Is Alexis Bipolar?

[Cinnabar]

I've just been playing a game in which my nearest neighbor is Alexis of the Calabim (she's also fighting it out with Valledia for second place).

So, I checked the diplomacy screen just before hitting the new turn button, and she and Valledia were both "pleased." On the very next turn, my friend Alexis declared war on me.

After I took five of her cities (or was it six...), I demanded two more as the price for peace and she agreed.

About five to ten turns after THAT, she rang me up and asked to be my vassal.

Is this normal behavior for her (or -- shudder -- everyone)?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The only canonically bipolar character I know of in the lore of Erebus in Auric Ulvin.

 

[Breunor]

I've just been playing a game in which my nearest neighbor is Alexis of the Calabim (she's also fighting it out with Valledia for second place).

So, I checked the diplomacy screen just before hitting the new turn button, and she and Valledia were both "pleased." On the very next turn, my friend Alexis declared war on me.

After I took five of her cities (or was it six...), I demanded two more as the price for peace and she agreed.

About five to ten turns after THAT, she rang me up and asked to be my vassal.

Is this normal behavior for her (or -- shudder -- everyone)?

This doesn't sound odd to me. She has a different attitude while she has all of her cities and probably is high on the power graph. After she is beaten up, her attitude changes, she probably became your vassal to avoid a war with someone else.

Best wishes,

Breunor

 

[DaveGold]

This behavior probably comes directly from Civ itself. A computer player is less likely to attack a nation with lots of friends as it lowers its diplomatic rating with all those friends (human players should take note of that too). So if you have lots of friends you're a bit safer than usual, a little bit.

The situation to watch out for is when you have just one computer ally who is barely pleased with you. That 'ally' of yours suffers no diplomatic penalty if they attack so they may well be inclined to biff you, leaving you in a complete diplomatic mess. It's good play by the AI as long as the military campaign goes well.

Ah having re-read your post, all that above probably doesn't apply but I'll leave it up as sage advice for others anyway. I must admit I've seen the Bannor often starting multiple wars when they should focus on the task in hand, and some other civs do it occasionally. Civs do now tend to be fighting wars by building big stacks and wandering them aimlessly within their borders so their stack keeps growing. Perhaps Alexis had such a big stack of units she thought it could fight you as well as the Amurites.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

It may also be worth noting that AIs decide who to declare war on a long time before they actually do so, and that later relations improvements don't matter.



Were you at war with other civs/did others declare war on you at the same time? There
could have been an Undercouncil resolution that forced her into war.

 

[Cinnabar]

The Overcouncil isn't an issue -- I founded COE, and haven't built Nox Noctis.

On the other hand, the other two lesser players (Bannor died in the first 50 moves or so, and I wiped out the Doviello), Garrim Gyr and Arturus Thorne were her vassals at the time, and neither of them liked me much. Plus, geographically, I'm the only one she could attack.

 

[Lone Wolf]

So, I checked the diplomacy screen just before hitting the new turn button, and she and Valledia were both "pleased." On the very next turn, my friend Alexis declared war on me.

Alexis (and the majority of FfH leaders) is coded to be able to plan an attack against someone she is pleased to.

I've changed the xml so that the lore-wise honorable characters don't backstab.

There are many weird things in the leaderheadinfos, really. Explain to me, please, why Varn and Einion are backstabbers who can plan to attack at Pleased, but Jonas and Tebryn are quite trustworthy characters, why is Varn is more intolerant of other religions then the Bannor, etc.