Slitherine

First time post, really enjoying FoGE, great game. However, this has been bugging me...

Is there ever a situation where the Absorb diplomacy command is viable for the player? As Rome I've had the 3 region Etruscans as a Client State for at least 100 turns now and I completely dwarf them (Rome is second after Antiganods in Legacy with approx 100 regions). Absorbing the Etruscans costs about 1700 diplomacy points which is out of reach even with large money, metal and manpower reserves. After experimenting the only feasible way of doing it seems to be to get the Etruscans to cede one region at a time. Once they are down to their last region (their capital) there is an extra 500 cost penalty (because it is their last one) but even with this penalty ceding costs 600ish while absorbing still costs 700 points. So at no point was Absorb a cost effective option. Have I missed something here, is there ever a situation where Absorb is useful?

Meanwhile, the AI seems to play by completely different rules. The Antiganods made Epirus (with 10 or so regions I believe?) a client state then less than 10 turns later they were able to absorb them in one go. That absorb would have cost a human player 4000+ I think so the logic must work quite differently.

AI pairs (of client state and liege) can indeed benefit from a special script where if the relationships are good, the CS can be directly absorbed into the liege. This is off for the player ...

As for the cost, perhaps it can be tweaked and reduced in some exceptional circumstances, but we must be wary to not open an exploit here.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm fine with the AI operating by slightly different rules. However it does seem a bit odd to have the Absorb option. Not having done it maybe there is some advantage over ceding regions (eg maybe you get their army if you absorb? Not that I wanted their army) but currently it seems a bit pointless for the human player.

Maybe it should get a bit cheaper over time based on number of turns as a content (high relationship) client state. Dunno.

You get their region as a friendly transfer, so without penalty to loyalty and productivity, plus their armies plus all their resources, except legacy.