AI joins an alliance with me then attacks me in the interturn - interesting AI oddity

I've no idea if this is worthy of its own thread, but I've never seen it before, and it's not really something one can screenshot.

I was having a lull in hostilities after halving the Japanese empire while also taking out the Persians (which the Japanese were in the process of finishing off when they declared on me for not giving them some random tech or resource or whatever) when an Iroquois Cavalry popped up on my borders.

The Iroquois were neighbours of Japan on the other side and were previously my allies in halving Japan. From my experience, when a Cavalry pops up on your border it likely means the AI is going to attack you next turn, so I sent out a load of Infantry to block it's progress.

In the previous inter-turn Japan had asked me to be their allies against France. I had forgotten to get Embassies with half the world and realised I'd been missing out on news about wars. It turned out the French were at war with Japan.

So I had a double luxury, I could take this opportunity to finish off Japan while distracting the Iroquois Cavalry back on themselves and back into Japan. So I duly made an alliance with France, declared on Japan and the Iroquois agreed to ally with me against Japan. That was all too awesome, I thought.

Then, in the next inter-turn, the Iroquois declared on me anyway, so they were now at war with both me and Japan. I've never seen that before, have you?

All the time lol. I am currently playing as Japan and I owned Korea, however I spared them and turned them into my vassals. We were at war against the mongols and china, but they declared war on me as well.

Needless to say I finished eating my korean food then. I had plans with them oh well.

It would seem you're the only one, and it happens to you all the time! Lol.

Well, this is an anomaly to me after countless (triple figure) games. Normally an alliance... is an alliance, lol (at least as a far as a computer AI is concerned).

If the KI is about to attack you and has its units in position, no trades, alliances or anything else will prevent this.

I have even written an use for it under short strategic tips.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13971901&postcount=774

At least this is my observation.

So why not make the best use of it: Get their gold and knowledge for nothing (meaning luxuries and resources they do not get as they will still declare war on you...).

That's the thing, I've experienced the opposite. Every time the AI has converged on my border I've been able to distract them elsewhere, it's one of my favourite Laugh At The AI routines. Watch them all arrive, then watch them all wander off again.

I agree, your various advantages of letting them invade after milking them is a neat trick, but when you're running a minimalistic empire for a relaxing peaceful Victory Condition, any hassle caused by a war can be more irritating than any additional advantage.

Perhaps it depends on their relations with you? Perhaps, like most things, there's loads of hidden calculations involved, so different play-styles always produce the same result for specific play-styles? In this game I was being quite aggressive/selfish and not caring for Diplomacy, for example, which is quite different to how I normally play.

I have seen this many times before. Sometimes I was able to distract them to go elsewhere, other times they still declared war on me (also at war with whoever I asked them to). I think it depends on who you sent them to attack and how far they are from their armies. I think it also depends on how close they got to attacking you which they just "well we made it this far, might as well finish the job". One time I told them to attack another civ that was actually about to attack me, or maybe it had already begun attacking me, and they had many troops in my territory and they did turn and attack them instead of me.

Perhaps it depends on their relations with you? Perhaps, like most things, there's loads of hidden calculations involved, so different play-styles always produce the same result for specific play-styles? In this game I was being quite aggressive/selfish and not caring for Diplomacy, for example, which is quite different to how I normally play.

Click to expand...

I am usually a peaceful player too. I very rarely declare war on my own (but this does not stop me from converting an aggressor into a province of my empire ) and I never break treaties and contracts.

On the other side I also rarely buy luxuries or resources from my greedy neighbours as their prices are daylight robbery. I rather look for alternatives or wait for a opportunity to add their luxuries or resources into my empire (see above ).

But I have long ago given up my hopes, that the KI will also behave honorable...