There are two sides to the Diplomacy Interface: your own country, and those other, lesser countries with whom you are compelled to deal from time to tim
Your Diplomacy Interface provides a tremendous amount of information and options. Your State Religion is indicated by the symbol next to your country’s name. Your type of government (Kingdom, Republic, etc.) is noted under the name.
Your current ruler and their skills are noted below that, and to the right you will find the current number of relationships with your neighbors and the total number you can maintain without penalty. These penalties reduce your Diplomatic Points, so overextend yourself only when necessary
Below this is your Diplomatic Reputation, a measure of your reputation on the international stage. The higher the number, the more other countries respect your diplomats and the integrity of your government. Because it influences the willingness of other countries to accept your offers of vassalization and other diplomatic initiatives, you will want to keep this number in the green!
To the right of this are details on your primary culture, the effectiveness of your spies, your technology group, and the stability, prestige, ideas and technology levels of your nation. Hovering over each will call up a tooltip which explains what is going on with each. When you are considering the profile of foreign nations, all of this becomes very valuable information.
Below that and to the left are your enemies and rivals. Rivals are any countries which you deem a threat to the power, glory and land that is rightfully yours. Declaring a rival costs a small amount of Diplomatic Power, and naturally it damages your relations, although if they were truly rivals they probably didn’t look favorably upon you anyway. Once you declare a rival, you may Embargo them with no penalty to yourself, and you may take provinces from them more cheaply in peace deals, as well as increased prestige from beating them in battles and your spies are more effective in operations against them. Additionally, other nations who also view them as rivals may be willing to join you in a coalition, so that together you might annihilate your mutual foe.
This works both ways of course. Enemy countries will have declared you to be their rival as well. Be wary of the gathering storm: too many of them and it might be you who faces a coalition.
Beneath this is a long, scrollable list detailing all of your current entanglements: everything from Peace Treaties to Diplomats on missions, Royal Marriages, Alliances, and Access Rights. Hover over any of these items to open a tooltip explaining the matter in detail.
To the right is a list of the known countries of the world and what they think of you on a scale of -200 to 200. To the right of that is your opinion of them. These numbers need not correspond. Perhaps you like them and want to be friends, but they still cannot bring themselves to look past all those violent conquests you’ve become so well known for. Under that, you have the option to release some of your lands as vassal states, say if you require a buffer, or the population is too unruly to manage affordably. When you click on another country, whether from within the Diplomacy Interface or anywhere else, their shield appears and you are brought to their page of the interface. In many ways, it is very similar to your own page. There are a few key differences, however. First, to the right of their ruler’s name Diplomatic Relationships and Reputation are not shown; instead you will see your opinions of each other. On the bottom left, note that some nations may be grayed out. This indicates a relationship with a nation which you have not yet encountered. They will appear here, but you cannot click through to them. On the right, rather than national opinions, you see the Diplomatic Options. It is here that you may send your Diplomats off on any number of missions, depending on your technology levels. These missions are broken up into various submenus so you can easily find what you wish to do without dealing with a cluttered display.
- Declare War – The final diplomatic option, quite essential when your goals can
be achieved no other way, and a serviceable option if you prefer the direct route. Here you can click to enter the Declaring War interface, detailed in section 6.2.
- Alliance Actions – In this section you can offer an Alliance, or create or join a
Coalition. Coalitions are alliances targeted on a certain nation, if any member of a Coalition goes to war with the target nation, all Coalition members are brought into the war. This does not happen if a member goes to war with the target by answering the Call to Arms of a non-Coalition nation. A green check mark means your offer will be accepted, while a red “X” means it will not. Hovering over the checkmark or “X”-mark will produce a tooltip explaining the other side’s rationale
- Influence Actions –Here you may Enforce a Peace or Proclaim a Guarantee.
Enforcing a Peace is a fine way to spoil another nation’s fun, by bullying them into ending their current war. If they refuse, you get to join in on the fun by entering the war against them. Similarly, Proclaim a Guarantee allows you to jump into any currently ongoing war against the target country.
- Relations Actions – This set of options allows you to dispatch a Diplomat on
a long term mission to influence international relations. You may send a Warning, a threat of warfare should your opponent interfere with another country. You might instead send an Insult, which involves sending an official Diplomat on a State Visit for the sole purpose of humiliating and offending them.
- Dynastic Actions – You can offer either a Dynastic Marriage with another
country or offer Vassalization, making them your eternal lackey. As with other negotiations, whether or not your targets will fall for your transparent schemes is shown by the tooltip-enabled Check and X-marks. If you are Royally Married to another family, here you can use that flimsy excuse to Claim the Throne of their country, which can earn you the role of senior partner in a Personal Union of two independent nations.
- Covert Actions – The fun stuff. With a sufficient technology level, you can
dispatch your Diplomats on such exciting assignments as Fabricate Claims on your opponents’ lands, Sow Discontent among their populations, Support Rebels against their governments, Sabotage Reputations between your target and other countries, and Infiltrate the Administrations of your targets, which wins valuable inside information about troop and fleet deployments and sizes.
- Economy Actions – This includes a number of actions. Issue Embargos bars
other nations from engaging in any activity at your trade nodes or inside the borders of your provinces. Large cash payouts are a sure way to bring a smile to people’s faces, so Send Gifts is a great diplomatic tool. Offer Loans is perhaps even better, because it combines a nice gesture with the added benefit of future obligation. You can also offer War Subsidies to enemies of your enemies or Sell a Province, which allows you to rid yourself of unwanted territory for a fair price.
- Access Actions – These are crucial actions allowing you to project your military power. Often, nations project military power far more broadly than they can
truly claim. But for certain continental wars, projecting military power is the only way to succeed at all!
