How to declare war on former allies ?

[KarlXII]

I must have missed something major here. I am playing sweden and is allied to France, Preussia, Russia and Turkey.
The opportunity has arisen for me to take on the weakened France which also happens to be my ally. So I move my armies to Paris and to other protectoriates of France.

How do I declare war ? I cannot do that by right clicking the province. Declare war doesn´t exist. What exists is "Cease alliance" and "cease violate neutrality". I first try to declare war by the diplomatic screen with no effect. Then I try to cease the alliance (successfull) but I am still not at war and I see no way in which I can declare war, so I move up my diplomats to french territory but I don´t find any options for them to use either. So what is wrong ? What am I missing ? I have also tried "Cease violating neutrality" to no effect. Not that I think that would do anything but since I´ve tried everything else....

I mean...can´t I just declare war as an diplomatic action on the diplomacy screen ? Countries to which I am not allied have the option Declare war when I right click on an province belonging to them....

[Ralegh]

In order to be able to declare war, you must:
a) not be allied (note you can break an alliance)
b) not be under mandatory peace
c) not be under peace via a treaty (note you can cancel a treaty)
d) not be at war with any country your proposed new enemy is also at war with.

It's probably this last one you have fallen afoul of - here is an example: if France is at war with Spain, and Turkey is at war with Spain, then Turkey cannot declare war on France. If Turkey made a cease fire with Spain, then they would be allowed to declare war on France.

[KarlXII]

Thanks! ...I am at war with Britain since ancient times (I am in 1812 now and started in 1792 or 1796...don´t remember) so that´s why I can´t declare war on France which is also at war with Britain.

But....I still don´t understand why I can´t go to war with them, though I know the rules works that way. Can you give a logical reason behind this ?

[Ralegh]

Well, 2 main points:
Firstly, what happened historically fits within this rule - Europe tended to split into opposing camps, rather than what happens without this sort of rule, with lots of different sides. The game designer (Eric Babe [&o]) thought this rule would be a nice simple way to encourage behaviour that seems to match history even if we don't really understand why.

Secondly, since I have degrees in politics and public policy with minors in history, I will put forward a theory as to why things happened that way: Machiavelli was part of the training of princes, and SunTzu wasn't - nor was blitzkreig a recognised concept. They had an emotional bias towards "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" type of thinking. Given the lag time involved in things like trade, assumptions like this certainly were convenient.

[Titanwarrior89]

Thanks Ralegh that was also a big help to me. Thank ya[:D]

ORIGINAL: Ralegh

Well, 2 main points:
Firstly, what happened historically fits within this rule - Europe tended to split into opposing camps, rather than what happens without this sort of rule, with lots of different sides. The game designer (Eric Babe [&o]) thought this rule would be a nice simple way to encourage behaviour that seems to match history even if we don't really understand why.

Secondly, since I have degrees in politics and public policy with minors in history, I will put forward a theory as to why things happened that way: Machiavelli was part of the training of princes, and SunTzu wasn't - nor was blitzkreig a recognised concept. They had an emotional bias towards "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" type of thinking. Given the lag time involved in things like trade, assumptions like this certainly were convenient.

[YohanTM2]

So I move my armies to Paris and to other protectoriates of France.

This seems a tad, read as TAD, gamey. I would hope the coding would not allow it.

[Gem35]

a tad? how about ridiculously gamey [;)] at least he can't send his villagers in as soldiers.[8D]

[Ralegh]

ORIGINAL: Gem35
a tad? how about ridiculously gamey [;)] at least he can't send his villagers in as soldiers.[8D]

Thats nothing. Try being at peace with Britain, and choose to violate their territory. Ship over a few loads of soldiers. Sometimes they will get annoyed and declare war on you - saving you the hassle. Sometimes they wait for you to do it. Thats gamey.