AI reaction to unknown Powerlevel

My relative powerlevels are usually quite low since I always prefer development in front of warring. And thus I never use leaders like Shaka, Monty or Gengis myself and thus usually have one of them neighbouring me *sigh*. And therefore most of the time I would not want them to know my powerlevel. By having more Espionage points than them and denying them the knowledge of my power, will that make them hesitant to attack me? Any idea of how much would be enough? Is it enough if they have a higher espionage cost than 100% against targeted civilisations? Is this a worthwhile strategy so long I try to keep the diplomatic relationships decent with the suspects?

No idea, but I do know that I get attacked when I have a low powerlevel and not as much when I have a high one, regardless of espionage points.

when i have a low power level, i can avoid getting attacked by kissing the coat-tails of those who are powerful. If your really afraid of them, you can start with a good diplo plan, i dont know how espionage factors in - but you can use espionage to change their civics. like if you fear a war, you can start by using a spy to bring them from theocracy to paganism, then change to theocracy yourself to pump out some defenders.

you can also avert battles with counter-units. you can move units in a fashion that causes the AI to either not attack, or move away from the key battlefield long enough to request peace. I also know if you request something from the AI and they give it, you get a treaty - i have experimented and it does not seem you can just gift 10 gold, or a useless tech for a treaty.

If all else fails, you can convert to their religion, and diplo them against their neighbors - keep their religions seperate, civics seperate and tell them to stop trading. this espionage can really hinder a good opponent, especially when you move in your attack you can use a spy to destroy walls before you siege them.

If you fall too far behind in military strength, you will absolutely be attacked.
Keep a close eye on your rankings.
Build at least one military city with barracks, stables and drydocks. Add Heroic Epic, and West Point when it's available. Build a forge and just produce units for your civ.
Your other cities can build wealth, science, wonders, etc.

THe formulae for espionage has diminishing returns, so unless you can constantly sabotage their courthouses (much more effective than having a high espionage slider), you are probably out of luck. Remember, certain building and wonders also increase your power levels.

its not about preferring development over warring. its about ensuring adequate security. just because one is at peace does not mean that you do not need to be building military units..
at the very least youre best production city should be producing units all the time..it should only switch to making building when absolutely necessary...this is the same with ur 2nd most important city and possibly ur 3rd...
build more units...dont mess around with building spies to try to sabotage their knowledge of you, be strong enough so that they will pick on the weakest AI....not you...
and if youre especially weak, they WILL dogpile you....to be on the safe side, aim to have at least a fair percentage of the lead AI's soldiers...anything less than 25percent and ur liable to be attacked at any moment.best to be 50% plus to be on the safe side (but again nothing is predictable)

The number of points req'd for revealing the power graph is pretty small; it's the first thing you get to see. You'd have to be producing enough EPs to totally sabotage everything else you're trying to do, and it still wouldn't be enough, so you may as well throw a few troops out there and keep your levels up. Fortunately for you, techs give power ratings too, so if you're high enough on the tech chart, your smaller army will seem big, BUT don't rest on your laurels: get your troops upgraded too!

And that all ignore the HIGH likelihood that the AI gets to see your power graph anyway.

If you fall too far behind in military strength, you will absolutely be attacked.

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I've played some games in Immortal with 10 times less power than the strongest AI and was never attacked during game. it didn't needed so much assliking as that... just some basic diplo

I've heard that the Ai is allowed to cheat and always knows the power level.

Ok I suppose noone really knows what impact unknown powergraph has on the AI then. Thanks anyway.

Another solution is to get them to attack each other. One time in my earlier games I had low power level and Shaka beside me. I saw that I could get him into a war that might benefit me but hesitated. A few turns later he declared war on me. He certainly wouldn't have done that if he were bogged down in a war instead.

Military power douse not have as big an effect as is suggested (that or the AI was being overtly human biased that game) without haveing any major war makers around and spending almost 90% of one game with a vastly more powerful army then even the top military AI aswell as haveing vassles i got repeatedly dogpiled on wars i didnt start (never started any wars in that game) and every war i took a few new citys and forced them into peace and somehow thay continued this till i got sick of seeing this repeating ****** reaction from the computer.

No major war makers and non of the major anti-war types mostly the middle ground personalitys.

SharpMango said:

....to be on the safe side, aim to have at least a fair percentage of the lead AI's soldiers...anything less than 25percent and ur liable to be attacked at any moment.best to be 50% plus to be on the safe side (but again nothing is predictable)

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And don't make the same boneheaded mistake I made a couple of days ago....I was number 1 on the power graph, and had taken over my continent. Wouldn't you know that Genghis was my nearest neighbor, only about 4 water tiles away. I kinda got fat and happy, and didn't realize that I left a coastal city (yes, the one closest to Khan) undefended altogether. I didn't realize it until he had sailed a ton of troops over and burned it to the ground. He ended up taking 3 cities before my troops even made it to the warfront.

I'd imagine that the only reason he attacked to begin with was that I had an unguarded city...He still died, but it took me a little longer.