6 civs declare war on me in 1070 AD

Prince diff
Tiny map

2 different religions, 8 player game, I was at war with 1 guy

has this ever happened to anyone?

This is what's called a 'dogpile.'

Happens from time to time; can be avoided through some diplomacy.

I haven't had it quite that badly, but I did have 4 AIs declare war on me on the same turn as each other.

On the plus side, you won't be incurring diplomatic penalties for declaring war on AIs or their friends.

Your game has now advanced to the Always War mode! :-0 Of course, Always War will only last for a short period of time, after which you can actually selectively choose to make Peace with some of the AIs. Now might be a good time to take Peace with the AI with whom you were originally at war. Or, take on the whole world at once and have fun with it!

Happens to me a lot. Not enough military strength. Did you just suffer some casualties?

Military strength is not the factor in that situation Tutn. Once you're in war, the strenght of the other side gets deducted from yours. You need 1.5-2 times the military ratio to prevent wars via military might, so if you're in war with an opponent you can beat (usually that means that he has 1.5 times of your military) , you basically have a negative strenght, which is why it's so easy for that AI to bribe anybody against you, or also others to simply backstab and join the war. The only safe way is to have good diplomatic relationsships (most AIs cannot plot a war on pleased or above) and to time the begging of so that it's possible directly before the war. Once 10T of war are over, the risk of an AI bribing others against onesself is something like 1/20 when it was almost 100% on T1.

So: Don't rely on military strength, invest work in the diplo, beg the right amounts at the right time and you're mostly good, because 10T are enough to beat the enemies stack, and then, with having more might again, chances get like really low (like 1-3% on T10 and diminishing from that moment onwards still further) .

Hth .

Thanks! That makes sense.

You're welcome .

Hi there ShaggyP,
As Seraiel writes, invest time in diplomacy. This map should be two blocks, one Jewish and one Buddha. Zara gives you plenty of + for same religion. Add Theocracy and you have a friend and ally up to modern era. Work with the fellow jews first, then Mansa for tech trading. Beware of worst enemies when trading. Take out Hannibal. Suspected briber. Check out Kaitzillas guide in articles section: Know your enemy. Get the BUG-mod.

Yes, the easiest way to work diplomacy is religion. Most of the AIs give fairly big diplo bonuses (at least compared to any other diplo modifier) for being in the same state religion.

Religion really should be viewed primarily through the lens of diplomacy. Decide who you want to be friends with and do your best to be the same religion as that civ (or those civs).

The easiest (and most reliable) way to control diplo is imo. gifting techs (gives +4 which is about the same as Religion but Religion needs to build up and one usually is not able to freely chose the religion, gifting a few techs after having beelined Alpha is a safe bet though) .