You need to be much much stronger to confederate. Relations do nothing.

Originally posted by Venris:

You need to be much much stronger to confederate. Relations do nothing.

Was this changed? Because I have been noticing that the AI still confederates rather easily with one another. This is especially a problem with Dwarfs and the High Elves, where the AI gets a snowballing effect basically making it impossible to confederate with them when they keep absorbing other factions easily.

I have noticed that the AI does some silly confederations. Teclis, usually down to a couple of settlemements, confederates Lothern; and not the other way round. :S

Its how wh2 is done.

I recommend money. Unlike some other diplomatic interactions, offering a hefty payment in exchange for the confederation actually seems to work even if the stated initial chances were low.

Mind you, lots of money. I generally cap it at around 30k before considering increasing perceived relative power instead (raising a bunch of armies, even if they are gonna be disbanded soon after) or increasing relationship further. Or in some cases just waiting until their armies get wrecked by some random enemy or the other.

Originally posted by Felius:

I recommend money. Unlike some other diplomatic interactions, offering a hefty payment in exchange for the confederation actually seems to work even if the stated initial chances were low.

Yup!
Do not give them gifts to increase relations as they spend that money on more stacks -> harder to confederate. Instead, give them 20 000 to Join Confederation.

(Don't ask where all that money goes :P)

Can confirm, money is the way to go. In my last Bretonnia campaign I had to give around 20k-50k per faction, and none of them accepted it without any payment (relations were 200+ for all of them). Wasn't too big of a deal as I was already making that much per turn.

I am changing it in next update. High relations will have much higher chance to confederate. From my stests those that had low are moderate now so MUCH easier.

Max defensive alliance. No military aliances. Relative strenght, you need to be stronger. Start with the weeker states first. i try without a bribe then increase it to 2k then 3 max with the confederation offer in a package. I start confederating as soon as the time delay passes. In the HE, I conquer Sapherpy no trade or non aggression beforehand to avoid penealties., Confed Elerion, and then keep going.

Just confirming that Venris did indeed change this in the recent update.

It is in the change notes:

"
- high relations help to confederate now much easier - in vanilla only power level does
Because of that change confederation penalties were added back, -3 public order (-8 in vanilla) and -3 local recruitment points. Penalties can be different for different factions.
"