Empire: Advice on Nordland and diplomatic relations in general?

[Corvus_Alt1]

After a successful run with Balthasar Gelt, I decided to try my hand starting with Karl Franz. It's turn 18 right now, I'm at war with Marienburg as well as Hochland and the Vampire Counts. Right now, both the Vampite Counts and Hochland are tied up with other conflicts and are both willing to peace out with me and pay for the privilege. Also, Wissenland is very eager to confederate, which is pretty fantastic.

The only issue I'm having now is that Nordland is obstinately neutral, and while they don't hate me (no negative modifiers), they are recalcitrant about having a non-aggression pact with me, which is frustrating since I really want to get the Reikland Runefang questline over and done with ASAP. So, how should I go about improving Nordland's relationship with me so I can get a Defensive Alliance?

Naturally, confederating Wissenland is going to make their opinion of me drop sharply for a while. And of course, I should be spending what money I have on economic development when I can. So, perhaps I don't have much choice but to wait a while, try not to confederate too much, and hope that I can give them enough gifts later on to convince them to cooperate with me? Additionally, what opinion level do you need to get a faction to agree to non-aggression with you? And should I bother with giving a single large gift, or stick to lots of small ones to get their opinion just high enough?

[drazan]

if you destroy nordland, the quest automatically updates
so you do not really have them to like you

[Corvus_Alt1]

True, but I'd rather not have to send an army all the way into Nordland unless I absolutely have to.

[drazan]

Originally posted by Corvus917:

True, but I'd rather not have to send an army all the way into Nordland unless I absolutely have to.

then you'll have to be patient

nordland,middenland,ostland and ostermark are a b!tch to confederate with i just occupy them by force unless i really want toddbringer in my army

[Corvus_Alt1]

Yeah... the northern half of the Empire really is uncooperative. On the plus side, I have friendly relations with Boris Todbringer at the moment. Sadly, I can't trade with him, and I'll probably have to wait until chaos comes before I can even hope to confederate Middenland (or the Beastmen give them enough hell).

So, at what relationship level or conditions do factions agree to non-aggression pacts?

[drazan]

Originally posted by Corvus917:

Yeah... the northern half of the Empire really is uncooperative. On the plus side, I have friendly relations with Boris Todbringer at the moment. Sadly, I can't trade with him, and I'll probably have to wait until chaos comes before I can even hope to confederate Middenland (or the Beastmen give them enough hell).

So, at what relationship level or conditions do factions agree to non-aggression pacts?

that depends on their faction trait i believe

faction that have things as "reliable" tend to accept faster then things like "underdog"

then some factions also have "distrusts the empire" like parravon,ostermark and others making diplomacy with them really hard

what helps is gifts, declaring war on their enemies, or fighting them yourself to that they have no other choice to confederate (or be destroyed)

[Queco Jones21]

Start giving them small gifts from turn 1 or 2. Also to Middenheim once or twice, Nordland will view that as a plus.

Also look to see who they are at war with and fight them or send your agents against then.

Main problem for me is saving up to get the second tier gun shop to build the rocket batteries. Pain in the ass to try to do so quickly. Usually by the time I can get them karl is already almost lvl 12 or 13 and i can start the ghal maraz quest line.

[Corvus_Alt1]

Well, it's a little late for me then. I managed to get an opportunity to confederate Wissenland, and I can't give that up. I'll just have to avoid confederating a second time for as long as possible, and just try giving Nordland some gifts every now and then since that's apparently unavoidable. Sigh, hopefully Nordland will get into some trouble soon. Thanks for the advice, I'll just have to apply it another time.

[drazan]

yes allways go for wissenland first, for me it is THE best recruitment province in the entire game

iron in pfeildorf = "master swordsmith's forge" special building -20% recruit cost for certain unit, aswell as + 3 veteran rank for certain units (if halberdiers would be in here, it would be super sweet, unfortunatly they are not lol) still nice for knights (cavalry) and greatswords

and then offcourse in nuln the artillery building, everything that reduces upleep/construction and gives unit ranks is allways good.

and in wissenburg you have marble, another trading resource (with iron in pfeildorf)

you can move some recruitment buildings from reikland to wissenland province, to enable clay trade resource in altdorf. every income counts, and the more trade resources the better.

later with the wastelands you get dyes and salt

that's 5 trade resources that will net you a decent income

[Corvus_Alt1]

Yeah, Wissenland is one of the best Empire provinces, though I will admit I'm somewhat annoyed that the Nuln Gunnery School doesn't replace the Engineer's Workshop line of buildings in the same way the Temple of Ulric building does for Middenheim. Seriously, that would make perfect sense, wouldn't it? Alas, they didn't take that opportunity, so building slots in Nuln are actually restricted far more than they should be.

I know, I always find something wrong to point out. Can't help it, I'm still frustrated that I have to choose to abandon building one of either the Cathedral of Sigmar, the Wizard's Tower, the Engineer's Workshop, or the City Walls because the Nuln Gunnery School and the Foundry are just too important, and I can't fit everything in it. Grrr... Any chance you can recommend which of the previously mentioned buildings to drop?

Incidentally, if you had the choice, which would you prioritize confederating first, Middenland or Talabecland?

[harleyquinrazer]

Doesn't the Nuln Gunnery School improve artillery recruits across the entire empire, not just in Nuln?

[Corvus_Alt1]

Yes, it does. It just seems off to have a gunnery school but no gunsmith/engineer's workshop in the same city. Hence why I wish the Nuln Gunnery School also made the same units as the Engineer's Workshop.

[harleyquinrazer]

Originally posted by Corvus917:

Yes, it does. It just seems off to have a gunnery school but no gunsmith/engineer's workshop in the same city.

If you absolutely want the gunsmith in Nuln, then I don't see why you need City Walls if Nuln isn't on your frontline.

[Corvus_Alt1]

I suppose I'm just paranoid about leaving it defenseless. And besides, can you imagine a city as important as Nuln not having City Walls? If they did to Nuln what they did for Altdorf and had walls that didn't take up a building slot, that would also work. But really, it would make more sense if the Nuln Gunnery School also unlocked the same units as the Engineer's Workshop building line. For now, I think I'll just stomach the idea of leaving the Workshop in Altdorf.

[drazan]

you don't need a wizard tower in nuln

i just build the one in altdorf and call it a day

[ChibiFenrir]

yeah wizard tower isn't worth having.