User Guide

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symbol of country’s official realm religion will
appear to the left of its state culture, and its
current level of military technology is shown
just below. You will then be able to review any
other diplomatic relationships that the realm
has with other nations, including a list of any
casus belli.
The boxes that extend from the top to the
bottom of the center of the interface will show
any national ideas that the country has adopted,
and the boxes at the bottom left of the screen
will identify any great men currently employed
in its court. Almost all of the information on
the interface has tool tips that will provide fur-
ther details, and even more is available by con-
sulting the various pages of your ledger.
The icon in the bottom-left corner is one
that you haven’t seen yet. This is the “send spy”
button that opens the Espionage Interface that
we’ll talk about towards the end of this chapter.
Before we do that, let’s roll up our sleeves and
dig into the list of diplomatic actions.
Initiating Diplomacy
The right side of the Diplomatic Interface con-
tains a scrollable list of the diplomatic actions
that you can initiate with that ruler, provided
that you have a diplomat available in your
country’s pool. Each action you take consumes
a diplomat, so all of the buttons will be greyed
out if you do not have one available. Once you
have clicked on an option, the diplomat will be
removed from your pool and will travel to the
other realm to convey your message. If the ac-
tion you have initiated requires a response from
the other country, there will be a delay before
you receive an answer. The length of the de-
lay depends on the distance between your two
capitals and it might be several weeks before
an on-screen message is displayed to tell you
the ruler’s reply. Other actions, such as a dec-
laration of war, require no response from the
other realm and will take effect immediately.
Regardless of the time required to complete the
action and receive a response, you must always
wait for one full month to elapse before you
will be able to initiate a new action with that
nation, and all the options will be greyed out.
Some actions have prerequisites that must be
met before they are available. If the button is
greyed out, either you do not have a diplomat
available, or you have already conducted diplo-
macy with the nation within the last 30 days,
or you do not meet all of the criteria necessary
to be able to take that action. If you hover your
mouse over an option, a tool tip will appear
that describes the action, its effects, and any
prerequisites or costs involved.