How do you protect a backward vassal?

[Ryuk]

I tried this strategy once at Noble and it's pretty effective

Tokugawa is my vassal and he was right next to me
He is weak and backward and only had rifleman while I had already finished researching all the techs

Peter was pissed at me for not paying tribute to him so he declared war
He landed lots of modern armour and other troops in Tokugawa land
Being far away on the other continent, I could buy some time by placing my mech infantries in Tokugawa's cities

I gave Tokugawa all the techs leading to mech infantries and gave him 1000 gold to upgrade his troops
I could afford it since I have finished researching everything and set my research to 0%

It seems like Tokugawa upgraded ALL his troops at a very cheap rate and I could leave him alone to protect himself

After I managed to defend Tokugawa successfully, I rushed for nukes and nuked each and every one of Peter's cities
Russia was turned into a nuclear wasteland

 

[CivMonger]

aw, I do love a happy ending

 

[Galileo44]

If I capitulate a vassal who has very little land left I will usually gift them almost all techs. That way, if I am the tech leader, they can't trade for anything except for money and the other AIs never have enough to buy a late game tech. Occasionally I will have a vassal that doesn't hate me, and therefore bringing them up to speed is usefull as they can backfill the tech tree for you as you take on the cutting edge techs.

 

[Dnomal]

I one of my games I vassalised Arabia, and i knew that war was coming soon with teh Ottomans. The arbians were still using longbows (everyone else had rifelemen), which had made me conquering them pretty easy, anyways i sent 3 crack rifelemn division toeach of the arabians broder cities, each with city garrison 3.

100 years later the ottomans invaded, well techniquely they were honouring there defnce pact with Carthage which I had invaded, anyways these 6 units in the two key arabian cities, amanaged to fend of a 21 stack and 6 stack armies. Due to a huge defence bonus, city garrison, and unit fortify, and a hell of a lot of luck.

THis defence of Arbaia was amazing (the arabians helped to but60% of the attacks my men defeated), the Ottomans were beaten and i easily conquered them with air superiority and a dead army.

If only I'd eabled tech trading I wouldn't have had such an intersting deversion, I was amazed how well my units defended the Arabians, shame there was no +1 bonus "thanks for saving our asses", ah well.

 

[Kietharr]

Depends on if you know your vassal will never become a problem to you, if he's too small to become a problem, give him techs for the best defense unit you have and a few hundred gold (AI get extremely cheap unit upgrades, they'll upgrade stuff they already have). If they still don't have enough, either fortify your units on their cities or give them units (Machine guns being ideal, because they can never be used against you).

 

[cabert]

I often do trades like stop trading with civ A,B,C,D,E,F for all my techs.
This way, I have no fear of them trading away my techs

 

[jagdtigerciv]

shame there was no +1 bonus "thanks for saving our asses", ah well.

Hahahahahaha! I wish!

 

[Crighton]

My advise would have been:

"Who cares about Toku?"

I probably would have sacrificed Toku, lands and units by just putting some of my units in his cities and let those guys chew up Peters forces. Sending all them Great General points my way, yummy. Hopefully the bulk of Peters forces will be tied up with Toku & my reinforcements long enough for team skullthump to show up knocking on Peters door.

As a second choice I might have given some techs to Toku. But I'm not known for my generosity towards my vassals. Toku and Mansa can be great vassals if they end up liking you enough.

 

[Khan Quest]

My advise would have been:

"Who cares about Toku?"

Mine too. Since Toku was adjacent, I would let him fight it out, then "liberate" the newly conquered cities into my own empire.

 

[Crighton]

Mine too. Since Toku was adjacent, I would let him fight it out, then "liberate" the newly conquered cities into my own empire.

Now that gives a warm fuzzy feeling all around doesn't it

 

[Gooblah]

Hehehe...
If it was up to me, I would let Peter take over, then nuke his mainland, grab all of his cities on my continent, then send over 50 transports filled with troops and rze every city to the ground while laughing maniacally....
*commences laughing*
BWAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!
*done laughing*
Wheeze....Wow, I'm bored.

 

[axident]

Gift your vassal your obsolete units from time to time. They'll take care of the rest.

 

[xanadux]

The question amuses me. The example is funny because if you have all the techs and can nuke all of Peter's cities, you certainly could have won a Space Victory already.

 

[Party]

Gift your vassal your obsolete units from time to time. They'll take care of the rest.

I'll usually do just that then put a few of my very strong units on his cities including a few siege units so if a large enemy stack comes rolling by I can soften it up enough with collateral damage that my vassal can handle it.