Making Friends

Have a few civs with which I want to be friends, none of them are particularly close, haven't been at war with any of them, they have no alliances, I have a few trades going on with them but nothing spectacular. They're neutral towards me, how can I get them to friendly or to accept friendship proposals?

Generally it takes time for them to accept friendship deals. You could gift them things, but really, I would just wait. Shared religions, espionage, embassies and open borders help. Stay small, but probably the best way to be friends is to do nothing that would get them offside.

However, that is not always easy as you may build a wonder they covet.

I think I'd just wait.

Trade ressources, even if it is at your disadvantage for the first time.

Offer them to fight a common ennemy, denounce the civ they have denounced, make a proposal to the world congress that suits them, adopt the same ideology.

That depends on you relationship with their friends and enemies, on how useful you are to them, on the civ you want to be friends with and on luck. Try to not do anything that pisses them off like replacing them as a CS ally , sell them resources for gpt or just gift them a luxury, establish trade routes with them, spread your religion to everyone who hasn't founded one of his own and denounce civs that they denounced (unless the situation is complicated and the civs you want to befriend hate each other.)
It might help to know who you want to be friends with since the different leaders have different personalities.

Currently I'm trying to get on the good side of Dido. She hasn't made any friends or foes and there are no CS on the map so short of declaring war I don't think I could piss her off even if I wanted to. I have two horse resources which I sell off for gold, most of it to Dido. It's still early in the game, only about one third of civs have entered the classical era, so no open borders, religions, etc.

If I give her horses for free (1 gold per horse doesn't really help me much anyway) will that make her more friendly?

GiantLittleDog said:

Currently I'm trying to get on the good side of Dido. She hasn't made any friends or foes and there are no CS on the map so short of declaring war I don't think I could piss her off even if I wanted to. I have two horse resources which I sell off for gold, most of it to Dido. It's still early in the game, only about one third of civs have entered the classical era, so no open borders, religions, etc.

If I give her horses for free (1 gold per horse doesn't really help me much anyway) will that make her more friendly?

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Okay I was just about to give you some serious helpful advise but then you said Dido

Dido is the #1 backstabber in the game if you become friends with her I can guarantee you it will not last very long

Another point is to consider what you expect to get from her in return- just friendship? Is it worth not screwing her for every bit of gold that you can get?

They will all turn on you at some stage if it is in their interests so you also need to think of yours- perhaps making friends with dido is the way to go. I wouldn't be giving too much away though.

Arachnofiend said:

Okay I was just about to give you some serious helpful advise but then you said Dido

Dido is the #1 backstabber in the game if you become friends with her I can guarantee you it will not last very long

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Please give me some helpful advice anyway. I'm also trying to become friends with Harun Al-Rashid, Theodora, Hiawatha and Wu Zetian, but they're a little further away.