31. Never go to war to help your friend.... Because they will denounce you causing the a ton of other civilizations to denounce you and then deny you freedom through their territory to get to their enemy.
I posted this story somewhere else.
( Earth-Large-King-America..... The year is 1990 the world has been split up into 6 major powers Babylon who has conquered all of South America and has a population of a whooping 70 million, France and The Aztecs who have split Asia and Eastern Europe almost evenly, Japan and China who have split Western Europe and the Middle East almost evenly, Persia who conquered 75% of Africa, a bit of Antarctica and various islands, England who conquered the remainder of Africa and a few islands, and finally America who conquered most of North America and a bit of Antarctica. So Darius decides to declare on England(my biggest trading partner and best friend for centuries) and smashes their pathetic army, with their army of 500,000, in a few turns and begins to capture English cities effortlessly. Fearing Economic collapse with the loss of a major trading partner and Persia's score getting way to far ahead of everyone else's I decide to attempt to form a coalition with the worlds major powers (and a few smaller ones like Germany, Spain the Inca, and the Iroquois), to fight Persia. Everyone agrees except Napoleon and some minor power. So I use a great artist to start a golden age and begin preparing for war. Right before the 10 turns of preparation are up England losses all of it's cities in Africa and is left with only a few islands off the coast and of course my happiness meter dips into red, so I have to deplete my treasury buying happiness buildings. So the 10 turns are up and we all declare was on Persia and my forces mobilize(I saw one Babylonian rocket artillery on the way to Africa lol). Two turns later ENGLAND DENOUNCES ME..? (WTF I JUST WENT TO WAR FOR YOU) THEN ALMOST EVERYONE OF MY WAR ALLIES DENOUNCE ME AS WELL..? So I get to Africa and of course my open borders treaty with England expires and of course THEY WONT RENEW IT FOR ANYTHING!!!!!!! Figuring I had to fight Persia no matter what I declare on England to get through their waters to Africa. This is followed by several warnings(and denouncements) from minor powers around the worldlol: and my economy finally collapsing under the pressure of a huge army, adding a ton of happiness buildings without increasing gold output, and finally the gold from Elizabeth for my resources being canceled. At this point I quit playing not only that game but ciV all together until the patches bring back sane AI's. )