In my last game, I had 6 civ keeping waging war against me one after another, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I bullied them all when I had the lead. Unfortunately, one of the civ that I bullied a lot earlier, through some obscure means took the lead and took one of my city, which made me quit the game. I realized I was second; however, I had a lot of difficulty fending off my ennemies and developing my cities. I had to conscript a lot of my cities and I think it really hurt my economy and all, and I was wondering what I should do to wage wars only when I want to.

Dissuade the AIs? Build units. Build Walls and Barracks. Or cave into demands. Or stop wontonly bulling them.

Go down about 5-6 threads to "is there any logic to an AI dow".

In a nutshell:

-Have a big army
-try not to put a target in your head by being weak or a heaten
-Pull the diplo strings to have them warring eachother instead of warring you

Well, I had a big army, but there was 6 civ attacking me, I lost a city after my 10th war, it was sick.

Are AI 10 times more likely to declare war on you if you made them furious??

It sounds like you could work on your diplomacy, search for threads and articles on that.

Well, I will probably not bully anyone in my next game. lol

I will probably not choose any religion also.

Actually, contrary to popular belief, having a lot of units usually does nothing to stop AI from attacking you, except one the following circumstances:
1) You have A LOT more power than them on the power graph, something like 1.3 I think
2) There is a weaker and more attractive target nearby.
As you go higher in levels the AI will always have more units in the beginning, so the only practical way to avoid war is diplomacy (and luck :))

Adopt their religion, adopt their favourite civics, give in to their demands.
Another very good option is to keep the warmongers busy. Bribe them into war with someone else, or bribe someone else to war with them. If they are already busy in one war, they will not start a second one.

silverbullet: While that effectively becomes true for high levels, it's quite possible to keep your power rating above the treshold at mid and low levels is it not?

Keep the 2/3-factor for TotalWars in mind. This leads to very high thresholds. To be safe from a close Monty you need a power ratio of 1.95!

Keep the 2/3-factor for TotalWars in mind. This leads to very high thresholds. To be safe from a close Monty you need a power ratio of 1.95!

In that case, perhaps it's only realistic on low levels for the early period.

But my major mistake was to make arrogant demands repetively since it was so easy to get lots of gold from them. :lol:

I am wondering whether not making any demand will make war at least 10 times less frequent because it is really hard to wage war against 6 civ for 100 years and not getting hurt.

Gliese:
It is possible to do so bellow monarch I think, but once you get to monarch it can be hard if your neighbours are military unit spammers.
Also, it is nearly impossible to keep your power high enough to prevent dogpile

Gliese:
It is possible to do so bellow monarch I think, but once you get to monarch it can be hard if your neighbours are military unit spammers.
Also, it is nearly impossible to keep your power high enough to prevent dogpile

True. It can be funny. I have one game as Monty where I dowd my closest neighbour Washington and although my horse archers are rapidly conquering his territory, Bismarck, without even having an army decides to attack me.
He sent one axe which I killed before taking one of his cities and gifting it back for peace. After that we got along just fine until the rennaisance when I had another psychotic episode and felt it was time to bash a neighbour.

But my major mistake was to make arrogant demands repetively since it was so easy to get lots of gold from them. :lol:

I am wondering whether not making any demand will make war at least 10 times less frequent because it is really hard to wage war against 6 civ for 100 years and not getting hurt.As a rule, if you dont want to piss anyone off then simply dont make demands, ever.

There are exceptions of course. Civs that you are pleased with you can ask for "gifts" which usually do not incur diplomacy penalties although(and im not 100% sure here) i believe if you do it too many times they start to dislike you.

As a rule, if you dont want to piss anyone off then simply dont make demands, ever.

There are exceptions of course. Civs that you are pleased with you can ask for "gifts" which usually do not incur diplomacy penalties although(and im not 100% sure here) i believe if you do it too many times they start to dislike you.

you can ask for all teh gifts you want at pleased without any repercussion. unfortunately if your pleased friends ask for gifts and you deny them you will take a diplo-hit.

you can ask for all teh gifts you want at pleased without any repercussion. unfortunately if your pleased friends ask for gifts and you deny them you will take a diplo-hit.

Unless it's Gandhi?

Unless it's Gandhi?

really? didn't know that...

really? didn't know that...

I discovered it myself in the immortal university suleiman game a bit back. I don't remember if he was pleased or friendly though.

Have a big army. But even if you do, some crazies will still attack you (e.g. Monty Zuma).

I think situational strength also plays a part - in my current game, I have about a 30% power lead on Jules Caesar, but he still DOW'ed me. That's probably because I had one city on his landmass (far from his other cities, so culture pressure doesn't enter into it). I figure the AI saw I had 4 units in that city and figured it could take me down (despite it not having metals, but that's one for the stupid AI thread).

I discovered it myself in the immortal university suleiman game a bit back. I don't remember if he was pleased or friendly though.

Gandhi doesn't need to be Friendly, it's because he has no MemoryAttitudePercents defined for
DENIED_CIVIC
DENIED_JOIN_WAR
DENIED_RELIGION
DENIED_STOP_TRADING
HIRED_TRADE_EMBARGO
MADE_DEMAND
REFUSED_HELP
REJECTED_DEMAND
STOPPED_TRADING
in the CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml, so he always forgives you.