Can't cancel open borders?

[aimlessgun]

So the Songhai are setting up to invade me and taking advantage of open borders to do so. I can't premptively declare of my defensive pacts are nulled. Am I just bad at navigating the UI or can I really not cancel an open border agreement?

 

[Ahriman]

So the Songhai are setting up to invade me and taking advantage of open borders to do so. I can't premptively declare of my defensive pacts are nulled. Am I just bad at navigating the UI or can I really not cancel an open border agreement?

You can't cancel pacts, they last for a fixed term. Which I think is good overall, makes them less gamey.
Your options are either:
a) Ask them to withdraw their units or declare war
b) Let them go ahead and declare war (and position your units accordingly)
c) Declare war on them first.

 

[aimlessgun]

Hrm don't see the option to ask them to withdraw. Oh well, guess I'll have to let them set up...3 defensive pacts is not something I want to throw away :/

 

[TiVO]

Doesn't a declaration of war (by any party) remove said party's units from within the defender's borders anyway? Or are they using open borders to get on the other side of your empire or something before declaring war?

 

[aimlessgun]

Doesn't a declaration of war (by any party) remove said party's units from within the defender's borders anyway? Or are they using open borders to get on the other side of your empire or something before declaring war?

Apparently not. They declare, their units stay next to my capital.

 

[tibbles]

I've not tested repeating any of these cases, but here's what I've seen so far:
-If you open the diplomacy screen and declare, your units will be moved out, same as civ4.
-If you are in their territory and declare by attacking with a unit, the attack proceeds as normal, but all your other units are moved out. Kind of cool idea (if intentional), allows a limited sneak attack.
-If you are in their territory and they ask if you're massing to declare on them and say "Yes" you declare and you troops stay where they are and they think you're honest. Nice when the AIs screw themselves for you, but a very silly mechanic.

As to the original topic, no you can't cancel. Don't give open borders if you think they will attack you in < 30 turns.

 

[aimlessgun]

I've not tested repeating any of these cases, but here's what I've seen so far:
-If you open the diplomacy screen and declare, your units will be moved out, same as civ4.
-If you are in their territory and declare by attacking with a unit, the attack proceeds as normal, but all your other units are moved out. Kind of cool idea (if intentional), allows a limited sneak attack.
-If you are in their territory and they ask if you're massing to declare on them and say "Yes" you declare and you troops stay where they are and they think you're honest. Nice when the AIs screw themselves for you, but a very silly mechanic.

As to the original topic, no you can't cancel. Don't give open borders if you think they will attack you in < 30 turns.

Well either it bugged or the AI plays by different rules. They opened the diplomacy screen and declared with units all up in my territory. None of them moved an inch.

 

[SeptimusOctopus]

I don't think the AI are playing by the same rules when it comes to command of pacts and what not. I had a pact of cooperation going with Alex for a really long time. Eventually he tried to conquer some city-states which I wanted to be allied with. I let him capture them, then needed to declare war on him to liberate the CS's and take some of his cities.

Anyway I couldn't figure out how to cancel the pact of cooperation before declaring war. I figured doing that would be a good idea so the other AIs didn't think of me as untrustworthy (I'm not sure if they actually do that or not). So I demanded all his gold two or three times, then a turn later he canceled the pact himself.

So either that was a coincidence or AIs have a way to cancel these agreements (or it's possible for us to do that as well and I just couldn't find the option).