User Guide

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country’s territory, nor may your ships enter
that nation’s ports. This restriction can be re-
moved by sending a diplomat to the country to
request that the ruler grant you military access.
Once access has been granted, you may freely
move your forces through that country’s prov-
inces and your fleets may enter that country’s
ports in order to take on new supplies or repair
themselves. The agreement is not reciprocal.
If you have granted another country access to
your realm, you will still have to make a sepa-
rate request before you will have military access
to its provinces.
A request for military access is far more
likely to be granted if you have a good relation-
ship with that country, and if you have a good
reputation, high prestige, and a monarch with
a high diplomacy attribute. The country will
respond once you diplomat has journeyed there
to convey your request. You may, if you wish,
allow another nation’s military forces to enter
your territory by voluntarily giving it military
access, even if it has not requested this privi-
lege. This will not improve your relationship
with the country, but will allow its forces to
move through your territory which might have
some strategic value in the future. The other
country may, if it wishes, respond by declining
your offer.
Beyond granting permission for forces to
enter another country’s territory, there is a
special condition that is placed on the coun-
try which has been granted access: you can-
not declare war on a country with which you
have a military access agreement. If you wish
to declare war then you must first send a diplo-
mat to cancel the agreement, and then wait for
one month to elapse before you will be able to
declare war. This creates a strategic advantage
for granting access to your territory, since you
are then guaranteed at least a 30-day warning
before that country could declare war on you.
Beware! This is not a reciprocal condition so
there is no restriction that prevents a country
from declaring war on you, even if it is cur-
rently granting you military access.
A military access agreement is permanent.
It will remain in effect until one of the nations
decides to cancel the agreement by sending a
diplomat with the message that military access
has been revoked. Doing so will harm your re-
lationship, and is often interpreted as being a
preliminary step towards a declaration of war.
We should point out that the access that
a vassal automatically grants to its overlord is
not treated as a military access agreement. The
overlord is allowed to declare war on its vassal,
although a hostile action of this type will dam-
age both its stability and reputation.
Declaring War
Declaring war on another nation is the most
hostile diplomatic action available, and should
not be done lightly since its effects are immedi-
ate and irrevocable. Issuing a declaration of war
will instantly plunge your realms into a war
that can only be concluded by subsequently
negotiating a peace. There are a variety of re-
strictions and effects that you should carefully
consider before embarking on a campaign.
Restrictions Prohibiting a
Declaration of War
There are a several special diplomatic relation-
ships that can be created between realms that
must first be broken before you will be allowed
to declare war. If the “declare war” button is
greyed out, it will be due to one of these restric-
tions and the button’s tool tip will identify the
reason that you cannot declare war.
• You cannot declare war on a country with
which you have a "Personal Union" since
this would essentially mean that you are
declaring war on yourself. You must wait
until the current ruler dies and the person-
al union is dissolved. This restriction ap-
plies to both the senior and junior partner
of the union.
• You cannot declare war on an ally. You
must first dissolve the alliance between
your realms (unless it has been broken as a
result of some other action) and then wait