So I recently realized that I abused the vassal state setting for easy domination victories. Also, I realized that taking on two super powers on a 10 player map by yourself is a huge challenge and fun. However, I realized that Vassals can be just as cheesy as AP cheesing. It's basically a mechanic in the game that can be easily exploited with little to no effort honestly for extremely easy domination victories and kinda takes away from other aspects of the game. So I decided to turn them off and play a game. Well, to my surprise I actually liked it a lot. Diplomacy meant way more and more long term allies could be built without the fear of losing them because they became a vassal to your enemy or you just attack them because they are your neighbor and you wanted to vassal them to make them an ally to start the ball rolling on domination. Also, now getting war allies is work and not a "given" due to vassal mechanics. To me it added so much more to diplomacy and strategy. Domination is still a very viable option so it didn't take it away. Just made it more of a challenge to get and needs a bit more attention to detail and planning. Not just DoW on everyone starting with your neighbor and vassal them all until Domination victory. Plus, AI vassal too easy and there really isn't many strategic wars between them because they are so quick to do it. Trading is also better in my opinion because diplomacy means way more over time. Any thoughts from anybody about it?
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