How to PEACEFULLY take over the WORLD - Diplomacy Guide Crusader Kings 3

[@SnapStrategy]

I Will be live Sunday 25th! Playing some CK3 Multiplayer! - kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIutg5ZuqbCMaJo You can set a reminder here through KZbin if you want to catch it! :)

[@pricesamford]

Once you have an empire and gold isn’t an issue, diplomacy and learning are the only skill trees worth getting.

[@jesuschristusvonundzunazar4961]

I have to admit, diplomacy can indeed be very strong. In one of my games, I played the child king of France in 1066. By simply using vassalage, I managed to gain control of all the Italian duchies and counties that broke away from the HRE during the first years. I then asked the Emperor to become my liege and by the huge opinion buff I had at that point, I then got elected as successor. My caracter unfortunately died before he could become Emperor but in the second generation I then united France, Italy and Germany under the HRE, and all that in only like 40 years in total.

[@CaspianNomad]

It's pretty OP if used correctly and I think it's necessary for a huge empire. I managed to befriend the pope and neutralise Europe as a Pagan Scandinavia through diplomacy, granted I needed to reform Astaru into accepting Jesus first. I'm at the point where I don't know what to do, maybe pick on the Muslims since the Catholics are no longer hostile. Its made my game game boring.

[@ShaggyRambo]

Gonna go for a diplomacy heavy Wales run. I hope to have this much success considering I've always neglected diplomacy as not needed, but now playing as a feudal from the star for the first time im seeing it's HUGE advantages.

[@noneuklid]

This is like, tip of the iceberg. Example, a favorite strategy of mine -- using diplomacy in conjunction with intrigue and carefully planned wars can let you expand faster and further by educating your neighbor's heirs into your own faith and culture. Then you can force vassalization or dynastic marriages, and never have to worry about hostile neighbors again.

[@The_Crimson_Lion]

Diplomacy is the weakest but it's not horrendous . Martial is obviously great at conquering stuff and increasing control, with stewardship you can roleplay as Scrooge McDuck and hoard a pile as big as the empire state, with intrigue you can control the world from the shadows and learning is great at keeping you alive and discovering inventions. So diplomacy isn't bad, it's just the least appealing option.

[@SnapStrategy]

That's fair! i think Paradox did a decent job making the skill trees pretty balanced, there's always going to be some that's more played than others, like Stewardship to horde all the gold, and learning to buff your character loads! Probably for me martial is the least used, i sometimes go there though to get 50% off starting wars!

[@rijalkhoirul5946]

@@SnapStrategy I'm only using martial for increasing control after conquering multiple land and immediately give the land to my new vassal with zero army

[@TheKillaShow]

You must be on drugs if you think diplomacy is the worst tree.

[@connorgrant1816]

Diplomacy ironically feels best to me when picked as a tribal for war...which says a lot about it's unfortunate appeal

[@joeheartsbeer]

All of the skill trees are very viable if you play to their strengths. I still remember my one playthrough as a reformed warmongering Buddhists faith. My leader was a man whore. Suduced the wife of the byzantine emperor got her to my court she brought 2 of her kids with her. Converted them married them to my heirs. Game didn't like that ended up murdering them but not before the heirs had kids so I had claims to the byzantine empire.

[@jacobite2353]

That vassalization strategy is sooo good for Scotland (in 1066). I was able to unite Scotland, Mann and Ireland all in one lifetime without a single war (civil wars dont count). Only downside is you probably are gonna have some really powerful vassals (plus side is there is very few of them so its easy to make them all happy) as you should condense your realm together or else you will have 50 million powerful vassals who all want a seat on the council.

[@SnapStrategy]

100% ive taken Ireland with Scotland so many times this way! there's even a speedrun page for taking Ireland form scotland! the record is like 7seconds or something crazy haha But yeah it can get tricky if you expand to quick and havent given yourself time to sort vassal opinions out!

[@jacobite2353]

@@SnapStrategy How the fuck do you do it in 7 seconds lmao?

[@MisFellatio]

Demand a title, try to imprison them. If you succeed: vassal weakened. If you fail: get a war to imprison them and take all their titles. Its lovely

[@jacobite2353]

@@MisFellatio In RP that makes no sense cause your empire would crumble so fast

[@MisFellatio]

@@jacobite2353 always works for me. As long as you make sure you have claims to the titles etc. So you don't get tyranny

[@ComradeCorwin]

I think diplomacy would be a lot more popular if it wasn't always treated as a basic number cruncher in games. War technically is the same to some extent with a little RNG for spice, but the way it plays out feels more organic and gripping in its design. Why do all grand strategy games miss out on making negotiations the tense tactical skirmishes they are in real life international politics?

[@JohnSmith-zk3kd]

because its a pain in the ass to make something as complex as real life

[@agilecamel6370]

The Vote: Diplomacy is the worst tree with over 50% Me: Mainly plays diplomacy because I have the most fun being the good guy

[@SnapStrategy]

Honestly, Being the bad guy does kinda suck sometimes haha

[@caniblmolstr4503]

You're a pu*sy.... Be a Viking. And conquer stuff

[@Ari-ez1vj]

I cant help but be the bad guy... every time I get whole of body and live past the age of 55 my new player heir always has like 8 children. I consider it a blessing from the gods if my heir has the sadistic trait at that point.

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

Same! I always feel bad declaring wars for no good reason, so I usually rely heavily on offering vassalage for expansion. I'll still declare war if they made me mad, but it's not uncommon for me to spend an entire ruler's lifetime without declaring any wars

[@jordonvh91]

Diplomacy can be very good. Like as Bjorn Ironside, just a couple of titles later and pretty much anybody in Scandinavia will accept vassalage. I also absolutely love forging artifact claims.

[@SnapStrategy]

Yes! Bjorn Ironside, and Scotland in 1066 are 2 runs I've done and just got insanely powerful by just vassalizing everyone!

[@filiprohn1643]

Diplomacy for me is the go-to auxiliary tree. It really synergises with any other build, especialy while playing wide, and is super helpful in the late game, when you don't really need martial or stewardship, and your biggest issue is keeping your mess of an empire together. True ruler can also be really fun. Once afte I took it I vassalized whole norther Italy, with no prior involvment in it.

[@DukeDanseMacambre]

I find diplomacy the strongest, especially when empire building with friends, zero stress, just absorbing other smaller people and getting a stat buff in everything while everyone the world over loves you and wants to be your friend, sometimes as your busy still dragging off their son hostage. Truely diplomats are the most godly of rulers, just make sure to get a stewardship spouse. :p

[@scvboy1]

Exactly! If you have a large realm with many vassals, I find diplomacy is a must! Now if you’re staying out small then it doesn’t have as many uses.

[@DukeDanseMacambre]

@@scvboy1 that’s why I think so few people rate it, if you have a single empire your fine but if you go big like HRE or go dominate you need it. Down side is these games are the ones where 10 years is also 10 plus hours of game play due to the size and the size/number of wars. I’m currently in 4 holy kingdom wars, should win them all in the next 16 months, trying to keep the offensive war plenty under under 150 and keep everyone at plus 100 opinion is the only back of my head worry I have. With the amount of dynasty kingdoms in my realm I have 700k troops and still make over 1k gold a month when at war.

[@mahman1565]

imagine opening this video on speaker in public "So you wanna learn how to make friends"

[@wuxiagamescentral]

I play a hybrid of Intrigue and Diplomacy. I use diplomacy to get claims through marriage and intrigue to solidify the claim. I once took over Khazaria by seducing their leader then once I got pregnant I let the world know he was his son. After that it was easy work to ensure he had no heirs outside of my children. And so my family became the ruling family of Khazaria. Only bad side effect is a lot of dissolution wars which was easy to resolve because I would join the wars and clean up for my son. He really needs to get out on his own you know.

[@RoNPlayer]

I love guides like these, which illustrate how to use less popular strategies. They may not be best, but they may be fun!

[@toottoot7316]

When i play i usually cycle through the lifestyles depending on what i want to do and the situation: martial to expand my empire, intrigue to "manage" vassals and clean up in my court, learning if i really want to get a few techs or reform my religion (usually dip into full of health if i have a really good character anyways), economic to build up a power base when my succession is guaranteed and im in a strong position and diplomatic to consolidate get away with being a bit tyrannical and/or when i have many powerful vassals

[@SnapStrategy]

Yeah I think this is 100% the best way to play, just switch it up on the go to whatever you need at the time! lately I've just been going with whatever my kids end up being good at, and trying to use their skills to fix the situation rather than switching, it can be more difficult but its a pretty fun way to play!

[@andresludovico9423]

I don't see this often talked about, but if you press the c key, you can search any character in the world, so using this you can search for any undlanded person inside your diplomatic sphere and ask them to join your court, by having the highest court amenity in lodgings and having a good enough diplomacy (especially with this skill tree) you can get the best people for your council, and even the best knights available, if someone doesn't want to join even with all this, just befriend them and then you can save a step so that every one of the council are doing the best job possible.

[@robertsiems3808]

I have over 200 hours and i never knew this. I think my next playthrough will be a Diplomatic one, thank you!

[@lewiswilson1010]

Diplomacy is the best for me because In real life the biggest worries for monarchs is the succession and with diplomacy you can do that and just really manage your vassal and their opinions of you

[@cosmopx1855]

Inviting claimants to your court is also something pretty useful, if you're the holy roman empire you can get a claim in the entire kingdom of France with just one befriend scheme

[@Coleum.]

If they don't hate you they join you

[@martinmyggestik292]

I really don't get why people think diplomacy is weak... As you so nicely explain in this video it kinda fixes everything. It's one of my favorite lifestyles.

[@joeheartsbeer]

That's why I love this game.there is no bad playstyle. Pick any character any start any way you want to play and you can do it. Some are alot harder then others but with work anything you want to do is possible

[@Blooding]

Thanks man, in the process of completing the Brave and Bold achievement.

[@seanmarkham6965]

Diplomacy as Abbasynia is insane, let’s you go from duchy sized kingdom to empire that can challenge Egypt and the abbasids in one life.

[@Gusty.]

congrats on 25k your channel is growing quite a bit now

[@kwaynesatuckle5631]

That befriend scheme is amazing. I’ve revoked friends titles without a fight. make every powerful lord +100 and they give you plenty of room to wreck that one earl that won’t listen.

[@princedaemontargaryen117]

I used Martial to conquer all of Denmark and the southern half of Norway. Changed the Kingdom name to Denway. I also claimed lands in Germany, France (Normandy), All of Wales, Cornwall, Irelands, Half of Scotland and Iceland which was the hardest one to conquer, Northern Italy and lastly Finland. I lived to 110 years old and had over 22 children.

[@Gmandancer]

the diplomacy playstyle is my favorite in Ck, it's not the most powerful but friends and foes give it so much life.

[@shodan2002]

I can’t imagine ruling an empire diplomacy the thoughtful perk is absolutely necessary to please angry vassals and stop any rebellion

[@kvshuzumaki382]

Diplomacy is one of the best you just have to know how to use it I’ve used 4/5 only one I just don’t use is intrigue I feel as a king + you won’t need it but as a count or duch you will

[@alexandercurnell1142]

The bastion update recently reduced the amount of acceptance from a diplo court. I bet the wiki just hasn't updated yet.

[@SnapStrategy]

Ahh didnt realise that! Really threw me off haha, Thanks for letting me know!!

[@attrage7545]

One thing I've learned the hard way: if your heir takes the throne at an advanced age it's best to just pick and stick with the lifestyle they're suited to. Getting enough diplomacy perks activated and befriend schemes done in time to actually use them effectively takes freakin ages so is best used when your heir takes the throne at an early age.

[@HobiAI]

No, diplomacy sucks when you are a small duchy/county. Diplomacy is god when you are an empire.

[@ardentlyarie]

I just got into this game because of my boyfriend and have been playing a diplomatic style and I've already conquered all of Ireland and just took over Iceland as well and they alllll love me, I got friends for days😂

[@julianhermanez1694]

Love ur vids dude

[@jackochainsaw]

Diplomacy is amazing. Don't overlook it. It is especially brilliant in Tribal for the massive prestige gains.

[@billychops1280]

Snap, will you be doing a continuation stream of your last multiplayer one? So basically a part 2

[@idsbraam]

Starting with the vassalizing path and not the 'make friends' path is a mistake imho. Just pick up true ruler for the 20 bonus and then make them friends, no need to give gifts. And with making friends you can just invite 25+ skill council members.

[@mortache]

In my last game as Barcelona I swore fealty to Italy and dissolved them, but then Byzantines offered all of them vassalage and they practically owned all of Italy other than Muslim controlled boot of Sicily

[@chrispratt3666]

How can Diplomacy be the worst lifestyle category? Have people not tried the Patriarch lifestyle? Confidants eventually reduces your stress gain to zero. I especially love this with choosing my ward's personality traits and developing my capital with the diligent personality decision. Also, Friendly Council is completely broken. It says it caps at 5 but it doesn't. There is no limit to the stat gains you can get from having many, many friends. Having all 5 of your stats over 30 is not difficult at all. The only downside is constantly having your personal scheme tied up with making friends. That might make it difficult to sway the Pope or spread your witch coven but I find it to be more than worth it. I guess one of the 5 attributes has to be the worst one but they are pretty damn well designed and each one does something the others can't.

[@darththomarius6751]

That Unite Africa goal is easier with Diplomacy. I play on Xbox, so I don't have all the updates on console just yet.

[@cancionCR7]

Great video, what's the mod you're using for character animation? I've never seen that before it looks hella cool

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

Personally my default playstyle relies on diplomacy a lot since I don't like declaring wars (makes me feel like a jerk unless whoever I declared it on has picked a fight with me in the past) it's also great for managing empires with a ton of vassals, as I quickly learned that time I decided to conquer Kazaria as Dyri the Stranger (no I did not bother conquering any other land first, I just slowly expanded my army with powerful men at arms while boosting my realms development, then attacked right after they finished fending off someone else and hadn't recovered yet...) They really did not like that some random Norse dude was suddenly their boss, but I slowly befriended them while constantly putting down rebellions until finally they all gave up...

[@CaspianNomad]

If I'm running an Empire I absolutely will not let an heir inherit it unless they have diplomacy skill above all else, otherwise my vassals cause chaos during the short reign. Squashing a rebellion with a gift and befriend is pretty op if you ask me.

[@GreatZarquon]

Such a valleys way of saying "confidants" lmfao

[@ellyann4603]

Diplomatie is not the worst, I allways spend at least 1 point on every char to give my heir an additionnal 1-3 skill points X)

[@pszybysz26516]

When i play central/west/north european countries like Poland, Kievan Rus, Prussia or else, I prefer martial life style. When i play more east countries i go diplomacy or when playing Nords on British islands i go martial life style again. When playing south europe i prefer learning. I never pick stewardship.

[@christianwilson3853]

For how I play I think I’d rank them learning, stewardship, martial, intrigue then diplomacy. I almost always max whole of body and scholar on every character, I also try to get architect, and then if I need intrigue defense I get fabricate hooks and the 2 defensive intrigue perks down the middle of scheme. Or if I need to curb my vassals I get hard rule. Then I also get 1 diplomacy perk for groomed to rule

[@TheKillaShow]

You lost me at whole of body on every leader.

[@riderzaur]

@@TheKillaShow not op but with some initial luck (or custom characters) and maybe save abusing you can kinda guarantee your heir will be at least a good one and then you kinda want to get whole of body to benefit from his stuff as much as you can. In my experience tho, that means your heir should actually be a smaller child, as your first ones will already be old when you die at 80+. Or you just accept that and play around it, but usually causes too much instability in the realm

[@christianwilson3853]

@@TheKillaShow I always aim to live until my 90s so for how I play while of body is one of, if not the best skills trees in the game

[@TheKillaShow]

Whole of body is the most boring perk in the game. But if you’re afraid of your heirs than it makes sense to take, every, time.

[@leviashby6888]

My problem with diplomacy is that making alliances with hostile faiths are Impossible with the -120 acceptance. The only way is to get a hook for a marriage to get the alliance which only gives like +25 so it might not even be enough to vassalize them. Kinda backs you into taking Popular organized religions and swapping when you run out of people from that religion.

[@guillermoc9957]

hey, how do people deal the accepting gift message spam? i get around 1 notification per month and is extremely anoying.

[@Jethedril]

I’ve gotten the biggest and most stable empires using diplomacy. I would have said it’s the best

[@CatchTheMarmosets]

Martial: gain an empire Stewardship and Learning: Build that Empire Diplomacy: Maintain that Empire Intrigue: hi

[@fadelesspie9541]

Is diplomacy still good for people who don’t have the royal courts expansion yet?

[@yagzefegames7957]

how does offer vassalization work in other forms of government

[@crunchynut2559]

when is the 1 vs. 1 against cake coming?

[@Stejers]

I hate vassalization since while there is stability during your rule when you play as your heir the ammount of dissolution factions ruins your game (i know cuz it has happened to me... thrice)

[@quanguctranngo7871]

Well that is not bad. But getting the whole 3 trees takes alot of time, sometimes it means the whole character life

[@johnturner9546]

Getting everyone to be you friend is great until they start dying... then the stress starts to come.

[@zakyrel]

Hello. I believe there is a limit to this strategy since even being an empire, realms won't accept vassalisation offer because there are at a Realm level. So taking over the world that way would be not possible. If anyone can prove me wrong, I'm interested to know how they would do.

[@zephaniahgreenwell8151]

if you are patient enough you can vassalize neighboring realms after they break apart. If you collect kingdom titles, all the independent de jure counties and duchy will join.

[@jaydencoleman9011]

Should do some more videos on the Japan map

[@michakasprzak6869]

How do you handle the shitstorm that comes with having so many vassals? I mean, obviously you can make one a duke and grant them away to him so he has to deal with it, but then you'll have dozens of people under one guy and you'll be getting 0,0001% of taxes. Maybe it's just me who likes to play optimal and, if possible, I grant all the conquered land; that'd form a douchy; to one guy and if he then gives some of it away, can't do anything about it, but if he has any good stewardship then he can handle 4-6 counties at once so all the taxes go to him so he pays me bigger %

[@lj2265]

I always try to play diplomatically, but then something happens and I go off the rails in to full dread king mode lol Like the last time when someone raided me and took my wife and kid, so I went all John Wick until they were destroyed and just kept going

[@j.ackermann9110]

The only problem is, if you are a different faith, nobody will ever want to be your vassal. So diplomacy is most useful when playing as one of the big religions.

[@vali69]

Me after just logging off the game after conquering ireland than england and scotland in the tutorial and immediately getting this recommended: 👁️👄👁️

[@nunyabiznis6907]

Me, who got CK3 in September of 2020 not knowing the best lifestyle perks:

[@zjpdarkblaze]

lol i have 3k hrs of ck3 and i am gonna tell you that diplomacy is the strongest education trait. i can start my first character as a martial education, conquer and expand, and then the next characters/heirs are all diplomacy educated because the only threat to a massive empire is not another independent ruler/s but 50~ vassals rebelling against you.

[@jacobdewey2516]

Anything from this video on console yet?

[@ChristianDall-p2j]

Unfortunatly, i Think thoose factions Might come back With a vengence every succsession, becauce the character AI is bad at choosing friends! But other than that, it really is op!

[@AsianDawg46]

I wish the standard diplomacy stat was a bit more useful. It would be great if having a lot of diplomacy increased my vassalization chance, but it doesn't. It just increases my opinion. I wish it would reduce the chance that my own vassal would join factions, but it doesn't. It just increases my opinion. I wish it would reduce my truce times, but it doesn't. It just increases my opinion. I can get opinion in a million different ways, I don't need an entire different stat for that.

[@shirairyugrandmaster92]

Has Anybody Tried Restoring The Roman Empire With Rodrigo De Vivar? (El Cid)

[@chiken1627]

Ck1 vid when

[@johnacer1727]

Aaah, thats crazy

[@hoodedhound8643]

This guys accent reminds me of Mr Traumatik

[@SnapStrategy]

haha, hes from not too far from me!

[@HolgerLovesMusic]

The fact that martial on that poll only got 4%, tells you a lot about how bad the mainstream player of CK3 is.

[@sahilhossain8204]

Hmmm yes lore of diplomacy in ck3 momentum 100

[@TrytoniGaming]

Do i need Here any dlcs ?

[@BukharinStan]

You need royal court (only for the part where he talks about it).

[@shourya55]

I Actually don't know any other way than diplomacy to manage a larger realm or late game realm. Intrigue sucks much more than Diplomacy I think

[@VarjoFilosofi]

I didn't vote, because it's so situational, which works and which doesn't work. Diplomacy is insanely good in many situations.

[@SnapStrategy]

Very true! its a pretty weird question as like you said your lifestyle choice really depends on what you need!

[@timothynoak5967]

A vote on the best lifestyle might be quite interesting, to see if it differs to the worst lifestyle vote

[@VarjoFilosofi]

@@timothynoak5967 Totally agreed. If you reverse the vote about the worst education, then the best should be Stewardship. Well... I wouldn't disagree with that. It can be insanely powerful to play economically tall with it.

[@fmikael1]

I will disinherit my sons if they don't pursue a diplomacy focus. It's so powerful it almost feels like cheating

[@Henners1991]

House Blorg shall befriend everyone!

[@TheGrunaldi]

ck3 is easy with almost any route you take ... ...but can you make CK3 hard ? or something that is even more impossible ... hard in the late game ?

[@grandfathernurgle2840]

Strict roleplaying; no decisions outside of their aligned personalities, no marriages a continent away, no disinheriting unless given reason(infidelity) (personality of ruler). For an extra challenge limit domains even if you can hold more don't allow yourself to hold them directly.

[@seanfenrir]

One of the biggest diplomatic moments for me was when my small kingdom ( a few duchies) was given a partnership deal by this neighboring country to the left of me. This country was probably one of, if not the biggest country on the map and I couldn't believe it at first. Needless to say, I went on a warpath after accepting the contract.

[@N0ES]

Nakama Powah! All this time CK3 was a shōnen anime game.

[@RyanJosepher]

Diplomacy is great vs the AI. but it doesn't matter vs other players... lol. Intrigue can arguably still be "peaceful"

[@0th_Law]

I’m just confused why you kept saying “Chance” instead of something more accurate, like “Acceptance.”

[@ChristianDall-p2j]

5:28 You pronounced confidants wrong! Its a french Word!

[@estefanoespinozapiccoli7015]

56%votes ? Damn i normally don't even play Diplo because is so strong that the game becomes too easy so early in the playthrough, is probably the best Life Sylte Tree just aside Intrigue. The worst education by far is Martial but still pretty usefull and fun to play tho.

[@RSHADOW-Kaida]

Diplomacy is me hahaha

[@afridge8608]

The main good thing about diplo is ofc the offer vassalization stuff. The problem with offer vassalization is that your realm becomes fucked. Huge vassals everywhere and because you vassalised them instead of conquering them they probably have non dejure counties or are missing dejure counties. That means that they get easy casus bellis on neighbors which means that small vassals get smaller and strong get stronger. I think its kinda obvious why thats a bad thing. Sure you can use befriend and all and avoid any faction. But the moment your character dies and the next dude comes in the factions will rip you apart. All the vassals have -20 from short reign plus at least one strong vassal has -40 from not being on the council. With economy focus your power comes from buildings and baronies. With diplo it comes from perks. But baronies stay upgraded even if your character dies.

[@zephaniahgreenwell8151]

The problem is that diplomacy is boring to play. I think most players know that the perks are strong.

[@delphidelion]

Diplomacy is broke af. Just the double gift return for starters means that all your vassals will always love the shit out of you.

[@luc9427]

Second

[@caniblmolstr4503]

Diplomacy tree is more useful as a tribal Viking.. Diplomacy let's you get those better opinion with your own family to get votes in the electives.

[@Bobotix]

Third

[@shinbo010]

C'mon snap I thought this was a play through. Talk a big game back it up. Diplo challenge laid.

[@nicholasbarber3644]

should have call this the jeff bezos challenge

[@beepbop6542]

are you joking?

[@Wingsfanacc]

martial is easily the worst

[@supportkommentar6304]

Comment

[@ohhkennny766]

Useless guide because *peace was never an option*