I know that trading with rivals and not giving them what they ask for will irritate them, but is there anyway to get AI to declare war on me without signing a pact with an ally and then convincing them to fight against said AI?

I've tried making unreasonable demands, but it doesn't seem to make them too unhappy...

If you are too powerful (too many units) they will usually give in. Start a war with someone else (or just disband some units) to lose some units, and if your power drops enough they will attack. Make sure you have enough production reserve to kill them after, though. Maybe have some units partially prebuilt in your cities but not finished yet so you don't feel that you have to whip or draft your larger cities for enough units to respond.

That's why it feels like they gang up on you when you are attacked by one nation. You sacrifice units to hold off the first opponent, and other AI sees your reduction in power and they attack too.

edit - cross response with sisiutil. I didn't know anything about whether units are visible to the AI. I assumed it was a power graph response. I may have to try that out! If so forget my tactic of eliminating units and just hide your good units out of sight! Don't disband them. Learn something new every day.

Shared borders, "unreasonable demands", cancelling trade, and especially a different religion will help provoke the AI. But the biggest factor is that you need to appear "weak" to the AI in terms of power--basically, to look like an easy mark. Of course, you want to only appear weak, not actually be weak. How do you achieve this?

Your power rating is based upon your tech level, number and type of units, and military buildings like barracks and drydocks. The AI, like a human player, also evaluates units it can "see", especially in border cities. Based on that, you can try the following tactics:


Keep your border cities, especially those closest to your desired opponent, weak--keep one or two obsolete units there. Keep reinforcements "out of sight" two tiles away from the city. Cancel Open Borders if you have that agreement with the opponent, but scout their territory first.
If your opponent has a holy city and any of your cities have that religion, empty those cities of units as well, except for one or two obsolete ones.
Keep/build obsolete units while hoarding gold for a massive upgrade program. This is especially useful if you have Chemistry but not Rifling--you can still build Macmen and give them City Raider promotions, then upgrade them to Grenadiers who can't normally get those promotions.
Don't upgrade units that may be obsolete but still effective. I usually have four Catapults with Accuracy promotions that can strip a city's defense bonus in one turn of bombardment. I never upgrade them to Cannon or Artillery. They can still serve their purpose well into the modern era.
Don't upgrade units in your core cities that are unlikely to see any action.
Mass units in each city's build queue. Once the unit has one turn left to complete, insert a different type of unit ahead of it in the queue. Once that one is one turn from completion, insert another. These units don't "exist" and are not part of your power rating, but will be readily available when needed. This also allows you to remain in a more lucrative peacetime civic longer; you only switch to wartime civics just before you want those units to appear with all the bonus XPs. Obviously, being a Spiritual civ really helps with this tactic.
You can also try this with techs, though it's riskier. Research several military techs within one turn of completion, then switch to another tech. When you're ready to go to war, complete the research.

These last two tactics may not work well together; if a unit one turn from completion in the queue becomes obsolete, it will be replaced by a more expensive modern unit that will require several turns to complete. They are also risky; you will be weaker for the first few turns of the war.

So ideally you would want to rush your best defensive units to the most likely point of attack, and upgrade those ones first as well. You would also want the best defensive military tech to be available first (say, Chemistry before Military Tradition). You then absorb the AI civ's first offensive while waiting for your own offensive techs and units to become available.

I got once attacked by Alex while I was building a decent stack for an Axe rush. I played on Archipelago, and loaded my units onto Galleys (outside the city).

So, that guy Alex probably thought my cities (protected by 1 Warrior each) were defenseless, and landed a couple of Archers next to my capital.

On the next turn I moved the Galleys inside the city, and attacked for a couple of free promotions to my Axes.

I got once attacked by Alex while I was building a decent stack for an Axe rush. I played on Archipelago, and loaded my units onto Galleys (outside the city).

So, that guy Alex probably thought my cities (protected by 1 Warrior each) were defenseless, and landed a couple of Archers next to my capital.

On the next turn I moved the Galleys inside the city, and attacked for a couple of free promotions to my Axes.


Beware, unilke Civ 3, in Civ 4 units can attack directly from the ships. Although they are penalised for doing that. But if you have just 1 warrior for a defence this can be a very big mistake in higher levels. I am not sure whether you know this or not. But this is for someone who might not know this (as this was a usual strategy in Civ 3). :lol:

Beware, unilke Civ 3, in Civ 4 units can attack directly from the ships. Although they are penalised for doing that. But if you have just 1 warrior for a defence this can be a very big mistake in higher levels. I am not sure whether you know this or not. But this is for someone who might not know this (as this was a usual strategy in Civ 3). :lol:

it's only risky if you cannot whip, draft, bring in enough troops in very few turns.
That's why i just love spiritual leaders ;)
It saved my a$$ more than once.

I know that trading with rivals and not giving them what they ask for will irritate them, but is there anyway to get AI to declare war on me without signing a pact with an ally and then convincing them to fight against said AI?

I've tried making unreasonable demands, but it doesn't seem to make them too unhappy...
Why are you trying to get them to start a war with you? :confused:

You could sign Open Borders, then send over a load of your units and donate them to the AI. Then make loads of arrogant demands and get like -27 or something and see...

It's difficult to get the AI to declare on you a war you will easily win.
That's why I favour the direct move bring my troops as close as possible to the target cities (you have to love boats ;) = SIRIAN doctrine), declare war myself and get the first move.

If the AI declares on you, you save yourself the bad relations with his friends, but the AI gets the first move = pillaging, worker robbery, ... = bad.

If i can surprise attack, i most of the time capture/raze 2 cities before the AI can counterattack = able to sue for peace with a win before the AI could even try to harm me. (most of the time i don't sue for peace, though)

Beware, unilke Civ 3, in Civ 4 units can attack directly from the ships. Although they are penalised for doing that.
Yes, I know that. It was an Emperor game. The AIs do attack directly from the ships, only they would attack a new city with 0% cultural defense, but not a capital with 60%.

BTW, I've never played Civ III, so I just don't know how it was. :)

Most of the times when I wanted to be attacked instead of attacking was when two or more civs had Defensive Pacts. In my opinion, it's easier to break up the Defensive Pact that get one of them to attack you. To do this you can demand a lot of things from your target, and cultivate a friendly relationship with his ally. Gift him techs and resources if you must - meaning you can't take on them both at once. I've found that many times they break the DP, most probably because your target will be mad at his ally for the huge amount of trade he's doing with you. :)

Also, in this case you'd better pick the stronger of the two as the target. Posting a few defensive stacks at the other ones border means that even if they have DP the other civ is likely to just sit on its ass and send a couple of pillagers once in a while to annoy you.