Benefits of Vassal State

[bamf226]

Last night while playing, one of the computer civs wanted to be my vassal state (after watching me conduct a short war on Saladin). I accepted, but what are the benefits to having a vassal state. It seems like when I accepted, I lost 4 gold per turn for some reason.

 

[LlamaCat]

you get a percentage of their land and population counting toward domination victory. or, if you don't have enough land/pop for that type of win, if you make everyone else your vassal, you get a conquest victory, so it's one step closer to that.

but before victory, you get the benefit of using their land for movement and healing, and it can help your research because you can tell them to research one tech while you research others. and if you are on good terms they will probably vote for you in any voting scenarios since they are now a team member. and you can usually ask resources from them for free or least get good trades. also you get extra happiness in your cities for having an influence on other civilizations (check in your city screen and mouse over the happiness faces at the top, there is probably a +1 happy for this reason).

really the benefits are pretty extensive - it's like having a team member but you do pay some extra maintenance and there can be other drawbacks depending on the situation of your game.

 

[bamf226]

how do you get the vassal to research a tech? I was planning on a space victory, so that will help immensely

 

[Catan_Settler]

When you bring up the diplomacy screen for a vassal, click the one for "lets talk about something else" and then you will get the options to tell him what to research, along with "your head would look good on a pole" etc.

 

[bamf226]

interesting. I can't wait to see where this gets me.

 

[Yakk]

You can also (chuckle) use their military power to help you out.

I'm serious! It can help sometimes. (mainly as a large punching bag to guard a flank, but...)

 

[buffalo6542]

When I have told my vassal to attack somewhere it takes forever. I just use them for resources and extra land towards domination victory

 

[Crowqueen]

Does the vassal get the bonus of your techs too? I am almost at the future age and Joao is still in the Middle Ages, so I'm not sure I want him beating me to the spaceship...

 

[buffalo6542]

Does the vassal get the bonus of your techs too? I am almost at the future age and Joao is still in the Middle Ages, so I'm not sure I want him beating me to the spaceship...

unless you created, like for overseas colonies. then no

 

[jkp1187]

also you get extra happiness in your cities for having an influence on other civilizations (check in your city screen and mouse over the happiness faces at the top, there is probably a +1 happy for this reason).

I believe it's +1 happiness for every vassal in every city, by the way. (The vassals get +1 unhappiness for being a vassal.)

 

[Gwynnja]

If your vassal shares a border with you, you can use them as a buffer zone and attack whoever is on the other side. Your citizens get a happiness bonus, and you're free to help yourself to any of your vassal's resources, (unless of course they refuse, then you have to fight for them and take away a few more of their cities.)

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The happiness and military cushion/punching bag are nice perks, but sometimes the nicest thing of all is effectively eliminating that civ from contention or declaring on you (assuming capitulation). It's pretty easy to forcibly keep capped vassels capped forever, and you can duck WW many turns earlier than otherwise possible.

 

[RulerOfDaPeople]

Are all the benefits of capitulation the same as a vassall by choice, or are there diffferences?

I'm trying to figure out how to use Montezuma. We don't get along, but I'm sure there are some uses to having capitulized him.

 

[GenMarshall]

You get access to their resources and their territories count towards your own territory % (same story for population %)

I would think capitulation is the same as creating a Vassal State.

 

[AluminumKnight]

I'm trying to figure out how to use Montezuma. We don't get along, but I'm sure there are some uses to having capitulized him.

From my experience, it doesn't matter if you get along or not. I capitulated Monty in one of my games and he hated me the entire game, yet periodically I'd go take all of his gold

 

[jkp1187]

Are all the benefits of capitulation the same as a vassall by choice, or are there diffferences?

Yes, benefits are the same. The differences are:

Capitulated vassals can only break off if they exceed 50% of the master's land area or population....or if their land area is reduced to 50% of what it was at the time of capitulation.

Vassals-by-choice can break off at any time after the first ten turns.

Colonies are essentially vassals-by-choice, except the master gets a +10 diplomatic bonus, so you really would have to abuse them to get them to break away.

All vassals have the ability to break away if you demand resources/luxuries from them and they decide that they do not want to provide those to you. (This results in war.)

 

[bamf226]

How do you capitulate?

 

[RulerOfDaPeople]

You beat them into submission.



Once you've pounded them enough, they'll beg for peace by accepting Capitualation in the diplomacy screen.

When I finally decided I was finished with the war against Monty, he said, "What did I do to the Gods that they would give me YOU as America's leader?!?"

 

[jkp1187]

How do you capitulate?

Human players can't capitulate to AI. Only AI->AI, AI->Human and Human->Human.

 

[Sim_One]

Another additional benefit of vassals is that you can still have trade routes with them even if you're using Mercantilism.