Send Warning and Threaten War

[Stephen of Blois]

I'm hoping I could get some help understanding when to use or why to use these two diplomatic actions: Send Warning and Threaten War.

Threaten War seems that it could provide a country an opportunity to take a province without going to war (as long as you have a claim on a province), but maybe there is more to it than that.

Send Warning seems like it provides an opportunity to get into a defensive war versus a country you may have a claim on and/or have a province marked as a province of interest (maybe a claim is not necessary?).

If I could get some help understanding the utility of these actions, I would be grateful.

Thank you

[Kaien]

Threaten War : Take one province from a weak country without going to war yes. Pretty much useless because when you can use it, you can use only against middle size country (small country will refuse because you ask to much, big country will refuse because you are not power full), the game is already ''finish''.

Send warning : If you warn a country, and this country attack one country with a border with you, you can help the defender. Also, this dont requiere a diplot slot. And also, that mean you can attack this country yourself later. You need no peace deal with the warned. Can be usefull sometimes. Very situationnel option.

[Stephen of Blois]

Thank you

[tonypa]

I use Threaten War all the time to take one province from the neighbours I do not care to start full sized war against. This is much easier at the start of the game when siege takes too long and you have little manpower. Obviously it has little use in lategame when everyone is superpower.

The Warning is fairly useless imo. The country you Warn and the country you Protect must both have border with you. And the potential attacker needs to be fairly weak so they take your warning seriously. If the are attack despite of your warning, then AI thinks you are too weak and you probably face trouble. Instead of protecting another non-allied country from potential attack it is almost always better to attack them yourself or make them your vassal or at least ally.

[Tulduil Iphukiir]

Warnings can work as a kind a guarantee but instead of guaranteeing a nation you warn its neighbours. In some situations it can be much better than guarantees, example: You as Austria want to conquer France, win a war and take 100% warscore in provinces. However, France is too big to be annexed in one war. Great Britain and Spain are very likely to attack the now weakened France and take provinces for themselves. To prevent that you can either guarantee France (costs a Diplo upkeep, revoking the guarantee creates a (new) truce, forcing you to trucebreak) or send warnings to Spain and Great Britain (at the cost of decreased relations with them).
To (temporarily) "protect" France it doesn't matter whether you guaranteed France or warned SPA/GBR, if you are weak enough they will attack, if you are strong enough they won't.


Threaten War is a situational option I like quite a bit (though its usefulness heavily depends on your playstyle).
I use(d) it usually in the following situations:
- (no longer necessary since 1.29) As Russia or a strong Indian nation you could sometimes Threaten War for a province of a Ming Tributarymaking your heartland directly border Ming to cause Mandate loss before the first war with Ming
- Fabricate a claim on coastal Natives (with full Exploration Ideas) once Mexico's/Peru's coasts have already been colonized by other nations and station troops there before conquering the Natives
- The same as above does no longer work for TC regions (Expansion lost its finisher) but Charter Company can sometimes replace it
- Get single provinces for Mission Trees without full war (e.g. Gibraltar for Eng/GBR (either while Castile is sieging the fort in Granada or later when Castile is doing badly in a war), Nagasaki for Portugal, ... )
- Eliminate the need for War Fleets and big Transport Fleets: Threaten War for a province on an island and station troops there (if needed can be done by a single Transport) before declaring war, no need to do a naval landing with the superior enemy fleet around (who needs to fight the Royal Navy if you already have 100k land units in Kent/Cornwall/etc?, Japan is also vulnerable to this, South East Africans (e.g. Kilwa) can invade Madagascar without the need for a fleet, ...)
- Preemptively open/close strait crossings: If you own the Malay peninsula Threaten War for Siak so Pasai/Palembanf/etc cannot block your movements to Sumatra, if you Threaten War for Lund and have ships in the Öresund the Danish army cannot flee to Sweden (before occupying Lund from the Swedish side)
- Get nice borders without full war by Threatening for single missing provinces in your States
- Threaten away an important border fort which you then don't have to siege down once you declare war
- ...

[Tulduil Iphukiir]

Originally posted by tonypa:

[...] The country you Warn and the country you Protect must both have border with you. [...]

Only the protected country has to border you, the warned country can be anywhere. In 1444 Burgundy can warn Scotland and then gets a CtA when Scotland attacks England (because Burgundy/England border at Calais).

[Stephen of Blois]

Thank you everybody for replies.

I still need to let all this info sink in, but let me ask a question about Warnings - based on the comments - first.

I think I understand the point made about "protecting" France from Great Britain and Spain: it seems this prevents GB and Spain from eating up France before Austria can. If I understand this correctly, then it makes sense.

But here is what I did in my current game (I'm still new to game): I am playing as Brandenburg and I warned Stettin with whom I had claims or provinces marked as special interest (or both, I cannot recall); Stettin then declared war on Saxony (my neighbor) and due to my warning I was called into a defensive war versus Stettin, fighting with Saxony and Saxony's allies; eventually Saxony won the war and I was granted two provinces. This is what I was hoping for: not having to declare war on Stettin alone - since this early in the game I have no favors for my allies- and having an opportunity to take land in the process. Maybe I just got lucky and this is not a valid strategy at all?

[Tulduil Iphukiir]

I wouldn't call it a "valid strategy" (although it worked so in hindsight it was "valid") but luck.
In fact you got lucky twice:
1) Stettin attacked regardless of your warning (there may be several reasons for that, Stettin's ruler personality only one of them)
2) Saxony gave you provinces in the war (having claims/cores/vital interests (and having those occupied!) and getting a high war participation is necessary and even then it is not guaranteed)

In your case your warning worked more like a "normal alliance" (that doesn't cost Diplo upkeep and doesn't prevent you from attacking Saxony)

[Stephen of Blois]

Originally posted by Tulduil Iphukiir:

I wouldn't call it a "valid strategy" (although it worked so in hindsight it was "valid") but luck.
In fact you got lucky twice:
1) Stettin attacked regardless of your warning (there may be several reasons for that, Stettin's ruler personality only one of them)
2) Saxony gave you provinces in the war (having claims/cores/vital interests (and having those occupied!) and getting a high war participation is necessary and even then it is not guaranteed)

In your case your warning worked more like a "normal alliance" (that doesn't cost Diplo upkeep and doesn't prevent you from attacking Saxony)

lol! Well, I'm glad I got lucky. Your explanation makes sense. Thank you.

Regarding Threaten War, I understand some of the points, but others are over my head...lol....I still need another 1000+ hours!

[Sabo]

2 more tips: 1st: If an ally calls you to an offensive war but you just wanted to declare war on that nation yourself.. if you have a claim, you can threaten war on the target and declare your own war like this
2nd: If you happen to have a formed coalition against you in the later stage of the game and are pretty strong, you can threaten war nations that are already in the coalition which will then create a truce and therefore making them leave the coalition.
That may result in the coalition disbanding because they lose some members

[Stephen of Blois]

Originally posted by Sabo:

2 more tips: 1st: If an ally calls you to an offensive war but you just wanted to declare war on that nation yourself.. if you have a claim, you can threaten war on the target and declare your own war like this
2nd: If you happen to have a formed coalition against you in the later stage of the game and are pretty strong, you can threaten war nations that are already in the coalition which will then create a truce and therefore making them leave the coalition.
That may result in the coalition disbanding because they lose some members

Thank you.