My Ally Won't Federate: Is It Me?

Relationships are all about timing, and it’s not uncommon to find yourself in a position where you want to take your diplomatic ties to the next level, but the seemingly perfect empire next door just isn’t ready to federate.

You know how the story goes. You’ve been neighbours for over twenty years. You both get along well together, with shared values and strategic interests. They seem to enjoy your platitudes and intermittent bulk gifts of alloys. Yet even after all of that, their federation invite acceptance is still hovering around -5, and they’re forming pacts like there’s no tomorrow with some random neutrals halfway across the galaxy.

If your neighbour isn’t ready for a federation, should you wait to see if they will eventually provide you with the commitment you’re seeking? It’s important to consider a few key points.

Why is my neighbour afraid of commitment?

If a potential federation partner is apprehensive about forming a union with you, there may be explanations for this type of behaviour.

1. They were hurt in the past: One common reason behind fear of commitment is painful past relationships. Have they just broken free from a hegemony? Was a previous galactic union sucking their naval capacity dry? Perhaps by keeping your relationship causal, they’re protecting themselves from future heartache.

2. They’re just getting out of a serious relationship: This is another driving factor for commitment avoidance. Has a recent stable relationship come to an abrupt end? Have they just been booted out of a local trade league, or left on their own terms? Either way, your neighbour may not be ready to jump back into a serious commitment.

3. They’re afraid to let you down: Your neighbour may see your fleet doomstacks (the biggest in the galaxy, of course) and worry about the consequences of not living up to your expectations. By not getting involved, no-one gets hurt.

4. They aren’t sure about their feelings for you: Apprehension may come from not being confident you’re the right fit. Why are you trying to start a federation as a xenophobic isolationist anyway? Tip: be sure to translate each others’ communications first before trying to engage in diplomacy!

5. They want to play the field: It’s also a possibility that your partner just doesn’t want to be tied down, and likes having very open borders with all different kinds of xenos.

What can do to overcome my neighbour’s fear of commitment?

If commitment to federating remains a persistent issue, there are a few different steps you can take to help deal with the issue.

1. Prove your loyalty: Intermittent resource gifting is a half-hearted attempt to win favour and everyone knows it. Prove your worth to a potential partner by commiting to monthly resource transfers (yes, including alloys), sharing sensors and promising fidelity through non-aggression and defensive pacts. Sure, it’s not easy, but neither is a commitment to a federation that will stand the test of time.

2. Demand it: If your neighbour isn’t willing to commit, you’ll need to show them how to by vassalizing them or enforcing a hegemon. It will hurt for sure, but sometimes the deepest of love can grow from strategically placed orbital mind control satellites.

3. Shop around: If they’re playing the field, why aren’t you? Often times you don’t need to look far. Everyone has that over-familiar fungoid species that lives just over the nebula. They’d be more than willing to federate just for the fun of it. Is there a species in your home territory that you can uplift or enlighten? Sure, they’re not nearly as charismatic or mutually beneficial as your old neighbour, but these new friends are certain to have your back with twice the enthusiasm.

4. Work on yourself: Perhaps the problem lies within? Are you comfortable and confident in your values? An ethos shift for your society might just give you the edge you need in winning federation running mates. Adopt a diplomatic tradition, or promise to defend the galaxy to get their envoys swooning.

Ultimately you have to decide what’s right for you. But, if after some time your potential partner is still avoiding commitment to federating, the only thing you should be committing to is moving on.

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7 Signs Your Vassal Is Looking For Subjugation Elsewhere

Fidelity is one of the most important aspects of a vassal-overlord relationship. For that reason, it can be absolutely devastating for an overlord to discover their vassal is secretly consorting with another space-nation who is supporting their independence.

When the inevitable diplomatic breakdown occurs, many overlords are completely blindsided. However, there are some warning signs that might help you unearth vassal duplicity and protect yourself in the longer term.

Vassal Betrayal: The Warning Signs

1. Communication breakdown

This could be little things, such as your vassal no longer sending you 100 minerals intermittently to appease you, or not responding as promptly to your tribute requests. You may hear legitimate-sounding excuses like “I can’t afford to send you food because we’re having a famine right now” or “but you already have access to everything anyway.” Don’t fall for it, they’re being evasive and you need to look into it.

2. Personality change

This is a big sign of infidelity. Is your vassal being more secretive? More argumentative? Perhaps they’re sending more insults than usual? Sometimes this is the result of feeling guilty. Backstabbing vassals tend to try to rationalize their own behaviour, and one way they do this is projecting blame onto you, their benevolent overlord. Their leaders tell themselves you’re not as powerful as when you first met, you’re not as generous with gifting resources or they want more open-border relationships with other space-nations. Remember - if you’re questioning yourself, your attention is being averted away from your vassal.

3. Change in integration drive

Suddenly your vassal has no drive for integration anymore. Or perhaps it’s gone the other way, and they won’t stop trying to integrate? This is a classic sign of guilt. The vassal feels remorse for cheating and is trying to cover it up, because they’re thinking about getting integration elsewhere. Another worrying sign is if your vassal starts suddenly introducing new techniques and activities to facilitate integration. As much as you might enjoy this, it’s possible they’re learning these processes outside of your diplomatic relationship.

4. Change of schedule

You’re at war, you flag your fleets to lead, and you wait for vassal support to show up. Except they’re not there. If your vassal starts showing up late or stops showing up at all to your very justifiable wars, it shows they’re not making an effort for you anymore and they’re just not invested in a shared future. Lack of alloys, slow build times and sub-light traffic delays may be the typical excuses you hear. In actual fact, your vassal is probably trying to save resources to swoon your neighbouring rival space-nation.

5. Spending sprees

If there are dramatic changes in your vassal’s economy, or suddenly they have less energy credits available, it’s possible that they’re siphoning resources towards getting another space nation to support their bid for independence. The costs can add up quickly for cheating vassals - resource gifts, re-armament etc. If it’s unusual behaviour, you should follow the energy trail.

6. Hiding map colours

It’s an accepted standard that vassals adopt the map and border colour of their overlord. This is a tradition dating back hundreds of years and is an outward display of diplomatic matrimony. If your vassal suddenly starts hiding their map colour by switching to the non-union map mode, they’re yearning for pastures new.

7. Your other vassals are uncomfortable around you

With vassal treachery, the overlord is nearly always the last to find out. The cheater’s fellow vassal peers often know about the infidelity right from the start. This knowledge typically causes these vassals to feel uncomfortable around you. They might also start ignoring your requests, or sending you seemingly pointless gifts of minerals. Be aware, and remember they may squeal first if you apply just the right amount of pressure.

Vassal Betrayal: The Confrontation

An overlord accusing a vassal of betrayal is an emotionally fraught time for all involved. Tensions will be running high. If not contained, it’s likely succession and all-out war will erupt.

In the next issue we’ll take a look at 10 tips for confronting a cheating vassal.

Remember - you can’t take back the accusation of vassal cheating once you’ve made it, and it’s going to look really awkward when you’re halfway through planet-cracking all of their inhabited worlds only to find out they’ve not done anything wrong.

7 Warning Signs Your Federation is in Trouble

Do you suspect you're seeing and feeling the warning signs of a federation breakup? Are you worried that your closest trading partner is about to end your political union? Or perhaps you're thinking about leaving? Don't worry, you're not alone.

Hi there. I'm An'ul, award winning author of The State of My Union, and more recently the bestselling Federations: The Art of Intimacy.

I'm writing a series of articles for the Opinion feature on the complexities of federations, and what you can do to make yours work.

Today we're going to be covering the 7 warning signs that your political union may be in trouble:

Sponsored: Federations, The Art of Intimacy - available now!

1. You’re thinking about independence

There are many reasons you may be tempted to seek independence - the freedom of declaring war when you please without a vote, the thrill of not having to wait 300 years to be federation president, the power of being able to purge former federation species. If these sentiments resonate with you, trouble may be afoot in your political marriage.

2. You fight about the same thing over and over and over

Let’s face it - federations and internal conflict go hand in hand.  It’s impossible for more than two species to live under the same galactic roof without arguing from time to time. Why are you declaring war on them again? Why won't you help me defend against the Unbidden invading my homeworld? Did you seriously invite those plantoids that just discovered FTL into our federation? These sort of discussions are not in themselves a problem, but if you find yourselves having the same argument over and over and over with no appreciation of your political partner’s point of view, you may be headed for trouble.

3. Escalating fights

In addition to having the same fights, when these arguments grow in intensity and frequency over time, you should be wary.  Sometimes, escalating fights can result in either verbal insults or passive-aggressive acts like your trading partner building a frontier outpost in a mineral rich system that was clearly in your sphere of influence, or a federation fleet consisting of one damaged corvette coming to your aid in a defensive war. This sort of hostility is a serious red flag that union breakdown is imminent.

4. Distance

Countless federation members have wanted to know the number one cause for federation breakdown in this day and age, and this is something I cover extensively in Federations: The Art of Intimacy. The answer to this is obvious - federation members aren't spending enough physical time together. The strongest federations are comprised of neighbours, whose borders affront each other. There is contact. They touch, often. When something is happening in their local cluster, there is a need to cooperate and work together. When federations are formed from members with shared ethos but flung across the galaxy, that physicality and closeness is removed and members start leading separate lives. I have worked with many federations who have let things slip because each member does their own thing. Unless they're willing to reprioritise what's truly important - time together (and lots of touching) - their political marriage will remain in the danger zone.

5. Focusing more on your vassals more than each other

Let's face it - we're all inward looking to some degree. Most of us tend to focus on our own vassals and primitive species within our borders, making them our number one priority. There are many reasons we do this - perhaps we felt neglected when we were a vassal, or our populations are really hungry and those vassals need to be eaten ASAP. On the surface, this internal obsession makes sense - but if we live our entire political life this way, our federation begins to suffer. We become strangers to our fellow federation members. In this hollow relationship, once vassals are integrated/eaten and primitives uplifted/eaten, we can be left with what I like to call 'Empty Nest Syndrome' - it's a huge void and hard to fix. I always tell federations the best thing they can do for their vassals is to make the federation relationship the most important. Share responsibilities of managing/eating vassals equally. Vassals and primitives benefit enormously from stable economic unions, and even more importantly it models to them what good federations look like.

6. Having little or no migration

It’s not uncommon for one federation member to have a lower migration drive than the other. This, in and of itself, is not a sign that your political marriage is in trouble.  When this does become a problem, however, is when a member with a low population refuses to accept a migration request from a member with a higher population or overpopulation. This can result in the higher population member feeling hurt, rejected, deflated, emotionally disconnected, angry and desperate. Once someone experiences these feelings, a multitude of things can happen.  The members can stop being friends, spending time together in joint war exercises, and generally enjoying each others culture. If your relationship is migration-starved, you or your federation should re-examine the reasons it’s happening and do whatever it takes to bring back the passion for restriction-free travel.  Even if it’s slow going in the beginning, you have to start somewhere.  Allowing your species' differences to divide you often puts a political marriage at risk of infidelity (joining another federation) or collapse.

7. Talking strictly about superficial topics

For some, diplomacy is the best way to feel emotionally connected. And if you’re someone who feels connected through words, not just any words will do. You need meaningful debates, alliances, joint declarations.  When federations don’t make time to talk - to find out about each other’s economies, internal policies, hopes, fears- the federation can seem perfunctory or superficial. From the beginning you need to hit the hard questions - are we an economic union? A political union? A military union? Or are we all of the above, and potentially more? Superficial discussion means superficial members, and a high turnover rate of membership.

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Do you recognize yourself, a federation member or the whole federation when you read through the seven warning signs? Don’t despair - the answers and so much more are in my new book, Federations: The Art of Intimacy.

There is a great deal that you can do to bolster your political relationships.  But don’t be complacent.  Heed these warnings.  And when you do, your federation will be a healthier and happier place to be.

That's all for now - stayed tuned for our next installment - Taking The Lead: Turning Your Federation Into An Autocratic Paradise.

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