Is you're relationship with you're allies at 100%? I'm playing as Rome, Medium/Medium Difficulty 161 turns in. Massalia and Boii are my protectorates by their request since the beginning of the game. I've been allied with Allobroges for 20+ turns. They asked me for help in their war against Aedui. From the start I always pay them 500 per turn. At this point every few turns I'll throw some money at them. Never had any issues yet. I'm sure if you're playing hard or very hard things might be a little different.

Nothing we can really do about it. Diplomacy in RTW is kinda ♥♥♥♥ and always will be. Rule of thumb is to NEVER trust the AI and make sure to station troops on the border to make it less likely to attack you.

This might sound weird, but I've found diplomacy fairly straightforward to manage in this mod, in a way that's impossible in vanilla. Genuinely, I've been at peace on a few borders for over 100 turns in my current campaign.

Hear me out.

Essentially, the AI will *ALWAYS* attack you if leave an opening with any garrison where you border them. Even if you're an ally.

They make decisions whether to attack based on auto-resolve outcomes - that is, the numbers and stats of the troops in the settlements where you share a border.

So, in this mod many melee troops have be given very high defence values. Stock your garrisons with cheaper high-stat troops, like hoplites (base defence 36-38). DO NOT stock them with low stat troops like archers and peltasts.

If you are bordering a small faction, 4-5 hoplites units in the border towns has kept them at peace. High level walls are a big factor in auto resolve results too - upgrade them wherever possible. The jump between wooden walls and stone walls appears to be particularly huge as far auto-resolves go.

If you are bordering a powerful faction, chances are, you will need proportionately strong garrisons. I have a border with Macedon, the AI only seems interested in one settlement - it has a full stack in it. They moved 3 stack up to it for a while then later left.

Try to expand in such a way that you create bottlenecks on the border (like with coastlines and mountains), then pack that bottleneck town with a strong garrison.

In the early game if you're weak, you're just going to have to fight and expand until you can afford the budget for those garrisons.


Side note, alliances tend to hold up if you have a common enemy. If you keep to the above strategy as well, you'll prevent a backstab.

I hope this helps!

compared to vanilla rome 1, this diplomacy is acceptable. i still get vietnam flashbacks of "do not attack, accept or we will attack."

Thanks for the answers everybody. I'll consider continuing my campaign while paying my allies and stacking my borders.