Ever feel like you HAVE to declare war, regardless of anything else?

[shadow2k]

Sometimes opportunities present themselves that are just too tempting to pass up, regardless of the consequences. You know what I'm talking about. The AI that settles the city which completely screws up your dot map. The Industrious Civ that keeps stealing all YOUR wonders. That stray worker next to your border with no enemy troops in sight. The Settler that's about to sit his butt down on the one open tile in the back of your empire. Or the Great Person without an escort who just happens to be strolling a bit too far from home...

I have to, don't I? I mean, come on...TWO Great Merchants, who actually belong to the tech leader, caught in neutral territory by my capture of York (right behind the camel). That means my Axe can kill both with one swing AND return to safety on the same turn. Good thing too, because my army is basically the same one I was fighting with 1,000yrs prior, already busy with Vicky, and I'm likely to get dogpiled by Washington for doing it when Caesar bribes him with Gunpowder...which I don't have yet.

Is getting dogpiled by 3 Emperor AI's worth it? Maybe not, but I've still got to do it. It's the principle of the thing. Plus the fact that my Axeman just looks like an Executioner...

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

 

[jerVL/kg]

HA!!!! That's how 90% of my wars get started -- the AI shows up in a place where I don't want the AI to be.

Just the other day, I tried out a game as Kublai. My typical settings are Epic / Archipelago / Snaky Continents / High Sea Level -- normally this results in an isolated start, but this time most of the landmasses were connected by many long, winding island chains.

After consolidating my home continent, I sailed across the channel and met the Incas. (Found an awesome Horse/Sheep/Corn/Fish site that Huyana apparently was too lazy to settle.) Sailed past Inca, and met...China! Poor Qin was totally hemmed in by jungle and way behind in tech. Sailed past China, and met...BARBARIANS! A *very* nice large island with the world's only supply of incense & silver, with a size 7 barb city just ripe for the taking! (It seemed like Qin had attempted, and failed, to stake his own claim...there were quite a few city ruins everywhere.)

Anyway, I take the barb city no problem. Start scouting around my brand new territory, when guess who shows up:



Isabella's settler had an archer escort the previous turn, but for some reason it disappeared on this turn. Strange, but...no matter. FREE WORKER!

Then I dispatched my main army to sail via Galley to the Spanish homeland...it was a LONG journey, more than 40 turns past Inca & China, and through an ice-bound maze of barbarian-infested islands. (I have no clue how Izzy's sailors made it that far, I had to use caravels to clear out all those black galleys.) Sadly, the invasion was cancelled when the final crossing turned out to be Spanish-controlled *ocean* tiles, which Galleys can't cross during war.

Oh well...I did score her Islamic holy city on an outlying island (she beat me to Divine Right by 2 turns, and the city I was attacking turned Islamic right before my very eyes) which also contained her ONLY supply of horses. No Conquistadors for you, Izzy!!

So yeah, unexpected wars are the best wars. And it's always a great way to test your military preparedness.

(P.S. As I'm sure you've found out by now, Great Merchants turn into Workers when you capture them...hope you weren't disappointed.)