Nations always have too many diplomatic relations

[Alpacalypse]

Trying to play as Milan has been hell since the 2 countries I'd normally ally with, Burgundy and Austria, always have 50,000 diplomatic relations before I can get a marriage & alliance.
wat do

[Frozenkhan]

Diplomacy is overrated anyways.

Ditch the zero and get with the hero (ally someone else)

[kaiyl_kariashi]

basically.

I rarely use allys except as a deterient in early game unless I'm playing as someone amazing that they want to immediately ally with.

Just find some people nearby about as big as you who hate who you hate (and don't hate each other) and ally those and then kick the worthless ♥♥♥♥♥ to the curb once you're big enough and cool enough to party with the cool kids.

[tinisiyo]

That's new paradox feature, you won't get any useful allies until you won't need them or randomly get friendly attitude.

[Alpacalypse]

Ended up allying Austria via restart cheese and Battlepope. all is well.

[Laladen]

I try to get 1 bigger ally, and several medium size allies. The smaller allies get favors quicker and can be called to war much more often.

[tonypa]

The small allies have annoying habbit of dragging you into wars against much stronger enemies.

[Laladen]

Originally posted by tonypa:

The small allies have annoying habbit of dragging you into wars against much stronger enemies.

Any ally drags you into wars against much stronger opponents. Austria, France, Castile. No exceptions. So allying anyone brings the same risk. If France and Austria are going at it and your drug into it, your the weaker country, you will be an early target. Since the large countries rival other large countries, they will seek war with those countries and have a massive boost to accepting a call to war against those rivals from an ally.

Pick your medium size allies from countries that are not being targeted by those countries. You can see the larger countries claims and if you have Cossacks, you can see what the larger countries want and will fabricate claims on. Also these are disposable alliances. The moment they become inconvenient, break the alliance. Consider no royal marriage for these alliances. You should constantly be evaluating and reevaluating your alliances. If you see your ally preparing claims on someone you don't want to mess with, break the alliance or check the box to only honor their defensive calls for the time being. Vise-versa on your allies enemies, if you see them preparing an attack, decide what you want to do. The risk can be mitigated if your not just there speed 5 watching the clock run. Also with Rights of Man, you can see the traits and type of ruler your allies will be directed by. Militarist with the Conqueror or Naive Enthusiast traits? Time to check that box to only honor defensive calls or perhaps break the alliance all together if its the Naive Enthusiast trait. You don't want to defend them against a coalition.

These medium sized alliances is a way I personally dealt with the favors system from Cossacks. I actually like it much more than pre-Cossacks play. I'll always have a country ready for war with favors. You just have to keep an eye on what they are likely going to ask you to do, but I do that with any alliance regardless of size.

Countries like Bavaria (Make sure to check Austria's diplo feedback to see if he is thinking about taking Bavaria) Saxony (If Brandenburg has not grown), Savoy (France doesn't seem interested in them much anymore since they removed the Occatian culture province from Savoy, but check dip feedback and claims)

[tiberiansun371alexw]

This is one of the dumbest features PI put in. They should just give the AI an extra diplo slot and program it to ignore relations with the player