Can someone explain how Coalitions work?

[Squid]

I have two games running as britain. I have coallitions with Prussia and Austria in the first, and also Russian in the second. However Austria and Prussia will not declare war against france (or spain).

The manual says that a country in a coalltion will automatically declare war on those countries at war with other coallition members.

Am I missing something? How can I get my coallition members to wage war?

[Captain_Orso]

What status do your coalition partners have in the Diplomatic Page <F6>?

[Squid]

Im not sure what you mean by status. It says they are an indefinite coalition member and not at war with France.

**update**

I got the event 'Austria Joins the Third Coalition' and Austria has now declared war. So is this all scripted? In other words, is there any point in gaining a Coalition with other nations if they only declare war at scripted points?

[Captain_Orso]

The Diplomatic Page always tells you what relations you have with factions if they are in any way out of the ordinary--ie simply neutral.

I have no idea what scenario you are even playing.

Once a faction joins the Coalition it takes on the status of the Coalition. So a Coalition member declares ware on France, all will do so, of automatically gain the status.

[Squid]

In that case I belive something is wrong.

I am playing the 5/6 Campaign (Jan 1805). Ive formed coalitions with Prussia and Austria manually, they have a relationship status of 100 with me. However Austria wont declare war until I get the scripted event.