How do you get ceasefires?

[Stylesjl]

And what benifits do they bring in a war?

 

[wkndwrrr]

simply talk to someone while you are at war with them. the ceasefire is already set up and all you have to do is ask them to accept. they bring no benifits other than a time to regroup.

 

[The Tyrant]

The real benefit to a cease-fire (rather than peace treaty) is that either side can attack again at any time, resuming the hostilities. This means you aren't stuck with a ten-turn waiting period before you attack again.

EDIT: I haven't tested this part, so I can't vouch for it, but I've read that cease fires also help with overall diplomacy. Each time you declare war on a civ, you take a diplomacy hit with other civs for "You declared war on our friend." If you don't sign a peace treaty then when you attack again you aren't declaring war (the cease-fire is a temporary pause in the war) and therefore don't take another diplomacy hit with all their friends.

 

[Pantastic]

The biggest drawback in my book is that you can only offer to trade ceasefire for ceasefire, you can't get gold, maps, or techs out of your opponent.

 

[BlackMage]

The biggest drawback in my book is that you can only offer to trade ceasefire for ceasefire, you can't get gold, maps, or techs out of your opponent.

Well, knowing how stupid the AI is compared to a human warfighter, we wouldn't use the ceasefire to strip the AI of their stuff, only to regroup our forces, move up defensive units to conquered cities, then get the fight back on.

 

[Cookie Crumbs]

I still managed to use a loophole regarding that on my first Prince game, when I was invading Mansa Musa because he started gaining an alarming tech lead. Due to the civics and religion diplo bonuses, he was still cautious with me so I could trade to get all of his techs, then I just marched my army back in to stomp him before he could get cannons from the steel I traded him. I guess this could work with other civs, but it's easiest to exploit Mansa because of his affinity for tech trades.