My first game of Civ4

[Louis XXIV]

Well, I finally decided to get Civ4 and, aside from the minor issue of it being nearly unplayable on my computer, its pretty fun

In my first game, I managed to get the Pyramids and Stonehenge. I'm hoping to get the Parthenon, but who knows? Anyway, its a weird map where there is only one other civ I know, the Inca. They founded Buddism and I founded Hinduism. Since I was the only one they knew, I was their worst enemy for awhile and he wouldn't sign open borders or anything. Then I decided to switch to no state religion (since there really wasn't any point to be in Hinduism at the time). He was willing to sign open borders and things were good. Then I was able to switch to Organized Religion, so I switched back to Hinduism and made the switch. Our relations dropped and, a few turns later, he cancelled open borders (which was a disapointment, since the Missionary I had just built hadn't reached his territory).

I decided to go back to no state religion and see if I could get open borders like before and then get him to convert to Hinduism. But its been 4 or 5 turns and he still doesn't want to open his borders (making statements like "maybe in a few years"). Is there a certain time I have to wait before he's willing to do it? Is it worth waiting for Hinduism to spread naturally (one city already has it, but no other city does)? Or should I just build a bunch of axemen and maybe a few archers and conquer his cities?

 

[JasonusMaximus]

Given a choice between spreading love and peace like a freakin' hippy, or outright domination by invasion...UNLEASH THE HOUNDS!

As for your other question, regarding a specific time frame for your neighbor to allow for open borders, I don't know. But I would suspect that it would take more than 4/5 turns.

 

[Demi-God]

Cry havok and release teh dogs of war dude.

 

[Louis XXIV]

War was definately the best way. He doesn't even trade anything while I'm at peace. At least with war, I can get him to give me stuff (just some minor tech I could have researched in about a turn, though) and I captured a couple of his cities.

I took a lot more casualties than I was expecting (considering I was using City Raider and City Raider II axemen against regular axemen and I lost a cover Axe against an Archer). Once I got Catapults things were much easier, though.

But I'm thinking of starting a new game, since it isn't exactly fun playing against only one opponent who absolutely hates me. During the war, I captured his one hindu city, so there's even less chance of him converting to hinduism. I would probably have been better off conquering him completely, but I don't know if I had the troops (and I didn't feel like spending too much to keep his cities).