Ever got a vassal?

[Vlad Tzepes]

Both in MTW2 and in RTW, vassalage (and protectorate) surely don't work as history determined. But, hey, it's just a game.

On the other hand, in-game vassalage has a funny logic that I, at least, have trouble getting used to it.

I got my first MTW2 vassal yesterday, playing my French campaign. HRE, allied with me, suddenly attacked and put under siege one of my cities. They used for that a tiny stack. As I sallied out, HRE retreated, with no casualties (in fact, they lost 1 soldier, I don't now exactly how, probably due to a heart attack on the battlefield or playing dead or something...).

Next turn, one of their diplomats proposed ceasefire and I responded with an offer to make them vassals.

They were so glad to accept...

Notes: France was really big at that time, HRE only had 5 provinces. France and HRE were allied since the beginning of the campaign. After getting HRE as vassals, they withdrew all stacks form my territory. And, as HRE are broke, I don't get any money from them, as supposed to.

[dopp]

The diplomacy code prevents others from attacking your vassal/protectorate if you are a trusted ally. Unfortunately, Kobal2fr discovered that the trusted ally setting has been disabled in the vanilla file, hence the AI considers your vassals legitimate targets regardless of whether you are allied to them or not. Mods like Ultimate AI and Shaba Wanga's Diplomacy v1.5 re-enables the setting, allowing you to have reliable allies that won't attack you or your vassals if they are happy with you.