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There have been a few posts about the fact that your Vassals sometimes won't trade you techs but I was thinking, there are a few things I do to get the most out of my Vassals, thought it might be nice to see if anyone had any comments or other tips.
1. Resources.
You can demand one resource from your vassal per turn and they are obliged to give it to you or start a war with you, if they are utterly defeated this is normally a relatively safe thing to do, I've never had a vassal refuse yet. Demand all their available resources one turn at a time until they have nothing left to trade.
2. Cash
Once they have no resources left, you can start selling them your spare resources for money. Hell, their vassalage is costing you extra maintenance so make them pay for it. If they have no resources left to trade (and they don't, you just made sure of that in point 1) you can offer them resources and ask "What will you give me for this?" they'll normally offer all their available cash per turn. Once you sell them one resource for all their cash they'll lower their science rate to raise more cash. I've regularly got 30/40 gold for the second trade. Let them lower their research rate and then try the same thing the following turn. Repeat until you run out of spare resources and/or Vassals. Note, they see this as a fair trade, not an evil demand.
In my last game I was getting well over 250 gold per turn from my vassals in this way which meant I could up my science rate by 10 to 20% and still be cash positive. Also you get this cash every turn, even when you are in anarchy which is nice. I think you could easily get a lot more if you worked it.
3. Warfare
When you go to war, your vassals go to war and depending on who they are they can be fairly effective. A well equipped vassal army can distract some of your next target's troops either to defend from their attacks, or because they launch counter-attacks against your vassals rather than against you. I've certainly had my vassals capture cities from my opponents several times.
For this reason I tend to try and keep my Vassals up to date with military techs. The cash milking above does tend to cripple their research rate so if everyone else has a military tech and they don't I'll give it to them, that way they can keep their military up to date which helps me when I go to war. Obviously, I don't want to give them something that they can trade to my enemies, but if everyone else has it, why not. Can also give them economy techs if it'll help them boost their economies so they can afford to give me more gold for resources. You even get relationship bonuses for giving them presents.
Also, when you are selling them resources, if you have spare copper/iron/horses or anything else that's still relevant for military units in whatever era you are in, sell them it. It makes their military more effective.
This all assumes you aren't going to **** up and let them get over 50% your size and stop being your Vassal. Don't do that...
4. Religion
Fairly obvious one this, but demand they convert to your religion, slightly more chance they'll use missionaries to spread it giving you more gold in your shrine, and you get further relationship bonuses for shared religion.
What about anyone else, got any comments/suggestions?
1. Resources.
You can demand one resource from your vassal per turn and they are obliged to give it to you or start a war with you, if they are utterly defeated this is normally a relatively safe thing to do, I've never had a vassal refuse yet. Demand all their available resources one turn at a time until they have nothing left to trade.
2. Cash
Once they have no resources left, you can start selling them your spare resources for money. Hell, their vassalage is costing you extra maintenance so make them pay for it. If they have no resources left to trade (and they don't, you just made sure of that in point 1) you can offer them resources and ask "What will you give me for this?" they'll normally offer all their available cash per turn. Once you sell them one resource for all their cash they'll lower their science rate to raise more cash. I've regularly got 30/40 gold for the second trade. Let them lower their research rate and then try the same thing the following turn. Repeat until you run out of spare resources and/or Vassals. Note, they see this as a fair trade, not an evil demand.
In my last game I was getting well over 250 gold per turn from my vassals in this way which meant I could up my science rate by 10 to 20% and still be cash positive. Also you get this cash every turn, even when you are in anarchy which is nice. I think you could easily get a lot more if you worked it.
3. Warfare
When you go to war, your vassals go to war and depending on who they are they can be fairly effective. A well equipped vassal army can distract some of your next target's troops either to defend from their attacks, or because they launch counter-attacks against your vassals rather than against you. I've certainly had my vassals capture cities from my opponents several times.
For this reason I tend to try and keep my Vassals up to date with military techs. The cash milking above does tend to cripple their research rate so if everyone else has a military tech and they don't I'll give it to them, that way they can keep their military up to date which helps me when I go to war. Obviously, I don't want to give them something that they can trade to my enemies, but if everyone else has it, why not. Can also give them economy techs if it'll help them boost their economies so they can afford to give me more gold for resources. You even get relationship bonuses for giving them presents.
Also, when you are selling them resources, if you have spare copper/iron/horses or anything else that's still relevant for military units in whatever era you are in, sell them it. It makes their military more effective.
This all assumes you aren't going to **** up and let them get over 50% your size and stop being your Vassal. Don't do that...
4. Religion
Fairly obvious one this, but demand they convert to your religion, slightly more chance they'll use missionaries to spread it giving you more gold in your shrine, and you get further relationship bonuses for shared religion.
What about anyone else, got any comments/suggestions?
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