Vampire Confederation

[IscariotsAngel]

Has anyone had success in Confederating as either Von Carstien or Vampire Counts with vice versa in the first 20 turns or so? I'm trying a few different strategies and not much seems to work.

I'm beating manfred up and sieging him to the point where he is green on vassal and is offering ME to become my vassal. Confed is still red and no amount of proffered coin changes it.

Any success stories? Suggestions?

[Jerroser]

From what I have seen, the AI only agrees to confederate if they like you a lot and are under threat from being destroyed by a thrid faction (or during the main Chaos invasion...). In my game the only thing I found that could make the VC'c agree was a massive amound of cash (around 20,000) after I had quickly taken every other province in Selvania leaving them no room to expand.

I don't think they'll ever agree while you're at war with them, the best thing to from this postion is Vassalize them for now then build up cash and keep trying until they accept.

[IscariotsAngel]

i found that I wasn't able to offer them confederacy once I vassalised them. Are you able to confederate after vassalisation?

[Sagranda]

Originally posted by IscariotsAngel:

i found that I wasn't able to offer them confederacy once I vassalised them. Are you able to confederate after vassalisation?

Only after you give them their "freedom" back.

It's btw possible to confederate with a faction with which you are at war. I have done it with the Empire and the Greenskins.
The difference in power was enormous though and it seems to rather rare from my experience.

[Raviollius]

There was another thread where the guy said Mannfred cried to confederate once his army is beaten on the field and Drakenholf is sieged long enough, before turn 10. The problem is, I couldn't do it myself since they just recruit a new lord and use the medium-level garrison to ♥♥♥♥ me up during the waiting stage of the siege.

[IscariotsAngel]

Finally succeeded in confederating. Word: it seems that 100 faction approval is a magical tick box. When I hit 100, I broke the treaty and lo and behold Confederation green. Didn't matter that approval was trending towards -15, it was 100 for the turn I proposed.

[RCMidas]

A good trick to try is giving the odd gift every turn or other turn, especially if you have an army or two raiding Zhufbar or the Empire. That'll rapidly stack up your diplomacy bonuses.

[Raviollius]

Originally posted by IscariotsAngel:

Finally succeeded in confederating. Word: it seems that 100 faction approval is a magical tick box. When I hit 100, I broke the treaty and lo and behold Confederation green. Didn't matter that approval was trending towards -15, it was 100 for the turn I proposed.

Were you much stronger than him by then?

[Darkaiser]

Not in the first 20, no. I DID manage to confed with Mousillon some time afterwards but it seems to take SO long to get Mannfred to appreciate my superior military skills that it just seems easier to kill him

[IscariotsAngel]

Originally posted by Raviollius:

Originally posted by IscariotsAngel:

Finally succeeded in confederating. Word: it seems that 100 faction approval is a magical tick box. When I hit 100, I broke the treaty and lo and behold Confederation green. Didn't matter that approval was trending towards -15, it was 100 for the turn I proposed.

Were you much stronger than him by then?

Yes, stupidly much so. I deliberately had him expand to Essen, then took his main base from under his nose, wiped out his army, and sieged him until he was my puppet. Then kept him in a little box until he was 100, then un-vassaled and confederated him

[IscariotsAngel]

Pro-tip: you have to wait long enough that breaking a vassal treaty isn't counted as betrayal, then you won't lose rating instantly for breaking vassal, which makes it impossible. Still testing.

[Raviollius]

I see. I recently managed to do the inverse, start with Mannfred and Confederate Vlad at around turn 30. I had all vampire provinces but his starting one, 100+ relations with him and when his army was taken out by the neighborhood dwarves, he accepted. No Isabelle though.

Still I regret it because the dwarves got pissed with ME once I confederated his ass, and(somehow) he had pissed the orcs as well, so I got to see the orcs joining hands with the dwarves to declare war on me together.

I wonder if it's easier to just beat him into submission instead. Can anyone confirm if AI Vlad ever recrutis his wife, and if you can recruit him yourself if you confederate his ass by looting his settlement?

[Stanley]

Normally even if they don't like you much, throw some 100k or more to their face and they will accept happily.

[Raviollius]

Apparently these guys managed to do it early, gonna leave this here for confirmation/spread. And test it later myself.

https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/5xxeop/isabella_von_carstein_guide/

[Skarbrand]

Personally I go for Mannfred, for those cost reduction bonuses and having 3/5 of the Vampire Legendary Lords, as others have said the trick is to contain the other vampire faction and prevent them from expanding, I did it by simply taking all the land around them, and then making treaties with them until they accepted Confederation.

I didn't get Isabelle, but that's more just luck of the draw - whether or not he recruited her. Another thing to note is that you should get sight of Mousillon ASAP, since the Red Duke is a badass, the hex he gets is crazy powerful, confederating with them is a wonderful thing.

[RCMidas]

OK, so I just ran through about 250 turns in an attempt to get all 6 of the vampire Legendary Lords...and I found something painful out. At the moment, the von Carstein faction doesn't respawn through allowing a rebellion to form. So if it gets destroyed, so do your chances of picking up both Vlad and Isabella. At least with the original Vampire Counts faction, you can just allow repeated rebellions and reconfederate them several times other to get all three of their Lords.

As an aside, the Red Duke doesn't seem able to use his El Syf hex ability whilst mounted. Apparently he has enough of that peculiar Bretonnian chivalry left to consider using it from the back of a zombified dragon unsporting!