No matter what happens....who is always a thorn in your side?

[ghostbuster]

Easy question. In most of your civ games, what is the one civ that always ends up hindering your progress in the game? And ends up being a massive thorn in your side? IE: Refusal for open borders (cough Toku), declaration of war at the most inconvenient times, or they always end up just so darned powerful!

To me it always is Mansa and those damn Mali's, in most of my games it will always come down to a showdown between us no matter what. He seems to be able to make friends, so I have trouble bringing in war buddies.

Who is always a thorn in your side?

 

[svv]

I always seem to have problems with Louis XIV. He seems to always feel the need to come at me with two or three Stacks of Doom, even when we're not neighbors.

 

[Tee Kay]

The English leaders Elizabeth and Victoria, and Celt leader Brennus. They always seem to get the best land and a good tech lead in most games.

 

[NKVD]

i'd say I played 2 games with ragnar...always finished bad...he ate 10 nukes in my last game though

 

[ghostbuster]

Hehehe I love the phrasing of that....ate ten nukes

 

[Polycrates]

I agree about Mansa. He seems to expand like crazy, and he's very hard to attack early because of those damned skirmishers. So then he gets friends and a massive economy. He also always seems to take good advantage of the coast.

For some reason Wang Kon doesn't give me the same trouble even though protective/financial likewise means he can build a massive economy and he's hard to prune early.

 

[Guardian_PL]

It's not an easy thing to state "this civ is nice and that civ is bueeee" Obviously, morons like Toku/Monty or fanatics like Isabella are most of the times troublesome, but it all depends if You'll befriend Yourself with them or not. Izzy saved my butt once on Emperor when I was going cultural (I had 5-6 cities only on huge map), Toku can be excellent warmonger ally (though I just don't like this paranoical, trust-noone and propably truth-is-out-there as well leader) etc. It all depends to me

@Polycrates
Wang Kon quite often causes problems when he's founding religion other than mine and gathering some friends in faith. Can be pretty nasty too

 

[Elrohir]

Besides Tokugawa and Montezuma and Isabella, the triumvirate of evil in Civ4, someone who always seems to make me mad is Churchill. The first game I remember playing against him on a continents map, and he was on the other continent. He declared war when he was cautious for no reason - I wasn't at war with any ally of his, just some guy on my continent - and razed one of my cities. That really, really made me mad, of course.

And even when he's on your side, he never gives you anything. Even if he's pleased or friendly, and you founded his state religion, he's so stingy he won't give you 20 gold if you ask him. Churchill sucks.

 

[Crighton]

Mehmed II, that guy bugs me. Every game he's in he is in the most aggravating spot for me to get to so he lives far longer then he should, gets better field position then randomly shows up and starts pillaging me to the stone age, @#$%er. I hate that friggin guy, Monty, Alex, Izzy, etc. I can deal with mianly because I just ramp up for war with them the same turn I meet them.

 

[viinno]

Cyrus defiantly, hes the worst extrortionist out there, will not trade techs unless hes gaining an alomst double value at times, if he will trade at all! ive noticed he tends to like to hoard his techs.

 

[futurehermit]

Agree: Issy, Monty, Toku are annoying.

However, Freddy is pretty annoying because he will rarely trade techs unless it's HEAVILY in his favour (I find Cyrus to be less like this than Freddy).

But, for me, by FAR my most hated enemy, who I hate and kill without prejudice is Louis. SO many times when I started playing civ, I had him as a neighbour and worked to befriend him since I figured he wasn't an aggressive civ. Then, even though he was pleased with me, had no negative modifiers, etc., he would backstab me and wreck my games when I had plans on attacking someone else, etc. (who would often dogpile because I had been accumulating negative modifiers with them while thinking I had a "friend").

 

[Thyrwyn]

Lately, Shaka. I play with Blake's AI, and Shaka has developed a penchant for the early SoD approach. In the last 3 games of mine that he has been in:

1) Monarch (nearest neighbor) - wiped me out after attacking me with 2 stacks of 6 archers

2) Monarch (nearest neighbor) - he was on a peninsula with me between him and everyone else; he tried the Archer SoD approach again. I sent them packing but he kept sending more. I took two cities but he refused to accept peace. I quit the game after we both had Ironworking and iron was revealed under his capitol (I had pillaged his copper, but couldn't maintain the troops to ever take his capitol). We were so far behind the other 13 AI in techs and cities that there was no point.

3) Prince (current game) - Shaka, Brennus, Monty, Ragnar and I (Churchill) all start on an hourglass shaped continent. I am in the lower left, Shaka in the upper right, Monty's in the middle. My nearest neighbor is Ragnar and there is a 6 tile belt of Jungle below Monty and above Ragnar and I. In the space of 10 turns (Marathon), I see that Brennus has died (I hadn't met him yet, but Shaka took him out); Monty founds Judaism; Shaka declares war on Monty. 10 turns after that Monty joins Brennus in the discard pile. I take out Ragnar. Shaka and I become best friends as the only remaining hebrew nations on the planet. Shaka is comfortably atop the scoreboard, leading in cities, land and tech.

I had to wait until Grenadiers and Cannon to turn on him: I switched to Buddhism (the dominant religion elsewhere), captured the Hebrew shrine (complete with Grocer, Market, and Stock Exchange!) and knocked him off the leader board. I took 5 cities, 3 of which were size 16+, and he still comes in a close 2nd in land and population.

Of course, the biggest shock of all came two turns after I switched to Buddhism: Isabella (the Buddhist founder) declares war on me from the far side of the world and lands 3 Conquistador's next to Nidaros! They apparently hadn't gotten word of my conversion

 

[futurehermit]

^^^ROFL. That's CRAZY about Shaka, lol. I haven't had problems with him yet

 

[Collier20]

Monty (I have been on another continent and he has attacked me) and Mehmed (gets a spot I want) always seem to be a pain in my side. Issy always attacks my vassals. A lot of this has to do with what civs you play with and how you choose your So if you always play the same way, you will get the same results.

As for Shaka, he can be a tricky one. I was playing a OCC on deity level, small map. I successful took out Monty, and helped him take out Gandi. I was two pieces away from a space ship win, when Shaka declared war on Sal two out two of his cities and had the votes for a diplomatic win. (I should have saw this coming when he used the UN to vote me out of Bureaucracy and Representation). This is the only time I have seen an AI win a diplomatic victory

 

[jerVL/kg]

Cyrus defiantly, hes the worst extrortionist out there, will not trade techs unless hes gaining an alomst double value at times, if he will trade at all! ive noticed he tends to like to hoard his techs.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who loathes Cyrus. GOD I hate that guy -- he always beats me to the prime city locations. I don't know if he's any different in Warlords, but that Cre/Exp combo in vanilla makes his civilization grow like the fungus he is!

Funnily, I've never had problems with Monty or Toku, although Toku's refusal to open borders can be a pain. Izzy is another story -- she's got permanent PMS, I think. As for Louis, I quite like it when he's in the game; I take great pleasure in antagonizing him until he finally declares war, thus allowing me to crush his puny civilization off the map w/o any negative diplomatic penalties from his friends.

George Washington can also be a real pain in the butt, at least in vanilla (that Fin/Org combo is sickening!) -- if left to his own devices, GW can become a bigger tech monster than Mansa Musa.

 

[Gnarfflinger]

Any faction played by the AI.

They will beg for techs even when they have more than enough techs to make a fair deal, but they don't want to start trading it yet, or they only offer a tech when I'm a few techs away from getting it myself. the only ones that don't aggfravate me are the ones that are already dead...

 

[DeafDolphin]

I'd have to say:

1. Mansa of Mali. They breed like rabbits and you can't wipe them out that easily. They're like bloody cockroaches.

2. Capac of Inca. He's one arrogant SOB and always demands techs without even offering a lousy 1 gold piece for them. This ain't a welfare state, buddy.

3. Both Indian leaders. For some reason they're always snarking me off for one reason for another. I've made it a point to squash them as rapidly as I can.

 

[Winston Hughes]

I always seem to have trouble with the Russians, and especially Catherine. ("Sentries have come in from the hill, sir.... They report Cossacks to the southeast. Thousands of them.").

 

[uncarved block]

My biggest problems are with the "inscrutable" civs-- the ones that you can't really trust no matter how well (or badly) things are going. For instance, playing with Izzy and Monty is easy; plan for war, strike first if you can, and get over any qualms you may have about genocide in a computer game. Previously, the worst leader for this was Alexander, as every time he was on a border, it was one long wait for the backstab that may never come. (And waiting to see if trader Alex was going to show up this game or not.) My new nemesis would have to be Ragnar, then, because he seems to change from game to game. He's not enough of a jerk to wipe out immediately, but he'll rarely join you in war-- unless, I guess, you're making war a priority, and can get the "mutual struggle" bonus. Trading is also erratic, and he seems to always be in the good graces of my next target, leading to hesitation on whether to attack or not. Thoroughly annoying . . .

 

[czechdude]

I have issues with Chairman Mao. In back-to-back prince games he has attacked me for no reason in the ancient times. I'm still trying to come back in the second game, because after I made peace with Mao, CHURCHHILL attacked me.