The Roman Empire; Antagonism & Personal Unions

[RainbowPig]

So i have a teeny, tiny, really really small problemo. Starting from a Naples run I didn't have an intention to go for forming the Roman Empire but well... after all why not - why not take another province, why not vassalize and fiefdomize another bunch of lands here and there.

And bing bang boom making the Roman Empire looks maybe doable. The problem was I wasn't sure I could take all the needed locations in time unless I truce broke over and over and just sucked it up and dealt with rebels because I wasn't going to assimilate fast enough.

And so i think I made the worse choice possible and claimed thrones on austria, hungary, and england. The thought process being... well, I'll centralize the union and then annex them, some might take a long time but it would surely be less of a headaches to deal with.

Well... gentlemen... the problem is of course that pretty much the entirety of Europe has 1000+ Antagonism some reaching up to 2000 i think. Which causes a tiny -200 relations (because the game caps it at -200) Which makes getting all my lovely PU's to +190 relation impossible. So I think i've ♥♥♥♥♥♥ myself.

I don't know if the PU's are still accumulating Antagonsim from new wars while they're in my PU or not but that doesn't make a difference now. Antagonism decays at a whooping 2 a year... i doubt that tech that allows to increase it by 0.10 is going to help because as it stands some of this antagonism is still going to take until we reach Stellaris to decay.

So uh. I'm going to have to break it all down again by changing succession laws. But my guys, was there any other way or strat I should have employed sooner or could have done now.

[bri]

Sending a diplomat actively decreases antagonism (in addition to increasing their opinion of you) so that might help you get where you want.

[RainbowPig]

Originally posted by bri:

Sending a diplomat actively decreases antagonism (in addition to increasing their opinion of you) so that might help you get where you want.

Ah, sadly i have found that the reduction to antagonism done that way also decays. And then i can only do it if i haven't maxed out the improving of the relations, and then there is also still the issue that i have about +1000 antagonism. So improving relations this way, unless i have misunderstood somehow, is rendered useless by the mechanics of the game after a certain amount of antagonism has been accrued.

[unskilled-]

Just remember, a country can't generate Antagonism if they don't exist.

[RainbowPig]

Originally posted by unskilled-:

Just remember, a country can't generate Antagonism if they don't exist.

Hmm. Number go up. Tax base enlarges. I accept this advise and shall ask parliament to grant me the ultimate casus beli on all who are not me

[jankosi]

In case you didn't already, get as much diplo rep and legislative efficiency as you can next time. Diplo rep decreases anatagonism by 4% per point. Legislative efficiency by 1% per point.
You can legislative easily from a couple laws, and dip rep from reforms and concilliatory values. I don't know about Naples, but France starts with -24% antagonism from their 10% legislative and 8,45 dip rep, and within the first few years can raise it to -50% through laws and reforms.

[Gwenolric]

First of all, I did the same and I had 300 nations with 1k Antagonism visible (I look the worst was at 5k) because you can't destroy Banking nation but they can hate you to the gut for invading land they have building in.
Secondly, I understood that Coalition is the worst CB you can face as you have attrocious debuff on War Score. Which means you must never have a defensive war wage against you, With that in mind, since everyone hate you already, they will almost always join the war against you when you attack anyone in their diplomatic range.
Which lead to how to not decrease antagonism but use it. You see, you look at it wrongly. Antagonism is not BAD, it's in fact very GOOD. It allows you to attack 1 nation and in the end conquer the land of 20 nations in 1 war with 20 separate peace plan. Because you enter a period where Regular > Levy, you never raise levy and just brute force with your army. Get 100 decentralized, the +15 loyalty Subject Reform, 100 Naval and you should have everything in not 2 province near a sea tile as a Vassal that will hover 55 loyalty with a bit of diplomatic spending.
Now how to wage war, because all your peace are almost 100 WS, the truce will last 8 years. That means, each parliement you attack West, war for ~2 year truce for 8 years, Parliement East, war for 2 year, truce for 8. Loop West and East. Some nations will have long diplomatic like France and you will always be in war. But most annoying bugs will be crushed and are too far. Generally a Coalition will form in 3 months tick and wage war if they are all without truce. If by mistake you have a coalition that is stronger than you because someone didn't join it previously, just take the L and war without casus belli. You can't afford a Coalition war, it's just not worth it.
Then, after everything will be over, you will have brought Peace, Freedom, Justice, and Security to your new Empire.

[RainbowPig]

Originally posted by Gwenolric:

First of all, I did the same and I had 300 nations with 1k Antagonism visible (I look the worst was at 5k) because you can't destroy Banking nation but they can hate you to the gut for invading land they have building in.
Secondly, I understood that Coalition is the worst CB you can face as you have attrocious debuff on War Score. Which means you must never have a defensive war wage against you, With that in mind, since everyone hate you already, they will almost always join the war against you when you attack anyone in their diplomatic range.
Which lead to how to not decrease antagonism but use it. You see, you look at it wrongly. Antagonism is not BAD, it's in fact very GOOD. It allows you to attack 1 nation and in the end conquer the land of 20 nations in 1 war with 20 separate peace plan. Because you enter a period where Regular > Levy, you never raise levy and just brute force with your army. Get 100 decentralized, the +15 loyalty Subject Reform, 100 Naval and you should have everything in not 2 province near a sea tile as a Vassal that will hover 55 loyalty with a bit of diplomatic spending.
Now how to wage war, because all your peace are almost 100 WS, the truce will last 8 years. That means, each parliement you attack West, war for ~2 year truce for 8 years, Parliement East, war for 2 year, truce for 8. Loop West and East. Some nations will have long diplomatic like France and you will always be in war. But most annoying bugs will be crushed and are too far. Generally a Coalition will form in 3 months tick and wage war if they are all without truce. If by mistake you have a coalition that is stronger than you because someone didn't join it previously, just take the L and war without casus belli. You can't afford a Coalition war, it's just not worth it.
Then, after everything will be over, you will have brought Peace, Freedom, Justice, and Security to your new Empire.

This is somewhat along the lines of what i've been doing, eating through France (about half of it remains) the remnants of Egypt (Did another oopsie on them and forced them to convert so i can't religious war CB them) and have my toes in spain. I suppose I shall view this PU as good thing since it means i don't have to deal with all my PU partners in these massive wars. And then... well... the Emperor will no longer have need for the council of thrones anymore.