How can i stop being called a war monger

If you feel the compelling need to DoW another civ, you may want to Denounce them first. This seems especially true if your relationship with them has them at Neutral, Guarded or Hostile. It more or less tells the other civs that you aren't being a warmonger, but that the other guy really does deserve a kick in the fanny.
Another good strategy is to get your DoW target to first declare on everyone else, by bribing them if necessary (preferably luxuries/strategics/GPT which will be canceled when you DoW):

- If you have them DoW city states, it's easy and free influence with them once you kill some of your target's units. Also guarantees that they won't ally with those city states later on when you fight (as long as it doesn't drag on too long).

- If you have them DoW other civs, you got potential allies/distractions, you may be able to divert their troop placements, and the diplomatic consequences are far less severe (other civs may be angry with that AI and you will get "Share a Common Foe" benefits).
 
If you have them DoW city states, it's easy and free influence with them once you kill some of your target's units. Also guarantees that they won't ally with those city states later on when you fight (as long as it doesn't drag on too long).

All great points, but particularly liked this bit as I always forget I can attempt to bribe an AI to DoW a CS. Could be very handy if the benefit from resources or type of CS will be particularly helpful to me, or denial to the AI in question.
 
All great points, but particularly liked this bit as I always forget I can attempt to bribe an AI to DoW a CS. Could be very handy if the benefit from resources or type of CS will be particularly helpful to me, or denial to the AI in question.
Yes, you start by offering all your luxuries/strategics/GPT to siphon their Gold Treasury. If they don't have much Gold, you can also bribe them to attack CS.

Helping a CS leads to a big influence boost (120-150) which is more than 1000 gold in many cases. As a result, it is often more effective to spend your money bribing AI's to attack CS and then defending them, than gifting the gold to the CS in the first place! :crazyeye:

Note that AI personality traits have a big impact on whether or not they will attack. In addition, their current game state may influence things as well (i.e. one turn they will/will not attack but a few turns later they have changed their mind).

I love playing the diplomacy game in Civ V (much as how people like to malign it). I'm a bit of a rabble rousing and troublemaker though, because I'm constantly bribing AI's to fight each other (better them than me!). :king:
 
Declare protection on a nearby CS.
Provoke enemy civ into attacking said CS.
Use this as an excuse to go to war (much better if you let the Civ take the CS first.).
PROFIT!

EDIT:
I remember an Aztec LP that used a war time economy (basically using WAR! for profits). I got the strat above from that.
 
Well, the current implementation is actually rather fitting historically, given the number of past secret defense treaties. In fact, these are commonly cited as a contributing factor to World War I.

So I rather like how there is the potential for everyone to get involved because they signed Defense Pacts they thought they'd never need to honor....

I didn't mean to say that the system was historically incorrect, and I know you are right about their role for WW 1. I only find that, in comparison with Civ IV where alliances where publicly known and also displayed for every civ on the diplomacy screen, you have to consider more carefully if you want to sign a pact and how this may affect your relations to other civs.

In fact, I also enjoy the current system more than the old static 'alliance with our opponent' diplomacy modifier, and I agree with you on the potential of complex interaction. Nevertheless, I believe that it's easy to assume that declaring war because of an alliance is somewhat justified as similar to self-defense, even if this is wrong. So, as an answer to the OP, I wanted to add Defense Pacts as an element that might lead to the warmonger penalty he was worried about.
 
I'm sorry, there really isn't any way. On the high levels, you'll notice them coming faster with "building new cities too aggressively".

Just get ready for the inevitable DOW (or if you are friends - a backstabby denouncement followed by DOW)
 
Top Bottom