A true ally

[Hamburger]

I played a game recently, Emperor, Epic, Continents, standard, random other settings. I played as China. The only victory conditions were Time and Domination. What was amazing was that all through the game Alexander and I were allies. We had declarations of friendship almost continuously, defensive pacts, open borders, tons of trade, etc... When I would ask if he would go to war with me against Korea, the Iroquois, etc... he would always agree. When he asked if I could spare money, or declare war with him on another empire, I always agreed too. After a while, he and I were the last Civs left. He was about 10% of the size of my empire and that was only because I gifted him a few cities when unhappiness became a problem. I've never had such a loyal ally. He was "friendly" until the end. I was almost sad when it was just the two of us and I hit Athens with back to back nuclear missiles and marched in to win the game.

I've tried through many games since then to recreate that ally AI model and while I have had limited success, no one has ever been as true a friend as Alexander the Great. Which is odd, because that guy is usually such a jerk.

 

[Ozzy88]

That's really cool, I love trying to maintain alliances as well. Like you said, it's often really hard because the AI can be a bit weird most of the time. In my last game I ended up supporting the Iroquois in there war efforts by supplying them with huge amounts of surplus gold that I wasn't using for anything as I was rushing for culture. He and I were best buds until I won.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Diplomatic Victory.. there was none, so he wasn't a rival, and so he didn't feel threatened by you.. I think that's what caused him to have such loyalty to you.

 

[Heerlo]

How could you attack such a loyal friend?!Just kidding

 

[PhilBowles]

I find I can usually, and fairly easily, maintain game-long alliances, but only to the extent that I don't get the other civ to declare war on me - I've never been able to persuade even my longest-term allies to declare war on my behalf without a defensive pact, although they will often declare war on my enemies after I've been declared on myself, which has led to some pleasing joint attacks. It undoubtedly also helped that he was such a small empire relative to yours - usually the lasting alliances are the ones where the other civ has nothing to gain from war with you, either because it's too weak to challenge you or because it perceives you to be too weak to be a threat and isn't going for a domination victory (or perceives that it can win without going to war with you).

 

[prince_caspian]

True Washingtons friends are hard to come by. Apparently this is very true is CiV.