How do you provoke a war?

[Drakan]

Greetings all,

Is it possible to, as I say, "goad" the Spanish in to declaring war against me so that I may respond - in my righteous indignation - and capture the city and claim the rubber which belongs, by divine providence, to the Egyptian peoples?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Ehem, goading Spanish into War....I hope I don't have you as a neighbour...

Well Build the Intelligence Agency. Plant a spy in Madrid. Make the Spanish attitude change by asking for outrageous demands making Isabel La Católica furious at you. Then order the spy to uncover the spanish spy in your capitol (it doesn't matter if the spanish don't have one). This command fails almost all the time and they declare War on you. You get no rep hit because it's been them who have started the War (I think) and greatly reduces the WW at Republic. There you go, now you have "nuestro"(=our) rubber.

 

[Midnight Piper]

Just make 'em mad with demands then blow an espionage attempt - I use that tactic pretty regularly to get the AI to declare war.

No[in a good-natured tone]the AI are virtually NEVER willing to trade cities in a peace treaty.

A friend of mine makes the same complaint. I almost always get between 1 and 3 cities for peace - 1 or 2 pop outposts, often threatened by another Civ's military. The only times I ever get a refusal is when I try to get peace too soon after the war's started, or when the AI's been too successful.

 

[Thangorodrim]

Steal a tech immediately
You will be found out, it does't cost much

 

[Moonsinger]

Greetings all,
Therefore, as you can guess by the thread topic, being in a republic, I desire to goad the Spanish in to declaring war on me, to ease the WW going into battle. I don't intend to prosecute a campaign to their homeland - just to claim the rubber.

Since you are playing Egypt (a religious Civ) and you don't intend on taking over the world, why not just go ahead and declare war on them? Unless you are a warmonger type and your civ has been constantly at war, there is really no need to worry about WW.

 

[kb2tvl]

the best way to goad a war is to:
1. threaten that civ with war if they do not give you one gold or a WM or a city ... or something.
2. if they give you that, threaten them again that turn. Do so until the civ is furious and then do it a bunch more times.
3. attempt to steal a tech untill you fail.

This should be sufficient. It is best if they have a unit in your land first though...

 

[CaptainPete]

Quote from strategy guide "How Does War Weariness Work?"

"Calculations of wwp:
All starts at 0.
Subtract 30 wwp if the AI attacks you, except when AI is provoked by:
- use of nuclear weapons
- failed spy mission"

So if an AI declares war on you after you bungle a spy mission it is equivalent to you starting the war as far as ww is concerned.

 

[Solomwi]

Unless you're worried about breaking a per-turn deal, provoking a war with a spy is counterproductive. First, it's expensive. Second, it consumes your spy. Third, it doesn't help you. It isn't that you declaring war adds to WW; it's that being declared upon subtracts from WW. However, if the declaration is a result of espionage activity, you don't get that subtraction bonus. The best way I've found is to trap one of his units in my territory, then down the road when I want a war, make demands until the AI is furious with me (then demand a few more cities for good measure) and finally demand that he withdraw his troops or declare war. It doesn't always work, but it's fairly reliable.

 

[Sims2789]

Ehem, goading Spanish into War....I hope I don't have you as a neighbour...

Well Build the Intelligence Agency. Plant a spy in Madrid. Make the Spanish attitude change by asking for outrageous demands making Isabel La Católica furious at you. Then order the spy to uncover the spanish spy in your capitol (it doesn't matter if the spanish don't have one). This command fails almost all the time and they declare War on you. You get no rep hit because it's been them who have started the War (I think) and greatly reduces the WW at Republic. There you go, now you have "nuestro"(=our) rubber.

But you do suffer rep points for the spy being discovered.

 

[anarres]

I'm sure a spy being caught is an attitude hit, not a rep hit.

 

[Grille]

Yep, it's an attitude hit, the penalty is even (well, partly) temporary.


Unless the rep would be trashed by declaring war yourself due to active deals, I'd go with Moonsinger's suggestion. If the foe is flagged as arch enemy on top of that, you will get the -30wwp benefit anyways.

 

[Swooping Hawk]

I would just invade them and be done with it. Or to put it another way... shoot them all and let god sort them out. Every turn you wait is another turn your opponents grow stronger. Burn them all!