Why is the confederation option missing?

Check the race first, because a faction of another race never qualifies. Then check your race's own route: technologies for Bretonnia, beating the rival leader for Greenskins and Norsca, tasks for Vampire Counts. Players also report that a healthy faction refuses even with very high relations .

How do you vassalize a faction in Warhammer 3?

Offer the vassal pact in diplomacy if your race has access to it. A November 2024 player survey finds it for Chaos, Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts , but not for the Empire or Dwarfs. Chaos also has conquest routes, such as Dark Fortresses on Norscan homeland capitals, which give a vassal while you hold them.

Can Warriors of Chaos confederate?

Yes, with limits. Archaon and Be'lakor can confederate other Warriors of Chaos by capturing their final settlement, since Update 2.1. Since 9.0, Archaon can also subjugate defeated Chaos Legendary Lords. Patch 9.0.4 fixed the Enforce Confederation option, which was vassalizing the target by mistake.

Is it better to confederate or vassalize?

Confederate to take the regions, armies and a Legendary Lord, provided your budget can carry the upkeep. Vassalize to keep a buffer on a border without managing its settlements. The pact brings a loaned army and a share of income, but you do not control its construction or its usual war choices.

Total War: Warhammer 3: how to confederate and vassalize a faction (2026 guide)

Q: How do you confederate in Total War: Warhammer 3?

In most cases, target a faction of the same race , raise relations with gifts, pacts and an alliance, then establish clear military superiority. The option then becomes available in diplomacy. Several races follow another route: Dwarfs use the Great Book of Grudges, and Vampire Counts use a dedicated panel.

To confederate in Total War: Warhammer 3, you generally need a faction of the same race, good relations and clear military superiority: the option then becomes available in diplomacy. Several races follow their own route, however. Vassalization depends even more on your race, because the pact is not open to everyone and Chaos has conquest routes.

This guide is up to date with Patch 9.0.4 from October 2026. Creative Assembly publishes no complete list of these rules, so the guide cross-checks official notes, 2022 guides and player reports, and says each time where the information comes from. Nothing here comes from a played campaign.

Confederation or vassalization: the difference

The two pacts differ in both effect and cost.

Point	Confederation	Vassalization
Effect	The two factions merge	The target stays independent, under your protection
Gain	Regions, armies and lords	Loaned army and a share of income
Target’s treasury	Not recovered	Not recovered
Control	Direct	Limited to orders and coordination
Main cost	Higher upkeep	Reliability if you break the treaty

The Gamepressure diplomacy guide and the Game Rant guide point to the same trap: you get the regions, not the money. A late confederation can therefore sink a budget that is already tight.

How to confederate through diplomacy

This route applies to races without a dedicated mechanic. It rests on three conditions.

Same race. A faction of another race does not qualify, whatever your relations.
Good relations. Gifts, trade pacts, alliances and attacks on its enemies all raise them.
Military superiority. The target must feel clearly weaker than you.

Update 2.0 shifted the balance: confederating a minor faction became harder, and confederating a major faction became easier. Reliability also feeds into the AI’s decision, according to Gamepressure.

In practice, relations alone are not enough. In a 2024 Steam thread, players describe a Bretonnian faction refusing at 280 relations. They list several acceptance factors, to be read as signals rather than rules.

Military alliance. It often comes before the deal.
Target in trouble. A faction fighting on too many fronts, or close to dying out, gives in sooner.
Missing leader. The death of its Legendary Lord would make it more open.

Rules by race

This table gives the known route for each race and the age of the information. Lines drawn from a 2022 guide may have changed, especially for races reworked since then.

Race	Confederation route	Origin
Dwarfs	Great Book of Grudges, base 7,500 settled grudges	Hotfix 5.0.3
Vampire Counts	Dedicated panel: unique tasks, hefty cost, Blood	Official blog, August 2026
Bretonnia	Up to 6 technologies, then a dilemma	Game Rant, 2022
Greenskins, Norsca	Beat the rival leader, then a dilemma	Game Rant, 2022
High Elves	Patrons of the Realm, 11 seats of power	Update 7.0 announcement
Wood Elves	Oak of Ages at tiers 2 and 3, up to 6 quests	Game Rant, 2022
Beastmen	Heavy superiority, with Dread able to force some lords	Game Rant, 2022
Lizardmen	Strong positive diplomatic modifier required	Game Rant, 2022
Dark Elves, some humans	Diplomacy: superiority and good relations	Game Rant, 2022

For Dwarfs, Hotfix 5.0.3 halved the base cost, from 15,000 to 7,500. Hotfix 5.0.4 adds that minor factions no longer raise the price of Legendary Lords.

The Empire deserves an in-game check. Game Rant described forced confederation through Fealty in 2022, but the Thrones of Decay rework split Imperial Authority from the Elector Counts system, now unique to Karl Franz. If you play another Empire leader, do not trust the old guides.

Repanse de Lyonesse would be an exception in Bretonnia: players say she uses standard diplomacy because her technology tree differs.

Vampire Counts: the most fluid case

The free update blog announces a series of unique tasks and a hefty cost to confederate another Legendary Lord, with Blood spent on it. The Red Duke, for his part, is confederated through the technology tree.

The notes partly contradict each other on target size. Patch 9.0.3 replaces the 5-region limit with a ratio: you need more than three times its regions, and the change also covers this panel, for new campaigns. Patch 9.0.4 nevertheless fixes the display of a condition of no more than 5 regions. What matters, then, is the panel tooltip in your own campaign.

How to vassalize

The Gamepressure guide describes a “become my vassal” pact: the target places itself under your protection, lends its army and gives up part of its income. That deal is not offered to everyone, though.

A November 2024 player survey compared the base diplomacy of each race’s first leader in Immortal Empires. It is neither official nor newer than 9.0, but it is the most complete list found.

Pact in base diplomacy	Races
Available	Daemons of Chaos, Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Warriors of Chaos, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts
Missing	Bretonnia, Cathay, Dark Elves, Dwarfs, Empire, Greenskins, High Elves, Kislev, Lizardmen, Ogres, Skaven, Vampire Coast, Wood Elves
No diplomacy	Beastmen
Not tested	Chaos Dwarfs, Norsca

The survey leaves out campaign abilities and vassalization through war. A race listed as missing may therefore get a vassal some other way.

Conquest routes

Chaos holds the best-documented methods.

Subjugation. Update 2.1 lets Warriors of Chaos subjugate human and elven races.
Final settlement. Archaon and Be’lakor can confederate other Warriors of Chaos by capturing their last stronghold.
Dark Fortresses. Occupying a Dark Fortress in a Norscan homeland capital gives you that faction as a vassal while you hold its homeland.
Archaon in 9.0. A defeated Chaos Legendary Lord joins Archaon, and their regions go to a new vassal if they are not Warriors of Chaos.

That last route excludes Beastmen, Chaos Dwarfs, Daemons of Chaos and Norsca. Patch 9.0.4 also fixed forced confederation for Warriors of Chaos, which was vassalizing by mistake, so older player reports on that point no longer hold.

Making a vassal useful

On paper, a vassal is a free buffer. Several limits still deserve your attention.

Modest income. Players rate tribute as low, while a vassal with plenty of regions holds up better alone.
Reliability. Hotfix 4.0.2 confirms that breaking a treaty with a vassal affects your reliability.
Absorption. A Greenskin or Norscan vassal can vanish if a rival leader of its race beats it, according to a 2022 thread.
Archaon. Since Hotfix 9.0.2, vassals not aligned with Chaos break vassalage if you join Archaon.
God-aligned lords. Valkia, Festus and Vilitch give their vassals specific bonuses, on top of spreading their corruption.

The quietest risk comes from mixed alignments. Players report that Order vassals get along badly with Chaos or Skaven vassals, which blocks some deals.

Confederate or vassalize: which to choose

The choice depends on what you want to take.

Confederate if you want a Legendary Lord, their armies and their regions, and your budget can absorb the upkeep.
Vassalize if the target protects a border and you do not want to manage its settlements.
Wait if the target is healthy: pushing it into a hard war seems to work better than piling up gifts.

If you play a race without a vassal pact, confederation remains your only diplomatic tool for absorbing a rival. To pick a faction by strength, see our Immortal Empires tier list.