How can you upset the enemy

[Captain2]

ok currently i'm across the lake from france and i want their land, they threatened me and I called their bluff, how is it possible to upset the enemy into declaring war on you?

[Own]

If you keep demanding a tech from them until they're furious, they're more likely to demand and declare war when you call.

[vmxa]

Many factors, have you razed towns, fought with their friends? Do you own slaves of theirs? Are in a shunne form of governament andon and on.

Refuse demands, not accept the first offer on a trade deal?

[shady milkman]

I didn't know owning slaves could cause dislike...wierd. I'll have to keep that one in mind.

[TimBentley]

Actually, you owning their slaves won't hurt attitude; their owning your workers will hurt attitude.

[Averdris]

Is it possible to stay peacefull and not fight at all? I try so much...

[Sybot]

It may be possible. I've never gone a game without going to war, even when going for a Diplomatic victory.

I know some people play with the no military variant so there must be a way to stay peaceful or else they'd get .

[Fried Egg]

Originally Posted by Averdris

Is it possible to stay peacefull and not fight at all? I try so much...

Are there any countries out there that have never been in a war over the last six thousand years? I don't think there are many...if any. Civillization is quite realistic in that regard.

I think the difference is between playing a warmonger where you constantly bully and attack your neighbours to get what you want. Or else you play passively, only going to war when you really need to (or when attacked) and quickly make peace again afterwards.

[gmaharriet]

When I first started playing civ, I tried everything I could to stay out of wars, often just quitting the game when I was attacked because I really didn't want to fight. What I eventually found was that I could get to the Modern Age in about 1 out of 10 games without a fight, plan to build a spaceship, and I'd be missing 1 resource located in the middle of enemy territory and no possibility of trading for it. Having to quit a game at that point was beyond frustrating.

What I finally did was try an "Always War" game to learn how to fight and to get used to the idea of just being at war. I did this first on Warlord and a couple months later on Regent. I got a LOT of advice and moral support from members of this board, and I won both games. That made it so much easier to deal with the small wars I have to fight now, either because I'm attacked or because I need a resource, but I'm still not very aggressive.

So, I guess the answer is that you need to learn to fight or at least to be prepared for it. I think there are a couple of members here who are very good at peaceful games, but they are in the minority. They might be able to give you better advice on how to manage it.

[Akka]

Just ask them for tribute for repeatedly, and then the next time when they are in your territory, require them to leave of you declare war.
They will, 90 % of the time, declare war themselves (and hence take themselve the rep it for declaring war with units inside your territory).

Be warned, though : pushing a civ to war through such ways, means that you'll NEVER be able to get them friends again. Never.

[thetrooper]

Originally Posted by Akka

Be warned, though : pushing a civ to war through such ways, means that you'll NEVER be able to get them friends again. Never.

Doesn't matter if you plan to eliminate them.

[stachnie]

Originally Posted by Captain2

ok currently i'm across the lake from france and i want their land, they threatened me and I called their bluff, how is it possible to upset the enemy into declaring war on you?

Trick them to have some troops at your territory (e.g. block a Settler/Spearmen pair in a way that it cannot move), wait until the option "remove your troops or declare a war" is available, make them angry (e.g. demand all their cities but their capital, do that until they are furious) and 'kindly' ask to leave your territory

It may not work if you have been at war already and they lost most of their cities, but I guess it is not the case


Best regards,

Slawomir Stachniewicz.

[vmxa]

Not having any wars takes so much of the fun out of the game. It is one thing to not want lots of wars, but not any?

[sabo]

One sure fire way (at least in my experience) is to keep demanding stuff from them until they are furious, once they are furious and they have troops in your territory and you tell them to leave they will declare war. I don't know how advanced you are but another pretty sure way is a failed espionage mission

[mastertyguy]

The surest way, IMHO, is to continuously try to steal techs.
1- If you get caught, you have high chances of strting a war
2- If not, you get a tech!

[cleverhandle]

Originally Posted by Averdris

Is it possible to stay peacefull and not fight at all? I try so much...

Yes, at least at Monarch it is. I played a Standard Conts game (as the Germans, no less ) and won a Diplo victory without ever being in a state of war. To go totally warless takes a fair bit of luck, especially with regards to resources - that German game was in vanilla, and I doubt I could have done it with C3C's scarcer resources.

But there are lots of things you can do to minimize the chances and impact of war that can apply in many games. Most importantly, keep your military strong (keeping in mind that "strength" is slanted toward offensive units) and don't leave any border cities weakly defended. Also, make sure that the AI you want to placate is receiving some kind of resource from you. Remember that you can trade away your last source of a luxury for this purpose if necessary - this may be a good reason to build happiness structures and also increases the importance of wonders like Sistine and Bach. You can do it with strat resources too, but that's a bit dicier. GPT deals (where you're paying them) act similarly, though they don't seem to have as large a deterrent effect in my experience. Sign ROP's, but make sure that your interior cities are also adequately defended in that case. Grease their palms with 100 gold every now and then, and try not to haggle on deals. Pay tribute when asked for it.

Having an adequate military is really the first and best deterrent, but even that isn't absolutely necessary. I'm playing a Monarch 5CC at the moment, and thus having a "strong" military is simply impossible due to limited commerce and unit support. But the superpowers are still gracious to me and I've got the tech lead and about 5000 gold on hand at the end of the Middle Ages despite my puny production and wimpy military. I was declared on twice during the AA, but ended those wars ASAP after my defense-slanted garrison held off a couple attacks and my skirmishers picked off one or two units. But again, having some luck with resources is really very important - I was fortunate enough to have both horses and iron within my borders, and without them life would have surely been harder. Minimal or even no war is definitely possible in right situation, but I don't think you can plan to run every game that way, at least once you get past the early difficulty levels.

[BobCW]

Originally Posted by Akka

Just ask them for tribute for repeatedly, and then the next time when they are in your territory, require them to leave of you declare war.
They will, 90 % of the time, declare war themselves (and hence take themselve the rep it for declaring war with units inside your territory).

Be warned, though : pushing a civ to war through such ways, means that you'll NEVER be able to get them friends again. Never.

Well, sort of. I've gotten a furious civ to gracious once before. But only once, and it was not easy- I had to pull out all the stops to get a UN victory.