Nukes and War

Hey guys! Sorry if I'm on the wrong section...

So, I've been playing this game, on Immortal level, as Russia, willing to get a Scientific Victory. I'm a little late and it is already turn 252, I've built apollo project and am currently building the cockpit + hubble. On my way, though, were two civilizations: runaway Persia, with the tech lead, and CS-way Inca, allied with all but a few CSs, with an awesome GPT and the abillity to win either by Diplo or Culture. I'm at war with Persia since medieval era and am BFFs with the Inca.

My problem is the following: as Persia was on my way, I decided to politely nuke the innocent city of Persepolis, seed of all evil. I did that, and from 27 pop they got to 14. Then, I got a second nuke (it is actually an Atomic Bomb) and nuked them again, getting them from 14 to 6. Here is my problem: once I nuked Persepolis for the second time, I get an Incan dow. They don't come at my screen and say anything, it just suddenly gets me at war with the Incas, without reason. I pass through the "War" status and it says: "You nuked them!". I really don't get it, I was kicking Persia =/

Is it because he might have a unit around there? Could be the case, I checked and they are not at war with each other. I wanna nuke Persepolis again but I shouldn't get into a war with the Incas, not right now. Any suggestions about what is happening? Thanks

EDIT: I tried nuking Ecbatana instead. Nothing happened with the Incas.

Nuke has 2 hex spread from center. Did the edge of the nuke possibly fall in inca territory?

"Politely nuke Persepolis"? Nice!

If the diplo indicator was that "You nuked them" then the Incans must have had a unit (or a sliver of territory) in the multi-tile blast zone. Even a wandering missionary is enough to get you a DOW.

Re "I shouldn't get into a war with the Incas, not right now": If they've declared war, you are at war with them, whether it's what you planned or not. Nuking a second city and observing no incremental reaction from the Incans won't tell you much.

Given as he nuked Persopolis, I doubt he hit anybody else's territory. Most likely they had open borders, or, as stated earlier, there was a missionary in the blast radius.

I've learned to be very careful with nukes, I wish the graphic came with an overlay that would show you exactly what tiles will be hit, for the dim-witted amongst us (like me). I've twice turned an ally into an enemy with "nuke splashover"

Me and my brother were playing together, and neither one of us were warmongering much.

But when my brother did get into any wars, he tried using nukes and kept accidentally hitting city states.He hit so many that some of them declared a permanent war on him.

But I do think something should be done to make it not so easy to get into a war with someone over something like this.Probably not many countries would declare war on someone for accidentally hitting one of their random missionaries in a foreign country.

Thanks for the replies, guys!

By the way, it was in the heart of the Persian territory, so it was probably a dumb missonary (now that I remember, Pachacuti was indeed spreading his religion like a beast). I managed to win the game with a crappy score of 2446 and in 310 turns... Though, it is my second best turn times: my first immortal science victory was as Rome, on turn 303... not much better, but this time I got only 2 RA per wave.

So, what happened? Well, I reloaded to check if I misclicked, and tried nuking Persepolis again. The same thing happened, so I kept playing with my mistake. The war didn't take much time to end, the "You've nuked them!" and "You're at war!" were the only bad diplo modifiers with the Incas and I had things like "You shared intrigue", "We've traded recently", etc, so, after 25-30 turns we came back to peace. In the end, the bastard couped basically all CS but Antwerp on the map and Dowed me with America. Thank you very much, long time allies Sydney, Tyre and Sidon, for your coperation. I ended up nuking Tiwanaku, re-nuking Persepolis, conquering Tyre and watching Pachacuti conquer Pasargadae, the Persepobyl and the old and dead Austrian empire. They could have taken a diplo victory if they had more techs, or a cultural if they had more time. Still, it was the toughest victory I've ever had and I'm very happy with my score, even if it is crappy and the turn time isn't good.

Thank you guys for the replies and for taking your time reading this!

EDIT: BTW, it was my first time actually using nukes. I often build one or two and launch them on the last turn, but in this game they were the reason I won! Really interesting

Congrats then!

Thank you! Now that I see, I lost Porcelain Tower to the Incas. It explains some turns...