Vassals

Veritas et Fortitudo has completely reworked the vanilla vassal system. In Veritas et Fortitudo annexing a vassal usually takes much longer than the 10 years in vanilla EU IV. Instead of simply increasing your relations with a vassal up to 190 to allow annexation, you will first need to go through an autonomous five-stage process.

Vassal Integration Stages

 * Stage I — Initial Integration
 * Stage II — Regional Governors
 * Stage III — Provincial Governors
 * Stage IV — Military Command Integration
 * Stage V — Diplomatic Mission Integration

Integration Modifiers
Each of the above integration stages requires 10 points to complete. Approximately ten times per year, a count is initiated, with a system accruing these required points through the following modifiers:

(*) The Small Vassal bonus is applied to vassals with one or two provinces if the overlord owns at least 10 provinces. (**) A Large Vassal owns at least 5 provinces. If you have a bureaucrat, then the Large Vassal malus is ignored.

Accelerate Vassal Integration
At each stage, you are given the option to accelerate the integration process for a cost in ducats and monarch points (Admin for the first 3 stages, Military for the 4th and Diplomatic for the 5th). This provides a random reduction according to the following table:

Intransigent Vassals
An "Intransigent Vassal" is one that is particularly resistant to annexation. The primary example of tho would be Burgundy as a vassal of France at the 1310 start. Vassals tagged this way (and it can happen either by designation or event) will be VERY difficult to bring through the process. An Intransigent Vassal gets no bonuses and speeds up only at 33% speed.

Setbacks to Vassal Integration
A number of circumstances can cause setbacks in your attempt to integrate your vassal, up to including outright rebellion. During the Black Death, these events are much more likely. If you allow your Administrative Capacity to stay too low for too long, the vassal may decide they have a chance to break free.

Vassal Government
Upon receiving a new vassal you will be given the option to change your vassal's government type to Vassal Governorship. A governorship greatly increases your vassal's national tax modifier by +20.0% and its national manpower modifier by +20.0% but also increases its revolt risk by +5.00. Monarchies will also have the chance to put a family member on the throne of their newly acquired vassal.

Vassal Feeding
A term for 'feeding your vassals provinces,' in Veritas et Fortitudo, vassal feeding has major disadvantages. It will take many years - sometimes even decades - to complete the integration process for a vassal with five or more provinces. Additionally, if that vassal happens to follow a different religion than you, then it will take even longer for you to receive the option for annexation. However, despite all this, vassal feeding still works in Veritas et Fortitudo, and works best if you don't feed your vassal provinces until it reaches Stage 4 or Stage 5. An OPM that follows your religion reaches Stage 4 at an acceptable speed, and can then be used for adopting new provinces. Vassals in VeF don't buy provinces of non-accepted cultures, unless the province is a claim of the vassal or a core of the owner. So, plan accordingly when looking to force the growth of your vassal.