Everyone against the player

[Armaged]

As Cao Cao i was doing well. I had an alliance with Liu Bei. Was second ranked in terms of territory and power, had good relationship with everyone.

And then in a single turn i find myself at war with everyone, across the whole map. 15 stacks against 8, with my ally ammassing stack at my border.

Can someone explain me how the ♥♥♥♥ this happened?


i read that the diplomacy here was good, but to me it seem utter ♥♥♥♥. No one care about the one that has half china, but everyone care about me

[alicerinz]

The diplomacy is good in comparison to other total war games.

On a more global level though, the system is ♥♥♥♥ that exists purely to let the player abuse the ai for money in the early game.

It is only a matter of time until the map turns into a battle royale where you're the only one who's not in a party.

[Smith]

I've had this happen a few times but most of the time, it's because I'm on the negative site of trusted. Breaking treaty early or something with some random guy with 1 farm left. That definitely encourages other AI to screw you instantly.

[Git Face]

I've never experienced that in a number of my play throughs with different factions. I think you really need to review how you employ diplomacy by the sounds of it. Good way is to offer food (if you have it spare) but leave the +green in the diplomacy screen instead of balancing the deal. AI likes that a lot. You also need to plan 10 turns ahead, cosey up to bigger, stronger faction(s) which can shield you somewhat from likely enemies.

Also, at the end of every other turn review your diplomacy screen to see if you can exploit anything or if your relationship is deteriorating with friendly factions...catch it before it becomes a problem. Etc etc

[Armaged]

Originally posted by Git Face:

I've never experienced that in a number of my play throughs with different factions. I think you really need to review how you employ diplomacy by the sounds of it. Good way is to offer food (if you have it spare) but leave the +green in the diplomacy screen instead of balancing the deal. AI likes thst a lot. You also need to plan 10 turns ahead, cosey up to bigger, stronger faction(s) and that shields you somewhat from likely enemies.

Also, at the end of every other turn review your diplomacy screen to see if you can exploit anything or if your relationship is deteriorating with friendly factions...catch it before it becomes a problem. Etc etc

The problem is that i had good relationship with almost everyone, apart from Yuan shao and sun jian.
I've beena eating their empire for a long time. But what happened was different. Gonguscan, Cai Mao, Mao teng, teo or three from the western side, my vassal. All of them declared was on the same turn. I had some treaty going on with half of them, so now my credibility has gone down the gutter...like -50 from 0.

[Git Face]

Something significant must have been going on there for your relationship to have deteriorated, to that extent, so quickly. Again, i think you need to counter problem diplomacy quite aggressively in this game to get on an even keel.

Or, you're just real unlucky i guess.

[dulany67]

Pick the largest problem foe and offer commanderies for peace. Try to buy off one with food and ancellaries. Turn on the rest and wreck them.

Things change often. Bare down and get yourself out of the situation. If worse comes to worse offer to become someone's vassal.

[Imnuktam]

Originally posted by Git Face:

Something significant must have been going on there for your relationship to have deteriorated, to that extent, so quickly. Again, i think you need to counter problem diplomacy quite aggressively in this game to get on an even keel.

Or, you're just real unlucky i guess.

I was thinking same thing. Something happened that isnt mentioned, or wasnt noticed.

I feel diplomacy in this is so much better than in previous titles so far. There are things you can do to screw yourself, but if you are paying attention you are told it will do so. I know the first time I annexed someone i did it a little to fast since my whole goal was to get them to vassal so i could do that aquire lu bu. That one act made me treacherous for pretty much the rest of campaign and did really tick off some of the ai, and especially all my other vassals.

The only other thing i had happen close to what is mentioned in OP is Cao Cao once made 2 of my vassals declare war on 2 different factions during ai's turn (guess they dont ask for permission from vassal lord when he does that) . That resulted in me having a lot of enemies that used to be my trade partners come the start of my turn.

[vortex]

It does seem like everyone's going to turn on you eventually, no matter how good your relations with them are. I've had vassals who I was on great terms with suddenly decide to declare war, good friends who captured an imperial seat suddenly decide they wanted to declare war, factions in military alliances with me suddenly decide they'd rather fight against me than with me.... You can't count on anyone not to stab you in the back at some point.

[Midare-Saki]

i dunno i found this game to be a massive time waster. really peace and war seems to be exaggerated. even the damn neutral guys. endless loop of going up and down. make more progress in the other tw titles then this. (perhaps it might be because i chose a hard or very hard faction)

[JohnnyWildcard]

I've noticed that the stronger you become the more your relationships with every faction seem to deteriorate no matter what you do, especially on turns when you make large power jumps like becoming a duke or king. I also had to watch out about unifying with too many factions too quickly as Liu Bei.

For the future you can also use Cao Cao's ability to ensure the stronger factions like you and will be less likely to go to war with you or pit them against each other so they might not want to fight you as well.

[Gamer de esquerda]

Did you enter the three kingdoms era? When you claim to be the emperor, then almost everyone starts declaring war against you. At this point, diplomacy is also quite useless except to vassalize

[Pumis]

Originally posted by dulany67:

. If worse comes to worse offer to become someone's vassal.

I actually abuse this. Pick a fight with strong foe. Take out couple cities. Then turn into vassal to another faction to make force peace, before opponent can take out any of my city. After that just get out from vassal relationship, either through force or ask it.
If you see two large factions in peace with each other. You can as autonomic vassal make them fight each other.

[Too Much Salt]

Originally posted by Armaged:

As Cao Cao i was doing well. I had an alliance with Liu Bei. Was second ranked in terms of territory and power, had good relationship with everyone.

And then in a single turn i find myself at war with everyone, across the whole map. 15 stacks against 8, with my ally ammassing stack at my border.

Can someone explain me how the ♥♥♥♥ this happened?


i read that the diplomacy here was good, but to me it seem utter ♥♥♥♥. No one care about the one that has half china, but everyone care about me

Were you overly aggressive ? treacherous ? If yes, then, you will suffer serious diplomatic penalty and even your allies will turn their backs on you. So, tread carefully.

[The Devil]

You probably executed someone who was respected among the factions. This is the one thing i overlook alot, but executing generals tends to piss alot of people off later on

[Sai Kyouji]

Yeah...you were supposed to deal at a loss to gain some major alliance friends early.
Giving away a settlement or two for practically nothing isnt unheard of.

Just dont make friends with Liu Bei because he's friends with everyone save for yellow turban and Dong Zhou so attacking anyone will net you negative relationship with him.