Get your troops off my border.

[emmainthealps]

So I'm mid game with France. Brazil plants a new city four hexes from one of mine, I'm not too bothered, but then he complains that my units are too close. Move them or declare war!?
My units are in my city and next to it. Not even on my own border! Chill out Pedro, stop pestering me. It's really frustrating for the AI to be denouncing me for having my army in my own lands. Guess I'll have to squash him.

 

[nzcamel]

I had something like this in a game today. Hojo forward settled on my capital. Later on in the game he had a few troops on his border, so I moved a few up to the border as well. He called me out over it...which is a bit annoying seeing as I can't do the same to him in return.

 

[Matthew.]

Yes, this message has always annoyed the hell out of me. It existed in Civ 5 as well. It is supposed to help prevent "sneak attacks" from the human player, but most of the time the message goes off when are doing the complete opposite. Like the example you gave. Also, I've had it go off after liberating a Civ (of course my units are close by, then literally just liberated your city from enemy forces you dolt). I also have it go off all the time just from mediocre protection of my own borders. Like an archer in a city flanked by two spears = marching an army onto a neighbor?

Most importantly, it does absolutely nothing to prevent sneak attacks. If you are a human player and want to build up forces for a sneak attack, you just purposely keep them an extra 2 tiles back or so, to prevent the trigger. You are still close enough to surround the city on the next turn or so anyhow; not enough time for the AI to move units to compensate. So basically the message goes off all the time when you are NOT planning a sneak attack, and it won't go off if you ARE planning a sneak attack as long as you are smart enough to play around it.

 

[oklibrarian]

I've been frustrated with this as well. how close is too close? During a recent game I was settling in to siege Monty but also a little tight on gold when he offered me a pretty lucrative deal to peace out (side note--those double Scythian horse archers & horsemen add up FAST maintenance-wise, make double-dog sure you have the cash flow before you spam them). He then grumbled about troops on his border, so I agreed to back them off to cover the mountain pass (about 3 hexes away?) that separated our capitals. This wasn't good enough and the system decreed I broke my promise.

 

[esoba]

I really think this system is currently broken. I keep getting broken promises when my units are 3 hexes away. Like WTF? Plus, you shouldn't get this if your troops are in your own boarder. That is even just as silly.

 

[3 EMS]

This happened to me last night. I got open borders with Peter so I could go after Congo. They declared on me. In fact, I have not initiated a war. So Peter after giving me open borders hits me with the "Your troops are too close".