Best way to deal with this situation: Can't Colonize?

[Bedwyr]

So, here it is.  FEI, Arcaea/Arcachon war.  Leaving aside the wider diplomatic issues (which exist, of course, but I know more or less how I'm going to handle them) the war is very shortly going to be a straight Arcaea vs. Arcachon war.  Arcachon's military has been completely crushed, and this is the second time the capital has been sacked with other regions ransacked.  Military dominance is not a direct problem.

The issue is that the populace of the one city Arcachon has hates Arcaea too much (I suspect from the efforts of Priests/Diplomats in lowering sympathy, as it didn't used to be that bad) for our Diplomats to overcome, and since CTO's work like FTO's we can't even start the takeover.

Enlod is 530 miles away from Arcaea's capital of Remton, and we'd have to take and hold four intervening regions that are filled with followers of Arcachon's state religion.  Possible, but blasted difficult.

I think the easiest way to handle this is to drive Enlod rogue and destroy the rest of the realm and then send diplomats in with lots of gold to raise sympathy to an appropriate level.  And the easiest way to do that seems to be looting the place, especially by removing all food that they could get to starve the city out.

And before anyone suggests "give up" that's not an option as Arcachon has blatantly broken treaties and refused all attempts at peace or negotiation.  As far as I can tell their entire existence right now is devoted to hurting Arcaea as much as possible.

[Indirik]

Driving it rogue might not destroy the realm. If they have good religion support they can RTO. But I don't see what other option you have. Other than get some other realm to run the CTO.

Start your new secession realm? That would help Arcaea be smaller and more able to control more regions. Easier to take more, then.

[Alpha]

Not much can be done, but to drive the whole island rogue. Eventually starvation will keep their priests from RTOing the regions. Probably will take some time.

[Gloria]

Other than get some other realm to run the CTO.

There was a time where Ohnar West could run it... but now Enlod hates both realms with a passion. 

Also, diplomat work in changing the view of minor nobility is not very effective.  Or maybe they hated Arcaea so much that badmouthing them doesn't make any difference anyway. 

[vonGenf]

Also, diplomat work in changing the view of minor nobility is not very effective.

I'll have to disagree with that - I could bring regions from "I hate this realm" to "Very Loyal" in a matter of days. I assume it's harder in cities, I've never done controlled comparisons, but diplomat work can be extremely effective.

[Bedwyr]

I'll have to disagree with that - I could bring regions from "I hate this realm" to "Very Loyal" in a matter of days. I assume it's harder in cities, I've never done controlled comparisons, but diplomat work can be extremely effective.

Nobles with high Oratory can do good work, yeah.  I'm fairly certain that someone in Arcachon (might have been OW) was working to badmouth Arcaea, either as diplo or Priest.  Hard to beat a religion.

[De-Legro]

Constant battles in the region wouldn't have helped either.