Like many have said already, you need to have a couple DoF's, but not too many or else you'll be in trouble when "Your friends found a reason to denounce you!" That will cause a chain reaction of everybody denouncing you and then eventual DoW's. If one of your friends denounces somebody, follow suit to build your already strong relationship with that friend. Plus, never refuse tribute, give back barb captured workers, expand slowly and away from your friends or else they will get ticked off and backstab you. As soon as you have an extra copy of a luxury, trade it to your friend, even if they don't have the full payment, cause you know they will eventually demand it anyways. Keep a decent sized army to ward off DoW's (I try to keep mine above the average strength found in demographics). If your game score gets higher than everybody else, everyone will see you as a threat, so be careful!
Alexander cannot be trusted, his version of "Friendly" is just a cover for a knife to the back most of the time.
On my continent, America openly backstabbed me ("Your wanton aggression leaves us no choice!"), but I got my good buddy Rome into it and he's pretty much trouncing Georgie for me. We'll have to see if he'll use his position to backstab me in spite of our friendship, but so far, I like the AI
With this behaviour, let's petition to reduce their difficulty level advantages. Their ability to make 10 cities on king before 1500 AD is just ridiculous.
People have said it above. ARMY SIZE!
Sometimes, but now always.
As I mentioned, I have the largest army in the world, and every single civ on my continent -including the "friendly" ones- has attacked my at some point.
I see no method to this madness.
Sometimes, but now always.
As I mentioned, I have the largest army in the world, and every single civ on my continent -including the "friendly" ones- has attacked my at some point.
I see no method to this madness.
Has a country ever invaded another because it had a small army? Seems more likely to do the opposite...
Did you have a high score? Small army? Expand too fast? Chain denounced? Refuse requests? Completely wipe out a civ leaving not one city for them?
Sometimes, but now always.
As I mentioned, I have the largest army in the world, and every single civ on my continent -including the "friendly" ones- has attacked my at some point.
I see no method to this madness.