Military Alliances are terrible

[Yimmy]

I had a save ruined because my ally declared war on just about everyone around me and my dumb ass decided keeping the alliance was worth it.
Never go military alliance, always stay at defensive

[Mr Robert House]

yes, except on the last turn of your campaign to get victory conditions

[Basarab Laiota]

ye i only ever do non-agression pacts, trade and military access
one exception to this is the Bowmen of Oreon... I like to get a defensive alliance with them after consolidating all of the land around their settlement... they don't leave their space so they won't ever discover any factions that might declare war on them, furthermore they always have 2 armies just sitting there, it adds a good bit of Balance of Power to my faction in the diplomacy screen, making it less likely that enemies declare war on me

and like Mr Robert House said, military alliance is good for when you want to fulfill victory conditions to end a campaign

[Testikles]

The reason for this is your power level. If you ally someone your power level gets added to theirs and so they appear much stronger on paper than they are in reality. Since they "feel" much stronger now they will declare a lot of wars. So yeah, they are kind of a trap, best to be avoided unless you are very certain or need their settlements for the victory conditions.

[Jeslis]

There's a mod called something like 'Unbreakable alliances'.. Can't recommend it enough; lets you 'decline' to join wars that your so-called allies try to drag you into, without a reliability or diplomacy penalty.

I'm not a fan of needing a cheaty mod like this to engage in diplomacy (read; be able to replenish on friendly land), but my god the diplomacy coding in this game makes me QQ.

[SpeaksTooFast]

Yeah I had this problem many times, it seemed like my allies would drag me into a war I didn't want and derail or destroy every campaign I played. Picking up the advice to just not was a godsend.

If you are playing unmodded I find that non-aggression, trade, and military access pacts are all good. Defensive alliances should be used sparingly and only if you are willing to be at war with any faction they are not currently fighting. Alliances should not be used until the world is already at war, to cap off victory conditions, or if trying to actively weaken a faction to soften them up for confederation.

Keep in mind that you do not need a defensive or military alliance to confederate another faction and often they can actually make it harder to do so.

[grognardgary]

Agree to go to war don't send troops. Works better for Empire. Me and my order Allies are cleaning chaos off the map. Supposedly you can at some point vassalize allies but I can't seem to figure out how that mechanic works.

[Yimmy]

Originally posted by grognardgary:

Agree to go to war don't send troops. Works better for Empire. Me and my order Allies are cleaning chaos off the map. Supposedly you can at some point vassalize allies but I can't seem to figure out how that mechanic works.

That doesnt help when the people they declare war on are right next to me.
And no i cant just go crush them, it will take 8 turns to get my good army over there while whatever little army i bankrupt myself to assemble struggles to defend me.
I was literally the 1st line of defence against someone I didnt declare on

[Anvos]

Basically the answer is to avoid Alliances until your already at war with everybody they could reasonable have a negative relationship with. This becomes even more true since, they will declare war on your neighbors they have no ability to attack, and since CA are anti player idiots and make your allies lose increments of their auto resolve bonuses in AI vs AI the better relationships they have with you.

[Farsha]

Worst part is that Allied factions loose their AI cheats.
So they get stomped pretty fast usually.
Only create military alliances to confederate faster or in Late late game.

[SpeaksTooFast]

Originally posted by Farsha:

Worst part is that Allied factions loose their AI cheats.
So they get stomped pretty fast usually.
Only create military alliances to confederate faster or in Late late game.

I have heard this was prevalent in game 3 but have not noticed it much in 2. I think it applies when joining forces in a battle but am not sure it affects the campaign cheats as well.

That being said as I have not used alliances much in game 2 in the last 2 years so if it is happening I would not have noticed.

[Anvos]

Originally posted by SpeaksTooFast:

Originally posted by Farsha:

Worst part is that Allied factions loose their AI cheats.
So they get stomped pretty fast usually.
Only create military alliances to confederate faster or in Late late game.

I have heard this was prevalent in game 3 but have not noticed it much in 2. I think it applies when joining forces in a battle but am not sure it affects the campaign cheats as well.

That being said as I have not used alliances much in game 2 in the last 2 years so if it is happening I would not have noticed.

It defiantly does, I watched Grimgor go from rank 3 with the Dawi down to their last 3 territories, and him owning the majority of the Eastern Mountains and Badlands to the Dawi wiping him out rapidly, all because I let the Orc AI have an Alliance when it asked for it as Druchii.

[Fear2288]

I once did a campaign where I made no military/defensive alliances, no non-aggression pacts, not even trade deals.

It turned out to be the most peaceful campaign I’ve ever played.

No random war declarations from factions across the map, no “you’re getting too close to me” wars, no “I don’t like your face” wars, etc.

Those “you had/have a deal with another faction I don’t like so I hate you now” relations penalties really stack up and lead to a waterfall of hostility.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by Emmi:

Originally posted by grognardgary:

Agree to go to war don't send troops. Works better for Empire. Me and my order Allies are cleaning chaos off the map. Supposedly you can at some point vassalize allies but I can't seem to figure out how that mechanic works.

That doesnt help when the people they declare war on are right next to me.
And no i cant just go crush them, it will take 8 turns to get my good army over there while whatever little army i bankrupt myself to assemble struggles to defend me.
I was literally the 1st line of defence against someone I didnt declare on

What turn are you on?

[Marked]

XD same good idea

[grognardgary]

Note I've been at war with the wood elves near the oak for over a hundred turns, Because my Dwarven Allies insist on it. The Dwarves don\t attack them I don't attack them and they don't attack either of us. The Phrase Sitz Krieg seems applicable.