I though he was a reasonable guy?

No-he is not a very reasonable guy. His base peaceweight is 2.

If you leave a border weakly defended the AI will always attack even if they love you to bits.

True of my last game. Zulus declared war on me and came at me with a stack of 8 units around AD. I had lots of units just none covering the border with Zulu empire who were boxed in by me and another civ. I managed to find a catapult to throw at their stack. I had 3 other units defending the city including a axemen, swords and horse. By the time my reinforcements arrived they had wasted their stack at my city which had 60% defence bonus helped by fact it was a holy city.

They lost 2 cities by the end of the war.

The moral of the story is never leave a border weakly defended even if the Ai appears to love you to bits and shares your religion. Esp with Shaka Roaming.

The moral of the story is never leave a border weakly defended even if the Ai appears to love you to bits and shares your religion.

My border was not weakly defened. I easily fought Gilgamesh off.

It must be the base peaceweight thing. Can anybody explain?

Base peaceweight actually doesn't influence how aggressive a civ is -- it just makes people with similar base peaceweights like each other better (like Genghis and Shaka will love each other since their base peaceweights are like 0-1).

However, generally, low base peaceweight means more aggressive civs.

I though he was a reasonable guy?
i never get along with gilgamesh. or gilgy as i call him.
were always at peace for all of time until space race time when we fight each other in a mini cold-war kind of.

If you leave a border weakly defended the AI will always attack even if they love you to bits.
had Will do that to me last game. and i was friendly with him.
and he also did something else that was very weird.
he moved his capital from amsterdam to some other small city.

i love BTS, the AI never cease to surprise me.

Just wait until Catherine atacks you at "Friendly," that will really upset you. :P

It doesn't matter, Gilgy is a real threat to anyone in any type of game. He rexes like mad, and that is bad.

Don't forget they can be bribed. You prolly had an enemy who found it cheaper to bribe than attack. Look at the people friendly with your old 'friend'.

Is this exploitable? i.e. can you deliberately leave one warrior in a few nearby cities that one can rush defenders to?

I have tried that but the AI doesn't seem to delare war if it seems to have a few undefended cities.

Is this exploitable? i.e. can you deliberately leave one warrior in a few nearby cities that one can rush defenders to?

Have tried it, but the all seeing AI seems to only recognise your overall military strength and not where that strength is focused. This is only the usual reaction; sometimes the AI initiates war when they're on a hiding to nothing. Mostly they start war when they are near or equal to your power rating; nearly always if they are dominant. How friendly they are with you merely influences when they will choose to attack, based on the respective power ratings, your diplomacy situation, etc.

Just wait until Catherine atacks you at "Friendly," that will really upset you. :P

Gosh, i had that happen in my recent game too! Makes me sorry i voted for her in hottest civ girl....

i suggest any Civ with an early UU is prone to use it agin u, unless it is India in which case they won't. Even with good defenses i notice Preatorians come a knock'n.
While this is not peaceweight measurable, it bears out in game. I refer to it as the "early unique aggressive exponent theory".
To counter this one must make friends with early uu civs in the beginning and then switch allies to each successive uu era. I refer to this as "the malleable horrific theory"

Now it would be interesting if the AI detected it had a unique unit available for its use and actually used it or knew how to use it well.

I have played against the Romans many times and they never send a stack of Prets to attack my cities. Perhaps this is because i build lots of axemen early on? Where as any human player would build prets like crazy and roll over city after city even if axemen were defending the cities.

At times I just really dont know if the Ai even knows it has a UU to use. Point of question is the incans. How often do you see the Ai use Quelchas on monarch and above? They start with archers and never look back. Perhaps if I built archers they might use them more. *shrugs*

Anyway back to topic.

Anyway weak defences was just one reason for the Ai to attack you. Bribery, religion, close borders, random events or the ai just didnt like you could be a reason. Did the Ai use its UU in the attack?

Hmmm, in BTS starting near Jules or Auggie with iron is just a huge pain. If they can, they will come at you with a stack of preats around 500 bc.