Early Indication your Nieghbor is going to attack

[TLHeart]

Ways you can tell that the AI is itching to attack you.

Napoleon is begging turn after turn for open borders.. seems he wants to backstab
Askia, wants open borders,
Ramkhamhaeng, usually a wonder whore, but when he builds the terracotta army, he will attack.

Shaka, he is your neighbor and has forward settled on you.
Montezuma, not expanding, scouting the edges of your territory.
Ashurbanipal, Siege towers moving in your direction.


Other things you have noticed?

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Ways you can tell that the AI is itching to attack you.

Napoleon is begging turn after turn for open borders.. seems he wants to backstab
Askia, wants open borders,
Ramkhamhaeng, usually a wonder whore, but when he builds the terracotta army, he will attack.

Shaka, he is your neighbor and has forward settled on you.
Montezuma, not expanding, scouting the edges of your territory.
Ashurbanipal, Siege towers moving in your direction.


Other things you have noticed?

Alexander existing at all in the game.

 

[White Out]

In my newest game as the Iroquois (renamed to Canada) I saw that the Incas had 6 swordsmen surrounding Winnipeg. I paid them 5 gold per turn to declare war on Ethiopia and probably saved myself from being defeated 100 turns in.

 

[Xoon]

A couple of times I've settled a new city and speed rushed Petra in it. Both times, armies immediately gathered to attack. Could be coincidence, but I also think maybe they saw a valuable, easy target.

 

[Feurisson]

A sure way to tell: two turns after meeting them they denounce you. If you are going for cultural victory, and the other civilization is the Zulu empire, then you know you won't last for long.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

I am always cautious when an AI is not willing to give me the standard GPT for diplomatic treaties (and they would have enough to do so) during the early game. Askia only offers 5 GPT for my luxury? Probably up to something. Dido offers only 1 GPT for embassy or open borders? Might want to keep an eye on her...

Another indicator is the existence of AI trade routes to my cities. Nappy has two trade routes with me? Probably save. Later on he has redirected all his trade routes to another CIV? Better place some forward scouts...

And there is, obviously, the unit carpet: if an AI is shuffling half a dozen troops around near my borders, or a big unit carpet is coming my way, I can be quite certain that they are coming right for me.

 

[danaphanous]

Many ways...Im rarely surprising by DOWs these days.

1. Refuses to do standard deals...especially ones involving gpt
2. Refuses under any circumstances to do open borders...or asks for everything I have for the deal or for an extra luxury they have (means they don't want you to get the extra happiness or see what's in their territory).
3. Shuffling units...especially strong forward melee like swordsmen out of their territory and around my borders uneccesarily. If they stay in their territory it can often mean they are just demonstrating and don't intend to attack.
4. Forward settling me like crazy when they have plenty of land near them. This is not normal expansion where they build out from their capital in a reasonable way...but actually skipping territory near them to come and settle right next to me...especially my capital like 15-20 squares away from their nearest borders. (I don't know if this means they plan to attack, but regardless they soon get ticked at me for settling near them and want to war. I hate this)
5. Has a military that could "wipe me off the earth" and is a neighbor who is playing isolationist in trade
6. They begin to cancel trade routes to me one by one
7. Near a moron like Alexander or Russia and they want to declare friendship 5 turns after I meet him? Probably a lying backstabber...or at least this is my experience. Deceptive warmongers always cozy up to you way too soon and then backstab you when they think you trust them...Alexander is notorious for this though I've had Russia and a few others do this as well. I usually agree but am actually more on guard the first 50 turns after.
8. Related to 7, if I'm settling and buying near them and they say nothing about it, all green modifiers, know they are in deceptive and hiding how they really feel. I usually suspect them of planning something if they are doing this. Greece always is all green right up to the moment he backstabs and invades you.

Many more, but these are the early game signals.

Risk Factors that will probably mean war at some point: differing ideologies, civil unrest due to my influence and a neighbor, any sort of random denouncement, I have a competing religion and am a neighbor and I've been spreading it too much (not really to them, but to civs they want to convert, they don't like this either), I take wonders they always target: mosque of jenne for religious zealots, etc.

 

[Aelesia]

Napoleon being friendly towards me.

 

[chazzycat]

- they went honor

- the larger the disparity in army strength between you and them, the likelier they are to attack

- "fake friendly" status, i.e. their status says friendly but they won't pay full price for luxes

- Lastly but probably most important...observing troop movement. Keep a scout on a hill near their territory but towards your empire's direction. Usually when they attack they will just mass their troops and start moving them in your direction in a pretty obvious fashion. Try to keep your initial scouts alive to get upgraded for extra sight...those guys make great lookouts. With 1 unit in between yourself and each aggressive nearby civ, you should get advanced warning of any approaching armies.

 

[Vitruvius]

If they have a scout unit hovering around your borders and refusing to move away, that person is considering to attack you.

 

[NASAROG]

Easy, I have a neighbor on my continent. Either they attack, or I do. I hate all A.I. opponents I face!!!!

 

[Dellan]

Shaka that warmongering moron is indication enough for a war.
Only effective strategy here: Wipe him out before he can wipe you out.

But really there are a few leaders I NEVER trust.
Montezuma, Alexander, Shaka, Napoleon, Caesar, Theodora + Catherine + Dido (those backstabbing cows [and Dido being the worst of them all!!!])

I start playing differently once I meet any of them.
Building up an army

 

[NASAROG]

Shaka that warmongering moron is indication enough for a war.
Only effective strategy here: Wipe him out before he can wipe you out.

But really there are a few leaders I NEVER trust.
Montezuma, Alexander, Shaka, Napoleon, Caesar, Theodora + Catherine + Dido (those backstabbing cows [and Dido being the worst of them all!!!])

I start playing differently once I meet any of them.
Building up an army

You left out the worst offender... Gandhi.

 

[Dellan]

You left out the worst offender... Gandhi.

Yep King of Nukes
Better watch out when he's in your game.

 

[NASAROG]

Yep King of Nukes
Better watch out when he's in your game.

First he begs to be my friend, then he begs to hang out at my place and eat all my food while he steals my goods, then he asks me for open borders, and next thing I know.. backstab... denouncement, warmonger penalty... I have a lists of leaders that I nuke the first chance I get. He's at the top.

 

[joncnunn]

In G&K an early indicator that your neighbor would attack was simply the fact that he was your neighbor; even if it was a low aggression AI flavor. (The cash buying of AI units would cause them to think they had a big enough army to beat you)

I've still not gotten used to some of the AIs that's my neighbors not actually DOWing me at all in BNW and so my tactics always keep me at little risk of losing a city from an unplanned war.

 

[TLHeart]

I rarely let the AI reach the atomic era, so have never had problems with Gandhi. Always a good trading partner, and I can even forward settle on him, and he will just settle elsewhere.

It was strange to have the one of the wonder whores build terracotta army, and within 10 turns he was marching on my capital, through the jungle. At times I like having Siam as a neighbor... let him build the wonders, then take them from him.

 

[Callonia]

If I see a group of soldiers just chilling next to my borders...
I BEAT THE AI TO THE PUNCH BY DOWING HIM AND WIPING HIS FORCES OUT and then proceed to chill inside my borders! But that only happens if I suspect he don't like me.

Or in other cases like if I recently annexed Moscow from Russia and successfully wiped them out and I see that large group of Celts still keeping their soldiers next to moscow for like 10+ turns I will dow that group and kill them then wait until celts ask me for a peace treaty before soldiers in moscow move onto next target.

 

[ArguCa]

Alexander, Shaka and Ramkhamhaeng are worst. And, Ashurbanipal, Attila, Hiawatha and Augustus Caesar follow them.

 

[eris]

In my last game, various friends warned my about the Ottomans as discovered by their spies, even giving what city was going to be attacked. I was warning them about Morocco on their continent, so they were returning the favor. I was able to shift the majority of my army across my wide empire, upgrade a few key units, and I barely held the city in question. I would have been in very deep trouble otherwise.

I had a ship go by their coast just after the warnings. I saw the shifting about of superior melee units mentioned above. That confirmed the warnings. It was scary.