4 Civs declare war on me at the same time. Can anyone tell me why?

[Bursk]

I certainly didn't see this coming, and don't understand why it's happened. Is it possible to look at the save and find out why?

I'm using the BUG mod v2.10, but hopefully the save will still load for people not using that. All you have to do is end the current turn and then the 4 DoW will happen.

 

[Kesshi]

Hello Bursk,

I am at work and cannot download the save to help you out, and from my experience on here many of the other people won't do it when posting a screenshot would be enough. I will speculate that the answer could be found in the diplomacy screen. I bet the 4 civs that declared ware on you all had a defensive pact or vassals of one mother civ. Could you please post a screenshot of the diplomacy screen?

Defensive pacts are more like offensive pacts in CivIV.

 

[Walliard]

I checked the save; no one's a vassal and it's too early for Defensive Pacts.

 

[Bursk]

Here's some screenies:

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/897/civ4screenshot0012vi2.jpg
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2776/civ4screenshot0013mf6.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/4397/civ4screenshot0014hf0.jpg
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/8249/civ4screenshot0015wb2.jpg
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6199/civ4screenshot0016bg5.jpg

What a friendly bunch. The sooner I leave this continent the better.

 

[Kesshi]

I checked the save; no one's a vassal and it's too early for Defensive Pacts.

Thanks for checking, Walliard.

Four civs declaring war on you at once? That is, indeed, a bit of a coincidence, perhaps too much to be a mere coincidence. Of the 4 civs that declare war, have you or Bursk tried offering an insane tribute to one of them? If you can offer all your gold and technologies, and even a city or two, to each other civ individually perhaps you can get enough brownie points so that they will not declare war on you.

Oh, another possibility I just through of was the Apostolic Palace. I've played multiplayer team games where we found the civ (or team) that was currently ruling the Apostolic Palace, yet only one of us had the option to vote. Other times, both of us had the option to vote. This is pure speculation, but it might be possible that there was a vote to declare war on poor Bursk that he did not see for one reason or another. Has the Apostolic Palace been built? Who is leading it? And what is their relationship with you like?

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/6199/civ4screenshot0016bg5.jpg

What a friendly bunch. The sooner I leave this continent the better.

What were your relations with those 4 the turn before you went to war?

 

[Kadasbrass]

Just going to guess, one civ went to war to start, and bribed another civ or all the other civs, or one of the bribed civs may of bribed another (using the same money/techs no less). This is what I'm assuming since had 4 civs delcare war on me at once in a 1000 AD game (wasn't the AP).

 

[Polycrates]

Yeah, an advanced civ will very often bribe just about anyone they can find to attack you at the same time these days. Bribed civs tend not to stick it out that long in my experience, so if you can smash a few of their units you can probably get a peace pretty soon.

 

[AfterShafter]

You light their holy city on fire with a cigarette on a diplomatic mission perhaps?

 

[FlyingPanda]

it could be the apastolic palace

 

[UNeverNo]

it could be the apastolic palace

Maybe I'm wrong, but doesn't he need to be at war with at least one civ?

 

[Daedal]

Who knows why the first one declared war. Maybe the AI got angry at you for being too powerful? As for the subsequent war declarations, it could just be the AI saw you as an easy target because you were already at war and decided to join in.

 

[Morgawr]

What's the AP religion? If it's Jewish then AP possibility is ruled out because you'd be a full member and they can't declare holy war on a full member..

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Check the power graph. You're top in score, so I bet you don't have enough military.

I am pretty sure the AI's are programmed to organize dogpiles through diplomacy, and it's not just against humans. They do it to each other all the time in my games, usually ends up killing the victim too. As they said, it's easy to program a militarily deadly AI, but much harder to program one that can defend against such strategies.

In BTS, I rarely run the pacifism civic just because I need a large military all the time.

 

[bonafide11]

Since BTS came out, I wonder how many times threads like this have been created. There's at least one every week. If several AIs declare war on you on the same turn and you don't have the Apostolic Palace's religion in any of your cities, its almost certainly because of the AP.

 

[Bursk]

Here's some more screenies.

This one shows that I built the Palace myself:

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/51/civ4screenshot0018xq7.jpg

The second one shows that I am a full member:

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/5900/civ4screenshot0019za8.jpg

And the third one shows that the Palace has only just been built. As far as I can recall, the only vote to have taken place is the Resident vote:

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/6880/civ4screenshot0020de8.jpg

 

[wiglaff]

AIs in BTS will join wars and gang up on a player. This is a well documented addition to the game.

If a civ is being hit by one or two civs, then a third civ will be much much more likely to join in, since naturally the first civ will be stretched very thin.

 

[niels251]

i had an strange decleration of war onnce to with the patch 3.13. When i founded a colonie on another continent. The moment in my turn i declared independence i was at war with rest of the world. Strange thing was that it was in my turn and said that i declared war on everyone... I played an 18 civ custom game.

 

[Craterus22]

AIs in BTS will join wars and gang up on a player. This is a well documented addition to the game.

If a civ is being hit by one or two civs, then a third civ will be much much more likely to join in, since naturally the first civ will be stretched very thin.

Its too bad the ai doesn't see this as an opportunity to attack one of the attackers... especially if one of the attackers is closer to them.

Sending stacks across the map to camp on a hill or to just arrive in time for the end of the war has got to be fixed.

Is there a way to see what percentage of a civs military is outside its borders? Maybe that would allow neighbors to take advantage of an aggressive warmonger (ie - aggrodude is attacking a weakling - 50% of his power is outside his borders - aggrodude is a horrible neighbor - as an AI, I rate my military power to be equal to the power left in his borders - perhaps I should take one of his bordering cities?)

 

[Psychlone]

Niels may have hit it on the head. I just had the same thing happen to me just a moment ago. I was looking for information about this, too. I took 2 barb cities, granted them independence, and got told that I had declared war on the Romans, and 2 other civs. The 3 that making this colony sent me to war with were the AP civs.

Seems kind of stupid to me, especially since the message said I declared war on them. These cities weren't anywhere near these civs, and they had no problems with me holding them. But grant them independence, and BOOM. I'm pretty aggressive, but I don't feel like fighting half the world at the same time!