Every civ hates me

[weighates]

I am really new. I tried playing the game on regent and every single civ is annoyed at me. I have to give them huge gifts every 3 - 4 turns to keep them polite to me. I cant afford to do that early in the game. After skiping giving them gifts for like 6-8 turns they declare war on me and wipe me completely off the map. For some unknown reason my swordsmen and horsemen cannot defend or attack archers very well. Can anyone help me by giving me some tips? Thanx.

BTW-Love this forum read it almost everyday. All your stories really give the game personality. thanx again.

 

[Buecephalus]

the higher the level, the more annoyed civs will be with you. On Chieftain it takes a lot to anger them, warlord they tend to be annoyed more often than not, etc. It's not you it's the level you're playing at. Swordsmen and Horsemen do NOT make good defenders. Play as the Greeks and you can build Hoplites from the start of the game, these badass defenders will keep your cities safe (make sure you've got veterans and 2-3 per city) all the way up to chivalry. If not the Greeks, make sure you've got lots of veteran spearmen defending your cities. Use swordsmen and horsemen to attack. The quicker you can build a HUGE army, the sooner other civs will stop busting your chops. The AI respects force of arms, not gift-giving.


"do or do not, there is no try."

 

[cegman]

One more thing that you forgot to mention you should minimize gift giving to mabye 1 10 gold every 10-15 turns if you want to keep them happy

 

[BillChin]

If you read every day, you already know what I am about to type. Build your cities very close together, one to three spaces between cities. This makes connecting them with roads very easy, and makes defense a piece of cake as Horsemen units are within one to two turns of every city in your empire.

If you get annoyed at the enemy build an offensive force of 20+ horsemen and wipe them off the map. Bribe the other neighbors (one free gold per turn) and they will likely stay out of the conflict and may even come in on your side after a few victories.

On higher difficulties (I usually play Emperor, random civ, standard size map) I give in to EVERY demand that they make. Revenge is twice as sweet against a bully.