AI never declaring war? Am I just lucky?

[aimlessgun]

One of my earlier games was totally war free until a 1900's diplo win, but I thought that was just because it was archipelago.

But now at 1800 AD in a game where I have been bordered on all sides by AI for the entire time, I have not been DOWed once! Playing on an Earth map as Arabia, and the Middle East is basically the crossroads of the world. Sure you can pass off Ghandi and to a less extent Ramses the Wonderferious, but you still have Catherine to the North, the Ottomans (replaced by conquering Germans) to the west, and later on a shared border with Askia to the southwest.

Were they afraid of my strong military? Up until about the 17th century my entire force was 1 swordsman, 2 archers and a camel archer.

Did I just get lucky? I've seen a lot of people complain about the irrational AI just declaring war for no reason, but I'm not really seeing it.

 

[thwump]

What difficulty was this on? I didn't have much trouble avoiding wars on king and below. As long as you are trading with them so you are useful and they have other AIs to pick on they often won't come after you.

 

[filorux]

At higher levels, I'd say lucky. Care to be amused by wars? Crowd up a non-water based map with some AIs, set it to deity, put yourself on a team with one of the AIs (I picked Alex for fun), and be completely non-committal in diplomacy so you can get a sense of what kind of diplomacy your partner is engaging in (as it is shared). I couldn't keep track of the wars I was in and out of. It was hilarious. Everyone was fighting someone, and usually Alex in between.

Normally I just play emp/imm, and I have been able to go awhile without war - but the longest I've gone without is after a very early war. I was on a continent with 2 civs and some CSs. They both tried to take Warsaw (at separate but back to back times), and I figured I could skip honor and get my early GG (as China) if I just held them off for Warsaw. After each little defense, the attacking civ went to #8 in soldiers, stayed there a good while, and focussed on other things. They even played nice after that little skirmish, offering Coops and Open Borders, etc. Not really evidence of anything, just my experience.

 

[aimlessgun]

What difficulty was this on? I didn't have much trouble avoiding wars on king and below. As long as you are trading with them so you are useful and they have other AIs to pick on they often won't come after you.

Deity. And yeah having the AI beating other AI up seems to be pretty key.

Funny idea filorux. I do usually keep track of the AI wars though, and they make sense at least half the time hehe.

 

[Lyoncet]

Yeah, I'm going to say it was the Archipelago setting. I've yet to be declared on when I've had my own landmass to settle on, with one exception where I got sick of not having any strategic resources (yes, that's right; I did a science victory on small continents, had room for 6-7 cities, and I had not one strategic resource from Horse to Aluminum) so I settled an island near Germany's main landmass. It was only separated from his continent by 2 tiles of water, and he didn't take kindly to that. He even did a decent job of ferrying his troops over until two turn later when I had 3 destroyers and a battleship sent over.

But yeah, since most DoWs come from 1) creeping up too close on an AI (which doesn't really happen with small landmasses) or 2) warmongers (who don't really DoW on other continents because they suck at it), I'm going to guess that it was just the map settings working in your favor.

Although the only archipelago game I've played was also Arabia, and I also had one camel archer. Maybe the AI is just really afraid of camel archers and excess cotton?

 

[aimlessgun]

Yeah, I'm going to say it was the Archipelago setting. I've yet to be declared on when I've had my own landmass to settle on, with one exception where I got sick of not having any strategic resources (yes, that's right; I did a science victory on small continents, had room for 6-7 cities, and I had not one strategic resource from Horse to Aluminum) so I settled an island near Germany's main landmass. It was only separated from his continent by 2 tiles of water, and he didn't take kindly to that. He even did a decent job of ferrying his troops over until two turn later when I had 3 destroyers and a battleship sent over.

But yeah, since most DoWs come from 1) creeping up too close on an AI (which doesn't really happen with small landmasses) or 2) warmongers (who don't really DoW on other continents because they suck at it), I'm going to guess that it was just the map settings working in your favor.

Although the only archipelago game I've played was also Arabia, and I also had one camel archer. Maybe the AI is just really afraid of camel archers and excess cotton?

The game I'm describing is an Earthmap, where I am in the middle east right next to tons of AIs

The first deity game I did was also completely peaceful, that one was the archipelago map, but now I've reproduced the same behavior on what is essentially a pangea map.

 

[Oko]

I just got my ass handed to me, and on mere King difficulty too.
I was being pestered by both the Romans and Japan to engage in war towards the Iroquis, so I felt confident in placing a city near the Iroquis territory, one that was able to nab three luxuries in time.
Two turns later, Hiawatha DOW'd on me, both Romans and Japanese watched and laughed as my empire was crumbling.
Not fun.

 

[Lyoncet]

The game I'm describing is an Earthmap, where I am in the middle east right next to tons of AIs

Oh wow, did I ever read the OP wrong.

 

[civnoob13]

Well I was just playing a game on 'medium difficulty. I can't remember the name of it, but it is the fourth one, which is supposed to have me and the AI with no starting advantage.

Two civs declared war on me at the same time, so I quit.

My military was very weak, so that is probably why I was declared war on, but I was not expecting such an aggresive AI on such a low difficult, especially after reading these comments.

 

[aimlessgun]

Well I was just playing a game on 'medium difficulty. I can't remember the name of it, but it is the fourth one, which is supposed to have me and the AI with no starting advantage.

Two civs declared war on me at the same time, so I quit.

My military was very weak, so that is probably why I was declared war on, but I was not expecting such an aggresive AI on such a low difficult, especially after reading these comments.

Well I'm playing another game where there are no oceans at all, and I put in extra civs for the map size. Gonna see how long I can go without war.

I did start a game as Iroquois where Nobunaga declared war on me almost immediately, like turn 25 or something! Came with 3-4 warriors and a couple archers, but since the computer is so incredibly bad at war I held him off with 1 warrior (fortify on hill, he suicides a couple warriors, doesn't support with his archers, I retreat to my territory, heal, fortify on another hill, he suicides again...*sigh*) Lost interest in that game tho.

 

[tibbles]

I've never tried deity, but usually avoid being dowed if I don't expand right at an AI or vice versa. Generally I just trade with everyone and almost never make pacts of secrecy.

I had an amusing one the other day on emp where 4 AIs that I had open borders with all DoWed each other and started a 3 way war in the middle of my territory. Ghandi was kicking some serious ass before I decided to join in the fun and clean them all out of my lands.

 

[alpaca]

Well, I usually get declared on by the AI even when I trade with them a lot and sometimes even give them things for free if they ask and we have a pact of cooperation.

I even had Gandhi attack me once and Gandhi is a horrible warmonger. When playing him myself I have to puppet everything because even just razing cities will put me at -10 happiness (because the penalty for number of conquered cities is doubled to a whopping 10 by his ability) so I can only afford it once I'm at peace. Since I was attacked by Bismarck, Oda and Harun who apparently had an agreement to take me down a notch, I have to take cities to make them pay for their insolence and actually sign a peace treaty.

Otherwise, the major warmongers as far as I can tell are (roughly in order of notoriety): Monty, Bismarck, Augustus, Oda, Nappy, Washington, Askia, Elizabeth. Haven't played too often against Catherine but apart from one start where we were something like 10 tiles apart, and attacked me (luckily I was about to prepare an attack on her), she seemed fairly peaceful. Suleiman is very peace-loving as far as I can tell.

The only thing that surprises me is that Askia didn't attack you, but then again he's not always on a war spleen.

 

[Sainhann]

Well in my current game Rome has been a down right warmonger.

He attacked Siam early taking one city before peace happened.

He got me to help him crush the Ottoman's. I ended up taking one city and Rome the other five.

Then I was noticing that he was building up on my border and then he declared war on one of my City State allies.

I then breed his army dry and taking one of his cities. I could have cleaned his clock but I am a peaceful individual.

Now he has once again put like 10 of so units on or near my border. So I have been quietly building a few more units and positioning some ships.

I think that I will wait for him to declare and breed him dry again but this time I will teach him a lesson and probably bring back Suleiman. I will even give him the few new cities that Rome has built. Will give one to Siam also.

 

[PieceOfMind]

aimlessgun,
My first Deity game was like that too. I had a pathetic military and a small empire, and none of Augustus, Wu Zetian or Alexander declared war on me the whole game. I quit at 2010AD (pure coincidence by the way). I just kept avoiding annoying the leaders.

You might have already seen those "blob of death" screenshots floating around - they were from that game.

 

[Esckey]

Lucky. I was playing on Prince and wound up with Arabia, England, and Germany declaring war on me. And I didn't do anything, honest!

 

[aimlessgun]

Bismarck, Oda and Harun who apparently had an agreement to take me down a notch

Hrm. Makes me wonder if the AI is more likely to attack you if you have a higher score? A lot of people from mid/lower difficulties posting about the AI being very aggressive: did you have a decent score?

Maybe because, since I was on deity, I had a relatively terrible score (for most of the game), and the AI did not view me as a 'threat' (which I probably shouldn't have been...except for how bad the combat AI is of course ). What was your relative score through the years in that peaceful deity game POM?

 

[PieceOfMind]

Hrm. Makes me wonder if the AI is more likely to attack you if you have a higher score? A lot of people from mid/lower difficulties posting about the AI being very aggressive: did you have a decent score?

Maybe because, since I was on deity, I had a relatively terrible score (for most of the game), and the AI did not view me as a 'threat' (which I probably shouldn't have been...except for how bad the combat AI is of course ). What was your relative score through the years in that peaceful deity game POM?

Abysmal. I'm talking in the hundreds while all other players were in the high thousands.

 

[alpaca]

aimlessgun,
My first Deity game was like that too. I had a pathetic military and a small empire, and none of Augustus, Wu Zetian or Alexander declared war on me the whole game. I quit at 2010AD (pure coincidence by the way). I just kept avoiding annoying the leaders.

You might have already seen those "blob of death" screenshots floating around - they were from that game.

Very strange.

Hrm. Makes me wonder if the AI is more likely to attack you if you have a higher score? A lot of people from mid/lower difficulties posting about the AI being very aggressive: did you have a decent score?

Maybe because, since I was on deity, I had a relatively terrible score (for most of the game), and the AI did not view me as a 'threat' (which I probably shouldn't have been...except for how bad the combat AI is of course ). What was your relative score through the years in that peaceful deity game POM?

You might be on to something here. Due to my city spamming I'm usually top 2 or top 1 in the score. I also took out Augustus in this game because he started something like 10 tiles from me and I was afraid of his potential (as in not-yet-existent but upgradeable from warriors) legions.