Hahaha, Civilization V is all about military now.

[CivAddict2013]

So I'm playing France going for a tall Cultural Victory. Pretty much doing better than everyone else in culture. Whole world backstabs me. Insta rage quit.

I just realize now that this game is all about military. The AI will all gang up on you just for doing better than them.

Might as well just pick Germany and call it a day. The game; at least against the AI, is all about military.

You don't spend every last dime on military; you're screwed.

 

[Question]

Thats odd in my games the AI will typically get pissed at you but not attack even if you have a weak military. Ive gotten away with nothing more than a few composite bows in the modern era and just teched my way to victory.

Usually only a "bold" civ like genghis khan will attack if they think you are weak early on but i rarely see the ganging up thing.

 

[SULOMON]

So I'm playing France going for a tall Cultural Victory. Pretty much doing better than everyone else in culture. Whole world backstabs me. Insta rage quit.

I just realize now that this game is all about military. The AI will all gang up on you just for doing better than them.

Might as well just pick Germany and call it a day. The game; at least against the AI, is all about military.

You don't spend every last dime on military; you're screwed.

Of course the AI will gang up they don't want you to win.

 

[joncnunn]

So I'm playing France going for a tall Cultural Victory. Pretty much doing better than everyone else in culture. Whole world backstabs me. Insta rage quit.

I just realize now that this game is all about military. The AI will all gang up on you just for doing better than them.

Might as well just pick Germany and call it a day. The game; at least against the AI, is all about military.

You don't spend every last dime on military; you're screwed.

Well, a human would definitely attack another human doing much better at culture that had a weak army.
From the fact that you quit, it appears you didn't have enough military to defend yourself. Given that the AI undervalues ranged units they probably thought your military was pitiful.
You don't need to use your military to attack, but you need to keep it up to date to defend yourself.

Late game wars are also largely ideological driven. But they can be compounded by proposing world resolutions they hate.

 

[Chris3894]

I'm pretty surprised that's the opposite of my games, even if I'm really ahead I won't be attacked unless I provoke another civ or it's a warmonger civ

 

[Doktor Vic Tim]

I only seem to get attacked after I've punched another civ out of the game. That's when civs start world war I on me.

Come on, guys, it was Venice, gimme a break...

 

[CivAddict2013]

Thats odd in my games the AI will typically get pissed at you but not attack even if you have a weak military. Ive gotten away with nothing more than a few composite bows in the modern era and just teched my way to victory.

Usually only a "bold" civ like genghis khan will attack if they think you are weak early on but i rarely see the ganging up thing.

Yes, but it's like this. I've played peaceful the whole game. And the AI's just gang up on you because you are doing better in some aspect.

It's inevitable. You can play totally peaceful and eventually some AI or even multiple AI's will declare war for no reason other than you have a different ideology.

It's all about military. You might as well just wait for one AI to build all the wonders and great works; then steamroll him. If you concentrate on anything but churning out endless units; the AI sees you as weak and attacks you.

There is no peace in this game. If you're doing better; every AI will gang up on you eventually. It's inevitable.

Why focus on culture? Just build a bunch of units and steamroll the culture leader.

 

[GoStu]

Hey, it's this guy again! The one who writes only ridiculous complaint threads!

What'd you expect them to do? You probably had some sweet turf, lots of wonders, and not much military. Did you expect them to just send fruit baskets? Hell no; I'd have invaded too.

 

[TLHeart]

funny, I have played entire immortal and diety games, and won science and culture victories with only 5 or 6 military units, and 2 of those are scouts, on Pangaea.

It is NOT all about military, it is about how you play the game.

 

[beetle]

OP, your threads seem hyperbolic, but since others have responded, I will dog pile too.

I've played peaceful the whole game. And the AI's just gang up on you because you are doing better in some aspect. It's inevitable. You can play totally peaceful and eventually some AI or even multiple AI's will declare war...

I have a similar experience in that someone always DoWs me. The mass gang-up is rare (thank goodness) so far. If that happens to you every game, you may be doing something wrong.

...for no reason other than you have a different ideology.

As far as casus belli goes, in game mechanics, different ideologies is just as provocative as forward settling or religious conversion. So, pretty much the opposite of “no reason”.

You might as well just wait for one AI to build all the wonders and great works; then steamroll him.

I find that difficult or impossible most games.

If you concentrate on anything but churning out endless units; the AI sees you as weak and attacks you.

You don't need endless units, just a few more units than is your habit.

 

[Manannan]

I actually just played a game as France on diety winning a CV without ever going to war. I built all of 4 CBs, kept my starting warrior alive, got a pikeman gifted from a city-state, and built 3 triplanes late because I had nothing else worth using hammers on. That was it. I was 8/8 for military the entire game by a wide margin. My closest neighbours? Monty and Washington, with Attila not too far away. No one declared war on me, I didn't get denounced by anyone but Attila for most of the game (order jerks decided they didn't like me after all a few turns before I won, but who cares about that?), and I never felt like an invasion was imminent. All about military, huh?

Just because you don't understand the mechanic doesn't mean the game is broken (well, it kind of is but not for the reason you think). Use diplomacy properly and it's easy to make it through a game without building anything but a token military.

 

[dasaard200]

Lately, I find myself building an army, tech-ing up, and then taking on nearest neighbor root and branch; and digesting those cities for MY production, building up infrastructures, and doing the next civ, taking my time, with the idea of a Domination victory as a fallback, if I can't get anything else in VC's .

 

[Peter Sagan]

You guys forget all the other AI's are broke!

Seriously, com'on man, you open all these threads with complaints but it seems you never listen to advice from anyone. Read some strategy guides, built units so the AI won't attack you and all that but you've heard that a thousand times before so I figure this is senseless.

 

[jlim201]

Hmmm, isnt this familiar? you stopped for a month and now youre back. Complain, complain, complain.

If this is legit: No, its not. Expect to be DOW'd. Unless you have a different ideology than everyone else, this is not a common event. I had games where I had one infantry and maybe 5 crossbows with the French as a neighbour (a decently aggressive civ). They declared war on me. I was fine. Every other civ with a border with me (Netherlands, China and Shoshone) declared war on me. I shredded through them easily. Dont ragequit, deal with it.

 

[Question]

Yes, but it's like this. I've played peaceful the whole game. And the AI's just gang up on you because you are doing better in some aspect.

It's inevitable. You can play totally peaceful and eventually some AI or even multiple AI's will declare war for no reason other than you have a different ideology.

It's all about military. You might as well just wait for one AI to build all the wonders and great works; then steamroll him. If you concentrate on anything but churning out endless units; the AI sees you as weak and attacks you.

There is no peace in this game. If you're doing better; every AI will gang up on you eventually. It's inevitable.

Why focus on culture? Just build a bunch of units and steamroll the culture leader.

The AI generally doesnt declare war on you unless they think they have a fair chance of winning. The problem is that at late game, you ahve enough gold to buy a full army in a few turns so the AI estimates of your military strength are way off.

Different ideologies get negative modifiers, pretty sure BNW was going for a ideological war aspect.

The problem is that certain things will permanently piss the AI off and you can -never- fix it (stealing tech for example, AI will remember it for 5000 years....). Also the AI complains a lot about minor stuff (baw you bought a tile near my city!).

Its still perfectly possible, at least on the lwoer difficulties, to have a mostly peaceful game. Its actually much harder to attack than defend. You cant even take a city in hilly/forested/jungle terrain before dynamite because of the lack of indirect fire. Even then it takes so long to get your units into position that the AI can research at least one new tech by the time you attack.

 

[Sherlock]

1) Play on prince.

2) Don't forget defensive units.

I've never had the AI attack when they thought they'd get clobbered. I've seen armies approach my cities then turn around and go home when I pull over units from other cities, but units, defensive buildings.

 

[Primacide]

I love it when you post. The whole forum goes bananas.

So everyone is going to disagree with me, but if you are looking for a magic number, build 5 ranged units and 10 melee (on a standard map, difficulty below deity). Keep them upgraded and near your hostile borders.

 

[Illianor123]

2 ranged units / city, and .75 melee per city. This would be enough to hold off anything (assuming 3+ cities) and is often overkill. If that is all of your production and money, then you should learn to build trade units, markets, mines etc.

Heck, I allied a militaristic city state early once and apart from 1 warrior, and three archer I initially built, I built no more military units, only taking what was gifted (and some caravels to explore with) and found that that was enough. Learn to use ranged units, and fortified melee units, and city bombards.

Ideology is a MAJOR diplo modifier. If people declaring war on you because you have no military, are winning, and they hate you then I dont see what the problem is?

 

[Memoryjar]

I love it when you post. The whole forum goes bananas.

 

[householder]

It's all about military. You might as well just wait for one AI to build all the wonders and great works; then steamroll him. If you concentrate on anything but churning out endless units; the AI sees you as weak and attacks you.

The weakest civ tends to wind up as a punching bag. Its not a good idea to be the runt of the litter, if you can help it. This doesn't mean you have to have the strongest military; somewhere in the middle of the pack will usually work.

The weaker the military, the greater the importance of diplomatic maneuvering. Keep the bad boys busy fighting each other. Don't let yourself become the odd person out when chain denouncements or DOWs are a risk. If you are running for a culture victory, the Freedom ideology may be tempting, but if you are the only civ with that ideology you are inviting trouble. Prepare for it.

There has been a lot of good advice in this thread. What you experienced can be avoided, and it doesn't take massive military spending.