AI joining war

[Wehr Wulf]

I dont want to keep asking questions here, but I try google and i get nothing.
I google "Empire total war allies wont join war" and every result is for rome 2 or a different title. So I try just Empire, no total war, and the same thing.

Damn.
Anyway, I have war declared on me and I want an ally to join the war with me, relations are very friendly, weve been trading for a long time, they ARE NOT allied with or trading with the faction declaring war on me to be clear, but they simply refuse to join me. What gives? Guess its just the AI and theres nothing I can do eh?

[pgeerkens]

The AI is not an NPC, there to serve your needs. It is seeking (albeit on occasion idiotically) its own ends.

As the Player, acknowledge this and plan around it. The point to alliances is to lock certain factions out of alliances with enemy factions.

[HazardHawk]

Originally posted by Uranium235:

I dont want to keep asking questions here

First, that is what THIS forum is intended to be used as in it being here. ASK anything about the game you would like to know.

The thing you need to know about Empire TW above all else is no two people play the game the exact same way and hence no two people will have the same game experience. As example and I am glad he replied here already, pgeerkens plays COMPLETELY differently than myself. He is an in depth micromanagement player and I am a casual leave the depth alone playing from the overview meaning leave most of the in depth features to automatically run.

The way I play, when someone declares war on me I untick allowing other factions to join me so I dont lose the alliances of some factions as most will join me if I allow, but some few will drop out. They are not going to really help you anyway working and fighting for themselves. Also, in the following turns, mostly they all generally start begging to join the war anyways when left out.

I do the same when attacking someone. Dont ask them to join me and they start yammering they want to join.

As a suggestion, start yourself out this way. Once you have played and gotten some experience you will also get the feel of how you feel you need to work this. It is also a tool where you can attempt to break alliances deliberately with factions you dont want to betray, but that you need to go to war with in the near future.

[Bfloo]

It depends on the ally. In my current game as England, Prussia and the United Provinces joined my wars vs Poland and Russia. United Provinces joined me vs France as well, I wasn't allied with Prussia at the time.

In my last game as Prussia, England bailed on me vs Austria.

[Insaniac]

Just AI being AI.

[Finarfin]

One thing I've learned is to not ask your Protectorates to join. Even after you've left the war they will still be fighting, and probably losing, to your ex-enemy. And then all of a sudden your Protectorate's territory has been gobbled up by the other power. Not a good result.

[Bfloo]

Originally posted by Steven Seagal:

Just AI being AI.

When England bailed on me, I'd prob have done the same thing to not get tied up in central Europe.

[hastatus]

The diplomacy is random. All the relations do is change the probability of AI accepting or refusing your deal. What I ended up doing is just roll with it.

For me an alliance is just a safety policy, I had never seen AI declare war on me like they do in Med 2. Of course they might refuse to help you if you call them in but they might have done it because it ain't in their interest and there is a chance they will offer alliance again.

The only problem with this game that nothing is properly babishly explained. Sometimes I long for AI diplomat to say we don't want your ♥♥♥♥ coz it smells or because it ain't profitable (I was gonna say because we don't want your goods but they don't do anything except provide money which is baffling), I mean something at least..

[Insaniac]

Originally posted by hastatus:

The diplomacy is random. All the relations do is change the probability of AI accepting or refusing your deal. What I ended up doing is just roll with it.

For me an alliance is just a safety policy, I had never seen AI declare war on me like they do in Med 2. Of course they might refuse to help you if you call them in but they might have done it because it ain't in their interest and there is a chance they will offer alliance again.

The only problem with this game that nothing is properly babishly explained. Sometimes I long for AI diplomat to say we don't want your ♥♥♥♥ coz it smells or because we wanna trade with someone else because of better profit, I mean something at least..

This too. I’ll often ally with factions to my rear just so that I don’t get jumped while my armies are campaigning elsewhere.

[operating1]

Originally posted by Uranium235:

I dont want to keep asking questions here, but I try google and i get nothing.
I google "Empire total war allies wont join war" and every result is for rome 2 or a different title. So I try just Empire, no total war, and the same thing.

Damn.
Anyway, I have war declared on me and I want an ally to join the war with me, relations are very friendly, weve been trading for a long time, they ARE NOT allied with or trading with the faction declaring war on me to be clear, but they simply refuse to join me. What gives? Guess its just the AI and theres nothing I can do eh?

I won't swear as to what I am going to write, regardless here goes: I believe your faction's "prestige" has a lot to do with if an ally will join your faction in a war if they are presently on an ally list when you are considering a DOW, or not (many times the opposite is true when it's where the ai is DOW on your faction, where an immediate decision has to be made (no pause)). If your faction's prestige is greater than all other factions, then it is likely that all of your allies will join you in a war if requested. Usually in early campaigns where your faction is not all that dominate and at a lesser prestige than others is where a wrinkle can occur when asking allies to assist in joining a war. I've had hostile allies join my faction in a war where my faction is at the top of the prestige chart, but will not join a war if in a lesser position and even drop my faction as an ally all together upon a request of assistance. It's a good practice to do a save just prior to making a DOW in determining what course of diplomatic action you are going to take: ie. Going at it alone, or asking for help from all allies. "You", the commander have to size up all the ramifications by asking all to join a fight and will only know that after making a DOW, or accepting a DOW (the only problem with accepting a DOW is usually during the ai's turn). If an ally refuse to join your faction in a war, prestige may be one of the determining factors, there are a number of others, ais are not totally dumb as some might think..