Every Game Same Story

[Zaimejs]

I have just been playing random starts with random civs for fun. Every game comes down to some foe having 50 units and then declaring war and obliterating me. Is there some new patch that gives computer players some kind of 20 unit bonus? I swear that I get Shaka and Caesar coming at me, but Sweden? Sweden?

Impossible.

 

[Dushku]

What difficulty? Are you doing anything to piss them off?

When possible, I like to goad my neighbors into breaking themselves on me early. Here's a fantastic example:

https://youtu.be/rgG4BoUqkGo

I make him war me so I don't get the diplo hit. I end up taking 4 Composite Bowmen, 4 Warriors, and I had my choice between a 6 pop city or 407 gold + 9 gpt. I did this with a single archer. Usually this approach has SOME impact on the development of your empire. It just so happens that in this video, it literally didn't slow me down one bit.

 

[joncnunn]

With One unit per tile, anything past the AIs 20th unit is meaningless. The other 30 can't come within range to attack you until they lose the ones closer.

The key to defense is set up a kill zone that's within 2 hexes of one of your cities. City with Walls and either most advanced range or siege unit depending upon era with additional ranged units in tiles the AI can't reach that turn so you can completely remove enemy units from the board during your turn without taking any damage at all.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Yeah, setting up a kill zone choke point is a very good option, archer in city, one behind it and a pair of spears fortified on the other side of the river. The war generally lasts <5 turns so spam the dialogue screen to see if peace has become available

 

[flipjonah]

I hate it too when I go for a peaceful victory at the start but neighbouring civs attack. If the difficulty is high, AI civs get huge unfair bonuses like more resources (although they can't trade extra) and so can have a much bigger army.

 

[phillipwyllie]

If you are being DOWed in every game then your diplomacy needs work. In saying that Sweden in this games is one of the biggest warmongers.

There is an exception to the statement above that's when pursuing a CV. The game being in the broken state it is makes the AI hate you instead of charging a lot for open borders. In saying that war is an effective tool against a cultural runaway, if you know what you're doing.

 

[reddishrecue]

Gus has made a dow on me before and i couldve done better but then August also made a dow on me so then you would imagine that things didnt go so well afterwards particularly with CBs.

 

[HorseshoeHermit]

Spoiler The mean version of this post :

I have been clicking around civfanatics random threads for fun. Every time I indulge a fancy of interest I get another thread speculating wildly about "a game patch which obviously did not occur and that blames a pattern of game outcomes on a simple computer system while simultaneously acknowledging I don't pay attention to relevant details (like patches, or my own 'random games')". Is there some patch on civforums that scripts threads like these onto the forums from some bot riffing on a template?

Notice how you're asserting both that the AI/its programming is responsible for this change, and that you think a change can be explained in a simple way from a simple observation, but you're also acknowledging you don't watch how random your games are.
It's like you believe you can learn something's rules by looking at it, want to learn the patterns/rules, but don't try to make any patterns out of you yourself being the one looking.

It just doesn't match up. But you are welcome to your confusion.

 

[HughFran]

Always be prepared for an attack, even if you plan to play peaceful and are on best terms (currently) with your neighbour. If the closest AIs think you have enough units to threaten them, they usually won't declare war. Even if you have far less, as others have already said, all you need to do is set up a good defensive line to soak up their waves of attacks. Numbers count for nothing against a strong, organised defence - think of the movie 300 lol!!

 

[CrossedXP]

The AI are opportunistic, sometimes to a fault. If you have a neighbor that isn't Gandhi or Haile Selassie you're probably gonna get attacked.

 

[reddishrecue]

Gus is a known warmonger though. Like shaka, one can use him to take out other civilizations, also.

 

[phillipwyllie]

If you are being DOWed in every game then your diplomacy needs work...

I made this statement before I upgraded to win10. I've had a few games since and in every game I have been DOWed, sometimes out of the blue. I always try to keep everyone happy as war is tiresome unless its with bombers....It would seem fulfilling a CS quest by accident is enough context for war.

Perhaps there has been a silent patch or the game plays differently on win10

 

[HughFran]

Like I said before, the Diplomacy in Civ 5 is broken and no matter how great you are with your neighbours, they will 9 times out of 10 declare war for absolutely NO REASON!! That's why I say that you should always be prepared to defend yourself before its too late. I've been steamrolled by my neighbours so many times in the past because I thought they were my friends but they suddenly arrived at my borders with a huge army that I couldn't repel. So I always have a few units near my neighbour to deter them from attack

 

[Redaxe]

I have just been playing random starts with random civs for fun. Every game comes down to some foe having 50 units and then declaring war and obliterating me. Is there some new patch that gives computer players some kind of 20 unit bonus? I swear that I get Shaka and Caesar coming at me, but Sweden? Sweden?

Impossible.

Pretty much every civ is a potential early warmonger except India, Brazil, Byzantium, Arabia, Morocco and Venice.
The main 2 things that will really piss an AI off is settling within 10 tiles of their capital and building enough cities they they 'feel you are settling too aggressively'.

They'll tell you to stop settling near them if you forward settle on them. If you agree to their demand quite often there won't be any noticeable differences in how they act to you - but you can guarantee that they will look for an opportunity to attack you if they see one. So be ready, keep a scout near there borders and watch what they are doing.

If they have a huge army than you're already playing with fire. The AI does have a 'deceptive' trait too which means they'll act friendly even if they are plotting against you. One way to see if this is happening is to offer them a resource of yours and see how much they will pay for it. If it is less than the usual than you guarantee that they don't like you.

 

[Chum]

Perhaps there has been a silent patch or the game plays differently on win10

Neither of those are the case.