Diplomatic Annexations (what's up with that)

[unmerged(1887)]

I wonder if I am the only one frustrated by the difficulty in vassalizing a minor and then annexing one.

As England I thought it would be nice to annex Scotland and as Austria I thought it would be nice to annex Hungary.

Many times I spend big $$$ to get them up to 190+, offer vassalization, have them decline, and repeat. After a little patience, they finally accept.

After I wait ten years, I offer them annexation, they decline and cancel vassalization forcing me to start all over again.

Both countries have good diplomatic monarchs. It seems very dicey to pull of a diplomatic annexation.

One game as Austria I annexed Bohemia in 1493, royal marriage+alliance+one letter to Hungary and I was up to +200. Offered them vassalization in Jan 1495, they accepted. Exactly 10 years later I offer them annexation and they accept. This is the big exception, most times it is a long, frustrating, expensive project.

Please tell me if I'm doing it wrong.

 

[JScott991]

You are doing it right. There is a lot of randomness built into it, which makes for a less than enjoyable experience when trying to use it.

If Austria would inherit Hungary as it is supposed to, then I wouldn't care.

 

[unmerged(1888)]

Personally I'm fairly happy with it. It's a high-risk/high reward strategy. Compare the amount of money spent in a successful diplomatic annexation with a military annexation - the troops, the loss of stability, etc. While waiting to annex a vassal takes time, so does fighting the war against one.
Meanwhile, instead of fighting them, in the ten year period while waiting to try to annex, you can be doing other things, fighting other wars, investing in infrastructure, and so on. I found it's a good way to work on one border - try to annex diplomatically one of your neighbors, while kicking the tar out of the others Worked great for me the last game I play as Sweden in Age of Mercantilism - annexed Denmark diplomatically while pounding on Russia, then managed to get the Hanseatic league as well within a few tries. Was working on Prussia next, but after I finally managed to win the painful coalition war to get Danzig and a border with Prussia, I failed 3 times in a row, so go figure.