Hi,

I have played a number of games (BtS) now. In a couple of them, a war has been declared on my behalf, such as:

You have declared war on...

Most of them are suicide and this is very annoying.

Is this an error ?

I have had this happen, but only after accepting an offer of vassalage after ending my turn. The message "You have declared war ..." was followed immediately by one saying "XXXX (my new vassal) has declared war ..." which means that my vassal made the declaration before entering vassalage, a situation of which I was not aware until too late. Sloppy programming.

On the other hand, I think you may be dragged into war by some action connected with the Apostolic Palace; you certainly can be if you have a pact with another civ which chooses war without your consent.

This most often happens when you are beating someone in a war, and he capitulates to a neutral third party and becomes his vassal. You are then informed that you have declared war on this third party. It's not a bug, but it is a pain in the butt.

Another possibility might be Defensive Pacts.

Actually, since you stated that this happened because you accepted someone as your vassal, it started because the civ you accepted was already at war with these third parties. Most civs that willingly offer themselves as your vassal, only do so to avoid their imminent death at the hands of another civ.

Either, you neglected to notice that this civ was fighting a war against these third parties, or, and this might be the oddity, the war began in between your turns, and you weren't notified of its commencement until after you accepted the new vassal. That would be odd, but not unbelievable, especially if the third party initiated the war against your vassal, and your vassal immediately ran to you for salvation. It sounds, however, as if your couching this situation as your vassal firstly initiating a war against a third party, and then running in fear to you, seeking your protection from a war that they started (again without you receiving the announcement of this war commencing). Now that would be strange.

I once fought a war against China and, when satified with my gains, made peace with them. As I did so, however, Russia and Carthage decided to eat the rest of China. Several turns later, China came running to me and offered themselves as my vassal. I expected that my extension of protection would immediately force the other civs to make peace. Instead, however, I received a pleasant little message that I had declared war against both Russia and Carthage (who were quite large and advanced and didn't like me). To avoid fighting a losing war, I was obligated to surrender a couple of my new Chinese acquisitions to Carthage.

Hannibal didnt maintain the peace, however, and I was obligated to eventually turn Carthage into my vassal too.

Another possibility might be Defensive Pacts.

Ah, but wouldnt then the message be "xxxx has declared war on you" ?

Ah, but wouldnt then the message be "xxxx has declared war on you" ?

No, because you declare war on them as per your pact. The pact basically says, "If we are attacked, you'll come to our aid." To do so, you need to declare war on the attacker, and you do so by default.

something related to the apostolic palace?

Yeah, I hate the war starting because an AI I'm about to conquer vasselizes with a third party.

I'm fine with a Defensive Pact getting me into a war, as I only enter into that arrangement if it's offered by a top 3 AI on the scoreboard. Makes for fun combat - the ally can hold their own and I can usually pick off some isolated enemy cities, then they sue for peace anyway.

here is a way around this, sorta. if someone wants to become your vassal, say no, check if they are at war and if not then reopen the trade window and select the vassal option and they will agree (this has always happened for me though that doesnt mean it will happen all the time).
if they are at war and you want them as a vassal then talk to their enemies and offer them something to make peace and then offer the vassal status to the civ

Remember, however, that if you're already at war with this new vassal, and he capitulates instead of simply vassalizing, the other civs at war with him will simply immediately declare peace.

This most often happens when you are beating someone in a war, and he capitulates to a neutral third party and becomes his vassal. You are then informed that you have declared war on this third party. It's not a bug, but it is a pain in the butt.

Does this really happen? That seems a little ridiculous...

Capitulation should make the new vassal adopt his master's politics, not make the master adopt the vassal's.

Can anyone confirm??

EDIT: looks like Herr Doktor has clarified - capitulation causes declaration of peace; simply vassalizing does not.

@ Rikgreen: when the diplomacy talk screen comes up, you can hit F4 and check the state of relations before you make a decision, without exiting the conversation with the leader. Also comes in handy for when Monty demands you cancel your trades with someone - hit F4 and you can check on your trade situation instead of deciding "blind."

Hi,

This screenshot shows that first defensive pacts are cancelled and then war is declared.

See attached screenshot.

There is at least one random event which makes you declare war. But I think you get a message in this case.
Looking at your screen, I'm thinking about something espionnage-related, perhaps?

@ Rikgreen: when the diplomacy talk screen comes up, you can hit F4 and check the state of relations before you make a decision, without exiting the conversation with the leader. Also comes in handy for when Monty demands you cancel your trades with someone - hit F4 and you can check on your trade situation instead of deciding "blind."

ive been told this before and i still forget about it :lol:

There is at least one random event which makes you declare war. But I think you get a message in this case.
Looking at your screen, I'm thinking about something espionnage-related, perhaps?

i once discovered a spy in my lands and as an event i was allowed to use this as an act of war on behalf of the spy's nation and so it makes them attack me and so things like my defensive pacts still come into play. i guess it could happen in reverse

Hi,

The latest experience is that it also ends the war now !!!???

You have made peace with xxx.

Hmmmmm.

This most often happens when you are beating someone in a war, and he capitulates to a neutral third party and becomes his vassal. You are then informed that you have declared war on this third party. It's not a bug, but it is a pain in the butt.

To me, the opposite just happened, but equally annoying. I was forced into peace with a weaker civ, who submitted to a third party with whom I was at peace. I don't think this is fair. When this happens, it should be the third party who have to approach you with a peace offer, else he declares war on you. You should at the very least have the option to make peace (with both) or continue the war (starting war with the third party). As it is now, it's in effect the WEAK civ that dictates the war and peace standings for all three civs! It becomes very random.

Actually, this reminds me of something that HAS TO BE A BUG.

I have warlords, not BTS. I was playing a game where I was not being aggressive at all (I was going for cultural I think). I had defensive pacts because that kind of helps keep me alive.

So...I DoW'd on an AI. Arbitrarily. You might say it's because somebody declared on one of my pact civs...but no. They didn't. It just said: deal canceled: defensive pact (to both of my allies). I was magically the only civ at war, and supposedly I declared! It was like the game's AI wanted glitch away my pact civs so that I could be defeated easily. Very annoying.

I probably could have still won that game. About 10 turns into the war, one of my former d pact allies even declared on my enemy i supposedly declared on. But I was too pissed to take it and put that particular game in a coffin and buried it alive.

Still, what caused this? Did my cultural border expansion force an enemy ai unit into my territory via some glitch? But it would normally just go back to HIS if he had no other viable places. If he DOW'd on ME, then he should have had at least 3 people at war with him - me and 2 other ai civs...not just me. If he DOW'd EITHER of my pact civs, at least ONE of them would also be at war with this clown civ that I "dow'd".

In other words, bug. Annoying.

I"ve had a similar problem. I bought BtS a few days ago and installed patch 313 with no problems until I started noticing strange things.

I was playing Charlemagne and Shaka (blah) was bordering me. He declared war on me, we fought it out a bit, and then I sued for peace knowing well that I couldn't take him on (I'm still struggling to pull my weight with the military aspect). He had a pact with Justinian, but he was on another continent and wasn't even involved. I made peace with both eventually. Then, of course, 10 turns later, peace treaties expire.

But then later on in the game I was getting repeated messages that said, "Your Peace Treaty has expired with Shaka" or somesuch though we hadn't warred in centuries.

This makes me think that it's a glitch. My issue obviously had no impact since there wasn't a peace treaty to expire and had there been it wouldn't make any difference really.

I"ve had a similar problem. I bought BtS a few days ago and installed patch 313 with no problems until I started noticing strange things.

I was playing Charlemagne and Shaka (blah) was bordering me. He declared war on me, we fought it out a bit, and then I sued for peace knowing well that I couldn't take him on (I'm still struggling to pull my weight with the military aspect). He had a pact with Justinian, but he was on another continent and wasn't even involved. I made peace with both eventually. Then, of course, 10 turns later, peace treaties expire.

But then later on in the game I was getting repeated messages that said, "Your Peace Treaty has expired with Shaka" or somesuch though we hadn't warred in centuries.

This makes me think that it's a glitch. My issue obviously had no impact since there wasn't a peace treaty to expire and had there been it wouldn't make any difference really.


Welcome to the forums mattkaru. :beer:

Any time a demand is made and given (by either side) there is an automatic 10 turn peace treaty.

But then later on in the game I was getting repeated messages that said, "Your Peace Treaty has expired with Shaka" or somesuch though we hadn't warred in centuries.



This usually happens when you have gifted something to an AI. When you give something or submit to a demand there is an automatic PT. After 10 turns you are advised that the treaty has expired.

OH, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks guys! :P

I'm still reading up constantly trying to figure out all of these things. I tend to gift peaceful techs to my neighbors a lot to hold them off when I sense that war might be close. It gives me time to build up defenses.

Now that I know a peace treaty is involved I feel more secure in using that strategy..