How to sow discord

Fried Egg

Prince
Joined
Jul 19, 2005
Messages
341
How do you get AI players to dislike another AI player?

I am a fairly new player and I tend to play in a highly peaceful manner. One reason is that when I attempt to play more aggressively I soon end up completely isolated and everyone hates me.

I've noticed that sometimes one of the AI players plays aggressively and tends to get a lot of Ire from the other AI's and when you join in those wars you don't tend to get a reputation hit from the other players so much.

In my last game, I finished off the Greeks who seemed to be at war with just about everybody but once they were gone everybody seemed to love everybody else. As soon as I denounced the Ethiopians I got everyone else's backs up. Suddenly everyone shuts off their borders and stops trading with me.

How do I play in a Machiavellian way such that I can pick off the AI players one by one without becoming the focus of everyone's ire? Are there things you can do to get AI players to start disliking each other?
 
1. try to notice where the AI hate is directed. If you can manage friendships early with more people, it's good for research agreements and better trade deals.

2. direct your hate on people who have war history or share close borders. Also notice who built the statue of zeus or terracotta army. join in on the war if your friends are fighting against an enemy everyone hates.

3. Your spies will tell you stuff, so sharing the intrigue helps, if only marginally. Then it's a matter of finding a sweet spot to bribe the AI into a war.
 
How do you get AI players to dislike another AI player?

If they are not warring on their own, the main thing is to bribe various AIs to fight each other. It doesn’t have to be terribly intricate. Shop around, see if anyone will take the offer. Most often, it is bribing a more hostile AI to DoW an AI you have a DoF with. It feels wrong, but that is very much the way the game mechanics work.

I am a fairly new player and I tend to play in a highly peaceful manner.

I am pretty experienced at this point, but I play in highly peaceful manner. Of course, part of that is that I am struggling to win anyway, but I enjoy the game this way.

I've noticed that sometimes one of the AI players plays aggressively and tends to get a lot of Ire from the other AI's and when you join in those wars you don't tend to get a reputation hit from the other players so much.

Yes, warring against an aggressive AI is good, for several reasons.

...I finished off the Greeks...

The other AIs hate that. It is a little crazy, but again, that’s how the game mechanics work. You want to avoid being the one to kill off a civ. (Since the Halloween patch, very early kills are okay now.)

...who seemed to be at war with just about everybody

Yeah, that does not matter. Being the one to kill off a civ means all the other civs now hate you.

As soon as I denounced the Ethiopians I got everyone else's backs up.

Denouncements should be used only for civs that several other civs hate, or right before you DoW them, or when you can expect others to follow your lead denouncement.

How do I play in a Machiavellian way such that I can pick off the AI players one by one without becoming the focus of everyone's ire?

You have to pick your wars carefully. War hard against one civ that everyone hates, but don’t take their last city. Try to have another AI or even a CS kill that last city. Rather than kill them, it is much better to accept a white peace and leave them with one or two trash cities.

Are there things you can do to get AI players to start disliking each other?

Bribes to DoW are pretty much the only game mechanic for this specifically. If one civ kills another, or a CS, they are primed to be dog piled -- so you can help that along by denouncing them. If you get a few cities in a peace deal, you may be able to sell (or even gift) most (or even all) of them in a way that increases tensions. (Tensions that you will soon be in a position to exploit.)

Also, avoid DoFs with civs that multiple civs have denounced.
 
I think this would be an interesting idea or scenario, where the AI is at war with each other most of the time, while you are able to maintain neutrality or enough to where they won't attack you unless you attack them. It's something I hadn't thought of, but I think it is a great idea. :goodjob:

However, I don't see how it can be doable in the game as it is. Perhaps a mod to create this scenario?
 
it's a trial and error process. The easiest way to spot it is to look for proximity, neighbors tend to dislike each other, a weaker civ is more eligible to be attacked and, well, Atilla and Genghis, you don't really need to ask them twice about attacking someone else.

There is something that might be considered cheating though, in one game the Iroq and Koreans agreed to double doW me (the same turn I paid Monty to attack Rome and Askia to attack Japan), so I reloaded and paid Iroq to hit Korea. It cost an arm and a leg but that got them off my back til the end of the game (they were friendly all the way later). The point is, after reloading and fiddling a bit, I noticed that at one turn the Iroq were game, but the next turn they refused to even think about it, which was a clear indicator they were up to something and with me and Nebby being the only ones in range and Nebby being ok with everyone, I put two and two together
 
To take the guesswork out of who likes who, who hates who InfoAddict is excellent.

Amongst a ton of other useful data, it has an at a glance global relationship screen that shows DOFs, denounciations etc. It's even available on the leader screen when someone turns up wanting a surprise war or DOF, so no more disasterous mistakes made because you can't remember who likes who!

Should have been implemented in the base game, but get it from Steam Workshop.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=79000477
 
Yeah about that, do you have to enable it EVERY TIME you start a game, i.e. take the roundabout way to the map or is there another way?
 
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