Slitherine

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I've heard that being too big is bad and I would very much like to release some of these provinces into protectorates. (Release as Vassal for those familiar with EUII). But I can't figure out how to do it?

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On the one hand, for example, it still thinks Karlsburg is a protectorate of Britain on the diplomacy screen, even though it's fully mine. In either case, I've tried clicking on "Form Protectorate" but nothing happens. Is there any way I can do this?

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Secondly, I don't know how this happened, but as I mentioned before, I had a protectorate over Poland. All of a sudden, in one turn, Krakow is independent and every other former Polish province is mine - full color and ability to build. Then it becomes a protectorate of France and the Polish provinces return to dashed status.

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ORIGINAL: Ralegh

In COG, there are countries (able to have their own troops) and there are provinces. [All the 89 countries are listed on the Country Details list - if they are on that list, they can have their own forces!]

Many are the same thing - Bessarabia is a single province that is also a country. There are many provinces (over a hundred) that cannot be countries - Austria or Illyria provinces, for example [there are 214 provinces in the game, including the 40 or so sea areas]. There are some countries with names that are different from any province (Poland and Veneto for example), but they still have a hard coded capital - the capital city of the major province you would expect, so its just a slightly different name without that having any influence on the game (besides confusing me).

[There is no difference between a province deep in Russia and a province in Poland: it is either capable of being a country in its own right, or it is not. There is no concept of "home nation", race or religion in COG countries/provinces.]

COG does not have a list of what provinces or countries can be part of other countries - it is free form. So theoretically, Illyria province could be part of Poland, for example. Poland could also either "own" Veneto (for example) as a protectorate, and hence Illyria province as a protectorate, or have Veneto as conquered, which would look like Venice and Illyria were normal provinces, but Illyria would behave oddly.
What do I mean by oddly? If Veneto was conquered, and that brought Illyria into your control, then one month after loosing Veneto, Illyria would go too - their loyalty is to Veneto, not to you.

It could get worse - Poland could have Posen as a protectorate rather than as a province, and Posen could have some other provinces being loyal to it. My head is spinning trying to hold that straight.

So, loosing Warsaw means loosing all the Polish provinces, because you got them as part of Poland. If you had got them independantly, then Warsaw wouldn't matter.

OK - now things get interrupted by a bug - in some circumstances in 1.0 the subordinate province in a protectorate can get seperated from its parent, and the housekeeping code guesses wrong about what to do. Its a bug, I hope it will be fixed soon.

The added complications are:
a) you can't add a province or protectorate to a protectorate, - there is no UI for it. It is setup in the scenario start files (and hence modable)
b) it is not at all easy to tell if a province's loyalty is to you or to a protectorate or province you control. If it is a country, you can look up its loyalty on the Country Details screen, and then compare with the flags visible when you select the country. But sometimes you just can't tell.

Finally, one note: I have put forward a theory that protectorate status should mean less waste - but it is a theory, not a proven fact.

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I would like to question if it is really worth more to vassalise (turn into a protectorate) a conquered.

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ORIGINAL: Ralegh

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I would like to question if it is really worth more to vassalise (turn into a protectorate) a conquered.

I agree with your reservations completely. I am trying to figure some of this out at the moment. The only reason I know of to create a protectorate IMHO is to get the corps counter or army counters of those few who get those. Plus I suppose Saxony creates Lancers!
- If you beat up their army and then free them, do you get any military from them, or it is nulled? [At the moment I think it is nulled.]
- If an enemy controls their forces and you conquer and free the protectorate, do you get the forces? or does the previous owner keep them? Do they swap over in place, or fly back home?

BTW, if an enemy wanted a particular province and is attacking you to get it, consider making it a protectorate. They they have to make you liberate it, rather than just taking it. And if they forget to make you honour its neutrality, you take it back before they can.

Finally, in my experience, provinces I make into protectorate seem to keep the development settings I set up, so I have even freed a protectorate so I could re-conquer it, set its sliders, and then make it a protectorate again, now producing the right stuff!