Reputation

[Maj]

I recently started a Regent game on a large map with small continents and big oceans with 8 other civs to share the world with (temporarily) . Given my luck, while 4 Civs (Chinese, Egyptians, Indian & Japanese) started out with their own relatively large private continents, surrounded by several smaller islands, I ended up on one slightly larger than theirs with the Germans, Russians and English. So that's what? Two expansionists and a militaristic? That didn't seem to make much of a difference, however since it's now ~1000 AD and there hasn't been one single war. Not one, between any Civ.

The continent I'm on is shaped a bit like a flask, with myself (the French) occuping the neck and the north part of the "bulb". The Germans occupy the West, the English the East and the Russians the South. So far, nobody has made contact with any of the other Civs, and I'm in desperate need of coal, which Germany has plenty of, but is far from getting the Steam Engine advance (so I can't trade). I could wait many turns and forgo the vital early bonus of having railroads, or I could go in with guns blazing and grab what should have been mine (according to what my society believes) . This brings me to my question:

Will attacking the Germans ruin my non-existent reputation with the Civs nobody on my island has yet encountered? I know I'll lose some reputation with the Russians and English, but they're not really a threat. I'm not saying I could conquer them, but my productive power, culture, and civ happiness are high enough to allow me to properly defend myself in the event that they decided to attack me. What I'm worred about is losing repute with the other, larger and more powerful civs who I might be able to fend off one on one, but no way if they ever allied against me.

Anyone have any suggestions as to how I should go about this? I'm thinking of just taking the entire West (the Germans and essentially half the island) and then building my military to a point where I can slice through either the English or Russians, then subdue the leftovers until I can recover enough to put them away. I'm just worried about reputation with Civs no one has met yet . Logically, if they've never made contact, they'd never know...but Civ3 is not a perfect model.

Thanks in advance

-Maj

[Kyppo]

You were right. According to my previous game experience if a civilization hasn't make contact with other Civs then they would never know about your treacherous ways... timing is everything here. Just hope you can wrap things up before you make contacts with the other.

Regards,
Kyppo

[Lasitus]

This might have been after I got the harbor, but I was land locked for the most part and had no resources. So, I demanded something of the Americans, which had done nothing to me and were wanting the trade. They declined and I declared war. I promptly took them out and built up some. Meanwhile, no one, even on my continent cared. They were all cautious. So, I said great and did the same to the French. Meanwhile, during the war with the French, the English sent some troops over my boarder... I say leave or declare war! They then declare war! Also, since I started this war, I meet people from other continents and they started out annoyed instead of cautious... So, just be sure that no other civ has harbors and tech to meet others. I think they tell other civs that you havn't meet personally. Though, I don't think I was ever behind in tech... I say you should try to cause an incident and get the progressively annoyed with you. If they are in that state, they may just provoke you and you can give them a decision. Get out or declare war. They just might do what you want and you can kill them without any international incident.