Respons to threats

[Windsor]

Some leaders drop in from time to time to tell you how bad your army is and so on, have anyone seen a good reason NOT to answer "very well" unless of course you want to trigger war? My experience so far is that the "you'll pay for this some day" increases the chances of DoWs (and probably secrecy pacts) against you a lot.

This also goes for when they ask you to pull away your forces from their borders. I seem to always answer "they are just passing by" all the time.

 

[King of Spades]

Well, as you said yourself, it seems that war is more probable if you give him/her the diplomatic finger, and if you're planning war anyway, it may save you some grace with the other civs by not being the one that declares war.

As for the "passing by", if you're in fact not, then you'll get a reputation as a deal-breaker.