Has anyone not been DoW'd by the first civ they meet?

[KmDubya]

After all the complaining about the AI being too passive during the AI Battle Royal did they dial up the aggressiveness?

Game 1 Rome King double DoW by England and Spain with warrior horde. Started off with unfriendly and then quickly denounced. Held off with archers and legions came online soon after. Cleared continent went to Mars.

Game 2 random Emperor got Scythia. Sumeria conquers 3 city states while buddies with Japan, I get one envoy and get denounced by Japan, both started as unfriendly. I start the war when a settler walks into my capitol. Cleared continent then cleared the next with endless cavalry swarm.

Game 3 random Emperor Inland Sea, got Germany in a bad tundra start. Meet Russia denounced for no culture and science and masses troops on border. I start war with archers too avoid the first hit. Take peace deal and some art. On the other side is Scythia. Again massed horsemen on border so I start the war to get the first shots in. had defendable terrain and fight to a draw with pikes and crossbows. Now universally hated as a warmonger. I borg up the tundra I have and go to Mars.

Several abandoned games with all being swarmed with early warriors by first civ, all fought off successfully but abandoned for other reasons like mistakes in pantheon or just not enjoying Egypt.

Current game Spain Emperor really bad tundra start Inland Sea. Meet Egypt on turn 5, she denounces and masses warriors. Fought off and eradicated her with archers. Meet Scythia next door whose cleared a few city states so I take the two city states I find as a buffer. Massed horsemen along border. On the other side I meet India who denounces me and has an army marching towards the other side. Not sure I can pull this one off.

My starting build order is now slingerx4 and beeline archery because war is sure to happen as soon as I meet anyone. All strategy quickly goes to war, first for survival and then why not keep at it as everyone now hates you.


P.S. Does anyone else hate meeting Scythia? The AI might not be good at war, especially focus firing ranged units but a massive mobile zerg army of powerful horses it can handle very well.

 

[bladex]

not that i know of it's happened to everyone who plays on KING or HIGHER. soon as the AI spots you...get your army ready

 

[Cakeathon]

Didn't get dowed in my last game on diety but that was more of an exception. The starting position was exceptionally awkward. In the early game I wasn't able to find any city state and I only met Brazil who had such an awkward start himself he couldn't use his free settlers.

As for scythia, everytime she's been in my game she just spammed religion and didn't build much of an army.

 

[The Highwayman]

Every one of my games will involve war with the nearby AI. They always declare "surprise" war early game. May as well just eliminate the one that spawns directly on top of me for expansion room and use the upgraded army to fend off the next one.

And thankfully I haven't spawned right next to Scythia yet.

 

[kampori]

Every. Single. Game.

Up until the medieval era, my neighbours surprise DoW me. After that they all denounce me.

Last game, America below me. Scythia above me. Norway and Rome on top of each other, to my left. By turn 10 I had met them all (huge map byw, and I removed 7 AIs from the game).
By turn 15 America sent slinger and warrior army. I easily hold him back with slingers and then archers. I take Washington on turn 25.
Turn 30, Norway tries his luck. 1 slinger, 1 catapult, 40 warriors. I hold back the horde. By turn 45 I take his capital.
Turn 40, Rome and Scythia go at me. By turn 60 I've finally eliminated all my neighbours and have the continent to myself. Which I hate. I like trade. But they're so aggressive they needed to be taken down.

 

[smartcanuck1988]

In my current game playing as China on King, I met Scythia and they never declared war on me. Even though they denounced me for converting their cities.

 

[Yzman]

Kongo didn't in my last game, but basically every other game has ( small sample size)

It probably makes sense. There is little penalty early on and its the time where they are likely to get the most advantage from it.

 

[Francis Xavier]

I must have really weird games. I rarely have the AI surprise DOW me. My first play through, nobody at all declared war on me (on Emperor as France, culture victory). Then my next game, China on Emperor (ended up domination victory), it was inland sea map and I had two close neighbors, so I instigated war before they had a chance (they didn't even so much as get to amass troops on my borders) since I knew land was going to be at a premium given how close they were. I wanted to rush them before walls went up so just made 3-4 slingers and 2 warriors, popped archers and upgraded and won both wars.

On most of my immortal games since I've opted to attack the AI first, taking out my closest neighbor because the early game rewards early warfare in spades, especially on higher difficulty. Getting 2 cities, a worker or two and a settler is kind of the default boons of early war. Plus having some breathing room to set up your infrastructure.

On Deity, I've had almost no one declare early war, one game didn't count as I was strangely isolated on a continents map with water in between me and Russia who got an island start. But the others I've been surrounded by the AI and only once has someone surprise attacked me, and it was Pericles, who was very obviously sending warriors my way and got them right up into the capital. Had I not had slow production in my capital in that start, I would've normally by then probably already attacked them.

What I think what happens is that on the middle difficulties, the AI stays in the ancient era longer so they declare war because of no penalty. On the higher difficulties I think they end up shooting by the opportunity to declare war with no penalty and tend to refrain a bit more. On Deity I've had the absolute least amount of war declared on me of any difficulty.

I find the AI is actually really, really reluctant to declare war and unless you just have like no military they most of the time don't even bother to amass troops on a border, which is kind of disappointing later on, as they'll denounce you all day but never actually do anything about it.

 

[TheXMassTeam]

The first civilization I meet (Aztec) didn't dow me in my first (and only, so small sample) game (emperor/huge map/epic speed/french)

 

[Bad Wolf]

I got DOW'd by the first civ I met (Victoria, tag-teamed me with Pedro), but to be fair I did rather provocatively settle my second city within six tiles of London. Instant denouncement, followed by a declaration of war turn or two later (not even a formal war, she was that angry).

But after I won, she and I became good friends for the rest of the game.

 

[Francis Xavier]

Civ's are great friends when you occupy all their cities

 

[Bad Wolf]

Actually I never took a single one of her cities - they became very valuable trading partners.

She eventually betrayed Pedro and took him over entirely. (For some reason he never expanded out of his capital!)

 

[UponATime]

I'm usually the one DoWing in the first 10 turns on deity, I see no point in waiting to have 10+ warriors at my doorstep. I'd rather pick them off in the wilds and steal their settlers/workers! But I'm pretty sure they would do it given the chance.

 

[Haggbart]

I'm playing on deity right now with Gorgo. Closest neighbours are Rome and China, America, Arabia and India also on my continent.

Not DOW'ed yet, turn 172. Rome denounced me pretty quick, but DOWed China instead. Now everybody except Ghandi are neutral or friendly.

And my previous immortal-game, England was walking up with loads of units early on, but changed their mind when I bought a couple of extra archers. Although they brought their settler for some reason, so I dow'ed them instead to grab that free settler.

 

[smartcanuck1988]

It just happened to the devs on their live stream

 

[lordhaw]

I've had more games where they do a DoW on me than not. I had a memorable one where America, Spain and I shared a continent and we didn't fight each other once the whole game. I actually had alliances with them and we were all warring against the other continent which had everyone else and was quite frankly a mess overall. But any recent games they DoW me all the time, especially in the ancient era. Not sure if that has anything to do with the base game or because of the AI mods I'm trying though.

 

[Magil]

Sometimes there's no DoW. The AI tends to DoW early (Ancient/Classical era) if it thinks it's near you and if you have a weak military. Or if another Civ offers a Joint War against you (it seems very eager to do Joint Wars and then not actually fight). On lower difficulties building up a credible military will often deter potential DoWs. On higher difficulties the AI starts with so many warriors and an extra city so they spam out so many units they'll always judge their strength to be strong so there's a very high chance of a DoW. But sometimes it doesn't happen, especially if you're very far away from everyone. They'll just go after city-states instead.

 

[Mustakrakish]

Um... I'm yet to meet a civ that would DoW me on right away so I'm buffled by all the "complaining" (not really complaining) about early DoWs. In fact rarely did I get a DoW at all (I mean ancient to medieval phase when they are "active", they turn full passive afterwards). I played on king and emperor so far.

 

[CBE Player]

ON Deity I have had to DOW them to get them started! I thought this was wrong or just plain broken (until I read this thread).
Devs are going to make a lot of people tired of waiting if they don't hurry up on some type of patch for LOTS of stuff...

Every game though I do build Archers ASAP and Walls too.
The Barby's are always on high alert and DO come around so an early unit base seems to be best no matter what the level.
AI seems to favor checking my civ out then Denouncing me then attacking when I don't keep up militarily.

 

[ScorpionTDC]

Occasionally they don't DOW me and instead a nearby city state or another Civ who's close by as well. I think the only major exception is Catherine De'Medici, who seems to have extremely passive AI that focuses on infastructure and culture rather than actual conquest. Every game I find her in, she's exceptionally easy to get along with, doesn't forward settle me, etc.