Getting an enemy ally to drop out of war

[Stephen of Blois]

I'm new to the game and so looking for any advise. I have declared war on a country who has called in a powerful ally. This is quite unfortunate - I thought they would be too far away to join. What I'm wondering is are there any way, diplomatic for example, that I can get the called in ally to drop out of the war without separate peace arrangements?

[Tulduil Iphukiir]

Either you sign a separate peace with the ally (to get a White Peace takes quite a while, faster but maybe unwanted or not possible would be to give something away in the separate peace or directly attack the ally, get warscore against him and (white)peace him out as soon as possible) or you "ignore" the ally and completely focus on your target.
Once you occupy all of the war leader's provinces and he occupies no province for 5(?) years you get an automatic 100% warscore. (You can get 100% directly if you occupy all provinces of all enemies while they occupy none)


By the way: When you declare a war you can see if other nations join the war: Check the green checks or red crosses. Hovering over them gives you the reason why a nation will/won't join.

[Unit 744]

I would hardly call myself an expert, and I play a pretty heavily modded game, so take this advise with caution.

To my knowledge, once war between you and a country starts, the only way to terminate the war is through a peace agreement. However, there are some options...

I am currently playing an extended timeline game in which I am modern day Great Britain in the year ~400. With my island firmly under my control, I wanted to conquer what would be modern day Belgium / Netherlands, but they were allied with a whole bunch of areas up near modern day Denmark. While I could squash the army of the nation I actually want to conquer, my forces would struggle against the combined power of their allies. So, you can try some of the following:

1, I declared war, but did not send in any troops. Instead, my armies chilled on the safety of my island, and I used my massive naval power to blockade the ports of everyone possible. Being an island nation guarded by my impregnable navy, my troops were never in any danger. Then, I waited. Their war exhaustion started to increase; revolts started popping up in their territories. Slowly but surely, each ally, one by one, wanted to make a separate white peace with me. And I took their white peace. After some number of years, the only nation I remain at war with was the nation I sought to conquer. Their allies gone, and they, themselves, struggling with unrest and rebellion, I did so with ease.

2, Once I conquered some land on mainland Europe, I could no longer rely on my 'pure navy' strategy, since enemy armies could still come conquer my lands. While I *could* just let them take those lands and protect my important island with my navy, I didn't want the issues of devastation, negative war score, and war exhaustion against me to impede my ability to garner white peace. So, I followed the strategy in (1), except my armies defended key positions on my mainland territories. I found a province that had a -1 dice roll to the attacker, preferably requiring they cross a river (possibly another -1), and just sat tight. My navy, naturally, blockaded every coastline they had to 100%. While I did take some war exhaustion from casualties, playing defensively, most of the casualties were of my enemy, and so most of the war exhaustion went to them. Combined with my navies' valiant blockades, their allies sought white peace. And so, another neighbor falls as their allies watch hopelessly, white peace agreement in hand.

3, If your enemy's ally is especially large, and you fear that even with defensive play, their superior power will overwhelm your forces, you could simply wait to declare war. Eventually, they will probably go to war themselves. If you can time it well while a bunch of their provinces are occupied, they deep in debt, and revolts are popping up, the negative modifiers will cause them to refuse the call to arms and never even join the war.

4, Perhaps the best way to avoid wasting time getting a white peace with allies is to discourage your enemies from allying in the first place. This might be coincidental, but in my game, I started using my diplomats to improve relations with pretty much every nation around me, except ones I planned on going to war with in the near future. The result was that the number of alliances dropped substantially. I assume since everyone loves me, no one wants to ally with my enemies. I am not 100% sure if this is just a coincidence or not, though.

I realize these strategies will not work with everyone's nation (some nations are landlocked and have no navy, for example), and I am playing a game in which the 'time limit' is trivial, but it should perhaps give you some strategic ideas. Navies are definitely more useful than some people may think in forcing a superior enemy ally to white peace. If you are really mean and just want to mess with someone or an AI, you can declare war on them and basically never peace out. If they cannot reach you with their armies over land, you can just blockade their provinces until their war exhaustion reaches 20 (maximum). The resulting unrest will cause their nation to be in a perpetual state of revolt and rebellion. I did this to a nation who was 'threatening my glorious trade,' and, at one point, every province of the nation was occupied by one of like three rebellion armies. Every province was at or near 100% devastation. Imagine trying to run a country like that for 50+ years, and there is nothing you can do about it. It was cruel, but rather amusing.


TL;DR: Use patience against superior alliances. Play defensively with your armies and blockade their ports with your navies. Wait for their war exhaustion to force them into a white peace. Eventually, you will be able to white peace with all of them.

[Stephen of Blois]

This is fantastic; I'll study this stuff. Thank you!

[Stephen of Blois]

Originally posted by Ultrix Prime:

Originally posted by Stephen of Blois:

I'm new to the game and so looking for any advise. I have declared war on a country who has called in a powerful ally. This is quite unfortunate - I thought they would be too far away to join. What I'm wondering is are there any way, diplomatic for example, that I can get the called in ally to drop out of the war without separate peace arrangements?

So them falling out of the war will always involve a peace treaty. Assume, for a moment, you simply blockade them for 5 years and they go to low war enthusiasm and want out. You will not have lost any troops and fought them directly and they then ask for a white peace. Alternatively you could wait a very long time and they'll go to low war enthusiasm and ask for a white peace.

In these scenarios you have to sign a peace treaty with them to leave the war.

The other alternative is that you fully occupy the war target for 5 years. After 5 years of occupation with none of your provinces occupied, the war score will go to 100.

Thank you; very helpful.

[bri]

The other alternative is that you fully occupy the war target for 5 years. After 5 years of occupation with none of your provinces occupied, the war score will go to 100.

Not exactly correct. At any point in time after a war has been going for 5 years or more if the war leader on either side controls no land then the war score goes to 100% against them. You don't need to hold everything for any longer than it takes to send a peace deal it just has to be after the war has gone on 5 years. Until the war has gone for 5 years you need every nation on the opposing side to control no land to reach 100%.