Question on Open Borders

Gregorovitch

Chieftain
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
11
I've noticed that the AI factions always want Open Borders agreements, and that if you give it too them they tend to take advantage of it by finding little corners around your turf to establish awkward annoying little cities.

I can see that in certain specific situations one might want or need an Open Border agreement with someone but I haven't really come across one yet myself (limited number of games so far).

But apart from that is there any reason to give them these Open Borders Agreements?
 
(1) When you want to march your army through their lands; (2) when you are going for a cultural victory (it increases the tourism rate).
 
I believe prophets/missionaries also don't suffer from attrition if you have open borders.

generally speaking, I'll decline all open border requests at least until the renaissance if not later (ideally not until there aren't any little nooks and crannies in my empire for another civ to plop down a city), unless it's a Civ who's relatively far away from me and I need to pass through their lands to explore.

I think the AI will also use Open Borders to scout your territories and see your strength/weakness to factor in wanting to go to war. obviously if you've got a neighbor like Attila or Monty, no open borders, ever.
 
I never, ever give open borders until late in the game or I have developed all the land that I want to.

I addition to them plopping a city down to grab a lux in territory that I consider mine, they will often use that city as a launching pad for war.

The only exception is when I'm playing as Venice.
 
Thanks all - looks pretty much as I thought. Keep the blighters out until you have secured all your territory and resources. Then, maybe, let them spend some dosh in your museums later game.

It seems though that if you start on a big wide expanse of land you rather have to go wide rather than tall to secure it. To do so in my current game would require two more cities than I actually wanted to build for now.
 
But apart from that is there any reason to give them these Open Borders Agreements?

Open borders are worth 50gp, which is always useful if you are absolutely desperate for cash.

I'd also trade them if I wanted a friend to travel through my land to attack a mutual enemy,
 
The awkward little cities might not be that bad right now with the new warmonger mechanics. In fact, if your opponent has 10 cities, 8 of which are trash, you can acquire the good two cities for much less wamonger hate. ;). One of these days I'm going to try to exploit that mechanic with Ashurbanapal by creating hordes of trash cities, selling them to my foes, and then conquering them for tech. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to figure out whether this works...
 
Don't forget that open borders is also an invitation for enemy archaeologists to come digging in your territory. If you don't want your cultural history plundered out from under your nose, be careful about extending open borders after Archaeology has been discovered. (Or be sure to station units on Ancient Ruins in your territory. Assuming you haven't dug them all up yourself, of course.)
 
Don't forget that open borders is also an invitation for enemy archaeologists to come digging in your territory. If you don't want your cultural history plundered out from under your nose, be careful about extending open borders after Archaeology has been discovered. (Or be sure to station units on Ancient Ruins in your territory. Assuming you haven't dug them all up yourself, of course.)

And it allows them to freely send a Great Musician into your territory to perform a Concert Tour without needing to declare war on you.
 
its simple, don't give them open borders after the first 50-60 turns. In the first turns sometimes its good to get some extra gold, unless u have blocked some nice expo place.

I don't give them open borders at all most of the games. Just pay em 1-2 GPT for theirs and thats it. Refusing their offers also has no consequence.
 
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