How to keep the peace

[Mezz]

In a lot of my games I am forced into bad relations with some of the other Civ's (via not ending trades agreements or not aiding in war situations etc.) I guess my question would be, when I have relations in the RED with some leaders, what can I do to help ease tensions and prevent an attack against myself, or get a Civ to talk and end war (when they refuse to talk)? I dont always have the strongest army and ending the war to allow me to stack up a defence would help greatly (even the 10 turns). And how do you know if you are going to be attacked? Example, was playing as Alexander and was neighbours with Cyrus, me and Cyrus were doing really well relationship wise (Pleased Towards) and our borders wernt terribly pressured yet he still declared war on me (to my extinction non the less). Any tips/tricks to keep relatoins high?

 

[naterator]

Pick your friends and pick on their enemies. If their enemy is your other neighbor, start building troops.

 

[champ82]

There’s a spread sheet out there that says who declares at pleased and who doesn’t and who declares at friendly and who doesn’t. Some good Civilian will see this thread and hook you up with it.

The AIs have different things that make them tick. Some, such as Justinian and Isabella are just zealots. If you share their religion, they won’t mess with you.

Each leader has a favorite civic, if you are both running it you will gain points with them.

Some leaders are really hard to please.

Often times there is one or two leaders who are very unpopular. Just don’t trade with them. It sucks cause they’re always the only one willing to pay 21 per turn for extra banana or whatever.

I recommend the BUG mod for diplo, but I’m sure there are people who do fine without it.

Relations going into the red should be foreseeable in most instances. Yes if you free trade with everybody willy nilly it may appear that it “just happens” but most of the time it does not “just happen.”

Learning and exploiting diplo is key.

Also, keeping the peace may not always be possible and often it’s not even desirable. How many times have you been DOWed on only to learn it is you who has the upper hand, power graph shmauer baff .

 

[champ82]

Get screen shots of the game with Cyrus for better more specific answers.

Was Cyrus part of an AP religion that you weren't? This is just one possibility but without more info (and a picture is so much better than words) good Civilians won't be as able to help.

 

[r_rolo1]

Pick your friends and pick on their enemies. If their enemy is your other neighbor, start building troops.

That or make all of them hate someone else more than you But anyway, learn that you can't please everyone in 95% of the times and in the times you can do that you would wish that things would not be that way ...

 

[Baldyr]

It's hard to please everyone and you probably can't be friends with all your rivals. Because, then you wouldn't be able to do trade with anyone in fear of provoking their enemies. And if you wanna please all, you need to give into their demands, because then you're safe from harm for 10 turns, at least...

Diplomacy is hardly my own strong suit but I would suggest that you have a plan for your relations. Choose who your friends and allies will be, nurture those relationships, even if it means short term penalties or making others not like you. Its not a popularity contest, after all.

Religion can be a key factor, as some leaders are quite the zealots. Isabella and Saladin come to mind... If you wanna be buddies with them you need to have their religion, period. Another approach to please the most amount of rivals could be not to have a state religion - at all. You'd loose the benefits of most of the religious civics, though, as well as the positive attitudes from the leaders you wanna bond with. So you should choose religions wisely and perhaps join the Apostolic Palace club to make friends.

Also, take note of whom likes and dislikes whom, and pretty much pick sides. You don't need the potential trade routes that comes from Open Borders with everyone, after all, but make sure to have civil relations with a few far away, wealthy and advanced Civs to get those intercontinental trade routes.

Lastly, some leaders are simply unreliable and will never be your friends. Forget about getting to third base (or any base for that matter) with Montezuma or Genghis Khan, for example. Those bastards are your default enemies and you should probably ally with their worst enemies... And thats anyone else. Others may just back-stab you or take advantage of your good nature. I'm looking at you Catherine!

I believe there is some kind of guide to all the leaders and how to deal with them. That or you could just open the CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml file and look at their individual settings. There will be skeletons in the closets.

 

[velcrox]

A good tip I picked up is that when you open up the diplomacy screen with a leader and note the area where you can ask them to go to war with another civ.

If the leader is willing to take bribes, then be cautious because they may also be willing to take a bribe from someone else to attack you.

Furthermore & more importantly, if all of the choices are unselectable and you get the "We have enough on our hands right now" message, then you should be alarmed because they are actively gearing up for war and will attack someone soon.

When I see this message from a neighbor then I always focus on getting units to defend my border.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Religion can be a key factor, as some leaders are quite the zealots. Isabella and Saladin come to mind... If you wanna be buddies with them you need to have their religion, period. Another approach to please the most amount of rivals could be not to have a state religion - at all. You'd loose the benefits of most of the religious civics, though, as well as the positive attitudes from the leaders you wanna bond with. So you should choose religions wisely and perhaps join the Apostolic Palace club to make friends.

This is one of the biggest tips I got from the forum. The advantage of the apostolic palace religion is tremendous. If in doubt, convert to the AP religion. You'll probably want the monastaries and temples in your cities, anway, for the extra hammers. It also gives you twice as many votes in AP resolutions, which can be very helpful. In fact, if your civ is reasonably large, you can stop the AI from beating you with an AP victory, which has happened to people.

 

[Baldyr]

This is one of the biggest tips I got from the forum. The advantage of the apostolic palace religion is tremendous. If in doubt, convert to the AP religion. You'll probably want the monastaries and temples in your cities, anway, for the extra hammers. It also gives you twice as many votes in AP resolutions, which can be very helpful. In fact, if your civ is reasonably large, you can stop the AI from beating you with an AP victory, which has happened to people.

The AP can also help one to end any unwanted wars. Even if you're not elected pope yourself you're friend might be. And that leader could very well put forward a vote for ceasing all aggression towards you.

So, join the AP religion and take note of who the top candidates are. (The ones with the most cities with the religion in question, plus the player controlling the AP.) Also note whom they like and dislike, and pick your friends. Cultivate this relationship and always vote for your candidate. If you have enough friends in the AP you could very well be safe from any prolonged wars.

 

[catfish99]

Another AP strategy is to become good friends with the AP leader - often the guy or girl who is the leading civ. You won't have the heathen religion penalties from other civs, and any anger from stop trading resolutions will go against all the AP members.
Those boycotts usually pass, BTW, so make sure to spin a deal with the target civ as soon as the vote is taken. Next turn will be too late.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

A nasty trick is to get an early settler out near a warmonger, and stick a city RIGHT IN HIS FACE...between him and another AI. Then "liberate" that city for +5 diplo and a shared AI-AI border. This can change war targets in a hurry potentially...

Once diplo is screwed it's hard to recover it, so sometimes you have to pick sides. Civs can't hate if they're dead!