Protip: Open Borders allows a sneak attack

[Tennyson]

Arabia just used Open Borders to surround a city of mine before attacking. This was an issue in Civ 3 that was fixed in Civ 4. Apparently they un-fixed it.

 

[markieness]

owned

But thanks for the tip i didnt know they could do that.

 

[DaviddesJ]

Phooey! Can this really be true? This was the single biggest improvement from Civ 3 to Civ 4. I remember lots and lots of Civ 3 GOTMs that came down to crowding all of my troops into my "ally's" territory and then declaring war and grabbing all of his cities at once. I hope at least if the mechanics permit that then the AI is smart enough not to permit it. But I am discouraged that the possibility even exists.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well if the AI is smart enough to Do it, they are probably smart enough to prevent it.... I see very few Open Borders in the game.

 

[Tokahfang]

They definetely are smart enough to see it coming, in my first game Bismarck called me out on it in mid-troop motion.

 

[Tennyson]

We were best buddies for a while, then he got jealous of my relationship with neighboring city states. I thought his open borders request was a thawing of relations. We had open borders a lot in the early game.

 

[Conspirator]

In my first demo game open borders agreements automatically ended every 10 turns, and you both had manually to decide whether to cancel said agreement. Surely the AI will realise when there is an unnatural buildup of units in their territory and not continue to allow you access to their empire.

 

[Williscwm]

I was playingmyfirst gammon V as the Greek and I was marching through American territory to get the Aztec. Had an open borders deal with Washington. Part way through the march Washington popped up and he was "concerned with the build up of troops in his country" even with the treaty he was still concerned.

So by what you say, they'll do it, but we can't.

 

[DaviddesJ]

10 turns is plenty of time, in the later eras, to set up a massive ambush.

That said, teleporting units out of the territory when you declare war was always a massive kludge, if you can solve this by having the AIs be much less tolerant of units in their territory, while still allowing the occasional passage or attack on a third party, that would be better. I am just cautious since this was a huge problem in Civ 3.

 

[MadmanAtW]

On the other hand, the fact that open borders automatically ends in 30 turns without warning means you can have troops bounced all over the place without realizing it was going to happen... even if you, on the same turn, re-open the borders. Good times.

 

[DaviddesJ]

So, canceling open borders still teleports opposing units out? That makes it more questionable why not to do the same when you declare war.

 

[DalekDavros]

I was playingmyfirst gammon V as the Greek and I was marching through American territory to get the Aztec. Had an open borders deal with Washington. Part way through the march Washington popped up and he was "concerned with the build up of troops in his country" even with the treaty he was still concerned.

So by what you say, they'll do it, but we can't.

Perhaps an option appears in the diplo screen when/if the AI is building up troops in your territory?