Firstly, I'm playing on M/VH. But, I also train a diplomat for every faction and have quite a few 'spare' diplomats floating about for general opportunism. I'm sure I could repeat what I do now on H/Vh with more diplomatic micromanagement.

Keeping peace with your allies is a fairly tricky process, for as you mention, long term they may try to fight each other. For this reason, all my allies in the above HRE game have been 'buffered' territorially before being accepted as my ally. ie: france has no borders with denmark, danes no borders with hungary etc.

Secondly, as mentioned above, I use a lot of diplomatic funding to keep wars by proxy ebbing and flowing. This is a lot cheaper than building/maintaining armies. If you keep your allies busy, they don't ususally find time to do stupid AI stuff, or build AI powerblocks. ie: milan attacked france (my ally). I gift Milan florins. milan takes Marsellie. I then dump 5k on france. France takes marsellie. Rinse/repeat.

Thirdly. Regular tribute renewed regularly. 100/5 for allies. 200/5 for pope. pope got bumped to 2k/5 during mongol wars and regular bulk florins gifts to keep him cooking on gas.

Finally. I never let any wars with the AI drag on. By keeping diplomat on every faction + floats you can often offer ceasefire, have it denied, BOOM Ai stack destroyed , offer ceasefire in same turn. I'll often give AI factions tribute just to shut them up if they are getting restless and not on my path (they generally dont backstab if being drip-fed).

The 'war with 5 factions' bit is whats stopping your rep climbing. I'll only be at war with one faction + rebels max, and then I'll manipulate factions into attacking me/being excommed, then deploy a swift surgical strikeforce to take the land you need, then buy ceasefire. Just buy a few alliances and set them against one another and break any ai powerblocks, rep will soon climb.

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I used this approach, but obviously failed (at least to some extent), as the expansionism of some factions was greater than I expected.

Interesting method, I'll try it. Not in this campaign, as all of my enemies are allied to each other, making it next to impossible to negotiate a ceasefire. I might say I have a total war in Europe; my alliance of 4 factions against another powerblock, also 4 factions

In my case it is not necessary, as I keep very good relations with my allies without giving them a penny. Maybe because we all have common enemies?
I wonder if having a good relations with other factions improves your global rep...

Any advice on how to break an alliance between two AI factions?

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All you need to know is here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=78429

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I'm playing an Aragon game on SS4.1, around 1155 now, I started with a very reliable rep which was ace, stopped playing for 2 days or so, went back last night and within an hour I was deceitful and I have no idea why! I hadn't exterminated any provinces, ransomed or executed captured troops. All I was at war with was the Moors and occaisonally the English or French would beseige Caen, the next turn i'd turn up with a diplomat, offer ceasefire (at v generous) take a settlement from them then sell it back or gift to the pope the same turn. The Turks have Stettin and Magdeburg now, the Scots Bryansk and the Pope has Antioch, Aleppo, Edessa and Bulgar thanks to my random gifting and trading of provinces.

I can't see how i've dropped my rep so considerably in such a short space of time, a lot of my allies were fighting each other so had to choose between them and heresy is horribly rife in Caen and Cordoba region - up to 5 or 6 level 5+ heretics in them both, but then I thought heresy didn't effect your rep =S It's well annoying 'cause now nobody likes me lol, despite trying to keep my relations up. Noone will trade provinces now because they reckon i'll just steal it back - even if it's 3/4 of the world away :(

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I'd say that's the cause. It happened to me, too.

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I find it odd how your rep takes a hit for your allies actions. Especially when you DON'T condone them by siding with the defending faction (this should raise your reputation if anything).

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You should really read more.

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Okay so that I don't waste... forum space by starting a new topic, anyone got any tips on getting Chivalrous Generals. Anyone have any definate ideas about how to avoid Winning First? I asked this a few months back but people didnt seem sure.

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There have been some excellent guides on character development/ making good generals/governers (Kobal et al), that go into excellent detail.

In a nutshell, to avoid 'winning first' and dread traits:

1/ Pick your first battle for the general so it's 1:1 ratio or worse (ie: ai outnumbers you)

2/Don't use your general unit too heavily this battle. I think 8+ kills weights things towards dread but I may be wrong..

3/Win and end battle when screen comes up.

4/Release prisoners.

This should see your general pick up chivalry over dread traits usually...

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There is a scripted effect that drops your rep if u take back a settlement (that u sold/gifted to a faction) from that said faction. Avoid this practice if you want to maintain a good reputation, and if you have to take that settlement again, let another faction take it first, before you aquire it again - one way or another.. that's the only way to avoid the rep drop when employing this strategy.

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