CIV 5 G+K - How stop the AI constantly going to war with you?

[cheddar]

I'm fairly new to the Civ series, having only really messed around with it now and again and never really playing on any of the difficult levels.

Recently I have started to try and play on King level with a little bit of success. I recently started a new game and run into a lot of issues. I was aiming at a tech win with four or so cities.

This is going somewhat well with me having a decent tech lead on the other civs. I haven't gone to war with anyone, the problem is that it seems the two civs near me (France and Germany) are ALWAYS going for me.

It's almost become comical, I try and get along with people yet you can guarantee that either Germany or France will launch an attack at one of my two border cities. I have been able to repel these attacks quite easily so far with crossbow men and recently the gunnery upgrade but it's getting to the point where the AI is going to get artillery and now I don't know what to do.

So basically I am asking, how can I get people to stop attacking me. I am somewhat boxed in on an island so cant reach other civs. I simply want to be left alone without the hassle of constantly being attacked, wiping out the civs attack force, making peace and then doing it all again.

 

[Febreze]

There are a few ways to ensure this is accomplished:

-Kill them before they try to kill you. (very popular)

-Press F9 every few turns during peace time and devote some of your empire's production to military units until you have one of the highest/the highest 'Soldiers' scores. The AI typically does not like to DoW human players whose military is stronger than theirs, unless they're extremely pissed off/warmongerers.

-Keep a lot of in reserves. I'm not 100% sure it still works this way, but the AI factors in your gold stack as an ability to produce a large military instantly if necessary.

-Be friendly. This includes immediately accepting embassies, trading often, not DoF'ing their enemies, not settling new cities/buying tiles within 3 tiles of their borders, not buying up their allied city states, not stealing their techs, etc. I've even heard that flat out giving the AI 120+ provides yet another diplomatic bonus, again not sure.

Another critical part about trading often with those around you is that it provides a gauge for how they really feel about you. If they're consistently offering you much less than what your trades are worth, even if they're listed as neutral, it's best to assume they're inexplicably pissed off at you and already preparing a strike. The best thing to do at that point is just prepare, in my opinion.

These are what I could come up with off the top of my head, but I'm sure I may have missed some.

 

[Febreze]

Oh, and as far as halting an already occurring onslaught, you're pretty much stuck in a cycle there until you have a much more powerful military than they do (or of course you kill them). Continue producing units/not losing them until your military score is much, much higher than theirs. Eventually they will get scared and offer you peace, occasionally even giving you gold to patch things up.

 

[aimlessgun]

Make them fight each other instead of you

This is by far the most effective way to be friends with people. Try to keep a handle on who dislikes who, and then bribe them into wars.

I remember waaay back when CiV was first released and people said diplomacy didn't exist, I won a one city challenge on Diety Pangea by constantly bribing the AI into wars with each other and never getting DOWed.

 

[cheddar]

I am finding it so difficult at the moment. I started a new game and within a hour of playing someone had started a war with me. I managed to hold on and take out the majority of his units with a archer and my capital. Sadly after making friends with him, I took my eye of the ball and left my city pretty much unguarded whilst I was scouting and the huns came in and took it.

So that's basically two wars without me doing anything to the opposition civs. I think my problem is that I don't really have many military units, I basically had two archers and a warrior in my last game. Am I leaving myself open here to the AI to come at me by having such a weak military?

I prefer to just not build a massive military when I am trying to simply go for a peaceful science win, but it seems to be very difficult.

I know I need to keep more of an eye on the politics, but it can be very frustrating to make friends with people and then see their army marching on you.

 

[Mark Havel]

The latin expression si vis pacem, para bellum is quite true in Civilization V.

You won't go anywhere without a decent army, if only because other civs will see that as a weakness to exploit, which they have done. So you have to build an army. If you're aiming for a scientific victory, use your technological advantage to facilitate your victories.
Should you find yourself bogged down in a lengthy war, taking a few enemy cities goes a long way to convince the AI how nice it is to make love instead of war. On the plus side, puppeting them will add at least their remaining pop to your science input, which is always interesting for a science victory.

You seem to imply that in one of your games, you're isolated and alone on an island. Use that to build a strong navy. The AI is terrible at properly moving units on the sea, a few ships put in strategical locations allowing you to see the enemy coming should be enough to sink everything that it throws at you. If you can or if circumstances forces you to, beeline to refrigeration to build submarines. After that, it'll be free kills for everyone.

As it has already been said, using diplomacy to bribe other civilizations to war themselves is also useful to ensure they never attack you or that they'll at least reconsider things. You can use that while building the spaceship as it is at this point that you'll see a lot of armies at your gates if you don't do anything to counter that.

 

[Kerosene31]

Sometimes war is just inevitable with close neighbors. I was playing as France and early on I find a great city location with resources I need. This city is very close to Alexander's border and I just know he's going to attack me after I settle it. As expected he denounces and declares war on me a few turns later.

I push him back but don't bother to take any of his cities so I don't get a warmonger penalty.

The best way to avoid war in Civ it so have a big army. It is also important to not position troops right near other civ borders. Keep them way back so as to not look like a threat.

Keep an eye on your military adviser and make sure that at worst you have an army around the same size as at least your close neighbors. If they think you are weak, they are much more likely to come after you.

 

[smallfish]

Kill them all yourself.

Making them fight each other only works if they want to fight each other. If they don't, they will either demand a high price for you to pay them off (not worth it), or they will do it on their own terms (eventually to fight you).

 

[krc]

There are a few ways to ensure this is accomplished:

-Kill them before they try to kill you. (very popular)

Well, you can kill them after they try to kill you. It's not enough to beat back their attacks, since (as the OP has seen) they keep coming back. After you stop their assault, go into their territory and capture and puppet a city or two. This gives them a smaller base to rebuild an attack force for later in the game.

-Press F9 every few turns during peace time and devote some of your empire's production to military units until you have one of the highest/the highest 'Soldiers' scores. The AI typically does not like to DoW human players whose military is stronger than theirs, unless they're extremely pissed off/warmongerers.

-Keep a lot of in reserves. I'm not 100% sure it still works this way, but the AI factors in your gold stack as an ability to produce a large military instantly if necessary.

-Be friendly. This includes immediately accepting embassies, trading often, not DoF'ing their enemies, not settling new cities/buying tiles within 3 tiles of their borders, not buying up their allied city states, not stealing their techs, etc. I've even heard that flat out giving the AI 120+ provides yet another diplomatic bonus, again not sure.

I'm not convinced that begin friendly works. If you share a border, then they will covet your lands. Eventually, if you show any sign of weakness (small military, little gold to rush-buy military), then they will attack.

Another critical part about trading often with those around you is that it provides a gauge for how they really feel about you. If they're consistently offering you much less than what your trades are worth, even if they're listed as neutral, it's best to assume they're inexplicably pissed off at you and already preparing a strike. The best thing to do at that point is just prepare, in my opinion.

These are what I could come up with off the top of my head, but I'm sure I may have missed some.

 

[cheddar]

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post, it's been a great help to me.

I'm always concerned about the running cost of a army that just sits there and does nothing, which is why I mostly only have a few units when I am going for a science victory.

One other question i'd like to ask is about artillery, what are the best units to counter those. I can basically fend of attacks with archers/crossbow men early on in the game as the siege units need to be very close to my cities to attack, but I can't do that with artillery. Are there any specific units good at taking out artillery?

I really need to find a 'lets play CIV G&k' video that focuses on domination and see how people use their armies.

 

[EDaddy]

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post, it's been a great help to me.

I'm always concerned about the running cost of a army that just sits there and does nothing, which is why I mostly only have a few units when I am going for a science victory.

One other question i'd like to ask is about artillery, what are the best units to counter those. I can basically fend of attacks with archers/crossbow men early on in the game as the siege units need to be very close to my cities to attack, but I can't do that with artillery. Are there any specific units good at taking out artillery?

I really need to find a 'lets play CIV G&k' video that focuses on domination and see how people use their armies.

Siege Units are very fragile. Mounted/Armor units work best against them, but any unit can take them out very well. Later when you get flight, you can use air units against them too.

 

[krc]

One other question i'd like to ask is about artillery, what are the best units to counter those. I can basically fend of attacks with archers/crossbow men early on in the game as the siege units need to be very close to my cities to attack, but I can't do that with artillery. Are there any specific units good at taking out artillery?

You need to be able to reach the artillery to deal with them. That means

• your own artillery
• air units (triplanes, great war bombers, etc.)
• mobile units (lancers, cavalry, landships, etc)

 

[smallfish]

One other question i'd like to ask is about artillery, what are the best units to counter those. I can basically fend of attacks with archers/crossbow men early on in the game as the siege units need to be very close to my cities to attack, but I can't do that with artillery. Are there any specific units good at taking out artillery?

On a map with water, frigates

 

[Moriarte]

Good (but rare) way to stay peaceful with a civ is to return their worker stolen by barbs. On higher difficulties AIs get more workers, they wander around unprotected, so chances are higher. I had Ramkhamhaeng the Warmonger swarming his 10 units around my cities on Deity on turn 30, clearly unhappy with me, giving me 50 gold for a resource, but, unable to attack me, since i saved his guy. Eventually, we grew to friendship even though he coveted my lands. Happened to me twice, i think this modifier is pretty strong. Also, denouncing an enemy of your immediate neighbor can be a safe bet.

 

[Gort]

If you get tired of being DOWed and don't want to mess around with diplomacy, play the Aztecs and profit from every unit they send your way!

 

[SMA333M]

In times of peace, prepare for war !

 

[Kerosene31]

I'm always concerned about the running cost of a army that just sits there and does nothing, which is why I mostly only have a few units when I am going for a science victory.

That's always the balancing act. You don't want to pay maintenance on a ton of units sitting around, but if you don't the AI will see you as weak and you'll end up building units to defend yourself anyway.

If you're going for a science victory, try to focus on getting advanced units fairly quickly. You can maintain a small but strong army if you have better units. I like to prioritize gunpowder and eventually get to the tech that gives you riflemen.

Basically, I'm focusing on the same military techs even if I'm playing a "peaceful" game.

Also, tradition helps as you can avoid paying maintenance on any unit within a city. You can put one high maintenance unit in each city and keep your costs down a bit until you need them.

 

[EDaddy]

That's always the balancing act. You don't want to pay maintenance on a ton of units sitting around, but if you don't the AI will see you as weak and you'll end up building units to defend yourself anyway.

If you're going for a science victory, try to focus on getting advanced units fairly quickly. You can maintain a small but strong army if you have better units. I like to prioritize gunpowder and eventually get to the tech that gives you riflemen.

Basically, I'm focusing on the same military techs even if I'm playing a "peaceful" game.

Also, tradition helps as you can avoid paying maintenance on any unit within a city. You can put one high maintenance unit in each city and keep your costs down a bit until you need them.

So does the Freedom Social Policy, Free Speech (which pays for 8 of your units.) This is also a no-brainer, but build markets and banks in all your cities as well as the National Treasury. Also, build mints when applicable.

 

[AiTenshi1]

It's good to keep in mind that the AIs have different personalities. Some are simply aggressive, expansive civs, and others are simply warmongers. However, there are others who tend to focus more on culture and trade or do not necessarily expand all over the map.

This means your experience will vary with randomization of civ opponents. You could also select specific civs as opponents if you want a purely peaceful game, including turning off domination VC.

 

[pollock]

Turning defensive wars with archers behind your citys into offensive ones by making alot of troops can be very good. Cause u dont take the diplomacy hit that would otherwise by war declaration.