Diplomatic

[Gilgamesh]

Playing as the king of Sweden, I had a marriage with the Teutonic Order. They kept wanting to offer me a military alliance, but even though they offered it, they wanted me to give them all sorts of goodies to get it. I refused. Then they invaded me. So much for marriage offering any protection. On the other hand, I saved right before the Tuetonic Order declared war, so when I rebooted, a different nationality chose to declare war on me. I think the AI just decides it's time to attack and randomly picks a nation to attack. I tried beforehand to form alliances of any sort, but they all wanted to bleed my country dry in order to make any agreement. It does seem to be the kind of game where if you focus on staying at home to build up your own nation, you get invaded. Yet it you try to expand, you piss off your neighbors and get invaded. The diplomacy doesn't seem to offer much of an alternative to slash and burn.