Open Borders: advantage to potential enemies?

[Equisilus]

I've a quick/easy question for experts out there: does the AI get any benefit from Open Borders with my civ in terms of gaining a view of what I'm doing? Let me explain: there's a civ that often goes to war with me. At some point between wars, they ask for Open Borders. If I give them Open Borders, will they gain some advantage for the next war by being able to roam my borders freely (and not just to "get to the other side")?

I ask because I've been refusing Open Borders to past war opponents for fear of giving them some knowledge that they don't have with closed borders. But then, I'm not sure whether it's worth it, since it tends to just anger them anyway and there's always espionage for them to view my lands.

Yes, I generally suck at Civ4, but I love it anyway.

 

[alex sword]

My personal opinion - inBtS even without open borders, you potential enemies use espionage and/or power graph before invading. But open borders means also you perhaps make their economy stronger and you risk to get diplomacy penalties with their enemies. So, even in BtS it makes sense to do not open borders with them.

 

[Equisilus]

Interesting. That was my first inclination, too (to leave borders closed). I tried opening my borders in my current game and while it seemed to calm the war-mongering a bit, it did lead to me dropping into the middle of the pack in terms of overall points eventually. I'll have to keep playing and see what transpires.

 

[bestje]

you do get a relatioship bonus with anyone you open borders with after a while though and it will make your economy stronger or let the other civs spread you religions
how useful they are depends on what victory condition you are going for; diplomatic or cultural they are very useful

 

[Cutlass]

In my last game Izzy was a bad neighbor for a long time, asked for open borders, scouted me out, and then declared war. Not that it did her any good

 

[hecubus]

I used to be very strict with my borders, these days I tend to open them up as soon as possible for the trade routes. I figure if I make sure to take advantage by scouting their territory and units and using their roads to open up the map more quickly, I'm still gaining some benefit.

 

[MrCynical]

does the AI get any benefit from Open Borders with my civ in terms of gaining a view of what I'm doing? Let me explain: there's a civ that often goes to war with me. At some point between wars, they ask for Open Borders. If I give them Open Borders, will they gain some advantage for the next war by being able to roam my borders freely (and not just to "get to the other side")?

Not really. The AI simply isn't smart enough to make use of this kind of information like a human player would. About the only small point would be that they'd gain your map info to trade, but they'll get that anyway through use of spies.

 

[Equisilus]

Have to say, whatever I was doing in my current game, it went wrong...fast. I went from peace with everyone to war with the entire world in one turn. Even friendly civs came after me. While I was able to calm everyone down eventually, I lost half my cities and gained all but one back. Suffice to say, I didn't win the game, but at least I managed to survive. Even had some fun nuking Montezuma's entire civ near end-game because there was no way for me to pull out a victory and he was the only one at war with me.

Did I mention how poorly I play? Regardless, I think I'll be less strategic about my open borders policy and just take it as it comes.