Askia the Braindead...

[Shiggs713]

So the setup is I'm playing a random earth map, huge size, immortal difficulty (7), epic speed. I'm Siam, I ended up starting near the western/central African jungles. An early war happens, I kill Bismark while he had his army away trying to conquer a city state, then of course I ally that city state too. These are both near the Suez and Arabian peninsula area, so I can block any further AI activity on my continent.

Anyways somehow Askia the Braindead founds a city in eastern Africa, despite starting somewhere near the mongolia/northern china region(I think he got a free settler from a ruins or something). Later on, maybe 20 turns he want's me to sign a research agreement. I agree for 375 gold. 4 turns later he declares war on me, and drags his city state ally, and the Americans (who are no where near me, and are also at war with like 3 other civs as well) into it as well. The city state is near north eastern africa (close).

Then we have a small skirmish, I end up killing a couple of his units and taking his nearby city. Then since that was so easy, I continue marching over to his city state ally. I vastly underestimated them, I end up getting pounded, losing a speaman and an archer, plus another spearman was badly injured and barely made it back home alive. I didn't even do 3 damage to the city before I had to tuck tail and run.

So I just decide I'm not going to fight the city state anymore, hopefully this battle will end, I'm using patronage policies and hope to just make them my friends later on. I try to make peace with Askia the Braindead, but he will only do this under outrageous demands. He wants all my gold, gpt, all my luxury resources including the ones I only have 1 of, he flat out refuses to make peace with my city state ally. I also inquire with Washington about peace, and he will make it, he only wants spice and part of my gold. Seems more reasonable, we haven't even had a battle yet. I refuse anyways, they'll have to come and take my tribute! Also note that Washington is in first place, I think I'm third or fourth, Askia the Brain dead is like half of my score.

Its here where I start to wonder WTH is he smoking? (I need some of that) Then I see that he has sent a few more troops towards my ally and I, so I send some of my own up there to help and pretty well own them once again. We kill a few of them and the remaining are running for their lives. Also I ally another city state (militaristic) and drag them into the war.

So I send an inquiry to Askia the Braindead and.... his stance hasn't changed. He under no circumstances will make peace unless I give him all my gold, gpt, and luxury resources. Will not make peace with my city state allies under no circumstances... What gives? I'm beating him to oblivion in the battlefields and he wants tribute? pffff

 

[BobDole]

So I send an inquiry to Askia the Braindead and.... his stance hasn't changed. He under no circumstances will make peace unless I give him all my gold, gpt, and luxury resources. Will not make peace with my city state allies under no circumstances... What gives? I'm beating him to oblivion in the battlefields and he wants tribute? pffff

What gives is that the AI is....uh....kind of bad and needs work. I've run into similar things, whether it's one Civ thinking me trading 9 luxury resources, open borders, and 10gpt for one luxury resource is a fair trade, Hiawatha calling my military a laughingstock and insulting me when I liberated his civilization (he got conquered by the Aztecs, liberated by me accidentally and reconquered one turn later for being a jerk to me), AIs declaring war when they have no chance of beating me, AIs giving up way too much in peace offerings, AIs giving up too little in peace offerings, etc.

 

[dannythefool]

I just had that with Liz. Early in the game, she settled near me, so I declared and took the city. She kept asking for all my stuff for about 400 turns. I think all she ever did was send single crossbowmen over the ocean (three or so water tiles between us). They never even made landfall. Oh right and one ship of the line at the end which just sat there in front of my city, never attacking in its very short life.

 

[Stormfather]

Either threaten his cities, or just give him time to cool off.

I found (on King difficulty, Marathon speed) that AI's (specifically Napoleon, Montezuma, Darius) would, in the face of a strong defense, stop actively attacking but not consider peace. After a lull in hostilities, they'd lose interest in the war and offer a ceasefire- I assume once they were considering or engaged in another war.

 

[Shiggs713]

yea, I ended up just continuing playing, and just pretended he didn't exist. He finally gave in and actually gave me some small tribute, and made peace with all my allies!... maybe he did just need time to cool off.