At what point or for whatever reason do you declare war during the early, middle and late games?

I wait until a settler is sent outside an enemy border and then wait for the escort to leave during the early ages.

My reasons for war...

Early:
- To snag an early Worker
- To stop AI expansion
- If I'm unable to expand

Middle:
- If I need more land
- Grabbing resources
- Slow the progress of someone ahead of me
- Secure an island/continent to myself if I have the chance

Late:
- If I need more land
- Grabbing resources
- Annihilate anyone ahead of me

My Reasons..

Early:
-A.I. Expansion
-Early Dominance Of Small Continent
-Military Intimidation
-Mufuga got's in ma way

Middle:
-Sea Routes/Conveniece
-Resources
-Land
-Slowing Down Points Of A.I.
-Mufuga Got's in ma way

Late:
-Mufuga get's in ma way

My resons re:
Early.
1) I have just got iron. time to expand my empire.
2) Ghenghis Khan Got horses. Time to bring down his empire.
3) I always need land.

Middle.
1) Usually not much. Techs go too fast. Usually to get rid of old units.

Later.
1) Land lang and more land.

Early:
- Stop A.I expansion
- Take out any weaker civilizations early
- Secure resources and defensive lines
- Keep civilizations in check with mass pillaging

Middle:
- Self defense
- Ruin cultural cities with a single huge attack
- Secure distant colonies and islands
- Keep civilizations in check with mass pillaging

Late:
- Prevent a nation from winning the space race
- Take out whatever pillaged civilization is left with powerful modern warfare
- Go for the win

Early: land grab

Middle:
- stop civs getting strong UU's (like cossaks).
- boost research and get world maps (for example, decisive wars over a century can boost your treasury tremednously, and afterwards you can trade wth the loser for all thier research and world map)

Late: win, and stop others from completing space race.

There come certain times in the game when I have built all the city improvements so I have nothing to do but build units, and then eventually those units need something to do, thus war ensues. That's why most of them happen.

Usually I don't declare war unless I'm going for a domination/conquest victory, but otherwise, it's usually either for revenge on a civ for a previous war, or if I share a continent with one other civ and want to control the whole continent for myself.

My reasons are always the same, to obtain a resource, take a strategic point, or the always popular reason breathing room.

I start wars as soon as I get Iron. My primary reason for doing so is genocide. Its the only way I can win on Monarch or higher.

Early:
-I got copper/Iron=>overwhelm enemies
-They got greener grass
-Blood for the Blood God must flow!
Middle:
-Slowing down those who didn't suffer from my neighboorhood.
-Pillaging to compensate support cost.
Late:
-Pleasing Blood God even further.

I don't need a reason... I built up a bunch of units, I'm not just going to sit there and stare at them.

-Enemy has a resource I need (and I can´t get it through peaceful expansion)
-Enemy has a city at a strategic location which would be extremly useful for me
-Enemy has attacked me in the past and is likely to attack me in the future, good reason to keep him small ;)
-Some friendly nation asks me to join a war against a certain nation and there are no reasons which speak against declaring war

i'm usually a peacefull builder, but anyone who declare war on me must be taken out

if i aim conquest or domination, i declare war when i feel it's time (good economy, tech lead, i'm a low level player)

usually, when i declare war, there is no peace with the other civ (ie, there won't be any peace treaty between me and them before the end of the wer!!! ;) ) so i need to have some advantage over them

usually it depends on early age.
should i manage to impose a decent 3 town setup and a weak neighbour, I will definitely strike conquest mode on till I can't pay for my army anymore.

middle age, i'd start things up with knights but should i remain peaceful, i know i can count on Cavalry when i tech rush.. Usually if u remain peaceful, u'll get slapped with a war declaration out of nowhere. M-Tradition D-Pacts helps if u got a nice neighbour.

By Middle ages, i usually picked a permanent ally for myself to back up. no matter how crappy he plays.

my peaceful approach in my current game is a bit frustrating to say the least on the conqust front. I have cavalry, but the lands taken results in a lot of lost units and even if i captured them, they still end up in a culture lock. pretty much my only gripes of a faraway conquest.

Reasons I declare war

Early:
-I have not yet won a domination victory
Middle:
-I have not yet won a domination victory
Late:
-I have not yet won a domination victory

that about sums it up...

Early:
1. They've place a settler somewhere I was going to.
2. I've got an early production city.
3. Ghandi's got only one warrior guarding his capital?????

Mid:
1. Set back a powerful rival.
2. Coal/Iron/Oil (if I Don't have it and he does)

Late:
1. My bomber pilots are bored.
2. To set back any AI close to victory (Space Race, Culture, Diplo)
3. Because I like the Nuclear Explosion Animation!

Most of these have already benn said, but anyway:

Early
- If I get blocked in by an AI
- If I find I don't have either Iron or Horses
- To get more land

Middle:
- When I get catapults
- If any neighbouring AI is weak
- As soon as I can build Cavalry
- To claim the rest of a medium sized continent to myself

Late:
- If for some reason I didn't get enough land to get some oil I'll grab the nearest patch
- When I finish researching Artillery and I can upgrade all my old siege weapons
- If I haven't guarenteed a win yet, either through having to finish off a domination, or by crippling all the AIs enough to make sure I can win the space race easily

Of course this is only based on the 5 games I've played so far, (1 Noble, 1 Prince, 2 Monarch, and a OCC Prince game, which has definately been a different and very interesting game), so I still haven't got rid of my Civ3 way of doing things yet:rolleyes:

Early:
-I got copper/Iron=>overwhelm enemies
-They got greener grass
-Blood for the Blood God must flow!
Middle:
-Slowing down those who didn't suffer from my neighboorhood.
-Pillaging to compensate support cost.
Late:
-Pleasing Blood God even further.

This made me chuckle.

As for me:

Early:
-Unfounded paranoia
-Regular paranoia
-They had the misfortune of starting next to me
Middle:
-To punish them for not complying with my every command and whim
-I'm bored
-Stupid Isabella, you go dead now!
-More paranoia
Late:
-To distract public attention away from my poor performance as leader
-Gotta nuke something.

Early:
- Why send settlers into the scary unknown when you can just take an established city?

Middle:
- OK, there isn't any scary unknown left anymore. Guess you have to take a city now.

Late:
- Modern war is so cool.

For all era : the classic reasons : ressources, expansion

Early:
1) wiping out a close civ to ASSURE a decent expansion in the future.

Middle :
1) helping another nation, reinforce links
2) harass nations ahead of me, via pillaging or only via distraction

Late: same as middle plus
1) disturbing civs going for cultural, space race wins, specially with harassing their costal cities with combined units tactic (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=145900) or nuke :mischief: .

I declare war for only 3 reasons:
#1 I can manage their land and cities better than they can, so for the good of the people....

#2 I want to test out some new toys I've had sitting around my citties builiding up.

#3 Im to cheap to pay for what I can take from them through force (food, gems ect)
Remember: WAR = We Are Right. Dont argue with me.:nuke:

I'm a pretty peaceful player, so I don't declare war a lot. But one reason that I have attacked several times hasn't been mentioned here: I share a border with Montezuma.

You know Monte's going to come at you sooner or later, so it makes sense to force the issue at a time of your choosing.

At what point or for whatever reason do you declare war during the early, middle and late games?

1. Because I can.
2. Because there are people, places, and things out there which are not mine.

Then theres my favorite reason:

No reason at all.

1) Somebody is too close to you
2) Somebody has something you want
3) You've played for five turns without attacking someone and have gotten bored
4) The AI is about to win anyways, so you may as well just drop nukes on everyone

To get cities or resources or to prevent an AI from winning via space race (since that's all they seem to ever do).

Because I can.

early: expansion, worker grab or my warrior passes the mongol scout at turn 4 and i blunder into his undefended capitol.

middle: Either i've been attacked and need to push back a few cities to secure my core ones or i've got a decent tech/resource advantage and need to leverage it.

late: I scoff at cultural, diplomatic and space race victories. Give me domination or give me death!

Hmmm, let's see.

How about a top 10....

10. Them thar resources you got are lookin' mighty fine.....

9. Friends, romans, countrymen, lend me your cities

8. Klytus, I'm bored, what plaything can you offer me today

7. Why look, it's an early worker near your border. Thank you!

6. Tiny dual map with 10+ civs. Nuff said.

5. Will pillage for gold.

4. They were breathing my air. What else could I do?

3. The voices told me to. I always listen to the voices.

2. This continent isn't big enough for the two of us

and the number one reason for declaring war...

1. I'm an American. It's what we do.

Early
- There's another Civ on MY Continent
- There's another city near MY land.
- I've got Iron/Horses and they don't. (or vice versa)

Middle
- There better not be another Civ on MY CONTINENT, GOOD DARN IT!
- You demanded tribute from ME!
- I've got Gunpowder/Oil and they don't. (or vice versa)

Late
- There is a continent without one of MY cities on it.
- Gotta do something with those Battleships.
- I've got Flight/Aluminum and they don't. (or vice versa)

End Game
- I need to "buy" some votes for the UN.
- You are building the WHAT!?!?!?, already?
- Not another "End Turn press Enter"

My reason? Their leader ticked me off with some outrageous demand, like "Open Borders" for sure. Like I'm gonna allow some wandering around my civ.

:D

I declared war on Montezuma to beat his scout to a goody hut. :lol:

This made me chuckle.

As for me:

Early:
-Unfounded paranoia
-Regular paranoia
-They had the misfortune of starting next to me
Middle:
-To punish them for not complying with my every command and whim
-I'm bored
-Stupid Isabella, you go dead now!
-More paranoia
Late:
-To distract public attention away from my poor performance as leader
-Gotta nuke something.

I've enjoyed this entire thread immensely, but that was by far my favorite list. Good show!

Edit: Though, the declaring war to get a goody hut is pretty good, also. :-)

Early:
To crush my enemies...
Mid:
To see them driven before me...
Late:
To hear the lamentations of their women...