Joining alliance (AXIS/ALLIES)

[Zuikaku]

TL:DR: Let us choose what alliances we want to be part of. ._.

I don't usually play as a smaller nation, so this issue doesn't really affect my game-play, but I wanted to express my agreement with the sentiment that we should, no matter how hard it may be to attain, be able to switch political associations/alliances. There should be a way to do this, even if it costs you world wide approval.

Sometimes, if BG does not see enough concern about an issue in the way of negative or affirmative comments, then they decide it does not need to be fixed.

But this needs to be fixed - BADLY!!!

[Athene]

I can't even join the Axis as Italy in the Italian campaign because the Pact of steel event never happens...

[vahadar]

There is a very easy way to make a nation likes you a lot to allow for alliances that works all the time if you arent on same spere of influence, even works if you are on opposite spheres of influence !

For exemple as Siam i could ally with UK, Italy, Japan, Germany and France.

What is mentioned in the first post by OP is all the classic tricks used since SR2020 to trigger an alliance, but not only.

The fatest way to raise Diplomatic rating is to conduct many trades.
The fatest way to raise civilian rating is to give free stuff.
But generally doing this isnt profitable at all for you money wise

What you need to remember is that any little casus belli you have or little casus belli they have will prevent any alliance even if you are 100% green on both side.
Casus belli level should not be above 10-12% sometime much lower depending on diplomatic difficulty settings, but generally you could make alliances with a cb of 7-10% (this was since SRCW, it wasnt so hard to make alliances in SR2020). Doing trades will generally lower cb over time.

There is a simple way to test if an alliance will be accepted when you have green relations but have some casus belli. It has worked since SR2020 and was used to force countries into an alliance when proposing just an alliance wasnt working. Propose all those treaties at the same time, not in multiple times, in the following order in the diplomatic window :
criminal extradition > free flow > free trade > air transit > land transit > sea transit > full transit > line of sight > missile defense > mutual defense > non aggression > and finally alliance

In SR2020 doing this trick in one same diplo trade would allow you to have alliances you would normally not be able to make just with proposing the alliance trade. Same in SRCW, but casus belli made it harder in this game.

If you go directly for alliance it will be generally not accepted.
From the moment it turns green when adding non-aggression, when it was still yellowish with mutual-defense, it means alliance might be accepted. It was the trick that forced alliance in SR2020.
If adding alliance to the proposal turns back red then you need to work a bit more on lowering casus belli, or raising diplo/civilian ratings. When alliance turns green, you are good.

A quick way to raise ratings is to trade a commodity a country will need, for exemple oil. And to buy it back right after then to buy technologies from that same country. And repeat process.

How it works :
- Buy a large stock of oil on the market, say 25 millions to start with.

- Then sell batch of oil to the country you want to have good relations with. Batches of 5 to 10 millions units if they have the treasury for it (must be above 1k-1.5k for batch of 5m, and 2-2.5k for batch of 10m,to have best profits)
If the country have stocks of oil, empty its stocks by buying from that country before.
At first selling oil to that country wont be interesting at all for you, and you will loose money doing so, but ratings will rise.

- Then buy back what you just sold, and buy extra if needed to make sure that country have always low stock of oil.
When you buy back what you just sold you might loose money in the beginning, low relations=bad prices.
Buying it back right after ensure they are always on low stock and thus will always pay more for it after each new trade, simply because rating will improve after each trade : they are more thankfull because you provide them with what they need. Doing so will increase both Diplomatic and Civilian ratings and will even lower casus belli over time.

- From the moment they are in the orange-green they start to pay normal price for goods, after that they will even pay more for those goods they need. And they will ask you less money when you buy it back than the real value of the goods. This is the interesting part of the trick.
Also the simple fact that more money is involved in the trade boost the diplomatic rating, even if it is them who are loosing more money in the trade (paying more that the real cost of what you offer). This was the case since SR2020, especially for tech trading that involves big amount of money.

- You can buy from world market more stocks for you before selling to that nation so you make sure the price offered will be better because the market price will rise a bit at the end of the day even if you dont see it (probably in the decimals, not shown).

- To go even further into this, you can purchase technology with the margin you make from oil trade from that same nation you are trading oil with, one tech at a time, so the next tech trade will be cheaper since rating will improve with each trade. The simple fact that tech trading involves a lot of money greatly improve rating after each trade done.
Start to buy techs when diplomatic rating is in the light green.
Buying technologies is important because it replenish the target country treasury and you need that country to have a large treasury to conduct your oil trade to boost diplomatic, since you will really drain their treasury when they start to like you.
Also when they have close to delighted relation with you, you will get back that money you spent on technologies selling them oil again and again.

Doing so will improve the ratings faster than your country natural sphere of influence leaning. and you will be able to make alliances without loosing any money (even gaining money and techs).

To summarize :
1- buy a large stock of oil
2- sell small batch of oil to a country that needs it. Make sure to empty that country stocks by buying from it before. At some point you will sell for insane price.
3- buy back what you just sold or even more to maintain them in an oil shortage. At some point you will pay very low price, making a huge margin with steps 2-3.
4- buy from world market time to time to maintain good selling price with target nation (at some point you are even able to buy from world market the same amount of oil you just sold to that country with the margin you make in the process, and still have some margin money left after that. this to make sure oil price rise, so you are a winners all time)
5- when you have enough money selling oil to them, and when they start to be light green, buy some technologies with the margin you make, it will both increase diplomatic ratings and replenish the target country treasury to maintain good oil price when you sell to that country. You will get back your money spent on techs by selling more oil again.
6- repeat the process daily from step 2 untill you can make an alliance. rating will improve and casus belli will lower over time, and you wont loose any money at all.

At some points you will make even tons of money doing so (i'm speaking of 200-400 gold every 2 days doing this with a few countries, that's what i make trading with 3-4 countries. With germany only you make like 150-200 gold margin every 2 days when they are delighted) and their diplomatic status will improve towards you at the same time. And you will "steal" all their technologies like this

As for me i didnt use this trick to ally with Ger, Jap, UK, Italy and France, even if proposing alliance was accepted by them, simply because i didnt want to have other nations rating changed because of my alliances. On a side note as a neutral country, Italy will probably be the first country you can ally with because of their fast oil shortage. I used that to have all techs (exept non tradable of course) before 1939 (because casus belli will rise after all those war declarations), and make quite some money to develop my country, having the benefit of delighted relations with the said countries if i needed new techs. Also in 1940 i'm sitting on a stock of 200 millions oil buying extras from world market with the margin, when every other countries lack oil