Afraid?

[PhilBowles]

Last night I got a communication from Isabella I hadn't seen before, asking me to show compassion for her weak civ. Her status read "Afraid", with the neutral tip "they are in fear of our great power" as well as the usual covetous red modifier. This was pretty close to the start of the game; I'd found El Dorado as my first Natural Wonder and spend the windfall allying Budapest so that I could focus on building up my cities while being given an army. I'm not the most militarily powerful civ, but Isabella is the weakest - sure enough my military advisor said he thought he'd seen Spain's only unit.

Does anyone know what, if any, in-game effect this tends to have? Is an afraid civ more likely to acquiesce to demands, or alternatively to get upset and go to war in desperation? A few turns later, obviously still in need of reassurance, she offered a Declaration of Friendship, which I accepted (Isabella, in my experience, makes lots of friends and not so many enemies, so this is likely to be a good thing - also she's unthreatening enough to keep around while I deal with other civs, and when I finally get to her the broken DoF penalty shouldn't matter).

 

[pxpdoo]

I've gotten this several times, and always under the same circumstances and with the same DoF request follow-up. I've never tried this, but I would imagine that they would be more likely to submit to Demands in this state. As for "fair" trading, I'm not sure.

 

[blackcatatonic]

I've not known it to last more than a few turns, sadly. Usually by the time they get around to building another Warrior they switch to 'Guarded'.

 

[FeiLing]

I'd never be friends with a weak civ (or well, with no one really actually), as the weakest one will always be the most likely target for all others. So they'll jump on her, start to hate you too and drag you into a world war. Do not sign DoFs, if you want to stay peaceful with everyone.

 

[brainzl0v3r]

This usually happens when your neighbor is very bad,and you are way better in everything than him.SOmetimes you can demand from them.

 

[PhilBowles]

I'd never be friends with a weak civ (or well, with no one really actually), as the weakest one will always be the most likely target for all others. So they'll jump on her, start to hate you too and drag you into a world war. Do not sign DoFs, if you want to stay peaceful with everyone.

Don't not sign DoFs if you want to stay peaceful with everyone either...

In my games, I've noticed that Spain very rarely goes to war, and Isabella's usually with the popular kids when it comes to denouncing/befriending people. This isn't a case of being impregnable - Spain is usually not a high-ranking AI. A lot depends not just on weakness, but what the civ is likely to do to annoy people - and Isabella keeps her head down.

The different civs are programmed to favour different victory conditions if given the opportunity. There aren't actually too many that favour domination, and because of the "covet your territory" modifier as well as, I suspect, the combat AI, the most likely target for a domination civ is its closest neighbour. It's usually late in Civ V when most civs start to collapse or lose their capitals, and in many games it will only happen with one or two civs. Spain's closest neighbour is China, which might be a risk but probably not immediately - I've never faced an early rush from China. Also, of course, DoFs are most effective when you have more than one - currently I'm also friends with Bismarck, who has a bigger military (although adjacent to the Songhai, and belligerent by nature himself, which may well cause problems later).

In any case, peace with everyone isn't an option as the Ottomans declared war on me. Which gives me a perfect excuse to capture Edirne, annoyingly located where I'd wanted a city and with a nice couple of silk tiles.

This usually happens when your neighbor is very bad,and you are way better in everything than him.SOmetimes you can demand from them.

Isabella had a higher score, so must have been doing something right - I just had a bigger military.

 

[joncnunn]

Afraid: The main in game effect is that they usually won't give you full value for the goods you want to sell them until they become braver.

 

[black213]

Afraid: The main in game effect is that they usually won't give you full value for the goods you want to sell them until they become braver.

But they do accept to your demands quite easily.

 

[Chee]

Hiawatha was afraid of me yesterday after only about 20 or 30 turns. Earliest I have seen that. It's not even as if I had much of an army, just a few warriors. I was playing as Bismark.

 

[smallfish]

Spoiler :

 

[Kaosprophet]

Last night I got a communication from Isabella I hadn't seen before, asking me to show compassion for her weak civ. Her status read "Afraid", with the neutral tip "they are in fear of our great power" as well as the usual covetous red modifier. This was pretty close to the start of the game; I'd found El Dorado as my first Natural Wonder and spend the windfall allying Budapest so that I could focus on building up my cities while being given an army. I'm not the most militarily powerful civ, but Isabella is the weakest - sure enough my military advisor said he thought he'd seen Spain's only unit.

Does anyone know what, if any, in-game effect this tends to have? Is an afraid civ more likely to acquiesce to demands, or alternatively to get upset and go to war in desperation?

From what I've seen, they aren't likely to be the first to declare on you but will be quick to join in on a dogpile if someone else does. Not sure about trading, didn't pay much attention - though it's *possible* that's how I managed to get an "86g for open borders deal" that one time. (Which I'm told isn't supposed to happen, and I wish I'd got a screenshot of it.)

 

[Optional]

I haven't figured out yet what the Afraid status does, it doesn't happen a lot. Until now I found civs who are afraid just difficult to deal with, and I didn't try extorting them (could lead to an everlasting negative modifier, I'm not sure, but I rather not have it).
Then today Egypt turned afraid of me, but to my surprise gave me full value for my resources and a few turns later even offered friendship. There were some negative modifiers in place that would otherwise have prevented them from making this offer:



Our armies were roughly the same strength, according to my military advisor. I have even seen a civ afraid of me who was much stronger.

 

[Maximo the Xth]

Yes, afraid leaders do always sign friendships even if they don´t like you. I once signed one with Sejong who didn´t like me much, but only one turn later (when he of course went friendly) he denounced me.

 

[joncnunn]

Yes, afraid leaders do always sign friendships even if they don´t like you. I once signed one with Sejong who didn´t like me much, but only one turn later (when he of course went friendly) he denounced me.

I've had a civ DOW me the turn after DOFing me.

(His units were on the border; and I knew he was doing the pretend friendship thing so I also took out a big loan from him.)

 

[Heerlo]

Playing on the Unofficial Patch the other day I asked Hiawatha if he wanted to form an alliance(that's what it's called in that mod, instead of DOF), but he refused.A little bit later, it says his status is afraid and then he asks me to form an alliance.

 

[durian]

I had Nebuchadnezzar being "afraid" of me once even though he was by far the top dog in the game. I think our armies were quite evenly matched too. I was quite puzzled... eventually he DOWed me...