pros/cons of alliances with useless chiefdoms

[VayneVerso]

You all have been extremely helpful with my other recent questions, so here's another one.

My neighbor has requested a diplomatic (non-marriage-based) alliance. His country is basically going to be useless to me. In fact, I would conquer it, myself, because he has no allies, except that I'm already at my domain limit.

So as I see it, if I agree to his alliance, then I protect that territory, which I kind of want, from being taken by somebody else. But the disadvantage is that if he annoys somebody, I have to come to his aid, and I'd be contributing four times the military power he has.

I could go either way on it. Is there anything else I should be considering?

One thing I will mention is that I have the titles required to create a Duchy title (The Chervan Cities), but don't have the prestige or gold for it at the moment. If I ally with this guy now, will it make it easier to take him on as a vassal later? Or harder? How does that work? Can I demand his allegiance? Or do I have to conquer him first?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2269508865

[ste]

The cons are he will drag you into wars, he will start wars with people stronger than him expecting you to do the work. If you reject you'll take reputation hits, and he could do 3 in 3 month

I had a guy with 600 men, allied, I had 10000, he started a war with someone with 10000, by the time he bought all his mercs and allied someone it was 18000 vs 10600

Pros, not much really, if he likes you enough he might let you vassalise him, thats about it

Possibly not count to duke, he may do if youre super stronger and he has the same religion and culture, he definetely would if you were a king

[VayneVerso]

Originally posted by ste:

The cons are he will drag you into wars, he will start wars with people stronger than him expecting you to do the work. If you reject you'll take reputation hits, and he could do 3 in 3 month

Thanks for the guidance.

This guy has the diplomatic lifestyle. I wonder if that makes him less likely to be a war monger. I do want that territory, though, and want to keep it out of anybody else's hands...

If he gets attacked and calls me to war with him, can I then also request the assistance of my other allies? This probably seems like an extremely basic question. I think not, right, because I wouldn't be considered the war leader?

[Myth Alric]

Honestly you should just invade him now. It doesn't matter if you are at your domain limit, just give the land to a vassal.

[VayneVerso]

Originally posted by Myth Alric:

Honestly you should just invade him now. It doesn't matter if you are at your domain limit, just give the land to a vassal.

My character is only a tribal chief, so can't have vassals unless I'm mistaken. I think I need to create that duchy title in order to become a high chief.

[Tarshaid]

You might as well conquer him and go over your domain limit, it's not like the vassal opinion penalty will hurt you, and the levy/tax malus should be somewhat offset by the extra land.

[VayneVerso]

Originally posted by Tarshaid:

You might as well conquer him and go over your domain limit, it's not like the vassal opinion penalty will hurt you, and the levy/tax bonus should be somewhat offset by the extra land.

Might do it then and see how I like it. Thanks for the info.

[Païtiti]

What I often do in CK3, what already worked quite well in CK2 is to dumb county titles on somebody that is a little bit older. Some courtier, maybe a councilor. Preferably a content character but is not a must have. I marry him to an older woman that is unlikely to get purgenant. Important is that he lacks family. Lowborns fit often in that regard.

So dumb all titles within a duchy you hold and can spare onto him and keep and eye on him. Eventually he will die childless and you get all your land back.

[VayneVerso]

Originally posted by I`m a doctor!:

What I often do in CK3, what already worked quite well in CK2 is to dumb county titles on somebody that is a little bit older. Some courtier, maybe a councilor. Preferably a content character but is not a must have. I marry him to an older woman that is unlikely to get purgenant. Important is that he lacks family. Lowborns fit often in that regard.

So dumb all titles within a duchy you hold and can spare onto him and keep and eye on him. Eventually he will die childless and you get all your land back.

That's great--I thought about that, actually, and wondered if it could work. If you conquer a county and then give it away to somebody who dies heirless, do you sit first in the line of succession? You don't have to fight for your claim or something with the person you deposed?