifted away all my starting land to the Pope to keep him from excommunicating me while I take the bigger and richer cities in Italy.

The current state of diplomacy seems quite extreme, when you're on good terms with someone they'll give you their kidney, and when a faction hates you it's nearly impossible to talk to them.

[Lord Condormanius]

It almost sounds like feudalism, if you believe in that sort of thing. That the way it really worked out. The King gives you your feif and you never show up to work.

[IRONxMortlock]

I guess France was broke.

Perhaps this is often the case with France?
In my French campaign I never have enough money and I can't save a single florin.

[Zoltan]

Money is tight for france, as they usually have to fight on several fronts and have a lot of not so rich towns to develop. Making Bordeaux into a town and taking Corsica and Sardinia (and making them into trading towns obviously) helps a bit. My money problems only ended for good when the Milanese atacked me and got their silly green asses excommunicated. I promptly took Genoa an Milan, which both make me huge amounts of cash.

[CaptainSolo]

In my current game the French have moved into Spain and were doing quite well.It was only when the Milanese and Spanish went to war with them that things started to go pear shaped.On top of that those pesky Danes have moved three stacks into Antwerp.As they had betrayed me earlier i took Paris from them and got Angers in the following peace agreement for 500 florins.Made sense really as there was no way they could hold it.They are now doing pretty well again after seeing the Milanese off.

[Lukasa]

France is perfectly capable of ending up on the money so long as it can monopolise coastal trade routes. As a result, Milan is one of the best targets for the French, as once you've got them Marseilles becomes a money pot, and Genoa and Florence keep up as well. When you end up with England as well you've got two seperate trade sections, which works even better if you turn Caen into a city.

I'm trying for both Sicily and Spain (yes, at once) to build up my Mediterranean trade possibilities.

[sprucemoose]

i had the french attack me and i slapped em back,then i thought i would be cheeky and offer them to become my vassel and they accepted

cant so the advantage of it though.

[grinningman]

I think the AI is way too willing to give up provinces to you in diplomacy.

If an AI asks you to become vassal state, you can often get one or two provinces in return for becoming a vassal.

In most games of this type, being able to trade provinces/cities/planets or whatever is open to abuse by the player. I'd rather you couldn't trade them at all.

[=Omni=]

Hehe, it seems that AI doesn't like its provinces:p

I was playing as Spain, and after wiping out portugal and sending the moors out of the iberian penisula I've decided to attack france. Actually, backstab is more appropriate word, as they were at a huge war with england, loosing all their north provinces (with Paris) So I've assambled a quick army and besieged Tolouse and the next proveince to it (I don't know the name). Then I've sent a diplomat to the French and offered a cease fire if they gave me these provinces and I paid 1000 tribute for 6 turns. And they've agreed :D

The same trick I've done with HRE. They've declared a war, then moved a huge army towards my city. I've captured the Nurnberg, and sent the diplomat to Staufen before they could lay siege on any of my cities. And I've negotiated cease fire, got Staufen and had to pay 1000 only for 2 turns.