Keeping the Peace

eyrei

Deity
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I think I may have really hit on something here. I am sure we have all had the AI, particularly the Zulu, up and declare war for seemingly no reason. In my last couple of games I have started right next to the Zulu, which is normally a recipe for war until you ahve wiped them out. I had greater problem on the other side of my borders though, so I wanted to remain peaceful with the Zulu. Although MPPs are an easy way to accomplish this they come late in the game, and can get you involved in wars you do not want. So, after my cultural borders were secure, I signed a RoP aggreement with them. For a while, every twenty turns, they cancelled and I had to pay a couple more gold/turn to keep it. However, they stopped doing this after the third renegotiation. I have now made it into the late industrial age without having ever fought the Zulu. In fact, they are at times gracious. My point is that, if there is a civ that for whatever reason you really don't want to fight, simply keep a RoP agreement with them for all time. They will not break it, because of the huge reputation hit, unless someone offers them something ridiculous to war with you. Generally, an enemy looking for an ally against you, will find someone cheaper to bribe than a gracious civ with a RoP.
 
I don't know if they're foolproof, but RoPs definitely do wonders for other Civs' attitudes toward you. In addition, if you can keep your territory size larger than theirs you can actually make money on the deal.

RoPs work best on civs that always like to trespass, particularly if they are trespassing to go fight another civ that you are blocking from them.

BinkleyYaz
 
I've noticed the AI will make ROPs with everyone, even if the other civ is in a remote location. It's used primarily as a goodwill tool by the AI. Thus, you are a "bad neighbor" if you don't have one with them.

A neat strategy is to let their units come into your territory shortly before you declare war on them, then those units are easy to kill.
 
I try to keep my repution intact. Breaking a ROP agreement to declare war is one of the worst foreign policy decisions you can make. Now, declaring war the turn the ROP expires is an entirely different story.

I have noticed the AI keeping ROP agreements with most other AI civs as well. I think I will have to start getting in on this action.
 
Often one can sign a ROP and Military Alliance vs. a neighbor simultaneously. In my last game I received inspiration from Peregrino's Rogue State Strategy. I decided to remove those treacherous Germans from the face of the earth and after a few good bribes managed to bring a few strong civs against them. The remaining power managed to sign a ROP with their trusty war ally (me!). Since soon afterwards Germany would be no more, I decided to plop down neat units into his territory. I parked musketeers unto his iron and gunpowder resources, and dropped knights and defenders unto hills adjacent to two of his cities.

Once the Germans were wiped out, so was the Military Alliance and ROP. He delivered the ultimatum to leave, and I just declared war. The AI had most of his units in the German cities, and I was able to deliver strong blows into his core empire.

A military alliance with other weak powers ensured the former German cities changed hands, and after twenty turns I had managed to grab the most land in the civ.

My only question is, once a ROP has ellapsed 20 turns, one can go renegociate to expire it, correct? It seems that expiring it, and waiting for next turn encurs no reputation hit (they actually told you a value in CIV 2 IIRC), but I am not sure what happens if you expire the ROP and then declare war in the same turn.
 
I make ROP's with neighboring states so they will let my workers in and finish their roads to my border so we can trade! Other than that I only make them while at war so I can heal closer to the battle sites and also (obviously) move troops to the front more quickly and even open up new surprise fronts. However if a civ chooses to not let the treaty lapse, I won't remove it either.
 
Notice that The AI grabs land all aroung each other before spreading out to open territory. I think that is at least in part an ploy to limit their opponents --including the human one--while at the same time increasing their territory. For that to work, they usually have to have ROP.
I Cancelled one with China, and he went from annoyed t furious. (After the 20 year span, of course) Next turn I gave it back--and he went back to only being annoyed.
In an earlier game, he (China, again) had popped two cities right in the middle of my territory, before I had managed to close the borders. I refused an ROP, and would not let his troops or workers cross to or from those cities.... He finally got mad enough to declare war... Since he had thoughtfully cleared the jungle from all around them, they became two of my most productive cities:D
 
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