How does one declare war?

[Tully Bascombe]

There's this fallen empire near me that I want to go to war with. I'm a democratic xenophile, he's overwhelmingly powerful. When I communicate with him there is no option for the declaration of war. I've tried insulting him but that just changes our relationship by -4. He's angry but not enough to declare war. Can someone give me the fine points of starting a fight?

[manniepants]

In order for a regular empire to declare war there are two things that must be done

1: Make sure your war policy allows you to declare war. I think unrestricted is the setting that allows all war types, liberation only allows defensive, force vassal/tribute and change ethos wars. Defensive setting means only defensive wars

2: you have to have claims on at least one of their systems preferably all systems you want to take should be claimed ,

3 I know I said bu this 3rd point is merely some advice. Fallen empire do not function like normal and start the game with massive tech economy and fleet advantage. If it says overwhelming for fleet strength it will be a very hard war maybe even impossible. Use caution when fighting Fallen Empires

[Gilmaris]

Originally posted by manniepants:

3 I know I said bu this 3rd point is merely some advice. Fallen empire do not function like normal and start the game with massive tech economy and fleet advantage. If it says overwhelming for fleet strength it will be a very hard war maybe even impossible. Use caution when fighting Fallen Empires

Listen to manniepants. When it says "overwhelming", it means overwhelming as compared with your strength. They easily have fleets with a strength upwards of 200K.

[Leoscar]

War in this game requires a casus belli, it can be a lot of things, the most common is conquest, claim a system in their border and you will be able to declare war.

Originally posted by Gilmaris:

Listen to manniepants. When it says "overwhelming", it means overwhelming as compared with your strength. They easily have fleets with a strength upwards of 200K.

There is that.

[Razor Feather]

Fallen empires do have some special rules when it comes to war. IIRC Anyone can make claims against them and pursue them offensively, regardless of war policy. Several of them can also be baited into attacking by doing something specific, like colonizing their borders or holy worlds for the xenophobes and spiritualists.

However, as others have mentioned, that “overwhelming” in the diplomacy screen means they will barely notice your fleets and crush you rather quickly. You want it to say “pathetic”, which means you would crush them. Getting into a fight with a fallen empire early on is seldom game ending, as they each have very specific goals and will only force terms related to that, rather than just annexing you, but it can still be rather costly and disruptive, and definitely fruitless.

[Tully Bascombe]

How do I make a claim against another empire? Don't I have to visit and survey a system in order to claim it? (The borders are closed.)
Also I note that I can't make titans or colassi, but apparently the fallen empires can. What's up with that?

[coolman552]

dont attack a fallen empire lmao

[TheNilar]

Originally posted by Tully Bascombe:

How do I make a claim against another empire? Don't I have to visit and survey a system in order to claim it? (The borders are closed.)
Also I note that I can't make titans or colassi, but apparently the fallen empires can. What's up with that?

Becouse you dont have unlocked the tech for titans and colassi. Note colassi needs titan tech and needs colussus project traditions. Fallen empires start whith allot of tech unlocked and have massive fleets. Never attack them at start as they have 200k fleets. You will get destroyed by them. And that players and other ai empires cant close borders to fallen empires. Fallen empires are not easy to beat.

[Jonen]

which fallen empire is it? (what ethos do they have)

different ones have different buttons to lush to get them to declare war on you:

xenophobic FEs will demand you not build outposts in systems bordering them, and will eventually declare war to destroy outposts if you do not remove them

spiritualists will declare war if you settle a holy world (unless you have the head of the prophet)

materialists and xenophiles are pretty chill, but if you claim their systems and insult them, or declare a rivalry, and refuse demands they will eventually get fed up and cut you down to size. also, materialists dislike spiritualist empires, and xenophiles hate slavers and xenophages.

the machine FE is unpredictable and hard to incite. claiming their systems may work.

edit: claiming systems: any system with an outpost (belonging to an empire) should be claimable, though some ethos/war policy combos don't allow you to issue claims, or place restrictions on what you can claim (say, claims can only be made during defensive war).

[Elitewrecker PT]

Originally posted by TheNilar:

Originally posted by Tully Bascombe:

How do I make a claim against another empire? Don't I have to visit and survey a system in order to claim it? (The borders are closed.)
Also I note that I can't make titans or colassi, but apparently the fallen empires can. What's up with that?

Becouse you dont have unlocked the tech for titans and colassi. Note colassi needs titan tech and needs colussus project traditions. Fallen empires start whith allot of tech unlocked and have massive fleets. Never attack them at start as they have 200k fleets. You will get destroyed by them. And that players and other ai empires cant close borders to fallen empires. Fallen empires are not easy to beat.

And you need the apocalypse DLC.

[Danny]

Just wait till you're atleast at a similar fleet strength, then declare them a rival and declare a humilate war.
After you defeat some of their ships, declare status quo if possible and start researching their debris.
Then you should have all the techs you need from a fallen empire.

If you want you can then properly just claim their systems 10 years later or leave them be as they're effectively irrelevant to you now.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Originally posted by Tully Bascombe:

How do I make a claim against another empire? Don't I have to visit and survey a system in order to claim it? (The borders are closed.)
Also I note that I can't make titans or colassi, but apparently the fallen empires can. What's up with that?

What is your war policy?

[Tully Bascombe]

I am running basic Stellaris without mods, is that why I can't make Titans? Is there any technology other than tech_titans needed to make Titans?
Is it true that originally a player could make Titans and Colossi, but when Apocalypse came out Paradox changed the game such that a player needed Apocalypse to build Titans and Colossi?

[Elitewrecker PT]

The player could never make Titans or Colossus. Colossus didn't exist before Apocalypse and Titans existed for FEs but weren't obtainable by the player.

[Tully Bascombe]

My war policy is unrestricted.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Then you should be able to claim the FEs systems through diplomacy.