Defensive Pacts and Joint War

[RaidandTrade]

I'm playing a Domination game as Poland on Continents Deity. Cleared Japan from my continent and starting on the next continent.

I met Rome early and thought I'd try for some joint war so worked the politics a little. He already hated everyone else and had not met Japan so friendship and alliance was easy. When I wanted to go to war there was no "joint war" option available.

Are there conditions for joint war?

As a part of trying to get joint war as an option I initiated a defensive pact. Fast forward a bit and Russia and India are now mine and I've started on Kongo. All fine.

Friendship with Rome has expired and alliance expired. I denounced him but have no option to declare war or use CB. Seems I'm stuck in the pact until it expires. So how long does a pact run?

(Never doing that again!).

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

I think both civs need to have met the poor victim. In this case, it seems Rome had not found Japan yet, so there was no possibility of a Joint war against Hojo.

 

[RaidandTrade]

@ShinigamiKenji - Thanks for responding. Japan wasn't the issue. Japan was only relevant because I'd wiped Japan from the board before I met Rome so I had an empire bigger than his. (It was great. Truly. He'd never seen a bigger empire...).

I was besties with Rome and was looking for a joint war buddy on Rome's continent. He hated all his neighbours and either he'd denounced them or they'd denounced him so I thought he'd be perfect for a team up.

But no. No "joint war" option in the make deal screen at any stage (I.e., as friends, as allies or when we had a defense pact).

The only thing the defense pact did for Rome was have him send token troops at city states that declared on me/us when I gave up on him and got to fighting.

 

[RaidandTrade]

Update: So the pact expired. Seems it has a life of its own (x turns?) and will outlast a friendship or an alliance.

Might have a use after all if you want to prevent someone DOWing you for a period of time while your forces are elsewhere.

(Rome is now toast, BTW).

 

[sa1vy]

I've seen the joint war option in trade deals appear sometimes under my column and sometimes theirs, but it's never under both at the same. So try looking on both sides. Sometimes it's not an option for either, and I can't figure out why. I think it might have something to do with denouncing, since I usually see the option available near the beginning of the game before everyone denounces me. Maybe none of the three of you (you/target/ally) can be denounced by another.
At least alliances don't automatically drag you into a war you don't want. Defensive pacts never seem to be worth it, imo. It doesn't seem to deter the enemy at all, which was also the case in civ V.