Modding Military Alliances

[Luke77]

Most of the Civ III (whatever version) players I know are members of one of the following 2 groups (only few are of both), when they ask from a civilization a Millitary Alliance against an enemy:

1) Active users of Millitary Alliances: when they ask one or more MA against an enemy they do it in the hope that their allies will really attack their enemy (and hopefully not with only 1 unit / turn), so they really want their help for winning the war
2) Passive users of Millitary Alliances: they always ask all civilizations (or at least until they can pay them) with who they are not in war to attack their enemy when they fear that they will not destroy or force to accept peace that enemy in only 1 turn, because they fear that when will be the turn of their enemy that will bring all other civs against them in an massive MA

For those of you who are Passive users of MAs, I wish to know if you are happy with the fact that a civ can ask MAs from the time that civ discovers Writing (early-middle Ancient Age, if I remember correctly), or wish to mod that to one of the followings:

1) Discovery of the Nationalism (beginning of the Industrial Age, which normally also activates the options of Mutual Protection Pacts, respectively Trade Embargoes)
2) Discovery of some late Modern Age military technology - which one do you suggest?
3) Deactivate completely Millitary Alliances (if you don't set to any "Civilization Advances" in the Editor to "Enables Millitary Alliances")

The possibility do deactivate completely the MAs I have never tried, but in my oppinion in that case there is a much smaller chance of a World War, or even if the chaotic web of MPPs will ignite one in the Industrial / Modern Times, any civ will fight with 2 - 3, perhaps 4 - 5 other civs, but not with all other civs, like I have seen it many times (I play long games on Huge maps with max number of civs).

P.S.: English is not my native language, so I apologize for any possible mistakes!

 

[da3dalus]

2) Passive users of Millitary Alliances: they always ask all civilizations (or at least until they can pay them) with who they are not in war to attack their enemy when they fear that they will not destroy or force to accept peace that enemy in only 1 turn, because they fear that when will be the turn of their enemy that will bring all other civs against them in an massive MA

This is certainly me! I don't really expect the other civ to launch an invasion, as that would be giving the AI too much credit. I just do it to make sure they don't declare war on me while I'm fighting the other civ. I think it should be available from writing though, there were plenty of military alliances in the ancient eras.

P.S. Your English is excellent, don't worry so much! ^_^

 

[Spoonwood]

On higher levels where the AIs have significantly more units, it's generally prefeable to actively use military alliances to wear their army down and distract their units. Supposedly Moonsinger would declare war on someone, ally with a nearby neighbor, and not even attack the tribe she declared on for a while... she would just build up her forces and then strike at them after they had worn themselves down.

 

[Turner]

On higher levels where the AIs have significantly more units, it's generally prefeable to actively use military alliances to wear their army down and distract their units. Supposedly Moonsinger would declare war on someone, ally with a nearby neighbor, and not even attack the tribe she declared on for a while... she would just build up her forces and then strike at them after they had worn themselves down.

Not just Moonsinger, it's a common tactic. Especially if you're a builder like I am and lag behind in units until later in the game. This tactic gives us time to build our army while they beat each other up.

 

[Big Rob]

On the flip side, can you lock civilizations at war before they have met?

i.e. As soon as they meet, one civ immediately declares war on the other and refuses to acknowledge envoy for entire game?

 

[Desertsnow]

I checked passive user of MA with no mod, but it really depends on the situation. In most cases, I'm just trying to be a nuisance, or rather, turn the war itself into a nuisance. Against a very powerful enemy, on the other hand, I really am hoping that the allies will be of significant assistance.

 

[Optional]

On the flip side, can you lock civilizations at war before they have met?

I think so, yes. You would need to create a scenario. In the editor, go to 'Scenario Properties', then choose the tab 'Locked Alliance'. There appear to be only 4 slots for locked alliances, and the idea is to fill in more then 1 civ for each slot, so that an actual alliance will appear, but I suppose you could also just fill in just 1 civ in a slot, and that civ will then automatically be at war with the civs you're putting in the other boxes.
But there are only 4 slots, so your possibilities are limited.

Also I think that if you're using alliances, the civs involved will automatically know each other at the start of the game. I believe some Middle Ages scenario in Conquests uses locked alliances, but I only played a couple of turns of that when I first got the game, so don't trust my information!