Preventing other Civs from attacking me?

[Kaka]

Hi

Im pretty new to Civilization 5 vanilla. I have played and won some games on the easiest levels, but lately I tried Warlock. At all levels the other Civs in the game decides to attack me at about year 1400 AD. I have been very friendly to them, and they have been friendly to me. They also declared our friendship. But suddently out of nowhere they decides to attack. One by one. Before my fall almost all Civs have declared war on me. What do I do wrong?

Any tips? How can i keep a good and friendly relationship and prevent wars?

Thanks.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Hi

Im pretty new to Civilization 5 vanilla. I have played and won some games on the easiest levels, but lately I tried Warlock. At all levels the other Civs in the game decides to attack me at about year 1400 AD. I have been very friendly to them, and they have been friendly to me. They also declared our friendship. But suddently out of nowhere they decides to attack. One by one. Before my fall almost all Civs have declared war on me. What do I do wrong?

Any tips? How can i keep a good and friendly relationship and prevent wars?

Thanks.

Be sure that you have some military units, and ones which are up-to-date. A bunch of warriors and archers will not be much of a deterrent to greedy AI by 1400AD. If you have a decent stream of gold, you should upgrade your units as you go along. On the other hand, if you have some high production cities, you may be better off building musketmen (and upgrading them to riflemen) and simply disbanding your swordsmen.

Also, you may not be able to stay friends with everyone. Keep aware of which AI has become unpopular -- if someone has been denounced by your closest friends, then consider denouncing them, too. Often the AI will start to form groups, where they like each other, but not members of the other group. If you have a declaration of friendship with a powerful AI, keep trading with that tribe and not with the tribes that he/she dislikes.

 

[Browd]

Well, the Middle Ages is about when the map starts to get really crowded -- there are fewer good spots to settle, the AI civs begin to lust after already developed lands (including yours), and friction between the AI civs becomes harder to deal with, as old friendships start to fracture.

The specific trigger for a DOW is usually one (or a combination) of three causes: (1) they perceive you to be vulnerable (good land, weak military); (2) they are irritated by something you did or did not do (including your mere existence, but also your being friends with their (new) enemy, their being better friends with your enemy than with you, your failing to denounce someone they just decided to hate, etc.); or (3) they were bribed by another AI to DOW you. Others can add to the list, but these generally cover things.

Note: Cause #1 becomes even more likely after you've suffered losses in an early war; the other nearby AI civs see an opportunity to dismember your still-living corpse.

My favorite caution regarding cause #1 was illustrated in some parody ads about Australia invading NZ (apologies to my NZ friends--including my brother in law): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1O1mvSo_38 (the second clip (about 36 seconds in) is the best).

 

[sufficiency]

The single and most important factor is your military strength. All AIs can and will declare war on you if it finds your military strength lacking, even though you might be its bestest friend (DoF, liberated worker, provided help, etc.).

 

[Kaka]

Thank you very much for you advices!

Would any have a look on my save and give me some advices? Click here to download. Thank you very much!

 

[steveg700]

If you go Liberty, get a Great Engineer and save it to build the Great Wall.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Warlock you say? Sounds interesting... But the great wall will be gone by the time you finish liberty.

 

[joncnunn]

Also, I would concentrate more on having enough military that you know that you can defend yourself with if DOWed upon than trying to get one the AI thinks is strong.
There's no real cost to an AI DOWing you as long as your not running beliefs that need peace. (There's also avoiding RAs with the wrong AIs, but on Warlord there's no real point to signing any RAs with anyone anyway.)