Apeacement

[Youma]

Since it's a hot topic to anyone following the us elections, do you ever apeace other civilizations? (accept "give me x or else" deals) I never, usually results in me vs everyone some time in the middle ages.

 

[Tequila316]

I normally do it with 1 civ, of my choice, normally one who is smaller than me and wont give me any trouble long run, everyone needs a friend, war ally, tech partner etc.

 

[eewallace]

Sure. It is all part of the diplomacy game. (In civ, that is. I'm not taking on the US political debate here.) Particularly if there is a powerful civ that I want as an ally, I'll give them what they want. OTOH, I will also demand stuff from civs that I'm willing to go to war with but don't absolutely need to go to war with right now...I can often get some nice stuff from them.

 

[Bob-san]

Yeah. Recently in a gigantic map with a few civs (well actually duel map with 18 civs), I threw troops around and eliminated my entire religious block's enemies. Wiped out 2/3 of the civs and then entered a long peace, really.

 

[CCRunner]

I only ever give in to demands when the AI demanding has double the amount of troops as me. I almost always give my allies help and sometimes even volunteer to give them stuff.

 

[Balderstrom]

I tend to aim for two allies instead of one. In my last game, one of the first Huge maps I played, I wound up with:
Pleased: Joao II, Cyrus, and Sitting Bull
Annoyed: Mansa, Stalin
Furious: Mao Zedong
AT War & Furious: Genghis, Caesar
Vassal & Pleased: Frederick
Vassal & Annoyed: Saladin

To prevent ppl from making demands, I generally would preempt them by offering trades. Mao has made some pretty foolish demands, and was directly on my borders - but I hardly ever seen him as much of a threat.
Considering I had tailored 3 other civs to my good favor, I wasn't too concerned about having mediocre to bad relations with the couple others.

 

[a4phantom]

Since it's a hot topic to anyone following the us elections, do you ever apeace other civilizations? (accept "give me x or else" deals) I never, usually results in me vs everyone some time in the middle ages.

Well in the brainless air of our political debate, "appeasement" has come to mean any kind of diplomacy, so yes, I do talk to other empires. But according to the actual meaning of the word, capitulating under threats and trying to buy peace, I rarely do that in Civ4, because I'm usually on the verge of attacking the strongest empire in sight so why help them grow stronger before fighting them? The only time I'm likely to do it is if an overseas power threatens me and I think they're capable of landing on my coast in force and razing cities before I can respond. But then I make it my mission to punish them in the future.

 

[Balderstrom]

Gotta agree with that. In fact I probably have done that, gotten so annoyed by a CIV's demands - gone to war and just started razing their cities.

 

[djvandrake]

The only time I do it is when the demand is cheap (like a resource) and it'll buy me a 10 turn peace treaty to prepare my invasion fleet.

I do find it rather annoying that some Civs think they need to make demands on a regular basis, even when my power graph is above theirs. Catherine is certainly high maintenance at times, and cute when she pouts.

 

[a4phantom]

The only time I do it is when the demand is cheap (like a resource) and it'll buy me a 10 turn peace treaty to prepare my invasion fleet.

I do find it rather annoying that some Civs think they need to make demands on a regular basis, even when my power graph is above theirs. Catherine is certainly high maintenance at times, and cute when she pouts.

Yeah, I'll give up a spare banana to be better positioned (and have a righteous excuse) when war does come.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

Depends on the tech and civ. If weak civ a demands Rifling I refuse and sometimes turn around and demand a gold tribute for the lulz. However, if powerful rival wants Liberlism I'll cave. Certain techs (mainly liberalism and Free Market) I want other civs to have for economic/diplomatic reasons.

So, in sum, 'depends'.

 

[oranges]

I'm a complete opposite to PimpyMicPimp. Never give in to powerful civ demands for techs, I'll grant them gold requests on occasion, but no techs. Weak civs, on the other hand, I like to strengthen, especially if they're in poor relations with one of the powerhouses. If a weak civ is at war with one of my rivals, I'll gift them military and other techs (this, of course, presumes no tech brokering option) so that they can provide some resistance, thus effectively enabling me to gain an advantage over the rival who is engaged in a war and not making as much progress as expected. I almost always grant resource requests and then cancel them after 10 turns, the only exception being a strategic resource when it genuinely has strategic value.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I wouldn't give a military tech to a powerful rival, but something like Liberalism or Economics (is that the one that grants Free Market? Whatever gets them out of Mercantilism), techs that I want them to have (unless I'm racing for communism, then I'll hold on to Liberlism) I'll let them have it and take the peace+diplo points, sure.

 

[CCRunner]

Weak civs, on the other hand, I like to strengthen, especially if they're in poor relations with one of the powerhouses. If a weak civ is at war with one of my rivals, I'll gift them military and other techs (this, of course, presumes no tech brokering option) so that they can provide some resistance, thus effectively enabling me to gain an advantage over the rival who is engaged in a war and not making as much progress as expected.

I also often gift weak civs techs so long as I see that they are at war with a strong civ and it isn't a fake war. I also avoid giving them stuff if I intend to take them out soon myself obviously.

 

[oranges]

I wouldn't give a military tech to a powerful rival, but something like Liberalism or Economics (is that the one that grants Free Market? Whatever gets them out of Mercantilism), techs that I want them to have (unless I'm racing for communism, then I'll hold on to Liberlism) I'll let them have it and take the peace+diplo points, sure.

I assumed from your first post that that you differentiate between value of various techs and base decision on that. I value ALL too much to give them to a powerhouse (more often than not I'm not friends with them) because even if not so valuable on their own, they need to be researched for something else that might be. "Build some universities and cottages, instead of countless troops and endless workshops if you want to research faster, no help from me", I think to myself. Probably the only exception is Mass Media, which I will gift to AP owner if it suits me to end the AP era (if not, I would avoid researching it anyway).

 

[Priah]

Everyone that has posted so far about never giving into ai demands should try playing Immortal or Diety. Lemme know how it works out for you.

 

[oranges]

Most people specify when they are talking about Immortal/Deity or even Emperor level. The first two are hardly the most often played levels by forumers here. Besides, you'll have an easier time refusing demands simply because you'll have scarcely anything to offer, especially tech-wise, so they wont have reason to bother you at all

 

[CCRunner]

Everyone that has posted so far about never giving into ai demands should try playing Immortal or Diety. Lemme know how it works out for you.

And that is why I don't play Immortal or Diety.
Actually it is one of several, the others being that I can barely beat prince and I suck at city placement and specialization.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I assumed from your first post that that you differentiate between value of various techs and base decision on that. I value ALL too much to give them to a powerhouse (more often than not I'm not friends with them) because even if not so valuable on their own, they need to be researched for something else that might be. "Build some universities and cottages, instead of countless troops and endless workshops if you want to research faster, no help from me", I think to myself. Probably the only exception is Mass Media, which I will gift to AP owner if it suits me to end the AP era (if not, I would avoid researching it anyway).

Fair point, but I still think that a lot of the time you will get more benefit from regaining trade routes lost to evil mercantilism is worth giving that tech away. I suppose Liberalism can be a bad thing to give because of Free Speech (since AI's only ever run CEs), but it's fairly useless otherwise.

Again, I don't have any hard rules on this, like so much in Civ, it's all situational.

 

[Balderstrom]

Does anyone ever use Mercantilism? The commerce hit from that hardly seems ever bothering with at all.